Dear Friend,

We invite you to join with us in organising for the European Social Forum
to be held in Florence in November. Last week we had a meeting in London
of representatives from Globalise Resistance, the Green Party, the Ilusu
Dam Campaign, ATTAC London, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist
Alliance, War on Want and the World Development Movement. There were also
activists in other NGOs, the Communication Workers Union, UNISON, the
National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Students, and several
individuals. We hope to include many more organizations and unaffiliated
people. We need your help.

The European Social Forum should be huge. It has been called by the
Italian social forums, and is modeled on the World Social Forum held in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January. Eighty thousand people went to Porto
Alegre. The anti-capitalist movement is growing. In December 100,000 trade
unionists marched outside the EU summit in Brussels for a social
Europe. In January 20,000 demonstrated against the Davos conference in
southern Manhattan, close to Ground Zero. In March 500,000 people
demonstrated in Barcelona against capital and war. That same month 2
million demonstrated in Rome against Berlusconi and for trade union
rights. It is impossible to know what will happen between now and the
European Social Forum in November. But our movement is growing. We may
also face an invasion of Iraq and a worse war in Palestine. We will
certainly face a continuing global drive to privatization, the attack on
workers' rights and public services, and the destruction of our
environment. All of this means that the European Social Forum will
probably be as large as Porto Alegre, and maybe much larger. Every person
we have spoken to who was at Porto Alegre says the same thing. It was
fantastic, and they came away excited for the struggle at home.

So we want to get as many people as humanly possible from Britain to
Florence. This will strengthen the Forum, but it will strengthen our
movement here too. Protest is growing in Britain. First 50,000 marched
against the war in Afghanistan, and then 100,000. Discontent with the
proposed war on Iraq now extends to a large part of the parliamentary
Labour Party. The trade union rank and file, and the union leaders, are
increasingly unhappy with Blair's policies. The recent votes at the NUT
conference are one sign of this. So is the fact that on Mayday, for the
first time, Globalise Resistance and the official trade union movement
have called a combined trade union and anti-capitalist demonstration.

But none of this will happen without organisation. Last week 61 people,
representing a wide variety of organisations and individuals, met in
central London to begin the necessary work. We decided to call ourselves
`Moblisation for the European Social Forum: A Better World is Possible'.
This is a start, but nothing like what is needed. Our next meeting in
London is on Monday 22 April at 6.30 p.m. at the University of London
Union, Malet Street. More important, we want committees to mobilise for
the Forum set up, and public meetings held, in every city and town in
Britain. We need to book coaches, raise money, sign people up, flypost,
agitate, publicise, create a buzz and put the Forum on the map. Please
circulate this letter as widely as possible.

Main UK mailing list for the European Social Forum:

 http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-info

UK working group lists:

Framework:
 http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-framework

Publicity/Mobilising:
 http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-mobilising

Practicalities:
 http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-practicalities