[fse-esf] Report on Global Action Day in Romania (resent the 4thy time!)

[Peter Damo]

Sorry, it appears that that it is simply impossible to
send photos to the fse-esf lists! I have renounced
attaching the photos because the messages are being
technically blocked since Sunday.


REPORT ON GLOBAL ACTION DAY IN ROMANIA


Following the WSF IC Call for a Global Day of Action,
two organizations in the Romanian Social Forum process
– AER Foundation and AD FSR – organized the European
Symposium ‘Another World is Possible!’ 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.

The participants approached the two thematic axes in
the program as announced previously:
(1)	Climate changes, social-ecological conversion, and
sustainable development;
(2)	The Charter of Principles for Another Europe

The artistic-cultural moment grabbed the attention and
the spirit of the audience cheering them up. A number
of well-known Romanian folk songs by ‘Melodis Group’
of Aiud were lively applauded.

There were over 100 participants from various regions
of the country, plus a number of about 30 students
participating in an environmentalist contest at the
beginning of the symposium.

Nevertheless, the Global Action Day in Romania did not
unfold without encountering obstacles. After an
unusual silence and lack of counter-reaction prior to
the event, the Mutant Capitalist System-Machinery got
finally into action on the 26th of January attempting
to discredit and break the event. 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 ‘dangerous anti-globalization meeting’;
as if ‘by chance’, 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 ‘the Masked’) to
storm the building and evacuate the rooms; some
important politicians and representatives of local
administration were ‘advised’ 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 ‘good-will’ people who, as if by
chance, were coming around from time to time to
‘inform’ 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 – the
other organizers not daring to intervene for they
recognized that it was the counter-action of the
Mutant Capitalist System-Machinery; other subtle and
silent provocations were carried out at the beginning
of the event with the aim of disrupting it; a list of
the people participating in the section ‘Charter of
Principles for Another Europe’ was demanded but the
‘request’ was never granted.

Some conclusions here have to be drawn: 
(1)	First, it is clear that democracy in Romania is
yet far from reality and what the government and the
authorities are displaying worldwide is a mere miming
of democracy. It is not enough to have laws that
apparently are democratic. It is about the true
application of the laws and about the changing of the
mentality of those in Power. It is about allowing the
actors of civil society to express their opinions even
if these are critical of the government;
(2)	Second, there is a serious lack of culture,
particularly of political culture, and of education,
which has been both reinforced and exploited by the
Mutant Capitalist System-Machinery to meet their own
ends;
(3)	Third, it is obvious that there is a neoliberal
trend gaining traction in Romania since December 2004
which is influencing the people and makes the
development of civil society and of social movements
rather difficult.

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 ‘Charter’ 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 ‘Leu’ in
comparison to the ‘Euro’; 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.

Photographs taken at the event have been attached
below. A short film is being also prepared.

In the end we wish to thank the participants who
answered our Invitation for an event in the frame of
the ‘Global Action Day’ in Romania by being there, we
wish to thank the authorities of the venue who made
this event be possible, and to the fellow organizers
who kept carrying out it to the end.



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




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