Social Forum minutes + Next Meeting

Social Forum minutes + Next Meeting

Dublin Social Forum Working Group

Minutes of a meeting held on Thursday 29th January 2004 @ 7.30pm in the
Comhlámh office, 10 Upper Camden St., Dublin 2.

[ NEXT FULL MEETING: Thur. 5th Feb. 2004, omhlámh offices, 10 Upper Camden St., Dublin 8]

Present: Barry Finnegan (ATTAC), Brendan Young (DAPSE, Alliance for
Choice),
Clare Butler (Gluaiseacht, Green Party), Clare Lee, Mark Grehan
(Residents
Against Racism, Sinn Fein, DAPSE), Mary Kinane (Comhlámh Trade Group),
Paul
Kinsella (CPSU, Workers Party), Niav Keating, Seoidin O?Sullivan
(Comhlámh),
Deirdre de Burca (Green Party, DAPSE)
Chairperson: Barry Finnegan
Minute-taker: Mary Kinane

1. Introduction
As this was the first meeting since the break, Barry gave an update of
what has been happening over the past couple of months. In November
there
was an ISF facilitated report back meeting from the European Social
Forum
meeting in Paris. At this meeting, it was agreed to look at having a
second
ISF summit March/April in Dublin to coincide with the Irish EU
Presidency
and to centre the summit on the theme of the EU Constitution. It was
felt
that the constitution will impact a lot of the issues of interest to
groups
around Ireland and that a summit could facilitate groups hosting
workshops
on the various issues. People from the regional social forums were
contacted
and they were in agreement with going ahead with a second summit. In
addition,
the Southeast Social Forum is having an event to coincide with the EU
Environment
ministers? meeting in May in Waterford. The Cork Social Forum is also
hosting
an event with stalls and stands, etc. some time at the end of March.
The
Another Europe is Possible group is also thinking of running workshops
and
a protest at the time of the EU Finance ministers? meeting.

2. Feedback and Reports from the ISF Co-operation and Solidarity Summit
After the summit, the plan was to get opinions, feedback and reports
from
each workshop (60 word summary) and to update the website and/or print
this
in a published format. Groups were contacted; some feedback has come in
while other workshops still have not been covered. It was agreed to go
ahead
with putting the feedback we have onto the website. It was agreed to
set
a deadline for updating the website to two weeks from now (Feb 12th).
Barry
will contact the previous person who updated the website. If there are
any
problems, Mary will try to get someone else. There is also an issue
with
the ISF website in that it is currently sharing a site. It was proposed
to pay to have our own ?space? for the website. This would cost about
?200.
This was debated and in the end, a compromise was reached. It was
agreed
that we would pay now to have our own website and that we would also
hold
a fundraiser in the near future to make up the finds.

3. Second Irish Social Forum Summit
Dates were looked at for planning a second summit. It was agreed to
set
the weekend of April 17th/18th as the provisional dates subject to the
availability
of a suitable venue. If this weekend did not suit, a later date would
be
chosen. The group discussed possible venues and took on to check out
the
following by next Thursday?s meeting:
 Barry: Findlaters Church, ATGWU
 Brendan: Teachers? Club (through John Meehan), Liberty Hall
 Mary: Kimmage Development Studies Centre, DIT Bolton St. (through
Duncan Crowley)
 Mark: Trinity, Taylor?s Hall, DCU
 Seoidin: Sustainable Ireland Centre
 Clare: Mother Redcaps

The group then discussed the subject matter of the summit and the
following
themes were suggested:
 Militarization
 Fortress Europe
 International Trade and Developing Countries
 Liberalisation and Public Services
 Social Rights and Civil Liberties
 Environment

There was some general discussion around the format of the summit. It
was
agreed to hold the event over Saturday and Sunday and to leave out
Friday
night. There was preference for having a plenary session on in the
morning
which would give the relevant information on the themes of the
constitution
(three themes Saturday, three on Sunday) and the workshops which
related
to the morning topics would be held in the afternoons. These details
have
yet to be fully worked out. The group did a quick brainstorm of the key
pieces of work that need to be carried out before the event and these
are
as follows:
- Venue ? Outreach ? Website ? PR/media strategy ? an ISF account ?
Fundraising
? Programmes ? Accommodation/meeting point before event

Mary will contact previous outreach people to see if they can get on
board
again.

4. Finances Update
As the ISF does not have its own account, Clare Butler will look into
the
requirements for setting up a credit union account. Mary will contact
Mark
O?Connor to get an update on the finance figures.

5. May Day
Clare Butler announced that on Feb 7th at 3pm in the Teachers? Club,
Grassroots
Gathering is having a meeting to organise a strategy around a May Day
event.

6. A.O.B.
It was noted that people have already been attending preparatory
meetings
in London for next year?s ESF. Barry will contact the ESF steering
committee
to get information and agendas for preparatory meetings for the DSF
working
group with a view to possibly sending a delegation. The group?s next
meeting
will be held Thursday Feb 5th at 7.30pm in Piseog Camden St and the
agenda
will be venues and finances. There will be a full meeting the following
Thursday in Comhlámh. Brendan gave an update on EU Constitution
developments
including the call by the European Parliament for decisions to continue
to be taken unanimously on cultural and audio-visual services.

To find out all about the Irish Social Forum see:
http://www.IrishSocialFroum.org