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.

Preparations for the ESF in London

features | 04.10.2004 20:41 | European Social Forum | Free Spaces | London | World

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people are expected to come to London this month to attend the third European Social Forum taking place between Friday 15th and Sunday 17th (although many other ESF related events start earlier). Around 1,000 people have been registering per day and paying £20 or £30 to attend (nb the first 20,000 will recieve a free three day travelcard). The ESF will be a massive event that will see hundred of seminars, workshops, and cultural events taking place at Alexandra Palace and in the Bloosmbury area of London. However, with less than two weeks to go before the ESF begins, there is a potentially politically embarrassing severe accomodation crisis, with thousands wanting to come from europe unsure if they can afford London prices and requesting free accomodation. Recently several coordinations of the Babels volunteer interpreters threatened to quit over what they claim is a looming accommodation and reimbursement crisis [see response].

APPEAL: If you can help with providing free communal accomodation or homestay during the ESF, please contact either the official accomodation people or autospaces(at)yahoo.co.uk.

Stop Press: The Guardian says that the Millennium Dome for ESF Accomodation

Over the last year the ESF organising process has repeatedly been accused of being untransparent and non-participatory. Accusations have centred around the actions of the Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action and the political and financial control of Mayor Ken Livingstone's Greater London Authority (GLA). Much has been written about this, for a sample see: UK NGO Letter | esf2004.net | Radical Philosphy Critique | ESF technology, media centres, and politics | Enrager | Weekly Worker (extensive reports)

Partly in response to this there are now several Autonomous Spaces and initiatives with well over two hundred workshops and seminars and other events scheduled from Wednesday 13th - Sunday 17th (read more).

Indymedia is organising a four-day Indymedia centre to facilitate reporting and DIY media production. Themes will include Surveillance and the Security State, Biometric ID Cards, Migrants and Noborders, Gender, Intellectual Property, Copyright, Creative Commons, Corporate media and Alternative media etc. Thursday 14th sees the European Forum on Communication Rights, Friday 15th sees a full day programme including a workshop and launch presentation on the "Eyes on International Financial Institutions (IFIs)" film portal website [www.ifiwatch.tv]. Saturday also sees the 10th Birthday Conference of SchNEWS.

Other alt-media initiatives includes an ESF Breakfast Radio Show on Resonance FM and 24/7 streaming ESF coverage from rampART radio. Further sources of information will include info-points located at the Camden Centre, the rampART and LARC.

LISTEN NOW - STREAMING AUDIO FROM LONDON


On the Saturday at the Camden Centre, SchNEWS is organising a 'Direct Action Conference', which they say will be an "opportunity to discuss, plot, conspire and organise serious resistance to the suicidal onward march of capitalism". The Camden Centre is just one of a number of the autonomous spaces organising events during the ESF.

The Wombles have sent out a request for translations of the "Call for Autonomous Spaces" text and currently have text in Italian, Spanish, French and Greek, but additional translations are needed. Despite the eviction of their social centre in Tufnell Park last month, they have put together a massive programme for 'Beyond ESF', packing in over 70 workshops into 5 days. They have invited participation in discussion and direct action around the themes of surveillance & control, social centres, precarious work, no borders, zapatismo, and mobilising for the G8 in Scotland next year. The venue for all this will be Middlesex University, close to the main official ESF venue at Alexandra Palace.

At the rampART creative centre and social space, as well as streaming ESF coverage from their new alt-media productions facilities, there will be cheap food and free internet access throughout the ESF, along with video screenings, live music, and other cultural events every evening, plus an end of ESF 'RAMPartY' on the sunday night.

Meanwhile, split between Conway Hall and London School of Economics, the 'Solidarity Village' operates under the slogan 'Another Economy is Possible!' .People will get LETS tokens to spend in exchange for a fee of £5 to £10 each day to attend activities including 'Life Despite Capitalism', 'Wellbeing Spaces', 'The Moon Room', 'Pagan Magikal Activism'. At UCL Bartlett, the 'Urban Forum', will provide a series of open mic discussions surrounding democratic participation, public space, public art, feminism, the Olympics, environmental, housing transport and food issues, citizenship, the effects of globalisation and neo-liberalism on development and the city.

Taking a different approach, the 'Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination' has been planning activities which "fall outside of and in between the spaces of culture and politics... between resistance and creativity". Meanwhile, with six months of preparation behind them, the 'European Creative Forum' (ECF) will "take democracy to the streets" with a mobile Carnival Forum (featuring one of the veg oil powered double decker buses that took the human shields to Iraq). They aim to provide a volatile mix of politics and pleasure and recommend that people bring radios so that everyone can dance to the same beat. The carnival will interlink some of the key venues and take the forum out of the traditional conference hall and to the (so called) "every day people".

There will be two Critial Mass bike rides on Friday 15th, one starting at midday the other in the evening both with a Climate Change theme. Bring radios. Optional dress code "London Underwater 2050" (rubber rings, fish, mermaids/mermen, snorkels, etc. Ends with a London Rising Tide of resistance to climate chaos at 3.30pm at the Edith Cavell statue opposite the entrance to the BP-sponsored National Portrait Gallery, Charing Cross Road. The evening ride will pass by the main ESF venue at Alexandra Palace.

features

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