European Social Forum Meeting in Belfast

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday August 21, 2002 16:12 by Dan Buckley - Globalise Resistance grbelfast at hotmail dot com Belfast

Meeting called to organise unions, NGOs and other groups to mobilise for the ESF @ 8pm thursday 22nd of august at the Catalyst arts Centre

This letter was sent out to invite groups to join globalise resistance in building for the european social forum.

14th August 2002

Dear Friend

I am writing to invite you to a very important meeting that will take place on 22 August 2002. The meeting takes place in Catalyst Arts, Donegall Street @7pm. This invitation is going out to NGO groups, Trade Unions, Community Networks, women’s groups etc in the Belfast area.

The meeting is designed to discuss the largest possible mobilisation for the European Social Forum from Northern Ireland.

The European Social Forum will take place in Florence from 7-10 November 2002. It is designed to bring together Trade Unionists, NGOs, activists and environmentalists from all over Europe to discuss strategies for campaigning for and winning the sort of policies and indeed world necessary for alleviating the burden of misery, poverty, exclusion, war and inequality that we are increasingly seeing in Europe and around the globe.

In 2001 the first World Social Forum was held in Brazil to challenge the ideas and policies of the rich and powerful meeting in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. This year the World Social Forum mobilised 70,000 people from all walks of life who challenged – on the evidence that human needs are not being met - the current ideology that free market policies and increased privatisation will lead to greater wealth for the majority of people. It raised issues around racism, refugees, poverty, unemployment, world debt, militarism and environmental destruction as some of the major concerns affecting the world today.

Out of Porte Allegre came the call for a European Social Forum. The ESF aims to operate in an inclusive way by being open, all embracing and transparent without having bureaucracies and hierarchies and strives for agreement through consensus. It will likely be one of the biggest conferences of our time to genuinely discuss people-first strategies.

The European Social Forum is a product of the growing discontentment with privatisation, war and racism. It has developed from the protests like that seen last July, when 300,000 people protested outside the G8 summit in Genoa, in December 100,000 trade unionists marched outside the EU summit in Brussels. As well as that, in March 500,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona against capital and war. In the same month 3 million Italians demonstrated in Rome against Berlusconi and in support of labour rights.

Resistance to war has also brought 100,000+ in Britain and 3,000+ in Ireland on demonstrations against the war and for Palestinian rights. In the North there is increased pressure on the Assembly against PFI and huge strikes against sectarianism. Combined with this there have been organised contingents of trade unionists and activists on all the major European mobilisations. In Belfast over the past year we have also seen protests against the use of sweatshop labour, poverty and the ongoing war.

It is truly impossible to accurately predict what will happen between now and November. Yet it is likely that the US will declare war on Iraq and that the Palestinians will continue to live under curfew and poverty. We will certainly be facing the continued drive to privatisation of services, the continued attacks on workers rights, anti-refugee racism and the destruction of our environment. All of these issues make compelling the argument to build a healthy representation from Northern Ireland to take part in the discussions that seek to alleviate these miseries from our lives.

Although activists in Globalise Resistance are organising this initial meeting, it is hoped that we can set up a collective of groups, organisations and individuals who will play a role in organising the contingent from Northern Ireland.

Therefore I hope that your organisation can send a representative to this initial organising meeting, and play a part in ensuring that we get a big mobilisation from here. We can also discuss whether or not there are particular issues that we would like to see raised at this conference.

Yours fraternally

Dan Buckley

07762363147