Europe: build social forums to strengthen anti-capitalist movement
Workers Power Global, London: 9 June 2002

The decision to hold a European Social Forum (ESF) was made at the second World Social Forum, which met in Porto Alegre in Brazil, earlier this year. The ESF will run from 7-10 November in Florence and is supported by a wide range of trade unions, the Social Forums and various parties and far left organisations.

At the first Brussels organising meeting it was agreed that: "The ESF, which is part of the World Social Forum process, has to be a common public space of dialogue, discussion and contamination" (sic) and most definitely, "not a conference, not a movement or congress."

The organisers, particularly Le Monde Diplomatique and Attac, opposed the participation of parties as such, seeking to restrict the status of "official delegates" to NGOs and trade unions, for the reason that these are "social organisations", part of "civil society" and that members of parties should be there as individuals.

This is a reactionary viewpoint, confirming Attac's role as the right-wing of the anti-capitalist movement. Parties and organisations of the left are - as they have long been - legitimate components of the workers' and progressive movements. They have as much right to participate in such events as the self-selected leaders of movements such as Attac.

The ESF's political "point of reference" is the "Call of the Social Movements" issued by Porto Alegre. Something of the pressure of the more radical socialist and populist 60,000 participants made its way into this Call. Despite Attac's expressed dislike about linking the resistance to corporate globalisation to the movement against Bush's "war against terrorism" the Declaration stated:

"There is the beginning of a permanent global war to cement the domination of the US government and its allies. This war reveals another face of neo-liberalism, a face which is brutal and unacceptable. The opposition to the war is at the heart of our movement."

Attac's vice president Susan George argues that the war against terrorism is not the military expression of globalisation and that it would be fatal for the movement to join together with the anti-war movement. Attac's reticence on the war is clearly related to the low level of anti-war mobilisations in France, its original homeland.

The Porto Alegre Call also reflects the pressure of the large and strongly critical delegation which came from Argentina. It declares its solidarity with "the force of 'cacerolazos' and 'piquetes,' popular mobilisations [which] have demanded their basic rights of food, jobs and housing".

It is also imbued with the experience of the Italian movements, such as the Social Forums, radicalised by events in Genoa. It denounces the G8 and the Berlusconi government which, "responded with violence and repression, denouncing as criminals those who dared to protest".

It stigmatises US involvement in the military operations of Plan Colombia, the economic blockades against Cuba and Iraq, the growing repression against trade unions, social movements, and activists. It demands "unconditional cancellation of debt and the reparation of historical, social, and ecological debts". These latter demands go beyond the timid positions of most of the NGOs.

As can be seen from the fact that the Green Party in Britain opposed making the Call the basis for the British ESF mobilising committee this declaration has to be defended from attacks by the right. Some of its statements and most of its calls are defensible as gains by the more militant fighting organisations within the anti-capitalism movement (ACM).

What is wrong with the Call is what it does not contain.

It does not identify capitalism and imperialism as the enemy - merely neo-liberalism. It does not draw any lessons for mass action from the mass demonstrations like Prague, Genoa and Seattle. It does not say how all the demands it raises can be won. Can they be imposed on the existing institutions, the IMF the World Bank - subject to some reforms, as Attac thinks?

Or do they require a complete dismantling and a return to the self-sufficient national strategies of the 1960s as figures like Walden Bello call for? Is a return to small-scale local communities and the abandonment of most international exchange necessary, as the radical populists of the Americas, and the anarchists suggest? Or is the overthrow of global and local capitalism by mass action led by the working class, by international revolution, the only way to "another world"?

The Call of the Social Movements says nothing on all of this. It does not dare to mention anything like the class struggle and "workers" are included only in a list of "social subjects " or "actors" in the post-modernist/post-Marxist jargon so popular amongst intellectuals in France and Italy. In short this is a reformist document. It is one we are obliged to accept as a starting point for the discussions at the ESF but not as limitation on them.

We need to be clear that the spirit of the anti-capitalist movement - as reflected in the militant struggle on the streets of Seattle, Prague, Gothenburg, Melbourne and Genoa - will not permit NGO officials, reformist politicians, or trade union bureaucrats to narrow the agenda down to what they regard as "possible".

Some positive developments have already taken place. The ESF will discuss the question of war as well as neo-liberalism. Also it has been decided that the rigid distinction between "official delegates" and the "fringe" which existed in Porto Alegre will not be followed in Florence.

The "Italian" proposal presented to the organising meetings held in Brussels and Vienna suggests a triple theme: Neo-liberalism and globalisation; war and disarmament; democracy and citizenship. Each day will be structured around large general conferences (2000-3000 people) held in the morning. These will followed in the afternoon by a large number of seminars, campaigns, self-organised workshops. Specific debates will take place in the late afternoon and then cultural events in the evenings.

The more radical forces (Ya Basta, IST) will advance more radical proposals. The SWP in Britain has already proposed discussion of the Argentine assambleas populares, the Italian social forums, the participatory budgets of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT). Indeed Brazil may be a major issue of debate between reformists and revolutionaries if Lula, the candidate of the PT, is elected president in October.

Also Italy itself provides a rich agenda for debate. The struggles of workers like the young FIOM strikers, the anti-war and anti-racist mass mobilisations against Berlusconi, the experience of the social centres and Ya Basta! will all provide an impetus to radicalism.

However, despite their support for a more radical agenda, the SWP have shown no appetite for open or sharp criticism of the reformists and the NGOs. They are strongly opposed to any polarisation of the movement - fearing it will lead to a "premature" split.

This is a wrong approach, since the question will not be a "split" in any immediate organisational sense. And besides, polarisation already exists - and is manifest on every international demo that takes place when the reformists queue up to denounce the "violence" of the revolutionaries, the anarchists and the militants who prepared to take on the riot cops rather than lobby the big-wigs.

Florence will be a battle - a political battle - to win support from the militant workers and youth. They will be presented with all shades of reformism at the ESF. If revolutionaries do not openly and boldly present an alternative then reformism will gain ground.

The mobilisation for the ESF is an enormous opportunity to raise questions rarely discussed in the bureaucratised national labour movements, to meet and confront reformist ideas. In addition it is an opportunity to make sure that the radicalised young people, who formed the overwhelming majority of the mobilisations from Seattle to Seville, do not get sidelined by the academics and the MPs. We urge all our readers to make plans to go. Get in touch with us and be part of the revolutionary anti-capitalists in Florence.

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