Minutes of Belfast/North East Irish Social Forum Interim Stering Group

antrim | public consultation / irish social forum | news report Tuesday July 01, 2003 15:02 by Eoin O'Broin - Belfast/North East Social Forum eoinobroin at hotmail dot com 07890514539

Working towards a Belfast/North East Irish Social Forum

Minutes and reports from three meetings held in Belfast during July, working towards the establishment of a Belfast/North East Social Forum as part of the developing Irish Social Forum. The first two sections are minutes from an ad hoc steering group. The third section is a report from a public meeting held on June 24th. Further meetings and tie ins with other Irish Social Forum gatherings are detailed in the conclusions of the public meeting.

NE Irish Social Forum Exploratory meeting

13 June 2002.
Notes from meeting.

Attended:
Emily Kawano (Institute for Popular Economics), Clare Moore (IPE & NICICTU), Gerard McCann (St Mary’s College, W. Belfast Economic Forum & IPE), Stephen McCloskey (One World Ctr), Christine Patterson, Eoin O’Broin (Sinn Fein), Stephen Wood (Tools for Solidarity).

Apologies:
Alisa Keane (NICICTU), Miriam McHardy (Trocaire).

Introductions.
In summary, people expressed interest in the development of the World Social Forum and the Irish Social Forum (ISF) in particular although most people said that they had not followed the process closely. Eoin made the point that the energy which had emerged from the Stop the War process could be channelled into the development of the ISF.

Background
Emily gave a brief overview of the development of the WSF and the ISF. See following website links for further information:

What the World Social Forum is
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=19&cd_language=2
=============================

World Social Forum Charter of Principles:
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=4&cd_language=2

Irish Social Forum: www.irishsocialforum.org

Specifically, Emily noted the launch of the ISF 6 July, Dublin and noted that as Dublin would be host to the World Economic Council in October, 2003 that this would form a focus for action.

Charter of Principles
Emily introduced the charter of Principles and there was general discussion on the charter. The following points were discussed:

• A key point of the charter is the opposition to neoliberalism.
• The charter emphasises diversity of participation
• Are groups expected to affiliate?
• The charter is a broad framework providing terms of reference for the various social forums.

Specifically, the following points were noted:
Eoin said that he did not have a problem with point 9 of the charter which states that ‘neither party representatives nor military organisations shall participate in the forum’. Eoin noted that ‘members of legislatures’ are invited to participate in a personal capacity and as an elected councillor felt that his attendance was appropriate. He noted, however that it should be clear that everyone comes with a particular agenda and that this should be explicit – this was agreed.

There was some discussion about why military organisations were excluded and why religious organisations were not excluded and it was noted that people are able to participate in a personal capacity regardless of their affiliations.

Point 6
In discussing the SF process, the following points were noted:
• The Forum offered a different way of thinking about issues
• It was space to think and talk
• It was a network offering the opportunity to liase with other orgs in the context of broad principles.
• It was felt that particular agendas could undermine the purpose of Forums
• No one group or organisation should dominate the forum and decisions should be made collectively – if consensus with a forum was reached, then there could be agreement to take action on a particular issue although campaigns should not necessarily be a by product of forums.

Specifically, the following points were made:
Stephen W asked whether the ISF would be the co-ordinating body for the process or would the regional forums be autonomous.
Eoin noted that the ISF acknowledged that they are really only representative of greater Dublin and therefore haven’t officially adopted the name ISF yet.
There will be a launch of ISF 11.30 – 5.30 July 6th in Dublin, further details and minutes of previous meetings available on the website.

Should there be a NE ISF founding event?
It was agreed that this would be a good idea and it was agreed that there should be a public meeting with speakers to be held in Belfast.

Logistics:
Name: At least on an interim basis, the name should be kept as North East Irish Social Forum.

When: 24, 25, or 26 June

Where: Eoin suggested Exchange Place – will check it out.

Budget: We agreed that we would need £60 tops to cover transportation for the two speakers. Several people offered to put up the speakers at their homes.

Tasks:
Speakers: Christine suggested Lorna Gold of Trocaire and Stephen McC agreed to check her availability. Emily agreed to check with Barry Finnegan about the availability of someone who could talk about the ISF process to date.
Emily will chair the meeting
Agreed that we should invite speakers for a meal before meeting.
Stephen W. said that he would include notice of meeting in Tools newsletter if we can get him the info. by the deadline on Mon.
Christine agreed to contact youth groups
Gerard agreed to ask a graphic designer to design the invite poster
Emily agreed to write up invite.

All agreed to circulate info to our respective lists and to follow up with phone calls to key organisations - sectors allocated as follows:
Stephen M.: Dev ed groups, solidarity, black and ethnic minority groups
Eoin: Arts, nationalist community North Belfast
Clare: trade unions, women’s groups
Gerard: students and academics
Christine: youth
Emily: Co-operatives, Social economy, NICVA, community groups in unionist areas (Eoin will send contacts)

Interim steering group
Agreed that it would be useful to have an interim steering group. Group will meet again Friday 20th June 2.30 – 3.30 Belfast City hall. Clare made her apologies for this meeting.


Interim Steering Group Meeting
June 20, 2003 – City Hall


Present: Eoin O’Broin (Sinn Fein), Gerard McCann (IPE, St. Mary’s College), Stephen McCloskey (One World Centre), Emily Kawano (IPE) – note-taker, Alistair Mullan (Tools for Solidarity)
Apologies: Clare Moore (IPE, NIC ICTU) Christine Patterson, Stephen Woods (Tools for Solidarity)

A. Updates
Tasks: Thanks to everyone for coming through on their tasks! Eoin arranged the venue with Northern Visions, Gerard and colleague produced the beautiful poster, Stephen made arrangements with Lorna Gold, Clare wrote up the notes from last meeting, Emily wrote the invite and made arrangements with Barry, and everyone has done a great job on outreach.

Speakers:
- Lorna Gold from Trocaire has been confirmed as a speaker. She’ll talk about the World Social Forum and European Social Forum. She will bring some pictures of the WSF on powerpoint. She doesn’t need lodging.
- Emily confirmed with Barry Finnegan, who will talk about the ISF process to date. Eoin kindly offered to provide accommodation for Barry.
- Each speaker will have around 20-25 minutes and then we’ll open up for discussion.
- Lorna is arriving on the 5:20 train. Assuming that Barry comes in on the same train, Emily agreed to meet them and bring them to dinner at Ba Soba.
- Everyone meet at 5:45 at Ba Soba restaurant (58 Hill St. - which runs parallel to Donegall St.). Emily will make reservations, so please let her know if you (and partner if you like) are coming.

Resources: Can each group kick in £10 to cover transportation for our speakers? Please give your tenner to Emily.

Email invites and Follow-up phone calls:
- Everyone has mailed the invites to their respective lists.
- Stephen W. agreed to contact environmental groups which hadn’t been covered. As he’s away until Tues., Alistair will follow-up with key groups.
- People have been making phone calls to key groups. It’s useful to call in addition to the email invites since many people aren’t familiar with the WSF and ISF at all and it takes a bit of personal contact to really call their attention to the issue.

Further contacts? Emily will contact Alisa Keane and see if she can post the invite to the Stop the War Coalition list.

B. Agenda for Public Meeting
- We decided that the meeting should be primarily informational and not a working meeting. We only have two hours and most of that time will be used up by the presentations and discussion.
- We decided that we should schedule a working meeting to constitute the NE/Belfast ISF fairly soon. This meeting would sort out the nitty gritty of the NE/Belfast ISF (structure, outreach, communication, events, resources, etc.). We identified the dates of July 8, 9 or 10, which we’ll take a poll on at the meeting. Emily will check on room availability with Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre.
- Eoin and Gerard will check into a bus for the ISF launch on July 6. Eoin will put together a sign up sheet for anyone who wants a place on the bus – if there are enough who sign up, we’ll make arrangements. Eoin will coordinate this.

C. Equipment/materials for meeting
- Clare will bring powerpoint projector and laptop. Emily will ask her if she has access to an overhead projector just in case.
- Eoin will bring flipchart, pens, bluetack
- Documents for distribution at meeting: Charter of Principles, article (Alistair will work with Eoin to find a suitable article on the WSF to copy. Anyone else who has a good piece please forward to Eoin. Eoin will run off copies.

D. Other points
- In the spririt of openness and transparency, Eoin will post the notes from this meeting and the last on Indymedia.
- Emily will check with Barry to see if we can post our minutes etc. on the ISF website.
- Emily will bring registration sheet for the meeting.


Public Meeting Report

Tuesday 24th June, 2003
Exchange Place, Belfast


For those of you who weren't at the meeting last Tues. night - attendance far exceeded our expectations, as the many who had to stand can attest to. There were close to fifty people who took part!

Most of the meeting was informational. We heard from three speakers:
- Lorna Gold (Trocaire) gave a great overview of the World Social Forum - its strengths and weaknesses, and its tremendous potential.
- Barry Finnegan (ATTAC) gave us lots of insights into the development of the Irish Social Forum and plans for upcoming events including the upcoming all-island ISF Get-together on July 6th, in Dublin. It will run all day and address issues such as structure, communication, funding, the October events and so forth. (There is the possibility that we'll organise a bus for folks who want to go down - will be in touch about details.)
- Rory Hearne (SWP) was a very last minute addition to the panel. He talked in greater detail about the World Economic Forum (a gathering of the world capitalist elite) and plans to protest against their meeting in Dublin in October.

There was a lively discussion that followed and, despite some cracklings of disagreement and tension, there was enthusiastic and unanimous support to get together for a working meeting to set up a NE/Belfast Irish Social Forum. There was also strong affirmation that the social forum should include a wide range of groups, should not to be 'led' or dominated by any particular group, be it trade union, political affiliation, or what have you, and that the process should be as open, transparent and democratic as possible.

So, the 1st working meeting of the NE/Belfast ISF will be:
July 8, 2003
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre
42-45 Donegall St., Belfast

It's an open meeting, so spread the word. If you stand against neoliberalism and global capitalism and believe that 'another world is possible,' come join us.

See you all there.
Emily Kawano
Institute for Popular Economics