Home > ’Corporate’ ESF sparks rival conference
Edito Social Forum G7 - G8... UK
by Matthew Tempest
A rival counter-conference to this week’s European Social Forum in London is
being planned to protest at the "hijacking" of the anti-war, global justice event
by mainstream organisations and individuals such as the trade unions and the
mayor of London.
This week’s ESF - the third annual meeting of leftwing and environmental activists
from across Europe - is expected to attract around 20,000 people from across
Europe for three days of debate. It will culminate in a demonstration on Sunday
against the US President, George Bush, and the war in Iraq.
But internal splits, between grassroots activists on one side and key players
and major sponsors on the other, have now broken into the open, with a hardcore
of anarchists and direct action supporters organising a more freeform, rival
conference.
While delegates, who pay a £30 registration fee, will spend Thursday and Friday at the main conference venues of Alexandra Palace and Bloomsbury to debate war, racism and corporate power, the fringe festival - dubbed "Beyond ESF" - will celebrate "self-organised cultures of resistance".
It’s organisers, backed by the small London anarchists’ outfit the Wombles, will meet away from the main conference site, at Middlesex University in Tottenham.
Organisers say the purpose of the alternative conference is because the ESF has been "hijacked by authoritarian organisations such as the SWP [Socialist Workers party] and racist, war-crazy corporate whores Neo Labour [who have] got in on the act through Ken Livingstone and the GLA".
A spokesman for the mayor rejected the accusation that the event had become "corporate", and added that: "The ESF is being held by London, and the mayor is only ’hosting’ a welcome reception."
However, several of the mayor’s team of advisors, including Lee Jaspar, attended the Paris ESF in November 2003 to lobby for the event to come to London.
The Wombles state: "Beyond ESF is radically different from the official ESF. No government sponsorship (GLA and mayor of London) and no political parties. There will be no ’leading activists’, ’big-name speakers’ or entrance fee."
Workshops on ad-busting, shoplifting global brands, defence of the Roma people, opposition to the EU constitution and the history of squatting will be held, culminating in a day of discussion on resisting the forthcoming Gleneagles meeting of the G8 under UK stewardship.
The four main themes are billed as "Autonomy & Struggle", "No Borders & Migration", "Casualisation", and "Social Control & Repression". In addition there will be food, cinema and live musical entertainment each evening.
Splits had already been apparent in the year-long build up to the conference. Ken Livingstone’s team won the right to host the conference at last year’s ESF in Paris, but since then rows have developed behind the scenes between the so-called "horizontals", or non-affiliated groups, and the "verticals", such as the trade unions, the GLA and the Socialist Workers party.
The activists’ news site Indymedia will be covering both the official ESF and the counter-conference. They will be broadcasting an hour-long daily show rounding up the ESF on Resonance 104.4 FM. Some 20,000 copies of an Autonomous Spaces free newspaper have also been published to persuade delegates to the official conference to attend some of the rival events.
On the cultural side, the Rampart squatted art and social space in Whitechapel will be organising film shows, music and workshops, food, internet access, audio & video editing and prop & banner making as well as hosting the "Mobile Carnival Forum" - a double-decker bus making a daily spontaneous trip between venues, and the situationist art-guerrillas the "Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination" will also work out of the squat.
The Guardian is a media partner of the ESF.
Official ESF website:
Beyond ESF agenda:
http://wombles.org.uk/news/article_2004_10_8_5355.php
Laboratory of Insurrection:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1325489,00.html