The fourteen Attac organisations present at the European Attac meeting
in Innsbruck December 3-5 would like to make the following contribution
to the ongoing discussion as regards the future development of the ESF
process, and the European meeting of December 18-19 in Paris.
1. We consider the ESF process a major step forward
in building our struggles against neoliberal globalisation. It gives
a visible expression to the diversity of the movements, and points the
way towards the construction of a new kind of common political space
in Europe.
2. Although the first three fora have permitted us
to achieve many successes, the limitations of our work so far must also
be acknowledged. In our view, the themes in focus must better reflect
the breadth of struggles that people are experiencing in Europe. This
would necessarily entail a different kind of balance between different
issue areas, making social issues a key consideration of the process.
For example, we consider it out of tune with political realities that
the last ESF had so few seminars on themes such as unemployment and
the struggle against pension reforms.
3. In our view, this situation is, to a certain extent,
a problem of method. Currently, the process does not permit us to have
the political discussions that are so essential for advancing together.
We must find a way of working that allows for better confrontation of
ideas and practices, elaboration of alternatives, strategising and decision-making
for common action.
4. In rethinking the working method within the process,
we believe that the guiding principle has to be striving for a process
building from below, in the sense that it has to start from the considerations
of different movements and organisations, including the many who are
currently not following the process, but nevertheless consider it most
important. We should consider what there may be to learn from the work
being done for the WSF, in terms of broad consultations when defining
themes, and technical solutions for facilitating strategic interlinkage
and voluntary mergers of self-organised activities.
5. It has to be recognised that the European Preparatory Assembly (EPA)
is the space where the political orientation of the ESF is forged. Therefore,
it is absolutely essential that its functioning is democratic. Until
now, democracy in the EPA context has largely been a matter of assuring
openness and inclusivity, while transparency and accountability for
decision-making has been neglected. Improving this state of affairs
would in a first step mean creating or reorganising the basic infrastructure
for the meetings (for example documents must be made available before
meetings, facilitation must be properly prepared and rotated during
meetings, participant lists and minutes must be made available after
meetings).
6. In the long run, we also need to reflect on the
difficult question of representativity in the EPA, as regards democratically
legitimate processes at national or local level, as regards social bases,
and as regards geographic areas. These questions are crucial for the
work we have to do; however, we recognise that there are no easy solutions
to this and that further reflection on the best way to proceed is necessary.
Adopted by Attac Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary,
Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Since then also signed by Attac Denmark and Attac Flanders.