Politics
Unsocial seating arrangements
Published 01 March 2004
Observations on left squabbles
The European Social Forum is coming to London - all being well. This "meeting of movements" - the local version of the World Social Forum - brings together conventional campaigners such as trade unionists and the sexier "new social movements", such as anti-globalisers and feminists. Last November's forum in Paris pulled in 50,000.
London's bid, supported by the mayor, Ken Livingstone, is likely to be approved when the forum's European assembly meets on 7 March. The probable date is October and the main venue, with its plenary events and international activist stars, is likely to be Alexandra Palace. But there will also be 300-odd informal networking events on the periphery.
Some Londoners see it as a small-scale rehearsal for the 2012 Olympics, showing that the capital can cope with a big event and a sizeable influx of visitors.
But the left being the left, the bid to host the forum could yet come unstuck in the face of internecine squabbles. The spirit of social forums is embodied in the Porto Alegre Charter, which emphasises an "open meeting place", "plural and diversified", with transparent decision-making. "Party representatives" are excluded.
Alas, the mayor's people don't seem to understand the horizontal organisation of social forums. At one planning meeting, chairs were arranged informally in a circle. Delegates returning from their break found, to their indignation, that the chairs had been rearranged in rows, facing the chairing panel on the raised stage.
Two City Hall meetings in January ended with networks and individuals being excluded from the forum's organising committee, which now comprises only conventional organisations. Some of those present later circulated their own versions of the minutes, describing a meeting completely unlike the official note-taker's version. So far, the leftist party that everybody on the left loves to hate, the Socialist Workers Party, has been Livingstone's main and most surprising ally, with anarchists and the Communist Party of Great Britain (not to be confused with the Communist Party of Britain, which is also on the mayor's side) in unprecedented unity in the opposition camp. In the middle are the trade unions and NGOs, ranging from War on Want to Help the Aged.
Already there is talk of organising events parallel to the main forum. Some fear that the organising committee will relegate their meetings to suburban church halls on weekday mornings and that the forum will become a voluntary sector trade fair, and a generator of glory for Livingstone.
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