Főoldal | Legújabb cikkek | Szerzök | Kulcsszavak | Honlap térképe | Privát rész
Főoldal --Tevékenységünk --Beszámolók a VSZF-ESZF-MSZF eseményekről
    - február 6. - Benyik Mátyás - 1665 látogatás

    6. European Social Forum (Istanbul, 2010) prepeparation

    A critical point of view on the Berlin EPA

    In the run-up to the 6th European Social Forum (ESF) to be held between 1st and 4th July 2010 in Istanbul, the latest European Preparatory Assembly (EPA) was organized in Berlin from 29th till 31st January 2010. In the Berlin EPA about 100 people participated mainly from the West, only 6 persons from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Despite the efforts of few Westerners, the CEE countries in the EPAs are marginalized, underrepresented and their voice is hardly heard.

    Is another European Preparatory Assembly (EPA) possible?

    Is another European Preparatory Assembly (EPA) possible?

    Some thoughts on the Berlin EPA

    (Revised version)

    By Matyas Benyik

    In the run-up to the 6th European Social Forum (ESF) to be held between 1st and 4th July 2010 in Istanbul, the latest European Preparatory Assembly (EPA) was organized in Berlin from 29th till 31st January 2010. In the Berlin EPA about 100 people participated mainly from the West, only 6 persons from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Despite the efforts of few Westerners, the CEE countries in the EPAs are marginalized, underrepresented and their voice is hardly heard.

    The low CEE participation is due not only to lack of financial support, but due to the colonial attitude of some Western European (mainly French) participants. The weakest representation of CEE countries can be seen in the Program Working Group, which is practically considered as the „core leadership of ESF” headed by a French lady, nicknamed as the „Queen of EPA/ESF”. In the European Social Forum process, especially in the EPAs we have got our own bourgoisie and proletariat. The leading figures in the process are either big trade union leaders, or party representatives in disguise (I call the latter Trojan Horses). These bourgeois people coming to the EPAs stay in fancy hotels, eat expensive food and never socialize with the local people or with the CEE partcipants. The well-known Centrum-Periphery relationship is quite obvious in the European social forum preparatory process.

    The undemocratic nature of the EPAs has been evident for many years. The first big conflict in the history of the EPAs started right after the second ESF held in Paris, in November 2003. The tensions in the London EPA at the end of December 2003, and early 2004 were culminating between the autonomous organisations (Horizontals) and the „hidden ESF leadership”(Verticals). Later the tensions eased considerably, but never ceased completely. These conflicts have led to the emerging of local social forum network in the UK, in France, in Sweden, which represented the self-organizing alternatives to the centrally planned, authoritarian ESFs.

    The attractiveness of the EPAs for the younger generation has gradually been lost. By today very few new faces show up in the EPAs and the dynamism of the ESFs has broken since the London ESF. A lot of autonomous people, green organisations have left the European social forum process. The endless debates and lack of creativeness of the EPAs make many people feel disgusted. However, the organisers of the ESFs in Athens and in Malmö tried to reverse the negative tendencies and fortunately they suceeded in keeping the autonomous spaces alive. Hopefully, the horizontal, self-organising approach of the ESF in Istanbul will go on.

    In order to stop the negative tendencies in the social forum process some of the Westerners, e.g. comrades from the Austrian Social Forum and from the Nordic countries have made great efforts to enlarge the forum process and to put CEE problems into the limelight. Unfortunately these efforts did not materialize, because neither in the EPA in Diyarbakir, nor in the Programme Group meeting in Paris no substantial representation from the East was realized.

    At the recent Berlin EPA the CEE participants together with some Western friends have made the following proposals:

    1. To set up an open All-European Mobilizing Committee consisting of interested people from East and West which should solve the problems of mobilization in a close co-operation with the Turkish Organizing Committee.

    2. To back up the proposal of the Greek movements to organize a meeting in Thessaloniki for interested people/movements especially from the Balkans at the end of March 2010.

    3. To convince people to join the ESF process, we have to organize a discussion on national and subregional level about alternative ways out of the crises.

    4. To organize a conference for CEE countries in Prague on the 27th of March 2010 to mobilize people to Istanbul under the title Alternative to right wing extremism in a time of Social and Ecological Crisis.

    Final remarks on the Berlin EPA

    The Berlin EPA in a way gave us a slight hope for the more equal treatment of the CEE region during the next European Social Forum in Istanbul, but at the same time it is not promising at all to see and to experience the undemocratic nature of the latest EPA again, at which the non-consensual decision was taken on holding the next Eropean Programme Group meeting in Brussels, instead of Budapest. The venue proposal for Budapest was fiercely attacked by one person of the “hidden leadership”, saying “Budapest cannot organize such a meeting, because Hungarians have no copying machines”. Other opponent said “The social movement in Hungary is split, so no way to hold a meeting there”. These kind of arguments are ridiculous, because the European social movement is split not only in Hungary, but in other places of Europe as well. This episode at the end of the Berlin EPA is a clear proof of the Western dominance of the European social forum process and the negligence of CEE.

    Another shameful thing for the ESF/EPA is the long dragging unresolved problems to reimburse the Babels volunteers’ (the interpreters’) travel and accommodation costs (30,000,- EUR) for Malmö. Most volunteers have small incomes and will not be able to participate in the Forum in Istanbul if they are not first reimbursed. If this problem remains unsolved the interpretation in Istanbul especially for the CEE participants’ languages (Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, etc.) will not be possible and limit them to join the debates. If the delegates of the “leading”organizations (big and smaller trade unions and parties in disguise) of the EPAs had been put up in hostels – instead of staying in fancy hotels - and had eaten cheap food e.g. near the Ostbahnhof, the price differences could have covered the total Babels debt.

    The way out of the present crisis of the European Social Forum lies in the concerted massive mobilization of people that are engaged in struggles against the neoliberal agenda in different parts of Europe, like now in Iceland, Ireland, or Greece. The former different counter summits (anti-EU, anti-G8, anti-NATO) were very successful and are good examples of joining anti-systemic forces.

    Budapest, 8th February, 2010.

    The previous version of this article was sent out to the mailing-lists on 6th February 2010.


Fórum