[fse-esf] Report of the European Social Forum

[Lukey C]

Article from www.fifthinternational.org on European Social Forum

Fourth European Social Forum a success

Around 30,000 people attended the fourth European Social Forum in Athens on
4-7th May, a figure larger than the London ESF (25,000) in a much smaller
country (Greece has a population of 10.7 million, not the 60 million or so
of the other venues. Another factor which might have made it smaller was the
very late postponement of the event by a month, forced on the organisers by
the Italian elections.

The forum met against the background of a major upsurge in the class
struggle across the continent over the last year including a seafarers¹
strike and several one day general strikes in Greece itself. Trade union,
youth, immigrant and political campaigners spoke vividly of recent or
ongoing struggles. There were activists in abundance from Turkey, the
Balkans, Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

The Forum took place in one of the Olympic sporting facilities on the site
of the old west airport. Free accommodation with cold showers was provided
in one of the aircraft hangers ten minutes walk across the old runways. The
single venue made participation in the hundreds of seminars and workshops
easier than in Paris (2003) and London (2004). Concerts on the Friday and
Saturday nights attracted lots of young people from Athens.

The demonstration on the Saturday afternoon in central Athens assembled over
100,000. Though it was marred by a clash between sections of the Greek
movement and also by a provocation by ³Black Block² anarchists. The latter
incident allowed the police to teargas the front of the demonstration but
this did not stop it completing its route in lively and upbeat spirits.

Given the non-participation indeed venomous denunciation of the ESF by the
³hardline² Stalinist KKE and most unions under its leadership, the Greek
organising committee pulled off a considerable success. Indeed, rival events
stages by the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and the anarchists attracted only
a few hundreds apiece.

Synaspismos (Coalition of the Left and Movements, descended from the
Eurocommunist wing of the old Greek CP), its youth organisation and various
unions provided most of the Greek Social Forum volunteers. The running of
sessions and provision of facilities too were more open and democratic than
in London. Once against the heroic work of the Babels translators, giving
their services for free, needs to be recorded.

The fact that the fourth ESF was taking place in a country presently
undergoing a savage neoliberal offensive from the New Democracy government
of premier Karamanlis against the social gains of workers, women, youth and
migrants lent the forum a much greater air of radicalism than was the case
in London.

Also the reactionary Principles of Porto Alegre, which ban the participation
of parties and the taking of decisions were flagrantly and correctly ignored
by the dozens of parties and groups from Greece and Turkey as well as
others, including the League for the Fifth International. Bernard Cassen of
Attac remarked in one seminar that he had seriously considered not coming to
Athens. What a loss that would have been!

Given the that the right-wing Brazilian forces that dominate the
self-appointed International Secretariat of the World Social Forum scarcely
recognise the ESF (they refused to consider it a continental version of the
³polycentric WSF this year, like the ones in the Americas, Africa and South
Asia) it is time to throw off their tutelage, something that the
pan-European organisers of the ESF seem strangely reluctant to do.

Forum debates

Debates centred on the 16 themes, in seminars organised by coalitions of
organisations. This once more led to a format where debate was often limited
by the large number of speakers who delivered prepared presentations, which
often overlapped and repeated each other.

The themes which attracted big meetings ­ of 400 to 1,000 ­focused on
anti-war and anti-racist actions, the youth and student rebellions shaking
Europe and the various struggles against privatisation and deteriorating
conditions of labour ­ précarité. Many speakers declared their open support
for the resistance in Iraq, for open borders and solidarity with migrants,
for coordinated action by the trade unions.

Stalls in the vast central hall were dominated by political organisations,
trade unions and campaigning groups of women, youth, immigrants, ecologists,
human rights activists and revolutionary artists ­ rather than the big NGOs.
Representatives of workers¹ parties and major trade unions spoke from
platforms as well as repeatedly intervening in debates, boosting the much
clearer political nature of many debates.

The 1,000 strong delegation from Turkey greatly added to the radicalism of
the forum. Much larger numbers attended from Eastern Europe and the Balkans,
including from Moldova, Ukraine and Russia, where the growing social forum
movement is linked to independent trade unions, courageously struggling
against the repressive Putin regime. Likewise there were brave campaigners
from the Arab/Islamic world, from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and
Iran.

The shadow of the popular front

By way of contrast, Franco Russo of Rifondazione Comunista organised a
series of meetings around the Charter of our common principles of another
Europe. The charter is a utopian-reformist collection of principles on which
³our Europe² should be based. It is not any sort of action programme of
resistance to neoliberalism. More precisely, the charter is a fig leaf to
cover up the fact that Rifondazione is about to enter a government headed by
Romano Prodi, arch-neoliberal and designer of the Lisbon Agenda ­ an act of
class collaboration, which will throw the Italian movement into confusion.

Was this the same Rifondazione, whose leader Bertinotti told a packed ESF
meeting back in 2002 that he would never again re-enter a government to
carry out neoliberal policies? Of course, Bertinotti was not personally in
Athens to explain his change of heart. He obviously prefers the role of
speaker to the Italian parliament, than speaker to a forum of European
workers and youth!

The French representatives, from the PCF, the CGT, Sud, and the LCR could
have led a discussion on how to generalise to the rest of Europe the victory
of the anti-CPE movement, the struggle of youth and workers against
précarité, the uprising of the racially oppressed youth in the suburbs, and
the defeat of the EU draft constitution. Indeed, whenever young, black and
Arab participants from France described their struggles in the seminars and
assemblies, the audience responded with enormous enthusiasm.

But the CGT and PCF leaders were not interested in building on these
successes ­ except at the polls in the elections of Spring 2007. Indeed,
they had barely responded to the rebellion against Sarkozy and his racist
cops last year, and were only too eager to call a halt to this Spring¹s
revolt against the CPE. It seems they would rather leave the right wing in
power for another year than go all out to drive it from power with a
militant mass movement against all the neoliberal ²reforms².

In a seminar on ³political alternatives to neoliberalism² both Alex
Callinicos (SWP ­ IST) and Leonce Aguire (LCR ­ USFI) defended the fusion of
the WASG (the left wing break from the German SPD) with the PDS (former
ruling party of East Germany) ­ even while the PDS rules in coalition with
the SPD in two regions, where it cutting workers¹ jobs, pay and privatising
services.

There it is a matter of unity with the centre-right reformists against the
left reformists and the revolutionaries. Linksruck, the German section of
the IST, has not only supported a swift fusion on the right wing¹s terms,
but also disciplining of the Berlin WASG leadership for trying to stand
independent candidates opposed to the neoliberal actions of the PDS-SPD city
government!

Anti-Imperialist Space

With the rightward turn of the major centrist forces, leftward moving
currents, workers and youth found another focus.

A hundred groups from Turkey, Greece, the Basque Country, Palestine, Belgium
and elsewhere organised an Anti-Imperialist Space not far from the main
hall. Though the League for the Fifth International had not been invited to
sign its declaration, the development of this grouping, prominent among
which were the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey and North
Kurdistan (MLKP) the Communist Organization of Greece (KOE) and various
Basque nationalist organisations, could be an important step in coalescing a
left wing within the ESF.

This greater militancy and clarity was displayed in the Anti-Imperialist
Assembly on the Saturday morning, attended by 400-500 people. Here speaker
after speaker declared their solidarity with the Iraqi resistance, called
for the preparation of mass actions across Europe if the USA attacks Iran,
stressed the need to act to help the Palestinians facing Israeli-US­EU
blockade, and last but not least supported co-ordinated working class
struggles against neoliberalism in Europe.

Obviously, the Anti-Imperialist Space contained a broad range of political
organisations, some of whom would undoubtedly regard all Trotskyists as
agents of imperialism and continue to regard Stalinism and/or Mao Zedong
Thought as the purest form of Marxism. While the leading forces in this bloc
are most certainly Stalinist, they are clearly of a left variety, which has
its roots in Turkish and Greek Maoism-Hoxha-ism.

Over the last ten years these forces have undergone a degree of re-thinking,
shedding some of the extreme sectarianism, which these currents were known
for. In Athens these militants were willing to discuss with self-avowed
Trotskyists. It was not uncommon to find that such militants are opposed to
the popular front, believed that the democratic revolution should progress
³uninterruptedly² to the proletarian revolution, had dropped ³third
worldism² and now placed a strong emphasis on winning workers in the
imperialist heartlands to fight capitalism and imperialism in the global
south.

They stressed too the possibility and necessity of united fronts for action
with the reformist leaders in the ESF, where the latter would take action.
In discussions they paid testimony to the role of the Turkish and Kurdish
immigrant communities in central and western Europe in stimulating their
internationalism and interest in globalisation and the movement against it.

The emergence of this bloc, its orientation to the ESF (while criticising
its leadership), and the fact that the class struggle ­ from Nepal to
Venezuela ­ is forcing its participants to examine and develop their
political positions, are all reasons for seeking unity in action with it.
This must be on key issues like solidarity with the Iraqi and Palestinian
resistance, defence of Iran against US-UK attack, opposition to EU
imperialism and the neoliberal offensive, opposition to racism.

If these forces and some of the more militant ³left Trotskyist² and
³independent Marxist² groupings make a determined intervention into the ESF
process it could be possible to break the logjam.

ESF Assembly of the Social Movements

The Assembly of the Social Movements is the only part of the ESF able to
make decisions. The idea is that the various networks and assemblies should
contribute their suggestions for common campaigning over the next year or
so. At its best the Assembly has focussed on a major issue, as it did in
Florence in 2002, when it called for a global demonstration on February 15.
Twenty million responded to this call. Yet in Paris a year later - despite
pressure from the German delegation to organise concerted action across
Europe against the Lisbon agenda - the Assembly ducked the task. In Athens
the daily ³working group² whose task was to prepare the Assembly of the
Social Movements met on each night with a hundred or so participants
including people who form a sort of de facto leadership of the movement,
These included ‹

Haris Golemis (Synaspismos) Yannis Almpanis (Greek Social Forum), Petros
Constaninou (SEK, Greek IST section), from the Greek movement. From the
French it included Pierre Khalfa and Annick Coupe (Sud), Sophie Zafari (FEN
and LCR), Elisabeth Gautier (PCF). Fro Italy it included Piero Bernocchi
(Cobas). Luciano Muhlbauer (SinCobas and Bandiera Rossa), Raffaella Bolini
(DS). Alessandra Mecozzi (Cgil-Fiom). From Germany it included Hugo Braun
(DKP), Judith Dellheim (PDS.Linkspartei) and Angela Klein (ISL. German USFI
section, Euromarches). From Britain there was Jonathan Neal and Chris
Nineham (SWP). From eastern Europe there was Simo Endré (Hungarian Social
Forum), and from the Spanish state, Josu Erigeun (ESK, Basque trade union)
and Katu of Batasuna.

The French members of this sort of unofficial leadership were opposed to the
Assembly debating any radical proposals for co-ordinated action. The first
draft declaration contained nothing concrete beyond mobilisation for the G8
counter-demonstration in Germany in July 2007. Piero Bernocchi correctly
argued that something more than this was needed, e.g. active opposition to
the threatened attack on Iran, common actions against the neoliberal
offensive, defence of migrants, etc.

Against this some of the French and Italians stubbornly insisted that to
prioritise these issues would mean downgrading all the others. All they
suggested was a vague general statement of principles and a calendar of
dates selected by the networks. This was an attempt to maintain the
paralysis, which the ESF/ASM has found itself in since Paris (2004). Many
were new to ³the ESF process², but this made for some electrifying
interventions, which ignored the bizarre postmodernist newspeak that has
come to muffle any clear anticapitalist and anti-imperialist language.

However far too little of this language or clear demands made their way into
the final declaration of the Assembly of the Social Movements. Indeed the
original draft mentioned no focus of any mobilisations before the World
Social Forum in 2007 and the anti-G8 in Germany in June of that year.

The final draft was a bit of an improvement, thanks to the doggedness of
Piero Bernocchi (Cobas), the arguments of representatives of the networks,
particularly the Palestinian one, plus the interventions by representatives
of the Anti-Imperialist Assembly, particularly the KOE (Communist
Organization Greece). IN addition OKDE (Communist Internationalists of
Greece, Fourth Internationalists) and the League for the Fifth International
argued strongly for this.

The declaration as amended now ends:

³* We will mobilize for a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq and
Afghanistan, against the threat of a new war in Iran, against the occupation
of Palestine, for nuclear disarmament, to eliminate military bases in Europe
and we call for a week of action from 23 to 30 September 2006.

* We appeal for an international day of action and mobilisation on 7th
October 2006 in Europe and Africa, for the unconditional legalisation of,
and equal rights to all migrants across Europe; for the closure of all
detention centres in Europe, for an end to externalisation and deportations;
against précarité; and for the uncoupling of the link between the residence
permit and the labor contract ­ for a residence citizenship.

* We will mobilize against casualisation and the dismantling of public
services, and for social rights, co-ordinating our struggles throughout
Europe in the next months.

* In January 2007, the WSF will meet in Nairobi. The growth of the African
social movements is crucial for the world. Building for the WSF will be an
opportunity to fight against European exploitation and neo-colonialism.

* In June 2007, there will be a meeting of the European Union Council and a
meeting of the G8 at Rostock in Germany after the one in St Petersburg in
July this year. We will seize the opportunity of these occasions for a
general convergence of our struggles.²

The major danger ­ given the patent lack of enthusiasm of most of the French
and Italian delegations, plus the SWP and its Greek affiliate ­ is that
nothing will come of these pledges. Indeed, with no European Preparatory
Assembly taking place before September, unless the Greek Social Forum takes
the initiative, we can be certain that the ³big forces² will do nothing. The
meeting of the European Preparatory Assembly in September however remains
critical. It must debate how to get out of the state of paralysis the
movement is in. 

The League for the Fifth International has, since Florence, argued that the
ESF must turn itself into a permanent organising centre of struggle against
neoliberalism and imperialism, We believe it is vital to break the logjam in
how the movement operates, particularly the wretched and hypocritical
³consensus principle², which effectively amounts to a veto, whereby the most
right wing forces can paralyse indefinitely the whole movement, and indeed
prevent the Assembly of the Social Movements debating any political or
tactical differences.

This was particularly scandalous since at the Athens ASM the only difference
that was debated was the issue of who was to blame for the minor skirmish,
which took place on the march between the Greek Social Forum and the
SEK/SWP! The attitude of the SWP to political debate was shown when Jonathan
Neal evinced the view that no time should be given to debating the
resolution, since nobody reads these documents anyway. Indeed. Certainly the
Socialist Worker in Britain will not print it!

To break this logjam it is essential to establish a method of making
decisions by debate of resolutions, counterposed where need be, and then
voting on them. It is essential to elect a standing committee or council of
the ESF, which can respond to urgent tasks arising from the class struggle
and begin to develop a political action programme for the movement.

If the ESF stalls (there is no date or venue for the fifth one; it is
unlikely to take place again before 2008), then all those forces, including
the rank and file activists arising from the ongoing struggles, who do not
place unity with the neoliberal parties above the needs of the working
class, should press ahead with creating such a forum of struggle.

A programme of action

The League for the Fifth International called for a programme of action at
the Athens ESF, which:

³* Šdemands the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and the Middle
East and encourages and stands in solidarity with the resistance to the
occupiersŠ

* Šlifts the blockade on Cuba and halt the threats against VenezuelaŠ

* mobilisesŠ direct action, mass strikes, to halt the warmongers and drive
them from powerŠ

* mobilises a continent wide resistance to privatisation and the coordinated
attack on our social and public services, pensions and jobsŠ

* makes the corporations and the rich pay for putting all the unemployed
back to work and for affording all the poorly paid and insecurely employed a
raise in their wages to levels decided by the unionsŠ

* tears down the prison walls of fortress Europe and gives asylum seekers,
refugees and immigrants seeking work the right to enter and enjoy full civil
rights within the EU

* gives all the stateless peoples of Europe the right to self-determination,
including the right to secede and form their own statesŠ

* liberates women from the burden of childcare and housework, unequal wages
and domestic violence and recognizes their right to abortion and
contraceptionŠ

* Repeals all laws, like the attempted CPE in France and the Biagi law in
Italy, which allow employers to hire and fire young workers at will.²



Our programme ends with a call for a United Socialist States of Europe,
where the factories and banks, offices and mass media are taken out of the
hands of the tiny handful of capitalists, so that they can be owned and run
democratically by the workers themselves. For this we will have to break the
power of the imperialist powers and establish the rule of workers and small
farmers¹ councils and of workers¹ militia. And finally we will have to place
a socialist Europe at the service of the worldwide revolution against
capitalism and imperialism.

In the coming months, the L5I will be prepared to co-operate with all those
who are not afraid to draw revolutionary conclusions from the struggles that
lie ahead. We do not expect or demand that our collaborators agree with
every one of our policies, nor do we pretend to have all the answers. We too
want to learn from the struggles of others.

But the Athens ESF has shown that an anticapitalist and anti-imperialist
European Social Forum is possible. If the unofficial leadership of the ESF
process are too paralysed by the prospect of office to organise such a
forum, others should step up and take the lead.

The rising tempo of the European class struggle, plus the revolutionary
events from Bolivia to Nepal show that it is both possible and necessary to
provide an international co-ordination and political leadership to the
working class. Gathering the forces to break the logjam that is blocking the
ESF from performing this function can be a step towards establishing a new
world party of socialist revolution, the Fifth International.