FIRST MEETING OF THE OCTOBER ISF THINK TANK GROUP (5TH GROUP) THURSADAY MAY 29TH.

Friday May 30, 2003 19:32

by antrophe

FIRST MEETING OF THE OCTOBER ISF THINK TANK GROUP (5TH GROUP) THURSADAY MAY 29TH. PRESENT: Lawerence (Grassroots Gathering), Rory (GR), Christian (Friends of the Earth), James (Socialist Alternative), Sean (Socialist Alternative and Global Action UCD), and Cian (Labour Youth) MINUTES: James (antrophe@hotmail.com)

AGENDA:
1) Venues.
2) Speakers.
3) Carnival.
4) Potential Demo.

1) VENUES.

Cian- need to develop a proposal and plan for june meeting of ISF.
Rory- Agreed, need for a ten minute discussion on each of the themes on the agenda.
Lawerence- how amny are we looking at for the demos?
Rory- 30,000-40,000.
Lawerence- need for venue of 1,000 people.
Rory- Liberty and trinity.
James- Cultivate centre.
Lawerence- would Trinity pull out because of 'police intervention'?
Rory- NCAD.
Cian- Not big enough.
Rory- can always pursue the idea of seperate venues for each aspect of the ISF, use different spaces for the media centre, convergence centre etc...
Cian- the more centralised it is the better.
Rory- Liberty Hall?
Cian- liberty hall has only one big hall.
Rory- no, there are two halls, one upstairs and downstairs.
Lawerence- teachers club is ideal for workshops.
Rory- think of map of city, and chose four venues in close proximity, find out their avalibility and expense. What about ATG Hall?
Lawerence- need to have a visible colourful presence in the city itself.
James- New Theatre?
Sean- need for colour and visible presence to create the mood of an event regardless of wheter people know.
Rory- someone needs to investigate the WEF conference which is coming here, who exactly is coming, knowledge can build momentum. Get in touch with organisers of Davos Protests and NY protests, see how they found out, as it is not a full summit of the WEF.
Lawerence- Farmleigh House, major security consideratiosn need to be in place to safegaurd WEF venue.

Agreed:
Those present will investigate venues for Friday 17th October to Tuesday 21st Of October. The possible venues discussed were devided up and people took responsibility for finduing out their avalibility and expense.

Christian- Liberty Hall.
lawerence- trinity.
James- Cultivate and New Theatre.
Rory- NCAD and ATG Hall.
Sean-Teachers Club.

Cian- to investigate the WEF and possible location of conference.

2) SPEAKERS.

Lawerence- 2 kinds of speakers needed, big international speakers and activists from campaigns in Ireland.
Christian- put out call to Irish activists who wish to host discussions and workshops at counter summit.
Cian- be concious of the fact that we do not want to organise a series of lectures, encourage participatory discussion
Rory- simple solution, don't have a head table of key speakers.
James- rather than feature the 'stars' of the anti-globalisation, offer platforms to activists from international campaigns and movements.

At this point a wish list of speakers was discussed, including;
Bello, Chomsky, Beve, Lovelock, Starhawk, Roy, Klien, Fisk, Cassarini, speakers from Italien Social Centres, Callicnicos, MST Brazil, Tony Benn, EZLN, Monbiot, Hardt, Someone from Argentina (picketers?), Paris ESF, KFU Farmers Union in India, Stop the War coalition in England, reclaim the bases.

There is also a need to come up with an International Varient of call to local activists.

Agreed:
Lawerence- to formulate draft call.
Everyone- to check the avalibility of speakers for possible counter talks.

3) CARNIVAL.

Rory- open space seems to be consensus, family friendly affair, art and theatre.
Sean- theare and fire.
Lawerence- begin process of contacting people interested inthe creative sie of the events.
Christian- will ask Kila of their avalibility.
James- Genoa style Manu Chao type concert.
Lawernce- can we get stephens green?
Christain- it is possible in principal.
Rory- if we get in touch with authoroties, we can apply pressure and ask for resources.
Cian- get Dublin corporation support and then we can get resources.
Cian- cant approach corpo untill we have a more definite plan.
Rory- imperative we look at Dublin Corpo as soon as we can.
Cian- need to get parties backing the demonstration.
Christian -get unions on borad as soon as possible
Rory- who do we need to call?
Cian- need to formulate a definite idea of what it is they are being asked to back first though.

4) POTENTIAL DEMO.

Christian- it needs to be a Proactive demo, invite people to come internationally.
Lawerence- Davos did that, invite them to come and particiapate.
Ropry- GR proposal is for a poeaceful Non violent march, called by ISF or backed by ISF. To finish with NV blockades on the monday.
Lawerence- people terrified of idea of NVDA.
Cian- one large demo organised by ISF.
Rory- then possibility of days left aside for DA.
Cian- need NVDA in mornings if we want to shut it down.
Cian- large march sunday, ending in carnival, propose a day assigned to DA.
James- need a space for a speakers council of those taking part on the day.
Chris- a friend feels carnival is as good as any demo.
Cian- sunday will facilitate large numbers from the country. Sunday should be a safe event. Demo should be political.
Lawerence- the nightmare scenario is two months of media hype, terrorise people from taking part, break up movement like march 1st in Shannon.
Cian- so get established parties and unions invovled before that process of hype begins.
James- a march reinforces the actual power of the ISF.
Lawerence- preempt media hype by organising a conference and press conference on NVDA, feature Gnadhi etc and place it in the right traditions of legitimised struggle.
Cian- will the ISF provide legal support.