Report on 2nd All-Island Irish Social Forum Get-Together

national | public consultation / irish social forum | news report Monday July 14, 2003 20:30 by unknown - copying Barry Finnegan's email - ISF

summary of the proceedings - repost of Barry Finnegan's email

On Sunday, July 6th 2003 the Irish Social Forum (ISF) process had its 2nd all-island ISF get-together. The following is a summary of the proceedings at this event and also attempts to (briefly) place the event within context of the ongoing Irish Social Forum dialogue within and between sectors of civil society on the island who are concerned about the negative impact
that neoliberalism is having on democracy, community, human rights, workers rights, the environment, public services and the poor of the world.

It is not intended as THE definitive document interpreting the event, and I may have got some things wrong, so please come to meetings and get-togethers and let us continue working together for the ISF in the ISF spirit of co-operation.

all the best,
Barry Finnegan
- on behalf of the Irish Social Forum Communications Working Group.
=======================

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND ALL-ISLAND IRISH SOCIAL FORUM GET-TOGETHER
(Sun. July 6th 2003, Dublin, Ireland):

INTRODUCTION:
100 people from a wide variety of sectors of Irish civil society (community, environment, development, human rights, trade unions, progressive academics,global and local social and economic justice, left and green political parties)gathered in Dublin to hear reports from the various regional social forums (North-West, North-East, South-West) from around the island. We also heard a report linking the global ideological neoliberal project to the local
issue of proposals to privatise Dublin Bus; and a report outlining what the World Economic Forum is, what their Lisbon Review document means for
democracy, and public services and why the people of the island should oppose their Competition Summit in Dublin next October, 2003.

Following on from this there were short reports from the ISF Building and Finance Working Group, ISF Communications Working Group, the ISF Outreach
Working Group, and the ISF Topics and Principles Working Group.

During the six month process known as the Open Space Dialogue for Irish Civil Society to Build an Irish Social Forum, which led to the 1st all-island ISF get-together on May 24th 2003, October 2003 was identified as an opportunity to hold the 1st Irish Social Forum. The reason for choosing this date was because the worlds most powerful group of corporations, the World Economic
Forum, announced they were coming to Dublin to hold a Competition Summit which is to be co-hosted by Peter Sutherland and Mary Harney.

WHAT CONCLUSIONS DID WE COME TO ABOUT THE LONG-TERM PROCESS OF THE IRISH
SOCIAL FORUM?

The ISF is a local edition of the World Social Forum. The individuals and groups who make up the participants of the Irish Social Forum agreed on
May 24th 2003 at the 1st all-island ISF get-together to sign up to, adopt and abide by the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum. (This was done with an addition of the consensus that we will not discriminate against individuals just because they are members of a political party.)
[Charter of Principles available at:
http://www.irishsocialforum.org/charter.html]

The Irish Social Forum (ISF) is a process to assist in, and present, the articulation of, the movement of movements of individuals, organisations and groups that make up civil society on the island of Ireland who are negatively effected by and are opposed to the global project known as neoliberalism.

The ISF is not a group or an organisation. No one individual or group can speak on behalf of the ISF.

The participants in the ISF shall not be called on to take decisions as a body, whether by vote or acclamation, on declarations or proposals for
action that would commit all, or the majority, of them and that propose to be taken as establishing positions of the Forum as a body. It thus does
not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the participants in its meetings, nor does it intend to constitute the only option for interrelation and action by the organisations and movements that participate in it.

The ISF is a process that will continue on in the years of the foreseeable future.

The ISF has a permanent core working structure to facilitate the ISF which is made up the ISF Building and Finance Working Group, ISF Communications Working Group, the ISF Outreach Working Group, and the ISF Topics and Principles
Working Group. These Working Groups have a clear and defined mandate to govern and guide their activities and at all times are subject to the World Social Forum Charter of Principles. [To help out and get involved see: http://www.irishsocialforum.org/signup_temp.html
]

SO WHO WAS THERE FOR THE 2ND ALL-ISLAND ISF GET-TOGETHER?:

There were many people in attendance who are individuals representing themselves and not part of any group. The following is a list of groups that individuals attending the 2nd all-island ISF get-together are members of and is taken from the registration sheets of the July 6th event. It does not indicate formal or informal approval or otherwise of their organisations for the
ISF processes as a whole and does not represent them being formal of informal representatives of their organisations, the list is intended to remind us all of the diversity of groups and individuals that come together through
the process of the Irish Social Forum to critique and build alternatives to neoliberalism: Alliance For Choice; Anti Bin Tax Campaign; Amnesty
International; ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid
of Citizens); Ballybeg Youth Project (Waterford); Campaign Against Services Charges; Campaign for Free Education; Civil and Public Services Union; Comhlámh; Friends of the Earth (Ireland); Globalise Resistance; Grassroots Gathering;
Green Party; Impact; Independent Socialist Network; Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Irish Anti-War Movement; Labour Party; Latin America Solidarity Centre; Nexus Research; National Bus and Rail Union; NCAD Students Union;
One World Centre (Belfast); Sinn Féin; SIPTU; Socialist Party; Socialist Workers Party; Tools for Solidarity; Tróicre; Unison; Workers Party; Workers Solidarity Movement. There is a much more extensive list of groups and organisations who have been attending ISF process meetings in the Northeast, the Northwest,the Southwest and Dublin who were unable to attend the July 6th event due
to holidays, sporting events and group resources. [The ISF Communications Working Group is currently building add-ons to the www.IrishSocialForum.org website for these regional Forums to post the minutes of their own meetings and other resources.]

SO WHAT ARE THE DETAILS FOR EVENTS IN DUBLIN SURROUNDING THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM COMPETITION SUMMIT AND HOW DOES THE ISF RELATE TO THEM?

The 100 participants from the various sectors of civil society spent three hours engaged in consensus decision making in order to answer this question. We started from the agreed position of the 1st all-island ISF get-together of May 24th where is was decided that the first Irish Social Forum would take place as a Counter Summit on the theme of Co-Operation from Fri. 17th to Sun. 19th of October 2003 in opposition to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Competition Summit from Mon. 20th to Tue. 21st October 2003. We had also
decided that the structures of the ISF would organise a family-friendly Carnival for Global Economic and Social Justice on the afternoon of Sun. 9th October. (Note: This position was changed again later on during the proceedings, see below.)

There were a number of participants (groups and individuals) at the May 24th 1st all-island ISF get-together who felt strongly that the ISF should
also organise a March Against The WEF and a Mass Civil Disobedience Against The WEF. The majority of the participants disagreed with this and as a consensus it was decided that ISF Interim Think Tank For October Working Group would go off and write up proposals regarding these two issues for later consideration.


The July 6th, 2nd all-island ISF get-together heard the proposals for March Against The WEF from the ISF Interim Think Tank For October Working Group as follows:
- We propose that the ISF organises a peaceful march from Dublin City centre(G.P.O., O Connell St.)to the venue of the WEF on Monday evening (at a time to facilitate workers involvement) on October 20th.
- This march would be a gigantic demonstration in the same style of the February 15th 2003 Anti-War March.
- The demonstration would have tens of thousands of groups and individuals participating and reflect the energy, diversity and strength of the movement just like the colourful and lively Feb 15th Anti-War March.
- We propose that the ISF asks the trade unions to steward the march (as has been done in similar events in the past).
- That the ISF gets a broad coalition of trade unions, NGOs, etc to support the march.
- That the ISF begins now in getting all the aforementioned in backing the march.

After some brief discussion this proposal was carried by consensus. (Note: This position was changed again later on during the proceedings, see below.)The time was agreed for 6.00pm.

Then the issue and proposals of the mass civil disobedience came up. The July 6th, 2nd all-island ISF get-together heard the proposals for the Blockade of The WEF from the ISF Interim Think Tank For October Working Group as follows:
- We propose that the ISF organises peaceful blockades of the WEF to start early in the am of Oct. 20th.
- (Consisting of) a mass peaceful blockade with thousands of people (especially students) to form pickets at the Dublin Castle gates standing and sitting in lines.
- That the presence of thousands of people will effectively stop all entry points to the WEF, bar helicopter!
- We propose that there is a responsibility on the ISF to organise blockades to disrupt the meetings which should be declared illegal and anti-democratic.

This proposal was rejected.

However, because we were engaged in consensus decision making we all accepted that some compromise position had to be reached. There seemed to be two main reasons for a desire for compromise:

1. Although many of those present had no intention of participating in the civil disobedience blockade, and/or knew that their group/organisation/political party would not/could not endorse or participate in it, they as individuals respected everyones right to be guided by their conscience to engage in
their constitutional and human right to engage in civil disobedience as a legitimate form of political activity in a democratic country.
2. Those individuals and group/organisation/political parties who were in
favour of the blockade respected everyone elses right not to participate in the civil disobedience blockade and accepted that they did not want to and could not force the individuals and groups/organisations/political parties nor the ISF to take a position on the issue against the strength of feeling in the room.

Further to this a number of other points were raised, these included, but were not limited to:

- That the Grassroots Gathering are a grouping that are organising mass civil disobedience (or if you like: non-violent direct action) on the Morning of Oct. 20th in order to disrupt what they see as the illegitimate activities
of the WEF. To this end they have formed a number of working groups (more info see: http://grassrootsgathering.freeservers.com; GGcontact@yahoogroups.com)
to which people are free to join, in order to inform the people of the island why they intend to take this action, to produce pamphlets etc explaining their actions, to meet groups around the country to encourage participation and to point out what they see as being wrong with the WEF. It was pointed out that this grouping is not asking the ISF to endorse their activities,
so why should any other grouping ask the ISF for endorsement? It was also raised that why does the island need a second mass civil disobedience group, why cannot all those individuals work together with the Grassroots Gathering
people and co-ordinate resources?

- (Not intended as a response to the above), it was raised that if the ISF organised and endorsed a Carnival and a March and not a Blockade, then we
may have a situation where the for-profit media with a pro-neoliberalist editorial policy, journalists who do not do enough research and journalists who like to hyperbolise sensationalist stories with little substance, would create a dichotomy between good-protestors and bad-protestors, and that this may produce a situation where the security forces of the state may deny citizens their constitutional and human right to engage in civil disobedience
as a legitimate form of political activity in a democratic country, and that as a result, the security forces of the state may use an unconstitutional level of physical violence against people.

- It was also raised that if the ISF organised and endorsed a Carnival and a March and not a Blockade, then the general public may see a Blockade as a fringe element of civil society comprised of the far-left.

- Others also raised the point that the whole civil disobedience issue was distracting us from the real issues which they saw as the homelessness, poverty, malnutrition, war, corporate take-over of all food and water and
public services on the planet, the reversal of democratic gains of past years - that all come from the undemocratic policies of the likes of the
World Economic Forum. And that all this talk of protests might distract people from coming to the Co-Operation Counter-Summit.

So after three hours consensus decision making we arrived at the following:


SUMMARY OF DECISIONS OF THE 2ND ALL-ISLAND ISF GET-TOGETHER:

1. The existing Irish Social Forum (ISF) core Working Groups (the ISF Building and Finance Working Group, ISF Communications Working Group, the ISF Outreach Working Group, and the ISF Topics and Principles Working Group) will continue
to exist (see section above: What Conclusions Did We Come To About The Long-Term Process Of The Irish Social Forum) and undertake their broad functions and connect with the different groups where necessary and appropriate in order that the ISF would -present- the weekend as a series of events, though web postings, and possibly leaflets, pamphlets and posters.

2. The core Working Groups of the Irish Social Forum (see above) will host just the main meetings/presentations, not all the events, of the ISF Co-Operation Counter-Summit of Fri. 17th to Sun. 19th October 2003.

3. A Co-Operation Counter-Summit Working Group will be established to organise other details, meetings, workshops, discussion groups, dialogues etc for this October ISF Co-Operation Counter-Summit.

4. The ISF does not endorse any of the four main elements of the weekend prior to and during the WEF Competition Summit.

5. At the end of any web-postings, publications etc a single list of participant organisations would be included with a disclaimer. [Disclaimer says: The ISF is a non-executive body and the activities organised during the Social Forum do not necessarily reflect the views of the individual affiliates and participants.]

6. A Carnival for Global Economic and Social Justice Working Group will be established to organise the carnival of Sun. Oct. 19th 2003.

7. A March Against the WEF Working Group will be established to organise the March of 6.00pm. Mon. 20th 2003.

8. A group called the O-20 Blockade Alliance will be established to organise the mass civil disobedience of the morning of Mon. 20th 2003.

9. Organisations and groups are responsible for their own activity and decision whether or not to join/endorse any of the activities.

10. Each group and working group would organise the different events in all its aspects.


end of doc.
- written by Barry Finnegan
- on behalf of the Irish Social Forum Communication Working Group.
Contacts: Isf_Commtalk-Subscribe@Topica.Com; john.finnegan3@mail.dcu.ie;
01-8741223.