ESF News in Brief

ESF News in Brief
Paola Babos
TNI Website, 1 November 2002

Paola Babos collaborates with Lunaria, Rome-based NGO, and also with University of Bologna and the Centre for Central-Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She contributed these articles to the TNI.

ESF News in Brief

While the tones of the political debate over responsibility for law and order during the five day ESF initiative which will take place in Florence starting on November 6th inflames Italian public opinion, ESF coordinating bodies have decided not to comment the government's decisions. To the contrary, they have kept their focus on the day-to-day work at the Fortezza da Basso, where they are finalising the last details for the first meeting of all European Social Movements - a grand event that includes a range of inItiatives and campaigns to grant hospitality and ensure the smooth running of events.

Firenze Città Aperta

In spite of the public disinformation campaign mounted by local media, (in April, 95% of the citizens of Florence believed that the ESF amounted to four days of public street protests) the campaign "Firenze Città Aperta" (Open City Florence) promoted by the ESF committee has successfully prepared the city for this extraordinary event. The campaign has sought to inform and involve citizens of Florence by organising hospitality schemes (more than 500 Florentines will open their homes to give hospitality to ESF participants), ethical food eat-outs (which also includes a fundraising campaign for Emergency's activities worldwide), a 25% reduction in museum fees, and a range of simultaneous street parties, among a long list of other side events and activities.

The numbers

The number of participants are increasing on an hourly basis, but there are currently some 10.000 registrations with 1000 volunteers who will help the smooth running of events. Participants will arrive from 105 countries, with the French at the top of the list with some 2.000 participants, followed by about 1500 Spaniards, and approximately 1000 Germans and Britons. Other international participants are expectd from New Zealand, South Africa, Lebanon, Morocco, Perù, Argentina, USA, only to name a few.

Operazione Scriba

Given the range of workshops, seminars and conferences that will take place over the three days of debate, the Florence Social Forum together with Cospe have launched "Operazione Scriba" to create a collective memory of ESF contents and debates. Over 100 students will be involved in the operation to collect workshop and seminar data and inputs through a uniform grid that will help them synthesize the main issues and propositions being put forward. While promoting the participation and interest of students, the operation will create an invaluable historical memory of the alternatives, ideas and strategies being produced at the forum.

Right to participate

Following the Italian Government's decision to suspend the Schengen Agreements in order to control entrance of foreign citizens at Italy's border, a group of Italian "Disobbedienti" will be stationed at the Ancona port to monitor police activities and protect people's right to participate at the Social Forum. Approximately 1500 participants are expected from Greece between November 5th and 7th. Given the precedents of police rejecting entry to participants on the occasion of the G8 in Genova, the Disobbedients will be present to monitor the police's observation of participants' civil and democratic rights. Similarly, other groups including parliamentarians will be stationed across Italy's main entry points.

Self-protection mechanisms

To avoid any possible public disorder, the Forum has created its own "protection service", which will be fully inclusive so that everyone will be asked to autoprotect themselves. As Raffaella Bolini explains, "thousands of volunteers will manage hospitality: we will have our own information service within the march, and we invite everyone to come with cameras and video cameras to discourage possible abuses by the police". As to the Peace March of Saturday 9th, for which special trains will be arriving from all over Italy, one of the ideas is that of involving those activists who worked with Florence's shopkeepers and citizens to promote the campaign of "Firenze Città Aperta", to station them along the sides of the march.

Italy's Government Raises Political Tension Around ESF

The sad truth emerging from the mounting political debate in the Italian press over the European Social Forum is the government's lack of political will to welcome participants, acknowledge the importance of fostering debate on global/european issues, and engage in constructive dialogue with civil society organisations. Rather, the government has chosen to embark on a widespread campaign to discredit the movement, while fostering a general sense of fear and alarm over the question of public security in Florence during the five days in question (November 6-10). Interestingly enough, while ESF organisers have spent a great deal of efforts over the past months to meticulously arrange all logistics arrangements and hospitality under the banner of "Firenze città aperta" (Florence the open city) in full coordination and cooperation with local government authorities, the government has instead chosen to disregard all such efforts, suspend the Schengen agreements at Italy's borders, while threatening to move, and even to cancel the first continental meeting of European civil society. As a result, the mainstream Italian press has avoided any discussion of the contents of the European Social Forum.

The main argument being put forward by Berlusconi's government is that Florence is a bad choice for such an event because of its intrinsic vulnerability as an "open air museum": clearly such an argument rests on the assumption that violence is in turn intrinsic to the ESF initiative. As Genova's sad events are manipulated to raise public fears over possible devastations by the hands of the so-called "black block", the media promptly fails to remember the peaceful gathering of activists, which was held this summer - a year after the G8 parallel summit . In addition, no one is willing to draw the distinction between the European Social Forum as a continental meeting of social movements seeking to build on the success of the Porto Alegre experience, by exchanging experiences and proposing alternative solutions, and the parallel summits which emerged from Seattle to Genova in open protest and contestation of the gathering of world leaders to decide on global issues.

The debate has thus centred on the government's responsibility for law and order during the five day ESF meeting in Florence. Instead of cooperating with local government officials, who have granted hospitality to the ESF, the interior minister's first response was an attempt to hold local government officials accountable: namely, the Mayor of Florence, Leonardo Domenici, and the President of Tuscany, Claudio Martini, both representatives of the opposition party DS- Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left). But the Minister's political strategy to pass on responsibility to opposition-led local government while raising a climate of fear about a devastated Florence was short lived by a clear rejection on the part of Mayor Domenici, and the opposition parties at large, who in turn requested that the Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, outline a clear plan of action, law and order being the sole responsibility of the Cabinet.

As a result, rumours of a possible decision to block the ESF altogether, or to move it to another "less vulnerable" location, started mounting only a week before the actual opening ceremony. In line with its Charter of Principles, the ESF organising committee made every effort to avoid that ESF participating organisations be labelled as violent or dangerous to public security. In an open letter to Parliament it denounced the defamatory campaign underway, which "seeks to alter completely the sense and nature of the event, while isolating it from public opinion, and thus hindering its success", and demanded that law and order issues be handled in a transparent manner, in respect of the democratic and civil rights of participating Italian and European citizens.

At the same time, political exponents of the Centre-Left opposition pointed to the government's real objective of using the question of law and order in Florence to construct a "political trap to divide the opposition and create a climate of tension around the Social Forum initiative". In response, and instead of easing the tension to create a more favourable political climate, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi condemned the movement and local government officials, insisting that Florence was an inappropriate (i.e. a politically irresponsible) choice, that dangers did exist, and that devastations would surely take place.

In spite of all such political noise, however, the final government decision confirming the ESF was made on Thursday October 31st, after a move by DS secretary general, Piero Fassino, for a bipartisan collaboration on the issue of public security, and in spite of Berlusconi's persistent reluctance and public display of preoccupation over possible risks. In other words, Berlusconi's government received a wide mandate - and thus a political backing - in case of incidents of violence, while the opposition party led by Fassino claimed a substantial role in ensuring the smooth implementation of ESF activities. At the same time, however, it is also true that any move to change the schedule of activities planned in accordance with local authorities would have created more risks of violence and public disorder, given the tensions and provocations created by the whole debate, and the centre-right's accusation that local authorities have acted in a politically irresponsible manner by granting hospitality to the ESF initiative.

Consequently, and since the ESF has been confirmed by the Italian cabinet, the real effect of the political debate created around the question of law and order at the ESF, is that of undermining the real message and scope of what will take place in Florence from November 6 -10, while dissuading some citizens from participating. Public opinion is asked to focus on the possibilities of infiltration by violent anarchist groups who are clearly not in the spirit of those organisations that will gather to exchange experiences, hold debates and protest against war in defence of democracy and civil rights. It is quite unfortunate that - contrary to the efforts of ESF organising bodies - the mainstream press has failed to inform the public about the contents of the forum, with its 20 conferences, 150 seminars, 250 workshops, and a range of parallel activities and events. While one would hope that such a political debate will at best serve to avoid indiscriminate repression by the police in case of infiltration by violent elements, it is also true that its principal effect is that of keeping ESF issues and debates out of public reach.