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.

Major UK NGO's Criticise ESF Organising Process + SWP / SA

Reclaim Our Forum! | 01.09.2004 09:03 | European Social Forum | Free Spaces | Globalisation | Social Struggles | London

A coalition of 10 British NGOs including the major ones like Oxfam, Jubilee and Greenpeace have written a letter complaining about the UK European Social Forum organising process and saying it has been characterised by a lack of transparency and openness. Finaly this can officialy end the myth peddled by the authoritarian left that those who have been critical of the UK ESF process are simply wreckers, splitters or crazy anarchists who don't represent anyone!

While the NGOs don't mention them by name, they're criticising the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) and SA (Socialist Action) for dominating a meeting to decide speakers names through weight of numbers. This is a significant moment. Reports from the meeting also revealed what appeared to be willful miscounting of votes and other undemocractic behaviour. The letter has been published ahead of the european esf assembly meeting in brussels this coming weekend.


An open letter to the ESF process from British NGOs
===================================================

The UK ESF NGO group is a forum open to development, environment, human rights, civil liberties, international solidarity and peace campaign groups in the UK. It has acted both as an outreach tool for the UK ESF by engaging NGOs who may be new to the social forum process and as a space for NGOs to discuss issues of mutual concern and decide on their representation with the wider process. A wide range of NGOs and campaigning organisations have attended the meetings over the past few months representing collective membership of millions and a very broad section of those calling for progressive change in the UK.

On Thursday 27 August the UK ESF NGO group met to choose the speakers it would like to represent the sector in the plenary sessions as part of the UK quota. We were restrained and realistic in the names put forward, asking for only 4 speakers, of the 15 available slots, to convey the knowledge, skills and experience of the whole sector. This included just one environment NGO, one human rights group and two development campaigns. The decision was made by consensus and the NGOs were careful to put forward a list that was balanced in terms of gender and ethnicity. These were then proposed later that evening to a full meeting of the UK Programme Group.

In the end just two of these survived the UK selection process. The UK will now go to the Brussels Preparatory Assembly without a single representative of any development organisation in its quota of plenary speakers. Given that there will be plenary sessions focused on unfair trade rules, international debt and corporate globalisation we find it extraordinary that the leading organisations campaigning on these issues will not be represented in the UK's list. It will have a practical impact too. Next year's G8 will be a focus for the European movement, yet not one representative of the mobilisation from the UK is represented either.

The method chosen to select the UK quota did not include any deliberative element to ensure that all sections of the movement were represented and was entirely based on the number of votes secured. Numerous members of small political groups who had packed the room with their supporters dominated the voting for the UK quota. This falls well short of the charter of the World Social Forum to which we have all subscribed. We must now face the facts that our work and our members will be sorely under-represented by the UK ESF. This will do nothing to help broaden the movement in the UK and build confidence in the process among NGOs.

Many British NGOs are keen to get involved in the ESF but have found it difficult to do so because of the lack of transparency and openness in the UK process. The decision of the UK group will only make it more difficult for NGOs to participate in the way we wish.

We urge our European partners to ensure that the sections of the movement so lacking in the UK list will be compensated for in Brussels.

Yours,

ACTION AID INTERNATIONAL UK
ACTSA
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
GREENPEACE
JUBILEE DEBT CAMPAIGN
OXFAM GB
TRADE JUSTICE MOVEMENT
TRAIDCRAFT
WAR ON WANT
WORLD DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT

==========================

ESF LINKS:

"Official" closed (£40K!) ESF website:
 http://www.fse-esf.org

Autonomous and Self Organised Spaces and Initiatives
 http://www.altspaces.net

"Unofficial" open (£free) ESF website:
 http://www.esf2004.net

Indymedia ESF Newswire:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2004/esf/

Reclaim Our Forum!

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