People participating in the
UK Local Social Forum Network met in Sheffield on the 4/5th
December and found consensus on this document to be brought to
the Assembly which is going to be held in Paris the 18/19 Dec 2004.
1. The British process to build for the ESF has been, from the proposal
to have it in London onwards, organized without an open,
democratic, inclusive process. Actually no link has been created with
the UK Local Social Forums and the very same groups which played
a prominent role in the process by organising mobilising committees
for the ESF did so also in the places where a LSF was working already.
This attitude has generated more problems and divisions in the movement
in Britain and, even if some people have been inspired by the ESF
experience to go on to join a Local Social Forum, we are registering
a lot of repercussions from what happened, with people pulling
out from the LSF in several different places.
2. The process is as important as the ESF in itself and we cannot
have a different world if we don't force ourselves to practice a different
way of working together, based not on self-appointed representation
but on a wider inclusive process in which all the differences can
express themselves and reclaim the right to participate. In the British
process most of the power was based on the monetary resources organisations
could bring in, which is far away from the world we are claiming to
want (i.e. one where money does not come first!).
3. The Assembly of movements: although the final document was built
more openly than before the calls for actions have to come from the
work of the networks and the assembly is the space for all to express
the work which has be done. The way the London Assembly was organized
didn't give the local social forum network the chance to communicate
their work. We also want to point out that Stop the War Coalition
in Britain has called a rally for the 19th of March, the same day
when the ‘central demonstration in Brussels on 19 March
against war, racism, and against a neo-liberal Europe, against privatisation,
against the Bolkestein project and against the attacks on working
time, for a Europe of rights and solidarity between the peoples’
will take place. We support the action in Brussels and we will work
for that.
4. We support the call ‘to mobilise massively on the occasion
of the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005’ and we suggest a contrasummit
organized by the ESF Network in order to present the alternative we
are working for.
5. We reject the criminalisation of
part of the movement and we denounce the absence of solidarity towards
people who were held by the police in an underground station and arrested
during the demo. No demo can carry on like that when some of us are
in trouble only because they wanted to communicate what happened.
A lot of people were really upset about the demo in itself because
it didn’t express the ESF and the diversity of the movement.
No speakers were agreed for the demo so there was no respect for the
decisions taken.
6. It's crucial to learn from the mistakes
of this ESF.
7. The way the ESF works is crucial.
Less plenaries, which were just stages for the well known politicians,
could be an answer. Start from big thematic or affinity assemblies
and then split into working groups in order to establish networks
aiming to work on successful actions to fight neoliberalism and build
alternatives. Various documents have been written already and ignored,
but there is the chance and the time to call for an open ‘How
to build the next ESF’ debate.
8. The location and the space in the
ESF has to respond to the needs of the people. In Alexandra Palace
the LSF network seminar couldn’t work in the way which had been
decided because the space couldn’t be used in a different way
but was only suitable for an old-fashioned platform-based meeting.
9. The system of translation is important
in supporting a different kind of meeting. Babels can find the way
to implement a different approach using different methods. This is
crucial for having translation in the workshops. We cannot accept
an English-speaking monoglot ESF any more than we can support an English-dominated
ESF: the days of Empire are over!