Samstag, 27. Februar 2010
EPA Protokoll - Januar 2010 Berlin
EPA Protokolle - November 2009 Paris
- Program Process
- Assembly of Assemblies
- Thematic Spaces
- Big Events \ Plenaries
- A day or timeslot for Regional issues
- OPENESF – Websites
- 15th of December, Starting of Seminar Proposals
- 15th of March Starting of the Voulntary Merging
- 25th of April End of Voluntary Merging
- 11-12-13rd of May Program Working Group meeting in Istanbul – Finalization of the Program Proposal by European Program Working Group
- 14-15-16th of May Last EPA in Istanbul – Finalization Of the Program
EPA Protocol - november 2009 paris
Notes from European Program Working Group meeting in Paris – 21.11.2009
20 people joined the meeting from; No-Vox, LDH,COBAS, ISF/Czechia, ACTIT, BEKSAV, Social
Forum of Turkey, AEDH, CARITAS, ESF Activist News Agency, Greek Social Forum,
Transform,Attac, Belgian Social Forum, FSU, Aitec/IPAM
Agenda
- Program Process
- Assembly of Assemblies
- Thematic Spaces
- Big Events \ Plenaries
- A day or timeslot for Regional issues
- OPENESF – Websites
Program Process:
French Commmittee's proposal to use networks and thematic groups to formulate the program together with the traditional way of getting proposals for activities was accepted with general concensus. It is important to note that that the French position is really not impeeding the groups outside of the networks to have their activities. But using networks/thematic groups to build the program on collective proposals. And starting with the Berlin EPA, different thematics groups (networks) will try to formulate their proposals on that theme.
Calendar of Program Process:
- 15th of December, Starting of Seminar Proposals
- 15th of March Starting of the Voulntary Merging
- 25th of April End of Voluntary Merging
- 11-12-13rd of May Program Working Group meeting in Istanbul – Finalization of the Program Proposal by European Program Working Group
- 14-15-16th of May Last EPA in Istanbul – Finalization Of the Program
It is important to finalize the program as early as possible in order to publiticize the ESF 2010. Each organization can propose at most 3 activities and each network can propose at most 5 activities. Social Forum of Turkey will declare the exact number of the rooms and their prices in the Berlin EPA.
Assembly of Assemblies:
On the last day of the Forum (Sunday) there will be first Thematic Assemblies and after that there will be an Assembly of Assemblies. In that case, there won't be a need to have a Social Movements Assembly. It will be a good idea to use existing and newly formed networks for Thematic Assemblies. But also some other groups can propose Thematic Assemblies. Proposals for Thematic Assemblies will be merged too.
Thematic Spaces:
As a place to meet with other activists who are working on the same issues and create a visibility to certain themes, Thematic Spaces are very important. Organizing Committee of Turkey will come to the Berlin EPA with a concrete proposal on how much places there are for Thematic Spaces and how much will be the cost for Thematic Spaces.
Big Events:
Opening session will be a big event which will give the Forum visibility. And also there will be some concerts, cultural activities etc. But Social Forum of Turkey also proposed to have very limited numbers of plenaires in Istanbul ESF with notable speakers in order to boost the participation. There was an opposition to this proposal. Social Forum of Turkey will prepare a more concrete proposal about plenaries to Berlin EPA.
A day on Regional issues:
There was a proposal about a day on regional problems, one day before the ESF 2010. But since there will be World March of Women Assembly and March, one day before the ESF, we won''t be able to have a day before the ESF. Social Forum of Turkey will discuss this issue and if there is a need for a timeslot for regional issues, half of the First day can be used for this or some other time slot.
OPENESF:
Openesf is an important tool to collobaratively prepare the activities fo ESF 2010 and for following the work after the ESF. And right now it has a cost of around 400 Euros per month which need to be paid if we want to go on using this tool. It is up to the Social Forum of Turkey to decide if they want to use this tool or something else etc.
Mittwoch, 24. Februar 2010
ESF-Mobilisation
At the last preparing meeting of ESF 2010 in berlin people founded a mobilisation group. The members of the group come from the following organisations/movements/countries:
- ISF Czechia
- Romanian Social Forum
- Berlin Social Forum
- Alternativy
- CADTM
- Greek Social Forum
- HSF
- Groupe Francais et Internatıonal Education Nouvelli
- ESF Activist News Agency
- TAREM TSF
- Friends of the Earth Sweden
- ASF
- Euromarch/Germany
- Belgian Social Forum
If you have any questions and/or you search for contact to the group and/or a special organisation/movement out of the group, please don`t hestitate do contact us: esf.istanbul[at]gmail.com.
ESF-Mobilisierung
- ISF Czechia
- Romanian Social Forum
- Berlin Social Forum
- Alternativy
- CADTM
- Greek Social Forum
- HSF
- Groupe Francais et Internatıonal Education Nouvelli
- ESF Activist News Agency
- TAREM TSF
- Friends of the Earth Sweden
- ASF
- Euromarch/Germany
- Belgian Social Forum
Donnerstag, 11. Februar 2010
Newsletter - 01/2010
ESF EPA Newsletter: Berlin 29th- 31st January 2010 (written by Mariangela Casalucci and Giovanna Fassetta, January 2010)
The next meeting of the EPA and the program group
Next EPA will be in Istanbul from the 21st to the 23rd of May. On Friday the 21st there will be a meeting of the Program Group which is going to last all day in order to finalize the work started in the preparatory meeting.
The preparatory meeting of the Program group is going to take place in Brussels from the 7th to the 9th of May and will prepare a merging proposal for all the activities/ seminars/ assemblies of the next European Social Forum (ESF) which is going to take place in Istanbul from the 1st to the 4th of July.
Minutes from Berlin
Friday 28th of January (network meetings) The reports will be shortly sent to the list
Saturday 29th of January:
The agenda was changed in order to give more time for the climate change debate and the CEE participation to the forum (Saturday) and to include an hour debate on Babel (Sunday).
Turkey's OC report and information about the next European Social Forum in Istanbul
Website:
sosyalforum.org is the website of the Turkey Social Forum with information about the next ESF in Istanbul. It is mostly in Turkish but there is some information in English too.
On the 10th of february the ESF website will be ready and therefore it will be possible to start to submit proposasl. The address will be sent to the list by the Turkish OC.
Program of ESF in Istanbul:
30th of June European day of action - organized by the Women World March
ESF
Opening times and slots:
1st July Thursday 9.00 – 12.00; 14.00-17.00; 17.30 – 20.30
2nd July Friday 9.00 – 12.00 ; 14.00-17.00 ; 17.30 – 20.30
3rd Of July Saturday 9.00 – 12.00; 13.00 – 15.30; 18.00: Demonstration.
4th of July Sunday 10.00 – 13.00 Thematic Assemblies ; 15.00 -18.00 Assembly of Assemblies
Opening:
On the morning of the first day there will be an opening session. Speakers and details of the opening session will be defined at the Istanbul Preparatory Assembly in May.
Demonstration:
The demonstration will be held on Staurday at 18.00, in Taksim square.
Rooms:
| Max. capacity (people) | Number of rooms available: |
| 2000 | 1 |
| 750 | 1 |
| 600 | 1 |
| 350 | 2 |
| 250 | 5 |
| 200 | 1 |
| 150 | 3 |
| 100 | 4 |
| 50-100 | 12 |
In total there are 30 rooms, which, in the 8 time-slots, can host 240 activities.
Seminar Fees:
Seminar fees for the different size rooms are as follows:
| Size | Fee |
| 2000 | 3000 euro |
| 1000 | 1500 euro |
| 750 | 1100 euro |
| 600 | 900 euro |
| 350 | 525 euro |
| 250 | 375 euro |
| 150 | 225 euro |
| 100 | 150 euro |
| 50-100 (workshop)
| 75 euro |
Normal: 30 Euro
Youth (under 22 years), unemployed or retired, Regular fee for CEE-countries: 15 Euros
Youth (under 22), unemployed or retired from CEE-countries: 10 Euro
Participants from Turkey: no fee
Participation fee for organizations: 250 Euros
Stands and stalls:
100 Euro for informational stalls of ESF participants.
250 Euro for commercial stalls (there will be a limitation on commercial stalls, only the stalls of publishing houses, CDs and T-Shirts will be allowed)
There will be a working group inside Social Forum of Turkey, which will take care of the organizaiton of stalls. This working group will decide which commercial stalls will be allowed.
Thematic Spaces:
Applications for Thematic Spaces will be taken through the mailing list. The cost of the Thematic Spaces will be 500 Euros for 20 square meters.
Calendar:
10th February: website to submit proposals for workshops, seminars, activities will be available 15th of March final deadline for proposals submission on the web. Merging process will run until the end of April in order to lower the number of the meeting, avoid repetitions and merge proposals together.
Practical Issues:
Visa: None of the people of European countries need a Visa to visit Turkey but citizens of some non-European countries will need a Visa. And Visa process for Turkey citizens of some countries are very long (it can even take months). Those who will need a Visa invitation should send their passport information to the following email address: esfvisainvitation@gmail.com
Solidarity Fund:
Because of both environmental and financial reasons, priority access to the solidarity fund will be given to those who travel as group by bus or train from neighbouring countries. A European working group in order to look for new funding resources for solidarity fund is suggested as a very useful contribution.
Proposals from the program group and from the people meeting in the EPA in Berlin to be taken in consideration in the next program group and decided in the next EPA
- Role of the European assemblies: thematic assemblies, assembly of social movements, assembly of the assemblies, final assembly. It was stressed that the Final Assembly has to collect proposals from networks activities, thematic assemblies and people participating in the Esf,. The aim is to give visibility to the social forum and to prepare the call for the actions taking place in Europe. In the course of the next EPA, a decision will be taken on whether the conclusive meeting of the next ESF will be a Final assembly, the Assembly of the Assemblies or the Assembly of social movements.
- How do we prepare the “final assembly”? Meetings will have to be organized during the ESF in order to collect proposals but they have to be clearly indicated in the program to allow all those who are interested to take part.
- Big event, plenaries : they are to be decided in a open and transparent way. Suggestions were made on the following: Kurdish issue, alternatives to crisis, democracy, economy, Lisbon treaty, the debt, economic crisis (which needs to have two people from each country present - both Eastern and Western European to allow for positive discrimination), poverty, climate change.
- There was a call for Culture events coordination. The aim is to have cultural events with messages, exhibitions, theatre, performances, music, etc.
- It is important to have cross cutting and thematic spaces in the forum in order to show materials/ videos/ have meetings. …….
- It was suggested to think about the No participation fee for local people
- It was suggested to start an European budget in order to ensure some fundamental tools for the ESF process (e.g. web tools and Babel)
published in http://www.sosyalforum.org/images/bulten/esf_newsletter_2.pdf
- 1-Economic and social crises: Resistance and alternatives
- -crises or failure of capitalism?
- -Specificities and similarities of the crisis in CEE
- -solidarity versus competition
- -labour struggles against dismissals, closures and against precarity
- - Is a fair international financial system possible?
- -how to link struggles for rights with alternatives?
- 2-Social Rights for Social Europe
- -common goods and public services for all
- -a new welfare model against the ongoing destruction
- -housing rights and resistance against forced evictions
- -basic income and minimum wage
- -labour and trade union rights
- 3-What kind of democracy? Promoting civil and political liberties
- -against racist securitarian policies and anti-terror laws
- -disappearances in custody and jail, isolation, prisons
- -the rise of the far right and authoritarian policies
- -which EU construction? Who decides?
- -Democracy and civil rights in CEE and Russia
- 4-In defence of the rights of oppressed nations and minorities
- -A peaceful, just and democratic solution to the Kurdish question
- -For a democratic construction of Europe based on the respect of its diversity and the self governance and participation of the populations of all levels
- 5- Against fortress Europe:
- -Full rights for Migrants and refugees
- -Equal social and political rights
- -Right to free movement of people
- 6-Equality versus discrimination. Feminist alternatives facing the global crisis.
- -opposing patriarchal system
- -struggles against violence on women
- -sexual diversity, civil rights for LGBTT
- 7-Save the planet: Building a sustainable world
- -overcoming the ecological crisis: How to link struggles for a sustainable environment and social justice
- -food sovereignty based on peasant’s rights and land access
- -access to water and safe energy for all
- -against unsustainable production, distribution and consumption.
- 8-Peace versus war, militarism, occupations
- -The struggle to stop occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere
- - Militarist policies in Europe
- -disarmament is necessary, how can we achieve it?
- -stop nuclear armament, military bases and missile shield projects
- -Responsibility of EU in the implementation of international law to achieve justice and peace in Middle East
- -Struggles of European movements for a just and peaceful solution for Palestine
- 9-Youth - the right to education, work and a future
- 10-Democratising knowledge, education and culture; creating alternatives
- -Privatization and commodification of Education: The Lisbon Strategy
- -Which content and which methodologies for which goals
- -Life-long learning, vocational learning
- -Culture, science and democracy
- 11- Mass media and power relations: Defending the freedom of expression and democratising information
- -against censorship
- 12 -Europe and the world: Cooperation and development based on solidarity versus domination and neo-colonialism
- -Free trade as a means of domination
- -For a democratic international framework
- 13-The state and future of global justice movement
Proposals from the CEE participation debate
- In order to join efforts to mobilize more movements and people from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and from Western Europe towards the ESF in Istanbul, we propose to set up an open Mobilizing Committee consisting of interested people from Eastern and Western countries. They should solve the problems of mobilization in close co-operation with the Turkish Organizing Committee.
- We 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.
- In order to convince people to join the ESF process, we have to organize a discussion on national and sub regional level about alternative exits from the crisis. We have to open such thematic spaces on Facebook.
- We agreed to organize a conference for CEE countries in Prague on the 27th of March to mobilize people towards Istanbul on a specific issue which is felt of utmost importance for Eastern Europeans (e.g. pauperization, unemployment, neo-Nazism) under the title Alternative to RWE in the Time of the Social and Ecological Crisis. Possible sources of support were identified: Trialog Vienna, Austrian Aid, euro-parliamentarians,
- Participants in the meeting took up concrete responsibilities to initiate the mobilizing processes in countries from where no participants from were present at this EPA.
- There will be a Skype chat conference on this issue on the 24th of February at 5 pm (CET) lead by leogabriel3 (lgabriel[at]gmx.net)
Climate change debate
The Climate Summit in Copenhagen showed again that we shouldn’t hope for any UN process, for any reasonability or responsibility of the ruling in the global North.
The 2°C ceiling in the dubious final document of the Climate summit is the reflection of neo-colonial policies. In 2005 the European Union decided 2°C as the maximum acceptable average global warming by 2100 compared with the pre-industrialised level as a guideline for their climate policy. This was progressive in relation to the US positions. These 2°C were accepted by more and more countries. But 2°C average global warming could also mean that the climate would “tip over” with biodiversity shrinking further. A 2°C average global warming and a prevented “climate tipping” would mean that more and more islands would disappear, 20 – 30% fresh water loss in the Mediterranean region and in the Southern Africa, a drastic decline of the harvest in the tropics which would reach 5-10% in Africa. A 2°C average global warming would mean that 40-60 million of people would be exposed to malaria, that annually an additional 10 million of people would be concerned by storm tides and that biodiversity would shrink in the order of 15-40%. ....Consequenty, the aim must be an average global warming of a maximum of 1,5°C and 350 ppm. The climate issue shouldn’t be regarded and discussed isolated from other ecological issues and, above all, from social problems.
The 2°C temperature rise and the fact that even the realisation of this unsatisfactory goal is not safeguarded reflect our weakness. The question is do we admit to ourselves this weakness and do we want to overcome it? In connection to this, we have clarify three sub-questions: a) Are we ready to question the appropriateness of our own lifestyle – an everyday life based on capitalist production and consumption structures which are colonial and patriarchal, socially and ecologically destructive. b) Can we further accept and tolerate that we participate in exploitation of people and nature? c) Goes our policy out from solidarity above all with the socially weakest?
The conditions of human life always involve the physical and mental wholeness of individuals, their individual freedom and possible influence on societal developments, their mutual relationships within and outside the territorial centre of their lives - especially as regards their place in society and in the social processes of labour and reproduction - their education, medical treatment and social-security protection and in the way their natural conditions of life are constructed. “People” are always specific: girls, boys, women and men, who live within gender relations and within structures of cohabitation. Regardless of the social domain in which one is predominantly engaged, one is always dealing with a many-sided complex of human life relations. Every relevant societal problem has a social, ecological and power-political dimension. In the end it is always a question of economic interests and the question of who decides the organisation of economic processes and the appropriation of its results, of who has access to the resources of production and reproduction.
So we should discuss in which way we will deal with the further negotiation process on the UN climate protocol – so with the working conference in Bonn in June; how we could use the assembly in Bolivia in April and our ESF in Istanbul to strengthen and to promote a climate movement questioning capitalism – a climate movement as a cornerstone of a movement oriented to the individual freedom of girls and boys, women and men, to peace and social equality, to interconnection based on solidarity and rationality in dealing with nature.
Declaration on repression in Turkey
We, the participants of the EPA meeting in Berlin are preparing the 6th ESF which will take place in July 2010 in Istanbul.
We will gather in Istanbul in the forum to discuss and express our commitment and solidarity with the social and democratic struggles in Turkey and all Europe.
Today many Kurdish and Turkish activists involved in those struggles are the victims of repression and many of them, including local and national elected representatives of Kurdish people, human rights activists and hundreds of Kurdish children, are arrested.
On the other hand there is the very important struggle of Tekel workers against the results of neoliberal privatization process.
We express our solidarity with the social and democratic struggles.
We call the Turkish authorities to stop the repression and to respect democratic, social and human rights.
Translation and Babel
Translation (Turkish OC)
Since there is a limited budget for the organizing of the 2010 ESF, most of the translators will be from the Turkey. Around 100 translators will come from the Babels network and the rest will be found within Turkey. In order to ask for Babels help on planning the translation for the 2010 ESF, the Babels debt from the previous Forum should first be paid. It is the responsibility of all the ESF components to pay for the Babels debt and this issue should be taken into very serious consideration. In order to reassure the Babels interpreters that their expenses will be paid in Istanbul ESF, the Organizing Committee is considering pre-paying the tickets. In this way, we can avoid a debt to translators after the Forum.
Babel network
The Babel network presented the difficult situation of the interpreters who worked in the Malmo ESF. 13.000 Euros haven’t yet been paid. The problem has to be solved before the ESF in Istanbul. The foundation of the Malmo ESF has 8000 Euros and they don’t want to pay until they reach 30.000 Euro. Babel is not going to participate without being sure that the debt will be paid. As a consequence of their experience, most of the people in the network don’t wish to be involved anymore. Babel asks for transportation costs, food, and accommodation for interpreters.
A solution has to be found by the 15th of February!
Babels network ask to be taken in consideration as a political actor in the ESF process.
After a debate in which everybody underlined the importance of pay this debt, Tord, as member of Malmo committee, stated that TUs involved in the ESF didn’t pay the money they said they would pay and that the foundation still hopes to pay the debt.
Michel and Leo took the responsibility of coordinating in order to help solving the problem.
The Turkish OC is really worried because if the debt isn’t paid now it will be difficult for them to guarantee a good system for the translation in the forum.
Next actionsWe, the people meeting in the EPA in January 2010 in Berlin, are support the following actions presented during the debate
1st of march European day of action for the right of migration
8th to 18th March local actions of world women march
11th - 14th March 2010 Vienna during the summit of EU ministers celebrating the “10 years Bologna process” counter-summit on higher Education (to get involved in the preparation alternativesummit@bolognaburns.org)
25th March counter-summit on the day of a meeting of European education ministers NON C’E’ IL LUOGO
27th of March Conference in Prague for movements from Central and Eastern Europe, organized by the Mobilization Committee: "Alternative to the Right-Wing Extremism in the Time of the Social and Ecological Crisis"
13th or 14th April 2010 Madrid counter-summit action in occasion of the European ministries of Education meeting
19th – 22nd April 2010 peoples’ world conference on climate change and mother Earth’s rights in Cochabamba called by president Evo Morales who invites all governments, UN agencies, scientists, social movements and NGOs to take part. The objective of the conference is to change the correlation of forces to shift the international agenda decided in Copenhagen.
14-18 May in Madrid Enlanzando alternativas 4
31st May – 6th June 2010 actions in Bonn which is the place for negotiation on the global climate protocol on working level. There will be a meeting to organize on the 5th of February in Bonn. Information to follow in the list
4th 6th June Jena Caravan for the rights of refugees
June/July: Balkan-Caravan of the World March of Women starting in Skopje/Macedonia, travelling through 8 Balkan countries with actions and meetings in several cities (including Istanbul for the ESF)
December 2010 Cancun, Mexico Climate Counter Summit at COP16
14-17 October: international action of the World March of Women in South Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo)
October 2010: Euromarches organizing marches against unemployment culminating in Brussels on the week (10/17 October) against the poverty (during the Belgium presidency of the EU) with MMF, EAPN, No Vox and organizations of Social Forum of Belgium.
The future of the ESF? Has the ESF a future?
Problems and ideas:
Risk that ESF is not an actor anymore. Are people thinking that its not useful to go to the ESF? Why?
Have a meeting at least twice a year not focusing on the ESF but on what we can do.
Crises of the ESF linked with other crises, power structure in the ESF relations
The axes increase the fragmentation of the debate
We cannot only substitute an ideology with an other one
It will be important to see the ESF process as a laboratory for building alternatives
Centralization in the process in which only a certain kind of people from some regions participate more than others
Decisions are based too much on countries ideas. Too much TUs and parties-oriented.
The ESF process needs a European funding. Not possible to go from one committee to an other for web tools and translation
How to enlarge the process
Is it time to update the charter of the ESF?
Having a seminar in Istanbul about the future of the ESF organized by a working group
Between this EPA and Istanbul we have to decide the role of the ESF. Only if the people in that space can decide common actions and strategies than we can reach a wider participation. It is important that the final assembly takes decisions.
- Istanbul has to be the place where we talk and but also hold actions to show the problems of the detention centers of migrants who are detained and who die in the attempt of crossing the Aegean sea
Logistic in ESFs:
Food and accommodation must be consistent with our messages: i.e. affordable, environmental friendly, use local farmer products…
Accommodation: (try to organize solidarity accommodation, hotels, hostels, campsite)
Presence of Political parties
Should neither have a separate space in the ESF nor be among the organisers. This does not exclude the participation of party members for special sessions of political dialogue, which could be particularly attractive also for the public opinion.
Website
In Istanbul it was decided that all websites and tools need a permanent funding (see http://openesf.net/projects/openesf-website/budget) but this decision was never implemented
The moderation guidelines for the openspace website were approved in Berlin (see them: http://openesf.net/projects/openesf-website/guidelines-for-the-webteam-moderation)
Guidelines for facilitators in meetingsduring the EPA should try to allow more people to express themselves. The moderators have to come to work informed and prepared; at the beginning of the process they have to present the rules for consensus; the plenary debates should be structured according to the agreed agenda. Women have to be in the panels (at least 50%) of all the meetings including facilitating the Assembly, EPA plenaries and network meetings
Meetings guidelines
make a list of speakers, new speakers will be prioritised, Gender balance of speakers (1/1), moderator on the list as well, fix a time at the beginning for speakers,
Speakers: have to stick to the subject, be respectful, not to be interrupted, speak slowly and don’t raise their voice when speaking in the microphone
“L-sign” when translation doesn’t work
No applauses – out of respect for the translators – shaking hands in the air is much better to show the agreement
Moderators have to close the speaker list if time is running out asking if someone wants to sign up before unless the assembly decides to carry on the discussion.
Taking decisions
When a decision has to be taken facilitators of the meeting have to:
summon up the discussion and present the final proposals, ask if the assembly is ready to make a decision on this and if anyone disagree (before decision is taken)
If somebody disagree the assembly has to find the way of reaching consensus
The consensus about the proposals has to be shown in an open, transparent and clear way and has to be directly asked.
EPA preparation:
As usual a group of people is in charge of the following EPA. The group is formed by people from the new EPA host country, the previous EPA host country and the ESF host country, people from Eastern European movements, people from Babel and website network. This group has to collect minutes, documents, decisions and open problems from the previous EPA and networks and publish them and formulate the draft agenda for the coming EPA. The draft will be circulated through the lists for remarks and objections and then the coordination group will publish the final agenda in advance in order to facilitate the participation.
Women inclusion
has to be seen more during the ESF and the whole process maintaining the quota rule. Women have to be in the panels (at least 50%) of all the meetings including facilitating assemblies. For the seminar the program group is going to give priority to proposal where the people commit themselves to balance women and men (this commitment has to be part of the registration process form).
Diversities
In all seminars it will be important a special commitment by the organizers to include different point of views in the panel to increase the debate by genders, age, geographical and cultural backgrounds, different abilities and so on
Dienstag, 9. Februar 2010
EPA Protocol - Juni 2009 Wien
- From Monday 28th September till to Thursday the 1st of October in Diyarbakir, Turkey is going to take place the Mesopotamian Social Forum. The main aim is to raise a voice in this region bringing people together. There are lots of spaces for seminars and workshops.
- Next EPA (the 4th ) will be from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th of September in Diyarbakir, Turkey just before the Mesopotamian Forum. In the next EPA a precise proposal about logistic for the June 2010 ESF in Istanbul, Turkey (venue and budget) will be presented by the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey
- The 5th EPA will be in Germany. Organization are ready and the basic agreement is that is going to take place in early February 2010
- There will be an Open one day Assembly on Education on the Friday before the 5th EPA in the same place of the EPA. The Education network is going to plan this Assembly from a logistic point of view together with the people organizing the EPA.
- Babel issue: translation is a crucial matter for our process so we are going to start a fund raising campaign to support Babels. First objective is to collect the 8.000 Euro to pay out for the debt. The details for Babel account will be sent to the list by them. About the structural reform of the ESF – process (methodology, establishment of an European working group, etc)
- The EPA has decided to start an Open European “program and structure” working group with a mailing list in order to implement the EPA’s decisions, to facilitate collecting proposals, to prepare concrete proposals for the next EPA. There were ideas and proposals coming from the debate and this working group is going to prepare a structured proposal for the next EPA about structure and program. The group is going to meet on Thursday the 24th of September in Istanbul if there is the visit to the venues. If not they will meet in Diyarbakir. The ESF Organize Committee of Turkey has to confirm the venue.
- There will be also an European Open group Preparing the EPA with a mailing list to prepare with the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey the next EPA
- People from Alis, as suggested by the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey as well, are going to test the translation system in Istanbul before next EPA because if is possible to use it will be cheaper than any other system
- WTO in Geneva in December 09. Initiatives on economic alternative actions will be organized
- Anti G8 initiative in Italy in July: As everybody Know Berlusconi has decided to held the G8 in Aquila. Of course there is a lot of criticism because of the consequences of this choice and about the way he is using such a terrible event in order to support his image. In Italy there will be a big demo on the 4th July against the Dal Molin base in Vicenza. At 3.32 of the 6th of july (anniversary 3 months since the earthquake) candle light march in L'Aquila. The 7th July there will be actions in Rome when the G8 people arrive in Rome. The Forum "Social reconstruction; reconstruction, work, democracy" will take place in L'Aquila on the 7th of July. Spread activities in different cities on the 8th. Possible march in L'Aquila on the 10th . There will be a G SOTTO forum in Sardinia (3th, 4th, 5th July) Information will be sent soon to the list. Here there is a list of proposals which are on the table for discussion. They came from the discussion we had during the EPA in Vienna. There isn’t any priority in listing the proposals and no decision about this has already been taken. The aim is to offer to the people involved in the working group on the program and structure ideas to work on. Everybody on the list can intervene on this matters and send proposals to the list. They will be collected for the next meeting.
- There isn’t a lot of dynamism in the ESF process, there is a lack between movements and the ESF process. Meetings between different EPA can help to involve more people in the process
- The ESF has to become useful for people involved in the process, in struggles and in movements
- Taking in account what has been produced by the WSF
- The ESF has to analyse all the crisis: axes have to be built around the global crisis we are facing (ideological, financial, education, democratic, ......) and the aim will be to contribute through the work in the ESF to provide immediate concrete answers and proposals for a process to build alternatives for all these crisis
- The axes, the themes cannot be only about crisis but also about a general discussion on the alternative to the system
- Less workshops and seminars orientated to give proposals and ideas to thematic assemblies. During thematic assemblies on Saturday morning there won’t be seminars or workshops
- Space for European movements networking
- It is important to give a specific space for transversality... overtaking the isolation of the networks and the single themes
- Assembly of the assemblies, assembly of social movements, final assembly
- Demo on Saturday afternoon
- There is a proposal for an anti crisis program to be discussed in advance and not only in the ESF, seminars for debates, seminar for actions
- Global economic crisis and resistance – against paying for “their” crisis, for labour rights and right to organize, debating alternatives
- Social Europe, social cities – welfare, public services, resistance against forced evictions, for housing rights
- A democratic and rights based Europe – against racist and “securitarian” policies, anti- terror laws, torture, disappearances in custody and jail, isolation, prisons, the rise of the far right. For migrant, refugee and human rights
- Oppressed people – Kurdish, Armenian, Palestinian, Tamil, Basque.... questions. National and minority rights, the right of refugees to return
- Discrimination and equality – against male domination and homophobia, for gender and equality
- A sustainable world – agriculture, water, food sovereignty, energy, environmental and climate change
- War and peace – against war, militarism, occupation and Zionism
- Youth: right to education, work and future
- Culture arts, informatics and mass media – democratising knowledge, creating alternatives. Against neoliberal “Capital of Culture” projects
- Social movements, the state and future of global justice movement
- Starting also from the world social forum experience it would be important to work in a different way to show new way of building alternatives
- In this list it’s not readable the transversality and links between different themes and the complexity of the actual situation
- Through the axes we have to be able to define what a different Europe is
- Include positive ideas, showing alternatives and strategies
- Change the first axes deleting economic because it’s not only an economic crisis
- Delete “Zionism” from point 7 because new nazi groups use this slogan
- Education cannot be only linked with youth, needs a specific axe
- Not a list of oppressed people ( axe 4) Proposal about a space "for the rights of peoples without nation"
- There is the need of focus also on new authoritarism,, criminalization of politics, women, poverty and exclusion, religion, fundamentalism and politics, casualization in work, unemployment
- 1. venues in Istanbul
- 2. Translation (200.000 Euro all together)
- 3. Money and solidarity fund
- 4. Enlargement (6th of June meeting)
- 5. Themes and axes
- People in the EPA is aware of the political situation in Turkey (repression and oppression) and took also for this the decision of having the ESF in Istanbul
- There are worries that venues are away from each other and the budget it seems to be very high and a bit insecure
- The venues are different from it was said in the previous EPA, we don’t have the contract with the University anymore. It’s important that all the venues are close to each other. Also the team involved in the preparation is different.
- Financial aspect: it looks like that there is a lot to spend especially for translation. What about funding from local governments? What about testing Alis again?
- It’s important to guarantee the “open spaces” for exchanges between different movements and organizations to have exhibitions, meeting places
- It would be important to know if there are problems between the groups organizing inside the committee. There was a conflict but it is not clear the matter. It is important that all people in the committee are not from trade union. It would be important to know the position of Trade Unions in Turkey
- In the committee now there are 70 organizations (movements, TUs, women organizations....). It’s an open process and people can join and rejoin the process. Nobody has been excluded. The moderation committee hasn’t got power to get decision and only implement the decisions taken. The process has to be transparent
- The Kurdish committee hasn’t withdrawn from the process and is part of it
- Alis is going to go to Istanbul to have a new test because, if is possible, it would be important to use Alis system
- All the venues mentioned are all in the same street. The fairest one is 10 minutes far away.
- There isn’t a contract signed yet but the space has been promised by the University authorities
- For the budget as well we have guarantees about funding
- For stand and exhibitions there will be spaces a part from the meeting organized and included in the program
- The committee is ready to discuss and decide together in the EPA what we are going to do in the next ESF
- In Turkey there isn’t a complete democratic situation so it will be very important the presence of SF there. The problems of the country in relation with Kurdish situation has to be known by the other countries involved in this process.
- There was a general consensus on the fact that it is important to discuss about the crisis and the links with movements and social forum and that we have to focus on how we can make EPA and ESF an useful space in order to exchange and work on concrete proposals. Not all the movements are involved in ESF and it would be important to enlarge the actors of this process
- The crisis is very big, unemployment and so on. This is the crisis of the capitalist system. It's not possible to change the capitalist system. There is not one crisis, there are a lot. There is the democracy crisis, the ideological one, the economic one, a political one and so on. We have to think about all these crisis at the same time. Also capitalism is using the crisis
- This crisis is big but the political result of the crisis is not a left movements to struggle against capitalism but the workers going to right. In Italy with Lega, against migrants. Right wings parties are growing in East and West Europe taking on left slogan as “nationalizing and control from the state”. Why?
- The 60% of young people who started for the first time to vote voted for right wings parties in Austria. Is it only an Austrian problem as in Austria we vote starting from 16 years old?
- Capitalist crisis moves fundamentalism, nationalism, authoritarian answers and sometimes left wing slogans are used to justify a complete different policy.
- Why do movements start very strongly but also disappear very quickly?
- We need common answers on an European level in order to fight together. and. There is the need to fight against the crisis on an international level. It's not enough to have a picture of the situation, the important thing is to understand what kind of crisis we are in and build a common approach to the problems. There is a big problem of democracy. We need to find solution together. Is there a need of linking movements together in Europe and how could it be possible to happen?
- It will be interesting to follow and exchange projects and experiences of alternative in Europe. There is the need to start talking about different proposals about changes, new challenges for us. ESF could be an useful space where constantly build common actions and find or exchange experience of alternatives (alternative currencies, ethical projects, food and alimentation, ethical solidarity actions, migrants rights). In the SF space we need to define the alternatives to this crisis. It is important to find the answers but also to mobilize. In the EPA we need concrete matters to discuss. The SF isn't outside or on top of different movements but has to try to offer a space to exchange different views about struggle and build common actions
- It's crucial to rise the knowledge of people about ecology and link social and environmental issues
- Portrait of the crises structures
- Comparative analysis of our anti-crises programme, including culture
- Concrete proposals based on the analysis
- There are about 70 organisations working together in the Istanbul organizing committee (IOC), including the main trade unions (TU) and professional federations. Only one of them has left the process. IOC established the Solidarity Fond and a database of solidarity accommodation.
- There is a problem among Eastern European movements: they understand neither Western European languages nor the procedure and standards how to apply for seminars for the ESF.
- The main problem of the societies and movements is an overall lack of political culture, thus a weak demand for social movements.
- The participants thank the Austrian organizers for their warranty given before this EPA to cover the travel and subsistence costs of the CEE participants from additional funds raised well in advance.
- The participants reiterated the conclusions and demands from the ESF in Malmö.
- For ESF 2010, we have to set up a Support Group now the tasks of which would be to contact and involve groups and initiatives, to gather and redistribute information including a new forum on the ESF webpage and to start fundraising for the Solidarity fund to support the participation of CEE initiatives and movements. It is necessary to allocate funds to pay for the travel of 2 pax of each CEE country for the All-European Assembly at the ESF 2010..
- The deadline for the merged programme of the ESF has to be set at the end of January 2010 so that people can plan their vacations/holidays and register for participation by March 2010. It is necessary to invite people from CEE to every programme meeting and to treat proposals (seminars, etc.) and participants from CEE countries with a priority.
- At least one EPA has to take place in CEE every year. Just a little preparatory group for each EPA (EPA host org., last ESF host org., next ESF host org,) should be established.
- Participants and movements from CEE countries are asked to write down proposals for their Western European counterparts (not asking money) how to help the enlargement.
EPA Protocol - june 2009 Vienna
Contribution and corrections by Alessandra Mecozzi, Eyup Ozer, Alp Altinors
EPA (Vienna 19th – 21st June 2009)
Decision taken in the EPA (Vienna 19th -21st June 09)
- From Monday 28th September till to Thursday the 1st of October in Diyarbakir, Turkey is going to take place the Mesopotamian Social Forum. The main aim is to raise a voice in this region bringing people together. There are lots of spaces for seminars and workshops.
- Next EPA (the 4th ) will be from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th of September in Diyarbakir, Turkey just before the Mesopotamian Forum. In the next EPA a precise proposal about logistic for the June 2010 ESF in Istanbul, Turkey (venue and budget) will be presented by the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey
- The 5th EPA will be in Germany. Organization are ready and the basic agreement is that is going to take place in early February 2010
- There will be an Open one day Assembly on Education on the Friday before the 5th EPA in the same place of the EPA. The Education network is going to plan this Assembly from a logistic point of view together with the people organizing the EPA.
- Babel issue: translation is a crucial matter for our process so we are going to start a fund raising campaign to support Babels. First objective is to collect the 8.000 Euro to pay out for the debt. The details for Babel account will be sent to the list by them. About the structural reform of the ESF – process (methodology, establishment of an European working group, etc)
- The EPA has decided to start an Open European “program and structure” working group with a mailing list in order to implement the EPA’s decisions, to facilitate collecting proposals, to prepare concrete proposals for the next EPA. There were ideas and proposals coming from the debate and this working group is going to prepare a structured proposal for the next EPA about structure and program. The group is going to meet on Thursday the 24th of September in Istanbul if there is the visit to the venues. If not they will meet in Diyarbakir. The ESF Organize Committee of Turkey has to confirm the venue.
- There will be also an European Open group Preparing the EPA with a mailing list to prepare with the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey the next EPA
- People from Alis, as suggested by the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey as well, are going to test the translation system in Istanbul before next EPA because if is possible to use it will be cheaper than any other system
Information (what’s next in Europe?)
- WTO in Geneva in December 09. Initiatives on economic alternative actions will be organized
- Anti G8 initiative in Italy in July: As everybody Know Berlusconi has decided to held the G8 in Aquila. Of course there is a lot of criticism because of the consequences of this choice and about the way he is using such a terrible event in order to support his image. In Italy there will be a big demo on the 4th July against the Dal Molin base in Vicenza. At 3.32 of the 6th of july (anniversary 3 months since the earthquake) candle light march in L'Aquila. The 7th July there will be actions in Rome when the G8 people arrive in Rome. The Forum "Social reconstruction; reconstruction, work, democracy" will take place in L'Aquila on the 7th of July. Spread activities in different cities on the 8th. Possible march in L'Aquila on the 10th . There will be a G SOTTO forum in Sardinia (3th, 4th, 5th July) Information will be sent soon to the list. Here there is a list of proposals which are on the table for discussion. They came from the discussion we had during the EPA in Vienna. There isn’t any priority in listing the proposals and no decision about this has already been taken. The aim is to offer to the people involved in the working group on the program and structure ideas to work on. Everybody on the list can intervene on this matters and send proposals to the list. They will be collected for the next meeting.
- There isn’t a lot of dynamism in the ESF process, there is a lack between movements and the ESF process. Meetings between different EPA can help to involve more people in the process
- The ESF has to become useful for people involved in the process, in struggles and in movements
- Taking in account what has been produced by the WSF
- The ESF has to analyse all the crisis: axes have to be built around the global crisis we are facing (ideological, financial, education, democratic, ......) and the aim will be to contribute through the work in the ESF to provide immediate concrete answers and proposals for a process to build alternatives for all these crisis
- The axes, the themes cannot be only about crisis but also about a general discussion on the alternative to the system
- Less workshops and seminars orientated to give proposals and ideas to thematic assemblies. During thematic assemblies on Saturday morning there won’t be seminars or workshops
- Space for European movements networking
- It is important to give a specific space for transversality... overtaking the isolation of the networks and the single themes
- Assembly of the assemblies, assembly of social movements, final assembly
- Demo on Saturday afternoon
- There is a proposal for an anti crisis program to be discussed in advance and not only in the ESF, seminars for debates, seminar for actions
Discussion about ESF themes and axes
Starting from a general consensus on the fact that the axes are going to change according with the idea of finding the alternatives to crisis, the proposal from ESF Organize Committee of Turkey was discussed and several comment were made. They are listed after the proposal and they are going to be materials for the list and for the European working group to work on.
Proposal from Turkish committee for
- 1. Global economic crisis and resistance – against paying for “their” crisis, for labour rights and right to organize, debating alternatives
- 2. Social Europe, social cities – welfare, public services, resistance against forced evictions, for housing rights
- 3. A democratic and rights based Europe – against racist and “securitarian” policies, anti- terror laws, torture, disappearances in custody and jail, isolation, prisons, the rise of the far right. For migrant, refugee and human rights
- 4. Oppressed people – Kurdish, Armenian, Palestinian, Tamil, Basque.... questions. National and minority rights, the right of refugees to return
- 5. Discrimination and equality – against male domination and homophobia, for gender and equality
- 6. A sustainable world – agriculture, water, food sovereignty, energy, environmental and climate change
- 7. War and peace – against war, militarism, occupation and Zionism
- 8. Youth: right to education, work and future
- 9. Culture arts, informatics and mass media – democratising knowledge, creating alternatives. Against neoliberal “Capital of Culture” projects
- 10. Social movements, the state and future of global justice movement
Proposals on themes and axes coming from the discussion in Vienna
- 1. Starting also from the world social forum experience it would be important to work in a different way to show new way of building alternatives
- 2. In this list it’s not readable the transversality and links between different themes and the complexity of the actual situation
- 3. Through the axes we have to be able to define what a different Europe is
- 4. Include positive ideas, showing alternatives and strategies
- 5. Change the first axes deleting economic because it’s not only an economic crisis
- 6. Delete “Zionism” from point 7 because new nazi groups use this slogan
- 7. Education cannot be only linked with youth, needs a specific axe
- 8. Not a list of oppressed people ( axe 4) Proposal about a space "for the rights of peoples without nation"
- 9. There is the need of focus also on new authoritarism,, criminalization of politics, women, poverty and exclusion, religion, fundamentalism and politics, casualization in work, unemployment
ESF in Turkey in June 2010 Discussion in the Plenary on Saturday 20th June
Presentation from the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey
- 1. venues in Istanbul
- 2. Translation (200.000 Euro all together)
- 3. Money and solidarity fund
- 4. Enlargement (6th of June meeting)
- 5. Themes and axes
The main proposal is that the Istanbul Social Forum can be a spring point to link with East countries, Middle east countries and African countries
Debate and points of discussion
- People in the EPA is aware of the political situation in Turkey (repression and oppression) and took also for this the decision of having the ESF in Istanbul
- There are worries that venues are away from each other and the budget it seems to be very high and a bit insecure
- The venues are different from it was said in the previous EPA, we don’t have the contract with the University anymore. It’s important that all the venues are close to each other. Also the team involved in the preparation is different.
- Financial aspect: it looks like that there is a lot to spend especially for translation. What about funding from local governments? What about testing Alis again?
- It’s important to guarantee the “open spaces” for exchanges between different movements and organizations to have exhibitions, meeting places
- It would be important to know if there are problems between the groups organizing inside the committee. There was a conflict but it is not clear the matter. It is important that all people in the committee are not from trade union. It would be important to know the position of Trade Unions in Turkey
Declaration of Global Peace and Justice Coalition which has withdraw from the ESF
Organize Committee of Turkey
The previous situation was showing that the one in Istanbul could be a very good ESF but the situation has changed. Now there is a big division between movements and organizations in Turkey and we don’t think that in this situation the ESF could be a success. There are questions about logistic as well. There is an absence of Trade Unions. So what we have seen in the last meetings is that the ESF could be a marginal event and that’s why our organization is now out of the committee.
After this declaration the debate about the role and the function of the committee started again and it was stated one more time that the lines of the ESF are decided in the EPA and the local committee have the big responsibility of implementing the decisions making the ESF possible . The EPA is responsible but transparency in the process are fundamental as well as the involvement of all the Also there were worries about how to guarantee to Kurdish people living in Europe the possibility to go to Istanbul for the Forum.
Answers from people participating in the ESF Organize Committee of Turkey
- In the committee now there are 70 organizations (movements, TUs, women organizations....). It’s an open process and people can join and rejoin the process. Nobody has been excluded. The moderation committee hasn’t got power to get decision and only implement the decisions taken. The process has to be transparent
- The Kurdish committee hasn’t withdrawn from the process and is part of it
- Alis is going to go to Istanbul to have a new test because, if is possible, it would be important to use Alis system
- All the venues mentioned are all in the same street. The fairest one is 10 minutes far away.
- There isn’t a contract signed yet but the space has been promised by the University authorities
- For the budget as well we have guarantees about funding
- For stand and exhibitions there will be spaces a part from the meeting organized and included in the program
- The committee is ready to discuss and decide together in the EPA what we are going to do in the next ESF
- In Turkey there isn’t a complete democratic situation so it will be very important the presence of SF there. The problems of the country in relation with Kurdish situation has to be known by the other countries involved in this process.
Friday 19th June h. 10- 13
Network meetings
This is only a brief synthesis of the networks report. The minutes will be sent to the list directly by the people of different networks
Education: The network is proposing a day for an Open Assembly on Education for the 5th EPA which is going to take place in early February. The aim is to connect different movements (students, teachers, parents) for the right of Education in Europe. For the ESF in Istanbul the proposal is to have an axe for the right of free education
Enlargement: Please refer to the document sent to the list by the network
Labour and globalization: A conference has been decided. It has been organized by some TUs and some organizations. It will be held in Bruxelles but it isn’t completely open. There will be invitations for that.
Charter for an other Europe: In the network economic issues have been discussed. The global crisis has consequences in Europe and there is a very big impact in East-Europe. This has to be clear in the charter. The other point is the issue of democracy. It will be important that people in Europe have a say in what’s happening. This will be also the contribution of the network in Istanbul Mobilization in Copenhagen: Klimaforum (from 7th to 20th December 2009). It was a meeting of information and contributions by the people involved in the process. In Copenhagen there will be a lot of different meetings and actions (demos, forum, lobbying...). Proposals for people in the EPA: support the initiative approving a statement in the plenary session. There will be a meeting to organize the Klimaforum in October There is a website to get information www.climateforum09.org There is also a mailing list for people, organizations and groups who want to participate in the process of building for this forum.
WTO event and mobilization: The WSF has decided some initiative around the WTO. It would be important to participate as people involved in the ESF process.
Malmö ESF and economic debts and Babel payments:
Paying the debts is not only an economic but also a political task. There is still no economic report but it looks like there are around 170.000 Euro of debts. A special association to collect money was put on and priorities have been decided. First of all a debt of 30.000 Euro for people involved in cultural activities who are waiting to be paid. Babel debt is 16.000 Euro. At least 8.000 Euro will be found by the Association Babel.
Babel interpreters are frustrated after what has been happening but there is still some enthusiasm about the ESF in Istanbul. A lot of volunteers have been waiting for months for this money and they surely have the right to get it as soon as possible.
General discussion Friday 19th 2009 Vienna 4.30 pm
The global crisis of capitalism and alternatives: mobilization of the social movements and the role of the social forums This isn't a report of single interventions but a synthesis of the main points and proposals. The aim is collecting without any priority all the inputs coming from the meeting from different people participating in the EPA in order to share them with people who could not come and participate. The discussion on this theme is obviously going to carry on. The time for the discussion wasn’t enough so there is a proposal for having at least half of the first day of next EPA devoted to this.
- There was a general consensus on the fact that it is important to discuss about the crisis and the links with movements and social forum and that we have to focus on how we can make EPA and ESF an useful space in order to exchange and work on concrete proposals. Not all the movements are involved in ESF and it would be important to enlarge the actors of this process
On the crisis, on the general situation it was said that:
- The crisis is very big, unemployment and so on. This is the crisis of the capitalist system. It's not possible to change the capitalist system. There is not one crisis, there are a lot. There is the democracy crisis, the ideological one, the economic one, a political one and so on. We have to think about all these crisis at the same time. Also capitalism is using the crisis
- This crisis is big but the political result of the crisis is not a left movements to struggle against capitalism but the workers going to right. In Italy with Lega, against migrants. Right wings parties are growing in East and West Europe taking on left slogan as “nationalizing and control from the state”. Why?
- The 60% of young people who started for the first time to vote voted for right wings parties in Austria. Is it only an Austrian problem as in Austria we vote starting from 16 years old?
- Capitalist crisis moves fundamentalism, nationalism, authoritarian answers and sometimes left wing slogans are used to justify a complete different policy.
- Why do movements start very strongly but also disappear very quickly?
- We need common answers on an European level in order to fight together. and. There is the need to fight against the crisis on an international level. It's not enough to have a picture of the situation, the important thing is to understand what kind of crisis we are in and build a common approach to the problems. There is a big problem of democracy. We need to find solution together. Is there a need of linking movements together in Europe and how could it be possible to happen?
- It will be interesting to follow and exchange projects and experiences of alternative in Europe. There is the need to start talking about different proposals about changes, new challenges for us. ESF could be an useful space where constantly build common actions and find or exchange experience of alternatives (alternative currencies, ethical projects, food and alimentation, ethical solidarity actions, migrants rights). In the SF space we need to define the alternatives to this crisis. It is important to find the answers but also to mobilize. In the EPA we need concrete matters to discuss. The SF isn't outside or on top of different movements but has to try to offer a space to exchange different views about struggle and build common actions
- It's crucial to rise the knowledge of people about ecology and link social and environmental issues
People meeting in the EPA of Vienna (19th – 21st June 09) have approved the following messages
Text adopted by the participants of the EPA in Vienna (20th-21st of June 09):
Besides the financial and economic crises, the climate crisis, including the energy crisis, is the other dimension of the global crisis we face. We participants of the EPA in Vienna, recognize the importance and the challenge of social movements, trade unions and NGOs to build the links between the ecological and the social crises as they are intrinsically linked with each other. We commit ourselves and call upon all social movements and social organisations in Europe to engage in building joint agendas of mobilization towards the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen and beyond. At the core of these efforts shall be the building of an integrated answer and alternative addressing the social and ecological question at the same time, supporting the ecological conversion of our economies. We propose a collective meeting in the early autumn to build convergences towards Copenhagen.
Text from the network meeting on Copenhagen at the EPA:
We call upon interested organisations to contribute to building a constructive program promoting public transport, conversion of car and other fossil-based industries, ecological reconstruction of housing, agricultural reform and supporting public solutions. A program that needs to be financed by a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the majority and promote public and political solutions rather than market based solutions.
In the assembly two more documents were proposed and it was decided to put them together but I received only this one and not the complete version. I hope that somebody can explain what happened to the list and send the document.
• FR Message de soutien aux syndicalistes turcs arrêtés: Les organisations syndicales, associations et réseaux présents à l’AEP de Vienne le 21 juin 2009, expriment leur indignation devant l’arrestation par les forces de l’ordre de 30 syndicalistes de KESK et d’EGITIM-SEN, et exigent leur libération immédiate au nom du respect des droits syndicaux, d’expression et d’association.
• EN Message: supporting Turkish unionists arrested The trade unions, networks and organizations, gathered in Vienna for ESF-EPA on June 21st 2009, want to protest against arrest of 30 unionists from KESK-confederation and Egitim-Sen, and demand their immediate liberation, on behalf of Trade unions’ rights and the right of expression and of association.
Minutes from the meeting of the working group Enlargement
1. Crises in Central and Eastern Europe
Working groups should be set up in individual CEE countries with the task to write down (before the next EPA):
- Portrait of the crises structures
- Comparative analysis of our anti-crises programme, including culture
- Concrete proposals based on the analysis
The EPA participants from Hungary, Poland, Czechia and Russia made such a commitment. It is an open initiative and anybody can join.
2. Enlargement of the ESF 2010
- There are about 70 organisations working together in the Istanbul organizing committee (IOC), including the main trade unions (TU) and professional federations. Only one of them has left the process. IOC established the Solidarity Fond and a database of solidarity accommodation.
- There is a problem among Eastern European movements: they understand neither Western European languages nor the procedure and standards how to apply for seminars for the ESF.
- The main problem of the societies and movements is an overall lack of political culture, thus a weak demand for social movements.
3. Political discussion and conclusions
• The participants thank the Austrian organizers for their warranty given before this EPA to cover the travel and subsistence costs of the CEE participants from additional funds raised well in advance.
• The participants reiterated the conclusions and demands from the ESF in Malmö.
• For ESF 2010, we have to set up a Support Group now the tasks of which would be to contact and involve groups and initiatives, to gather and redistribute information including a new forum on the ESF webpage and to start fundraising for the Solidarity fund to support the participation of CEE initiatives and movements. It is necessary to allocate funds to pay for the travel of 2 pax of each CEE country for the All-European Assembly at the ESF 2010..
• The deadline for the merged programme of the ESF has to be set at the end of January 2010 so that people can plan their vacations/holidays and register for participation by March 2010. It is necessary to invite people from CEE to every programme meeting and to treat proposals (seminars, etc.) and participants from CEE countries with a priority.
• At least one EPA has to take place in CEE every year. Just a little preparatory group for each EPA (EPA host org., last ESF host org., next ESF host org,) should be established.
• Participants and movements from CEE countries are asked to write down proposals for their Western European counterparts (not asking money) how to help the enlargement.
Education network meeting
We focused our discussion about the role of European Education Network in the movements growing in Europe against the processes of co modification in education.
We decided to organize, for the 5th EPA in Berlin in early February , one day. Friday, dedicated to education called:
“Open meeting of education movements in Europe: connecting european actions and struggles .” Our aim is to have an open meeting of education movements in Europe ,a meeting intended to be a step forward in connecting European struggles and actions in matter of education.
We are going to start collecting information about the situation in each European country and we are preparing a base document a scheme, in order to be able to compare the neoliberal reforms for each school level and, generally, to compare the education policies in each European country and the opposition to them.
In the next months before the assembly we are going to contact all the organizations and unions since now involved in the network and, besides, we are going to contact the organizations involved in the struggles in the various countries, organizations that are not participating to ESF ,students and parents organizations for instance ,in order to involve them in the process of the “Open meeting of education movements”, and, obviously, in the education network and in ESF itself. We don't know if we are going to be successful but we are sure that the only way to strengthen ESF is to involve those new forces that during these years participated in the movements against neoliberal reforms from pre-primary to University in Europe.
The attacks to free and public education and the protests against it are involving many European countries and wide movements are opposing the neoliberal policies in education.
That's why we suggest to dedicate a specific axis to education in next European Social Forum in Istanbul.
