First Mediterranean Social Forum.

by .:. @ * + € $ % - we must not lose. Fri Mar 18, 2005 00:26

The presumed venue is the CCCB (contemporary centre of culture Barcelona) Montalegre 7 Barcelona just off Placa Angel where the skaters board.

http://www.cccb.es/cat/cccb.htm

The dates will clash with bourgoise types in Dublin who think James Joyce was about period dress and wanted his love letters put on display for the agrandisement of the state and Senator D. Norris and the whole sad miserable North Great Georges Street crew.

Those who wish to participate ought consider-

What specific contribution can you make as a representative / delegate of a northern country?
(if its just a holiday and t-shirt gig don't bother)

Got that...
On what bases of communality can we create for the peoples of the Mediterrean, a sea of Peace, Justice and Fraternity?
What can we do _*concretely*_ from the north?

€$%.:.*+@

organisers of the preliminary meeting-
Àgora nord sud, ATTAC, CC.OO, CGT, CIEMEN, Desenvolupament Comunitari, Fundació A. Comín, Fundació per la Pau, IAC, Intermón-Oxfam, Justícia i Pau, Marcha Mundial de Dones, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització, RAI, SODEPAU, Xarxa de Consum Solidari, Xarxa de Mobilització Global…
(entities adhering to the promotional assembly of Forum Social Mediterrean).

by €$%.:.*+@ Fri Mar 18, 2005 14:51

Arcadi Oliveres chair of economics Univ Autonomous Barcelona
Madjid Benchikh, prof. of international law Univ. Cergy-Pontoise, ex chair of law univ Algiers.
Alima Boumedienne, ex-deputy Nordic Green Group €U parliament and a current senator of France.
Mohàmmed el-Amine Ragala, of Fez Univ. Morrocco. and spokesperson for al-Badil Alhadari.

will speak tomorrow at the preliminary gig at CCCB, Bcn to attract people "of their type" to the convoked Mediterrean Social Forum.

they're very clever, and have good jobs, and know their lines, and don't write on napkins. They may some have dodgy names, but none of them wear tweed or write sonnets. Thus they will attract the "right" sort of lefty.

one lefty group-
http://www.revoltaglobal.net/WEB/noticiaweb_050314b.htm
to colloborate (english page not ready yet)
(makes sense though english is a third language for most of the mediterreneans- if they get that glotal)
http://www.fsmed.info/colabora-ct.htm

ulysses will bloom! J16 - J18 med. social forum

by € .:. + * @ $ Fri Mar 18, 2005 20:22

They've been busy, asking can "plurilingual education help kids stop balding or getting progressively more stupid" and listening to the considerations of the Madrid conference on Terror, Democracy and Security which shall yearly be held for March 11.
in which they more or less agreed with everything in "the big boy who sign things way" and then went on to issue a call to reconsider the Barcelona Doctrine on M14 the anniversary of the election.

you may read the speech by €U exterior minister,
Nic Schmit here-
http://www.eu2005.lu/en/actualites/discours/2005/03/14nscaire/index.html

The next summit (number 7) of mediterrean foreign ministers (mostly boys) will be held on May 30 and May 31 in Luxembourg. This will be one of the last acts of their presidency before they hand over everything to the UK team who "pray" will not be led anymore by u know who...

Then two weeks later, we'll do the first Mediterranean Social Forum.

Now in case you don't know what the BCN declaration is, it was enshrined in 1995 and in a "big boy sign things way" & outlines loads of shite for everyone. just like Lisbon and Shengen did. Mr Spring signed it for Ireland, Mr Bouez for the lebanon, and Mr Barak for Israel.
Mr Sharon rejected the BCN doctrine "you cvan come here and have a chat if you want" clause earlier this year, just about the time he also said "piss off" to Blair, (to show he doesn't really like any of us) but we'll ask him again, coz he's certainly a big boy who signs things (and not a little rose), and he might like to reconsider coming here to chat to everyone, since he became the first Israeli leader ever to be invited to the Texan "the ranch / bunker" in history last night, and word is, they don't have a spoon long enough.

If you can't think of anything useful to say, or do at either of these events, or can't even write a decent TV/ radio / print bit of media on the topic, send a really long spoon to the Knesset.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/euromed/bd.htm

by € Wed Jun 15, 2005 13:23

info:-
http://www.fsmed.info/
Program (its an excel file):-
ENGLISH--> http://www.fsmed.info/programa-en.xls
and all the mediterranean is excited!!!!
Italy:-
http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=43156
Serbia:-
http://see.oneworld.net/article/view/113240/1/3260

but not without hiccups, of the 800 or so expected, many have had / are having problems with their visas.
Today the arrival of the squad of 300 interpreters & translators of the Babels org, is expected and will give an indication of the "visa" problem. I'll write up reports in other press about it, once its happened.

by i Thu Jun 16, 2005 15:17

25 talks have happened the day began with thoughts on feminism, refugees here [spain] and farming issues [seeds & peasant rights]. The best attended thing this morning/noon (and there are still a lot of people battling the registration queues) was a manistream union talk on GATTS. There are a lot of people, I've got an impression of the beautiful diversity of the peoples of the mediterranean which I must admit I don't think I've ever had before. And what makes them even more cute is that they're probably all lefties, its quite -quite -too much & I feel faint.

by dunk Thu Jun 16, 2005 15:49

hi iosaf and med people
i made another little post re the sf there
http://easa.antville.org/stories/1147603/
i hope it wont be wiped, could though
and you saw blooms story is gone
i dont know-

and on bloomin stuff:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70090&search_text=monks%20garden#comment110212

by :-) Thu Jun 16, 2005 19:43

: "you're a lefty? how strange so too am I".

The FIRA placa madrid is a big complex, and the forum is spread throughout two areas, one a big hall with stalls, (the usual suspects paid 300€ each for a stall) and the other which sometimes is a multi-level car park, which has lots of different talks and things going on, exchanges of opinion, and the Babels crew are doing very very well in translating it all.
"you've lovely hair, have you ever thought of wearing it in a tress or plait looped over your brow?"

The delegates have now faced the choices of-
* a conference entitled "by defending rights we expand peace"
* water
* free trade as a mediterranean model"
* going for a drink and then home with their new pal.

most seemed to be into the "free trade consequences and alternatives" option, but I'm learning basic serbian and going through my favourite haircut pictures. Tomorrow will be another day.

by io Thu Jun 16, 2005 20:04

Oh well you can't miss it, there is a palpable air of braininess. Another thing you can't really miss is the difference between west and east and north and south mediterranean. They're not having a good time on the southside, and they're very articulate about expressing it, but they show no interest in the annual SONAR festival, which is happening this weekend in barcelona and is the yearly progressive and electronic music festival http://www.sonar.es/
And this is a little clue to the great yawning divide between north & south - west & east. Younger delegates (love that term) from western europe suggest taking in the SONAR festival during their visit to catalonia. I have not as of yet met anyone who has suggested availing of the couch service from the RC church to demonstrate in Madrid on Saturday "for the family". Yet aye here's a thing, many delegates from the south and east draw the line on social progression with same sex unions classified as marriage with adoption rights to children. I know coz I asked them. "exercise your braininess" is my motto.

by i Sat Jun 18, 2005 12:04

Friday was heavy-weight communist day, oh well there were a lot of them, dour lot mostly, not many giggles around the inner cadres of mediterranean 4th internationalist socialism. But they do seem to know what they believe and want and have agreed somewhere in the dim recesses of time on exactly what language to use with it.
But Seriously :-
The mediterranean has many war and militarised zones, we know that, Palestine, the Balkans, and other situations "just over the horizon" such as western sahara. Delegates (the inner cadre types of those socialist parties and unions) who have become very used to travelling to those zones "to inspect" are finding it increasingly more difficult, and this was an off-side topic of conversation. Thus in the last month we have seen an Irish TD party treated badly in Palestine, and a Catalan green party hassled by the morroccans on the way to western sahara.