Update: March 12, 2006
Content:
– Brief info from Yannis Almpanis
– Report from the Enlargment Working Group
– Report from the Envirornment Network meeting
– Report from the “Chater of principles” meeting
– Report of the network against security polices and repression
– Report of the antiwar network
Brief info from Yannis Almpanis
Events
Frankfurt’s EPA Decision concerning the events of great visibility in the 4th ESF (Athens May 4-7)
The European Preparatory Assembly will organize:
· An Anti-racist event - concert on the evening of Wednesday May 3 in the center of Athens
· An Anti-war, anti-occupation event-concert on the evening of Friday May 5 at the ESF venue
· A Demonstration Against War - Neoliberalism - Racism on Saturday May 6 at 4pm in the center of Athens
· The Assembly of Social Movements (which will also have a discussion about the perspectives of the movement) on Sunday May 7 at 10.00 at the ESF venue
The Greek Organizing Committee will be in charge of the following discussions about :
– Resistance to neoliberalism
– War
– Europe
– Climate change
Thematic Spaces
Decision concerning the thematic spaces of the 4th ESF
The aims of the thematic spaces of the European Social Forum are:
1. To promote questions and sensibilities which are not very visible.
2. To help movements and initiatives which do not have the capacity to make visible the issues they deal with.
3. To contribute in the enlargement process of the ESF by facilitating the participation of groups that until now were not very close to the Forum
– Thematic spaces are NOT a second space for the various organizations’stands. There is a special space for the stands.
– Thematic spaces should be open to everyone who is interested in participating. No exclusion is acceptable.
The organizers of thematic spaces should:
– contribute financialy in their formation,
– offer volunteer work to build them.
FRANKFURT EPA - ENLARGEMENT WORKING GROUP REPORT
By Peter Damo, Romanian Social Forum, for the Enlargement Working Group
The meeting was facilitated by Leo Gabriel from the
Austrian Social Forum. There were participants from
Greece, Czechia, Romania, Russia, Germany, Turkey,
Austria, and in the final part of the meeting from
Hungary.
The following general issues were tackled:
1. Mobilization to Athens ESF-4;
2. Eastern European Enlargement;
3. Beyond Athens to Vienna and more
1. MOBILIZATION TO ATHENS ESF-4
1.1. Report of the Greek Organizing Committee
A presentation of the steps made since Vienna EPA was
delivered by the Greek participants.
In terms of approach, it turned out that priority had
been given to enlarge Eastern European participation,
as well as participation of people from Turkey, Iraq,
Palestine, Lebanon, and others.
In terms of concrete results the following can be
noted:
1.1.1. The Solidarity Fund presently amounts up to
50,000 (fifty thousand Euros); the representatives of
the Greek Organizing Committee stated that every
effort would be made to raise this sum to 100,000 Euro
(one hundred thousand Euros). Yet, as the only
reliable sources of income are the Trade Unions and
some other traditional supporters of the ESF, the task
is not easy, underlined the Greek speakers.
The Greek Organizing Committee stated that efforts
would be made to assure the reimbursement/support from
the Solidarity Fund for at least ½ (one half) of the
transportation/travel costs of Central and Eastern
European participants to Athens.
1.1.2. Accommodation would be basically of two types:
1.1.2.1. Free basic accommodation at the place where
the ESF takes places (on the floor in sleeping bags,
etc)
1.1.2.2. Reservation in hotels. In Athens there are no
youth hostels, but the Greek organizers had
discussions with the federation of hotels owners, and,
consequently, some hotels may offer price lowering to
the ESF participants from Central and Eastern Europe.
1.1.2.3. Accommodation in houses of Greek comrades, as
a third variant, is not likely to be possible, for
this solution is to be used with priority for Babels
interpreters.
1.1.3. Other facilities
1.1.3.1. Four-day free urban travel card for Central
and Eastern European participants.
1.1.3.2. A 30% price lowering of urban transportation
travel cards for the other participants (this would
lead to the possibility of purchasing a four-day urban
travel card for 7 (seven) Euros)
1.1.3.3. The Greek organizers are to assure 2 (two)
free-meal coupons per day at the place of the ESF.
1.2. Proposals and contributions of participants on
this issue
Czech, Romanian, Russian, and other delegates insisted
on the paramount necessity of guaranteeing at least ½
(one half) of the travel cost reimbursement in order
to ensure a good Eastern participation to the ESF in
Athens.
At the same time, at the proposal of the Russian
delegation supported by the Romanian delegation, the
Enlargement Working Group agreed to come to a decision
concerning the participation fee of 10 (ten) Euro for
Eastern European participants, decision which hereby
we put forth as a proposal/request to the Assembly and
the Greek Organizing Committee: having in view the
tradition of previous ESFs, when the Eastern
participants were exempted from paying the
participation fee and the precarious conditions in
these countries, we ask the organizers to accept that
the Eastern participants be exempted from paying this
tax at Athens as well as at the next ESFs.
Russian and Turkish delegates underlined the necessity
of a proper dealing with the invitation letters and
with the visa issues.
It was underlined the necessity of enlargement not
only in geographical terms, but also in terms of
various social strata, gender groups, and age groups.
It was proposed to raise additional money from each
home-country so as to cover the gap in the Solidarity
Fund. Nevertheless, some Eastern delegates underlined
that the situation and the mentality in Eastern
countries is different than the one in the West, and
therefore it is much more difficult to do self-fund
raising.
Leo Gabriel informed that Trialog Austria is also
likely to support financially the ESF enlargement
participation (countries that recently joined the EU,
countries that are to join the EU such as Romania and
Bulgaria, as well as countries like Turkey).
In order to get such a support clear applications
should be put forth to Trialog until 15th of March
(contact address is: a.novak trialog.or.at )
1.3. An estimate of Central-Eastern European
participation to Athens ESF
According to the speakers of various delegations, the
following participation is to be expected:
– 4 (four) buses from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and
Rep. of Moldova;
– 2 (two) buses from Hungary;
– 2 (two) buses from Romania;
– at least 1 (one) bus from Czechia and Slovakia;
– at least 700-800 (seven hundred to eight hundred)
people from Turkey;
Unfortunately there is no clear picture of
participation in terms of number, if any, from the
countries of former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
A deadline for communicating to the Greek organizers
the participation in terms of number was set to 15th
of March 2006 (latest 1st of April 2006).
2. EASTERN EUROPEAN ENLARGEMENT
In connection with the proposal - first made by Leo
Gabriel at Istanbul EPA, and reiterated at Vienna EPA - of organizing some kind of missions to those
countries where there is no Social Forum process
whatsoever and organizing a brief
seminar/conference/meeting to inform the people there
about the ESF, three speakers made contributions.
Mirek Prokes from the Czech Social Forum said that an
Enlargement activity would be organized as a result of
Czech endeavors in Slovakia on the 14th of March. The
location is an alternative club in Bratislava.
There is also a less likely possibility of having a
similar meeting the next day on 15th of March in
another Slovak city namely Banska Bistrica.
Boris Kagarlitki from IPROG Moscow and Russian Social
Forum informed that after the EPA Vienna they toured
Ukraine and Republic of Moldova and obtained some
promising results in terms of enlargement.
In Ukraine, following the example of the success of
the Russian Social Forum organized in April 2005, they
seem to have an Organizing Committee that would like
to combine the organization of the first EPA after
Athens ESF-4 with their first Ukrainian Social Forum
in Kiev.
In the Republic of Moldova though the social movement
is rather week, some people are willing to organize
themselves. More questions waiting for answers seem to
arise here. A Moldavian delegation will come to Athens
to the ESF-4.
It was accepted that an ESF delegation would go to
Kiev to contact and speak with those willing to
involve in the ESF process so as to make an
evaluation, and only after that a clear proposal for
the first EPA after Athens should be made.
Leo Gabriel from the Austrian Social Forum proposed
the organization of missions to Croatia and Serbia
either at the end of March or at the beginning of
April. These delegations would be composed of people
from the Greek Organizing Committee, Czechia, and
Russia who would self-organize in this sense.
3. BEYOND ATHENS TO VIENNA AND MORE
3.1. The Alternative Summit Europe-Latin America (10th
– 13th of May2006)
The Alternative Summit in Vienna is a sort of being an
integral part of the whole Social Forum process.
Leo Gabriel informed that there would be an organized
possibility of traveling from Athens to Vienna as
follows: on the evening of the 7th of May a ship would
leave Patras harbour bound to Venice where is expected
to arrive at 7 a.m. on the 9th of May. From there,
buses would take the participants to Vienna where they
should arrive in the same evening after an afternoon
halt of a couple of hours. The total cost of this
travel is about 80 Euro (eighty Euros). Free
accommodation is to be provided by the Austrian
organizers in Vienna for those who need it.
Another variant consists of traveling by buses from
Athens back to Vienna.
The Russian delegates underlined the strict problems
with the visas.
The Austrian organizers need to be informed about
participation to the Alternative Summit until 15th of
March. The contact address is: office altrenativas.net
3.2. The Mediterranean Social Forum
A speaker on behalf of the Mediterranean Social Forum
informed that there would be an assembly of the
Mediterranean Social Forum in held in Athens in the
eve of the ESF-4 on the 3rd of March to prepare the
2nd Mediterranean Social Forum.
Report of environment network meeting at Esf preparation meeting in Frankfurt
Notes by Jonathan Neale
We agreed on the following:
We want a space for environment as one of the spaces at the Esf. This would be a place for all the stands of environmental campaigns. We want the meetings, however, to be in many places, mixed with other themes.
We want the Greek organising committee to pay attention to the environmental impact of the Esf. It would be good if someone from the Greek organising committee could be responsible for this. The single most important thing we need is information on the website telling people the best cheap ways to come that do not use airplanes, as they put so much carbon into the air and increase global warming.
We want a demonstration against climate change by bicyclists as part of the esf.
SEMINARS:
We want a minimum of 14 seminars with full translation in the environment theme. This is because of the political importance of the environment, and the importance of involving environmental activists in the esf more fully. Also, last year one meeting in six was on the environment. This year it will be one in fifteen. That is enough of a cut ? no more.
We discussed the seminars proposed so far and decided that for reasons of political importance we wanted at least one merged seminar on:
Water
Pollution
Transport
The sea and sea transport
Nuclear power
Biodiversity
Climate change
Neoliberalism and political ecology
Energy and fuel
Climate change and war
General seminar on climate change
An assembly
That takes us to twelve. But we also want at least two more that do not fit into these twelve to take the total to fourteen.
There are also some seminars that could be environment, but we think go in other places. The Greek organising committee has put three topics in agriculture, and we agree:
GMO (OMG)
Fishery (Pesce)
Sustainable tourism
And we have agreement to merge the seminar on climate change and corporations from War on Want now in environment theme with two seminars proposed in the neoliberalism theme: the seminar on climate change, corporations and social justice from Campaign against Climate Change and the seminar on resisting corporations from the Russian Social Forum. These would be a seminar on ?corporations and the environment?.
Report on the decisions taken in the working group on the ‘Charter of principles of another Europe’
Dear friends,
I will summarize in this report only the decisions taken in the working group on the ‘Charter of principles of another Europe’, and give the list of seminars, controversial tables, the initial assembly and the final meeting. The email addresses belong to those people in charge of the contacts and the organization of the activity.
I remind you all that every organization should contribute to the cost of the seminars, 300 euros that should be divided.
1. We decided to rearrange the Charter in order to avoid misunderstandings on the goals of the process. We do not want to write a Constitution, but only to write down our common principles, which are in sharp contrast with those of the European neoliberal elites. In order to achieve this clarification we decided to specify the title, which now will be: The Charter of our common principles of another Europe.
By rearranging the material, so as to avoid repetition and to divide the subjects between the first and second part, we should cancel all references to a constitutional design.
2. A group was put in charge of the rearrangement: Bolini, Klein, Gauthier, Gabriel, Endre, Almpanis, Golemis, Lekeu, Russo. It’s obvious that everyone can participate to the rearranging process by sending proposals, amendments etc.
3. The process will not end in Athens, where we will have an initial assembly so as to present the Charter and its process, and a final meeting in which we can collect the results of the seminars and the controversial table in order to correct, add to the Charter, etc.
We will ask the Greek committee to hold the assembly on Thursday 4th in the morning, and the final meeting on Saturday 6th , or on Friday 5th in the afternoon.
In the final meeting, we will discuss the next steps of the process and we will decide the location of the next Assembly on the Charter in Brussels or in Paris next winter.
Seminars and controversial tables:
(NB the persons, whose name is followed by the email address, are the ‘contact persons’, who are in charge of the organization of the activity)
1.The democratic life and the power in the enterprises
Gerard Ryser g.ryser wanadoo.fr
Simo Endre chiquito t-online.hu
2.The defense of fundamental rights: UN and the international law
Raffaella Bolini bolini arci.it
Leo Gabriel gabriel.lai magnet.at
...
3. Permanent war and occupations, terrorisms, resistance - armed, civil, non violent
Raffaella Bolini bolini arci.it
Piero Bernocchi pierobernocchi libero.it
Tina Becher
G. Benzi
...
4. The rights of self-determination for the Stateless Nations and the human rights of the individuals
Giuseppe Bronzini pabronzini tiscali.it
Jonan Lekeu jonan.lekeu gmail.com
Simo Endre
...
5. Europe: the civic integration
Alla Glinchkova aglinchkova yandex.ru
Raffaella Bolini
...
6. The democratic institution building of the EU
Franco Russo fs.russo tiscali.it
Yannis Almpanis yannisalmpanis hotmail.com
C. Ventura
G. Benzi
N. Vallinoto
Jean-Pierre Du Bois
Mangenot
H. Wainwright
T. Becher
...
7. Casualisation, basic income, democratic rights of workers
Angela Klein am-klein arcor.de
Michel Rousseau rousseau ras.eu.org
Valeria Piccone valeria1 interfree.it
P. Berncocchi
G. Benzi
...
8. Social commons to grant universal rights
Enzo Bernardo bernardo fpcgil.it
Annick Coupè coup solidaires.org
Alla Glichkova/Alexander
P. Bernocchi
E. Gauthier
...
9. The knowledge society, the capitalist integration of science and production (ITC, pharmaceutical industries, biotechnologies,...)
Luciana Castellina lcastellina mclink.it
Marco Berlinguer marco.berlinguer transform.it
Scipione Semeraro
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
...
10. Environment, alternative economy, energy
Maurizio Gubbiotti m.gubbiotti mail.legambiente.com
Ciro Pesacane cpesaca tin.it
M.Serafini
...
11. Patrarchy, capitalism, equality, differences
Lilian Halls lilianhalls free.fr or ife efi.europa.org
Imma Barbarossa imma.barbarossa rifondazione.it
12. Growth or non-growth, development, alternative economy, participation and
democracy
Alessandra Mecozzi internazionale fiom.cgil.it
Gerard Ryser
...
13. Macroeconomic policies to fight European neoliberal strategies
Pierre Khalfa khalfa solidaires.fr
Gerardo Marletto gerardomarletto yahoo.it
...
14. Poverty and exclusion
Simo Endre chiquito t-online.hu
Annie Pourre annie echanges-partenariats.org
Bernard_Jean Bouchez
Eros Cruccolini
...
In my opinion, every ‘contact person’ should
i) check the list of seminars of the controversial tables on the website (www.fse-esf.org ) and find similar proposals;
ii) contact the other organizers (‘contact persons’)
iii) try to reach a consensus on the participation in ‘our’ seminar or controversial table, or merge the different proposals into one
iv) inform the Greek committee ( merger athens.fse-esf.org ) on the decision taken and register the new seminar or controversial table;
v) pay the fee, divided among the different organization
(ed. by Franco Russo)
March 7th 2006
Report of the network against security polices and repression
Dear all,
Here is the report of the network against security polices and repression from Vienna. Participants from Euskadi, Spain, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Turkey and Greece were attending our Net-work meeting. During the meeting of Frankfurt, the following general issues preoccupied, in priority, the participants:
1. Make more visible and promote the anti repressive initiatives and sensibilities which are expressed in the social forumÅfs process, and particularly, regarding the axe repression- criminalization of political, cultural and social identities- suppression of liberties, social rights and measures of exception
2. Provide a deeper discussion and make more recognised in a wider public the strategies and the fights against security policies and repression.
In this framework, the Network against Security Policies and Repression has proposed four seminars for the 2006 Athens ESF.
Seminars (planned)
1.ÅgThe Crusade against TerrorÅh, new Planetary Enemies and the Human Rights
2. Antiterrorist Laws, Black Lists and the Policies of Security in Europe
3 Political Prisoners, Special Trials and Security-Jail
4. Criminalization of Communities and Ågdangerous populationsÅh
The merging process is in progress and we make efforts to arrive in to conclusive proposals and we make appeal in other political and social initiatives to co-organize a ÅgreasonableÅh number of common seminars.
Loukia Kotronaki- Network for Political and Social Rights
Report of the Antiwar meeting that took place on EPA-Meeting in Frankfurt on 2nd - 5th March 2006.
20 peace activists from different countries took part in the Antiwar-Meeting
1. Activities because the 3rd anniversary of occupation in Iraq and protest against US military bases
The 18th march is the 3rd anniversary of occupation in Iraq; therefore an in many countries will take place demonstration or activities.
Greece: In Athens a broad coalition, which also includes the trade unions, is planning a manifestation on 18th March. Furthermore there is planed to have in manifestation on Kreta where a US Military base is.
Italy: Peace movement will have a demonstration, despite the election campaign.
UK: Peace movement wants to have a big manifestation on 18th March in London.
Czechia: In Prague will take place a demonstration on the 19th of March.
France: There will take place around the 18th March demonstrations in Paris and other cities.
On 13th of March a meeting in partnership with more then 100 organisation will take place in Paris. From 15th march to 3 April a tour in 13 cities of France will take place with Nabra Al Barrak, chair of a Woman organisation in Iraq.
Jimmy Massey, former GI instructor in Iraq and author of the book “Kill,Kill,Kill"
Japanese jurist of maintaning the article 9 of Japanese constitution
Turkey: local activities will take place in many cities. In Turkey they are also preparing a manifestation in Incirlik where an US Military base is.
In Kurdistan until 20 years is war. 50.000 people were killed, 4.000 village were destroyed and 6 Million people were displayed. Demokratic protests by people in Kurdistan were oppressed by Turkish security forces. Many people were arrested, for example in the last time 25 women for Intiative for peace mothers. During the war hundreds of people were disappeared. From 16-20th May the 5th International Conference Against Disappearances will be organized in Diyarbakir, a city in Turkish Kurdistan, under the title “War and Occupation: Human Rights Breaches, Torture and Disappearances Under Detention”
Germany local activities will take place in many cities.
On 14th will bee a hearing in the European parliament about the situation of US Soldier, who refused the service in Iraq and where punished about this.
2. Merging process
In the workspace round about 95 seminars where proposed for the thematic area war and peace in the workspace included seminars about Palestine. About Palestine 21 seminars where proposed.
In order to support the merging process is proposed to build subject areas such as
– Culture of peace
– Strategy of peace movement
– Middle east (Iraq-Iran-Palastine-Kaukasus)
– Balkans
– EU-Militarization
– Abolish nuclear weapons
– US Military bases and military bases in foreign countries
Furthermore there are proposals with connection to other thematic areas such as Trade union and Peace, War and Health, War and Media or Latin-American. For these proposals a merging with seminars of other thematic areas should be possible.
During the EPA meeting consultations for to merging of seminars already started. Everybody is asked to consider the merging process as a self organized process. The coordination of the merging process will be managed by the Greek organisation committee. It can be contacted at merger athens.fse-esf.org
3. Antiwar-meeting and big events
Actual the question of Peace and War is on of the most important topic. People want to live in peace and social security. Therefore the antiwar network proposes an antiwar-meeting in the ESF. In order to highlight the importance of Peace and War and to make peace movements activities visible, especially in a time the occupation in Iraq and the preparation of new war in Middle East against Iran is going on, the Antiwar Network proposes a big Antiwar-Event.
Best wishes
Hannelore Tölke