[fse-esf] Invitation, Friends of the Earth Greening the ESF 17-21.9

[Tord Bj ö rk]

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH GREENING the ESF
Malmö, Sweden, 17-21.09.2008


With at least 24 activities FOE groups goes to action at the European
Social Forum taking place in Malmö 17-21st of September. ESF is a
gathering of multiple spaces in the same place for popular movements
from all of Europe for discussion and action that has taken place
since 2002 in Florence.

Friends of the Earth will take part on all levels mobilising all from
local FoE groups initiating seminars on stopping motorways and
defending public urban spaces to Friends of the Earth International
campaigners. FoE groups have been active at ESF before with many
seminars (see: http://www.foeeurope.org/trade/events/ESF/Index.htm),
but this time the scope is wider. There are the many climate
seminars, how to address the crisis of exploding food prices,
agrofuels, and challenging corporate power. But this time FoE also
takes the lead in seminars on how popular movements can cooperate to
be of importance to peoples daily life and the future of the global
justice movement and how to act against repression of social movements.

And there will also be a lot of action. Via Campesina and Friends of
the Earth Youth organises a joint Youth camp- http://
www.foeeurope.org/youngfoee/Youth%20camp%20ESF.html. Activists in
Malmö occupied the street and delivered ginger cakes to passers by on
the international Climate Day 8th of december last year on what in
Sweden is called Klimatkrock, a tradition to block car traffic for a
while and create culture instead - http://green-blog.org/2007/12/10/
climate-walks. During ESF there will be a new Klimatkrock on Friday
19.9. Next day there is the big ESF demo in need of all FoE
creativity to spread our message for environmental justice, a
demonstration that will end with a big party with Kajsa Lindqvist as
speaker, chair of Friends of the Earth Sweden recently arrested for
attempting to sabotage air traffic at the Malmö air port in a protest
against climate change.

The wide range of actions has been possible due to a broad scope of
cooperation partners with Via Campesina as the most crucial one.
Friends of the Earth and Via Campesina Sweden formed an alliance and
started together with Latin American solidarity groups, FIAN and
Finnish cooperation partners on 17th of April a campaign in support
of the landless movement in Southern Brazil struggling against the
Swedish-Finnish forestry corporation Stora Enso using land for
monoculture plantations. This paved the way for alliances organising
common activities during ESF and will hopefully also help in bring
envrionmental and rural issues into the core of next years campaiging
that will be discussed at the Social Movement Assembly at ESF. In
2009 World Social Forum will take place in Belem in Amazonia with
environment as one of its key issues and the action year will end
with the Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

There will also be 300 cultural activities and 250 seminars and
workshops at ESF - http://www.esf2008.org. Friends of the Earth have
been working on all levels, from being active with the cultural
program to supporting a strong Central and Eastern European
participation. A special newspaper will also be distributed to the
participants to promote our vision made by FoE Sweden and Finland.
What has been especially positive is that indigenous people will be
central, by facilitating the inauguration, as speakers in the broad
seminars intitied by FoE of interest for all popular movements and in
a special seminar on Indigenous Peoples and Planetarian Environmental
Justice.

So come to ESF in Malmö. We hope it will promote the greening of ESF
and strengthen our cooperation with peasants, indigenous people and
all other popular movements.


Ellie Cijvat and Tord Björk,

Miljöförbundet Jordens Vänner/Friends of the Earth Sweden





List of seminars, workshops and activities (see also separate file):

Social Movements - Europe and Global:

Popular movement cooperation dialogue,

The global justice movement yesterday, today, tomorrow,

The World Social Forum at Belem and the future of WSF,

Indigenous Peoples and Planetarian Environmental Justice,

The criminalisation and repression of Social Movements,


Food and Agriculture:

Facing the food crisis,

Implementing food sovereignty,

Exploding Food Prices: Root causes, beneficiaries of this situation and
building new alliances for access to healthy food for all,

Agrofuels will not answer climate change or climate justice:
strategy and
action planning,


Climate Change and Energy:

Climate Justice,

Organizing the climate change movement and building alliances,

Climate actions Poznan 2008 and Copenhagen 2009,

EU climate and energy policies, Trade Unions,

Climate Change and Government Action,

Trade and Climate Change: "Free trade" impasse, Fair Trade alternatives,

Radical Social Change against global warming,

Equality, renewable energy and nuclear power,


Economic Justice:

The role of Europe and European TNCs/capital in destroying labour,
social
and environmental rights globally,

Linking campaigns on TNC lobby, Democracy and "Global Europe" to
reclaim the
EU economy,

Degrowth and social rebirth - The logical steps to global survival,

Resistance to dams, motorways and other unsustainable infrastructure -
social and environmental struggle,

Paper and sugarcane monocultures - north & south experiences,

Struggles to defend urban public spaces and open cities in Europe -
Against
speculation,


Other activities:

Cultural programme ŒThe World According to Monsanto¹: film screening and
discussion

Side activity: Youth Camp by Via Campesina and Young Friends of the
Earth Europe, ²Farming a cool planet. Living Alternatives.²



 
Tord Björk

Finlandsgatan 2
291 31 Kristianstad
Sverige/Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)44 12 32 94
Mobile: +46 (0)738 44 68 50
E-mail: tord.bjork at mjv.se