CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM (CEESF) 
„EXPLOITED WORLDS”
(Deceived Eastern Europe and its Fellow Sufferers)

Preliminaries, brief history of the Initiative for CEESF

The peoples of Central and Eeastern Europe have not received either what they expected from the system change or what they were promised. These dissapointments and the specificities of the region stimulated the original initiators of the CEESF, i.e. the Bulgarian, the Polish, the Hungarian and the Romanian ATTAC organisations (in Budapest on 12th February 2005) to make a proposal to organize a regional social forum. We came to the conclusion that while the previous European Social Forums (Florence-2002, Paris-2003, London-2004) provided opportunities for tens of thousands of people opposing the destructive consequences of globalisation to participate in debates, to look for alternatives as well as to organize common actions and in order to strenghten the movement to build networks on regional, continental and global level, in the meantime  - for financial and other reasons – only rather few people could be involved in the social forum process.

In our region the nationalisms stirred up by the élite try to turn the peoples of similar fate against each other. Such a forum could demonstrate clearly that the peoples of the region refuse the policy of „divide and rule” and take their common fate consciously. They are aware that their condition can be improved by international collaboration.

The specific development of the Central and Eastern European countries, the grave social consequences of the globalization experienced in the last one and a half decades (e.g. the dramatic rise of poverty and umenployment, the dissemination of extreme right ideas, the support of the Iraqi war against the will of the majority of the peoples, the food secutity scandals, etc.) make it necessary that the relatively weak social movements of this part of Europe join forces, analyse the situation, elaborate alternatives, establish effective networks and realize closer cooperation. 

At the same time we deem it absolutely necessary to strenghten our relations with the developing countries facing more or less similar situation.

For the above reasons we will launch the preparatory work in Budapest between 14th and 16th October 2005 in the frame of a meeting, which is a Conference and an international Preparatory Assembly of the CEESF at the same time. 

Main goals of CEESF

1.	To demonstrate that the peoples of the region oppose the nationalist propaganda instigating the inhabitants and nationalities of different countries against each other;
2.	To rouse the social movements of the region, to open up a new prospect to their collaboration in order to put an end to the advancing neoliberal globalization by joining wide forces (including the developing countries); 
3.	To make a report on the economic, political and cultural situation of peoples of the region;
4.	To make proposals for improving the conditions of the great masses of the people as well as for the way of international cooperation necessary for safeguarding their interests.

In harmony with the basic principles of the WSF (i.e. the Porto Alegre Charter) the initiators of the CEESF stand in opposition to a process of globalization commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations interests, with the complicity of national governments. We uphold respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemn all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another. Our goal is to establish a global society based on solidarity between the peoples and their equal rights.

CEESF target groups

The CEESF wants to offer a space for the organisations and movements of the civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society. Mainly the civil society of the ex-socialist countries is to be involved, but it is open towards the developing countries as well. Neither party representations nor military organizations nor government  institutions shall participate in the  CEESF. 

Measures taken upto now for the realization of CEESF

1.	In the letter dated of 26th April 2005 addressed to the International Secretariat of the World Social Forum we requested to support our Initiative emphasizing its close linkage to the social forum movements as well as to the Porto Alegre Charter of Principles. The Initiative was hailed by the WSF as well as by several organisations and individuals working together in the frame of the European Social Forum.
2.	Our Initiative was declared at the Prague European Preparatory Assembly (held between 20-22 May 2005)of the 4th ESF, which will take place in Athens in April  2006.
3.	We started organizing the CEESF in April 2005. 
4.	Venue and date of the Meeting of the International Organizing Committe (International Working Group) are proposed to be in Bucharest/Romania in the first half of July 2005.
(not yet confirmed)
5.	The Central and Eastern European Social Forum is expected to be held in automn 2006 or in 
2007.

Draft Programme

Time	                                            Event	
14 October 2005 (Friday)	
   Afternoon from 4 p.m.: 
     	Registration	
    At 5 p.m.: 
	Opening speeches of the Conference of ESZMELET and CEESF Preparatory Meeting
 	
   Evening: 	Party in a pub near to conference venue – live music (rock)	
15 October 2005 (Saturday)	
   Morning session 
   From 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.:
	Paralelly at the same time:
Conference of ESZMELET: „Challenging Entangled Hegemonies in Central and Eastern Europe and Elsewhere ” -lectures of well-known left-wing  Hungarian and foreign intellectuals on the globalisation and its impacts;
Plenary of Initiative for CEESF:  “Exploited Worlds-Deceived Eastern Europe and its Fellow Sufferers” – opening speech, introductory discussion highlighting the similarities of problems of the developing world and our region (poverty, unemployment, inequality, indebtedness, etc.) The idea of joining forces of the region, opposing to the nationalist instigation as well as demonstrating it by the peoples’ readiness for collaboration are to be put into the focal point. 
	
   Afternoon session
   From 3 p.m. till. 7 p.m. 	Paralelly at the same time:
Conference of ESZMELET continues
Working Groups* of CEESF Preparatory Meeting	
   Evening: 	Closing party (international music - African, Asian, Latin-American)	
16 October 2005 (Sunday)	
   Morning session
   From 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.	Closing Plenary: brief summary on Eszmelet Conference, reports of  WGs, debate (what to be done in the future), formulating the final declaration	

VENUE: Kossuth Club (in the downtown of Budapest) – easy accessable by metro or by tram or bus (Kalvin Square station),  Address: 1088. Budapest, Muzeum u. 7.	

*Planned Working Groups (Seminaries)
The position of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the world, its relation to the world
Poverty (in the region and in the developing world)
Nationalism-racism-fascism
Possibilities for trade unions’ collaboration
Environment protection
Women’s position
Position of Education
Role of the Media
„Another world is possible” – What is it like?

Anyone interested in the preparation of the CEESF is welcome!  Please contact: Matyas BENYIK
Phone/Fax: +36 1 282 70 92, mobile: +36 30 252 43 26, E-mails: mbenyik@freemail.hu or mbenyik@freestart.hu
Consciousness: International Eszmélet Conference 2005
Challenging Entangled Hegemonies
in Central and Eastern Europe and Elsewhere

Küzdelem az összefonódott hegemóniák ellen
Közép- és Kelet-Europában –  és máshol 

Budapest, 14 – 16 October 2005

The first years of the new millennium witness deep and ever deepening geopolitical, socio-economic, and cultural tensions and divisions among, and within, the states of Central and Eastern Europe. The ”eastern enlargement” of the European Union is (re)drawing old and new dividing lines across Eastern Europe. Tensions between the United States and the EU continue to be displayed in the region, with Russian and Post-Soviet regional power politics, and NATO strategies for the new millennium as additional factors. Elites are also divided along old and new lines in many countries. Democracy, human rights, and gender concerns are caught between their functioning as part of imperialist missions, and as foci of struggles for genuine progressive change. A variety of economic and social policies operating within, and at times in tension with, liberal and open economy doctrines of various kinds construct and reconstruct lines of social and political confrontation and division. Anti-Western, anti-capitalist, nationalist, and racist sentiments are looming large among certain parts of the region’s populations, and intermingle or diversify in a whole variety of ways in various constellations.
All these and other dynamics, as they entangle in different localities within Central and Eastern Europe, contribute to the unfolding of a complex puzzle of political, socio-economic, and cultural hegemonies. What forms and strategies of resistance, and collective social self-protection, can be potentially effective in struggling within and against this complex puzzle of the capitalist world at the beginning of the 21 century?
We extend a cordial invitation to friends of our journal, the International Advisory Board, our former authors, and all other interested individuals who would like to contribute to the analysis of this puzzle, and to exploring the possibilities of left politics here and now to participate in our journal’s 2005 International Conference devoted to those issues. Papers and statements should focus either on Central and Eastern Europe from a global-local perspective, or analyse current versions or aspects of unequal global-local geopolitical, socio-economic, or cultural processes elsewhere.
Please reply to krausz.tamas@mail.datanet.hu 

The journal Eszmélet (Consciousness) will present a newly published special edition 2005 of the journal in English during the conference. 

The Eszmélet Conference 2005 will be held in conjunction with the Preparatory Assembly of the CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM (CEESF):
Exploited Worlds. Deceived Eastern Europe and its Fellow Sufferers.
There will be a joint opening on Friday, 14 October, and evening events jointly organized, but separate programs of both conferences throughout Saturday and Sunday.