Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Great success of London ESF

Socialist Worker Issue 1924 | 20.10.2004 15:53 | European Social Forum | Globalisation

SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY happened during the long weekend of 15-17 October. The beautiful, crazy, creative chaos of a great social forum—which I have witnessed in Porto Alegre, Florence, Paris and Mumbai—came to rainy, grey north London.

Great success of London ESF
Alex Callinicos

SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY happened during the long weekend of 15-17 October. The beautiful, crazy, creative chaos of a great social forum—which I have witnessed in Porto Alegre, Florence, Paris and Mumbai—came to rainy, grey north London.

The main site of the European Social Forum at Alexandra Palace was seething with people, noise, political projects, stalls, and hubbub of many different languages. It was, in George Galloway’s words, a true Tower of Babel.

Just like at the Fortezza at the first European Social Forum in Florence and the site of the last World Social Forum in the Bombay suburbs, having the ESF mainly in one place helped both to concentrate and to release the energies of the movements against capitalist globalisation and imperial war.

How did London compare with the previous ESFs in Florence and Paris? My impression, and that of the people to whom I have spoken, is that the discussions were more serious and focused.

There were fewer plenary sessions at which a long row of platform speakers would make repetitive denunciations of neo-liberalism. Certainly the sessions I attended were of a very high standard.

All had interesting and controversial introductions, large, engaged audiences, and substantial discussion from the floor.

All of this is an indication of an intellectual maturing of our movements. But London was also, like Florence, red—deeply shaped by the politics of the radical left. This was on show, for example, in the plenary on challenging US imperialism, by all accounts one of the best sessions at the entire ESF.

Along with, among others, Fausto Bertinotti of Rifondazione Comunista and Andrew Murray of the Stop the War Coalition, I spoke at a packed plenary on political parties, social movements and war. Contributors from the floor criticised the left wing MP Diane Abbott for remaining in the Labour Party.

This set the scene for a magnificent Respect rally on the final night of the forum that brought together representatives of the political challenges to Tony Blair’s kind of Third Way politics from right across Europe.

There was a downside to the ESF. There were a few ugly incidents that marked the re-emergence of the anarchist Black Bloc whose thuggish behaviour during the Genoa protests of July 2001 played so disastrously into the hands of the police.

The Black Bloc was supported by some small and unrepresentative groups that had been consistently hostile both to the ESF itself and to the coalition that brought it to London.

The physical attacks these people made on the forum no doubt reflected frustration at the fact that the various rival events they organised attracted very small numbers. But this was a minor blemish on an overwhelmingly successful event.

The positive effects of the London ESF are likely to be seen in three ways.

First, while the anti-war movement has been very strong in Britain, the anti-capitalist movement has been much weaker. There is a broad anti-capitalist consciousness evident, for example, in the popularity of Naomi Klein and George Monbiot.

But the organised networks aren’t on the scale of ATTAC in France or the No Global movement in Italy. The London ESF should help to make anti-capitalism a more powerful force in Britain.

Secondly, there are the mobilisations that will emerge from the ESF. The final day’s Assembly of the Social Movements agreed international protests against neo-liberalism and war on 19-20 March 2005 and the mobilisation against the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles next July.

Finally, the success of the London ESF will help to frame discussion about the future of the movement. A French comrade said that activists in France and Italy were struggling to find the “second breath” needed to re-energise their movements.

The vitality on display in London should help give us the confidence to continue. Of course, we face very great challenges—the punishment served out to the peoples of Fallujah and Gaza in recent weeks bears witness to this. But after last weekend I am sure we have the capacity to take them on.

Socialist Worker Issue 1924

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech