HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Monbiot in Oxford - An autonomist reports

Not SWP, Not Globalise Resistance - Someone else | 09.12.2003 03:00 | Oxford

George Monbiot came to Oxford Town hall - Monday 8th of December
Envited By Oxford Globalise Resistance (aka SWP) to talk about the European Social Forum
and his ideas of a world parliament.
Not everyone was convinced but there was a constructive debate - see engagement can be productive

When I heard Monbiot was coming to Oxford to talk to Globalise Resistance about Democracy and the ESF I wasn't surprised.

Monbiot, now regularly described as "the leader of the British anti-capitalist movement" by the corporate media has moved more and more towards party-political cooption in recent years. He has condemned actions of other anti-capitalists, called for a world parliament and now has been in discussion with people like George Galloway about making a new political party out of the Stop the War coalition. This may be a bit harsh I like a lot of what he has to say about what is wrong, I also like the fact that he has brought a lot of the ideas into more mainstream debates. But having experienced the anti-democratic structures of the STWC and heard about the anti-inclusive way in which the ESF had been brought to the UK in 2004 I expected this meeting to be at the very least, frustrating.

Monbiot gave his talk quite brief, maybe 20 minutes at the most, in order to make the meeting more participatory. The Audience was mainly white and middle aged, I recognised a lot of familiar faces and a lot of significant absences. i.e. it was quite self-selecting (although concious of).
He started by explaining many of the issues of the world, such as the anti-democratic nature of the IMF, World BANK, WTO, UN, US government. He talked about the destructive impact this has all had on our democracy systems that are now basically defunct.

He talked about the anti-globalisation/capitalist movement, the progress it had made etc... blah blah. He talked about "the tensions between effectiveness and diversity" (a worrying sounding statement). He then went on to offer his solution: World Parliament system to democratise the globe. New Political party for Britain. ESF as a starting point for that. He talked about the need to be democratic, open and accountable. He even emphasised the importance that the ESF does not end up as an SWP/Ken Livingston affair (I'm sure it will soon be called "Mayor Ken's European Social Forum") and encouraged more democracy in the process etc..

He then opened it up to other people to comment, ask questions, and develop the issue.
And to his credit he listened and came across very much as if he was taking note of every speaker’s points.

The points themselves started off with the usual plugs and some worrying statements about the need for the "unity" and political parties to challenge Tony Blair through the Union movement and institutionalised left. However after this the discussion turned to more divergent views and people openly criticised his idea that taking power and becoming a "state in waiting" was a desirable thing. That we needed diversity and that this was not an obstacle to effectiveness but that it could actually be beneficial. Diverse projects that did not seek power had been effective, look at Seattle or Prague or even Cancun. Power corrupts and maybe if we wanted to really challenge Blair we should form a vote spoiling campaign that offered a radical alternative process to our pseudo democratic corporate controlled parliamentary system. This received some good responses and the discussion opened up its scope, with some quite constructive interactions.

It did not end with any conclusions but I felt that we had heard many views and that by going and engaging with Globalise Resistance and the SWP at a grass roots level (the national steering committee are a lost cause) we could, to quote Marcos, constructively "challenge their Square concepts of revolution."

In my view Politics is a process not an absolute utopia and part of that process is discussion and difference. It is useless to criticise people if you are not also going to talk to them about why, even if they don't really want to talk to you.
Autonomy does not mean isolation. Democracy must be about respect and participation, not vanguardism and factionalism.

wish this was more coherent but it is really late, so please correct my report, clarify me or expand on the information. you can even be rude about me (but for that I won't say please).

Not SWP, Not Globalise Resistance - Someone else

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Photes

09.12.2003 15:31



he had a gentel go at the SWP and the anarcics

hamish Campbell
mail e-mail: hamish@riseup.net


Laughter

10.12.2003 13:26

The report's really good. All I would add is that George Monbiot managed to make us laugh, even though the subject is so serious. Hope to see lots of Oxford people at the ESF this week-end (which may involve delegates screaming at each other apparently - I hope not!).

Niki


Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford 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

IMCs


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