We have come together to produce Eurotopia out of a
shared sense of urgency in the face of a crisis of democratic politics.
Across Europe- East and West, North and South, a profound
gulf is growing between the people and the institutions and the ruling
elites that claim to represent them. Without creative initiatives by
a radically democratic and egalitarian left social and economic divisions
will deepen, feelings of powerlessness will intensify and the far right
will be better able to spread their racist and xenophobic poison.
We have been inspired to propose this new resource
for transnational communication by the spirit of the European Social
Forum (ESF). The ESF is a space founded on a common rejection of neo-liberal
economics and authoritarian, militarist and racist politics; a space
which nurtures self-organisation across national boundaries, and expands
our political imagination through a new process of international dialogue,
debate and exploration.
Something new is stirring on the left. Organisations
whose horizons have in the past been limited to the nation or the locality
have found themselves reaching out for connections with groups engaged
in similar struggles across national borders: trade unions resisting
privatisation and the global offensive against workers, immigrants fighting
for democratic rights, precarious workers building up their power, cultural
workers, women, human rights activists, local communities and small
farmers and hundreds of other groups are finding international networks
a necessity. This political imperative is reinforced by personal and
cultural desire as people increasingly cast off narrow, restrictive
identities and create new international patterns of friendship and enjoyment.
We make no assumptions about the future form that this
new politics will take – this is not a political initiative in
the traditional sense. It is an initiative in the politics of knowledge
and communication. For instance, we have different points of view about
the role of the ESF, the forms of political agency that we need, the
relation between social movements and political parties, the strategies
to challenge the EU as it is, and the kind of construction of Europe
we should promote. These and many other questions of strategy, policy
and long-term vision will be issues on which Eurotopia will promote
a unique transnational debate.
At this stage, Eurotopia is simply an experiment, but
the idea thus far is that it will contribute to this debate and the
new European convergence by
i) Providing transnational surveys of both the human
and environmental consequences of the corporate market and its governmental
allies and the diverse ways in which people are resisting.
ii) Exposing, in collaboration with investigative and
campaigning organisations the actions of EU governments and corporations.
iii) Offering a space to the vital process of developing
alternatives policies.
iv) Reporting the spread of networks, the news from
past action and plans for future mobilisations, events and initiatives.
Four shared understandings shape our plural editorial
personality. First, a belief that existing political institutions need
to be radically remade on the basis that genuine democracy requires,
as a minimum, a combination of `power from below’ and forms of
political representation that are open and responsive. Secondly, real
democracy is only possible if economic life is founded on new principles
and varieties of socialised production and unalienated labour. Thirdly,
it is only by creating a constant process of international and political
cross fertilisation or `contamination’ that we can achieve this
political and economic transformation. Fourthly, our work in Europe
must always be in the context of solidarity and connection with the
struggles and movements of the rest of the world.
Our idea is very consciously to create a supplement.
We intend it as a publication which values the existing, mainly national
and local publications of the movements and the left but which works
through international co-operation to overcome barriers of language
and political history.
Our timetable, our character, indeed the whole future
of Eurotopia, depends on feedback from you... This is just a pilot,
an experiment. Let us know what you think and how you’d like to
get involved.