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Mobilising for the European Social forum national |
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news report
 Thursday July 04, 2002 16:23 by Nora Geraghty - Globalise Resistance
 Report on meeting 2nd July 2002 The European Social Forum runs from the 7th-10th November 2002, in Florence, Italy, with a demonstration in support of immigrants organised for the 6th, the day before the Forum begins. On Tuesday 2nd July the first meeting to mobilise an Irish contingent for this event was held in the Teachers Club.
The meeting kicked off at around 7.45pm with Joe Carolan speaking of the need to bring together the different strands of the global movement in the spirit of the World Social Forum, which took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in February. 60,000 people came together at Porto Alegre to discuss how best to organise against the corporations that are wrecking our public services and our planet, how to tackle the third world debt and how to combat the desperate inequality that is being created by neo-liberal economic policies around the world. In the aftermath of this meeting it was decided that, as many Europeans could not afford to go to Brazil, a European version should be held in Florence, Italy, where the Anti-Capitalist Movement is very strong. In preparation for this event two huge halls have been booked, each with a capacity to hold 9000 people, and 24 smaller rooms each with a capacity for 2-3000. In the mornings there will be huge conferences focusing on issues such as fascism and the rise of the right-wing throughout Europe; war and the struggle for peace; refugees and human rights abuses, and environmental issues. In the late afternoons there will be public demonstrations on a range of issues and in the evenings there will be cultural events, world music and showing of films. The European Social Forum will run from the 7th to the 10th of November 2002, . The discussion was slow to begin, but when it did it was lively and interesting with many people speaking eloquently about their ideas and concerns. All seemed to agree that the time has come for us to unite under the banner of a broad movement and fight against the forces that are wrecking our world, and that in order to do that it will be necessary for us to put aside minor differences and open up a dialogue between left-wing groups, environmentalists, trade unions, peace activists and concerned individuals. The only real point of dissension was the Nice Treaty, as many people take very different standpoints on this for their own reasons. However, it was agreed that whatever your opinion on the treaty, the issues involved will soon become live issues in Ireland as the second referendum is scheduled for the autumn.
We fervently hope that the next meeting will attract a much bigger crowd, and that we can go to the European Social forum in November as a large Irish contingent. It has to be said that Ireland is lagging far behind some of its European neighbours when it comes to mobilising large numbers of people against the wrongs being inflicted on them and their brothers and sisters in other countries. Perhaps the European Social Forum can provide a focus which we in Ireland can use to work together and to learn to tolerate our traditional differences with a view to presenting real opposition to our common enemies. |
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Comments (19 of 19)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19Well done SWP for organising a national meeting on a weekday evening in Dublin. Guaranteed to attract the culchies.
The meeting was organised by Globalise Resistance. I'm not a member of the SWP.
I think that most people are aware that GR = SWP. This does not mean all members of GR are also members of the SWP.
good on you nora and everyone in GR- the only anti-capitalist group in the country that doesnt spend all it's time talking crap on the internet.
What does anti-capitalist mean?
As the woman just said, its past time to quit the sensless bickering and worthless carping of the type displayed above and confront the looming reality of forces already engaged in plungeing the world into a High-Tech Middle-Age which will very rapidly start to make Hitler's Nazi Kingdom look pretty liberal and peace-loving by comparison.
Nora, please email me details of how to help out with this.
Schalom, BlackPope
Would someone from "GR" care to address the real point I was making about the time and location of the meeting?
There are plenty of anti-capitalist groups all over the country who get on with their direct action campaigns without waving their hands in the air going "we are anti-capitalists, sign on for the revoloution". That smug shit "at least we're out there doing something" is very condescending to the thousands of people who are active in various campaigns. Answer the question and don't presume to know what other people are doing.
I have taken part in several united front single issue campaigns over the years. If there is an issue on which we are all agreed, I have no problem in co-operating with any organisation or individual. My initial sarcastic comment was made re my own personal experiences of dealing with the SWP.
They basicially view united campaigns as an opportunity to obtain more recruits and of course attempt to gain control of the campaign while attempting to give the impression that the reverse is the case. I now believe that co-operation with them on a principled basis is just not possible.
What does it do? How does it work? Yez are obviously trying to set up an ISF, what will it be? around what will it try to build unity? Will it be modelled on the celebrity driven talking shop of Porto Alegre? Will it be a haven for that section of the global elite that feel excluded from the WEF like Porto Alegre? Will it welcome African 'leaders' like Obasanjo, or mainstream European politicians temporarily excluded from power (like the French PS)? Does it see itself as a decision making body, or merely a consultative space? If it makes decisions, how are they made?
Unless there is some definite answers to these sorts of questions, I don't see how its going to draw in anybody outside of GR/SWP. What is the point in going along to another 'broad' group that operates through a tyranny of structurelessness?
"Perhaps the European Social Forum can provide a focus which we in Ireland can use to work together and to learn to tolerate our traditional differences with a view to presenting real opposition to our common enemies."
It won't. SWP/GR have pissed off too many people.
There may be some men around, and even some boys, but you really should know that Nora is a _woman_!
But what does your comment mean? Do you mean that you don't understand the preceding debate? Or do you mean that you don't want to read it? If it's the former then fine, if the latter then don't.
The question being discussed is what the hell is the European Social Forum? If I decide to turn up for a meeting am I just letting myself in for a lot of grief arguing with career socialists that are intent on creating organization that will give them status and exciting meetings to travel to? Will I be one of the millions that will be alleged to wholeheartedly support the policies of the SWP..sorry GR....sorry ESF! (there got it right!) because I foolishly entered a non-democratic structure?
In short, what the hell is the ESF, how is the meeting going to run? What democratic structure does it have? If I turn up with my 4000 mates and we decide to vote me Grand Emperor on the basis of our majority vote will I be delegated to represent the views of Ireland at the ESF? Can I express Irelands concerns as being centrally about the rigging of the Eurovision?
Your conversion to the SWP line has left me shell shocked. What will the brothers and sisters in the WSM think? Repent before it's too late.
"A broad group of people came together on Tuesday last to discuss mobilising for the European Social Forum. At a glance around the room the variety was encouraging. Apart from Globalise Resistance (who organised the meeting) the attendance included members of the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Labour Party, Green Party, SIPTU, the NUJ, the Irish Anti-War Movement and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Group." Notice who's missing? The major opponent of capitalism in the Irish Trade Union Movement - Mick O'Reilly - The Temporarily suspended Irish Regional Secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU). Mick's exclusion from the organising of this European Social Forum is a glaring and blantantly obvious omission. Why was Mick not even invited or asked to speak at the meeting last Tuesday? Would it have anything to do with the fact that one of the main mouthpieces for Globalise Resistance just happens to be one of the Des Geraghty clan namely Nora Geraghty? Too much of a coincidence. Des Geraghty was one of the main players of knifing Mick O'Reilly in the back and what's more we now have the evidence to prove this. Anybody who was at the Cross Union Reinstate Mick O'Reilly/Eugene McGlone Public Meeting in Wynn's Hotel last Thursday was shocked at the level of treachery undertaken by many of the leading players in the Irish Trade Union Movement in direct connivence with the Irish and British Governments. Well I have news for you Ms Geraghty and the rest of you who conspired to try and get rid of the ONLY fighting Trade Union leader who is also GENUINELY Anti capitalist - Mick O'Reilly. The chickens are coming home to roost and it's payback time. The old policy of "No free speech for traitors!" is being revived in this case. It's a question of no rest for the wicked. We're going to make life hell for you from now on Nora Geraghty and the rest of the back stabbing snakes in the grass. Anytime you pop your head up whether it's writing articles here or speaking at GR meetings we'll be waiting for you. I've never met you Ms Geraghty and I've no particular desire to meet you either but if I have to disrupt you speaking at a GR meeting and to confront you personally then I'm all up for that. From now on it's war and the gloves are well and truely off.
you'll have to enlighten me as to which 'line' you mean there and as to what WSM stands for - until then I cannot offer you much to help you over your traumatic shock, nor start with my repenting. Mail me if you want to go anywhere with this, alright?
Yours etc., BP
What do I mean by "line", I find this sucking up to Nora very very disgusting, I trust you are not thinking of becoming a reader of "Socialist Worker" and even whisper it, a MEMBER.
hey, you certifiable button-down lunatic, can you hear the voices in your head again, saying,
"please just sit tight, Sir .. the doctor will be along in a minute. Bite on this rubber bone until he shows up. I'll just be puting some jelly on these electrodes in the meantime, we don't want to singe your skull again, now do we?"
There is a name for people like you, paranoid, stalker, wierdo.
For short, I'm going to dub you 'Nobby Stalker'.
Now let me inform you, Mr. Stalker, that you are proposing here the crime of harrassment against a named person, which will carry, upon your certain conviction, a sentence of either 5 years picking up soap in the showers at Mountjoy or being slung back into the rubber-room from which you have only recently escaped.
So, either take your 'evidence' to court, or ask the nurse to tighten the cinches and ramp up your dosage. This will help fight the ghosts.
Best of luck with your headcase - a well-wisher
I was'nt referrring to Nora - just the 'pricks' to whom politics is a gang based videogame
repeating an empty statement doesn't make it any truer. Obviously your eliptic comment didn't convey what you intended it to. Also, do you think that talking about "pricks" is any sort of way to defuse that gang-warfare that you allege is occuring?