[fse-esf] CEE-ESF mobilisation News 1-2008

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CEE-ESF mobilisation Newsletter

Nr 1-2008

1. NOC ESF-5 mobilising tours to CEE-countries

2. Immanuel Wallerstein goes East

3. 47 000 Euro ready for use in the Solidarity Fund

4. Visa staff for ESF participants

5. Fund raising staff for CEE organisations

6. Global Action Day 26.1 in CEE countries

7. CEE perspectives in WSF strategy

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1. NOC ESF-5 mobilising tours to CEE-countries

There is a need to strengthen the mobilisation efforts for the European
Social Forum in Malmö 17 - 21st of September. The Contact group for Europe
and the World in the Nordic Organizing Committee (NOC) have decided to
initiate two tours, The aim is to meet interested organisations and
movements to inform and exchange experience on issues of importance to those
who want to participate in ESF-5. From Finland Laura Tuominen, board member
of NOC, will coordinate a tour to Estonia and Latvia 8-11.3. From Sweden
Tord Björk, coordinator of the Contact Group for Europe and the World will
visit Czech republic, Hungary and hopefully continue to Slovenia, Croatia,
Slovakia, and Poland on a fast visit 16-21.2 before the European network
meetings and the European preparatory assembly for ESF in Berlin 22-24.2.

The aim of the tours is:

- Getting in contact with a broad range of groups and movements interested
in ESF-5
- Discussing what kind of issues are important for interested participants
from countries visited on the tour and east-west exchange of experience.
- Informing practically about ESF participation both concerning how to
influence the program, webb-pages and the Solidarity fund.
- Discussing how to strengthen the role of CEE in ESF and if possible also
WSF and similar cooperation.
- Informing the media.

For more information: Estonia-Latvia tour; Laura Tuominen,
laura.tuominen at helsinki.fi
Central European tour; Tord Björk, tord.bjork at mjv.se

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2. Immanuel Wallerstein goes East

The well-known US academician and world-system theoríst Immanuel Wallerstein
will participate on the NOC tour to Tallin, the capital of Estonia on the
8th of March. He will speak on the issues of global capitalism and the
future of social forums. Wallerstein is one of the very few that predicted
the downfall of realsocialist regimes in the CEE countries. The venue is
still to be confirmed. For more information, see Estonia-Latvia tour above.

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3. 450 000 SEK, ca. 47 000 Euro ready for use in the Solidarity fund

Two major contributions to the Solidarity fund for travels and other costs
primarily for Central- and Eastern Europe are now granted. From Forum
Syd/SIDA 200 000 SEK (Swedish crowns) and from the general support to ESF
from the Malmö municipality 250 000 SEK, in total 450 000 SEK. This makes it
now possible to plan and pay in advance for supporting collective transports
and other costs for participation from CEE-countries. Further efforts to get
more funding is also on its way. The budget goal for the solidarity fund is
1 million SEK.  

For more information and requests: Tord Björk, tord.bjork at mjv.se, add a copy
also to esf2008 at gmail.com

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4. Visa staff for ESF participants

NOC recently employed Sophie Sermage to take care of visa matters at the
ESF-5 office in Malmö. If you need information, send an email to:
esf2008 at gmail.com

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5. Fund raising for CEE organisations and participation

It is necessary to find all means for funding CEE participation at ESF-5.
Some donors require that organisations in CEE countries apply for the money
for such participation. Francisco Contreras at the NOC office can help
organisations in CEE countries with this task, contact se above.

NOC also call upon everyone in Western Europe with possibilties to
contribute to the Solidarity fund. It was stated at the EPA meeting in
Stockholm that this was an important task. In Denmark and Finland fund
raising efforts are on their way apart frpm Sweden We also need the rest of
Europe to contribute to this prioritised task.

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6. CEE Global Action Day more political than in the West

The Global Action Day was globally a success with more than 800 actions in
80 countries. In Europe according to estimation made by the NOC European
Contact Group with the help of sometimes uncertain information on the
www.wsf2008.org website action was carried out in 25 countries in
approximatly 400 places.

It has been claimed that CEE countries was very weak on this action day. In
numbers of action this is true, only 1 action in 10 took place in CEE
countries. But in number of countries participating CEE is not as weak, 10
out of 25 European countries were CEE countries, Caucasus included.

What may be seen as more interesting was that the CEE actions generally were
more political, and sometimes like in Romania under immediate threat from
right-wing forces and the police. In Czech Republic there was a protest
against the NATO military base project, in Budapest a demonstration against
privatisation of energy and all over Russia from Kalingrad at the Baltic Sea
to Astrachan at the Caspians sea and Sachalin at the Pacific and in Ukraine
to Sevastopol at the Black Sea protests to protect the right of housing and
the freedom of speach. Compared to the actions in the Nordic countries were
almost all actions were not actions but seminars CEE countries have
mobilised better. The fact that actions on the 26th of January were it took
place in the CEE countries addressed pressing issues of concern for common
people in their daily lifes proves that the Global Day of action is a
success. This brings hope for the future.

The challenge is to spread the mobilisation to all CEE and Western European
countries. A complete list of actions that took place in Europe on the
Global day of action 26.12 2008 and the Climate Action Day 8.12 2007 has
been presented by the NOC European Contact group and sent out on the FSE-ESF
mailing list. You can also send for it from the editor of this newsletter:
tord.bjork at mjv.se

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM:  Post-Socialist Europe Unconcerned, Zoltán Dujisin
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40925

"As another crucial civil society event approaches, questions are once more
raised over the almost non-existent participation of civic actors from
post-socialist Europe.

In line with the World Social Forum's new approach of holding several
simultaneous events around the world, many European countries have announced
a myriad of actions for Jan. 26, but east of Germany only Romania and the
Czech Republic are shyly participating in the WSF's Global Action Day.

There is seemingly no simple explanation for this notable absence:
outsiders, authorities, the media and civic actors all seem to be
contributing to the sad state of affairs in central-eastern Europe's
activist scene.

Although the WSF charter of principles has set as one of its goals the
multiplication of social forums around the world, there are voices in
central-eastern Europe that claim this has been discouraged by elements of
the forum itself.

A short-lived attempt at organising a Central and Eastern European Social
Forum (CEESF), which was meant to counter the low representation of the
region in the European Social Forum (ESF) and to bring social movements
closer to the realities of the region, ended abruptly in 2005. As its raison
d'être the CEESF cited specific regional concerns caused by what it calls a
badly managed systemic adaptation to globalisation: the spread of
extreme-right ideas, elite-driven nationalism, the rise in poverty and
unemployment and lack of food security.

"To organise a CEESF you need some financial and moral support, but the
hidden leadership of the ESF blocked our initiative for political reasons,"
Matyas Benyik, head of ATTAC-Hungary and one of the founders of the CEESF
initiative told TerraViva/IPS.
...
The failure of similar events in the region could be attributed to a highly
fragmented scene that lacks a collective identity. This is certainly the
case for the Czechs, according to Marta Kolarova, a researcher at the
Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences in Prague who recently
studied the phenomenon.
...
The actions of many members of the civil society are also being limited by
an excessive dependency on donor-driven programmes, often at the expense of
complying with grassroots demands. These accusations are accentuated in the
post-Soviet regions where NGOs have been entangled in a geo-political
struggle between Russia and the West over the control of Russia's immediate
neighbourhood.

Benyik's assessment of the region's civic movements was harsh: "I would call
them fakes, as a lot of them are part of the old regime and have only
reorganised themselves, while others are just too dependent on donors and
lack any independence."

"NGOs are project-oriented and get funding from big institutions like the
European Union and cannot really protest against them," Kolarova said. "They
are mostly working on projects of a very practical nature and not on larger
issues such as war and globalisation."
(This report was published Jan. 15 by TerraViva, an IPS group publication)

>From CEE 26.1 reports:

Hungary:

"On 25th January 2008 between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. representatives of thirty
CSOs grouping in the Left-wing Hungarian Social Forum held a successful
demonstration against the privatization of the energy sector in the defense
of the consumers, in the heart of Budapest near the Underground (Metro)
Station Batthyany Square. The delegation of the HSF went into the Office of
the Energy Provider at Batthyany square and handed over the demands for the
protection of the energy consumers in Hungary. We distributed flyers
explaining the aim of our action and drawing the attention of passers-by to
the WSF Global Day of Action.
 
Later we have faxed our Petition to the Headquaters of the Energy Provider
(ELMU) claiming not to exclude several hundreds of thousands of our fellow
countrymen from the energy supply. Majority of the big families with small
children, unemployed and pensioners are now unable to pay the high energy
bill, so in the middle of winter season they are cut from the energy.
 
The energy providers in Hungary are seriously violating their obligations to
guarantee the minimum level of supply for the most needy groups of the
society, i.e. abt. 3 millions poor people living under the poverty line
(30% of the Hungarian population)."
 
Matyas Benyik, Left-wing Hungarian Social Forum, President of ATTAC Hungary

Romania:

"the Romanian Social Forum process ­ AER Foundation and AD FSR ­ organized
the European Symposium ŒAnother World is Possible!¹ in Rimnicu-Vilcea as
part of the global chain of actions of the civil society worldwide.

Amongst the participants there were besides the participants already in the
Romanian Social Forum process, a number of Romanian and Bulgarian NGOs,
people involved in the field of sustainable development, teachers and
students, representatives of some local institutions related to environment,
culture, education, and administration, some politicians in personal
capacity, as well as some representatives of the local Media. ...

Nevertheless, the Global Action Day in Romania did not unfold without
encountering obstacles. ...  Different components of the System-Machinery
(the Police, the Secret Services, the neoliberal parties which hold the
Power both locally and nationally, and a nationalistic-xenophobic extremist
political actor) made their move ­ intimidating telephone calls were
received, apparently from the Police, at the school secretariat calling for
the cancellation of the event labeled as a Œdangerous anti-globalization
meeting¹; as if Œby chance¹, similar phone calls were made by elements of
neoliberal parties; infiltrated paid agents of these neoliberal parties
tried spreading rumours at the venue about an imminent arrival of the
Special Forces in black (nicknamed Œthe Masked¹) to storm the building and
evacuate the rooms; some important politicians and representatives of local
administration were Œadvised¹ either not to come to the event or even to
withdraw in the last minute from the venue; the main organizers were
constantly kept under pressure by Œgood-will¹ people who, as if by chance,
were coming around from time to time to Œinform¹ them about such new
anonymous telephone calls and about the necessity of not speaking about
politics, against neoliberalism, or against the government; some
participants were approached and frightened; Petre Damo was repeatedly and
aggressively interrupted during his introductory intervention while
speaking about the WSF process by such an infiltrated agent under the mask
of an environmentalist ....

In spite of the aforementioned obstructions, and others not mentioned here,
the Global Day of Action went on and ended in Rimnicu-Vilcea, Romania,
without open incidents. The participants continued by the program, each of
the two thematic axes coming to an end.

In the ŒCharter¹ section there was a very good, lively, open, and non-formal
debate on the WSF, ESF, and RSF processes, on what neoliberalism really is,
what its tenets are, and how it affects the people worldwide including in
Romania, on what the Charter of Principles for Another Europe is and why the
European Constitutional Treaty ­ both in its rejected form in France and the
Netherlands in 2005 and in its Merkel reloaded variant ­ is not acceptable.
Critical remarks about the globalization process (for example: the
neoliberal move made by the Finish transnational corporation Nokia from
Bochum, Germany to Cluj-Napoca, Romania; the financial hackering
attack conducted against the Romanian national currency beginning with early
January which lead to a sudden and tremendous depreciation of the ŒLeu¹ in
comparison to the ŒEuro¹; etc) and about the economic and political
situation in Romania were made. Participants in the RSF delegations at the
London ESF and Athens ESF informed newcomers about how to get involved, how
to participate, and about seminars. There were discussions about the ESF-5
in Malmö and about how to prepare the RSF participation there. Challenging
questions were raised about how to enlarge the RSF process."

Petre Damo,
President of the Association for the Development of
the Romanian Social Forum ­ AD FSR,
Romanian Social Forum Coordination

Russian Federation:

Actions from Baltic Sea to the Pacific.
Newspapers were distributed with the call for the action by: - Union of
Co-ordinating Councils with information about the antisocial policy of the
Government and about how to protect the ones rights and struggle for social
justice; Social movement «Alternatives» (Alternativy) - «Long live another
world». Actions took place presented frpm West to east:

Kalingrad.
For a real housing self-management! gathering inhabitants of the Condominium
"Soglasie -2" (city block of Sel'ma) against the illegal attempts of the
local authorities to take control of their building.

Saint Petersburg.
Mass meeting at the Finland station, concert, and  theatricalized
presentation. "what can strengthen solidarity and collaboration between
human rights associations, social, trade-unions, housing inhabitants
committees, and other public organizations that are active in Saint
Petersburg, is basic of the ideas of conducting action in the city. At the
present time about the following organizations are members of the St.
Petersburg organization committee for the action on 26 January: Advance
guard of red young people (AKM), "Alternative", the association of
libertarian initiatives, the movement of civil initiatives, DSPA, OO "living
city", the committee of united actions in defense of the social-working
rights of citizens, OO "reliable house", ROO "okhtinskaya arc", council of
the initiative-taking groups of duped co-investors of Saint Petersburg, OD
"Education for all", Russian social-democratic union of young people, the
federation of socialist young people ".
----
Press report: Civil Rights Groups Unite at Protest Event
http://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24840
Sergey Chernov / The St. Petersburg Times

"Twenty five political and social organizations gathered peacefully on
Saturday to protest against Kremlin policies, and those of its ally City
Hall, as well as to ³demonstrate both the autonomy and cooperation of the
members of social movements,² as the Movement for Civil Initiatives (DGI),
the local NGO that coordinated the rally, put it in a statement.

With the motto ³For Civil Rights and Social Justice,² the rally¹s slogans
were ³Rights Are Not Given, Rights Are Taken² and ³Stop the Bear Reforms² (a
bear is the symbol of the Kremlin-backed United Russia party).

Sanctioned by the local authorities, the rally, which drew an estimated 400
participants, was part of the World Social Forum¹s Global Day of Action
campaign, in which many movements around the world took part. The date was
chosen to coincide with the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos,
Switzerland, which closed on Sunday. Such rallies were held in 24 Russian
cities.

Several activists were detained by the police. But although the site of the
protest near the Finland Station was tightly surrounded by OMON special
forces police officers and trucks, detentions were made covertly, before and
after the rally ‹ without the aggressive crowd-control measures taken at an
anti-Gazprom Tower protest earlier this month.

To comply with the Russian Social Forum regulations, political parties could
not act as the rally¹s co-organizers, but could take part via individual
representatives and social organizations. Apart from the liberal party
Yabloko and the Communists, it was mostly representatives of pressure groups
such as the Living City (Zhivoi Gorod), Okhta Bend (Okhtinskaya Duga) and
ZOV (Defend Vasilyevsky Island) who spoke at the rally. Labor was
represented by trade unions from the local Ford Plant and dockers....

While speakers raised objections to Dmitry Medvedev, President Vladimir
Putin¹s declared ³successor² in the upcoming presidential elections, and
criticized the State Duma elections in December as rigged, most speeches
were devoted to local problems, such as the planned Gazprom Tower, or Okhta
Center as it is now officially known, and multiple violations of the city¹s
planning code.

³During the rule of [Governor] Valentina Matviyenko, there have been a lot
of conflicts over in-fill construction; there have been protests, lawsuits
and letters to the prosecutor¹s office,² said Tatyana Kuchurina of DGI.

³It is the same situation with the chopping down of parks and public
gardens: it looks like after a couple more years of the city mistress¹
stormy behavior, there won¹t be a single living bush or tree left.
..
Living City, a group that fights for the preservation of the cultural and
architectural heritage of St. Petersburg, held a performance using
papier-mache models of classical buildings that were attacked by an activist
wearing an ³I Love $Pb² helmet. But his attempts to erect a skyscraper made
of cardboard boxes and destroy the city¹s historical landscape were stopped
by protesters.

Many speakers urged all the groups to unite in their struggle and coordinate
their actions.
...
At Saturday¹s protest event the police¹s attention was drawn to a group of
anarchists and left-wing activists from the newly-formed Association of
Libertarian Initiatives (ALI), who stood shoulder to shoulder wrapped with
banners, some with their faces covered with scarves, and chanted slogans.
Their banner ‹ reading ³The Only Way Is Resistance² ‹ was disapproved of by
a police colonel, who, after an argument with the demonstrators, brought in
a dozen police officers to form a line covering the slogan from public view
with their backs.

³They tried to detain the group of DSPA [the left-wing Pyotr Alekseyev
Resistance Movement, part of ALI], who stood up for radicalism in their
slogans and behavior, but as the organizers we interfered and managed to
prevent the police¹s action against them,² said Yevgeny Kozlov, the chairman
of DGI¹s coordinating board by phone on Monday.

However, an unidentified man was taken away by two policemen as protesters
gathered at the site at about 12.20 p.m. More detentions took place after
the event as protesters headed to the metro. Several activists from Food Not
Bombs, who had been offering free warm boiled buckwheat to protesters at the
rally, were detained in the metro.

³We were carrying a pan with some food left in it, in a bag, and near the
metro we were approached by three plain-clothed men who told us to go with
them ‹ they didn¹t introduce themselves, but it was obvious that they were
from the police,² said Dmitry, a Food Not Bombs activist who asked that his
last name be withheld."
---

Moscow.
Seminar on «Defence of civil and social rights: world experience» and Mass
meeting. We oppose: sealing buildings, housing and utilities reform, squalid
pensions and reduced social benefits. We are for: the preservation of green
areas, residents participate in local governance, respect for labour and
trade union rights.

Moscow Region (Moskovskaya oblast) (cities of Odintsovo, Pushkino,
Lytkarino, Solnechnogorsk, Korolev).
Mass-meetings. An organizer of the mass meetings is Co-ordinating
Council of Committee of salvation.

Yaroslavl.
«Chain of housing solidarity» will take place.

Nizhniy Novgorod.
mass meeting.

Penza.
meeting on the Ploshad Sovietskaya. Organizers are local Communists and
human rights activists.

Saratov.
First action was organized by the local section of the communist party over
the area in front of the Circus. The second meeting took place at
Chernishevsky's Ploshad, organized by the local coalition "people housing
forum" with the possible participation of activists from party "Iabloko" and
journalists, who fight for the freedom of word.

Astrakhan.
January, 28 public conference of activists of Union of habitants.

Grozny
The organization "will save generation" carried out the collection of
signatures under a petition to Deputies of the State Duma RF about the
adoption of law on the inhabitants of the Chechen republic, who became
invalids at the childhood as a result of military actions.
Such people in republic are thousands. Now they are in an extremely
difficult situation. Children are deprived of the possibility to attend
school because the schools don¹t provide conditions for this. Invalids
cannot find work, they cannot independently make purchases, even visit of
polyclinic is for them a serious problem. For many the mine-explosive or
fragmentation injury, obtained in the childhood, deprived them from future.

Ul'yanovsk
The problem of forced military service and the problem of the low quality of
education. Organizer of the action: the "independent student trade union" of
Ul'yanovsk state university.

Kazan
Organizer of protest action - human rights agency "Karabin - Kazan' working
inspection". Joined to the action by: Workers movement RT, Kazan' young
communist organization SKM, duped co-investors (possibly), political
organizations ³Working Russia² and AKM of Kazan, anarchists from "Autonomous
action", the Tatar public center im. Mulyukova, some structures of Communist
party and the committee of the protection of the earth of gardening
comradeship "veteran".

Kirov
Housing Rights Demonstration with difficult negotiations about the agreement
for the meeting with the local authorities. Organizers: Coordination council
of protest actions, the council of hostels inhabitants, communist workers¹
party RKRP, the council of workers and peasants.

Izhevsk.
11.00 conference of protest activists and opposition parties.

Perm.
Procession and mass meeting. Topic - the escalating prices. Organizer:
Coordinating Council protest action.

Kurgan
Massive picket on Ploshad Lenin. Organizer free trade union "Zachita truda"-
Kurgan.

Tyumen.
Meeting for Civil Liberties and Social Justice.

Ishime. 
Meeting for Civil Liberties and Social Justice.

Surgut. 
Organizers: Committee of solidarity actions, worker communist party RKRP and
the free trade unions (against repressions in the oil companies).
Committee of solidarity actions the free trade unions ( worker communist
party RKRP Confirmed Russian Federation Tyumen' trade unions

Omsk.
13.00 mass meeting and procession.

Novosibirsk.
Rally at the central square and a round table with the participation of
social movements. 
 
Irkutsk. 
Informative pickets on Global Day of Mobilisation
and Action and mass meeting. For civil rights and social justice.

Yuzhno-Sahalinsk.
United mass meeting of social movements and opposition parties.: Now the
founders of the temporary Coalition Organizing Committee and its five
organizations: public associations "Civil liability", a human rights center
Sakhalin, the Movement of Pensioners "Conscience", the CPRF and motorists.
Pickets held in the collection of signatures to a message to the President,
the State Duma, the Government, the Federal Assembly and the parliamentary
political parties. In addition, the signatures will be collected and
addressed as motorists on curbing growth in prices of fuel.

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7. CEE perspectives in WSF strategy

The perspectives and experiences from CEE countries seldom is mentioned i
general texts in World Social Forum. But when addressing the Global Day of
Action Candido Grzymbowski from Ibase, one of the founding NGOs of WSF. The
way the Global action day is described by him is very much confirmed by the
way this day was organised in CEE countries and all over Russia, a country
mentioned in this text. Strategically more interesting CEE perspwective is
in the text by Gustave Messiah on the future of WSF. He states that the WSF
process is building on three historic movments, the anticolonial, the
working-calls and the democratic movement that renewed its democratic
imperative after the implosion of socialist regimes and the emergence of
security-based ideologies.

"THE WORLD COULD BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM HOW IT IS TODAY"
Source: IPS @ http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=40864external link

Cândido Grzybowski, director of Ibase (Brazil) and member of the WSF
International Committee, in an interview with IPS's Alejandro Kirk.

What is the main political objective of the Global Day of Action (January
26), and how effective is it likely to be?

"The overall aim of this day of mobilisation is to facilitate a deeper
penetration of the WSF at local level, providing each movement and
organisation with the opportunity to focus on local dynamics and their
relationship with the global process. The initiatives couldn¹t be more
diverse, although they¹re all going to take place on the same date. Each
place, each group and each event will have its particular style, whether it
be a classical type of forum (such as in Barcelona), or a protest march
(Belén in Brazil), a seminar (in Russia) or a cultural-political event (as
in Rio de Janeiro). What¹s important is to show that we¹re united in a
citizens¹ active network ­virtually connected by Internet- and extending to
every part of the world. The effectiveness of the day of action will be
judged from two perspectives. Firstly, as a mobilisation and local identity,
and in this sense I think that the WSF can only be strengthened. Secondly,
in terms of political impact on civil societies, governments and power
structures such as corporations and the mass media, etc., although this last
is more difficult to determine. What¹s important is that the 26 of January
will act as a counterbalance to the World Economic Forum in Davos, which has
already had its self-importance dented."

AFTER NAIROBI, A NEW ROUND OF WORLD SOCIAL FORUMS

Gustave Messiah

"Fifth hypothesis: the alter-globalization movement is a historic movement
with long-term goals. It prolongs and renews the three preceding historic
movements. The historic decolonization movement; from this perspective,
alter-globalization has greatly modified the North-South? representations to
the benefit of a common project. The historic movement encompassing the
working-class struggles; from this perspective, the evolution towards a
global, social and citizen-based movement. The movement encompassing the
struggles for democracy, beginning in the 1960s and '70s; from this
perspective, the renewal of the democratic imperative following the
implosion of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the regressions engendered by
security-based ideologies."

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Yours


Tord Björk

Coordinator, 
Contact group for Europe and the World, Nordic Organizing Committee ESF 2008

Finlandsgatan 2
291 31 Kristianstad
Sverige/Suede/Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)44 12 32 94 (evenings, sometimes am Monday-Tuesday)
E-mail: tord.bjork at mjv.se (best way for contacts)

Nordic Organizing Committee: esf2008 at gmail.com, www.esf2008.org