[fse-esf] Impressions from Malmo

[Yannis Almpanis]

Impressions from Malmo

Last
weekend I visited Malmo after an invitation of the Nordic Organizing Committee
(the Nordics wanted a presentation of the 4th ESF experience).  The following are some personal impressions that
you might find interesting.

1 The Nordic Organizing Committee has already
made a considerable progress in the 5th ESF preparation.  Almost all the venues for the seminars are
booked. Everything is in the center of the city. The main venue is a very
beautiful central park which contains some rooms that will host seminars. On
the contrary, the schools that are going to be used for the solidarity accommodation
are not defined yet. Besides the venues, the Organizing Committee has just
opened its new offices in Malmo. A number of persons, who are very much
involved in the process, have already moved to the city. It seems that local
actors as well are more and more getting involved in the process. 

2.  The
Nordic Organizing Committee seems to be coherent and effective. It should also
be underlined that many young people (19-30) work hard for the process. Some
disagreements due to different political cultures are normal and can be easily
resolved.

3.  There
is also progress in the enlargement to Eastern Europe. This is a main
priority for the Nordics and they are working well. Nevertheless, ESF credibility
to Eastern activists is threatened by the fact that in Berlin many people were not
refunded for their travel expenses. Furthermore, I have the feeling that the
Nordics should work more on the concept of autonomous and thematic spaces in
order to attract people who have not participated until now in the ESF or might
disagree in a certain degree with Porto Alegre charter. I also hope that the
Zapatistas will accept this time the Nordic invitation because in Athens they
didn’t.

4.  The
biggest problem for the moment is that the website is not ready yet. During my
presence in Malmo, I got the feeling that the website is not gong to be ready
in the next 10 days (of course my feeling can be wrong). The website is fundamental
both for the program and the enlargement process. In case the problems are not
resolved in time, we should reconsider the dates of the next program group
meeting.

5. Having discussed with many people in Malmo I understood
that the biggest social problem for the Swedish  is the demolition of their famous welfare state
by the right wing government. I was really impressed by the fact that last year
the Swedish trade unions lost more members than any other year since 1909. It
is evident that if the ESF (and especially the Saturday’s demonstration) could
be linked to the struggles against neoliberal reforms, we would achieve a great
mobilization.

 

11/3/08 Yannis Almpanis Network for Political
and Social Rights- Greek Social Forum


_________________________________________________________________
Nouveau ! Créez votre profil Messenger !
http://home.services.spaces.live.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.fse-esf.org/pipermail/fse-esf/attachments/20080311/fe516d51/attachment.htm