[fse-esf] Report ESF-CEE mobilisation tour

[Tord Bj ö rk]

Report on CEE-ESF mobilisation tour February 2008
 
 
A mobilisation tour 16-21.2 to Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia,
Slovakia and Poland was initiated by the Nordic Organizing Committee for
European Social Forum 2008 on request especially from Hungarian Social
Forum. The purpose was to listen to political and practical views on ESF and
Central and Eastern European participation and inform about the ESF-5
process so far. 
 
In total 19 appointments were made during the trip. Out of these were 4
interviews with media, a daily in Prague and Budapest and a net magazine and
radio station in Zagreb. In total more than 100 persons participated at the
meetings with different organisations. The cathegories of organisations and
networks hosting meetings about ESF can be described in three main groups.
One is broad national networks engaged in campaigning against neoliberal
policies from different ideological backgrounds. Another is national
networks engaged in campaigning against both neoliberal policies, racism,
right-wing extremism, and against war. A third cathegory is different
movements like environmentalists, popular education, migrant activists,
antiracists, and feminists.
 
An assessment of the situation in these Central and Eastern European
countries can only be very superficial from the impressions on such a short
trip. With this in mind some general remarks will anyway be done. The
fragmentation of the movements at a subjective level is high. Most movements
are declining compared to the optimistic times twenty years ago. The
interest in seeking common interest for the whole CEE-region has also
declined siginificantly. Today many speak more about emphasising subregional
cooperation like the Balkans, CIS-countries or the Visegrad-4 (Czech
Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland). The interest in participating in
European Social Forum have also declined, significantly among movements not
defining themselves as radical left, especially after the London ESF 2004.
The general development of civil society has been towards a radical cleavage
between top-level professionalised NGOs and more socially oriented
associations and movements with some environmental organisations as among
the few organisations that still maintained both activist culture and
capacity to represent civil society professionally  In the Visegrad
countries the right-wing forces had a strong impact on society and left-wing
organisations were under strong pressure.
 
Despite these tendencies the interest during the mobilisation tour was
wide-spread among very different kind of organisations as if the message
from the Nordic organising committee and EPA to prioritise new groups and
CEE countries was of interest and appealed to different movements. A key
factor in widening the constituency to new groups was the possibility to use
the Friends of the Earth network. The tour was organised by the coordinator
of the NOC European contact group who also could rely on his capacity as
representing Friends of the Earth Sweden with old ties to CEE envrionmental
movements from the 1980s and the European participation in the UN Conference
on Environmental and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
 
Despite the weakenesses of the movement there were signs of objective
strength. In almost all countries mass mobilisations had taken place
recently against privatisation or militarisation. In Hungary 400 000 signed
a petition against privatisation of health insurance system, in Slovenia 75
000 signed similar protests, in Croatia 4 000 demonstrated in Zagreb against
privatisation of a public square, a demand that afterwards was supported by
the Catholic church, and in Czech Republic mobilisation takes place against
the proposed NATO radar installation. How these different struggles can be
representated and strengthened by participation in the ESF-5 is a challenge
to all European movements.
 
The rest you can read in the enclosed word file


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

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