Laurent Fraisse
Following the previous events in Florence
and Paris, the third European Social
Forum was held in London
from 14 to 17 October 2004.
Obviously, it is always difficult to assess
an event when you have only participated
in one small part of it. However, the general
reaction is mixed to say the least, and
the prevailing feeling is that the Social
Forum formula needs renewing if
we want the alter-globalization movement
to bear fruit.
The London event
posed a considerable challenge, since the
Anglo-Saxon world is generally underrepresented
in the Social Forums, and in comparison with
France and Brazil, the alter-globalization
movement does not hold much influence in the
English public arena.
With around 20,000 delegates, participation
was down from Florence and Paris, partially
due to the cost of registration and accommodation
in one of the most expensive cities in the
world; it was also a result of the difficulty
of the English coalition, dominated by Socialist
Workers Party militants and the anti-war movement
Globalise Resistance, in widening the base
of movements to take into account their ideological
diversity and mechanisms for taking action.
To take only the social and solidarity-based
economy as an example, the English cooperative
movement only agreed to participate and intervene
in the ESF at the last minute.
Aside from a drop in numbers, several delegates
returned with the feeling that the London
ESF did not have enough impact on English
society. Media coverage of the event was poor
compared to coverage generated by the Paris-St
Denis ESF. The impact on the English political
class seemed marginal, despite the financial
and logistical support of the Mayor of London,
Ken Livingston. More generally, the average
Londoner did not know that the European alter-globalization
movement was holding a major event in the
capital.
In terms of the social and solidarity-based
economy, four seminars were organised on solidarity
finance, social movements, sustainable development
and economic alternatives, allowing participations
to further develop discussions begun in Florence
and Paris. I will limit myself to talking
briefly about the seminar co-organised by
the Movement for the Solidarity-based Economy
and the Ile-de-France production cooperatives
on the democratisation of the economy. Born
of a networking action within the alter-globalization
movement, the debate was aimed at decompartmentalising
movements and bringing together the viewpoints
of unionists, alter-globalization partisans
and ecologist militants with the positions
adopted by social and solidarity-based economy
actors. The debate was fruitful and animated.
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Laurent Fraisse
http://www.socioeco.org/en/contact.php#LaurentFraisse
