2002-09-18

AUTONOMOUS SPACE AT THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM IN FLORENCE

* In terms of form, spirit and political practice:
- the autonomous forum should be a free access space.
- It should be aiming for active participation based on horizontal self-organisation.
- Its political activities should be communicative and outreaching.
- It should include direct actions with clear communication strategies aiming to open up new practices and fields of conflicts.

* In terms of political content:
One of the aims of an autonomous forum would be to interact with the participants of the official ESF. The autonomous forum should address anti-capitalist issues, and therefore also
- A critique of the Keynesian "solutions" offered to the capitalist crisis
- A critique of the State, power structures and all systems of domination.
- No Border, No Nation : freedom of movement as a universal right and a rejection of the border regime.
- Address the idea of free access (French: gratuité), the free access to information, the Commons, rejection of private property. - act against the permanent state of war including an anti-militaristic perspective, desertion and innovative manners.

* In terms of action:
The meeting in Leiden expressed about actions:
- that they should be symbolic direct actions that make our basic positions, values and differences from social democracy clear. - with a clearly understandable meaning and a communication strategy attached to it
- The Movimento Antagonista Toscano expressed plans and ideas, of an antiwar demonstration at a US military base near Florence before the ESF.
- there were proposals to have international days of action on topics linked to the initiative in Florence
- to try to stick to a few communicative well prepared actions focusing on a few areas like: privatisation (private property, free access...), war (antimilitarism, desertion...), no border - no nation (free movement & border regime)

The timing and the dangers of repression after direct actions, particularly the more confrontational ones should be carefully evaluated. The autonomous space should offer the possibility to organise actions. We should be aware that the level of social conflict in Italy is likely to be high (general strike announced for mid- October).

* Other agreements and characteristics
- Everyone agreed the autonomous space should be seen as an autonomous initiative and not be labelled "PGA". The space in general , as well as the workshops or actions that could happen there should aim to mark our differences from the social democracy that will be quite strong at the ESF and should be in line with the PGA hallmarks.
- groups and collectives are free to decide how to participate, or not, in the ESF
- groups and collectives are free to organise their own initiatives within the autonomous space as long as they agree with the basic principles.
- a principle of the autonomous space is one of non-competition with the ESF

* Points of debate : "not too close, not too far", confrontation ?
- By interacting with the people taking part in the ESF, the challenge of the autonomous space consists in making sure on one hand, the initiative are not being co-opted; and on the other hand to avoid the isolation of the ideas and the groups that will identify with the autonomous space. People at the autonomous forum should be there not to confront the ESF but the political ideas of the centre left on the real questions of how to stop capitalist domination. People expressed the wish to make the ESF social democracy show their real face and take position.

There is the need to formulate the aims as clear possible, without imposing anything. We have to keep on learning from what happened in Genoa and more recently in Strasbourg, two international projects that reflect our experience working in the constellations that we are likely to find in Florence. We should ask ourselves if we are actually able to implement the scenario of an autonomous forum as we start picturing it here.

This is not a mobilisation call, it just aims to reflect the desire and will of many people to go ahead with such an initiative. It is obvious that the political and logistical involvement of Italian groups will be crucial. The Movimiento Antagonista Toscano could unfortunately not be present in Leiden and sent their contributions by mail. The meeting in Leiden considered that it couldn't make a call for a mobilisation to an autonomous forum, given that the situation in Italy and in Florence remained unclear in terms of the political involvement of groups willing to help implementing the project. Both more local and international involvement is needed to make it happen. This is why the Leiden meeting calls the comrades in Italy that share the ideas and the spirit of what the autonomous forum could look like, to come together to evaluate the ideas expressed here, and give an international response.

The meeting in Leiden thought an international meeting soon in Florence would be necessary to continue working on the collective understanding of our intentions, work on a political programme and to co-ordinate the local and international logistical preparations.

Communication
An email list has been used to facilitate the preparations: pga2002_esf@aseed.antenna.nl you can subscribe by sending an empty email to the list.

[http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/pga/hallm.htm]