Reports from the European Social Forum in Florence

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday November 14, 2002 15:28 by Graham Caswell

Public Meeting in Liberty Hall on Saturday, November 16th at 4pm

There will be a public meeting with reports from Irish participants in the European Social Forum in Florence, Italy this Saturday, November 16th at 4pm in Liberty Hall, Dublin. Speakers at the meeting will include representatives from several groups that attended the ESF, including Earthwatch, The Civil and Public Service Union, The Green party, Canals Community Network and Globalise Resistance.

The European Social Forum attracted over 60,000 participants for three days of meetings, demonstrations, discussions and other happenings with the shared theme of 'Another World is Possible'. It included prominent anti-globalisation speakers such as Naomi Klein, Walden Bello, Hanan Ashrawi, and Jose Bove and the highpoint was a march against war that attracted over 500,000 people.

The European Social Forum arose out of a World Summit of civil society groups in Porto Allegre, Brazil which occurred last year. The three main themes around which it was organised were (1) Globalisation, neo-liberalism and the struggle against privatisation (2) War and Peace (3) Rights, Citizenship and Democracy. Unlike other anti-globalisation events, the ESF did not happen on the fringes of a mainstream political or economic summit but occurred independently. It represents a maturing of the anti-globalisation movement from a protest movement to one which is beginning to set its own agenda, provide a forum for debate and discussion, identify and clarify common objectives, discuss and agree tactics for pushing change forward, and encouraging active citizenship.