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./english/31.txt:7:These things aside, the event was in itself worthwhile. But surely such a carnival should be the cherry on the cake - the culmination of serious political work, not the only thing we do. The ESF is currently the only real avenue that exists for the cooperation of the European left. The European Left Party, on the contrary, is nothing more than a minimalist lash-up on the basis of the lowest common denominator, its main purpose being to secure extra funding from the European parliament.

./english/31.txt:9:This is perhaps best illustrated by the way the supposedly non-existent ‘leadership’ of the ESF acted over the five days. Between 30 and 50 people (most of them members, though not always ‘official’ delegates, of political parties) met every day for at least three hours. Formally, they were discussing the Assembly of Social Movements (ASM), which took place on the Sunday and is not officially part of the ESF (as well as the venue for our next ESF - see below). In reality, they were talking about what is likely to happen in Europe over the next 24 months - ie, until the next ESF.

./english/31.txt:11:The ASM was set up by our Italian comrades just before the first ESF in Florence 2002, in order to circumvent the ban on the ESF taking political decisions or organising united action. The coordinators of the World Social Forum imposed this measure on all regional forums - in order not to lose the support of the various NGOs, trade unions and other forces that are dependent on maintaining good relations with their governments. So it was an ASM that called for the massive anti-war demonstrations on February 15 2003 (undoubtedly, they would have taken place anyway, but the ASM helped spread them).

./english/31.txt:19:One of the most positive developments was that for the first time political parties were allowed to participate openly - not just in the Greek organising committee, but also in the seminars and workshops held at the ESF. Until now, representatives of parties had to pretend to be members of this or that ‘movement’ or ‘network’ in order to be listed as speakers in the programme.

./english/31.txt:20:The ban on political parties was ‘ordered’ by the World Social Forum in 2001 in its ‘Charter of principles’ - which, rather ironically, was drawn up mainly by members of the Workers Party in Brazil. No distinction was made between revolutionary communist organisations on the one hand and on the other hand Tony Blair’s Labour Party or general Musharaf’s military government in Pakistan: “Neither party representations nor military organisations shall participate in the forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity,” the paragraph in question reads.

./english/31.txt:21:This is of course daft, if one considers the role of socialist and communist parties and groups across Europe. They have been at the heart of many mass movements, especially in France, Spain and Italy. The foundations for the ESF were laid by the huge demonstrations that took place in Genoa and Rome. The first ESF was held in Florence, precisely because the Italian workers’ movement is so highly organised and political and has produced Rifondazione Comunista. The second was to a large extent organised by the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire and the Communist Party of France, while the Socialist Workers Party acted as loyal foot-soldiers for London mayor Ken Livingstone in putting on our third forum.

./english/31.txt:22:Therefore it was very refreshing to finally see speakers from Rifondazione, the German Linkspartei.PDS and the Greek Synapsismos being advertised as such. This does symbolise a certain change in European politics: the buzz around the ‘social movements’ has certainly died down - in favour of a more honest turn towards the political parties of the left. That should facilitate a better examination of their role, rather than pretending they do not exist in our movement. For example, Rifondazione’s turn to government is highly problematic, to say the least - its leader, Fausto Bertinotti, was elected speaker of the chamber of deputies at the end of April. Other developments, like the formation of a new joint party in Germany, should be welcomed by all socialists across Europe.

./english/31.txt:23:Interestingly though, not all political parties chose to openly participate in the forum. It will not come as a big surprise to readers of the Weekly Worker that members of the SWP’s International Socialist Tendency decided to continue hiding under various fig leaves - despite the fact that the SWP officially favours the open participation of parties.

./english/31.txt:29:Judging by the silence of the ESF leadership on this matter, though, I do not think that the ‘official’ ban will be re-introduced. Instead, it looks like it will be left to the organisers of the next ESF to make that decision. This is wholly unsatisfactory, of course - we need a clear commitment that political parties will be able to play a full and open part.

./english/31.txt:31:That brings me to the delicate matter of the next, our fifth, forum. The bad news: there is still no venue. The ESF ‘leadership’ tried in its evening meetings to persuade members of the Belgian Social Forum to organise the next forum in Brussels. I venture to predict that this will not happen, for one simple reason: there is no big political party involved in the BSF that could actually pull it off. The Belgian comrades I have been speaking to seem similarly pessimistic.

./english/31.txt:34:Alternatively, though, the organisations involved in the ESF could use this opportunity to dramatically turn around our cooperation and thereby resolve our crisis positively. The programme the CPGB has been putting forward from day one is still as politically necessary as it was five years ago. We will again present these proposals at the next ESF preparatory assembly in September, where the future of the ESF will be one of the key debates.

./english/31.txt:36:l A clear commitment that welcomes the full participation of political parties. For the open clash of ideas in front of the whole movement.

./english/35.txt:27:6. Dr. József Sipos, representative of the Social Political Sector

./english/35.txt:79:social forces and a more efficient political behaviour.

./english/36.txt:6:2. The demonstrations of May 6 can be considered as a historic moment for the Greek social movements. It is the biggest demonstration ever organized in Athens without the participation of the Greek Communist Party. The massive participation in this demo is not only an undeniable proof of no global movement’s popularity. It is at the same time a sign of the rise of a new political culture within the Greek society. Although the denial of a potential war on Iran was the No 1 political issue of this demonstration, we should not underestimate the fact that for a great number of demonstrators this massive mobilization was a way to express their will for a social change. This will is still too vague to constitute a real political program. Nevertheless, it can be the starting point of such a procedure.

./english/36.txt:19:5. In addition to massive participation, we have to underline the significant presence of activists from Central-Eastern Europe and Turkey (more than 2.000). It was the biggest ever participation of these countries in an ESF. The political significance of this participation is obvious: ESF is a Forum of the whole continent and not just of Western Europe. This huge participation was the result of: a) a strong mobilization of no global activists in Eastern Europe and Turkey b) the initial political decision of the Organizing Committee to consider the geographical enlargement of the ESF as a primal priority c) the hard work done by the comrades of the enlargement group who worked day and night to obtain more than 2.000 Visas.

./english/36.txt:21:7. The Organizing Committee gave more importance than in the past to the cultural aspect of the Forum. In fact the response of the artists was impressive. About 150 cultural events took place in the ESF venue. We believe that this convergence between art and politics not only helps artists (specially the young) to present their work to massive public, but also contributes to the emerging of new forms of activism and political communication.

./english/36.txt:24:10. For once more Babels proved that they are a fundamental political component of the ESF and that non commercial practices can be very effective. Despite the very serious logistics problems, ALIS (Alternative Interpretation System) worked well and it will probably be the basic interpretation infrastructure for future Forums.

./english/36.txt:25:11. Interpretation was not the only area where non commercial practices were put in action. The Organization team did its best to use such practices as much as possible. In deed, there were very few cases where professionals worked for the organization. This political choice is not only the outcome of a very limited budget, but also reflects the conception that the practices of the ESF should correspond to its goals.

./english/36.txt:31:• We should think more on the political perspectives of no global movement. The question if center-left governments can satisfy this movement’s demands acquires an increasing importance.

./english/36.txt:32:The success of the Athens ESF indicates that social forums have a great future. Under the condition, of course, that the ESF has the political will to change and to adapt to new realities.

./english/40.txt:6:In the build up to the European Social Forum (ESF) in Athens, the fourth since Florence in 2002, the Greek organisers were modest in their expectations of its political significance. ‘It will be a well organised event; but that’ll be it,’ said Panayotis Yulis from the Greek Social and Political Rights Network on the eve of the gathering that took place in the abandoned airport from 4-7 May.

./english/40.txt:8:The political context of the left in Greece helps to explain this somewhat fatalistic approach. The left there has long been weighed down by the strength and the heavy dogmatism and sectarianism of the most orthodox communist party in Europe. The anti-Stalinist Synaspismos party, strongly influenced by the social movements of recent years, receives just a few per cent of the vote. An autonomous social-movement left has had no strong identity whatsoever.

./english/40.txt:10:By the Monday after the ESF, however, members of the Greek Social Forum, the main grouping behind the event, could not believe what had happened. The forum’s 80,000-strong demonstration was ‘the largest demonstration ever called independently of the Communist Party’, said Sissy Vovou, one of the organisers of the forum’s women’s assembly. ‘Most notable were the many young people who were not members of any political organisation. It’s a sign of a subterranean radicalisation.’ The positive aftermath was spoiled only by the taste of tear gas after a group who call themselves anarchists chucked Molotov cocktails at the police with predictable consequences..

./english/40.txt:12:It wasn’t just the size and composition of the demonstration that made the concept of social movements likely, at last, to become a potent part of the language of public debate in Greece. It was also the forum itself, which was organised very consciously to illustrate that it is possible to run a 30,000-strong extravaganza of political discussion and cultural experience in a participatory, egalitarian and way illustrating the values of the society we are trying to create.

./english/40.txt:22:The search comes out of practical needs, felt after taking decentralisation to its limits. For Yannis Almpanis, the human ‘hub’ at the centre of the process of merging the hundreds of seminar proposals into a manageable list, the need is for ‘more open collective decision making with clear rules to overcome the problem of informal power’. For example, techno-political tools, using the web as a means of interactive communication and collaborative work, are playing an increasing role in the development of the ESF. They are vital to extending decision-making beyond those who can afford the airfares and the time to attend organising meetings – a recurring source of informal power.

./english/42.txt:37:2. The seminars were well visited, at least three of them. The seminar "„The War on Terror“, new Planetary Enemies and the Human Rights" on Thu, May 4, 6 to 9 p.m., with Tariq Ali, Wolfgang Kaleck, Akin Birdal and Jim McVeigh was attended by about 300 people. The seminar "“Antiterrorist” Laws, Black Lists and the Policies of Security in Europe" on Thu, May 4, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with Wolfgang Kaleck, Ben Hayes, Iratxe Urizar and Babis Kouroundis had about 100 attendants (80 at the same time). The seminar "Political Prisoners, Special Trials and Security-Jails" on Fri, May 5, 2.30 to 5.30 p.m., with Andreas-Thomas Vogel, Ander Larunbe, a Turk comrade, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, and Joachim Rollhaeuser was visited by about 70 people. And the seminar "Criminalization of Communities and “Dangerous Populations”" on Sat., May 6, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with Daniel Bensaïd, Les Levidow, Joachim Rollhaeuser und Martin Glasenapp found 30 interested people.

./english/42.txt:42:3. We went to the Saturday demonstration. The Network members took part in the rally with their organisations. Members of Libertad, Germany marched in the block of the Network for Political and Social Rights, Greece.

./english/42.txt:47:4. For us the ESF didn't end with the Sunday assembly. On Monday we visited together with members of the Greek "Solidarity Movement with the Political Prisoners" the second instance trial, which is held in the Korydallos prison under special conditions as concerns the isolation from the social prisoners, the court itself and the procedure. The alleged members of the organization were sentenced in the first instance to up to 21 times life sentence.

./english/42.txt:49:We were about 10 Germans (mostly women, some of them attending more the conventions at the Polytechneinon and only some of the ESF seminars), one Basque, one Irish and about 10 or 12 Greeks. We had the chance to speak with the defendants for about 15 min. Four of the accused went into the discussion while the others just listened. We addressed our solidarity with their struggle against these special conditions and expressed our support for their aim to be acknowledged as political prisoners.

./english/42.txt:72:During the seminar on Black lists and political trials we heard about the use of special, so-called antiterrorist laws and measures to criminalize political organizations and individuals and ban them from legal activity. The EU is at the forefront of this attack on our hard-earned civil and political rights; which affects all of us, whether in the Basque Country, in Germany, Greece, Turkey, or further afield. It is important to put a stop to this antidemocratic dynamics.

./english/42.txt:74:In the seminar on political prisoners, we welcomed the testimony of the Turkish and Palestinian comrades, who outlined the terrible nature of the isolation policy they suffer and the inhuman living conditions their prisoners are held in.

./english/42.txt:76:We had the privilege of hearing the reaffirmation of their political nature sent by Greek political prisoners. Greek and German support organizations insisted on the referential position Political Prisoners play in revolutionary movements. One thing was clear: solidarity with political prisoners is a task for all of the emancipatory movements

./english/42.txt:78:All speakers insisted on the importance of the acknowledgement of political status and on the need to promote information exchange and joint solidarity work, for instance, the Kalera Project.

./english/42.txt:88:This idea of a European Fortress and the attempt to impose mind-control, criminalizing entire political, racial and cultural communities by branding anyone who dares to dissent as a “terrorist” must be stopped.

./english/42.txt:97:It is necessary to raise the issue of the connection between the “war on terror”, racist exclusion and the attack on civil and human rights and against the banning of social and political organizations. We reject special courts and proceedings.

./english/42.txt:99:“Antiterrorist laws”, old and new, and “antiterrorist” lists are being used to criminalise and attack political dissidence, with the EU playing an active role in this.

./english/42.txt:101:We call for the recognition of the Political nature of Political Prisoners, which will allow a political resolution of the issue, leading to their definitive release.

./english/42.txt:103:We call on everybody inside and outside the ESF to include the struggle for the freedom of political prisoners, against torture, against the “antiterrorist” laws and the migrants’ detention camps in all our political and social struggles. The right to have rights is on the agenda of the day.

./english/44.txt:12:We artists against wars are participating for the second time in the European Social Forum. We continue the engagement of artists in the world social movement which began in Florence 2002 after the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre 2001. We are independent of political parties and trade unions.

./english/44.txt:33:Babels’ interpreters are activists and their participation is based on Babels’ principles and militancy. Babels is not a cheap service provider and its interpreters and translators are not a mere linguistic decoration. They are committed political actresses and actors who take part in the Social Forum process, and who seek to open the Social Forum to new thoughts and proposals originating from countries whose languages have rarely been represented in past Forums.

./english/44.txt:82:- To find common processes of solidarity with the movements and the cities and towns of Colombia that are being repressed by the militarist government of Uribe which refuses to find a political solution to the social and armed conflict, and to support the processes of the Permanent Tribunal of the Towns so as to allow it to judge the policies of the multinationals and their degree of impunity in Colombia

./english/44.txt:84:- To express our solidarity with all the political prisoners of the continent and to look for ways to make the subject of political prisoners visible and to organize solidarity campaigns

./english/44.txt:106:During the seminar on black lists and political trials we heard about the use of special, so-called antiterrorist laws and measures to criminalize political organizations and individuals and ban them from legal activity. The EU is at the forefront of this attack on our hard-earned civil and political rights; which affects all of us, whether in the Basque Country, in Germany, Greece, Turkey, or elsewhere. It is important to put an end to these antidemocratic dynamics.

./english/44.txt:108:In the seminar on political prisoners, we welcomed the testimony of the Turkish and Palestinian comrades, who outlined the terrible nature of the isolation policy they suffer and the inhuman living conditions in which their prisoners are held.

./english/44.txt:110:We had the privilege of hearing the reaffirmation of their political nature sent by Greek political prisoners. Greek and German support organizations insisted on the referential position Political Prisoners play in revolutionary movements. One thing was clear: solidarity with political prisoners is a task for all of the emancipatory movements.

./english/44.txt:112:All speakers insisted on the importance of the acknowledgement of political status and on the need to promote information exchange and joint solidarity work, for instance, the Kalera Project.

./english/44.txt:122:This idea of a European Fortress and the attempt to impose mind-control, criminalizing entire political, racial and cultural communities by branding anyone who dares to dissent as a “terrorist” must be stopped.

./english/44.txt:128:It is necessary to raise the issue of the connection between the “war on terror”, racist exclusion and the attack on civil and human rights and against the banning of social and political organizations. We reject special courts and proceedings.

./english/44.txt:130:“Antiterrorist laws”, old and new, and “antiterrorist” lists are being used to criminalise and attack political dissidence, with the EU playing an active role in this.

./english/44.txt:132:We call for the recognition of the Political nature of Political Prisoners, which will allow a political resolution of the issue, leading to their definitive release.

./english/44.txt:134:We call on everybody inside and outside the ESF to include the struggle for the freedom of political prisoners, against torture, against the “antiterrorist” laws and the migrants’ detention camps in all our political and social struggles. The right to have rights is on the agenda of the day.

./english/44.txt:136:We support the 4th International Conference Against Disappearances, which is to be held in Diyarbakir, Turkey (Northern Kurdistan, 16th-20th May 2006 organised by the International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD) and Relatives Association of Disappeared people (YAKAY-DER), organisations struggling against political oppression and specifically disappearances during custody.

./english/44.txt:138:This Forum should call on all people to fight for the abolition of isolation in prisons, especially in Abu-Graib, Guantanamo, F-type Prisons in Turkey and white cells in Europe. Isolation should end. The date of 19-22 December should be organized as a day of support for political prisoners.

./english/44.txt:184:We the participants of the 4th ESF ask people, civil societies, NGOs, political parties and governments to adopt and establish in the next revision of their national Constitutions the right and ability of a sufficient number of citizens in every state to ask their Parliaments for new Legislation, coming out of Citizens’ Legislative Initiatives, as well as to accept Referenda for the cancellation of Laws considered as being against the will of the majority of a State’s Citizens.

./english/44.txt:203:On the 25th April, Jiri Dolejs, the vice-chairman of the Czech Communist Party and the deputy of the Czech Parliament, was brutally beaten on a street by a group of anticommunists who knew his face from the TV. Two days ago he underwent eye surgery and still remains in hospital as a consequence of the attack. This act of politically motivated right-wing violence is just the tip of an iceberg of systematically organised anticommunist campaigning, led by the Czech media and right-wing politicians. To give an example: the Czech minister of foreign affairs personally supported the production of T-shirts with slogans that included “kill a communist to strengthen the peace”.

./english/44.txt:205:We, the participants of the European Social Forum, condemn anticommunist campaigns, as these campaigns limit and destroy political freedoms. We continue to fight to keep and extend political freedoms for the left.

./english/44.txt:209:An appeal process regarding the “17th November” opens on the 2nd December in Athens. The alleged members of this leftist Greek organisation are accused of having committed, since the end of the junta, a series of political crimes and attacks. At the time of the Olympic Games in Athens, the Greek authorities engaged in a dismantling this group, a process that resulted in arrests and subsequently legal proceedings conducted in a scandalous manner.

./english/44.txt:212:We call on you to employ all the political and legal resources at your disposal for the defence of the State of law and of democratic rights and freedoms in order that no one is condemned without evidence, that prison doors are not closed on the innocent and that the States, of which we are all citizens, forbid the imposition of detention conditions incompatible with the respect of human rights.

./english/44.txt:224:Within the framework of “counter-G8” events in July 2006, an exchange of experience between militants from different countries is needed, allowing their political positions to become closer and facilitating agreement on a program of further activities by movements, organizations and activists from Western and Eastern Europe and ex-USSR countries who are promoting alternatives to neoliberalism, racism and war.

./english/44.txt:230:- International solidarity in cases of police repression against social activist and Left political militants, support to political prisoners;

./english/45.txt:90:• In a lot of countries a huge variety of unwanted or misunderstood behaviour is still addressed to mental health illnesses, like epilepsy, promiscuousness, homosexuality, alternative political theories, etc.

./english/46.txt:6:While we are facing increasing political intervention by churches and religious fundamentalisms are on the rise in Europe, leading to a dramatic undermining of women's rights and, in spite of the warnings from feminist organizations, such as the World March of Women, towards the organizing committee of the European Social Forum, some of the workshops gave the floor to organizations or speakers who support values contrary to the Porto Alegre Charter and to women's rights. The Women's Assembly of the 4th ESF which met in Athens protests vividly against this situation.

./english/46.txt:10:Considering the present challenges facing the Social Forums, the Women's Assembly wishes to stress once again that women should not serve as an alibi for any kind of manipulations. We reject political alliances that are concluded to the detriment of women and which establish priorities for our struggles, putting feminist demands behind anti-racist and anti-war demands. Such processes divide the anti-liberal forces and undermine the strength of the Social Forums. Because women's rights are universal, feminists are equally involved in the fight against racism and against war/

./english/47.txt:19: Religious influence in political life, the attack on abortion rights

./english/47.txt:57:• Equal political representation in all national and European bodies. Lists not meeting this criterion will be considered invalid.

./english/47.txt:72:• Going beyond the boundaries set by the political structures and the borders of the European Union, feminists of Western and Eastern Europe will reinforce their networks of exchange, experience and solidarity.

./english/47.txt:73:• Promotion of their rights and their social and political gains, within a framework of mutual respect and total equality.

./english/47.txt:74:• Full access of women from Central and Eastern Europe to the European political arena.

./english/54.txt:15:youth, immigrant and political campaigners spoke vividly of recent or

./english/54.txt:79:Stalls in the vast central hall were dominated by political organisations,

./english/54.txt:84:clearer political nature of many debates.

./english/54.txt:128:In a seminar on ³political alternatives to neoliberalism² both Alex

./english/54.txt:164:Obviously, the Anti-Imperialist Space contained a broad range of political

./english/54.txt:190:political positions, are all reasons for seeking unity in action with it.

./english/54.txt:298:prevent the Assembly of the Social Movements debating any political or

./english/54.txt:304:SEK/SWP! The attitude of the SWP to political debate was shown when Jonathan

./english/54.txt:313:and begin to develop a political action programme for the movement.

./english/54.txt:380:provide an international co-ordination and political leadership to the

./english/62.txt:39:Social movement scholarship constitutes a specific area of academic study of social movements usually undertaken in the disciplines of sociology and political science. In American sociology, the early movement theorists tended to view social movements as an irrational form of collective behavior, which could be explained by reference to the mobilizers’ ‘social strains’ or ‘grievances’ (LeBon, Kornhauser etc.). Much of the work after the 1970s sought to challenge this kind of thinking, in which social movements were seen in terms of ‘mob psychology’ or as an expression of social breakdown and anomie. Thus, the new dominant paradigm in the study of social movements was focusing on such concepts as ‘resource mobilization,’ ‘political opportunities,’ ‘networks of mobilization,’ ‘framing’ and ‘political contention’ (Jenkins, Zald, McAdam, Tilly, Tarrow, Snow, Benford etc.). As a critical reaction to this structuralistic way of theorizing social movements, some analysts turned to the study of ‘emotions,’ ‘biographies’ and ‘culture’ (Goodwin, Jasper etc.) with the mainstream approach of Tilly, Tarrow, McAdam and their collaborators eventually accepting to incorporate culture as one of the determinants of their structural effects. However, even from the 1960s, European scholars (Habermas, Touraine, Melucci etc.) were elaborating an alternative paradigm, that of the ‘new social movements,’ critically reflecting on the legacy of Marxism and motivated directly from the social struggles of that period (feminism, environmentalism, May 1968 etc.).

./english/62.txt:53:Think of the main forms of social and political organisation that we have known hsitorically: the state and the market (I’m being very schematic here) and the way that they are underpinned by distinct understandings of knowledge. In the case of the political ideologies which relied primarily on the state, the implicit understanding of knowledge of society, especially the economy, has been one which stems from a positivist epistemology in which knowledge is a matter of what are understood (within a positivist epistemology) as scientific laws: that is, laws based on the empirically observable constant conjunctions of events or phenomena. All other claims to knowledge are dismissed as either derivative from scientific laws, as mere instance of such laws or simply as `gossip’, `emotion’, or some other form of human consciousness or expression that is dismissed as epistemologically valueless. The implication of this for social organisation, is that on this understanding of knowledge and science, scientific laws can be codified, they can be known by a central `brain’ or point of co-ordination, or command. Moreover they are only known by experts in these laws. Hence this approach to knowledge underpins or leads to state centred and heirarchical visions of social change.

./english/62.txt:90:2. In fact, researchers are employees, employers and/or something in between. Most of those researchers dealing with social movements also are activists and/or activist researchers. Therefore the boundaries make no sense if to construct some kind of teacher-pupil relationship regarding research and social movements. Social movements, protest and other kinds of demanding a better world from below are crossing the academic/public education sector since ever. This means that we all must remind that the political struggle also takes place in the academic area. Researchers can not exclude themselfes from their "objects" social movements believing that they are not part of the problem. Spoken for the german case this means too, that doing social movement research in times of privatization and neoliberal restructuring of the academic sector somehow should mean too that we must struggle that social movements and their causes remain on the academic agenda. I think young researchers should be aware about their own precarity, we should be more critical towards our place. Universities and the academic institutions get more and more places for the production of elites, they get more and more a mixture of bureaucratic nightmares, neoliberal thinking and precarious working conditions.

./english/62.txt:110: From Russia "all those, who has interest to the ideas of the interconnection beetwen theory and practice of alterglobalist movement, I invite to our site www.alternativy.ru, where there are some materials on this topic in English" (a part of Russian, Moldovian and Ukranian). http://www.alternativy.ru/ “ALTERNATIVES” – it is Alter-Globalist Net-Work, created for the support of the social initiatives, which provides different directions of social, political, educational and research activity. E-mail: alternativy(at)tochka.ru

./english/147.txt:26:Disobedienti advocates social disobedience as a means for political action expressed by white attire, which symbolizes invisibility: invisible as immigrants, workers stripped of rights, prisoners, various people who oppose genocide all over the world.

./english/147.txt:28:Tutte bianche is not, they tell us, a movement. It is an “instrument,” a form of direct action. The main elements are transparency, the symbolic and media value of messages launched by actions, and conflict aimed at consensus creation, and still further social disobedience. Everyone can enrich and add to this practice with respect to his or her own political experience.

./english/147.txt:30:Social disobedience, claim the protagonists of this movement, is not only a political struggle, but also a cultural one. To be a Zapatista in Europe means to “fight on the side of all victims of the neo-liberal monster through a “networking of the world,” which, for the activists of Ya Basta!, means “grassroots diplomacy and international horizontal correlation,” in their striving for a world “where many worlds fit, a world without borders.”

./english/147.txt:42:The Italian anarchist movement, or movimento anarchico, is decentralized, with no structure, and deals with the problems of totalitarian institutions, psychiatry, ecology, and militarism. It is divided among pacifists, direct action advocates, individual action advocates, and primitivists. It rejects institutions and dialogue with them. It embodies regional networks and appears in demonstrations as the anarchist block, but has many strands. The most famous is FAI, which was founded in 1945 and has passed through different political periods.

./english/147.txt:44:FAI publishes the weekly paper Umanita Nuova dealing with news and topics written for anarchists. FAI branches are very active at a local level, but nationally FAI doesn’t seem to have any official or public political line. The last congress launched the idea of building an “anarchist strategy for social transformation.”

./english/147.txt:68:The most important institutional props of the Italian movement are social centers, social forums, and magazines. Social centers represent an attempt to create autonomous spaces free from capitalist social and economic relations. They became vital for the survival of anti-capitalist movements by the end of the 1970s. There are dozens of social centers in Italy with different experiences and different political-ideological nuances, but they are all descendants of 1960s and 1970s revolts.

./english/147.txt:76:The first social forum was created before Genoa and was inspired by the spirit of Porto Alegre. There are now 140 social forums in Italy. While the “national” Italian Social Forum has had its spokespeople and hierarchy, local social forums act autonomously and represent a very important site of participation for citizens who have come closer to radical ideas after Genoa. The political map of social forums is complicated and intertwined. There are many who find this form outdated, but they have had impressive results, especially at the local level.

./english/147.txt:86:n Amsterdam in 1997, during a huge summit against the European Union, about 40 activist projects established a network called “admission free.” The network gave way to the “Noborder” network in 1999, formed in front of the Finnish Tampere Conference Center, where the EU-Migation Summit was taking place. Actions and activities were developed and executed across national borders, most dramatically in July 1998 when a few hundred activists put up tents for a ten day stay near the border of the River Neise, leading to summer camps in the following years along the borders of the European Union. Instead of campfire romanticism the motto was, “hacking the borderline.” Characteristic of the border camps was a multiple strategy consisting of the exchange of experience and political debate, classical political education in the remote areas, and direct actions to disrupt the idea of the border regime.

./english/147.txt:157:Globalize Resistance has a steering committee composed of the SWP members and NGO representatives close to this political perspective. They have been present almost everywhere there is dissent and many actions in the UK, especially the anti-war ones, would have been impossible without their participation. The same note refers to the sister organization, also influenced by SWP, called the STOP THE WAR movement.

./english/150.txt:4:Social and political context

./english/150.txt:5:The context for the development of organisations such as Euromarch is one in which global capitalist crisis has been met by attempts to restructure social relations and consequently economic, political and social institutions. Such restructuring has had regionalising and globalising dynamics of which the development of the European Union and recently of the European single currency are concrete manifestations.

./english/150.txt:14:Those involved in Euromarch range from rank and file trade unionists, through political activists to social movement campaigners, but the most numerous and prominent participants have so far been unemployed activists. This reflects Euromarch«s central focus on unemployment and its main task which has been the mobilisation of marches and marchers against unemployment. However even within this issue there is a diversity of organisations which come under the umbrella of the Euromarch organisation. For example in France there are several unemployed organisations like Action Chomage!, APEIS, CGT (Unemployed Workers Committee) and MNCP which organise together despite their differences. The political perspectives of Euromarch activists also vary from left-wing Social Democrats, Socialists, Greens, Communists, Trotskyists, Anarchists, non-aligned etc., all of whom find Euromarch a worthwhile forum within which to pursue their particular politics. Similarly there are activists from a wide range of social movement campaigns. A list of the groups represented at the recent Cologne »Assizes« included campaigns for the rights of women, Black people, migrants, asylumseekers, pensioners, the homeless, students, school students as well as environmental and anti-fascist campaigns. Such a broad range of involvement is encouraged by Euromarch and in this vain Euromarch activist, Gitti Goetz, in her appeal for the Vienna demonstration hoped that »organizations and groups of unemployed, women, trade unionists, asylumseekers, and homeless will not only take part, but also become active themselves with their own ideas, forms of action and demands.« Such a diversity of participants is reflected by the breadth of demands which have been formulated.

./english/150.txt:20:However there is by no means unanimity over what form action should take. The last Euromarch »Assizes« saw a debate chiefly amongst the Italian delegates about whether another train occupation or a march linking up with people in their communities would be the best way to approach the Cologne demonstration. Behind this division is perhaps a difference in aims with one side attempting to further strengthen the grass roots campaign and the other more concerned with putting pressure on national and European leaders and institutions, especially through use of the media. The pan-national demonstrations which target the EU summits are also being accompanied by counter-summits which have been described as the »European Parliament of the Unemployed«. These provide a forum within which alternative policies can be developed. However here too there is a potential tension between shorter-term policy changes and longer-term social and political transformation.

./english/150.txt:22:In its opposition to the extension and broadening of neo-liberal style policies, Euromarch can be seen as part of a growing extra-parliamentary opposition to governments of any political persuasion which pursue these types of policies and to their adoption by the European Union. This opposition encompasses campaigns and struggles in a movement which spans highly organised political and pressure group type organisations which plan their actions carefully to display their opposition, and more spontaneous struggles which are more sporadically organised and focus around everyday resistance to neo-liberal policies. The differing perspectives of participants are not so easily identified but a contrast can be made between those who see such a movement as a source of social democratic renewal and those whose aim is to develop a more fundamental challenge to the existing order by building an explicitly anti-capitalist movement. In this sense key Euromarch demands like that for a minimum income can be viewed as the basis of a »Social Europe«, but the meaning of the word »Social« is itself subject to debate and its content will be an object of struggle.

./english/162.txt:5:Among the events of recent history, few have been as surprising, as full of enigmas, as the coordinated world demonstrations known as the Global Days of Action. Immediately upon their appearance, they overflowed the organization that had called them into being: the People's Global Action (PGA), founded in Geneva in February of 1998. (1) This transnational network of resistance had adopted a new concept of solidarity advanced by the Zapatistas, who encouraged everyone to take direct action at home, against the system of exploitation and oppression which they described as neoliberalism. As early as the month of May, 1998, the PGA helped spark demonstrations against the WTO whose effectiveness lay both in their simultaneity and in their extreme diversity: street parties in some 30 cities around the world, on May 16; four days of protest and rioting in Geneva, beginning that same day; a 50,000-strong march that reached Brasilia on May 20; protests all over India after a huge demonstration in Hyderabad against the WTO on May 2. The following year, London Reclaim the Streets launched the idea of a "carnival against capital" in financial centers across the world for the day of the G8 summit, June 18: there were actions in over 40 cities, including a ten-thousand-strong "carnival of the oppressed" by Niger Delta peoples against transnational oil companies. In the face of transnational capitalism, a networked resistance was born, local and global, tactical and strategic: a new kind of political dissidence, self-organized and anarchist, diffusely interconnected and operating only from below, yet able to strike at the greatest concentrations of power. What is the strength of such movements? The improbable and serious appeal to a "do-it-yourself geopolitics": a chance for personal involvement in the transformation of the world.

./english/162.txt:13:Two British critics, Anthony Davies and Simon Ford, posed exactly those questions, with direct reference to art. They pointed to the way that artistic practice was tending to integrate with London's financial economy, particularly through the vector of specially designed "culture clubs" where artists sought new forms of sponsorship and distribution, while businessmen looked for clues on how to restructure their hierarchical organizations into cooperative teams of creative, autonomous individuals: "We are witnessing the birth of an alliance culture that collapses the distinctions between companies, nation states, governments, private individuals – even the protest movement," the two critics claimed. (3) They perceptively drew a link between contemporary artistic experiments – those dealing with the use and appropriation of complex signs and tools, or with the catalysis of interactions between free individuals – and the politicized street parties of the late 1990s. But their analysis opposed these new movements, not to transnational capitalism, but to the outdated world of pyramid-shaped hierarchical organizations. Thus their image of the June 18 carnival: "On the one hand you have a networked coalition of semi-autonomous groups and on the other, the hierarchical command and control structure of the City of London police force. Informal networks are also replacing older political groups based on formal rules and fixed organizational structures and chains of command. The emergence of a decentralized transnational network-based protest movement represents a significant threat to those sectors that are slow in shifting from local and centralized hierarchical bureaucracies to flat, networked organizations."

./english/162.txt:28:Following the Zapatistas, people in the movement of movements tend to call the current economic structure "neoliberal." But the word evokes a political philosophy stretching back to the eighteenth century. One can speak instead of flexible accumulation, which describes the computer-linked, finance-driven, just-in-time model of the globalized economy. (6) By subordinating the other spheres of social life – education, science, culture, etc. – this organization of production and consumption produces a veritable hegemony, a mode of regulation for society as a whole. To grasp the way this hegemony is experienced by individuals, I have proposed the notion of the flexible personality. (7) It is an ambiguous notion: because although it primarily designates the managerial culture that legitimates the globalized economy, and that renders it tolerable or even attractive for those who are its privileged subjects, it also recalls the profound opportunism that this organization demands, as well as the "flexible" nature of the workforce that it subjects to increasingly individualized forms of exploitation. The flexible personality designates the lived experience of a relation of domination. It is essential to define its limits.

./english/162.txt:34:The last twenty years have seen the incredible inventiveness of this worldwide language, which has generated a myriad of private dialects: stocks, futures, options, swaptions, floaters, hedges, and so on through the endless list of derivatives. Despite their appearance of total autonomy, of absolute disconnection from the solid earth, these forms of privately managed credit money have directed the productive apparatus of the world's countries, ever more radically since 1989. In parallel to these developments in the private sphere, a new type of postnational state has slowly come into being, abandoning the former emphasis on social security and public welfare, and seeking instead to encourage the insertion of its most innovative citizens into the worldwide information economy. (10) And the language of ¥ € $ has also taken on cultural, intellectual, organizational and imaginary forms, giving rise to artistic productions, managerial techniques, modes of behaviors, desires and dreams that have served to legitimate the regime of flexible accumulation, while continually feeding it with new innovations. But this very inventiveness, this speculative confidence, has also gnawed away at the ecological, social, political, and financial foundations of the system. We went through the Asian crisis of 1997, which spread to Russia and Brazil, threatening even the American economy; then came the krach of the NASDAQ in spring 2000, sparking a two-year plunge of the world's stock markets (which remain extremely volatile at the date of writing, three years later). The possibility of a systemic crisis, which could be seen on the horizon throughout the 1990s, has rushed suddenly closer at the outset of the new millennium.

./english/162.txt:42:This situation of suspended crisis appears likely to spread, leaving open, at least for a time, the possibility of very different responses. The illusions of the 1990s, however, are definitely over. The collapse of the stock markets, and the economic slowdown that has followed, brings a threat of deflation, unemployment and exclusion to bear on most of the world's populations. Under current political conditions, the only possible response seems to be a strengthening of the barriers that separate the privileged classes from all the others – and this, even within the richest countries. The new military posture of the United States, while directly motivated by the September 11 attacks, also represents an attempt to restructure society, and to institute a new form of discipline in the face of the void that has been left by the collapse of the speculative bubble. It is in this way that the ideological version of economic flexibility meets its own limits. This shift toward heightened military and police control takes away much of the legitimacy that flexible modes of management were able to confer on capitalist society. Still the opportunistic model of the flexible personality will probably continue to orient the behavior of privileged individuals for years yet to come, even as it subjects them to strong contradictions. Under such conditions, the various forms of resistance to capitalism will clearly intensify, not least because they find a vital energy in the feeling of absolute necessity brought on by the crisis. Now I want to deal specifically with one such form of resistance: the resistance to the privatization of knowledge, the fourth "fictive commodity" whose importance Polanyi had not yet measured. It is through the cooperative production of immaterial knowledge that we will rejoin the enigma of the networked protests.

./english/162.txt:43:Just one more thing. I do not want to accord any privilege, in what follows, to that supposedly more "advanced" fraction of the world population which is so deeply involved with electronic networks. I think the opposition between the "Net" and "Self" – between a modernizing process that enforces our abstraction from historical ad cultural traditions, or failing that, determines a desperate and regressive retreat to the fixations of local identity – is simply false. (12) More interesting is the divide between the possessive individualism of the flexible personality, and a concern for human coexistence. As we saw above, the movement of movements found one of its beginnings in a concept of solidarity arising from the Zapatista struggles, which have fundamentally to do with questions of land. But the meaning of these survival struggles of the Mayan peoples could only reach the subjects of the developed world through the Internet, where the commodification of cultural and scientific knowledge is at stake. Here the essential struggle is to overtake and dissolve the language of ¥ € $, not through a return to the closed, bureaucratic frameworks of the Keynesian state, but instead through the political development of new principles of exchange and reciprocity. Thus this fourth field of resistance, with touches closely on human language but also on technical development, seems destined to furnish elements of articulation for other struggles, in a shared search for alternatives to the systemic crisis.

./english/162.txt:52:The notion of the commons refers back to the same pre-capitalist history that Polanyi had invoked; and it does so in the context of what some are calling the "second enclosure movement," resulting in the extension of intellectual property rights, or the privatization of information. Benkler stresses that the word "commons" denotes "the absence of exclusion as the organizing feature of this new mode of production." To be sure, the examples he uses to prove the existence of voluntarily organized large-scale cultural production are strictly electronic projects like the Wikipedia encyclopedia, the Slashdot technews site, the Kuro5hin site, and so on. These are essentially situations where publicly available text plus creativity produces more publicly available text. They are also politically neutral examples, appropriate for an argumentation that aims, among other things, to influence the American legislature on the subject of copyright laws. Yet one could apply exactly the same ideas to the growing phenomenon of networked political protests. It is clear that mass access to email and the possibility to create personal web pages – both of which have been quite necessary to the world expansion of liberal capitalism – almost immediately made possible, not only a greater awareness of globalization and its effects, but also the self-organization of dissenting movements on a world scale. And the scope of the projects that have been realized in this sense has been tremendous.

./english/162.txt:56:Just reflect for a moment on what each of the major "counter-globalization" actions has involved. Collaborative research on the political, social, cultural, and ecological issues at stake. Various levels of coordination between a wide range of already constituted groups, concerning the preliminary forms of mobilization. Worldwide dissemination, through every possible channel, of the research and preliminary positions. Travel of tens or hundreds of thousands of single persons and autonomous groups to a given place. Self-organization of meeting and sleeping places. Intellectual and political cooperation on some form of counter-summit. The creation of artistic and cultural events in the spirit of the movements. A minimal agreement, worked out beforehand or in the heat of the moment, on the specific forms and places of the symbolic and direct actions to be undertaken. Legal and medical coordination in order to ensure the demonstrators' security. The installation of communications systems allowing for the transmission of precise yet exceedingly diverse coverage of the events. A social, legal, and political follow-up of the aftermath. Finally, a subsequent analysis of the new situation that results from each confrontation: in other words, a new starting-point.

./english/162.txt:60:In this sense one could say that, just like the projects of commons-based peer production, these mobilizations begin and end with the fabrication of publicly available texts. For example, the People's Summit in Quebec City in April 2001 began long in advance, with many different studies of the consequences to be expected from the future agreement on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. These studies led to the drafting of a remarkable document, "Alternatives for the Americas," which is a counter-treaty of great precision, composed through a process of knowledge exchange and political coordination on the scale of the American hemisphere. (17) It's also true that as a direct consequence of the massive demonstration that took place during the summit, the official working draft of the FTAA treaty was made public for the first time; until then it had not even been available to elected representatives of the American peoples, but only to executive negotiating teams (and scores of corporate "advisers"). In this way the counter-globalization movements constitute a public archive. And yet between the fundamental landmarks represented by these text publications, how many face-to-face debates took place, how many moments of singular or collective creation, how many acts of courage and solidarity? And how many emotions, images, memories, and desires were created and shared during the days of action in Quebec City?

./english/162.txt:62:"All these phenomena are at once legal, economic, religious, and even aesthetic, morphological, etc. They are legal, including public and private law, diffuse and organized morality; they are strictly obligatory or simply praised and blamed, political and domestic at the same time, involving the social classes as well as the clans and families. They are religious: including strict religion and magic and animism and diffuse religious mentality. They are economical: because the idea of value, of utility, of interest, of luxury, of wealth, of acquisition and accumulation as well as consumption and even purely sumptuary expenditure are everywhere in them, even though these are all understood differently than by us today. What is more, these institutions have an important aesthetic side to them... the dances that are carried out alternatively, the chants and parades of all kinds, the dramatic performances... everything, food, objects, and services, even "respect," as the Tlingits say, everything is a cause for aesthetic emotion." (18)

./english/162.txt:66:There is no nostalgia for a primitive life in the fact of quoting Mauss, nor any facile admiration for the "revolutionary fête." Things are much more complex. On the one hand, the contemporary quest for "direct action," for "direct democracy," finds an initial realization in the collective, cooperative production of these public events, which bring together all the rigorously separated aspects of modern social life. Indeed, the very aim of such events is to criticize certain fundamental separations, like the one that amputates any basic concern for life from the laws of monetary accumulation. But that doesn't mean that the event, the ecstatic convergence, is a total solution: instead it is a departure point for a fresh questioning of the social tie, at times when its deadly aspects become visible, as they are today. The protestors' claim, not just to the occupation but to the creation of public space, with all the conflicts it brings in its wake, offers society an occasion to theatricalize the real, in order to replay the meaning of abstractions that are no longer adequate to the needs and possibilities of life. The "total social fact" of the contemporary demonstration is, at its best, a chance to relearn and recreate a language for political debate, which isn't just about money, and doesn't only have "¥ € $" in its vocabulary. And the networked protests we are speaking of, including those of the peace movement in 2003, have produced the first chances to do this at the scale of the globalized economy and of global governance.

./english/162.txt:70:Artistic practice has been one of the keys to the emergence of these "global social facts" – not least because artistic practice has also been one of the ways to hold off group violence, to open up a theatrical space that doesn't immediately become a war zone. This is obviously something that contemporary society risks forgetting, and that particular risk is reason enough in itself to go beyond the specialized, disciplinary definition of art, to try to relocate art within a much broader political economy. Before I do that, however, I want to draw one last group of ideas from Yochai Benkler. His paper closes with the problem of what he calls "threats to motivation." One of these comes from the failure to integrate the results of commons-based peer production into usable wholes which can make a project successful. Translated into political terms, this would mean the failure of the networked movements to change any tangible aspect of social life. That is a real threat to motivation; and I think it's vitally important to keep offering practical ideas and proposals about possible changes on all the scales of governance and existence, from the neighborhood to the world level, at every new demonstration. Benkler points to different strategies for putting together the results of common effort. These strategies range from self-organization of the integration process, to the delegation of this tricky point to a hierarchical structure or a commercial enterprise. Again the translation into our terms is obvious, and has become increasingly visible at events such as the European Social Forum, held in Florence in November of 2002. Just when the networked struggles get big enough to succeed, there is an enormous temptation to hand them over, in the name of efficiency, to a traditional politburo supported by professional media people. The problem with such expedient strategies is that they risk giving participants the impression that the voluntary production of political culture with their peers is being confiscated by somebody in a directive position. A fantastic example of this is the 30-thousand member ATTAC association in France, which, to the discontent of many members, is in fact a strictly controlled hierarchical organization at the national level. However, for ATTAC to have the social power it does, it has also had to produce a decentralized network of local committees, which operate very differently from the national bureau and regularly criticize or contradict its decisions. The tension you can see there in a very real situation, between collective process and effective decision, is at the heart of the democratic experiment today. You might even say that working though that kind of tension is the art of politics.

./english/162.txt:74:These admissions of defeat are well known. (21) But in recent publications, another history of conceptual art has been coming back to light. It is a history that unfolds in Latin America, and particularly in Argentina, in the cities of Buenos Aires and Rosario. It would seem that here, in the context of an authoritarian government and under the pressure of American cultural imperialism, conceptual art could only be received – or invented – as an invitation to act antagonistically within the mass-media sphere. Certain Argentine pop artists considered that the commercial news media could actually be appropriated as an artistic medium, like a canvas or a gallery space. To do this, Roberto Jacoby and Eduardo Costa created an artificial happening, one that never really happened, and they stimulated the media with information about it, so as to achieve specific fictional effects. (22) But this attempt was only a first step towards a fully political appropriation of the communications media by artists. The most characteristic project was Tucumán Arde, or "Tucumán is Burning," realized in 1968. (23) The military government was attempting to "modernize" the sugar-cane industry in the province of Tucumán, with a shift from small, locally owned businesses to larger factories owned by foreign capital; at the same time, the official media painted an idyllic picture of a region which in reality was wracked by impoverishment and intense labor struggles. So a group of some thirty artists and intellectuals from Buenos Aires and Rosario researched the social and economic conditions in the province, carrying out an analysis of all the mass-media coverage of the region, and going out themselves to gather first-hand information and to document the situation using photography and film. They then staged an exhibition that was explicitly designed to feed their work back into the national debate, so as to counter the media picture. Yet the project, although it did not shy away from advertising techniques, could not be reduced to counter-propaganda. As Andrea Giunta writes: "In many of its characteristic traits – such as the exploration of the interaction between languages, the centrality of the activity required from the spectator, the unfinished character, the importance of the documentation, the dissolution of the idea of the author, and the questioning of the art system and the ideas that legitimate it – Tucumán Arde maintains a relation with the repertory of conceptual art. But not with the tautological and self-referential form of conceptualism, in which, from a certain viewpoint, one finds a reconfirmation of the modernist paradigm. Language does not refer back to language, to the specificity of the artistic fact; instead, the contextual relations are so strong that in this case, reality ceases being understood as a space of reflection and comes to be conceived as a possible field of action oriented toward the transformation of society." (24)

./english/162.txt:75:Tucumán Arde is extremely interesting to consider from the contemporary viewpoint of tactical media practice, which in many respects has been one long effort to research, expose, and go beyond the idyllic picture of globalization being painted by the corporate media. (25) But to understand the major differences from today's situation, one must realize that Tucumán Arde was done with the support of the Argentine CGT, that is, a radical labor union, and the exhibition was shown in a union hall. In other words, to obtain the funding and distribution of practices that would not be supported by the market, the Rosario group had to collaborate with a bureaucratic structure, which is essentially an outgrowth of the capitalist firm. And that is almost impossible today, at least in the overdeveloped countries. For complex reasons which have to do both with the anti-bureaucratic bias of the New Left, and with the heightened integration of labor unions to the state after the crisis of 1968, it has become very difficult for social movements, let alone artists, to collaborate with official structures such as parties, unions, etc. The motivation just isn't there. This is why the use of carefully conceived linguistic formulas, of oriented but open signifiers, would become a far more effective means of mobilization in the late 1990s, when ideas could be distributed and constantly transformed through the proliferation of connections offered by the Internet. In this way one achieved a non-bureaucratic capacity for subversive political action on a large scale, outside any compulsory framework. A new kind of conceptualism began to emerge, in which "attitudes become forms," as the curator Harald Szeeman said in the 1960s. An idea or phrase could become a world-wide event, in which every individual performance was different. Just as in Lawrence Weiner's famous prescription, the action could be carried out by the originators of the ideas, or realized by others, or not done at all. In the late 1990s, this revolutionary promise was realized. Thirty years after experiments such as Tucumán Arde, the counter-globalization movement burst onto the world scene as the revenge of the concept.

./english/162.txt:84:J18 in London was the most exquisitely planned and spontaneously realized artistic performance in which I have taken part, an awakening to new possibilities of political struggle that would be echoed throughout the world. Thousands converged in the morning at the Liverpool tube station in the City, receiving carnival masks in four different colors that encouraged the crowd to split into groups, outwitting the police by following different paths through the medieval street plan of Europe's largest financial district, then coming together again in front of the LIFFE building, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, which was the symbolic and real target of this protest against the global domination of speculative exchange. The choice of site was essential. Long years of effort by far-flung organizers and intellectuals had been required to understand and describe the ways in which capital had escaped its former national bounds, in order to redeploy itself transnationally in new oppressive systems; yet until the late 1990s, that knowledge remained largely abstract, floating in a deterritorialized space like the financial sphere itself. Here it was translated into tangible forms of embodied expression: transgressive dancing, defiant music, a verbal and visual poetics of resistance. For once, individual pleasure once did not appear as the negation, but rather as the accentuation of collective struggle, confronting financial abstractions which could be understood by the participants through the immediate experience of the stone-and-glass architecture, while the significance of each of their acts was multiplied by the knowledge that other, similar events were occurring all over the planet. Spontaneous invitations for passing traders to come join the party were combined with sudden attacks on private property, generating an unexpected, threatening, sympathetic and immensely confident image of revolt – a way to finally start answering the decades-old pleas for help from oppressed peoples in the South, while also responding to the unbearable social divisions that transnational capitalism imposes on countries like Britain. Of course this carnivalesque outburst was just one moment in a longer process of struggle, prepared by untold numbers of people under far harsher conditions. But the language of protest that emerged here nonetheless marked a turning point. It was the immediate inspiration for the larger and more complex confrontation in Seattle, six months later, which finally forced the messages of the global resistance movements through the frosty screens of the traditional media, opening the political crisis of global capitalism's legitimacy. A crisis which has not ceased to morph and mutate into the increasingly violent forms that it is taking today.

./english/162.txt:85:From my point of view there can be no mistake. The revenge of the concept is the reappearance, in broad daylight, of the global class struggle: a political struggle over to right to share in the fruits of technological development, and to guard against its many poisons. But if this re-embodiment of class struggle can also be an artistic experience – and an experiment that reverses and transforms the concept of art – it is because the articulation of the old divides has radically changed. In the face of an all-dominating capitalist class which has imposed a global division of labor, and extended its ideological grip over core populations through the devices of popular stockholding, speculative pension funds, and the seductive traps of consumer credit, the focus of struggle is no longer so much the rate of the industrial wage, as the very existence and production of that which lies outside the cash nexus: land in the sense of a viable ecology; labor as the energy of life from its beginnings in travails of birth; knowledge not as fragmented commodities but as an overarching question about meaning; trade and exchange as an institution of human coexistence. Arising within these fields of struggle are new desires and political designs, irreducible to the organizing schemes of capital and state. In the best of cases, opposition becomes a prelude to radical invention.

./english/172.txt:9:Important political changes have materialized in Latin Alemica that have shaken the neo-liberal offensive, and in some of them popular mobilizations managed to reverse the privatization process.

./english/176.txt:10:This paper attempts to explore the role of the internet in the processes of organization and mobilization of the ‘movement for alternative globalization’, which is often characterized as an ‘internet-based movement’. It reports the findings of a survey undertaken in the Paris 2003 European Social Forum (ESF), which asked 257 respondents about the contexts that mobilized them to participate in the ESF (political/voluntary organizations, friends/relatives, workplace/university, news media), as well as the modes and methods of c72

./english/176.txt:17:This paper attempts to explore the role of the internet in the processes of organization and mobilization of the ‘movement for alternative globalization’, which is often characterized as an ‘internet-based movement’. It reports the findings of a survey undertaken in the Paris 2003 European Social Forum (ESF), which asked 257 respondents about the contexts that mobilized them to participate in the ESF (political/voluntary organizations, friends/relatives, workplace/university, news media), as well as the modes and methods of communication that were used in each context. The findings question the claims about the internet-based character of this movement, as face-to-face contact seems to be the predominant mode of communication. The survey also challenges the much discussed potential of the internet to mobilize politically indifferent or marginalized individuals, as a comparison between users and non-users of the internet revealed that users tended to be mobilized for the ESF through political or voluntary organizations.

./english/176.txt:24:above claims by investigating the use of the internet in the mobilization for the Paris 2003 European Social Forum (ESF), one of the most important events for the European part of the ‘movement for alternative globalization’. The results derive from a survey undertaken in the Paris 2003 ESF, which asked 257 respondents about the contexts that mobilized them to participate in the European Social Forum (political/voluntary organizations, friends/relatives, workplace/university, news media), as well as the means and methods of communication that were used in each context. This paper aims to present and interpret some of the preliminary results and situate them amongst the wider context of studies in social movements and communication. On a more general note, this study is part of wider effort to restore communication analysis in its rightful place within social movement theory, which even though implicitly or explicitly recognizes the importance of contacts and interactions for the identity, ideology and organization of social movements, has thus far failed to incorporate a more detailed study of communication within its research framework.

./english/176.txt:26: According to Klandermans, there are three fundamental motives that account for participation in collective action: Instrumentality, which ‘refers to movement participation as an attempt to influence the social and political environment’; Identity, which ‘refers to movement participation as a manifestation of identification with a group’; and Ideology, which ‘refers to movement participation as a search for meaning and an expression of one’s views’ (2004, 361). Although not mutually exclusive, these three angles tend to be associated with different strands of social movement theory (Ibid). This part will briefly outline some of the main theories related to each motive. In that respect, instrumentality is connected to resource mobilization theory, identity to new social movements’ theory and ideology to ‘framing’ studies, while the social networks approach covers all of the three motives. I will further discuss the ways in which the role of media and communication has been conceptualized in each theory or, as I will try to demonstrate, under-theorized and under-researched.

./english/176.txt:28: Resource mobilization theory perceives insurgencies as rational endeavors, undertaken by minority or marginalized actors wishing to increase their leverage within the political system (McAdam 2003, 282). Centered on Social Movement Organizations (SMOs) and focusing on the relations within and between them, this analysis considers the availability and mobilization of core resources as a prerequisite of contentious action. In that respect, resources are ‘usually measured as the amount of money and numbers of staff, volunteers and members’ (van de Donk et al. 2004, 8) mobilized by an SMO.

./english/176.txt:42: The ‘movement for alternative globalization’ or ‘global social justice movement’ is an exception to this rule. This is because its characteristics are thought to be so inextricably linked with the use of new communication technologies that any study of the movement had to include from very early on a reflection on the role and impact of the internet. In the analysis that follows, I will briefly outline these claims and engage in a wider discussion about the possible effects of the internet in social movement activity. This analysis will provide the basis upon which the survey results will be assessed and interpreted. The ‘movement for alternative globalization’1 burst into the public consciousness in Seattle in late 1999 and since then has been the centre of much attention and controversy. Drawing on the broad and flexible frame of ‘alternative globalization’, this movement has managed to unite diverse and often disparate groups and organizations, from leftist political parties and charity organizations to anarchist groups of the Black Bloc. These groups seem to operate as a ‘network of networks’ constituting a prime example of ‘leaderless resistance’, as they manage to co-ordinate protests and events without a specific leader, a common programme or a centre of command (Castells 2001, 142). With its seemingly loose and flexible structure, global scale, and multi-issue politics, the ‘alter-globalization’ movement seems to represent a new type of social movements which is as much a product of the globalized world of late modernity as the problems that it tries to address.

./english/176.txt:45:ideologically diverse actors, as it is ‘conducive to forging (temporary) alliances and coalitions, both vertical and horizontal, across different issues’ (van de Donk et al. 2004, 19). But if it is not a shared ideology, then what is it that keeps these networks together and prevents their internal conflicts? According to Bennett, the answer rests on the loose and non-hierarchical modes of organizing adopted by these networks which ‘allow different political perspectives to coexist without the conflicts that such differences might create in more centralized coalitions’ (2004, 134). Therefore, the ease of linking or dropping out of these digital coalitions, their loose organizational structure, as well as the geographical dispersion of interpersonal activist relations, permit the ‘alter-globalization movement’ to foster ties of solidarity and collective identity in an international scale and among diverse participants, whose ideological differences may have hitherto been considered irreconcilable.

./english/176.txt:67:Working for a political or voluntary organization or NGO 2.1%

./english/176.txt:88:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 84Mobilization Contexts and Modes of Communication The survey further asked respondents about the contexts that mobilized them to participate in the Paris 2003 European Social Forum. ‘Mobilization’ was defined in terms of obtaining information about the ESF and organizing attendance. The questionnaire distinguished between four mobilization contexts, political or voluntary organizations, friends or relatives, the workplace or the university, and the news media. Distinguishing between different contexts was considered necessary for reasons of analytical clarity, even though it tends to disregard the possible overlaps between the various contexts. For instance, one can be friends with people who belong in the same organization, or be mobilized through a political organization with a university branch. The survey also included some questions about the means of communication that were used in each mobilization context. For instance, did the communication with the political or voluntary organization take place through the telephone, an email list, face-to-face, or the organization’s website? Did respondents talk to friends or relatives face-to-face, on the phone, or via email? The respondents could select one or more means of communication, helping us gain a first insight into the range of media used in each context. An initial breakdown of results showed that 74.2% of the respondents were mobilized by a political or voluntary organization, 65.2% through friends or relatives, 34.1% through the workplace or the university and 36.1% through the news media. Out of the 190 respondents who were mobilized through a political or voluntary organization, 61.6% communicated with the organization face-to-face, 51.1% through email lists and 34.2% through the organization’s website. Table 5 also shows that 18.9% were contacted through mailings, 20% through leaflets and 27.4% through posters. Table 5. Mobilized through political/voluntary organizations Face-to-face 61.6% Email list(s) 51.1% Website 34.2% Mailings 18.9% Leaflets 20.0% Posters 27.4% Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 85Face-to-face contact was also the main

./english/176.txt:110:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 86Associations between communication methods What becomes apparent from this initial breakdown of results is that in each mobilization context respondents used a wide range of communication methods sin order to mobilize for the Paris 2003 European Social Forum. This raises interesting questions about the relationships between these different communication methods. Is face-to-face communication in one context associated with face-to-face contact in another? Is the use of the email negatively associated with face-to-face communication or the use of other media? In order to examine this interplay, I checked for statistically significant associations between the different communication methods used both within and across the various mobilization contexts.2 The crosstabulations produced only weak associations between the different communication media; some of them were hardly surprising, whereas others were quite unexpected and, therefore, interpreted with caution. Within the political or voluntary organizations’ mobilization context, a weak association was discovered between respondents using email lists and respondents getting information from the website of the organization. In addition, a stronger relationship was recorded between respondents being informed through leaflets and through posters. As for respondents mobilized by friends or relatives, a weak association was found between the use of email and use of the telephone. In addition, respondents using email to communicate with friends or relatives also used email to communicate with the workplace/university in order to mobilize for the European Social Forum. Furthermore, within the workplace/university mobilization context weak associations were recorded among almost all of the means of communication. In that respect, face-to-face contact is related with the use of email, the telephone as well as leaflets/posters. Apart from face-to-face communication, the use of email is also related with the use of the telephone and the web. Finally, the use of the web is also associated with the use of the telephone, as well as with leaflets/posters. Therefore, the workplace/university seems to constitute a much denser communicative universe than the contexts of friends and relatives or political and voluntary organizations. A possible interpretation of these results points to the nature of the workplace/university as a site of mobilization. In that respect, the workplace/university constitutes a prime location of daily face-to-face contact as, contrary to other contexts, it is a setting where individuals spend a significant part of their day. This may explain why face-to-face contact is by far the main mode of communication used by the respondents mobilized through this context. What is more, the need to perform certain work-related tasks daily, as well as the availability of communication media and resources, may indicate that work Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 87or university colleagues are regularly in

./english/176.txt:115: This analysis detected a weak association between the respondents’ nationality and their mobilization through a political or voluntary organization’s email list. In that respect, 40.2% of the respondents mobilized through an organization’s email list come from France. The remaining 59.8% is more or less equally distributed among the remaining countries. It is also worth noting that only 9.3% of the respondents mobilized through organizational email lists come from Italy and 10.3% from Spain, even though 14.8% of the sample was Italian and 16.7% was Spanish.

./english/176.txt:117: We can compare these figures with the ones of face-to-face communication with political or voluntary organizations, which also shows a weak association with the respondents’ nationality. Figures for Spain are much higher for face-to-face communication, as 72.1% of the Spanish respondents were mobilized through face-to-face contact

./english/176.txt:118:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 88with an organization. These represent 26.5% of the overall number of respondents mobilized by an organization face-to-face. The French represent 21.4% and the Italian 12.8%. A weak association was also discovered between the respondents’ age and their use of a political or voluntary organization’s email list. In that respect, 41.2% of the respondents who were mobilized through an organization’s email list was between 21 and 30 years old. This is hardly a surprise as this age category represents nearly 50% of the total sample. Thus, even though this percent is high, it is nonetheless not as significant within this age category, as respondents mobilized through an organization’s email list account for only 31.5% of the people between 21 and 30. On the contrary, more than half of the respondents over 40 years old were mobilized through an organization’s email list. The figures for each age category are as follows: 65.2% for the 41-50 category, 73.3% for the 51-60 and 61.1% for the respondents older than 60. Age is also associated, albeit weakly, with mobilization through an organization’s website. The patterns are nearly the same as with mobilization through email lists described previously. Thus, 33.8% of the respondents mobilized through an organization’s website belong to the 21 - 30 age category, but represent only 17.3% of that category. However, figures are much higher for the older respondents as 43.5% of 41 - 50 years old and 46.7% of the 51 - 60 age categories were mobilized through an organization’s website. Again, we can compare these figures with face-to-face contact, as age has a weak association with mobilization through face-to-face communication with friends or relatives. In that respect, 59.1% of the respondents belonging to 21 - 30 category, as well as 40% of the 31 - 40 and 55% of the younger than 20 years old were mobilized through face-to-face communication with friends and relatives. Figures are much lower for the older respondents, as only 13% of the 41 - 50, 33.3% of the 51 – 60 and 22.2% of the over 60 were mobilized through face-to-face contact with friends and relatives. Users versus Non-Users of the Internet In order to compare users with non-users of the internet, a new variable was constructed by grouping together respondents who have used an internet application (email, web or email lists) in any mobilization context and controlling for differences from respondents who have not used the Internet at all. Overall, 88 respondents have not used the internet in their mobilization for the 2003 European Social Forum, representing 34.2% of the sample, while 169 have, accounting for 65.8% of the sample. Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 89The crosstabulations with the

./english/176.txt:120: I further examined whether the use of the internet was related with any of the contexts that mobilized respondents to participate in the European Social Forum. In that respect, the only statistically significant, albeit weak, association was with mobilization through a political or voluntary organization. In that respect, 76.8% of the respondents who were mobilized through an organization have used one or more internet applications in one or more of the mobilization contexts, representing 86.4% of the internet-users category.

./english/176.txt:121: A statistically significant relationship was also revealed between use of the internet and members or supporters of a political or voluntary organization, even though this relationship is very weak. However, the percent of members or supporters who has used at least one internet application in any mobilization context is a staggering 79.3%.

./english/176.txt:124:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 90Discussion of Results and Conclusions What the preceding analysis effectively demonstrated is that within every mobilization context a wide range of media and modes of communication have been used in order to bolster participation in the Paris 2003 European Social Forum. This raises interesting questions about the relationship between the different modes of communication, their interplay and articulation. Thus, instead of making simplistic distinctions and comparisons between these different modes, it is worth examining in greater detail their relationships and the ways in which one influences another. The existence of statistically significant associations between different types of communication both within and across different mobilization contexts constitutes a useful starting point. The inspection of possible associations revealed some expected and some counter-intuitive results. For instance, the fact that respondents mobilized through the email lists of political or voluntary organizations were also mobilized through the organization’s website is hardly surprising. The same can be said for the relationship between the use of email in the workplace/university and the use of email to communicate with friends and relatives. However, the finding that mobilization through news websites has a weak association only with newspapers is quite unexpected, as one would anticipate that this type of mobilization would relate to mobilization through at least one internet application (email, email lists, and especially websites) in any of the other three mobilization contexts (political/voluntary organizations, friends/relatives, workplace/university). This analysis further revealed that within the workplace/university mobilization context the use of one mode of communication is associated, albeit weakly, with nearly every other mode. Therefore, the workplace/university seems to be a very tight communicative realm, contrary to other contexts such as political or voluntary organizations and friends or relatives. As it was already mentioned, this can be attributed to the nature of the workplace/university as a mobilization context which constitutes a prime location of face-to-face contact as it is a site where individuals spend a significant part of their day. In addition, the use and availability of different communication media, necessary for the accomplishment of work- or study-related tasks, may also facilitate other activities, such as mobilizing for the European Social Forum. This effectively shows that the interplay between different means and modes of communication may be affected by the mobilization context where their use is located or with which they are associated. Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 91The initial breakdown of results further

./english/176.txt:125:demonstrated that mobilization through political or voluntary organizations, friends or relatives, and the workplace or the university takes place predominantly through face-to-face contact. Thus, rather than being replaced by mediated communication, face-to-face contact seems to co-exist with other modes of communication. This ubiquitous presence of face-to-face contact urges us to rethink and clarify our notion of the ‘alter-globalization movement’ as an internet-based movement. In this respect, the fact that internet communications are not prevalent among participants in the European Social Forum does not necessarily entail a rejection of these claims. Rather, it may be an indication that the changes brought by the internet are qualitative, not quantitative. Therefore, far from disproving these claims, the survey results call for a more in-depth understanding of possible qualitative changes and for a clearer definition of what we mean by ‘internet-based movement’. Does ‘internet-based’ signify a movement communicating predominantly through the internet? Or is it more the case of a movement with an electronic spine – in terms of the connections among key activists across different countries – but whose day-to-day organizing and mobilization takes place locally and through face-to-face communication? In any case it is worth keeping in mind that email comes second to face-to-face contact in all of the mobilization contexts where they were used in tandem.

./english/176.txt:126: The overwhelming figures associated with face-to-face contact also point to another tendency, the predominance of interpersonal modes of communication over the more impersonal ones, as face-to-face contact and the email garner higher percents than posters, leaflets, or the web. For instance, in the case of respondents mobilized through a political or voluntary organization, 61.6% were contacted face-to-face and 51.1% through email. More impersonal modes of communication, such as posters, leaflets or the web feature much lower. This tendency is also apparent in the workplace/university, the other context where a combination of personal and impersonal media has been used and where an overriding percent of respondents has been mobilized through face-to-face communication. Additional evidence corroborating this assumption is provided by the relatively low percent (36.1%) of respondents mobilized through the news media, compared to respondents mobilized through an organization or through friends or relatives.

./english/176.txt:128:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 92In terms of social movement research, this also highlights the necessity to distinguish between the different internet applications and examine their effects separately, as they favor different modes of communication. Thus, email tends to foster interpersonal communication, while the web adheres more to a broadcast model of communication. Email lists fall somewhere in-between, facilitating the narrowcasting of messages and information. Therefore, bundling up all these applications under the category ‘Internet’ cannot adequately capture the role of new communication technologies in social movement activity. Another major inference provided by this study concerns the possible relationship between internet use and the respondents’ political experience or degree of involvement in politics. The basis for this assumption is supplied by the associations between internet use and the respondents’ age, as well as the context through which they were mobilized. In that respect, the survey results showed that older participants tend more than the younger ones to be mobilized through the email lists or websites of political or voluntary organizations. On the other hand, younger participants tend to be mobilized more through face-to-face contact with friends or relatives. To an extent, this seems as a counter-intuitive result. It can however be explained, if we consider that older activists may refrain from participating in the day-to-day meetings of the political or voluntary organizations they belong to, but still choose to stay in touch and follow the latest news through email lists and the organizations’ websites. For younger activists, on the contrary, participation in a social movement may constitute an opportunity for or be a result of face-to-face socialization with friends and relatives. The interpretation of these results would be aided significantly, if information about the respondents’ political experience and prior participation in the ‘alter-globalization’ or other movements was available. For instance, a study of participants in the anti-war demonstration of the 15th of February 2003 both in Europe and in the USA has revealed that more experienced activists tended to get their political information online, contrary to first-time demonstrators (Bennett, Givens and Willnat 2004, page numbers not available). In my study, even though the respondents’ age can be considered as an indication of their political experience, it is far from conclusive. To address this gap, more information about the political experience of the respondents is being sought through a follow-up study to the 2003 survey. As for the relationship between internet use and mobilization context, the results have revealed that respondents who have used at least one internet application in any mobilization context tend to be mobilized more through political or voluntary organizations than non-users of the internet. On the other hand, respondents who Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 93were mobilized by face-to-face contact in

./english/176.txt:130: This may be suggesting that respondents already in contact with a political or voluntary organization use the internet more than respondents who are not as involved in politics. Still, such an interpretation should be made with caution as it ultimately questions the much-celebrated potential of the internet to revive democracy by facilitating and encouraging the participation of previously indifferent or marginalized individuals. Therefore, this assumption needs to be corroborated with additional empirical data, as the evidence supplied by this survey is just indicative. In that respect, more information concerning the respondents’ political experience could again help us build a sounder basis for interpreting these results.

./english/176.txt:131: Additional research could employ more qualitative research techniques which would be better able to capture these relationships with all their hues and nuances. By highlighting the value of the, largely unexplored, role of interpersonal mediated communication, as well as the need to examine the interplay between different media and modes of communication, this survey has hopefully offered a useful starting point. The need to distinguish between different internet applications and to understand how internet use is related to the respondents’ demographic characteristics and political experience, as well as the context through which they were mobilized can also serve as pointers towards this direction. More importantly, what this study ultimately calls for is a greater awareness of the crucial role of media and communication within social movement activity and of the necessity to place them in a more central position within social movement inquiry.

./english/176.txt:134:Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2(1) 942 The statistical significance of these relationships was measured using the Chi-Square and the strength of the relationship was assessed using the Phi Coefficient, a measure suitable for establishing associations between nominal (and particularly dichotomous) variables. If the value of the Phi Coefficient was below 0.3 then the variables were considered independent. Values between 0.3 and 0.7 were indicative of a weak association between the two variables, while if Phi was above 0.7 then the association was considered strong. All of the reported associations were statistically significant with p<0.05, while in many cases p was 0.000. 3 The significance of the association was measured using again the Chi-Square, while the strength of the relationship was assessed using the Gamma measure in the case of an association between a nominal and an ordinal variable. The association between nominal and dichotomous variables was measured using Cramer’s V and the Phi Coefficient. References Baym, N.K., Y.B. Zhang and M.Lin. (2004) ‘Social interactions across media: Interpersonal communication on the internet, telephone and face-to-face’, New Media & Society 6(3): 299-318. Bennett, W.L. (2004) ‘Communicating global activism: strengths and vulnerabilities of networked politics’, in W. van de Donk, B.D. Loader, P.G. Nixon and D. Rucht (eds.) Cyberprotest: New media, citizens and social movements, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 123-146. Bennett, W.L., T.E. Givens and L.Willnat. (2004) ‘Crossing Political Divides: Internet Use and Political Identifications in Transnational Anti-War and Social Justice Activists in Eight Nations’. Paper for the European Consortium for Political Research Workshop. Uppsala, Sweden, April 14-18, 2004. Breiger, R.L. (2004) ‘The Analysis of Social Networks’, in M. Hardy and A. Bryman (eds.) Handbook of Data Analysis, London: Sage Publications, pp. 505-526. Burnett, R. and P.D. Marshall. (2003) Web Theory: An introduction, London and New York: Routledge. Castells, M. (2001) The Internet galaxy: reflections on the Internet, business, and society, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clemens, E.S. and D.C. Minkoff. (2004) ‘Beyond the Iron Law: Rethinking the Place of Organizations in Social Movement Research’, in D.A. Snow, S.A. Soule and H. Kriesi (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 155-169. Diani, M. (1992) ‘The concept of social movement’, The Sociological Review 40(1): 1-25. Kavada, Exploring the role of the internet… 95___. (2004) ‘Networks and Participation’,

./english/176.txt:142: Tarrow, S. (2002) ‘The New Transnational Contention: Organizations, Coalitions, Mechanisms’. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, Chicago, USA, 31 August – 1 September 2002.

./english/180.txt:4:- de demonstration was an important political achievement, and

./english/180.txt:69:level a common political will to realize such a mobilization. Once the

./english/180.txt:90:(3) a series of political factors handicapped the mobilization: delay in

./english/180.txt:144:Belgium. If there are critics of this political balance, they should be

./english/180.txt:148:quickly without endangering what can be considered today as political

./english/180.txt:153:think this had to do with the political obstacles referred to above, and

./english/187.txt:35:Deepen the analysis and critique of current economic, political and social system and build alternatives and proposals that allow us to transform society. We will do this through the creation of space at the European level, which integrates teh vision and action of the largest number of people and sectors.

./english/187.txt:37:Provide social movements and society in general with instruments for the expression of our common will, so that we can all participate in the construction of our own future. These instruments constitute, in and of themselves, a denunciation of the total lack of democracy in our current political, economic and social system.

./english/187.txt:39:With the goal of ensuring that the process of the European Social Consulta is as open, democratic and horizontal as possible, but always maintaining a very clear political framework and a spirit of respect toward all people, cultures and communities, we propose the following hallmarks to guide this process:

./english/187.txt:60:The initial idea would be to engage in a global analysis of the current economic, political and social system, but including Europe, its specific issues and the transformations we can promte from here, as a context of particular importance. In terms of levels and issues of debate, we start from the idea that the consultation process should integrate all those levels and themes of debate that might be of interest to those collectives and social movements that become involved in the process. It should marginalize neither analytical nor concrete debates and should attend to proposals for structural transformation (political, economic and social system), sectoral debate (ecology, social rights, militarism, immigration, gender, etc...) as well as concrete reforms (ending specific laws regarding immigration, abolishing the external debt, guaranteed income, tobin tax, etc...)

./english/192.txt:4:1. The third European Social Forum in London (14-17 October 2004) provided further evidence - if more were needed - of the vitality of the altermondialiste movement. It also confirmed - after Porto Alegre and Paris, Mumbai and Florence - that the social forum remains an astonishingly dynamic and successful political form. The success of the London ESF can demonstrated in various dimensions:

./english/192.txt:29:mainstream politicians are out of touch with both the spirit, content and the style of the inclusive non-party politics now emerging under the ESF umbrella. Any professional politician observing the audiences of 1,000 or more people raptly listening to debates on globalisation, the power of corporations, racism, food or the environment would do well to reflect on the narrowness of their own political agenda and the genuine transnationalism now clearly informing European youth…Out of the connections being made between radically different groups, it is possible to see in years to come the emergence of a genuine new politics of the European left.

./english/192.txt:32:2. The London ESF was accompanied by plenty of political noise. To a significant degree this reflected the fact that our very diversity means that there are plenty of political disagreements. For example, many comrades, especially from France, didn't like the fact that the war in Iraq was very prominent in London, as it was in Florence.

./english/192.txt:35:Others - and they are particularly influential in France - disagree. They believe there is no necessary connection between the Bush war drive and neo-liberal globalization. I think they are mistaken, and that every day that passes underlines the importance of understanding the links between economic and military power that are at the heart of modern imperialism. This is a substantive political disagreement with which we are going to have to learn to live while working together in the same movement.

./english/192.txt:42:In Britain, by contrast, the altermondialiste networks that had participated in the earlier Forums were relatively weak. A coalition had to be created from scratch to organize the London ESF. This involved bringing together very diverse organizations with no history of working together and huge differences in political culture. Working together would have been hard in any circumstances.

./english/192.txt:48:It is hard to take this seriously. Anyone who has attended the WSF in Porto Alegre will remember the corporate adverts welcoming delegates and the VIP suite at the PUC. The importance of support from local government (and indeed from political parties) is indicated by the proposal that was made to move the forthcoming WSF from Porto Alegre after the PT lost control of the city in November.

./english/192.txt:53:5. It is, in any case, the future about which we need to be thinking. The next ESF will be in Athens in the spring of 2006. What political lessons does the experience of London offer? The most important is that, as the Italian comrades pointed out after Florence, the great strengths of the movement are radicality and diversity. We have managed the near-miracle of developing a movement that embraces an extraordinarily wide social and political range but that has mounted a challenge to capitalist imperialism as a system. This was very evident in London: as at Florence, many of the largest and most dynamic meetings were dominated by the politics of the radical left.

./english/193.txt:1:Antinomies: Relations between Social Movements, Left Political Parties and State. Reflections on the European Social Forum in London and beyond

./english/193.txt:7:One of the most debated aspects at the ESF was how to develop strategies of social transformation beyond a simple negation of the existing neoliberal from of globalisation. In the face of changing conditions, altered modes of capitalist production, transformed social relations and social forces, the left has had to think through its self-understanding, its inner contradictions, its strategies. Ever since there has been discussion about non- or anti-etatist political forms and strategies or more institutionalised ones – and what the relations between them should look like, if there are some. We could remember the split between Marx and Bakunin, or later between Marxists and Anarchists. We could remember the different concepts about the relations between the movement, in the singular, the supposed male workers movement, and socialist or communist parties, ranging from Lenin to Luxemburg to Trotsky to Gramsci to Mao and so on. We could also remember the movement of ‘68, its march through the institutions or into an alternative space/niche for new modes of living. And of course the relation between autonomy and institutional politics was a problem for the second feminist movement in the 1970s and 80s well as for the peace movement and the ecological movement – just think about the German Greens. There is a lot of experience that should not be forgotten. Maybe that was one reason for a – not political but - generational uniformity discussing that problematic at the ESF.

./english/193.txt:9:Ever since the disruption of state socialism and the spread of neoliberal hegemony across the world we live under a far-reaching process of capitalist transformation. Its contradictions and the engagement of people all over the world had led to the emergence of a movement of movements – this time we keep the plural. In the last years we have seen a kind of consolidation of that process, and the World and the European Social Forum (like other fora) have a remarkable part in that consolidation. But there are very different ideas about how to continue and which political forms are appropriate for a new kind of radical social transformation. There is a consensus about plurality and the richness of diversity, but also a comprehension of the need for coherence. Very often the problem is discussed in the form of simple dichotomies like the opposition between institutional politics and autonomy, between movements and parties, between avant-garde thinking and basic democracy, between civil society and state and so on. But these essentialisations are false oppositions, because all these oppositions in concrete life are contradictions in motion.

./english/193.txt:11:Maybe we could call them antinomies arising from the field of practice of political movements themselves. Antinomies prevail when two or more forms of action and organisation seem to exclude each other, but are indispensable at the same time. To avoid dividing the movement and to develop political capabilities it’s necessary to learn what Bertold Brecht called “to operate with antinomies”, to deal with our own contradictions beyond a non-committal or evasive – may I say post-modern – plurality.

./english/193.txt:22:Fausto Bertinotti, Secretary of the Italian Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (the refounded Communist Party), states the problem that revolutionary politics are no common political project today. The problem of capitalism existing is not articulated as political problem. Therefore the task for a radical left party is to make it a problem. But it is clear that taking the power does not mean the abolition of capitalism and revolutionary transformation. The first step is to raise some limitations to capitalism. In the face of a deep crisis of representation it is important to regain a large participation in the elections in favour of a regime change. This is still limited to the old model of representation and participation every four or five years, but tries to create or sustain spaces for everyday participation and self-organisation at the same time. But politics go further than state and parties. From Marx, we know that capitalism produces and reproduces the separation of state, bourgeois society, and economy, what leads to different forms of alienation. Therefore for a real social transformation the reconstruction of revolutionary subjects is needed, not as a monolithic one. For Bertinotti in an atrophied perspective ‘auto-organisazione’ and the reinvention of politics (as party politics) is the same. Holloway questions that: using a party (as part of the state) to construct the revolutionary subject means separating the people, means building hierarchies, means decision making in our name instead of self-construction of the subject. Changing the world therefore, a young Italian woman stated, means changing ourselves. ‘I want to be powerful – not take the power.’ Holloway: ‘Our power is no counter-power but anti-power.’ But, ‘we can not turn our back to the state, because the state will shoot us in the back, somebody else answered. To face capitalist power and state force not anti-power but counterpower is needed to defend our autonomy.

./english/193.txt:29:In contrast to post-structuralism, Holloway reformulates an essential notion of subjectivity outside of concrete social relations, assumes Joachim Hirsch, a prominent author writing on critical state theory.5 Instrumental power in Holloway’s understanding alienates the subject from its immediate subjectivity, ‘dehumanises’. He therefore misses Marx’s cognition that the ‘essence’ of human beings in reality is the ‘ensemble of social relations’. Moreover in contrasting instrumental and creative power Holloway on the one hand denounces all forms of intermediate institutions and representations, and on the other hand offers creativity as a possibility free of contradictions. That is bound to a romantic notion of original communism, of a nonalienated community. But it might be necessary in a complex society to develop some objectified forms of institutions for mediation (Versachlichung und Vermittlung) – not all forms of objectification necessarily lead to fetishism, although there is a danger. Without intermediation it is doubtful if such a society would be a free one. Developing creative anti-power in itself is a contradictory process: there is a need for alternatives beyond fragmented local struggles, for an understanding about theoretical, social and political concepts, goals and strategies. Such conflicts in the movement are also conflicts about power that could not be negated. But it is of great importance, Hirsch tells us, that Holloway has formulated a clear critique of all political concepts trying to fight the existing power relations with their own weapons. And he has brought back the notion of revolution into our thinking and acting.

./english/193.txt:34:However autonomy is not simply a thing one can take. Autonomy has to be worked out, in search of new forms of social relations and subjectivities. Nearly 90% of the locally active members are women. In organising these new social relations a need for desaprender (‘unlearning’) became evident in the face of entangled modes of domination reproduced in the community (for example machismo) and became part of self-educating processes. The movement gives itself space for collective reflection to work on conflicts. Partisans tried to get into the movement, but their old forms of clientalism and domination prevented a deeper influence. There is no disintegration of the movement in the face of a new government. Things have been institutionalised, networks of organisations been created, durability is the goal (not conjunctural actions) – but as this is a process from below (like in Chiapas as well), quiet, slow, changing subjectivities, it is not that visible in the media. The state is absent, apart from its repressive functions. The experience of exclusion was necessary for the movement. ‘Neoliberalism itself induced us to appropriate its promises, but without reintegrating into the system that excluded us.’ But repression is getting harder.7 ‘Will we always need someone to organise us our lives’, Jara asked, ‘some political party, or union, or government?’ For Holloway the piqueteros (although they do not like this expression, because it hides the everyday production and reproduction within the community) are the most prominent case of ‘urban zapatismo’, burning holes into the structure, against the existing, breaking with identities – it is the movement of non-identity. This is not a loss, there is nothing to be repressed, and it should not be a sacrifice but a pleasure.

./english/193.txt:37:This link to concrete situations of resistance in time and space on the ESF is sometimes difficult to achieve. In many seminars and workshops you just get flat, already known analyses, simple propaganda and wishful thinking. Again and again the common enemy (neoliberalism, transnational corporations, the US, the WTO etc.) is condemned – in this sense the perspective on the ESF seems too unified; the few times debates became concrete consensus was melting away – the different approaches and goals were too diverse: a necessary result emerging from the contradiction of the ESF (and WSF) process itself as open space for discussion and self-education, without a real attempt to develop some applicable and visible alternatives. Therefore the Forum is no movement in itself (in contrast to Thomas Ponniah’s view8), but maybe a space for a new political consciousness and sovereignty, the modern form of articulation and association of structurally fragmented groups, classes and movements. However, because there is no alternative social project formed, the actual representative crisis of neoliberalism does not lead to a weakening of its hegemonic position. Pierre Khalfa supposes that diversity paralyses. 9 But its not diversity as such – which might enrich the movements – but a lack of deep analysis, including the production of neoliberal hegemony from below, in combination with non-committal plurality. This undermines a generalization of experiences, views and understandings (without closed unification under one primary force) preventing us from achieving coherent approaches and strategies. On the one hand there are more or less successful local social movements, creating autonomous spaces and transforming subjectivities, sometimes re-appropriating the essential means of reproduction from below, but hardly touching the relations of power on national or even transnational level. On the other there are global events for the altermondialist, national and transnational NGOs, some national parties, getting some media presence, shaping the public discourse, but far away from the everyday experience of the people, acting in some kind of representative vacuum without really questioning the ruling political form (Brand 2004). There is a need for intermediate political forms. At the heart of the problem lies the relation between representation and participation. A permanent movement (in the strict sense of the word) is difficult to sustain, movements are fragile forms with periods of higher or lesser activity, they develop out of concrete situations of dissent with the ruling mode of production and living, with a perspective of (molecular) social transformation, while the struggle for this transformation has to be a very long-standing one. Out of this results a need for institutionalisation to bridge times of less activity, disintegration, defensive situations and to overcome defeats, save experience and knowledge for the next generation of activists etc. A renewed concept for left political parties could be one possibility to create intermediate institutionalised political forms.

./english/193.txt:39:What is a party? A party does not simply represent a group or class; it is always a result of inner struggles between different interests and struggles with other parties or social forces. It only represents a group or class when it is able to intervene into the culture and politics of other groups and classes, reorganising the whole class and social structure (including the groups and classes it wants to represent). The bourgeois understanding of political representation as passive element therefore is only part of the reality. The opposition between representation and participation is not that hard when the mutual organising and transformative aspects between representatives and represented, between social movements and parties come to the fore. If we take this seriously representation on both sides is an active one, directed to convergence between the two sides while never achieving it, because they represent two different cultural/political forms. Parties are the fields of struggle between self- and foreign (or alienated) social association (Selbst- und Fremdvereinigung) virulent in every society.

./english/193.txt:41:Parties have a dual character: in the parliamentary system they are part of the state, therefore transforming social conflicts into institutionalised forms of consensus building, integrating oppositional forces into the ruling power structure. Radical parties could try to discredit the consensual uniformity, to extend the legal forms, to break with rules of the political field, but up to a specific degree they have to play the game. Nevertheless parties are also part of civil society and for a left radical party its strength depends essentially on the existence and organic connection to active social movements. Otherwise a left party is going to isolate itself, lost in the structures of parliamentary politics without the transformative power of movements as their mobile spine and vital space for imagination. Left radical parties have to reflect their privileged position in ruling political systems, divide power with social movements systematically, giving them institutional forms of influence over party decisions and (financial) means. The more successful they are, the more they have to ‘disempower’ themselves vis-à-vis the movements, recognising that they are not the centres of hegemonic counter-power, nor a privileged political form for social transformation. Such a party could be some kind of ‘institutional backbone’ (Spehr 2000), an infrastructure (Brand 2004) for social movements, creating and securing spaces for activities from below.

./english/193.txt:43:Parties like movements need institutionalised spaces for self-reflection and critique beyond the daily tasks. The connections might be intensified via interchanging personal, representatives of movements on (open) electoral lists of the party, active participation of party militants and movements on all levels of decision making, obligatory reports to militants and movements etc. (see Spehr 2004). Progressive parties in power could hold a strong defensive potential against repressive attacks, strengthening offensive political movements, assuring social achievements by giving them a legal form (for a possible future when the movement may be weaker). If they create a closed bureaucracy feeling independent from the movements, cutting the vital organic relations for negotiating compromises with the social bloc in power, the ‘party becomes anachronistic’, losing ‘its social content’ (Gramsci, Gef.7, H.13, 1579). ‘If the radical left tries to cooperate with the majoritarian left (participating in governmental coalitions or other strategic alliances), under conditions of neoliberal hegemony, it is under suspicion [and in danger] of renouncing its own positions for taking part in policy making processes’, pretending to ease the pain of politics otherwise implemented without their participation. Even because of its radical [ethical] standards applied to politics in such situations, ‘the radical left is seen as especially untrustworthy measured with these own standards’ (Brie 2004; Candeias 2004, 340).

./english/193.txt:45:Taking the government does not mean taking power – cultural hegemony is rooted in complex state structures, in civil society and in webs of private institutions, in everyday thinking, in habits and of course: cultural hegemony is always ‘a political one, but also and especially a economic one, its material basis rooted in the decisive functions the hegemonic groups exercise in the core of economic activities’ (Gramsci, Gef.3, 499; Marx, MEW 3, 46). Therefore the dangers for self-deception, strategic misjudgements, exaggerated self-assessment, cooptation, and entanglement in the traps of Realpolitik etc. are manifold. Therefore a critical distance vis-à-vis the state and political parties is essential for the survival of social movements. But we enforce these dangers if we understand the party as something outside from us – than it becomes ‘a fetish’ (Gramsci, Gef.7, H.15, 1730).

./english/193.txt:47:Parts of the movements think that the parties are something apart, alienating us from each other and from our desire to self-determination, becoming an apparatus that decides for us and betrays our will. But they don’t see that in separating the parties from the movement they promote bureaucratisation, parties lose active participation, become a mechanical closed form, with political aims that are an expression of their dried up social basis, just the functionaries remain. Turning our backs on state-oriented politics and parties reproduces the bourgeois division between state, civil society and economy, instead of understanding the ensemble of social relations not only as determining but also as one channel that is available for the transformation of the whole social organization. We have seen what happens when parties and movements cut off their organic connections or when movements disappear and parties continue to exist. The ‘arrogance of the party’ (ibid., H.14, 1696) that develops in such situations was quite visible at the ESF (Wainwright 2004), enlarging the gap between some parties trying to dominate the ESF and the radical movements. This was also visible on the huge demonstration of about 100.000 participants, where only a few (British) groups were represented in the final speeches (Pomrehn), incessantly invoking solidarity with the resistance in Iraq and Palestine – which for many movements is absolutely unbearable.

./english/193.txt:49:One problem is that the existing radical left parties are representatives of a completely undermined social basis, while the trans-nationally restructured social groups and classes have not jet created their own political institutions. The altered conditions of struggle in a new mode of production and living are not yet reflected, leading to sectarian particularities. Sometimes old forms of the welfare state are the orienting measure (or even older concepts of world revolution of a unified world proletariat), sometimes the complete rejection of these structures throwing their progressive elements over board. The idea of a rifundazione comunista (see Haug 2003, 292ff) in its broadest sense therefore is a very reliable one (although the Italian formation is still quarrelling with its hierarchical constitution).10

./english/193.txt:51:Gramsci warned against sectarian, narrow-minded thinking: ‘A political party is not only the technical organisation of the party itself, but the whole active social bloc.’ (Gef7., H.15, 1774) In a specific hegemonic constellation ‘nobody is unorganised or independent from a party, if organisation or party is understood in its broadest sense not formally’ (Gef.4, H.6, §136). Each social bloc, as a convergence of different social groups, classes, genders etc., generates only one formation in the sense of this broader integral understanding of a party (that is nearer to the notion of social forces and movements than it is to parties in the narrow sense). All different partial formations, the non-commitment to plurality, are only transitional ‘reformist’ forms, oriented on simple negation or on transforming only partial dysfunctional elements, not the existing mode of production as a whole. Therefore a communist refoundation is more than a renewal of given party organisations (where you could become a member, pay your fee, and vote for your ‘leader’). It requires the reinvention of proletariat as Marx put in the Manifesto: ‘the proletariat recruits itself from all classes of population’ (MEW 4, 469), a diffuse milieu of released, redundant people without property except their own labour power. Under circumstances of the neoliberal, transnational mode of production this includes the increasing global industrial labour force, the modern precariat as well as the modern cybertariat, the rural labour force as well as landless people, the non-paid reproductive workers (mostly women), the migrant labour force – all of them shaped by differentiations along class, gender, race, nation, their positions in production processes, political alliances, cooptation by ruling forces, etc. If we take all these diverse fragmentations seriously we could come to a deeper understanding of a contradictory multitude that is to be worked out to a coherent social bloc of forces able to form social transformation. This new modern prince (Gramsci) cannot be understood ‘as a singular form of collective agency, for example a single party with a single form of identity’ (Gill 2003, 221). What is required is an articulation of the different political forms due to concrete situations, permanent reorganisation of organisational forms in the face of developing conditions, including the collective and individual ‘molecular change of modes of thinking and acting’, forcing this transnational partiality (Parteiung) to rearticulate again and again, arranging new and original problems to solve (Gramsci, Gef. 8, §51).11 This is not possible without involving constantly the active elements of subjectivity.

./english/193.txt:72:Spehr, Christoph, ›Approximating a theory of political forms‹, Manuscript Berlin 2004 [forthcoming]

./english/193.txt:83:4. The temporalities of party politics are contradictory, in Holloway’s understanding: they seek power, trying to take advantage of political conjunctures, while asking their members to wait until the party is in power, and then until they change the world for us.

./english/194.txt:4:Sunday afternoon's demo - one hundred thousand people against the war and liberalism - confirmed what we had written in the past few days: the European social Forum of London was a success. With many internal problems, with difficulties, delays and misunderstandings, but a success none the less, also shown by the twenty five thousand people attending in the end. How striking, therefore, the enormous lack of media attention by the Italian press. A lack of curiosity - perhaps due to the absence of violent clashes and teargas - that should make us reflect on the present system of media information but that at the same time reveals a political distance between an "establishment" that is increasingly entangled in the [alchemy/deception] of the "palace" [government bureaucracy], and the spirit that moves the young generations. In London we saw many young people, a lot of desire to participate - not always fulfilled - a great desire not to throw away the most interesting political novelty of the first few years of this century. The fact that we did not find any trace of this in the Italian newspapers, perhaps with some regular critiques, is a sign of the times.

./english/194.txt:6:Our positive judgment, obviously, does not hide the difficulties that did agitate this Forum. An organization that was not up to the standard of the event, a certain rigidity, gave rise to small disputes that were strongly emphasised in some circles and that Haidi Giuliani, interviewed by our newspaper, defines as «a lot of noise over nothing» In the sense that the essence of the event does not change: the movement still centres around the search for one's political space and, with this strong tool in hand, equips itself with the means by which to launch its own initiative. Then there are the contradictions: for example, speakers in the assemblies are always male, white and fifty-year olds - a thing that provokes unease in young people and women; trade unions are sometimes committed and sometimes not; the inclusion [or otherwise] of a variety of experiences is not always exemplary - and it must be said that the representatives of the Italian movement always know how to say the right words about this, as shown by the handling of the final assembly. All this is a push towards the self-reforming of the Forum: it will be discussed on 18 and 19 December in an assembly in Paris and, presumably, also at the various national levels.

./english/194.txt:8:But, indeed, the substance remains unchanged: this political space, a gigantic popular university, is still capable of being the engine of initiatives and mobilizations at the international scale. Especially important, therefore, is the proclamation of the European Day on 19 March because it responds to two fundamental requirements: ensuring that the original path of the movement, the critique of capitalist globalisation, and its subsequent phase, opposition to the war, are recomposed in a single vision. Thinking of ourselves, truly, as a European movement, capable that is to say of giving ourselves one appointment to represent the convergence of our objectives. Already it had happened in Amsterdam, in 1997, a date that is counted amongst the premonitory warning signs of the global movement. If it succeeds again it will be a new occasion.

./english/194.txt:12:Secondly there it is a problem of democracy, and of effectiveness, inside the movement itself. The proclamation of the assembly of Paris in December is an awareness of this problem: the people making the decisions are still few and this can create a detachment, a dispersal. The political space designed by the Forum should be followed by many other spaces, thematic, local, transversal, centred on permanent campaigns that allow the different subjects to intervene and to make more decisions.

./english/194.txt:14:Finally, there it is the political problem. A good editorial in yesterday's "Guardian" reproaches the British political elite for their absence from the forum and underlines how from the experience of the ESF we can expect "the emergence of a genuine new politics of the European left". The success of the Respect meeting, the presence of living forces of the alternate left within the Forum, tell us that this possibility is now there [the writing is on the wall]. And largely depends precisely on the behaviour of this left itself.

./english/195.txt:7:Perhaps this distinction caused some confusion, since the definition of “horizontality” or “verticality” did not identify a specific group, organisation or network, nor a specific ideology or world view of politics and political events. Often, one could identify "horizontals" in "vertical" organisations and "verticals" in "horizontal" networks. However, we can understand the contrast described by the terminology in terms of modes of doing predicated on opposite organising principles. One, based on participatory, open and inclusive democracy, in which participants through their iterative relational practices reached consensus on both means to be employed and ends to be achieved and were willing to engage in the continuous learning process necessary for these practices. The other in which democracy was identified with a rigid vertical structure within which ends are defined by the few, and the means are seen purely as instrumental to those ends. For “horizontals” the means embody values as much as the ends (whether we use free or corporate software, whether information is posted freely or under coordinating committee control, whether working groups emerge from the ground up or “allowed” by a coordinating committee). Indeed because of this, the shape of ends emerges from negotiations of means. For the “verticals” it was just about “getting the job done”, that is, their concept of “job” and final outcome.

./english/195.txt:11:On the other hand, there is also a sense in which the process of the ESF in London has not been a way forward for our movement, but a serious set back. The degree of subcontracting of the various processes of the “official” events, culminating with the hiring of an “event management” company, the environmental unawareness of its practices, the vertical control freakery that has dominated all moments of its production, suspicious of all productive networks from the movement that did not match the “way of doing” template of union bureaucracies and socialist parties, the contractual “terms and conditions” email sent to anyone purchasing tickets, the petty self-promoting splashing of UK union names on the walls of meeting rooms instead of reaching out to symbols that belong to all movements across the globe, not to mention the bullying, the trade unions’ and Greater London Authority’s financial blackmails and the monopolization of platforms such as the final rally, are just an indication that in terms of these practices, we have a long way to go to make another world possible. In the effort to “build” the movement, to “outreach” to people who have not yet heard about the horrors of the world, the organizers have forgotten that a process of radical social transformation takes much more than an increasing number of people laid down as “building bricks”. This relational incompetence is a heavy political liability in our movement, and cannot be justified by the ends of “educating” more people or outreaching into the mainstream union organizations, as Alex Callinicos argues in a recent posting to the ESF-UK email list. We cannot overcome this by choosing between the false polarity posed on us by those who portray the Social Forum as a space or as a movement of movements. We move beyond the impasse if we understand it to be both. Because to be radically transformative, the movement of movements must strive to set a limit to the voraciousness of capital, to be its true insurmountable barrier, and at the same time to constitute new social relations, new modes of producing and doing, including producing politics. The practice of this articulation is what constitutes an open space. Without this articulation and the efforts necessary for it, our collective political subjectivity as a transformative force is, simply, lost.

./english/197.txt:19:I know I'm being too harsh. Some valuable ideas are bound to emerge from the plenary sessions at the European and other Social Forums and these forums are indispensable for bringing together social and political forces in the service of a shared ideal. But I just wish for once we could use our time together in European Social Forums to decide, as Europeans, what we are going to do about, say, the Bolkestein Directive-and if you don't know what that is, it's because the movement isn't doing a good enough job of educating and organising. This EU Directive (which I hope may have been killed by the time you read this) is another little reward for our service corporations. If successfully implemented, the Bolkestein Directive would introduce a new legal principle and allow firms to apply the social and labour laws of the `country of origin' to workers in all the European countries where the firms might happen to do business. A European (French, German, British, etc) company could set up its corporate headquarters in, say, Slovenia or Malta and its workers all over Europe would then have the great good fortune to receive Slovenian or Maltese wages and benefits.

./english/197.txt:21:My postulate about forums is that travelling somewhere for three or four days ought to be intellectually and politically profitable both to the person making the investment and to the movement itself. If this statement is valid, then it should logically follow that our time would be best spent in seminars and workshops genuinely oriented towards gaining the closest possible knowledge of our adversaries and to defining the collective strategies and actions most likely to make their lives miserable. As an out of fashion 19th century political philosopher might have said, `We have identified and interpreted the targets: the point, however, is to hit them.

./english/197.txt:23:Now let me combine the notions of PRogramme and PRiorities. In my view, if we are to take the global justice movement forward, it's time to define a minimum, common programme every activist in the world (or, when relevant, in Europe or another region) can agree on and in whose service political campaigning can be undertaken and pressure applied, right now. We need agreed-upon targets in the power structures both at European and world levels. Many activists already recognise the need for such a common programme whereas others claim it would condemn us to uniformity and consequent sterility. I disagree. Different people in different places would quite naturally continue to carry out their local and national struggles. But so long as our movement is about fighting neo-liberal globalisation and its destructive effects, it's almost tautological to state that we must determine what kind of globalisation we want instead and make clear what we are going to fight against and fight for. Otherwise, why should anyone bother listening to us, much less joining us?

./english/197.txt:33:Pragmatism begins with asking, and answering, relevant questions: Where is the adversary weakest, intellectually, morally and politically? Which of our campaigns are most likely to touch raw and exposed Establishment nerves? Where are the contradictions of the global capitalist system sharpest? On what issues could we recruit the most allies? Which demands would provoke the least scope for media hostility? What victory, if achieved, would provide the greatest good for the greatest number and be the best launching pad for future campaigns?

./english/197.txt:43:For example, debt might well be the best target, politically and strategically speaking. Before the Jubilee 2000 campaign needlessly self-destructed (in my view one of the worst strategic mistakes in recent history) it had become clear that politicians were under pressure and on the way to being forced to act. Now the heat is off and the debtors are still in bondage. In this connection, I think we as a movement must also ask pointed questions of some of the larger and more powerful NGOs which seem to think their supporters are so bored and fickle that they must change campaigns every couple of years or risk seeing their resources dry up. I can't see why else they would have abandoned debt at precisely the moment governments and the International Financial Institutions were being forced to make their first concessions and major cancellation promises-which they predictably and promptly broke as soon as they could get away with it. Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan Africa is still paying out $28,000 every minute in debt service. One could equip a fair number of schools and clinics with all that loose change.

./english/199.txt:9:Before making too much of this situation, it is important to take a step back and reflect on the London ESF experience and the broader politics of autonomous space. Although perhaps more exaggerated this time around because of the nature of London's political culture- most notably the presence of SWP and Socialist Action- the tension between grassroots network-based movements and their more traditional organizational counterparts has been a constant since the beginning of the forums, and was present within earlier mass direct action mobilizations, including Seattle, as well. Intense struggles over political vision, tactics, and organizational form are not cause for alarm; indeed, they are constitutive of the convergence process that characterizes the forums and the broader movement from which they emerged. The important question is thus how to best manage such conflicts, rather than erase them entirely. And this is precisely where the politics of autonomous space has the most to offer.

./english/199.txt:13:With respect to the politics of autonomous space, the London ESF was a tremendous success. Never before have there been so many diverse, disjunctive, yet complementary initiatives not entirely within or without, but rather straddling various mobile and often elusive boundaries. Some, like Beyond ESF, were more confrontational, while others, like the Indymedia Center or Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination were neither for or against, but rather involved their own innovative forms of political and cultural production across the terrain of the forum and, indeed, the entire city itself. Although autonomous, these spaces were not entirely cut off from official events. In addition to the highly public oppositional actions, many of us moved fluidly- as much as London 's expansive Underground system would allow- from Alexander Palace to Middlesex University , from the Camden Center to the LSE, and back again.

./english/199.txt:19:The overall feeling of the official forum this year did leave a lot to be desired. It was not so much the massive cathedral dimensions of the Palace, which can actually be quite stimulating, but the way the internal space was organized. It felt more like a massive trade fair, with political ideologies, study programs, and volunteer opportunities on offer, rather than a true space of dialogue, encounter, and exchange. Not that previous forums lived up to this ideal either, but this was perhaps the furthest away. Whether the forum's commercial feel was a direct result of the influence of the GLA or the SWP, I'll leave for others to decide. On a positive note, however, the bitter conflict within the organizing process was certainly a major factor in the proliferation of autonomous spaces. As for the panel I attended on the future of the ESF, there was a definite sense of having arrived at a Crossroads, that we are beginning to reproduce the same events and actions, year after year. I sensed nostalgia for the excitement and novelty of Genoa or Florence , and a distinct lack of ability to envision an alternative path. Perhaps it is time to let go, and reinvent the forum as something entirely new.

./english/200.txt:3:Being an annual gathering of left-wing activists and social movements, the European Social Forum inevitably depends on the political scene of the host country. On the continent, the British left has earned a reputation for being highly fractious. So other countries looked on with some concern as preparations got underway, wondering whether the quarrelsome islanders could work with one another.

./english/200.txt:4:The outdated British electoral system, based on the first-past-the-post principle, keeps the radically inclined out of Parliament and out of the political mainstream, deprived of a platform for communicating with the general public. In Denmark, the red-green United List, garnering just over 2 percent of the vote, has worked successfully in the Danish parliament for many years, while in Britain, even larger parties are regularly left out in the cold.

./english/200.txt:5:Under these conditions, a sectarian culture takes root. Inhabitants of the political ghetto are condemned to infighting instead of getting on with more significant matters. However, the situation is changing. Demonstrations on the streets of London against the war in Iraq with thousands of protesters, widespread dissatisfaction with government policy and irritation at neo-liberal reforms have shown that there are a lot of people willing to listen to the left's arguments even if the speakers are not endowed with the magical status of an MP.

./english/200.txt:7:Various autonomous and anarchistic organizations were terribly afraid the forum's organization committee would be dominated by Trotskyites; the Trotskyites were wary of the involvement of the London mayor's office in forum preparations. Such an event is practically impossible to hold without municipal support. However, radical-left groups and others suspected the mayor's office, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Ken Livingstone, of wanting to reap maximum political gain from the event for itself and complained that city officials just wanted to organize some big conference without having any understanding of the forum's specifics. The mayor's office, on the other hand, was indignant at the activists' ineffectiveness.

./english/200.txt:8:The biggest surprise, though, was that everything went off without a hitch. The delegations arrived, discussions were held, people and representatives from all political walks of life had a chance to speak up and be heard. For the Russian delegation, London was a success, and in some sense, a turning point. Until the forum, Russia and Eastern Europe had been represented only by a few intellectuals famous in the West or small unknown youth groups, who acted as observers and supporting cast members. This time the situation was changed. Not only was the delegation larger than before, but its members participated in the discussions and had a noticeable influence on the course of events.

./english/200.txt:10:The main problem of the social forums is the threat of them becoming routine, an annual ritual, an anti-globalist parade. The thoughts and ideas discussed at the forums need to become political reality, best summed up by Susan George, one of the movement's inspirers: "We have to concentrate on something we can win now. If we don't do it, I see no point in coming here anymore."

./english/201.txt:7:Will political and commercial dogma crush the liberating energies of the world's social justice movements? The European Social Forum in London leaves Paul Kingsnorth with mixed feelings.

./english/201.txt:63:I'm not sure I know the answers. I know there'll always be a fair smattering of unthinking raving at any event dedicated to radical politics. But I know, too, that my patience is wearing thin with it, and that I'm not the only one . Would I, I asked myself several times over the weekend, bring a non-political or uncommitted friend here and try and convert them? No. Why not? Because I'd be too embarrassed at much of the paper-selling, flag-waving, chanting, unthinking grandstanding that was on display in far too many parts of the forum. This movement needs to move on to serious thought and action pretty fast: events like this should be showing the way. Overall, this one didn't.

./english/201.txt:77:There were, too, solutions on show. Not as many as there should have been, and they were not given the attention they deserved; but they were there. Panels suggested what to do about climate change and ecological debt. Stands promoted renewable energy solutions. Economists promoted schemes to radically reform the global economy. Farmers promoted food sovereignty as a political tool, and municipal leaders from across Europe showcased the participatory budgets – an idea whose time is coming – that they have put into practice in recent years. If you knew where to go, you could find plenty to inspire you.

./english/201.txt:79:But it wasn't enough. The next European Social Forum, to be held in Greece in 2006, will have to work better. A question needs to be asked: do we want these events to be a serious display of alternatives to the current order? Do we want real, hard, difficult discussions about what to do and how to do it, together, with all the hard work, serious thinking, strategic disagreements and political battling that this involves? Or do we, instead, want a back-slapping display of our angry opposition to all the Bad Things in the world, after which we all hold a big march and then go home and do what we were doing before? The former path might lead to something big. The latter could lead to extinction for this movement.

./english/202.txt:9:The available means at the London ESF featured especially the numerous autonomous spaces, which attracted approx. 5000 people, many overlapping with those who registered for the official ESF. Many events and spaces encompassed broad themes which linked apparently ‘single’ issues, thus spanning the foci of existing political campaigns and coalitions. Perhaps the most notable example was the Assemby of the Precariat (and its declaration), situating precarity within an entire exploitative system which potentially threatens everyone but likewise which potentially links their struggles, depending upon the shape of capitalist strategies and our counter-strategies.

./english/202.txt:11:The call for Europe-wide days of action was also positive. However, it is all too easy for enthusiasts to make such calls. Their political effectiveness will depend upon creative activist networks making several kinds of links: between local, national and European dimensions; between movements and mainstream organisations (beyond a formal coalition model); and likewise between apparently separate issues.

./english/202.txt:15:Indeed, we can speak of the official ESF as a privatised space, in several senses of the word. Key tasks were contracted out on terms set by the GLA. More generally, financial control bought political control, partly because party members used the opportunity to do so, often using blackmail arguments to dismiss alternative proposals. As an obvious case of privatisation, the monopoly of mal bouffe excluded the alternative culinary delights and migrant cultures of London. The food catering symbolised how the entire structure precluded the use – much less the development – of alternative capacities within social movements. (See my previous article, ‘Making Another World Possible?’, www.londonsocialforum.org/wiki/agenda28november2004)

./english/202.txt:19:‘The war’ was given great prominence in a way that trivialised its political meaning, which was reduced mainly to high-profile military operations. Of course we all oppose the occupation of Iraq, though this focus easily diverts us from related issues (see below). For example, a focus on ‘the American Empire’ evades difficult issues here, especially Europe’s role in promoting ‘the war on terror’ at home and abroad.

./english/202.txt:25:• European assemblies as a political process. These events should include an opportunity for exchanging experiences of struggles, discussing strategic implications and building networks which could act together. Perhaps plan these as a mini-ESF, back-to-back with the organisational meeting. For activists unable to attend, the internet could provide opportunities to participate.

./english/202.txt:27:• Representation. Delegates should be seen (and see themselves) as representing activities. In that regard, it would be regressive to impose a formal delegate structure, e.g. representing ‘organisations’; such a move would worsen our real problems, while privileging the political agenda of some NGOs. When individuals speak, they should mention their relevant activities and affiliations, especially their party roles – or else be seen as dishonest.

./english/205.txt:13:From then on, things couldn't have gone worse. In a first period, because the SWP and the GLA posed as fundamentally antithetic the participation of ‘serious organizations' – basically the British trade unions, still siding with the Blair government despite the odd criticism – and networks and groups based on ad hoc and horizontal ways of organizing, without administrative hierarchies and decision-making centres. This is where it began: a process of denial of all the potency shown by movements since the mid-90s, in favour of a provincial political pragmatism strictly concerned with the immediate agenda of the main groups involved. This problem was made brought to the attention of the ‘continental' actors involved (COBAS, Transnational Institute, different national Attac groups, Greek Social Forum, …), and the Preparatory Assembly that took place in London in February produced a document demanding that the British groups worked towards some sort of composition between the ‘verticals' – SWP, Socialist Action and trade unions – and the ‘horizontals' – all the others.

./english/205.txt:15:One thing, however, would structurally prevent this from happening: the ‘open secret' that haunts the organization of Fora, that is, the disguised participation of political parties. The hegemonic groups in the UK refused to recognize the problem as a tension between parties and movements, because they refused to recognize themselves as parties. In the sad excuse for a ‘mobilization' process that ensued, this became scandalously clear: non-publicized meetings were organized with different sectors (black, Muslim, women's movements, …), all of them held inside the GLA, and including almost only groups whose leaders were in some way connected to the SWP or SA. Thus, the ‘horizontals' went on denouncing the lack of transparency, the ‘verticals' went on pretending it was not their problem, and most of the ‘Europeans', although in active support of the ‘horizontals', had two clear limits in their intervention: not wanting to run the risk of there not being a Forum (a constant threat used by the GLA and the trade unions, claiming to withdraw their financial support if they didn't have it their way), and not being able to go deeper into the discussion of the participation of political parties, since that would be a source of general discomfort. It was thus that the idea of the ‘English exception' came to be – that this process was abnormal, but had to be taken all the way.

./english/205.txt:17:It was, in fact, abnormal: the level of political and financial lack of transparency, administrative incompetence (to solve basic problems, such as visas and accommodation or the official website, that besides being little interactive and not working for a long time was hosted at the GLA server), and the sheer bullishness (in the intimidation and ‘expulsion' of groups and individuals and the rapport with the ‘Europeans') led things to a point, right before the Preparatory Assembly in Berlin in June, in which the Italian and French groups publicly ventilated the idea of withdrawing from the process altogether. The resulting climate, obviously extremely hostile to the ‘verticals', helped the ‘horizontals' score an important victory: all the self-organized spaces could require their inclusion in the official programme.

./english/205.txt:27:No, it wasn't here – where the programme was politically almost homogeneous and empty or timid when it came to proposals – where it was at; the process had been successful in eliminating all conflict under a patina of forced consensus; the result wasn't convergence, but a feeling of back-slapping hollowness, enhanced by the uselessness of the big plenary format, with its ‘experts' and ‘leaders' preaching platitudes from a platform. Alexandra Palace was a dead geological stratus.

./english/205.txt:42:Many of the political forces active in the ESF process are the stratification of moments of deterritorialisation in the 60s and 70s: for example, May 68 and the peace movement. It is symptomatic that the two hegemonic British groups have never had anything like this in their trajectories. The third edition of the ESF has found the movements that came to light in the second half of the 90s at a crossroads that opens up new possibilities and calls for the overcoming of that moment.

./english/205.txt:44:On the one hand, there are the groups that remain attached to the identity formed in that period: the heroic times of the Global Days of Action, the massive street protests against international institutions, brought to an impasse with the threat of violence that has hung in the air since Genoa. These groups live the tension between the closing down of the public sphere and a progressive criminalization that pushes them into a dead end, between the difficulty to open up some kind of dialogue with society and the dangers of an escalation of violence. If that period was of enormous importance for the creation of a new political subjectivity, a new political generation, the transformations in the political context and the move towards a period of permanent global war poses questions that have to be answered – the risk of not doing it being isolation, fragmentation, becoming a subculture. The condition of survival of the subjectivity of those days is finding ways to overcome it.

./english/205.txt:54:It was, however, another, deeper process of (re) invention that points to a tendency towards both spatial and political reterritorialisation that drew the most attention during this ESF.

./english/205.txt:56:The most remarkable thing about it is how it clearly is about capturing subjectivities made diffuse and disjointed by the transformations of the last years and provide them with a new class subjectivity. While the concept of the ‘multitude' was too abstract for any immediate political use, what we saw this year was a rise of the ‘precariat': precisely the new ‘class' created by the regime of flexible accumulation, the ‘flexible', ‘flexploited' workers of the world. With no fixed job, no access to welfare, the precariat is the anomalous contradiction within the historical trend of capitalism towards the decrease of the labour journey: they work more for less. More than that, the concept makes possible a transversal analysis of contemporary society, in the sense that the precarious condition is extended to issues like housing and legal status, thus incorporating struggles such as those of the sans papiers and migrants, which were also very visible in the autonomous spaces.

./english/205.txt:64:We can imagine that the evaluation will be harsh, but we can also predict that some things won't change. It's hard to believe that, despite having had its most productive involvement ever, the new European movements will be less suspicious of the Forum after everything that went on. And it's true that the official event in London tried harder than ever to be a capture machine in its attempt to homogenise discourses with immediate political goals in sight.

./english/205.txt:70:Format-wise, this edition shows the possibility of transcending the obvious limits that Fora – so far built around plenaries with the ‘big names', normally resulting in generic analyses and platitudes with no visible impact, or the two-hour seminars and workshops in which any true convergence or common action are unlikely results – so far have shown. Let's take, for instance, the experience of Life Despite Capitalism, in its many interlocked sessions that lasted for a day and a half, or the whole programme (not explicitly organized as such, but effective none the same) around the issue of the precariat, in which there was a sense of build up leading to the Assembly of the Europrecariat. To this day the organizers have asked themselves the questions of how to make Fora less diagnostic and more constructive, without challenging the basic assumptions of the format. The plenaries, for instance, are living dead left-overs from the first WSF in Brazil, which was clearly planned as a one-off talkshop rather than a political ‘process'. The London experience points to yet new ways, although these have always been explored in the ‘periphery' of the Social Forum process (in the Youth Camp in Porto Alegre, in the Argentinean Social Forum etc.), without receiving the proper attention of its key players.

./english/205.txt:72:Another lesson the sad spectacle of Alexandra Palace presents us with is the necessity to incorporate the creative potency of the movement(s), which can provide viable, effective – and politically challenging, and much more cooperative and participatory – solutions to areas such as communications, translation and catering.

./english/205.txt:80:The so-called ‘Social Forum process' doesn't exist in the ether; it can only be as productive as the existing social processes, but it can also be a lot less powerful, and even destructive to previously existing relations and connections. It can only become what it' supposed to be if it functions as a feedback loop between political processes in progress and the organization itself; in other words, it can only be the open space it set out to be if its organization is diffuse in ongoing political struggles, not an invariant that comes to movements ‘from the outside', pre-structured by the efforts (however well-intentioned they may be) of a few actors. As long as it tries to produce a movement that is bigger and more united than it actually is, it's more likely to breed disaffection.

./english/205.txt:82:It could be the case that the transformations in the European context, plus the general feeling of dissatisfaction spawned by this year's edition, might create the conditions for transformations in this direction. On the one hand, we see the trade unions and political parties that have been involved so far with their social bases stabilized, with few possibilities of growing; on the other, the turn of the new movements towards struggles ‘at home' and specifically European questions opens up the possibility – necessity indeed – of dialogue, which can create not consensus nor mediations, but protocols that make for less tense and more productive contacts in the future.

./english/209.txt:7:This distance from the political debates of the rest of the continent has many roots. Britain 's early industrialisation , its sectoral craft based trade unionism, and the way this trade unionism created the Labour Party giving it a monopoly over working class political representation, prevented the growth of a significant Communist Party with internationalist traditions, however ambiguous. A more recent factor, until the blows of Thatcherism, has been the immense self-confidence and industrial strength of the British labour movement, almost to the point of arrogance. This produced a highly independent stance, as if the British trade unions did not need support or allies. They presumed that they could win on their own. If there were problems, these were thought to be merely local ones of betrayal and weak leadership. This was especially true at a national level: from the 70s onwards there were always radical trade unionists organising from the factories of multinational companies to build international workplace to workplace connections, through for example the Transnational Information Exchange. Thatcherism destroyed whatever basis there was for this somewhat arrogant self-confidence. As the unions now rebuild themselves, there is a new orientation towards Europe which is already showing itself in a significant union mobilisation for the London ESF.

./english/209.txt:11:The fact that the ESF is coming to town is reinforcing and hopefully giving stronger political expression to this Europeanisation of British labour, stimulating more articulate debates about the form this should take. The trade union mobilisation for London has also ensured that issues arising from fighting neo-liberalism in its heartlands, such as privatisation , are high on the agenda.

./english/209.txt:15:In the absence of a written constitution the rights of local government were never secure in the UK . Local government was decimated under Mrs Thatcher even to the point of abolishing the Greater London Council (GLC), the government of London , in 1986. Tony Blair restored a Greater London Authority (GLA) with only limited powers over planning, transport and waste. He also introduced the idea of a Mayor - not normally a feature of British cities. Blair's idea was a version of the American-style Chief Executive type Mayor with a lot of centralised power and a high profile but little democratic accountability. The Mayor has very little money under his local discretion - every big expenditure is negotiated with central government or has to comply with local government targets. The kind of person Blair wanted to be Mayor was Richard Branson, head of Virgin (records and airlines). The very last person he wanted was Ken Livingstone, who headed the GLC against Mrs Thatcher. When Livingstone led the GLC he was a rare political animal with an ability to be both very radical, for example in his egalitarian transport policy, his support for ethnic minorities and gays, and the need to talk to the IRA, and at the same time immensely popular. Livingstone was determined to stand as Mayor to demonstratively symbolise the unfinished business of the GLC, and in the long run establish a base and a record from which to launch an eventual challenge to Blair himself. Blair worked night and day to stop him, including depriving him of the Labour party nomination. Livingstone stood as an independent and won overwhelmingly. He has since been readmitted to the Labour Party and in June this year won his second term as Mayor as the Labour candidate - with a much reduced majority.

./english/209.txt:19:Getting tied up with the ambitions of local politicians is a risk that Social Forums take when they accept the support of a political authority. No doubt Olivio Dutra , governor of Rio Grande Do Sul and Tarso Genro , mayor of Port Alegre , had their own political agendas in hosting the World Social Forum. The problem with the GLA is not so much Livingstone but the methodology with which his political staff at the GLA carry out his will. They are led by a small group of people from Socialist Action, one of the somewhat conservative factions of the Fourth International. They work according to an explicit managerial philosophy and an interpretation of democracy which is in many ways quite the opposite of the participatory democracy of Porto Alegre . This small group - no more than around 12 - of political managers has disproportionate power because, although Livingstone is formally a member of the Labour Party, he is not under any live democratic party pressure like the mayors of Florence , Paris and Porto Alegre . Democracy is simply the four yearly, electoral relation between himself and the voters of London .

./english/209.txt:21:While for the Workers Party in Southern Brazil, the way to carry through the mayor's democratic mandate is through strengthening the power of the people over the state apparatus through a participatory system, for the political managers of the GLA the way to implement the will of the democratically elected mayor is through tough professional management and a minimisation of the layers of mediation between the mayor's senior management and the delivery of the service. This is a method which might be very appropriate to running the London Underground, where the problem is countering the pressures of the private sector and mobilising a staff who have little recent experience of working for a democratically elected boss to meet politically agreed goals. (They have been effectively employed by a Thatcherite institution, a Quasi Governmental Organisation - QUANGO). But the role of a local authority in relation to the European Social Forum is not managerial , beyond managing the toilets. It is to provide physical space and resources. This the GLA has done, impressively, by guaranteeing the funds for Alexander Palace in North London as the main site of the ESF. But in the process it has effectively run the management of the ESF.

./english/209.txt:25:Underlying the centralised and narrowly professional approach to the management of the process is an understandable anxiety about funds and, until the mayoral elections in June, about damaging publicity. But the end result has been a process which has favoured deals behind closed doors over open democratic discussion. The leading role played by the GLA has tended to mean the process is dominated by organisations used to making such deals and which are centred in London . Thus the trade unions are involved more at a leadership level than through regional and local organisations where relations with social and community movements are much stronger. Politically the SWP, though an important part of the British left, is given a disproportionately greater weight than the more diffuse but nevertheless significant forces of the independent and libertarian left. This inflexibility and rather mechanical approach to coalition building does not create very favourable conditions for innovation and experiment.

./english/209.txt:27:Fortunately, the desire in Britain for the kind of open space and opportunity for transnational convergence which the ESF provides is strong enough to transcend any particular management method or political sectarianism. For example at a local level, in cities like Newcastle, Sheffield and Liverpool or small towns like Swindon , Bolton or Edgehill , activists from the new ‘alter- globalisation ' movements and the left of the trade unions have begun to work together, with peace movement activists and socialist feminists often acting as important cross-generational bridges. Meetings in these cities to mobilise for London are already gathering momentum, though in many ways this process of deepening involvement beyond London has begun too late for maximum impact.

./english/210.txt:11:The dominating left parties of course tried to use the ESF (mostly because of their own politics and not because they are just a party) to use and gain power inside the process, because some political parties still believe that they are the avant-garde of a defeated Left.

./english/210.txt:13:Today we see a crisis that is first of all a crisis due to the under-representation of the social elements and social struggle in the movement. Especially the most organized ones -that is the political parties- see this crisis continuing on for more than 10 years but still want to represent the new movement.

./english/210.txt:15:Because of these problems we think that the ESF must be held every year. We must admit that our arguments are not very convincing. London was tiring to prepare but most of all we see that our networks are having big problems to survive next to this huge event. We must not slow down, so the one and half-year agreement must be let to show its abilities. Especially when the Networks aren't ready yet and we think that –mostly- parties will not allow them easily to grow. We must find ways to cut down power gained by national quota, change the way plennaries are organized but not by eradicating public political debate on the needs and priorities of the movement, work harder expanding to the East and Balkans but more important than all we must be more inclusive with the social issue of Europe, with the working people that produce the wealth of society, with immigrants that seek their right to escape from poverty and not be discriminated in Europe, with the socially excluded.

./english/212.txt:10:The first European Social Forums (ESF) set the stage for the construction of the European alterglobalisation movement and successfully centred political debate on neoliberal globalisation. Since the first World Social Forum (WSF) held in Porto Alegre in January 2001, the Social Forums, and the ESF in particular, have become the most visible public expression of the alterglobalisation movement. Basing themselves on the Charter of Porto Alegre, which has become an indispensable reference, the Forums have become quasi-permanent processes of crystallization of new forces and struggles that were previously rather disparate. Prior to the Forums the latter acted in dispersed fashion, promoting alterglobalisation in a precocious albeit strategically unfocused way. Today, critical movements benefit from a wide array of tools of struggle and common objectives. This crystallization has been accompanied by geographic expansion. The first three WSFs in Brazil created the conditions for the incorporation into the alterglobalisation movement of powerful social forces from South America, notably the peasant and indigenous people’s movements. The Bombay WSF in 2004 likewise integrated Indian social movements into the global struggle. The geopolitics of alterglobalisation thus mirrors the process of neoliberal globalisation, though its scope is still less all encompassing. It is to be hoped that the WSF planned for 2007 in Africa will play a similar role to the 2004 WSF in India. The global movement still needs to expand its reach to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. China remains outside of this process, for an undetermined period of time. Completing this geopolitical expansion of alterglobalisation will require the promotion and development of Local Social Forums in a number of countries. LSFs are prominent organising tools favouring the embedding of the Forum process. The same can be said of the National Social Forums that have emerged in a number of countries. This process constitutes a major step forward in the struggle against neoliberal globalisation. Nonetheless, its future development depends on moving forward to new stages, thereby avoiding the threat of exhaustion, immobility and lack of creativity. In this respect, self-criticism and criticism are indispensable components of the dynamic of the Forums. We have to be lucid about the state of the process. ATTAC, acting as a movement on an international level, has been committed since its inception to the construction of the Social Forums. As such, it has a double obligation. Firstly, to reflect lucidly and uncompromisingly on the insufficiencies and some of the recently witnessed drifts of the movement. Secondly, to stimulate new thinking and propose new forms of action designed to strengthen and amplify the global movement. The WSF has already undertaken to reinvent its formula in 2005. The success of this reshaping will be judged in January. The same kind of effort must occur on a European level.

./english/212.txt:16:The ESFs have generated mixed results regarding their three main missions: The ideational debate, the elaboration of programmatic proposals, and decision making for common action. The ideational debates occurred mostly during the preparatory phases of the Forums and were reflected in the programs of the plenary sessions. Being based on consensus, decision making is inevitably the result of compromises reached by the different forces involved in Forum preparation. This sometimes leads to apparently unsatisfying outcomes. Thus during the three ESFs held until now, the space given to war and racism was particularly important, leaving aside other major issues such as economic, environmental and social questions, or the problem of European construction. It is far from clear that the resulting thematic hierarchy reflects the views of the majority of the social movements involved in the Forum. This can be empirically verified by comparing requests (for seminars and workshops) with the final programme of the plenary sessions. The contrast between requests and outcomes questions the functioning and the modes of discussion of the European Preparatory Assembly (EPA), which manifestly finds it difficult to sustain political debate concerning the strategic priorities of the movement. True, this assembly is ’open’ in the sense that all can participate in it. However, it has become apparent that some organisations are far more active than others are because they benefit from permanent memberships, financial means and political determination. This fact should push the EPA to promote greater representation of all the organisations involved. Moreover, the EPA’s most active core organisations have remained the same over the past three years. This highlights faithfulness and continuity. However, it also points to limits given that the movement requires expansion and the integration of new organisations into the core. The EPA being the essential locus of political construction of the ESF it is essential to enrich its democratic character, its representation and its participation. This will no doubt require setting up a system of financial solidarity. This is also true for the ‘Assembly of Social Movements’. In the course of the Forums themselves, some useful debates occur during the seminars and workshops. However, the plenary sessions are often reduced to a juxtaposition of speeches prepared in advance and to media focused rhetorical exercises designed to enhance the organisations, which fought their way to the podium. Despite the real substantive debates that occurred during the ESFs, the Forums had three failings. The first, which became apparent after the fact, is the lack of guidance for the plenary seminars and workshops. This muddles the event for participants who don’t know if the objective is to confront analyses, exchange experiences or build programmatic alternatives. The second drawback is a total absence of knowledge accumulation. While minutes of various sessions are inconsistently drawn up, no method exists as yet to identify key points raised, to broaden public debate around them, or to deepen work in a sustained fashion. Hence, we have no means to ensure continuity and to measure progress. This situation is unquestionably fuelling a feeling that the Forums are repetitive. The third failing, made apparent in London, is ideological drift. Preceding Forums had successfully avoided this but there were expressions of intolerance, exchanges of insults, and pseudo debates without democratic contradiction in London. Responsibility for this lies with some sectarian political groups and religious organisations, as highlighted during the seminars on Iraq or in debates over the French law on religious signs in schools. These drifts threaten the ESF’s existence and cannot be allowed to continue.

./english/212.txt:19:The programmatic dimension (elaboration of proposals) was presented by some networks, which are progressing in their forum work, thanks to some carefully prepared seminars during preliminary meetings. However, the ESF is generally not the central locus of their elaboration. The ESF could be used to give them public visibility. Yet this doesn’t generally occur because of the insufficient attention given to this dimension of forum work in the conception and structuring of the ESF’s. There are no moments when alternatives can be given political visibility. Among some organisers there is very limited interest, sometimes none at all, in the establishment of a ‘memory’ of the forums. This serious insufficiency is presently being partially dealt with but its solution requires the mobilisation of human and financial resources. In this context, the establishment of a database of the various proposals emanating from the three ESFs should become a priority objective.

./english/212.txt:35: The ’political’ function, strictly speaking. To overcome the current hypocritical situation in which some hegemonic established parties in the organising committee are omnipresent, either directly or through screen organisations, the latter, while recognised, must be allocated a circumscribed space in the Forums.

./english/212.txt:37:The above implies a necessary reform of the process of preparation of the ESFs, with three major objectives. First, the EPAs must become a real locus of decision making. Second, political debate must occur over the orientations to be implemented during the Forums. Lastly, the EPA’s functioning must be improved through democratisation, better representation, and expansion. The creation of democratic and representative national committees may be a means to favour these objectives. In this regard, we have to question the usefulness of the Assembly of Social Movements, since the EPA is already supposed to encompass the whole social movement. The EPA should be the locus for deepening the debate, for the construction of permanent logistic tools (financing, computerisation, etc.), and for articulation with the national preparatory committee of the host country. As far as the timing of ESFs is concerned, a biannual rhythm, alternating with the WSF, is appropriate to avoid the dissipation of militant energies and the exhaustion of the financial resources of the various organisations. A European gathering of the different ongoing campaigns could be held between two ESFs. Its aim would be to discuss the main mobilisations of the movement a year ahead. ATTAC France believes that the future of the ESF depends on the acknowledgement of these imperatives and their translation into action through adequate preparatory structures.

./english/216.txt:10:1. We consider the ESF process a major step forward in building our struggles against neoliberal globalisation. It gives a visible expression to the diversity of the movements, and points the way towards the construction of a new kind of common political space in Europe.

./english/216.txt:12:2. Although the first three fora have permitted us to achieve many successes, the limitations of our work so far must also be acknowledged. In our view, the themes in focus must better reflect the breadth of struggles that people are experiencing in Europe. This would necessarily entail a different kind of balance between different issue areas, making social issues a key consideration of the process. For example, we consider it out of tune with political realities that the last ESF had so few seminars on themes such as unemployment and the struggle against pension reforms.

./english/216.txt:14:3. In our view, this situation is, to a certain extent, a problem of method. Currently, the process does not permit us to have the political discussions that are so essential for advancing together. We must find a way of working that allows for better confrontation of ideas and practices, elaboration of alternatives, strategising and decision-making for common action.

./english/216.txt:18:5. It has to be recognised that the European Preparatory Assembly (EPA) is the space where the political orientation of the ESF is forged. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that its functioning is democratic. Until now, democracy in the EPA context has largely been a matter of assuring openness and inclusivity, while transparency and accountability for decision-making has been neglected. Improving this state of affairs would in a first step mean creating or reorganising the basic infrastructure for the meetings (for example documents must be made available before meetings, facilitation must be properly prepared and rotated during meetings, participant lists and minutes must be made available after meetings).

./english/219.txt:13:We support the Palestinian and Israeli movements fighting for a just and lasting peace. Following the judgement of the UN International Court of Justice and the unanimous vote of the European countries in the UN General Assembly we call for an end to the Israeli occupation and the dismantling of the apartheid wall. We call for political and economic sanctions on the Israeli government as long as they continue to violate international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people. For these reasons we will mobilise for the international week of action against the apartheid wall from 9 to 16 November, and for European days of action on December 10 and 11, the anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

./english/219.txt:33:We are fighting for a Europe that refuses war, a continent of international solidarity and ecologically sustainable society. We fight for disarmament, against nuclear weapons, and against US and NATO military bases. We support all those who refuse to serve in the military.We reject the privatisation of public services and common goods like water. We are fighting for human, social, economic, political and environmental rights to defeat and overcome the rule of the market, the logic of profit and the domination of the third world by debt. We refuse the use of “war on terrorism” to attack civil and democratic rights, and to criminalise dissent and social conflict.

./english/219.txt:37:At a time when the new European Commission shamelessly boasts a high profile of laissez-faire politics, we must start a process of mobilisation in all European countries in order to impose the recognition of both collective and individual social, political, economic, cultural and ecological rights for men and women alike. To enable all the peoples of Europe to join this process, we must build a movement that overrides our differences and groups all the forces of the peoples of Europe ready to be involved in the struggle against European neo-liberalism.

./english/221.txt:23:We call onto all our European sisters and brothers, be they autonomous marxists, postindustrial anarchists, syndicalists, feminists, antifas, queers, anarchogreens, hacktivists, cognitive workers, casualized laborers, outsourced and/or subcontracted employees and the like, to network and organize for a common social and political action in Europe.

./english/224.txt:31:- Political parties are not ESF organisers, but should find a place within it. It is necessary to think of ways to let them express themselves and dialogue (specific spaces, discussion tables). This has to be discussed by the European Preparatory Assembly.

./english/224.txt:41:- The political and decisional role of the European Preparatory Assembly should be strengthened, its representativeness enlarged and its democratic nature improved. The EPA should be the place for all decisions concerning the ESF process. It should allow the effective participation of all forces involved in the process and discuss the shared tools (Internet tools, solidarity funds) which it has developed. It is the role of the organisation committee of the welcoming country to implement the decision made at the EPA.

./english/226.txt:14:London was a great experience for many thousands people, both politically and personally. With immense desire to be involved in discussions and great combativeness many of them made use of the offer to discuss the political issues raised. The ESF process has gained political amplitude and meaning by the active engagement of unions and many other groups and initiatives. There is a greater chance now for this new social movement to become and important political factor within Europe.

./english/226.txt:18:The main problem seems to be the inability or the unwillingness of the groups of the far end of the political spectrum of the movement to seek consensus. In London, to put it simply, the opponents were unions and autonomous groups. Potential mediators, crudely put, took sides of the opponents, Socialist Workers Party, CP Britain, CND and Tobin Tax Initiative, some NGO's held with the unions. Attac, local Social Forums and other NGO's and Anarchist groups held with the Autonomous groups. A lack of willingness to seek consensus had revealed itself earlier and in different contexts. For example, in Paris it proved very difficult to convince the Italian basic unions to agree to a common European day of mobilisation on the 3 April 2004 together with the Europeans Trade Union Association, demonstrating against the dismantling of the welfare state.

./english/226.txt:22:It is part of the demand for transparency and to prevent a political dominance of any group, to have open access to the preparatory committees of the European assembly. On many important meetings provision is regularly made only for interpretation into Italian, French and English. This fact alone limits the participation to a small elite, and a depressing dominance of the native speakers is programmed. In future it has to be assured to provide interpretation according to attendance.

./english/226.txt:24:Of course every country has its own political priorities. This should be regarded as an enrichment of the movement. This results in a certain political dominance of the specific event. The European character of such meetings is not always guarantied. In the future the organizers will have to vouch for this.

./english/226.txt:26:Many participants of the latest European meeting in London are in their statements now criticizing the dominance of certain political groups the ESF. At the same time the choice of Athens for the next location for the ESF is being criticised. The decision for Athens was a difficult one. But it confirmed at the same time the agreement which had already been reached in Bobigny to continue the movement of the ESF with the Forum in Greece. The debate in London on this issue expressed the following objection: the preparation of the ESF in Athens could be dominated by a quarrelling political coalition which would exclude the participation of a number of unions and peace- and student organisations. In this way the confirmation for Athens as a location is connected with the request to the Greek groups to find consensus and to broaden the basis of supporting organisations significantly.

./english/226.txt:28:The most important problem this movement has to solve is the encouragement to enter into dialogue and the willingness to reach consensus. But how is the movement going to deal with groups on one or the other end of the political spectrum, which don't want to enter into this process or are not able to? Do we exclude them and accept their heckling? Do we forgo their participation and with it forgo their wide political influence in the population? The consequence would be a schism and with it the failure of an idea which could really change the world. Is it possible that it could be a justifiable consequence in the interest of a political success strategy, to part company with such minorities, who do not really want the ESF in the spirit of Port Alegre with its free space of discussion, but seek to use it only for the advancement of their own egotistical group aims (who the fuck needs the ESF?).

./english/226.txt:30:There is no alternative to the effort of sensitively developing, with great consideration of others, a new culture of discussion in which the needed skills for our basic political concern are acquired. This will not be possible without the willingness of all participants to compromise. Whoever is not in agreement with this, who might even forcibly suppress other opinions, should go their separate ways.

./english/228.txt:8:Our goal is that the 4th ESF in spring 2006 in Athens becomes a major political event and a process for the Greek and European movement against neoliberal capitalist globalization. We will attempt to widen the already open space of Forums for all social movements, campaigns, acts of resistance, organizations and collectives in Greece , the Balkan area and Europe . We aim to connect this process with mobilizations on specific matters those days on which the 4rth ESF will take place, so in this way we can have a strong grassroots emphasis to the Forum.

./english/228.txt:10:We believe that its success depends on our capability to bring forward and debate in the European and Greek societies Resistance to war, neoliberalism, racism, the attack against political and social rights, environmental disaster and at the same time focusing on our governments that apply these politics of fear and poverty. We can see fragments of this world “that is possible” through denying neoliberal world and debating in our Forum.

./english/228.txt:21:2. Contacting again political spaces that do not participate today in the European Movement against Globalization; like antiauthotarian collectives and the left that has harsh relations with the Forum process. Of course we must bring back to normal our relation with the activists and groups that work together with us through “Autonomous Spaces”

./english/228.txt:35:We will form Working Groups on specific maters, always public and open, that take decisions on the base of consensus (but not using by anyway veto), trying not to have them Athens-based (meaning that they will assembly all through the country) and will be accountable to a National Organizing Committee (N.O.C) to solve differences and political issues. The NOC must function in the same open and democratic way and without reproducing the division between manpower labour and intellectual activity.

./english/229.txt:23:This double role, not easily manageable, is to be treasured and can be fuelled if the networks, the associations, the local Forums and the movements are involved in the organisation of the ESF from the very first day. In such a way, plenary meetings and workshops can be the “cultural projection” of the themes they carry on. This is an ineluctable step, if we want to avoid the domination of the Forum by the leaders of the social movements, who can also play the role of cultural education and information; therefore, it is necessary to have qualified persons involved in the plenary meetings and workshops. “No global” and experts must find their own space to enhance the role of the “space for learning” again. The exponents of networks, associations, trade unions can have their more natural placement in Forum’s meetings and thematic workshops that are organized by netwoks, supposed to be integral parts of the Forum, without being excluded from considerations and moments of education; also the debate on specific themes between political parties and movements can be the occasion for common efforts and possible confluence of ideas.

./english/229.txt:31:The introduction of various forces in single countries cannot be delegated only to the structures of the organizing country, whose “grievances” make sometimes the decisional and organizing phase difficult. This appears decisive also in Greece, where important TU, political and social areas are still out of the ESF process, and we have to act so as to have them in the “Athens process”. In this sense, it is important to bring the proposal made in London in again, i.e. to create – and we need to start ritgh now, on the occasion of the Paris meeting - an European delegation of the ESF, which is able to involve the most significant greek components that aren’t included in the ESF, into this process.

./english/229.txt:36:More than a hundred thousand people were present at the three European Social Forums: events such as these do not often occur in the political history. They have created new spaces and ways of participation, in which the old differences between elaboration and social practice, between political, TU and social areas have gradually disappeared, making room for values, ideas and participation, and creating communally new expressions of “making politics”. It’s our common responsibility not to squander all of it.

./english/233.txt:39:· The ESF needs to be thought of as a continuing political process. It is time to ask, what have we learnt about political issues and actions (as well as about organising process) through Florence , Paris and London ? What has been achieved politically through the ESF process since 2002 ?

./english/233.txt:41:· The ESF should also reflect, strengthen and encourage ongoing political work at an international level throughout the year. One possibility would be to have 5 or 6 assemblies of social movements per year, each lasting 2 or 3 days. One day (preferably a Friday) would be about organising the next ESF. Then the rest of the weekend could be for the political work of thematic networks (e.g. migration, precarity).

./english/233.txt:57:· Purchase or provision of support services should if possible be done within the movement. Despite the political difficulties of the ESF in London, which led to less volunteer labour than in previous ESFs, there was considerable volunteer energy about, for example in the rapid building refurbishment at Bounds Green to make a space available for sleeping accommodation – indeed working with a speed and intensity that paid contractors would not have achieved. The alternative spaces provided their own web design services and it was felt un-necessary for the official organisers to have spent a huge sum on purchasing web design from a commercial organisation.

./english/233.txt:59:· The political process and the procurement of support services should aim to make its own contribution to the social transformations we want – encouraging participatory, democratic, non-profit forms; feeding resources back into social movements from ESF funds rather than charging their supporters for capitalist services.

./english/234.txt:5:The third European Social Forum has shown the necessity of a change in the organizing formula and process of the forum itself. After Paris-Saint Denis, the European global-movement entered into a new phase. We have to report, on one side, the still positive presence of the constitutive elements of its "birth act" - the crisis of the consensus on the war and liberal politics, the tendency towards the coordination of initiatives on an European scale, criticism of the political representation of social struggles – but also, on the other side, that we did not reflect enough on the social composition of the movement and on the motivations of practice.

./english/234.txt:9:Even if the Forum's "formula" and the thematic axis which characterize it is still significant, the building process is also important, and the interlace between these two aspects has become crucial. It is necessary to reconsider, during the Forum, the relationship between plenaries/seminars/thematic assemblies/social movements assembly, assigning a greater relief to the moments of aggregation and constitution of European networks around the different initiatives; it is also crucial the way in which the thematic merging process is qualified. The process which brought to the call for a second day of action of the migrants' movement - subscribed by tens of actors involved in their struggles, who met inside but also outside the ESF, in the autonomous spaces - is the best example of the way in which it should be possible to build up a political process on a European scale not only merging "similar issues", but around the assumption of common political contents and passwords.

./english/234.txt:11:The ESF has to preserve the aspect of the popular University without reducing itself to this. The centrality of seminars and thematic assemblies (i.e. war, precariety, migrants, common goods) should be posed also inside the meetings of the European Preparatory Assembly. Not reproducing there a little Forum, but deepening every time the contents - not only the organizing aspect - of single issues. Enlargement and inclusion are not only democratic tendencies - although necessary - but they also depend from the attitude to connect different political spaces and social times, trying to exceed the simple merging process. Social movements are strange animals, whose destiny is to spring up again without dying.

./english/236.txt:15:Promoted and addressed in this way, the Forum has the potential to attract individuals (particularly young people) who are sceptical of the forms of politics that present absolute certainties or fixed utopias. It can also increase the Forum's potential as a catalyst for the creation of similar pedagogical spaces that can inspire and support “non-politicised” people in the wider society to start asking certain questions and to become aware of their political existence, expanding the role of the Forum as a catalyst for change beyond its boundaries. We can cite two initiatives that, using the Forum as an icon for resistance, have worked in this direction:

./english/236.txt:23:The Forum promoted as a learning or pedagogical space would expand the current focus on national and international links among movements and organisations in society and on connections and dialogue focusing on similarities. In outreach strategies to activist groups this view has the potential to help demystify the divide between theory (thinking) and practice (doing) and support the emergence of a culture of dialogue across differences. It could also justify the creation of outreach approaches for non-activists – as an invitation to a process of collective reflection and construction of an alternative world, increasing and expanding the Forum's political impact. We also claim that fostering the culture of self-reflexivity that is already emerging within the Forum could generate systematic considerations of the Forum's own contradictions, which could encourage Forum participants to re-negotiate their subject positions, bring in new actors and create new possibilities for the future of the space, reinforcing its potential as a catalyst of change in society.

./english/237.txt:7:London, whilst transient and humming with the passage of political through-traffic, is also home to a retinue of political inspiration of its own. This ranges from the grassroots DIY cultures of environmental, anti-roads and direct action groups, to carnivalesque critiques confronting the precarities of daily life, the reclamation of space and autonomy from which diverse voices challenge present realities, and everyday experiences of alternative forms of self-organisation.

./english/237.txt:9:Living elements of newly emergent political cultures ebb and flow through the city alongside remnants of past visions and action. Perspectives progress and mature, merging with influences from the global southern movements and the restless movements and borders of Europe. So when the European Social Forum (ESF) was solicited to come to London back in 2003, despite initial concerns, many activists and social movements in the UK lent optimism to a project that would enrich and diversify our existing movements. Perhaps as well as intimating that “another world is possible” we could hear it knocking at the door.

./english/237.txt:19:The ESF organisers, almost entirely from political parties, claim that “the process was entirely inclusive with every shade of opinion and viewpoint within the global social justice movement.” Whilst the cumulative impact of the ESF was substantial, the collective efforts to shape the ESF came in the pre-packaged polemics of the traditional left parties with recruitment drives and little sense of the linkages or relevancy to autonomy and the grassroots. The mistrust of the non-standardised, non-card carrying organisations and the installation of rank and file power hierarchies meant the effective rejection of self-organised, self-managed and autonomous intervention. Without the relevant credentials and party/union card mandating us to participate, we were sans papiers in a new terrain of (in)vested power.

./english/237.txt:21:Although the word autonomy is not part of the Charter of Principles, “pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging” is. For many activists who work within anti-authoritarian practice the basis of the ESF moved from what could have potentially been a broard-based grassroots, self organised gathering, in collaboration with unions, NGOs and local MPs, to a financially and governmentally backed select committee through which working together meant a radical rejection of political articulation and practice, which most were not prepared to relinquish.

./english/237.txt:28:So as one door closed, new doors were opened during the ESF preparations. These were doors that had been opened with crowbars. The coffee served was fair-trade Zapatista and the discussions were facilitated, not chaired. These were the doors of occupied social centres, campuses and town halls. Many discovered that by unlocking these doors and working with each other in very much more self-organised ways a stronger, more fluid and diverse socialised (rather than socialist) forum was possible. For many grassroots activists the development of autonomous spaces was the manifestation of participation though collective action. As spaces they represented exploratory forms of direct democracy, respect for diverse forms of political articulation and finding communality in our various forms of organising and difference.

./english/237.txt:41:The AS meeting points were occupied social centres, away from the closeted safety provided by the metal detectors and body searches at City Hall, which was the meeting place imposed on the ESF process to suit the busy agendas of GLA officials. While the social centre environments were vibrant and rooted in local actions and participation, they were also subject to state scrutiny by police photographers and intelligence teams. Our meetings of mothers, academics, media workers, participatory economists and pranksters were described to curious by-passers by the police standing in front of the doors as full of ‘radical political extremists’. Of course, this encouraged quite a few adventurous people to drop in who, upon seeing the criminalisation of ‘normal people’, offered their support!

./english/237.txt:47:One of the political advancements of the AS was to gain the right to be in the official programme of the ESF, in order to reach those who were just coming for those days, young people who normally would only see the gilt facade of the event. However, to better visualise the breadth of the autonomous spaces a separate newspaper was created that gave readers a topographical vision of the spaces, with bright pink arrows as our signposts. Mapping our alternatives gave many people working on the autonomous spaces a sense of just how far and wide we had decentralised our spaces and participation. We didn’t just occupy buildings; we also occupied the streets. Most people in the queues for the official ESF took the papers, not only out of interest but because it was “free people, free spaces, free paper” - free as in freedom, not just without cost.

./english/237.txt:55:Some of the clear differences between the ESF and the AS emerged out of the months of preparation. Many different political groups answered the AS call out for participation and were able to suggest seminars they would like to partake in and self-organise without speculating whether they’d survive an official cull or forced merger. Groups like the Dissent network, which had issues of non-representation in ‘official’ seminar panels and indecision on its participation in the ESF, were able to hold a ‘Day of Dissent’ at the AS in a much more lateral position. The issue of work was also taken up from a completely different angle. At the ESF, union officials were trying to find out how to survive in the wake of the waning of Fordist modes of production: how to organise globally, how to engage the younger generation. At the AS, those young people from all over who attended the Assembly of the European Precariat were reclaiming Flexicurity and trying to make sense of their own life conditions as some of the first European generations without pensions since war times.

./english/238.txt:10:Language is at the heart of the Social Forums. Or at least it should be. The Porto Alegre Charter that continues to shape and guide the ESF process makes clear our collective commitment to “ reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action”. It reminds us that the Forum must always be open to pluralism and “the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles.” Breathing life into these worthy principles requires that people have the means to communicate with and understand each other in ways that are egalitarian and democratic. As Susan George writes in her new book ‘Another World is Possible If …', political activists are as guilty as the ruling classes in using language for purposes of power, control and domination:

./english/238.txt:16:Yet how much do ESF organisers and participants reflect on the people, skills, technology, and resources – and above all the politics – involved in enabling participants to understand and speak in the myriad different languages that define and bring the Forum to life? For example, a common misunderstanding among Forum goers is the assumption that interpreters are hired in by the Forum to cater for ‘international speakers'. Yet since the first ESF in Florence 2002, almost all simultaneous and consecutive interpretation, as well as document translation, has been provided in political solidarity by Babels, the growing international network of volunteer interpreters and translators that was born out of the Social Forum process. The development of Babels and the commitment of its protagonists to ‘learn from practice' pro vides one of the best examples of how alternatives to market capitalism can and are being actively produced through the Social Forum process. At the same time, the problematic way in which the ESF (organisers) and Babels relate both to each other and language issues is evidence of the contradictory political ethics and practices within the ESF that must be addressed during the process towards Athens 2006.

./english/238.txt:31:Forum of the Americas in Ecuador under its belt during 2004, by the time of the third London ESF in October this year, the Babels database had almost doubled to over 7000 people representing 63 languages. From this network, the London ESF welcomed 500 volunteers from 22 countries who in turn enabled some 20,000 participants from more than 60 countries to express themselves in 25 different languages over 3 days. However, despite undoubted progress on many levels, it was widely felt within the Babels network that London had been the most politically difficult ESF it had participated in, especially in terms of its relationship to the host country's main organisers. We return to this issue later on.

./english/238.txt:35:The impressive and rapid expansion and development of Babels cannot be adequately understood through statistics alone. The Babels network must also be recognised as an emerging political actor in its own right with a growing sense of identity and purpose. A commonly-held belief within the network is that of ‘horizontality' – Babelitos eschew leaders and hierarchies and instead seek to work collectively as equals in a network organisation based upon creative thinking and consensus. In reality, horizontality remains a difficult principle to put into practice, not least because of the top-down and centralised way in which the ESF itself is organised.

./english/238.txt:37:Underpinning the Babels philosophy is a determination to continually reflect upon its role in each Forum and then learn and develop from practice. Out of this process, three important political pre-conditions have emerged for Babels involvement in Social Forums that are now guiding principles of the network. The first is that all interpreters and translators for the ESF must be 100% volunteers. This stems from the problematic experience of a two-tier workforce of voluntary and paid interpreters in Florence . Babels believes that hiring professionals or companies to ‘service' the Forum goes directly against the principles of solidarity and developing communicational alternatives to the market that are supposedly enshrined in the Social Forum's charter.

./english/238.txt:43:We did not like the idea of helping to reinforce and reproduce the existing patterns of political, economic and cultural domination in the world through some official ‘language hierarchy'.

./english/238.txt:47:The second contribution of the Social Forums is that through organising as much as possible ‘outside' of the capitalist sphere of competitive market relations, alternative systems of social and economic organisation based on need and solidarity – and not profit and private ownership – are being developed out of necessity . Annual Social Forums assembling tens of thousands of people from across different continents simply cannot take place unless we develop alternative means of international ist communication to the high cost and qualitative limitations of the market. At the same time, Babels must not be seen as a ‘low cost service provider' directly threatening the ‘communicatariat' of working interpreters and translators. Instead, it is an act of political solidarity indispensable to the Social Forums and the development of a global transformative politics and movement.

./english/238.txt:51:For example, Babels is developing innovatory new language tools through activities like the Lexicon Project. This is an on-going effort by volunteers from a wide range of countries and backgrounds (teachers, students, professionals, activists) to create a comprehensive glossary of words and phrases to help interpreters and translators best reflect different meanings according to different national, cultural and politico-historical contexts. It is consciously creating a process of ‘contamination' in which the excellent language skills of the politically sympathetic trained interpreter/translator interact with the deeper political knowledge of the language fluent activist to constantly improve the communications medium within the Social Forums.

./english/238.txt:63:Witness the London ESF. Although the official language hierarchy was dropped, informally the same old colonial languages of English, French, Spanish, German and Italian dominated the outreach materials, website, press releases, platforms, and programmes. This means that since its inception in 2002, the ESF has been almost exclusively communicated as a Western European event, contributing hugely to the fact that it generally remains so. How do we explain the continuation of this ‘language elite' at the London ESF? In general, this year's ESF organisers, steered by the controlling influence of the Greater London Authority (GLA), saw language through the prism of market economics, as a simple matter of ‘supply and demand'. This is a familiar story. All too often, language is treated as ‘something that interpreters and translators provide' to those who say they need it, and not as either a political right to self-expression and democratic participation, or as a means of pro-actively including and expanding out to people and movements traditionally marginalised.

./english/238.txt:65:While it is true that language hierarchisation is a reflection of the continued dominance of West European political movements in the ESF process, the ESF organisers also heavily influenced the ‘demand' for languages through restricting the supply. From an early stage, it was decided that the London ESF would be a much smaller event than those witnessed in Florence and Paris . The main organisers effectively made sure of this by setting very high entry fees and only planning for around 20,000. They also believed that in such circumstances, most of the participants would come from Western Europe and thus began to communicate almost exclusively in English whilst asking Babels to translate important documents for the website into the other main languages. This inevitably acted as a major outreach barrier to the social movements of ‘majority Europe ' and beyond because many people did not believe that their languages would be spoken. This was reinforced by the huge travel costs and the failure of the ESF organisers to put into place an adequate system for helping participants – including interpreters – to receive Visas to enter Britain .

./english/238.txt:67:But if Babels is a political actor like all others in organising the ESF, committed to language diversity and undermining power relations within the movement, how did it allow such a situation to develop in the first place? More to the point, why did it not withdraw its participation from a Forum that did not respect Babels pre-conditions for participation? The answers to these questions are very complex and still somewhat unknown, so here we simply flag up some of the dilemmas and constraints Babels faced.

./english/238.txt:69:In general, Babels could not prevent the de facto officialisation of languages because coordinators were only provided with information about the language profiles of registered speakers and participants two weeks before the ESF took place. Prior to this, it was only able to build up a vague idea of the nationalities of people and sizes of delegations that would be attending from second-hand scraps of information. This is because from the very beginning of the ESF process, Babels coordinators were excluded from the information flows coming in and out of the ESF office, and their recommendations for how to integrate language needs into the heart of the organising process were generally ignored. Babels was also not allowed to have any autonomy over its own coordination budget. In other words, just like languages issues themselves, Babels was marginalised from the decision-making centre consisting of the Mayor of London's political office that runs the GLA, a handful of trade unions, and political sects like the Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action and the Communist Party of Britain. These forces ultimately controlled the ESF and put up political walls and barricades around a supposedly open space.

./english/238.txt:71:Because of this, and a number of serious problems over accommodation and reimbursement for volunteers, Babels issued a number of critical public statements and nearly pulled out of the London ESF on several occasions. That fact that Babels stepped back from the brink each time was partly due to the fact that reaching a consensus to walk away is far harder than agreeing to get involved, especially in a a network bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives. Moreover, the UK coordinators of Babels who agreed to participate in this year's ESF did so with their political eyes wide open. The reality is that the Social Forums – and especially the ESF – are not politically ‘pure' spaces where everyone works together in mutual respect and harmony. They are instead political battlegrounds where self-interested factions fight for leadership and control and are met with resistance from those opposed to vanguardism. Babels thus currently accepts that the innovations and alternatives being generated by projects like itself and and Nomad come not only through the annual process of organising the ESF and WSF­, but also in struggle against those within them. And whatever the shortcomings of the organisation of this year's ESF, we still managed to gain an enormous amount of knowledge and experience that we will now share with future processes, particularly through adding value to the Lexicon and Sitprep projects. Most importantly, pulling out would have stopped the ESF from taking place – this was not a decision that Babels alone should have the power or right to make.

./english/238.txt:75:If we are serious about creating spaces for exchange between people from a diversity of social, ethnic, cultural and political backgrounds and contexts, with a multiplicity of needs, then all of us in the ESF process must collectively address head on the issues and politics of language and communication within our movement. Babels cannot obviously do this alone. Trade unions, NGO, social movements, networks and individuals must from now on work hand-in-hand with Babels to make connections with social movements and actors in marginalised countries and communities in the process help pass on knowledge to create new Babels coordinations. This is especially urgent for the next ESF scheduled for Athens in Spring 2006 due to the severe shortage of Greek interpreters within Babels. Without a genuine commitment by everyone to an unprecedented process of linguistic and popular outreach – and to the necessary resources this implies – the ESF is destined to remain centred around the Western European left and risks having the microphones turned off altogether.

./english/241.txt:7:Five years after Seattle and four after the first World Social Forum, it is time to reflect upon what has happened during the last, very resonant years, and about how to continue. In response to this, several initiatives with multiple trajectories are beginning to emerge from the intersection of political action and investigation. Their aim is to put archiving and research techniques at the service of the process of social mobilization and social change. There is not an homogeneous and/or established concept for defining this action. It’s more a “network” of concepts that are growing together around words like archiving, documenting, reporting, memory, systematizing, investigation and activist research. The development of conceptual tools is one of the key-points around it that it is necessary to face now.

./english/241.txt:53:The Guide has an explicit political commitment to the present cycles of protests and the ESF and it surroundings. It was born from the consciousness of this process of resistance and reaction rather than from a perspective that is merely communicative or contemplative. It is not intended to ‘give’ voice to the excluded populations, considered other from us, but to establish cooperation among ourselves, with the acknowledgement of our own exclusion from the outset. It is not constituted through a separated consciousness, but it makes the research one more tool in the process of confronting the system that excludes us.

./english/241.txt:57:In a process of collective creation, it is nurtured by a spirit of experimentation and cooperation through an open and pluralistic network structure. The Guide is developed from a network of very diverse nodes, politically and organizationally, such as research groups internal to the social movements (Transform! Italia, Transnational Institute, Glocal a-research centre) or social movement organizations (ARCI, EYFA, UNITED for Intercultural Action), in collaboration with academic departments/centres (The University of Florence or The Centre for the Study of Global Governance- LSE), Trade Union Foundations (like the CGIL’s Fondazione Di Vittorio), hackers support teams (Pangea), International archive institutions (IISH - International Institute of Social History) and a cluster of 40 advisers. It is also being developed with the collaborative interaction and recognition by the working groups internal to the social forum process which were mentioned above.

./english/242.txt:15:The issue of re-appropriation of knowledge is closely linked to the political perspective of developing local production in an economy based on solidarity. The Nomad network is not a technical service provider but a political network run on a voluntary basis.

./english/242.txt:19:Nomad is a space of experimentation for these technical and political issues. It sees the Social Forums as an experimental ground for the development of alternative technical solutions and alternative modes of organization (inside the process of the Forum itself and in relation to economic issues and aspects of knowledge transmission).

./english/242.txt:24:The NIFT system will be set up in 36 rooms at the WSF 2005 in Porto Alegre : 12 large rooms, 12 medium-sized rooms and 12 small rooms. In Mumbai the NIFT was only installed in large rooms. What became apparent then was that the small rooms, the workshop rooms, also needed a translation transmission system to facilitate exchanges and discussion between people from different parts of the world. Also, the political position of Nomad defends a vision of the Forum as a space of practical exchange and not a spectacular space, a form of music festival, as it seems to have become in its last editions.

./english/242.txt:36:The Forum is not an end in itself. The Forum is a place to meet and share political views:

./english/242.txt:46:Nomad is not a political organization but functions as a network. The activists participating in Nomad are involved within it as individuals, and if they are involved as part of a structure (e.g. Babels or Apo33), this structure will be considered as an individual group within, or associated with, the Nomad network. In no case can there be an elected representative of Nomad, nor can there be any elected representative of another group within Nomad. A Nomad activist is someone who is involved practically in the Nomad project while respecting the project's principles. Practical involvement and respect for the project's principles are the only legitimate criteria that allow people to speak as a Nomad actor. This indicates a critical position as regards to the electoral system: when we designate a representative, this has the almost automatic result of shattering the network dynamic, destroying the development of ties within a star configuration. When someone is elected, all ties tend to converge towards this single elected person (the representative), and the end result is a kind of idolization of the delegate.

./english/242.txt:50:Participating in the Forums as part of Nomad can only be on a voluntary basis. The purpose of the notion of voluntary participation is to clarify the basis on which someone is involved in the Nomad project. People involved on a volunteer basis are also involved on a political basis: they control their own contractual obligation. They are neither subordinate nor dependent on an employer or any economic necessity. Outside of the context of the Forums, a Nomad activist may be compensated, but only for specific technical tasks. The precept of voluntary participation also has a political aim: involving volunteers, rather than calling upon a service company affirms that the Forum actors must participate in the process of creating the Forum, and not just use the content of a Forum created by others in a consumerist mode. It aims to question the division of labour between producers (subject to management and dependent on that management because of their salaries) and deciders. This implies that Nomad and a commercial system cannot coexist within the Forums, i.e. we cannot have both unpaid volunteers and paid employees of a service company. It is indeed possible to hire a technical system when we cannot build it ourselves (then it would be better to choose an organisation that is part of an alternative economic perspective), but it is unfair and against the principles of the Nomad project to call upon a service company for these kind of technical questions and at the same time to get volunteers involved. When these situations occur the technical providers are completely free to use the tools developed by Nomad but cannot claim to be Nomad.

./english/242.txt:54:If Nomad develops and offers alternative technical solutions, this does not mean that it is going to bring new tools to the different countries it is involved with. The objective sought, on the basis of knowledge sharing, is the development of a parallel economy that allows everyone to develop his or her autonomy of production. This parallel economy will be specified by the term “local” economy in a specific sense: local means that it is the users themselves who define their own needs and tools. The term “local” thus has a double meaning: a geographic meaning (allowing for the autonomy of producers and local users) and an ethico-political meaning: it has to do with an area located within a microeconomy, a knot in the worldwide network of an alternative economy.

./english/243.txt:7:This workshop on Neo-Marxisms was just one in a long day at the Radical Theory Forum , organised as an autonomous space during the European Social Forum in London . It was originated by young, politically active academics, who wanted to create a space where education and activism could be interlinked. The well-kept social centre 491 gallery , which served as the venue, helped this to be not only a successful but also an enjoyable event. The workshops covered ‘Anti-Consumerism', ‘Feminist Theory' and ‘Practice at the ESF/WSF', as well as the philosophical and explosive question who the ‘we' in the Social Movements is. The discussions were at the highest level, but not exclusionary.

./english/243.txt:13:Systematic political education is clearly underdeveloped among emancipatory movements struggling for another globalization . Although there are a significant number of critical analyses written for an academic audience, materials and methods of knowledge transfer for people's education are rare. Additionally, at the Social Forums the seminars often remind you very much of university lectures – and they are about as inspiring as them. Yet, even if you are the type of person that is into the academic style, have you ever wondered why you did not read an essay by this person instead of listening to him or her for hours, whilst sitting on an uncomfortable chair?

./english/244.txt:11:But our interest in those little individual stories, the ones that explain how you got to be “consuming” this material piece of information, are not just related to a poetic perspective. They are obviously aiming first of all to give a historic background to the ways in which material pieces of information travel around. They give a context to remind you that a person, or a group, is behind the creation of what you are absorbing, and that the pieces of information has been shaped different factors: political, cultural, economic contexts; questions, needs and subjectivities.... In a way, each story that links you to a piece of data in a material sense is rich in knowledge about the reason that this information exists! Nevertheless, that doesn't means you will get to understand, identify or really discover the little stories around the original motivations that produced that information. But playing with this subject you soon begin to wonder about more essential questions:

./english/244.txt:23:Some theories from the science of communication and guerrilla communication have shown us that the delivery of an argument and the multiple analyzes of the social facts that have produced this argument (like “women” and “men” are not receiving the same treatment in working places and in society in general) are not going to be accepted and integrated by an increasing number of individual receptors in a way that is proportional to its “trueness”. It is not because you multiply the supports and ways to spread a “true” fact, that you really get to provoke indignation and conscious amongst the population that is not personally involved in social transformation, people with a political restlessness. And so what? What's so new in all that? Nothing particularly, just my increasing stupefaction at the fact that spreading alter communication, contra-information, and building alternative medias ICT structures, is not perhaps the only solution we should contemplate when we want that information to become effective in a political sense. To say it another way, how can social transformation information become aggressive and perceptive enough to affect mass media information production, in other words, mass public opinion?

./english/244.txt:27:Here it looks as though we are facing a double sociological problem of creating a process where the “analysis” of the situation of a social, political, cultural or gender conflict gets to be relevant enough to produce its own proposals of solutions to those conflicts. In a certain way we could say that the production of information from the social movements and from civil society involved in social transformation needs to be working at some points with networks that are practicing “activist research action”. But this article won't focus on this precise point that would be related with methodologies and contents shaping. We would rather here make a proposal to build more reflection around the way we produce and spread information related to the activities of our organizations and/or affinities groups.

./english/245.txt:11:Communication structures and tools, websites, mailing lists, computers, media centres, press policies, software platforms, and licensing of media are all highly political issues, yet they were repeatedly dismissed as low level practicalities by many involved in the 2004 UK ESF process.

./english/245.txt:13:The truth is that these issues are just as political the issues of providing good quality organic, vegetarian or halal food, or of using ethical supply or service companies - indeed more so, since some of these areas effect the way the social forum process is built, and the ways people can participate in it, or not, as the case may be.

./english/245.txt:15:These issues cannot be seen in isolation, since they can only be assessed within a wider political context. For example debates over the importance of key plenary issues and speakers, or the importance attached to the potential for positive interactions given the required seminar merging process, all effect the requirements of any communications strategy.

./english/245.txt:41:One positive development during the ESF 2004 preparatory process was the agreement at a European Assembly meeting to set up an ongoing European working group on web technologies, to try and ensure some continuity from one year to the next, to develop appropriate tools to support the ESF process, and to offer advice within these areas. It’s certainly true that there have been many problems in continuity, for example the handing over of the fse-esf website from one country to another. Related to this is the area of intellectual property and concept of ownership of information gathered, from email addresses to written reports and audio and video material. Problems have already been encountered with such data since there are laws and different frameworks to govern their usage. While attempts were made in London to avoid similar problems occurring again, for example with opt in permission for email addresses to be used in the future for ESF related contacts, this was a result of dealing with specific problems as they arose and not of a political recognition that these issues are part of our struggle for another world. This is an area that campaigners are working on globally to develop alternatives, both in practice and at a government and international institutional lobbying level, and certainly should be an area embraced by the ESF.

./english/245.txt:53:Obviously the area of press, media and public relations is one that can cause great concern where there is conflict over the wider political motivations and goals around the ESF. There are concerns over representation, not only regarding the whole ESF project, but also over the prominence given to different issues and campaigns, as well as to individual speakers. This is why policies or guidelines in these areas are essential. These issues were raised at the UK Organising Committee early in the year - recommendations were made that a series of press policies should be developed with a broad range of participants working in partnership with progressive media networks, and that these should include policies to ensure an equitable and clear access to the press, as well as a fair and transparent system for fielding and directing enquiries from the press.

./english/245.txt:57:One crucial factor for the ESF should be the involvement of the "Media of the Movements" – i.e. the progressive community media which is based in our constituency. However for the 2004 ESF these were treated as inferior cousins of the mainstream corporate press. There was an assumption that they would just provide coverage anyway. So instead of any campaign to involve them, there was little public encouragement given, until the very last minutes when some telephone calls were made to journalists of all types who attended the Paris ESF to encourage them to come to London. Press passes for the ESF were to be available to 'proper' journalists with National Press Cards, but while assurances had been given to media activists in London that community media would be able to gain press passes and access to the ESF media centre, this was never officially stated via the ESF website. Indeed during the preparatory process the media centre had been treated by many as "non-political" - as a purely practical issue disconnected from any political discourse. Some people even going as far as to ask how we can deal with ‘this problem of IndyMedia people and community media wanting to use the media centre’!

./english/245.txt:59:Indeed the ESF media centre was the only space available at Alexandra Palace with computers and internet access. That the biggest progressive political meeting in Europe should go ahead without any publicly available internet access is little more than a disgrace. While budget constraints were the main reason given, it was clear that these requirements had in fact been ignored for much of the preparatory process, since despite months of lobbying by media activists it was announced in August that there had been no ESF budget planned for any IT during the event, or even for a media centre! At least however it was agreed that the computers in the ESF media centre should run on open source software platforms. On the flip side, an alternative Indymedia Media Centre was set up in the Bloomsbury area by volunteers with over 70 computers available for use. One of the saddest failures was that AMARC (the world association of community radio broadcasters) and the UK's Community Media Association made an application to web stream live radio from Alexandra Palace - in the end all they were given permission to do was park their vehicle in the car park. They were given no power feed (and so had to bring their own generator) and were not given any internet connection, so the radio stream was impossible.

./english/247.txt:9:The Intercontinental Youth Camp (IYC), a space of the WSF, has since 2001 been a place for the expression of a new political generation, where different organizations and social movements question the capitalistic way of life, its values and practices, involving people in the permanent construction of alternatives.

./english/247.txt:45:Potira Preiss is a biologist, political activist, member of the Youth Camp Organizing Committee and the World Social Forum Organizing Committee Sustainability Work Group. Tiago Eduardo Genehr is a journalist, president of the NGO Roessler Moviment, and member of the Youth Camp Organizing Committee.

./english/248.txt:11:How did this situation come about? One explanation is that this is an unfortunate side-effect of entering the heartland of neoliberalism. T here are several grains of truth in this claim that the London Forum posed new challenges, although the situation was by no means unique. The WSF in Mumbai, for example, faced an even more hostile political climate in confronting local and national right-wing administrations that were both strongly implicated in the stirring up of communalist racism and violence.

./english/248.txt:15:Money bought power at the ESF in London , but it was only the political culture and institutional context that really made this possible. That this ESF was dominated by left parties and the local state was nothing new. The background involvement of political parties, for example, has been a feature of virtually all social forums and an important factor in mediating the relationship with local government. The difference in London , if anything, was not the dominance of organised Left parties but their relative weakness. This meant that the London ESF offered a real opportunity to break the mould of past forums and become the ‘civil society' initiative it has often promised to be. The fact that this did not happen shows, if anything, the role that parties play for the forum in its current form. The task of organising a forum is still primarily addressed at local and national levels, where political parties remain an important vehicle for articulating political demands and organising collective activities. In the absence of strong Left parties in the UK , the GLA took on this role by proxy.

./english/248.txt:17:The involvement of the state was also nothing new. When the city of Florence hosted the first ESF in 2002, it donated the massive Fortezza da Basso for the event. State involvement was even more widespread during the Paris ESF in 2003, which relied on large donations from all levels of government ranging from local municipalities to the President's office. The difference in London was not the extent of state support – which was considerably down on previous years – but the price extracted for it. The GLA established its own parallel organising structures and used its funding to exert an unprecedented level of political control. This led to a lack of creativity, with practical tasks outsourced or dealt with bureaucratically. In particular, the Mayor of London's office pursued a managerialist approach that is quite at odds with the participatory ethos of the forum.

./english/248.txt:33:For many participants, the solution to some of these problems is to adopt the practices of the social or solidarity economy, which encompasses alternative modes of production and distribution of goods. To start with, this means that the organisers of the forum need to realise that the practical construction of the forum can be as political as the contents of its speeches. The recent Uruguay Social Forum, for example, was a showcase for fairly traded and co-operatively produced goods – inspired, in part, by the explosive growth of bartering networks in neighbouring Argentina following its economic collapse in late 2001. The Intercontinental Youth Camp at the 2003 World Social Forum went even further, accommodating more than 20,000 people in a tented city with its own internal currency (the ‘Sol'), which acted as an incentive to participate in the camp's own solidarity economy and purchase its organic produce rather than choosing the nearby commercial outlets.

./english/249.txt:21:After the Istanbul assembly no minutes was ever made. Of course this enforces the power of the “inner circle”, making it very, very hard for new organizations or people who are not “nerds” with political meetings to have a say in the process. This was corrected after the Paris working group meeting after strong demands from several people from NGOs from different countries. We even got an agenda for the Brussels meeting.

./english/251.txt:16:The European Social Forum was born in 2002 at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre where the decision was taken to set up regional social forums. Originally there were three countries interested in hosting the ESF: Italy, France and Greece. It was decided that Italy would host the ESF in November 2002 and Paris would host it the year after. The semi-official structures that arose out of these two ESFs created three or four loci of decision-making power. First, there is a local committee set up in the city where the ESF will take place. In the UK this was the UK Coordinating Committee (UKCC), which met every Thursday at City Hall. This is where all practical matters involved in organising the event can be discussed and hopefully resolved on a regular basis. Anyone who is involved in political organising or campaigning can be a part of this committee. This committee answers to the national organising committee, which is the second highest decision making body of the ESF. In the UK, this was the UK Organising Committee (UKOC). Meetings of the UKOC were held approximately once a month. In the ESF process, this committee is open to anyone in the country who wishes to be involved. This is in contrast to the WSF process where the membership of the Brazilian Organising Committee (BOC) was originally closed to all except the eight founding member organisations. In the India WSF 2004, the Indian Organising Committee was larger and organisations earned their position on the committee by officially affiliating to the WSF. This more open structure is now being mimicked by the BOC for the WSF in 2005. Despite these differences, wherever the forum takes place, all decision taken locally are expected to be reported to this national organising committee to be approved of and/or amended. Finally, and most importantly, there is the European Preparatory Assembly (EPA), the highest decision making body of the ESF. These meetings are held approximately every other month in various cities across Europe and are open to all who can afford to get to them. These meetings create an opening for people from all over Europe to input into the ESF process, thereby making it a European process and not just a local event.

./english/251.txt:30:Within this second category of decisions, a further differentiation existed between decisions which required approval by the UKCC and decisions that did not interest the UKCC. The EPA and the office staff were able to make decisions in areas that were not deemed to be of political import to the UKCC or that did not require the UKCC for implementation. In the case of the ESF and Babels office staff, the approval of the UKCC follows the official line of accountability where the UKCC is the decision-making body and office is an implementation body. The Mumbai WSF office also functioned in this way, where the office staff’s mandate was to carry out the decisions of the IOC. However, the fact that decisions taken at the EPA or the UKOC needed to be taken up by the UKCC (or by the GLA under the above decision-making system) and subsequently by the ESF office in order to be put into practice meant that in reality the UKCC was the highest decision making body of the ESF for all matters that were not of concern to the GLA.

./english/251.txt:39:Despite the few problems of accountability inherent in the macrostructures of the ESF, the official structures of decision-making, where the local committees and groups have privilege in daily decisions while the EPA ensures input from across Europe on critical political issues, is a rather effective and inclusive process. Unfortunately, the form which these meetings take can often be less inclusive. The official decision-making procedure of the social forum movement is consensus decision-making. However, in practice, due to a misunderstanding of what consensus is and a limited commitment to consensus, it is unclear what the exact procedure for making decisions is at the EPA.

./english/251.txt:47:These principles need to be explained at the beginning of every meeting and reinforced by the facilitator of the meeting or preferably by the meeting as a whole if possible. The Social Forum movement far too often assumes an awareness of consensus procedures that is not there. Most powerful organisations within the ESF process are not accustomed to working with consensus procedures as they tend to come from political party backgrounds or trade union structures which function through a more hierarchical and representative structure than the ESF. This lack of familiarity on the part of the key organisers and the participants creates a confusing atmosphere where all the weaknesses of consensus arise and very few of the benefits. If we are really interested in working through consensus decision-making structures then we need to be in a constant process of teaching ourselves and others how consensus works.

./english/251.txt:52:There is an obvious need for clear proposals in the EPA process. We have now witnessed many complaints by new-comers and old-timers alike that it is never clear what we are talking about at these meetings; topics get interchanged with each other and there is no system in place for keeping the interventions to one topic at a time. Nevertheless, several important questions arise around the idea of proposal-based discussion. The most obvious are: how proposals are written and by whom, and when and where are they presented and to whom? It was commonplace at UKCC meetings to have proposals brought to the meeting completely ignored with a “we’ll come back to that” or a “you can’t just introduce a document in the meeting when we haven’t seen it before.” There was no clear procedure for dealing with proposals brought to the UKCC and the result was such that proposals by certain people were adopted without proper presentation or discussion while others were refused or ignored, creating subcategories of legitimate vs. illegitimate proposals depending on which side of the political divide the proposal came from. The situation was so dire that when a proposal was presented to the UKCC (often after having been circulated by email), it was refused on the grounds that providing a written and photocopied proposal and distributing it at the UKCC meeting was an “unacceptable way to make a proposal.” When I interrupted the argument to ask what the acceptable way to make a proposal was, no one could tell me. Although it did become clear over time that the ‘acceptable’ way of making a proposal was to claim to represent as many people as possible (preferably the oppressed) and to have membership of particular political organisations/parties. If we would like to have an inclusive ESF organising process, we obviously have to consider all proposals equally, even when brought forward by politically less powerful organisations/people within the ESF process. Proposals cannot be branded as illegitimate or ill timed.

./english/252.txt:39:* the most co-ordinated with political allies in the room

./english/252.txt:41:and it tends to exclude those who lack these specific qualities. This is not to say that all those who know their way around a European assembly are all aggressive and self-promoting; on the contrary, many play very constructive roles. But the (culturally) excluded might be people who are new to the process (exactly those we most need to include!), people from smaller countries and organisations (who don't have a large delegation of allies to support them), and women. Women? Yes, if we were to do the statistics on who took the floor at our meeting in London, we're quite convinced it will emerge that this aggressive, laissez-faire political culture of ours benefits men at the expense of women.

./english/252.txt:43:c) DOMINANCE. The negative aspects of this political culture tend to elevate the power of the few (constantly at the microphone, often stating little new) over the many (sitting on their chairs, wanting the meeting to move ahead). This is because the will of the majority in the room almost never finds expression, while the shouters and the ones who eagerly run to the microphone are expressing themselves constantly. The lack of guidelines for the meeting also places vast powers with the chairpersons. When important issues are buried under endless, antagonistic debate, and time is running out, the room often ends up in the hands of the chair: we have the choice between accepting whatever “solution” he/she might propose on the verge of the meeting's breakdown, or having no decision at all. This role of the chairperson also tends to put him/her in conflict with the room, rather than in a truly mediating position where he/she builds up trust from all different groups and interests in the room.

./english/252.txt:47:All this should not be necessary. Because what we saw at the meeting in London, was a room full of brilliant, enthusiastic people. In spite of our political and cultural differences, we are all activists, and we have so much in common! Just think of it: How much must we not have in common, when we come together from all over Europe to sit through meetings like these? Most people wouldn't, you know...

./english/253.txt:30:The electronic consultation would need to be wide in the sense of achieving the widest support possible, in social, political, cultural and geographical terms. It would need to be open in the sense that all proposals – as long as they are within the terms of the Charter – are legitimate as contributions to the themes and activity of the Forum. It would need to be active in the sense of based on proposals stimulating organisations, movements, campaigns and coalitions to participate in the process.

./english/259.txt:9:If a writer on a political subject manages to preserve a detached attitude, it is nearly always because [s]he does not know what [s]he is talking about. To understand a political movement, one has got to be involved in it …

./english/259.txt:30:For myself as an anthropologist (+ecologist/dancer/woman/activist), this emphasis was particularly relevant. Perhaps because social and cultural anthropologists have tended to work in cultures outside their own which, in the context of post-colonialism and ‘development’ has meant experiencing stark political and economic inequalities, they/we have long been grappling with the ethical circumstances of their/our work. For many, this has carried an attendant desire to effect some sort of ‘public service’: to speak out – to do something – about observed injustices. We become part of the contexts we work within, we are taken up as political currency within these contexts and we would be naïve to imagine that by being part of a ‘northern’ academic tradition our research is thereby, or should be, apolitical. But we face enormous institutional and other obstacles to our ability to contribute: ranging from a lack of support from formal academic institutions to publish work in local contexts, to threats of litigation of we publish analyses that expose local resistance to powerful international NGOs, donors and corporations.

./english/259.txt:33:I – in fact, the multiple and shifting ‘Is’ that constitute ‘I’ (cf. Deleuze and Guattari) – am more interested, intellectually and organically, in ways of excavating and subverting these categories and their correspondences. If I validate, empower and reflect on my experiences, it becomes clear that theory has been critical in helping me to make sense of my ‘real world’ engagements; which at the same time have also informed my readings of theory; which has influenced my ‘real world’ practices; which have informed my intellectual endeavours; and so on …. These are not separate domains, and if ‘we’ continue to think of them as separable then we simply maintain the universalist fragmentation on which modernity thrives, and on which exploitative political and economic practices feed.

./english/259.txt:37:I greatly appreciated the supportive space of the Barcelona meeting to share such thoughts with other activist-academics and academic-activists, and particularly with the other anthropologists present. Workshops and roundtables in which I participated with interest included one on the organisational implications of networks, in terms of both theory and practice, and an afternoon spent reflecting on the socio-political implications of particular activist tactics, from direct action to mass marches. As with most conferences, however, the scheduled meetings were greatly enhanced by sharings in the spaces outside these meetings: sitting on the steps outside the conference one evening discussing the analytical relevance for social movements of conceptual metaphors drawn from physics and the life sciences; building links over tapas in a cheap restaurant with academic-activists from Greece, Israel, France, and the UK; and talking with fellow anthropologists about the problems, both personal and professional, engendered by an ethnographic and participatory orientation to research.

./english/260.txt:59:Refugees and Immigrants, an initiative for direct social and political intervention, to set

./english/260.txt:72:the context and the political questions at hand, so that it is more useful to understand its

./english/267.txt:37:We have mentioned commitment and militancy. Are we perhaps proposing the superiority of the political militant in regard to the academic researcher?

./english/267.txt:39:We do not believe so. Political activism is also a practice with an object. As such, it has remained tied to a mode of instrumentality: one that connects itself to other experiences from a subjectivity always already constituted, with prior knowledge –the knowledges of strategy-, charged with universally valid, purely ideological statements. Its way of being in relation to others is utilitarianism: there is never affinity, always "agreement;" never encounter, always "tactics." Political activism –above all the party variety– can hardly constitute itself into an experience of authencity. From the very beginning it gets stuck in transitivity. What interests it of an experience is always "another thing" than the experience in itself. From this point of view, political militancy –and we are no excepting the militants of the Left– is as exterior, judgemental and objectifying as university research.

./english/267.txt:51:Idealisation – even when it falls back on an object not consecrated to such effect – always results from a mechanism of attribution (even when it does not happen under the pretext of scientific or political pretentions). Because idealisation - like any ideologisation- expels from the constructed image everything that could cause its failure as ideal of coherence and completeness.

./english/269.txt:35:In addition to these basic hypotheses and a mountain of doubts, we have a few clues as to where to look next. First of all, and thanks to the workshops we conducted on ‘Globalized Care’ we have managed to work out a few points of attack. The crisis of care, or better, the political articulation of this fact, which from one or the other side of the sea effects all of us, is one of those points. We don’t think there is a simple way of posing the question, a single formula like a social salary, salaries for housewives, distribution of tasks, or anything like that. Any solutions will have to be combined. This is a submerged and many-legged conflict, involving immigration policy, the conception of social services, work conditions, family structure, affect… which we will have to take on as a whole but with attention to its specificities. And then there is our fascination with the world of sexwork which we have been encountering bit by bit, and which once again situates us in a complex map in which we also have to look at migration policy and labor rights, but also rights in the realm of the imaginary. There is a continuum here, which for the moment we are calling Care-Sex-Attention, and which encompasses much of the activity in all of the sectors we have investigated. Affect, its quantities and qualities, is at the center of a chain which connects places, circuits, families, populations, etc. These chains are producing phenomena and strategies as diverse as virtually arranged marriages, sex tourism, marriage as a means of passing along rights, the ethnification of sex and of care, the formation of multiple and transnational households.

./english/272.txt:9:We are at a distinct and historically significant moment in the politics of knowledge - in the relation, that is, of understandings of knowledge to the transformation of political and economic power.

./english/272.txt:10:It is a moment when social movement activists, including activist researchers and also movement activists who are at the same time members of political parties, have become conscious of social movements – including potentially the trade union movement – as producers of knowledge. More than this, we have become conscious that this process of knowledge production is essential to the role of social movements as transformative subjects. As a consequence more and more movement activists are developing tools – of investigation and survey, of communication and exchange of ideas and information, of data collation and presentation through which the full potential of movements as producers and disseminators of emancipatory knowledge is realised. In this process, we are becoming more critically aware of both different kinds of knowledge (the practical, the theoretical, the intuitive, the systematic) and of the different social conditions involved in their production. Important questions remain unanswered about how, if we are critical of the conventional understandings and organisation of knowledge by traditional left political parties, social movements not only co-ordinate and systematise knowledge but how they take strategic decisions and effectively realise their power.

./english/272.txt:12:One way of understanding the political importance of this new self-consciousness of social movements as producers of knowledge is to highlight its origins. Also a sense of where this new political mentality has come from will give us a clearer idea of the distinctive political role of activist intellectuals. The creation, in practice at any rate, of a new politics of knowledge can be traced back to the late 60’s and 70’s and the new kind of social movements which began to emerge at this period - across the world in some form but most strongly in the US and Europe. In their diverse ways, the student and anti-Vietnam war movements, the radical militancy of workplace trade unionism, and perhaps most innovative of all, modern feminism, were in good part a response to the dead ends of previous historic paths to social progress: whether the model of the Soviet Union or the model of social democratic Sweden, or welfare Britain. These movements in their resistance to imperialism, to Fordist production, to gender subordination were also struggling to go beyond, transform or caste aside `actually existing’ institutions of social reform. Consequently, they found themselves transforming society without any precise directions or recipe. As a result they became, more or less self consciously engaged in a continuing process of experimentation, comparable to the scientific process.

./english/272.txt:20:2.This in turn led to a recognition of the differentiated nature of reality: people’s immediate experience of oppression and subordination was as real as the structures of class and or gender domination that produced them. Social movements of that period sought to act in a way that acknowledged all levels of reality, seeing people’s direct experience as important clues to understanding the hidden, structural causes of oppression and valuing their practical insights as vital sources of knowledge about the solutions. The new movements paid attention to language, culture and the expression of distinct identities but understood these as related to underlying structures of power. (This is in contrast to political parties dominated by a positivistic paradigm who tended to reduce reality to one level or one structure e.g. reducing gender to class, to regard direct experience as merely `proof’ or an `instance’ of a general theory; and not to value practical insight or skill as a distinct source of knowledge not anticipated by some general law and a source of potential power in the process of social transformation. It is also in contrast to the later development of a post-modernism which focused exclusively on language, discourse and meaning, denying the existence of material realities independent of our knowledge of them – I will discuss this briefly later).

./english/272.txt:28:Of course there’s nothing automatic about this logic but activist researchers can play a vital role in strengthening it. Instinctively this is the role that many activist researchers, whether in independent, movement oriented research projects or in academia, or through movement forms of investigation, played in the movements of the 1970’s. In fact this role for the movements was more important than activist research about the movements – though they often went together. Activist intellectuals sought to be in a close involvement with the movement and thereby to be in a position for their research and their intellectual labour to contribute to the process of political experimentation implied by this idea of the role of knowledge in deepening resistance. In this way they were/are able to follow up the insights of frontline activists and with systematic investigation deepen knowledge of the power structures and their points of vulnerability and strength, as a resource for the movement planning the next stage of strategy.

./english/272.txt:30:There are wider implications of this approach to the politics of knowledge and of the movements becoming aware of the importance of the knowledge they produce for the efficacy of their power to transform. First is the importance of organised moments of reflection, on what movements have learnt in the course of their resistance, on studying the reaction of the power structures, on the insights of those at the frontline, ensuring that the new knowledge sheds light for the working out of their next strategic steps. There is also the importance for movements (and for innovative, `movement – oriented parties) of surveys, investigations, consulta, that could ensure that strategic discussions are rooted in the practical knowledge and insights of those engaged in resistance; including those involved in struggles and networks beneath the surface, without a public, political expression.

./english/272.txt:34:But by discussing the future of the World Social Forum I am going ahead of myself. The reason why it is necessary to summarise what we can abstract with hindsight from the practice of the earlier movements is because these movements went through a significant defeat. As a result many threads of thought were broken and forgotten. (What I’ve said here is only a fraction of relevant thoughts). Not only did they suffer a significant defeat this but this defeat produced a distorted legacy. I’m thinking here of the legacy of a post-modernism which separated the movements’ concern with language and culture from their roots in resistance and action to change the material realities which language describes. Defeat also halted a half-finished process of new thinking and the emergence of subjects of socialist or radically transformative change. The movements rarely had the infrastructure and resources to survive, other than in memory, writing, scattered personal networks and the occasional project. There are exceptions which prove the point: for example Rifondazione Comunista in Italy has been able to maintain some political continuity between the innovative movements of the 70’s and the equally innovative movements of today and is as a result very different – in many but not all ways – from most conventional parties of the left. But generally, a weakening or defeat of the social movements left a vacuum and in many places, the traditional left, whether a warmed up Leninism or a defensive parliamentary socialism, moved back into an influence disproportionate to their size and political credibility with their limited and stifling approaches to knowledge.

./english/272.txt:38:This process of knowledge production in a process of resistance linking action, knowledge and power is perhaps the most important continuity between the new movements of the 70’s and the movements of today. In a context where the web, amongst other factors, makes the plural nature of knowledge, along with decentralised forms of co-ordination, commonplace apolitical, or cross political, ideas, this location of knowledge in the context of power and resistance is vital to the political radicalism of social movements and activist researchers within them.

./english/274.txt:12: Face it. Anarchists on the whole have not articulated any sort of coherent alternative vision of what a society not based on capitalism and the state might look like. We have produced copious amounts of political, economic, and social critiques – but a comparatively smaller amount of work has focused on developing alternatives to what we’re critiquing.

./english/274.txt:18:operated. Chances are what you’ll find is that most people have a relatively easy time imagining what a different political order might look like, how a different religion might work, and perhaps even how a family might be structured differently. But chances are they will find it difficult to imagine how a different economic arrangement or society not based around the state would work. Try it a few times. Ask someone how an economy would run if not based on private ownership. Ask them describe economics relations in Greece. Ask them how society would operate without a state. Chances are they will find it very difficult to describe, which is odd considering that for thousands of years of human history there was no state or a market economy. But yet such has become so normalized that thinking outside of such is nearly impossible for many people. Such“stateness” (and “market-ness”) has become so normalized in political theory that it is argued that that democracy itself cannot exist without a state. (Linz and Stepan 1996: 7)

./english/274.txt:21:social order. It is this task that Pierre Bourdieu spoke of he said that,“We need to invent a new utopianism, rooted in contemporary social forces, for which – at risk of seeming to encourage a return to antiquated political visions – it will be necessary to create new kinds of movement.” (2002: 67)

./english/274.txt:31:The problem is that you can’t study utopia. The study of utopia is the ethnography of nowhere. There is no ready made existing liberatory society which one can go and study, takes notes on, and then return and try to recreate here. It is also debatable even if one could find such an existing situation that trying to recreate such out of the context where such emerged would be the best of ideas. And that’s the problem of utopian vision, is that it doesn’t exist anywhere – that’s implicit in the word. But there have existed a multitude of examples of cooperative structures and non-hierarchal social practices that have existed through out history. Little slices of liberation and non-alienated experience – what Pierre Clastres describes as the “vast constellation of societies in which the holders of what elsewhere would be called power are actually without power; where the political is determined as a domain beyond coercion and violence, beyond hierarchal subordination.” (1977: 5) And

./english/274.txt:39: Libertarian municipalism, most commonly associated with Murray Bookchin and related theorists, in general takes the position of subsuming the economic sphere as a part of a political critique. Thus the arrangement of economic relations becomes something that will be arrived upon after the newly created directly democratic polity (or the decentralization and

./english/274.txt:40:further democratization of an existing political structure) decides upon it. This is not to say that the community should not have a role, most likely a large role, in their economic affairs – but visions put forth thus far have used this reasoning more as an excuse for not having a coherent conceptualization of an alternative economic arrangement. The debate between Michael Albert and Peter Staudenmaier is representative of this. (2002)

./english/274.txt:76:and political and struggles can be sustain in an ongoing fashion. It is the task of bringing what Durruti called “the new world we carry in our hearts” into existence as a tangible reality, even if only in a piecemeal fashion. The reformulation of utopian thought is not finding a better way to imagine a future revolution, but drawing from human experience in finding way to live liberation now.

./english/275.txt:18:It is the attempt to answer these kinds of questions that initially led us to Marxism, with its concern to identify the structural nature of social problems and political issues. The theoretical discourse of Marxism, though, has to show its ‘this-wordliness’4 in practice, by offering something helpful to activists in terms of telling us what to do, what to expect, and how to win. What we have found, and what we want to discuss, is not so much a set of pre-packaged answers as a way of thinking about these issues.

./english/275.txt:20:Notoriously, ‘Marxism’ as such offers relatively little in the way of explicit political prescriptions. Marx and Engels’ own political practice and writings are ‘multi-vocal’, as they say, and have been interpreted and developed in many different ways through the Second (social-democratic), Third (orthodox communist) and Fourth (Trotskyist) Internationals,5 to say nothing of the various council-communist, humanist, autonomist and non-dogmatic Marxisms with which we find ourselves in closer alignment politically.6

./english/275.txt:85:This is one crucial sense in which the ‘going beyond’ that defines theoretical ventures gains its meaning. Given that there are ‘levels of reality beneath and behind the world of phenomenal, directly observable events (and meanings)’,40 theory seeks to go beyond the phenomenal and directly observable towards the essential social relations that generate these events and meanings. In her discussion of Bhaskar’s version of critical realism and its development as a critique of positivism, she comments, ‘In understanding a problem … (or to put it in political terms, in developing a strategy for change), critical realism implies the need to take into account people’s own perceptions of their circumstances and to draw on other evidence and hypotheses to explore, where possible, with the people concerned, causal mechanisms, at work of which these people might not be aware.’41

./english/275.txt:86:As the rest of Arguments for a new left makes clear, the question is then where this other evidence and these other hypotheses are to be found. How is the theorist to identify causal mechanisms which other people are not aware of? What enables actors – whether social researchers, political activists or others – to see through the surface of everyday reality to social structures which operate ‘behind the backs of the actors’ is human practice of a specific kind: practice which is geared towards transforming social reality. In other words, theory is ultimately dependent on social movements.

./english/275.txt:89:The inherent ‘going beyond’ of theory entails an elaboration and explanation of our actual experiences – but unlike affirmative realisms, which leave this task with theorists accredited by dominant institutions, critical realism places the emphasis on people’s attempts to go beyond their actual experiences in practice, through political action. It is this action, the hidden structures that it reveals and the alternative possibilities that it suggests, which critical theorists draw on.

./english/275.txt:90:Secondly, the notion of experience proposed here is one which focuses on social change through the vehicle of human agency: ‘social structures exist by virtue of the individual who produce or potentially transform them’.43 This is where the meaning of theory as an exercise in ‘going beyond’ is widened and politicized. If theory manages to go beyond actual, experienced grievances and explain the workings of the processes and relations that yield these grievances, it may, in turn contribute to the capacity of human agents to articulate political projects that seek to go beyond the here and now:

./english/275.txt:98:Thirdly, the notion of experience put forward argues that we have to take into consideration the situatedness of experience. Here, yet another widening of the meaning of theory as an attempt to ‘go beyond’ occurs. If theoretical efforts actually succeed in bringing out the essential processes and relations that give rise to an experience of frustration and / or constraint, then it is likely that it will also make a contribution to advancing an understanding of the wider ramifications of a particular conflict in terms of how its dynamics are interrelated with non-particular, ie. global / universal dynamics. This, in turn, may help to articulate a political project that seeks to ‘go beyond’ the parameters of the local and specific. We shall elaborate on this point below.

./english/275.txt:108:The labour of abstraction, translation and communication is closely related to the third meaning of going beyond mentioned above, namely the effort to move from political projects centred on particularity to one centred on universality. David Harvey refers to this labour as insurgent architecture:

./english/275.txt:114:The theory of ‘militant particularism’ argues that all broad-based political movements have their origins in particular struggles in particular places and times … Many struggles are defensive … But some forms of militant particularism are pro-active. Under capitalism this typically means struggles for specific group rights that are universally declared but only partially conferred …

./english/275.txt:117:Developing social movement practices and perspectives from militant particularisms towards more universal political projects entails ‘going beyond’ the specific and the local. Anchored in the assumption that local conflicts will tend to represent specific mediations of global conflictual processes, it entails an interrogation of the experience that has engendered this militant particularism in the first place, so as to unearth the dimensions of conflict that point towards such universal processes. This is what Harvey refers to as ‘the labour of translation’ and ‘abstraction’:

./english/275.txt:123:The insurgent architect with a lust for transformative action must be able to translate political aspirations across the incredible variety and heterogeneity of socio-ecological and political-economic conditions. He or she must also be able to relate different discursive constructions and representations of the world … He or she must confront the conditions of and prospects for uneven geographical developments. The skills of translation become crucial here53

./english/275.txt:227:Lebowitz, Michael 2003 Beyond Capital: Marx’s political economy of the working class (2nd edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

./english/276.txt:39:The daunting task of engaging in the labour of translation and abstraction in order to build universalisms out of particularisms is referred to by Harvey as ‘insurgent architecture’: ‘The insurgent architect with a lust for transformative action must be able to translate political aspirations across the incredible variety and heterogeneity of socio-ecological and political-economic conditions. He or she must also be able to relate different discursive constructions and representations of the world … He or she must confront the conditions of and prospects for uneven geographical developments. The skills of translation become crucial here’ (Harvey 2000: 244). The compulsion towards insurgent architecture arises from this situation: ‘without translation, collective forms of action become impossible. All potential for an alternative politics disappears’ (Harvey 2000: 245).

./english/277.txt:10:Such a politics of knowledge makes sense only given particular starting-points. A concrete example is given in the case of my own PhD research, which moved from a participant’s developing choice of priorities to a traditional intellectual’s attempt to relate the milieu to externally-determined projects. The class and other relations involved in this process are examined critically, with a view to bringing out the ability of participants to “locate” the researcher and fit my activity in turn into their own perspectives and projects. The cognitive implications of this analysis enable a more complex understanding of such research activity and point to important political and ethical issues around the potential value and limitations of research for participants and researchers alike. The paper includes a brief postscript, written in 2005 for this publication.

./english/277.txt:14:This paper begins with a paradox in social movement theory, moves backwards to an ontology of human existence, then forwards to outline a political epistemology, and concludes with the history of a research process. Worse, the maps it uses to explore this complex territory are those of an idiosyncratic collection of theorists who are on the whole neither the focus of much serious intellectual attention nor commonly seen as relevant to the discussion of social movements (with one or two exceptions in each case). To complicate matters further, these maps are themselves based on my speculative reconstruction of what I take to be the shared assumptions of this unlikely and heterogenous group of thinkers. The only justification for this paper is that it attempts at least to sketch out a possible perspective on some theoretical and methodological problems raised by research into contemporary social movements. If this perspective is convincing, it may help think about some old problems in a new light; if not, the questions asked may be large enough to provoke better answers from other points of view.

./english/277.txt:26:A first glimpse of what this might mean can be offered by the first section of the Communist Manifesto, with its dramatic claim that “The history of all human society, past and present, has been the history of class struggles” (cited from the Ryazanoff edition in Mills 1962: 47). This claim is developed into an analysis of the revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie in the destruction of feudalism and the creation of a new world order, transforming economics and technology, national and international politics, communications and cognition; following this, by the analysis of the development of the workers’ movement from the experience of misery to the struggle against oppression, aided by growing concentration and communication, into a complex learning process of increasing political self-confidence and clarity towards another and final revolution. It would be more than possible to distil from these few pages the presuppositions of a general Marxist theory of social movements which was not other than the Marxist theory of history - but paying perhaps more attention to the discussion of the nature of movement activity, its preconditions and the context of its development towards the reshaping of society than has sometimes been the case.

./english/277.txt:52:Secondly, social movements include not only the actions of the dominated and exploited, but also the actions of those who dominate and exploit - including, centrally, the practices of exploitation and domination themselves. The changing relations of ownership (identified in feudal society by Marc Bloch (1961)) and the changing form of the state in capitalism, just as much as the developing forms of political and cultural organisation from below, are forms of collective practice geared to maintaining or transforming social relations. Social movements, then, come not only “from below”, but also “from above” - and the presence of the latter is rather more systematic than that of the former.

./english/277.txt:54:Thirdly, social movements are not identified with any one kind of social phenomenon. They are neither specific features of a political subsystem, for example, nor particular forms of unconventional organisation. Or rather, they may at times be expressed in these ways, but they may equally be found in the normal movements of capital, the everyday organisation of needs and desires, the thoroughly institutionalised relationships of corporatism. A good example of this openness of form, I think, can be found in the juxtaposition of papers from a session at the 1997 Alternative Futures and Popular Protest conference. Colin Barker’s (1997) discussion of “moments of collective effervescence” examined those powerful moments during which social movements from below are capable of mobilising vast masses of people in dramatic challenges to the status quo. Mike Waite’s (1997) analysis of “flecks and carriers” included among other things a discussion of how movement ideas and experiences survive even in the worst periods of drought and on the stoniest ground. My own paper (Cox 1997) discussed relatively stable “movement milieux” in a time of active, but limited, social movements. From the perspective of the movement as a totality, all of these are important “moments” of a given history. Thus this perspective historicises movement activity over the lifetime of any given movement; it also historicises it, however, over the longer term, as against analyses of supposed “cycles” of movement activity (Brand 1982) or inherent “logics”, for example of institutionalisation (Scott 1990), which attempt to insulate the categories of movement activity from longer processes of historical change. Social movements, then, are not static forms, but change in both short and long historical movements in interaction with their opponents.

./english/277.txt:58:If, then, we cannot know a prior what form social movements take, if they can neither be identified exclusively with unconventional political activity nor with politics from below, what is movement research to look for? The logic of the argument I am outlining is that we need to start from more general categories and work our way towards specific analyses of the shape movement activity takes in particular times and places. I want to suggest two such categories in particular. If social movements are the way in which human practices are socially articulated, they can and perhaps must be approached both from the foundational level of the practices being articulated and from the viewpoint of the totality within which, and oriented towards which, this articulation takes place. One way of making this connection, which I have presented elsewhere (Cox 1999a), is in terms of “local rationalities” elaborated in specific movement milieux. Such rationalities represent an elaboration, a formalisation and a decontextualisation of particular practical (material and social) skills developed in particular social locations; this decontextualisation enables the generalisation of such rationalities as means of articulating multiple social milieux dispersed spatially, socially and even temporally. One example of such a rationality - an extremely powerful one - is the abstract form of capital, which moves from particular forms of local calculation to a “capitalist rationality” capable of coordinating a global economic system. Another such rationality is that known within the Marxist tradition as working-class consciousness, whose formalisation and generalisation of course includes Marxism and the workers’ movement.

./english/277.txt:68:“The active mass human being acts practically, but does not have a clear theoretical consciousness of this activity, which is however a knowledge of the world, in that it transforms it. In fact, their theoretical consciousness can be historically in contrast with their practical activity. It can almost be said that they have two theoretical consciousnesses (or one contradictory consciousness): one implicit in their activity and which truly unites them with all their collaborators in the practical transformation of reality; and one which is superficially explicit or verbal, which they have inherited from the past and have accepted without criticism. Nevertheless, this ‘verbal’ consciousness is not without consequences: it connects them to a given social group and influences them in their moral conduct and in the direction of their will, in more or less energetic ways, which can lead to a point in which the contradictory nature of their consciousness does not permit any action, any decision or any choice, and produces a situation of moral and political passivity. Critical self-understanding thus comes about via a struggle of political ‘hegemonies’, of opposing forms of direction, first in the field of ethics, then in that of politics, to arrive at a superior elaboration of their own conception of the real.” (Gramsci 1991: 13)

./english/277.txt:74:On an aside, this analysis of institutions as skilled activity has interesting implications. It makes it possible to discuss the ways in which such skill can be lost - not only in contexts of deskilling and the obsolescence of traditional forms of skill, but also for example in periods of reaction, which consist among other things in a sustained assault on the institutions that embody the skills of subordinate movements and classes: from political parties and the movement media through to what Gramsci defines elsewhere as the basic mode of reception of a social movement: “a conception of the world with a corresponding ethics”. Even the us / them distinction, and basic ethical categories such as solidarity, then, are sedimentations of skilled ways of understanding and responding to the world, and as such subject to erosion and attack.

./english/277.txt:102:“The consciousness of being part of a given hegemonic force (that is, political consciousness) is the first phase in a further and progressive self-consciousness in which theory and practice are finally unified. The unity of theory and practice, then, is also not a given mechanical datum, but a historical becoming, which has its elementary and primitive phase in the sense of ‘difference’, of ‘distance’, of barely instinctive independence, and develops up to the real and complete possession of a coherent and unitary conception of the world” (1991: 13 - 14).

./english/277.txt:104:By implication, this political epistemology does not expect to find, in the normal state of affairs, fully-formulated movements from below that are capable of mounting a fully-fledged practical and theoretical challenge to the social totality; such a situation represents rather the limiting case of a counter-hegemonic project on the brink of revolution - as well, of course, as the normal situation of hegemonic movements from above. Nevertheless, it suggests that this limiting case is of great importance in representing the fullest possible self-expression of a given movement, as well as illuminating most clearly its relation to the social totality and to its opponents. What can this mean in practice for research on social movements?

./english/277.txt:108:A second, less “contemplative” approach, to quote Lukács’ own later critique of this theory (1971: xix), is that offered by Alain Touraine (1981), in his methodology of “sociological intervention”. This is geared to discovering, in his case through a complex dialogical procedure between the researchers and specially constituted focus groups drawn from movement activists and opponents, the highest possible self-expression of a given movement; in other words, starting from its actual position, to see how far and in what directions it is capable of understanding its own nature and interests, those of its opponents, and of articulating an independent social project. The underlying methodology has come in for strong criticism, which I think misinterprets its goal. Touraine is not trying, and the theory I have sketched out here is not trying, simply to describe the specific situation of particular organisations or social groups. Rather, it is trying to identify both the local rationalities which are at the root of a movement’s support and the directions in which those rationalities are articulated, theoretically and practically. In other words, it is an attempt to extend the logic implicit in participants’ skilled activity to a more comprehensive standpoint. To be sure, one is assuming that such a thing exists in some way. But it is worth remembering that this definition of movement leads us to look, not at all the membership of the Lower Uppington NIMBY Association, but rather at phenomena which are spread across considerable areas of time and space, which express themselves in a great variety of forms of social and political activity, which thematise many different issues and are capable of making some kind of bid for hegemony, however unlikely - and within these, at the “hegemonic” core which both makes possible this breadth of manifestations and which gives it coherence and direction.

./english/277.txt:115:And yet the proposition that all knowledge is socially located, that our understanding of the world is closely tied to our interests and our experience, and that there is nowhere outside this “radical sociality” where we could stand, is a basic presupposition of the Marxist theory of knowledge (e.g. Goldmann 1969). It is of course anathema to positivist theories of science; in subtler ways, it is rejected by both Weber and Mannheim. Secondly, and more interestingly, in a western Marxist context this proposition has a political and active edge which it tends to lose rapidly in other formulations. It is not a theory of a passive relation to knowledge given by virtue of simple oppression; rather, it has tended to be formulated in terms of the relationship between given theories and doctrines and their authors’ political positions, organisational strategies and the social groups they sought to appeal to. Buried in the internecine polemics of the workers’ movement is a sophisticated, and thoroughly “reflexive”, conception of knowledge politics.

./english/277.txt:117:Perhaps the most interesting feature of this conception is that it draws an implicit parallel between organising modes and strategies of research. Indeed, in western Marxist formulations the two are not necessarily distinguishable, and for good reasons: to know the world, in a critical realist perspective, entails a practical intervention, in that we only know the world insofar as we engage with it, and we only engage with it from the point of view of particular interests. The “politics of research” and the politics of social movements, then, are not two separate things. In each case, a movement is being “constructed” by the bringing together of spatially, socially and temporally scattered practices, by the attempt to relate the understandings of participants to one another and to a more general idea of the nature of the movement, one which also identifies the nature of the opposition and the political implications of the demands being made.

./english/277.txt:120:How can we understand the practice of movement research, then? What are the knowledge interests of researchers, and how does their research activity position them in relation to the movement as a whole? It is conventional to start with discussions of who the researcher is and move “outwards” from this towards a discussion of how they do their research, while ignoring partly or entirely the question of where they do their research. This order suggests a peculiarly contemplative image of research, in which the researcher is essentially unaffected by their interaction with the people they are researching, and naturally avoids the political and activist implications I have just sketched out. Reversing this ordering may be of interest.

./english/277.txt:124:Thirty years ago, Glaser and Strauss (1967) made the suggestion that the selection of areas for research should be based on the criterion of their possible contribution to the development of theory; with a more political tone, that still seems a useful encouragement. This is not, by any means, to suggest that all research should concentrate on the elites of proto-hegemonic movements; for one thing, such elites are probably capable of doing their own theorising. It is perhaps more to suggest that research should develop in a dialogue with movements, even perhaps to the extent of directing research into areas that the movements themselves are interested in rather than areas decided by the “traditional intellectuals” of the academy, whether that means young postgraduates or widely published researchers.

./english/277.txt:126:A good example might be the German Green Party. Unusually within the ecological movement, it had during the 1980s a fair smattering of academics of its own, where the new movements are more commonly dependent on sympathetic and often over-enthusiastic outsiders. Nevertheless, it made extensive and systematic use of outside researchers, particularly during its internal crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, publishing collections of contributions from sympathetic political scientists (Frank 1991) and inviting them to address party meetings.

./english/277.txt:127:One published a selection from his ongoing research as an explicit contribution to the discussions of that time (Raschke 1991). Over a somewhat longer period, members of the party elite (Antje Vollmer, Wolfgang Thierse) were and are involved in the journal of new social movement research, the Forschungsjournal neue soziale Bewegungen. This situation is perhaps unusual in terms of the level of competence and the scale of resources available to the party, but not otherwise. As Tomás Jones has pointed out, there are strong dangers in a situation where research is guided by purely external criteria: the politics of European social movements research - and its funding - has shifted rightwards over the last two decades (1993: 7 - 8). To take the most alarming example, Diani and Eyerman’s otherwise fascinating volume (1992) on the methodology of social movements research came out of a European Consortium for Political Research session jointly sponsored by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and ... the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a fact mentioned without comment in the introduction to the volume.

./english/277.txt:129:This discussion of the purposes of research obviously ties into the question of how research is done. This is rather more familiar ground in discussions of reflexivity, and I only want to make two points. The first is to add to the discussion of research methods, and the kinds of social and power relations these set up between researchers and participants, a discussion of the conditions for the employment of these research methods. The application of particular “methods” always takes place in a context of power and inequality; in the case of a social movement, typically one of conflict as well. What situation does the researcher have to be in to use particular methods? I want to consider two examples, from opposite ends of the spectrum. In one case, the use of in-depth interviews with members of radical political and social groups, it is clear that to get anything more than “official stories” or even blank refusals a reasonable level of trust is needed.

./english/277.txt:139:Finally, what can research contribute, and to whom? It should at this point be fairly obvious that to think of it in these terms is slightly misleading. Research being a political activity, it is (in some ways) good news to some participants and (in some ways) bad news to others. Perhaps more importantly, it is immediately received, translated and made use of by different participants for different purposes.

./english/277.txt:144:I want to conclude this paper with a brief analysis of my own PhD process as an example of some of the issues I have covered in this second half of the paper. The danger in “reflexivity” of this kind, of course, is that it can easily become self-indulgent, if the claim that our own situation as researchers is an important point of analysis is not taken seriously. To take it seriously, of course, is to subject such analysis to the same kinds of theoretical and political criticism as any other statements, rather than to shield them with claims to personal authenticity, identity, and so on.

./english/277.txt:147:Pursuing this project, I went first to Hamburg to carry out research; as a postgrad, the research became a defining feature of my situation as researcher and teaching assistant, and came to involve attempting to bring the activities I was already familiar with into the externally-defined categories of the conventional social movements literature. At the same time, this “theoretical” history was paralleled by a political one. In Dublin, as an active member of the milieu, I had been involved in what were essentially its self-controlled activities: a college occupation, a student peace society, a semi-anarchist group, later street theatre and the attempt to set up an infoshop among others. In Hamburg, however, as part of my research I joined the German Green Party, coming to act as liaison between the Party and a peace camp during the Gulf War, and later helping run a local section.

./english/277.txt:156:That this latter concern was justified is shown by the fact that on most accounts one of the most abiding features of interest in copies of papers I have given them is identifying the pseudonymous authors of particular statements. Participants, then, are fully capable of locating the activity of intellectuals and using it for their own purposes. This does not, of course, mean that participants have no interest in the issues they are themselves working on or in the possibility of social change. Rather, they formulate these possibilities in ways which are so different from those preferred in academia and political parties that they tend to see activity in these fields as largely irrelevant, and find what they see as more practical ways of resolving the problems in question.

./english/278.txt:13:According to Marxist theory, a socialist revolution requires a class conscious working class. Consequently, most socialist political activity is directed one way or another to raising workers' consciousness. Yet relatively few Marxists have gone beyond theoretical analysis to studying the class consciousness of real workers. In part, this is due to the belief, widespread among Marxists, that such consciousness is a necessary by-product of capitalist economic crisis, or the belief, equally widespread, that class consciousness can only be observed in political actions (in both cases, studying class consciousness now is impossible or irrelevant). In part, this neglect is due to a post Lenin overemphasis on developing political strategies and organizations, on the assumption that class consciousness is sufficiently advanced—once effective leadership is provided—for revolutionary activity to occur (in which case, studying it is unnecessary). Proponents of this view often confuse, as Lenin never did, simple anger directed against a boss and trade union consciousness with revolutionary or class consciousness.

./english/278.txt:15:Given the complexity of our subject, the paucity of Marxist studies of class consciousness is also due, in part, to lack of a workable method (in which case, such studies are unthinkable). And, finally, if truth will out, this situation is due, in part, to an unhappy tradition in which many renegades from Marxism have begun their descent from grace by noting the non-socialist character of real workers (in which case, investigating class consciousness has appeared to some as politically suspect and even reactionary). The absence, until relatively recently, of Marxist scholars in the universities who might have conducted such studies has only served to exacerbate these tendencies.

./english/278.txt:17:There have been, of course, numerous Marxist studies of the working class, particularly by historians and sociologists, that describe important aspects of their class consciousness. E.P. Thompson (1966), Eric Hobsbawm (1984), David Montgomery (1979), Herbert Gutman (1976), Harry Braverman (1974), Andre Gorz (1967), Serge Mallet (1975), Erich Fromm (1984), Michael Mann (1973), John Leggett (1968), Stanley Aronowitz (1973), Eric Wright (1985), Adam Przeworski (1977), John McDermott (1980), and Paul Willis (1981) are some of the chief figures here. But few of these authors have made consciousness their main focus. And fewer still have made independent studies of the consciousness of today's workers. In the main their evidence comes from non-Marxist research (which they reinterpret), working class actions (which they deconstruct), government statistics, literary texts, personal experiences, anecdotes, and unique events and testimonies. More serious still, there is no consistent method that helps us as readers and potential researchers and political actors to get what we want and to understand what we have once we've gotten it. Usually, we are provided with a highly suggestive collage, generally with many parts missing, of theoretically undigested facts and insights. Until these findings are reformulated in terms of Marx's theory of class consciousness and integrated in turn within Marx's broader analysis of society, their full potential for helping us either understand or change capitalism cannot be realized. Clearly, a better focused, more systematic, and more effectively theorized Marxist study of class-consciousness of today's workers remains to be done.

./english/278.txt:19:In the meantime, non-Marxist social science has made class-consciousness one of it main topics of study, though, of course, the conceptual frameworks that are used have little to do with Marx's own. The preferred approach is the attitude survey, simply asking workers a whole range of questions as to how they feel, think, and act in regard to specified social and political situations. One of the most influential examples of this approach is found in Goldthorpe, Lockwood, Bechhofer, and Platt (1969). Those who conduct such surveys generally assume that the answers they get back are honest, of similar intensity, easy to interpret, and—most suspect of all—relatively stable. But Seymour Martin Lipset, whose many writings on the working class have made extensive use of such materials, admits that no attitude survey has even foretold any of the great bursts of working class consciousness that have occurred (1983a). Public choice literature offers another, increasingly popular, non-Marxist approach to studying class-consciousness. Here, the emphasis is on examining the practical reasoning that leads individuals to make decisions on whether to participate in class actions. Based on a highly individualist sense of decision making and an extremely egoistic view of human nature, most of the studies that have come out of this school, beginning with the path-breaking work of Mancur Olsen (1971), have demonstrated conclusively that individual workers have nothing to gain by thinking and acting as members of their class.

./english/278.txt:23:But perhaps the most influential non-Marxist approach to studying class consciousness is one that uses cross-cultural data to answer the question, "Why no socialism in the U.S.?" In this case, what workers think is deduced from what they have achieved, especially politically, and what American workers have achieved in this regard is considerably less impressive than the powerful socialist and communist parties and trade unions thrown up by the European working class. By concentrating on what there is in European history and conditions that contributed to these developments (such as a feudal past), and what there is in the U.S that restricted them (such as greater social mobility), this comparative approach tries to show not only that class consciousness does not exist here, but that it could not have come about and—by implication—will never come about. For the classic statement of this position, see Sombart (1976; first published 1906).

./english/278.txt:43:In dealing with the possibility of socialist revolution in the present however, whether Marx's present or our own, it is not enough to treat people as embodiments of social-economic functions. As much as this helps us understand their conditions, the pressures they are under, and their options and opportunities, the people involved must still respond to these influences in ways that make what is possible actual. In Marxist terminology, they must become class conscious. To study whether this can actually occur here and now, or at least soon, we must add a subjective, people-oriented, more directly and narrowly human element and focus to the objective, system-oriented view of class that has been presented so far. In short, in analyzing history and political economy, Marx could operate with an essentially functionalist conception of class derived from the place of a function within the system. Class here is something to which recognizable individuals are attached. In this way, incidentally, it is possible for an individual who serves more than one function (managers and wage-earning professionals, for example) to belong to more than one class. But in analyzing the present state of the class struggle and in developing political strategy, this view has to be supplemented, not replaced, by a conception of class that gives priority to the actual people who occupy this place and perform this function. Sharing a social space and functions, they also tend to acquire over time other common characteristics as regards income, life-style, political consciousness, and organization that become, in turn, further evidence for membership in their class and subsidiary criteria for determining when to use the class label. Here, class is a quality that is attached to people, who posses other qualities—such as nationality, race or sex, for example—that reduce and may even nullify the influence on thinking and action that comes from their membership in the class. Conceived as a complex social relation, in line with Marx's dialectical outlook on the world, class invites analysis as both a function and a group, that is to say, from different sides of this relation.

./english/278.txt:59:To claim that class consciousness is a group consciousness is not to deny that individuals also have something that may be called an individual consciousness, that this may include political and social elements, and that such consciousness both affects and is affected by their group consciousness (or that they may have—really participate in—other kinds of group consciousness, racial, national, religious and sexual as well as class). Individual consciousness may also be politically in advance of or lagging behind class-consciousness. Class-consciousness, however, is something other. It is kind of "group think," a collective, interactive approach to recognizing, labeling, coming to understand, and acting upon the particular world class members have in common. It is a set of mental moves and a store of knowledge and judgments reserved for these common situations and what these situations tap or set into motion, where the individual's fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the group. It is a manner of thinking that is done in common, most of the time in a common place on common problems, phrased in a common terminology, pushed forward and held back by common pressures and constraints. It is not only the Australian Aborigines who solve problems in a group (apparently to the point that individual Aborigines have trouble taking Western IQ tests). We all do. It is, at least in part, a professional deformation of intellectuals, of people whose work involves a lot of thinking in isolation, to believe that thinking can only be done by individuals operating on their own, with the result that what I have called "group thinking" is generally either ignored or denied the honorific label of "thinking".

./english/278.txt:65:Politically, what counts is what an individual understands and does as a member of a class and not his private reflections and intimate behavior. In coming to recognize, as most of us have in this Freudian century, the undeniable influence of the latter on the former (not to mention the reverse), there has been a regrettable conflation of these two forms of consciousness. The study of class-consciousness as part of developing a strategy for socialist transformation requires that group and individual consciousnesses, at least initially, be kept quite distinct.

./english/278.txt:81:Does understanding imputed class consciousness as future class consciousness imply that socialism is inevitable? No, because class conscious workers are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a successful socialist transformation of society. How effectively these class conscious workers are organized, what political action they take, the character of the then opposition, and even luck will help determine the final outcome of the class struggle. Marx himself offered barbarism—the disintegration of advanced civilization—as one alternative to socialism, but living one hundred years ago, he did not give it the attention that it would receive today. The Cold War has led to the recognition that another all too realistic alternative to socialism is the death of humanity brought about by nuclear holocaust. Still another awful possibility is ecocide, or the destruction of our species through the rapidly escalating destruction of our natural environment. Many rate this last as the most likely outcome of our species' relatively brief sojourn on this planet. While occasionally sympathetic (if this is the right word) to this view, it should be clear that the factors effecting this outcome are, at least to a large degree, of a different order than those that influence the progress of class consciousness. Consequently, the possibility of ecocide, like the possibility of barbarism and nuclear holocaust, does not prevent us from treating imputed class consciousness as future class consciousness within a notion of present class consciousness viewed in the process of becoming.

./english/278.txt:89:What is the alternative? Until now, I have been constructing a dialectical conception of class consciousness that could be studied directly and not only as a dependent aspect of class structure or class struggle. In what follows, I sketch what such a study would look like, its advantages and problems, and its relation to political practice. The dialectical alternative to examining class consciousness in the attitudes of individual workers, then, is to study the objective aspects of class consciousness in the situation of the class, and its subjective aspects in the thinking and activity of the group of people who make up the class, and both of these over time. On the objective side, what we have called the situation of the class must be studied on two different levels of historical specificity. First, we must clearly establish the place and function of the working class together with its objective interests in capitalism as such, that is in capitalism as it has existed for the past three to four hundred years, in order to derive the class consciousness that is appropriate. Reconstructing this situation not only provides the goal or finished form of class consciousness but puts us in touch with social and economic pressures arising out of the most basic relations of capitalism that move the actual consciousness of living workers in the direction of this goal. Given our concern with class consciousness, the focus is on the workers and hence the rest of capitalist society comes into view chiefly as part of the necessary conditions and/or results of the workers appearing and functioning as they do. In reconstructing how capitalism looks and works from the vantage point of the working class, there are some tendencies that deserve special attention. Among these are the accumulation and centralization of capital, the falling rate of profit, the increasing rate of exploitation, and the immiseration of the working class (that is relative to capitalists and viewed on a world scale). Though sometimes referred to as "laws," Marx's tendencies all admit—indeed often require—counter-tendencies, and should be understood and investigated with this in mind.

./english/278.txt:101:In most Marxist accounts of this subject the opposite occurs, which is to say class struggle is the main object of study, and class consciousness, to the extent it is addressed at all, is treated as a minor and dependent aspect, as a mere reflection of the class struggle ("For workers to have arrived at this degree of struggle, their consciousness must be such and such"). We have also seen that Marx could conceptualize class consciousness as an aspect of class as such, as something that develops as a class realizes its full potential as a class. While such approaches to class consciousness are adequate for treating the past, where the evidence of what happened is in (so that we know roughly what the level of class consciousness must have been for classes or class struggle to have progressed so far), it is my view that a serious Marxist study of how the present is opening onto the future requires as a complementary focus, one that makes class struggle a subordinate aspect of class consciousness. (A similar point was made earlier in this essay about the limitations of understanding class simply as the embodiment of an economic function). This, then, is not an attempt to deny the material basis of Marxism or the priority it gives to activity, political as well as economic, for analyzing capitalism. It is only that the dialectical method allows us to approach capitalist social relations from the vantage point of class consciousness - a vantage point neither Marx or his followers have made much use of - and that for understanding our present moment as well as for affecting it there are certain advantages in doing so.

./english/278.txt:105:While an overly deterministic reading of any of these relations is in error, Marx clearly saw a particularly close connection between worsening economic conditions and improved prospects for socialist revolution. The tie between the two, however, is not automatic and necessary, but probable and mediated through a series of changes that make the development of class consciousness easier and more likely to take place. Such changes include the intensification of capitalist exploitation, which occurs in any crisis, the concentration of capital and the accompanying accentuation of class differences, the closing and narrowing of existing career options (small business, for example), increasing evidence of the irrationality and immorality of capitalism (particularly, conspicuous consumption and waste amid growing poverty), unemployment for many and job insecurity for the rest, the loss of savings, homes, farms and small businesses, the steady erosion of welfare state benefits acquired in better times, and the evident failure of traditional economic and political strategies (like trade unionism and voting for the Democrats). As various life options that have been available to workers are closed off, as the connections that have to be made appear more obvious, as the material penalties for not making them grow larger, as the surrounding injustices become more blaring, and as the benefits to be won through a redistribution of economic and political power (what is sometimes called the "revolutionary positive") become easier to see and to imagine, in sum, as the objective forces propelling workers toward full class consciousness become overwhelming, it is difficult for any worker to retain his old outlook. (That many still do is another matter—based chiefly on a different set of considerations—and we will return to this shortly.) Minus many important details and qualifications, this is the most general conclusion to be drawn from studies already done on the objective side of class consciousness.

./english/278.txt:111:On the subjective side, the study of class consciousness should proceed by dealing with groups of workers as groups, especially in situations where some dramatic change had occurred that triggers off a heightened interaction between the members. A change of this kind generally increases their awareness of their place and role in the system as workers and with it the likelihood of thinking, even of personal problems, in class terms. A strike offers one example of this. Visits to the unemployment office is another. Observing what the group does and the interaction and degree of participation of members, listening to what is said, reading what is written, asking questions aimed at bringing out their understanding and intensity of feeling about whatever is pushing them toward class consciousness and whatever is holding them back, making remarks on similar topics in order to provoke a response, asking workers what they see in pictures and cartoons that are relevant to their situation, judging their reaction to political jokes, beginning a story taken from their lives and asking them to finish it, showing videos of their own discussions and asking them to comment on what they have seen, and even acting alongside workers to get a feel for what is going on are all recommended.

./english/278.txt:123:As for which subsection of the workers should be given priority as subjects of study, the answer can be found in an updated reading of Marx's texts. Besides constituting the largest section of the working class in nineteen-century capitalism, industrial workers worked and lived in conditions that were in the process of becoming generalized. In this, as in so much else, they led the way. Because of their place and numbers in industry, industrial workers also had the power to bring the entire capitalist system to a halt. Hence, Marx's political as well as economic emphasis on this section of the working class. Today, industrial workers are no longer the majority of the working class, and their proportion as part of the class is becoming smaller, and while they set the pace when material conditions for the whole class were improving, the current drop in real living standards finds them trailing after other less favored, generally less unionized, sections of the class. Granted, they are still the main source of all real (as distinct from paper) wealth in our society, and they still have the force to bring capitalism to a halt by withdrawing their labor-power. From this, it would seem that industrial workers should continue to be a main subgroup in any study of working class consciousness, but—on the basis of current trends in capitalism—they must now share the spotlight with others. As the fastest growing sectors of the working class, highly skilled technical workers, low skilled services workers, and government and office workers should also be heavily represented in studies of working class consciousness.

./english/281.txt:3:2) Exactly how would you describe your politics? (Or alternatively, describe your political development to date?) BARBARA BIGLIA: I have been involved in social movements and the autonomous feminist movement since 1986. My participation is not always committed due to personal problems, scepticism, boredom and so on. I have decided never to get involved with formal political parties or groups. (followed on next page) 65

./english/281.txt:5:3) What is your assessment of the current status of capitalism and the class struggle? BARBARA BIGLIA: I am not a political theorist and I feel uncomfortable dishing out a general ‘prescription’ on this issue. So the best I can do is to give an impressionistic account. Firstly, I believe that ethnographic differences are really important. Even if oppression is globalized, it does not hurt people in the same manner. We live within different zones of capitalism, which subjects us to a differentiated system of domination. In some areas there still exists a certain class-consciousness that seems to have died out elsewhere. The presence or absence of social networks underline cultural differences. Today the class struggle represents an interesting and potentially subversive factor in certain areas of the planet. However, in other areas we need to take onboard non-class issues in order to fight oppression imaginatively. Finally, I am pessimistic about the anti-globalization movement, which in my view is rapidly becoming a reformist project with a radical mask.

./english/281.txt:9:world’ a new surge of radical theory. As a result within academia, especially in Northern Europe and USA, there is apparently more space for critical debate. When I began to get in touch with the ‘first side of the first world academe’, this process seemed to me, as a South-European PhD student, very impressive. However, as an activist, I very soon came across many people theorising Social Movements (SM) who were only familiar with the work being done within academia. Thus the initial optimism soon disappeared. Some questions then presented themselves: What is the meaning of our radicalism? Who is our critique for? Are we really in a radical age or is it becoming fashionable to be radical? This article provides me with the opportunity to reflect on these themes. Still I have to admit to a certain trepidation since I don’t see myself as a political theorist and writing in a foreign language will limit my ability to express myself clearly1. But I’ll try to write to the best of my ability, eroding academic jargons and talking not from the perspective of an abstract Knowledge but from my experiences (including all the voices who debate issues of relevance with me from time by time). I hope my reflections2 will be of interest to some of this journal’s readers. This paper aims to look at us. To me, being critical must start from self-criticism. ‘Self-criticism and personal change are not apolitical- refusing to be what the system requires you to be is a profound and powerful form of direct actions’ (Subbuswamy & Patel, 2001, 541-543). …Situating myself In truth, responding to the initial questionnaire was very hard for me, since I hate giving rapid judgements and I am acutely aware that a short response cannot escape generalisation. I did fill in the questionnaire at the end because as I understand the idea was for us to permit the reader to know where we are coming from (politically), in order to comprehend and critique our work more easily. But I feel I need to spend some more time elaborating my answers since some of the terms used in the questionnaire seem ambiguous to me.

./english/281.txt:13:The first big set of doubts arose when I read the expression ‘class struggle’. My political engagement started years ago with the end of the strong working struggle movement in Italy. We found ourselves, in the second part of the 1980s, without the class (consciousness) that, in theory at least, is meant to be related somehow to struggle; the factories around us where closing and consciousness was almost non-existent. Most of the old activists had disappeared; some were in prison, others in exile, most dropped out of public life; almost all the ones still visible became completely institutionalised. So, as young activists, we moved from the class referent to a more complex set of references including the oppressed and marginalised- subjects more similar to us. For this reason I find it odd to talk about the ‘class struggle’ in the here and now even if it may be possible elsewhere. If Social Movements do not entirely consist of middle and upper class ‘activists’ then neither are they a genuine expression of the working classes in the ‘Marxist’ sense of the term3. The second set of doubts arose when I tried to think about Critical Psychology. What exactly is it? Does a critical psychology exist? Is it not better to talk about Critical Psychologies? Am I a critical psychologist? I can’t really give an answer to these questions because it seems to me that many people, influenced by different ideologies and practices, describe themselves as critical psychologists. Before writing this article I looked through the library database and came to the conclusion that the only thing these critical psychologists had in common was that they are not yet part of mainstream psychology. Burman4 writes, ‘Critical psychology is what people do in challenging the oppressive and disingenuous actions done by psychologists or in the name of psychology’. But in reality, being ‘critical’ is becoming fashionable and not all the people calling themselves critical have the ethical or political principles expressed by Erica. At the same time, I have the impression that sometimes tools and instruments used by critical psychologists acquire an unwarranted radical status. As Gordo-Lopez suggests,

./english/281.txt:14:3 A section of the Italian political literature (related to the Autonomist tradition) defines the new categories of immaterial worker as intellectual workers because, even if they are working in the tertiary sector of the economy, they are subjected to flexibility measures and therefore they no longer have job guarantees. Moreover, their position in the labour market makes them exploited subjects. Although, this group, due to its particular characteristics (for instance its middle-upper class supervisory status, lack of class consciousness and solidarity, its perennial competitiveness and individualism, etc) cannot be considered the same as the factory working class of the 1960s and 70s. 4 Interviewed by Ian Law and Bill Lox (1998).

./english/281.txt:17:Viewpoints that arise from potential subversive situations [...] are incorporated, neutralised and redefined within the discipline as methodological innovations or merely as qualitative investigative techniques (Gordo-Lopez, 2001). In other words deconstruction and qualitative methods can be used to justify reactionary practice. Deconstruction and relativism, for example, have been used by some to posit the notion that the Holocaust was an invention and to propagate their historical revisionist point of view. Has a similar process aided the reabsorption5 of critical psychology? I feel myself closest to the standpoint of ‘anti-psychiatry’ in the sense expressed by Bucalo (1997, 54), anti-psychiatry is not a theory but a practice…it is an everyday practice with which we confront other people’s experience and at the same time define our own...regarding interpersonal relations, anti-psychiatry does not limit itself to the negation of internment or the coercion of people’s subjectivities; it is furthermore an acknowledgment of those experiences/abilities within human beings. In other words being anti-psychiatry should be read as a way of being in relation to the world and the subjectivities within it. This is primarily a personal anti-psychiatry. Finally, the third set of doubts that the questionnaire evokes in me: What is the anti-capitalist movement? Is it really possible to talk about one anti-capitalist movement? For example, are the Mapuche movement, Tute Bianche or Attac part of the same struggle? Is there a lot of commonality between the anarchist perspective and NGOs’ politics? Do we fight for the same goals? Is there a common struggle? The definition of Social Movements (SM) is extremely varied and includes many groups with different styles and political positions and the attempt to find a common theory to explain them will result in homogenisation and simplification6. Even when we try to limit analysis to self-professed anti-capitalist movements we are still left with an enormous range of different groups and political options. What is the common ground? Do they work as friends or antagonists? Bearing in mind such heterogeneity, if we want to

./english/281.txt:21:achieve a cross fertilisation between ‘critical psychology’ and ‘anti-capitalist movements’, we should start by streamlining the definition of ‘anti-capitalist movements’. To complicate matters a further set of questions occur to me: Is there a relationship between academia’s general interest in social movements and the media’s sudden fascination with the ‘anti-globalisation movement’? Are self-defined anti-capitalists really subversive? And, finally, is academe the proper arena for discussing such issues? On this note, let’s start with some concrete reflections on the problematic. Being within or being for... What are we talking about? Why are we talking? When I decided to write a thesis on gender relationships of militants in the radical social movement7, I wanted to work from within (Plows, 1998; Wall, 1999). The aim for me, as an insider was to understand and improve our gender relations and to reduce sexism in all its manifestations8. I was completely unaware of theories on social movements and I immersed myself in the literature. I found both really interesting texts and awful ones, but there was something that was escaping to me, and I wasn't able to put my finger on it. Then I participated in my first Social Movement congress and then, and only then, did I see the light.☺ In my opinion, the problem was that the majority of participants were SM outsiders and were, in any case, trying to explain SM dynamics to academia, to society in general or to a political party, instead of trying to create a debate within SM. In a recent contribution, Barker and Cox (2001-02, page 2), analyse the relation between research on SM and being activists. They use the Gramscian distinction between ‘traditional’ (in this case, academic) and ‘organic’ (activist) intellectuals and pose three fundamental questions in order to decide which side the researcher represents. These are: 1. What kind of knowledge do they produce?

./english/281.txt:26:9 They say activists are looking for intangible rather then material success. I think that, unfortunately, amongst activists we can find all kinds of attitudes. 10 Lots of different ethical and political positions define themselves as feminist and these distinctions are frequently so strong as to make it difficult to talk about feminism. In this context, I am referring to autonomous or radical (but not separatist) feminism. 11 This was part of the anti-psychiatric movement. The action was significant because people living in the mountains of Reggio Emilia subjected psychiatric hospitals to

./english/281.txt:37:to enter it directly; some may genuinely believe they can subvert the System from within; some may not realise until much later that they are being used by shady political parties or groups; others still may feel frustrated by the ‘flawed’ strategies adopted by the Radical Social Movement or may even diverge politically from the new positions. In any case, since the System has been able to both recycle part of the movement’s demands and directly recruit some of its leaders, it can de-radicalise the militants. This is what I call reabsorption, in which both populist dictatorships and modern phallo-centric democracies specialise in, with academics as the state’s accomplice. Two painful examples can show how the process works. The first is the inclusion of ‘feminist’ discourse, within societies that arrogantly call themselves ‘first world’, into mainstream socio-political discourse. Politicians are now careful to be politically correct14 and encourage women participation in a world constructed on hetero-patriarchal philosophy. Some feminists lend themselves to such manoeuvres in order to obtain a ‘power quota’. And some may even pretend to be feminists as a matter of policy. Consequently we have positive discriminatory laws by which governments and trans-national organisations enhance their dominating positions and act as Father-figures to their subjects. So we witness in North Europe and the USA15 many gender study departments have completely compromised politics and use women as objects (rarely subjects) of study. This creates a vacuum in the intergenerational transmission belt and at the same time permits the marginalization of rebellious women who refuse to accept the lie of equality16. Moreover, Feminist philosophy has not escaped the pull of the univocal concept of power and the results are clear. It has entered into a dynamics in which the allegedly radical discourse travels on the same false path as traditional misogynist discourse... the self-serving lies of patriarchal discourse are converted into alternative discourse and projected as naturalism (Valcárcel, 1994, 81). 14 ‘Conceptual change not directly reflected in a transformation of practices and behaviours’ (Fernandéz, 2000, p 65). 15 In South Europe it is difficult make a similar analysis because there are so few Women Studies departments. 16 We are encouraged to believe that equal opportunities exist in the ‘civilised world’; we can abort unwanted pregnancies, we can work in the public domain. However, the government’s dominating attitude towards us remains intact which is typical of the hetero-patriarchal capitalist system we are living under.

./english/282.txt:12:However, more problematic questions arise in relation to a specific area of academic study, signaled by the title of the new journal: Social Movement Studies. Over the last few decades, a whole institutional academic apparatus - even including this conference! - has arisen, whose central focus is the theorization of movements and popular struggles. In North America, the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the ASA has, reportedly, some 500 paid-up members. There are several journals devoted to this kind of work, and many other professional sociology and political science journals regularly carry articles in the field. Here there occur ongoing debates about how to theorize the (possibly changing) experience of movements, their ideas, their activities, their forms of organization, and their contests with the powerful. This is the area we want to ask questions about.

./english/282.txt:23:In the real world, of course, the types are sometimes combined together in individuals and groups. Many of those who are drawn to this field of academic study are themselves former or continuing activists and participants in actual movements and movement organizations. It's been suggested (e.g. Morris and Herring 1987; Mayer in Lyman 1995) that part of the impulse to the American shift away from 'collective behaviour' to 'resource mobilization' and 'political process' theories was a response to the movements of the 1960s.(2) Those with feet in both camps are often aware of contradictions and tensions in their different roles. Thus Nancy Naples notes a demand placed on the authors in her collection on Community Activism and Feminist Politics, to 'find a balance between the passion they felt for the community action or activists they were working with and the detachment needed to present their analyses' (1998b: 7).

./english/282.txt:53:In essence, Lukacs's opponents argued that the Hungarian Revolution was lost due to factors beyond human control; Lukacs's riposte is, 'No, comrades, we blew it!' Had the Hungarian CP leadership been better equipped theoretically, they would not have made the mistakes they did, and the outcome would have been - for good or ill - different (4). Now, to return to McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, they never seem to provide a basis for saying, 'They blew it....' (or, of course, 'They got it right, for the following reasons'). They do get close, sometimes, but seem to stop inquiring just as the issue comes near to a head. They note, for example, following McAdam (1999), that the Civil Rights Movement 'socially appropriated' the Black church network, but talk about social appropriation as a 'mechanism' rather than a more or less deliberate activity. They record that the Communist Party in the Philippines effectively abstained from taking any active position during the 1980s revolution against Marcos, and even note that the Party had the capacity, had it intervened, to make a decided difference to what happened, but they do not further explore this interesting abstention. (5) In short, they largely avoid concrete political judgment. They do not offer grounds for saying, 'That was a practical mistake,' or '(Ideally), had we been there, we would have spoken or acted thus....'

./english/282.txt:131:This makes sense given her location between movement and mainstream media - but also perhaps explains the book's attractiveness to lecturers desperate to keep the attention of bored undergraduates. It is, one could say, sufficiently political in its subject matter to be interesting (to speak to students as active human beings), but not so political in its structure as to be unusable as a basis for examinations and essay-writing. (14)

./english/282.txt:141:Klein, Starr and Hardt / Negri illustrate the complex interactions between activist and academic theorizing, and the tensions between their different purposes. These tensions appear above all in the shape of the theory - its active or contemplative form - rather than in its subject matter or ostensible political 'side'. Indeed, it could perhaps be said that the practice of the authors mentioned as individuals is at odds with their theorizing, to their credit as human beings and activists, if not as theorists. This is perhaps not surprising in a period of movement 'upturn', in which practice can be expected to outstrip theory. But what does it imply for theorizing itself?

./english/282.txt:146:'Marxism' represents a particular crystallization of the theorizing processes of the workers' movement. From the late 19th century it has formed one of the most important languages within which - and against which - movement debates have been framed (not only in left parties and trade unions, but also for example in the ecological and women's movements). Its most famous 'names' are those of revolutionary activists, heavily involved in the various Internationals and suffering exile (Marx, Lenin, Lukács), political murder (Luxemburg, Trotsky) or imprisonment (Gramsci).

./english/282.txt:159:A significant body of literature was written in and around these movements, of varying quality and with varying political goals: in the 1960s its point was often an alignment with the revolutionary moment of '1968' against orthodox denials of its political potential; by the early 1980s the point was often to support the development of Green parties or the 'greening' of the left wing of social democratic and orthodox communist parties. In the course of the 1980s and 1990s, 'social movement theory' - itself often written in relation to some of the same movements - started to become aware of this literature, which (having lost its political significance with the increasing 'mainstreaming' of Green parties) now became worth recuperating.

./english/282.txt:165:What was obscured most decisively in this process was the key political issue around which the literature had originally been constructed: the failure of social democracy to bring about revolutionary change in post-war western Europe, and the alignment of orthodox communism with the repression of revolution in Paris just as much as in Prague.

./english/282.txt:171:To recognize this history would mean not only going into far greater depth in the history of ideas than one could expect of undergraduates - or political scientists! - it would also mean dethroning of purely cognitive analysis and recognizing that these theoretical struggles were organized not in terms of the clash of generic propositions but of conflicts over practical choices facing activists and movements.

./english/282.txt:238:In its production and distribution, then, it is activist theorizing rather than academic, and this also holds true for its reception: academic discussions of anarchism (including those by anarchist activists) tend to prefer to focus on 'dead classics' or the more abstract-minded activists such as Murray Bookchin or Hakim Bey; by contrast, the Anarchist FAQ is quoted in discussions on newsgroups and mailing lists unrelated to anarchism or academia (18), in the context of essentially political arguments about anarchism.

./english/283.txt:15:In this contribution, we offer some notes taken from a long meeting exploring relationships between academia and activism. The notes are ordered from multiple flipcharts and include some direct quotes (in italics) from these charts to provide something of the dynamic flavour of the discussion. Our intention is multiplicitous – to use current jargon. It is to make a note of one ephemeral attempt at conversation between activists and academics, in a context of some anti-intellectualism in the UK political scene. And it is to highlight the conflict that can emerge in such discussion across boundaries, as insecurities morph into accusations and attack. It is to emphasise that opening up to each other requires safety and softness, although defensiveness and deepened identities frequently are what arise instead. And it is to nevertheless affirm a challenge to keep placing ‘ourselves’ in the presence of different views; to keep learning and unlearning, in our attempts to disperse boundaries and enclosures, conceptual and otherwise.

./english/283.txt:24:All of us are located in different spaces in relation to both activist and academic practice. So how do these spaces contribute to our political engagement - and to how we see and identify ourselves as, or as not, activists?

./english/283.txt:26:This discussion opened with the observation that academia and academics present structural limits in relation to radical/activist potential. Should those of us currently located in academia leave our jobs so that we can do the things we talk/think/write about? Can we ‘talk the talk and walk the walk’? Or, by staying within ‘the system’, are we just knocking at the system’s edges with our work without contributing meaningfully to socio-political change? For example, our ability to infect the particular academic institutions in which we work always is going to be constrained by the broader structures - particularly funding structures - within which these are located. Alternatively, the pedagogical spaces offered in the academy provide opportunities for ‘outreach’, via which some of us validate our teaching and writing as possibilities for radical/activist practice and engagement.

./english/283.txt:34:A problem with the academic/activist dichotomy is that it reproduces alienating ‘us’ and ‘them’ categories (‘labels/categories - we hate ‘em’). It thereby fosters a dualistic structuring of social worlds that is consistent with modernity and that surely is part and parcel of what ‘we’ are contesting. In other words, these categories, and ‘our’ various identifications with them, do not in and of themselves make for radically transformative political engagement, and may even work against this. (Indeed, this talkshop initiative began as an attempt to unravel these problematic categories, not to reproduce them! .. in the hope that by making a space for communication and collaboration we might do something collectively that assists with shifting the hegemonic conversation in a funky direction .. ).

./english/283.txt:42:Conversely, it might be that ‘demoting’ the validity of theory and intellectual engagement is itself an exclusionary stance; one that is not consistent with a radical political orientation that emphasises (rhetorically at least!) inclusion and diversity. To think, to theorise, to write, to read etc., are all verbs too, i.e. they are modes of constitutive engagement with the world. For academics desiring socio-political transformation it’s the institutional structures within which we work that are problematic, not necessarily the actual work/research/writing etc. that we do and like to do.

./english/283.txt:50:We need to talk with each other about the ideas we have for how social change can happen, and how we desire the world to be/become. In particular, how do we get beyond dead-end (and boring!) dichotomies such as reform versus revolution, capital versus resistance, academia versus activism, theory versus practice ...? And also, how do we find ways of coherently tracking and thinking through the (scale)relationships between micro and macro, personal and political, local and global, private and public, etc.?

./english/283.txt:56:One specific point raised was the political significance of our affective, i.e. emotional and felt, experiences. This is in relation to both understanding the ways that Empire’s biopower is variously sustained; as well as in terms of being able to draw in and validate affective domains in articulating our politics and in driving our political engagement. This means that peoples’ personal histories and experiences are important politically; particularly those that become the moments when we make conscious and embody a sense that something is not right, and that something different is possible. It perhaps even creates a radical role for the disclosure and sharing of our individual ‘stories’ in relation to our political desires and engagement, as a ‘bottom line’ for the emergence of political community. Although, ‘we’ also face a challenge in engaging with these realities if we don’t want our political encounters to become some sort of therapy group or lapse into excessive New Age self-indulgence. Here we encountered something of a perhaps predictable gender component to peoples’ appreciation of this area of discussion.

./english/284.txt:16:The intense week of readings “Against Ethnography” in the context of our course on contemporary sociocultural theory inevitably forced some of us to rethink our attraction to a doctoral program in Anthropology. This discipline is about representing, and representation is a political act, embedded in power relations, and the construction of subjectivities. Representation can take different forms. However, being Anthropology the product of the colonial enterprise, its representational practices were shaped by a comfortable hierarchy in writing, welcomed by the positivist character of the academy at the time. Is the discipline condemned to failure in its endeavor of representation? Or are the politics of representation situated, changing over time, and having different epistemological and political consequences?

./english/284.txt:27:The author argues that the asymmetry of the colonial encounter had profoundly influence the “practicality” of the discipline, since it was at the service of the dominant side. The issues of colonial patronage, powerful funders, European audience, etc were the basis for an epistemology that reinforces the authority of the anthropologist and the objectification of the people studied. The anthropological approach was mainly functionalist trusting “a totalizing method (…) and ethnographic holism” (1973:13). Politically, under a façade of scientific neutrality, anthropological material was not subversive but submissive to the colonial enterprise.

./english/284.txt:29:Edward Said, the master of questioning representational practices, takes up this critique in Representing the Colonized: Anthropology’s Interlocutors. Said captures the moment of awareness and rage against this colonial legacy, reviewing the different angry traditions –Marxist or anti-imperialist Anthropology; postmodern Anthropology, Andean Studies, etc-. Some times you can feel that the author is subtly calling for “an end of anthropology” (1989:208) or insisting in the “deep sentiment of Kuhnian paradigm-exhaustion” (1989:209) and supporting the field of literature as a more sensitive terrain towards the other. He observes how in these revisionist traditions the problematic of the observer in the production of “inferior Others” (210) is not addressed completely. There is still an authoritative and neutral third person in their texts - “Who speaks?”- asks Said calling for an epistemological shifting that would reverse the concept of observation. Said does not condemn any attempt to talk about difference to failure, but situates the knowledge industry and its epistemological basis under historical constraints, pointing out its political and quotidian consequences.

./english/284.txt:34:New narrative practices and new terminology thus emerged, but what are the political consequences of this reflexive engagement with the text and this recognition of ethnography as a dialogical process? In our class discussions we left this question open- whether or not the epistemological shift was followed by changes in everyday and institutional practices in anthropology more generally. I would like to propose that it is possible to challenge “empire as a way of life” in Anthropology criticized bitterly by Said (1989: 216).

./english/284.txt:40:Foucault and Deleuze call for the end of theory as a signifier, theory is reclaimed as action and not as representation: “A theory is like a box of tools (…) there is no more representation; there is nothing but action” (in Spivak1988: 70). Behind these attractive manifesto-like statements, “a post-representationalist vocabulary hides an essentialist agenda” (1989:80) that portrays subalterns as monolithic collectivities. Spivak argues that these “first-world radical intellectuals” are separating the two constitutive meanings of representation. By focusing on the political meaning, they are attacking the “speaking for” in a superficial way since they are forgetting the economic meaning. Without developing her analysis further, I just want to present Spivak as a reference point in bringing political economy into the debate of representation. The micropolitics are not separated from the macropolitics, so “theories of ideologies” based on interests are necessary to complement notions of power based on desire (1989: 74). The international division of labor has to be acknowledged, recognizing its impact in the current epistemological world order. In this sense, Spivak is performing an uneasy –yet relevant and exciting- marriage between Marxism and Deconstruction.

./english/284.txt:42:Going through her text, one has the impression of being called to practice a new “politics” -not merely poetics- of representation. However, her conclusion is drastic, the political economy of representation is not feasible since the subalterns in their very attempt to achieve epistemological status, cannot speak to the risk of being co-opted by the very same violent epistemic framework and their political-economic exploitation reinforced. I would like to ask Spivak a question though: ‘are you not essentializing the subaltern as well by ascribing to them required characteristics such as endemic voicelessness?’

./english/284.txt:49:Due to this history of reflexivity within the discipline I consider Anthropology as having the potential to go beyond the conventional Social Movement Literature -studying movements as ‘alter objects’-. Activism could deepen the level of reflexivity proposed by Anthropology in two realms: at the epistemological level, de-centering the production of knowledge and at the political level, politicizing the production of knowledge, where ethnographies are not anymore an instrument of power but a tool of empowerment.

./english/284.txt:59:After a year of engaging some of the most referential texts on socio-cultural theory, one can appreciate the multiple instances when the discipline of Anthropology has stopped to rethink itself. Two of the strongest moments that are important to recall are the internal criticism over the impact of the colonial encounter’s heritage in the “practicality” of the discipline (Asad, 1973), and the intense calls to be aware of the situatedness of the knowledge industry-especially the practice of representation instantiated by Anthropology, and its political and quotidian consequences (Said, 1989). Those challenges have been addressed and considered seriously by many, producing a discipline marked by its high degree of reflexivity. The mechanisms of self-criticism, internal debate, healthy distance from the discipline, awareness of author’s positionality, experimental methods and literary devices, all contribute to construct a self-conscious discipline alerted to the interstices of power and knowledge. Anthropology then appears as an academic field where new ways of thinking and doing can be accommodated. This history of reflexivity questions the stipulated objectivism of academic thinking, attempting to create a ‘situated discipline’ that stimulates the rethinking of its own research practices.

./english/284.txt:61:It would be inaccurate to portray anthropological practices as merely linked to the colonial endeavor. It is key to remind ourselves of the long involvement by this discipline in social justice issues ranging from its contents (focus on economic, political, and cultural power dynamics) to some of its militant activities. Acknowledging the long history of Anthropology as an overtly politicized space -with renowned as well as more anonymous figures struggling against racism (e.g. Boas), war (e.g. Wolf), the prison industry complex (e.g. Davis), colonialism (e.g. Kenyatta), gender oppression (e.g. Haraway), and more that I would love to know-, the current stage of the discipline allows for yet another ‘politicizing’ of knowledge. My argument is then that the level of reflexivity achieved by this discipline offers the possibility of engaging in resistance through the very practice of ethnographic work.

./english/284.txt:63:Anthropology, in trying to overcome Said’s condemnation to failure in its endeavor of representation through the reflexive process, is offering us an important contribution for engaging with one aspect of the actualité. Concretely, Anthropology today provides both analytical and everyday-life tools to work with current global social movements. Exploring reflexivity in three anthropological texts I hope to show how some of their reflexive insights are building up the possibility of a deeper intellectual and political commitment with global resistance/counter power initiatives. This paper explores the reflexive contributions by “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (Spivak, 88), “Carne, Carnavales, and Carnivalesque” (Limón, 1994) and “Beyond Culture: Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference” (Gupta and Ferguson, 1997). The three of them are instantiating practices of representation that embrace listening to the subaltern, appreciate the resistance embedded in Mexican jokes, and realize the consequences of global interconnectedness for the ethnographer. I will try to briefly comment on the interesting affinity that could be traced among these developments in reflexivity and the current debates within some of the global justice movements [1].

./english/284.txt:69:Spivak is skeptical of Foucault and Deleuze’s attractive proposal: “a post-representationalist vocabulary hides an essentialist agenda” (1989:80) that portrays subalterns as monolithic collectivities. Spivak argues that these “first-world radical intellectuals” are separating the two constitutive meanings of representation. By focusing on the political meaning, they are attacking the “speaking for” in a superficial way since they are forgetting the economic meaning. Without developing her analysis further, I want to present Spivak as a reference point in bringing political economy into the debate of representation. The micropolitics are not separated from the macropolitics, so “theories of ideologies” based on interests are necessary to complement notions of power based on desire (1989: 74). Spivak is addressing the economic and power privileges of ‘those who represent’. The non-acknowledgement of the political economy of representation has drastic consequences: “the subaltern cannot speak” (1989:104). Spivak, in a later work, points out that this expression “means that even when the subaltern makes an effort [to the death] to speak, she is not able to be heard, and both speaking and hearing, complete the act of speech,” (1996: 272). She is calling to practice a new ‘politics’ –not merely ‘poetics’- of representation. You can only talk about somebody if you have first acknowledged that he/she/they are speaking and then that you are listening. There is no possibility of ‘representation’ -and success in overcoming essentialization- if you have not attempted to engage that person/group as a conscientious protagonist with their own voice. This discourse is found among many activists. If there is no awareness of one’s class, racial, gender, sexual, first/third world ‘situatedness’, one is in dange of falling into supremacist thinking and condescending attitudes virulently condemned by the horizontal spirit of the movement.

./english/284.txt:73:Spivak warns us that the process of smashing the epistemological dictatorship is not easy. The subalterns in their very attempt to achieve epistemological status, cannot speak due to the risk of being co-opted by the very same violent epistemic framework. The subaltern’s political-economic exploitation would thus be reinforced. This political economy of representation offers the possibility to Anthropology to be radically reflexive, taking into account economic, political and epistemological privileges.

./english/284.txt:93:The “deterritorialization” process of “a world of diaspora” has intensified the interconnectivity and shaken the fixity of clear-cut identities/spaces. The border between “here” and “there” becomes blurred, and “them” and “us” feel closer as well, erasing the gap between the anthropologist and its object. (1997:68-69). The ethnographer loses his/her distinctive position as the lonely traveler in search of the far away. The previous exclusivity of the ethnographer is overshadowed in a moment when everybody moves transnationally, including tourists, ‘terrorists’, company employees, journalists, immigrants, researchers, war prisoners, sweatshop workers…At the same time, the distances persist in terms of power relations, as Gupta and Ferguson point out “a politics of otherness persists that is not reducible to a politics of representation” (74). This emphasis on the “extratextual roots of the problem” connect to Spivak’s political economy of representation. The authors call for the politicization of differences produced as a result of process of domination, this opens the possibility to anthropologists to “changing more than our texts” (74-75).

./english/284.txt:96:A similar sense of being translocal and internationally-connected is shared by global justice movements. Part of the strength of this global network of local struggles comes from highlighting spatial thinking and developing global consciousness amongst diverse communities. Popular slogans that stress this linking are, for example: “we are everywhere” or “our resistance is as global as capital”. Gupta and Ferguson make reference to a transnational public sphere and the creation of forms of solidarity and identity based on this reconceptualization of space, and a more connected reterritorialized experience (1997: 68). The complex interrelations between the ‘globals’ and ‘locals’ has become not only an interesting intellectual exercise but a key project in developing effective political praxis. How exchanges might flow (of information, experiences, ‘technology’, etc.) along multiple axes between ‘historically inteconnected’ places, is then an important point of reflexivity for the ‘globalized and globalizing’ anthropologist.

./english/285.txt:24:academic powers that be - while arrogantly pretending otherwise - that has disqualified vast parts of established research, while our success in being activists benefiting from our research hinges on our ability never, ever, to make it subservient to our political opinions - or much worse

./english/285.txt:25:still, political and personal ambitions.

./english/285.txt:28:engages with the socio-economic evolution of people and countries/ regions in the "Third World". The discipline's first constraining element is that it is closely linked with the policies of international and national aid agencies, and with the political discourse about development, and the

./english/285.txt:40:definite tendency to descend into inquisition and intellectual/ political witch hunt, and has produced the delusion of prescribed and hence pre-scripted 'socially relevant research' - which in the end derailed both the purpose of rational enquiry and the goal of change for the better.

./english/290.txt:93:The present context is marked by the conjunction of macropolitics of security and their everyday correlate, the micropolitics of fear. At the grand scale we observe how the western governments justify the application of these securitary policies as a response to the present geopolitical configuration, strongly marked by the "terrorist threat". These macropolitics articulate themselves day to day with the micropolitics of fear, directly related to the deregularization of the labor market and the instability that this generates. Simultaneously, consumption tries to impose itself as the sole remnant of public activity and public spaces organized around other axes disappear. The securitary triumphs as a way of taking charge of bodies and filtering them into the distinct strata of our societies. In this context of uncertainty and deterritorialization, precarity is not only a characteristic of the poorest workers. Today we can speak of a precarization of existence in order to refer to a tendency that traverses all of society, which feeds and feeds upon the climate of instability and fear. Precarity functions as a blackmail, because we are susceptible to losing our jobs tomorrow even though we have indefinite contracts, because hiring, mortgages, and prices in general go up but our wages don't, because social networks are very deteriorated and the construction of community today is a complicated task, because we don't know who will care for us tomorrow... The logic of security founds itself in fear, concretizes itself in practices of containment, and generates isolation that persists in present social problems as individual ones. Practices of containment the subjects that need care and rights either into poor victims or into subjects dangerous for the rest of

./english/290.txt:100:* affective virtuousity: this is a matter of a criterion of social ecology, which breaks with the idea that care happen because someone loves you and presents it more as an ethical element that mediates every relation. This affective virtuosity has to do with empathy, with intersubjectivity, and contains an essential creative character, constitutive of life and the part of labor (nonremunerated as much as remunerated) that can not be codified. What escapes the code situates us in that which is not yet said, opens the terrain of the thinkable and livable, it is that which creates relationships. We have to necessarily take into account this affective component in order to unravel the politically radical character of care, because we know - this time without a doubt - that the affective is the effective.

./english/290.txt:106:*Everydayness: care is that continuous line that is always present, because if it were not we could not continue living, it only varies its intensity, its qualities, and its form of organization (more or less unfair, more or less ecological). We are speaking of the sustainability of life, that is to say, of everyday tasks of affective engineering that we propose to make visible and to revalorize as raw material for the political, because we do not want to think social justice without taking into account how to construct it in day to day situations.

./english/290.txt:114:And what does it mean to '"place" care in the center, and in what sense is this proposal able to become a biopolitical challenge?

./english/290.txt:116:When we speak of "placing" we refer, more exactly, to re-placing. Because care, as we understand it, already is, in fact, in the center. Even more: it always has been and will continue to be, today more than ever, the center. The center in the sense of principle and principal, as an arche of human existence and of social relations. Because care is what makes life possible (care generates life, nourishes it, makes it grow, heals it), care can make life happier (creating relations of interdependence among bodies) and more interesting (generating exchanges of all types of flows, knowledges, contagions), care can give like, definitively, some meaning.[20] But this reality, which has been silenced in the maligned area of reproduction and time and again recovered from patriarchal mystifications by feminist critiques of political economy, today comes to be blurred even in those indispensible Italian postoperaismo analyses of immaterial labor, the forms of exploitation and subversive possibilities of the new forms of labor. One of the gravest errors of this analysis resides, following Negri, in "the tendency (ä) to treat the new laboring practices in biopolitical society only in their intellectual and incorporeal aspects. The productivity of bodies and the value of affect, however, are absolutely central in this context.≤[21] As such, our proposal for placing care in the center would consist, among other things, in recovering the affective component of immaterial labor from the periphery or the silence to which it is customarily relegated in analyses of reality, and in recognizing the impossibility of separating the materiality of bodies - despite the determination of late capitalism to do just that. In returning to situate this in the place to which it corresponds and which, in fact, - we insist - it occupies.

./english/290.txt:120:Once brought into the light, the revolutionary potential of care could become the logic that governs our lives, replacing not only the securitary logic but also that other logic which underlies it: that of the imperatives of profit. Now the interests of capital determine production (what, how, and when one produces), spaces (the houses we inhabit, the design of our cities and towns, the very global geography and its borders) and times (labor and leisure, haste, the intensification of time). But, why not begin to imagine and construct an organization of the social that prioritizes persons, that attends to our sustainability - from access to health care to the right to affect - which orients toward our enrichment as human beings - from the access to knowledgedge, education, and information to the freedom to move around the world - that listens to our desires? This is the biopolitical challenge.

./english/290.txt:126:In second place, the strike appears to us as an everyday and multiple practice: there will be those who propose transforming public space, converting spaces of consumption into places of encounter and play preparing a "reclaim the streets", those who suggest organizing a work stoppage in the hospital when the work conditions don't allow the nurses to take care of themselves as they deserve, those who decide to turn off their alarm clocks, call in sick and give herself a day off as a present, and those who prefer to join others in order to say "that's enough" to the clients that refuse to wear condoms... there will be those who oppose the deportation of miners from the "refuge" centers where they work, those who dare - like the March 11th Victimsπ Association (la asociaciÛn de afectados 11M) - to bring care to political debate proposing measures and refusing utilizations of the situation by political parties, those who throw the apron out the window and ask why so much cleaning? and those who join forces in order to demand that they be cared for as quadrapalegics and not as ≥poor things≤ to be pitied, as people without economic resources and not as stupid people, as immigrants without papers and not as potential delinquents, as autonomous persons and not as institutionalized dependents. There will be those who...

./english/291.txt:149:Those are the happy battle cries of those who know the line of continuity between work and nonwork, between the public and the private, between production and reproduction: of those who know that their life is productive all the time. Time pirates have preferred not to save the lifeboat of meaningless securities and to take to the sea of uncertainties. Mariners of the interminable life have elected to navigate the heavy swells of the intense present, the tides of the desire to learn, to change, to experiment. But, though weather-beaten by the experience, they are vulnerable navigators on the constancies of terra firma: in long term projects, in the needs or desires to root oneself in vital, laboral, or political initiativies. Because, as good as uncertainty is in a certain - chosen - mode, it also is, at the same time, heterodetermined. And it is the case that, in the present, flexibility is increasingly something that benefits capital and not those who try to balance themselves on the tightrope.

./english/292.txt:21:feed practices that take root in the politically radical character of

./english/292.txt:217:not so much as as a sexual practice but rather as a political regime.

./english/292.txt:219:As a biopolitical technology aimed at the production of heteo bodies

./english/293.txt:29:Precarias a la deriva (Precarious women workers adrift) is a collective project of investigation and action. The concerns of the participants in this open project converged the 20th of June 2002, the day of the general strike called by the major unions in Spain. Some of us had already initiated a trajectory of reflection and intervention in questions of the transformations of labor (in groups such as ‘ZeroWork’ and Sex, Lies and Precariousness, or individually), others wished to begin to think through these themes. In the days before the strike we came together to brainstorm an intervention which would reflect our times, aware that the labor strike, as the culminating expression of a process of struggle, was unsatisfactory for us for three reasons: (1) for not taking up –and this is no novelty- the experience and the unjust division of domestic work and care, almost entirely done by women in the ‘non-productive’ sphere, (2) for the marginalization to which both the forms of action and the proposals of the strike condemn those in types of work –ever more common- which are generally lumped together as ‘precarious’[1] and (3) for not taking into consideration precarious, flexible, invisible or undervalued work, specifically that of women and/or migrants (sexual, domestic, assistance, etc.). As a friend recently pointed out in the context of the more recent ‘political’ strike against the war (April 10, 2003), “How do we invent new forms of striking when production fragments and dislocates itself, when it is organized in such a way that to stop working for a few hours (or even 24) does not necessarily effect the production process, and when our contract situation is so fragile that striking today means risking the possibility of working tomorrow?”

./english/293.txt:65:The debates on reproduction smattered through the whole decade of the 1970s now have new things to offer which should be brought to light.[4] From them we rescue an analysis of reproduction, of the articulation of capitalism, patriarchy, racial domination, and now more than ever, the history of colonialism, the geographical asymmetries which have produced the inequalities motivating the displacements of populations in the last decades. We also rescue the political thought and practice which thematize the body as a place of expression of domination and exploitation, and we think of the “productive body” or the “production of the (sexed) body” as a continuous process of incarnation of subjectivities which are simultaneously bound and struggling to determine the conditions of their development. We also rescue the feminist theorizing on the public and the private as a form of approaching the continuities and discontinuities between what happens in the realm of relations and homes and what happens in the more socially valued realm of employment, politics and the State. The growing integration of these realms, of employment and personal life, of education and employment, etc., as a historical process which produces differentiations and as a political criticism of the segmentations of modernity seems to us an essential path for investigation.

./english/293.txt:97:Basically it was a question of producing a cartography of the precarized work of women based on the exchange of experiences, shared reflections and the recording of all that was seen and told in an effort to materialize to the greatest extent possible –through photographs, slides, video, audio recordings and written stories- these encounters in order to communicate the results and the hypothesis which might be derived from them; a question of taking communication seriously not only as a tool for diffusion but also as a new place, a new competence and primary material for the political. Our point of departure: the occupied women’s house La Eskalera Karakola, point of arrival: unknown. It is the transit that interests us now.

./english/293.txt:133:The drift permits us to take the quotidian as a dimension of the political and as a source of resistances, privileging experience as an epistemological category. Experience, in this sense, is not a preanalytic category but a central notion in understanding the warp of daily events, and, what is more, the ways in which we give meaning to our localized and incarnated quotidian. It is not exactly an observation technique; it does not aspire to ‘reproduce’ or approach daily experience as it habitually occurs (an ideal of classical anthropology which has proved difficult to realize) but rather to produce simultaneous movements of approaching and distancing, visualizing and defamiliarizing, transit and narration. We are interested in the point of view of those that guide us –how they define and experience precariousness, how they organize themselves on a daily basis and what are their vital strategies in the short and the long term, what they hope for- without dismissing, in this process, the dialog and complicity which is produced in our encounter. There is no going back; once you get home from a drift your head keeps buzzing until the next one.

./english/293.txt:365:Power is assumed, is made one’s own; one reproduces it in a pattern altered by the addition of each node in the network. Doctors do this under the pressure placed upon them by incentive systems and pharmaceutical companies, social workers do it harassed by lack of resources, telephone operators do it motivated by a difference in status, editors do it seduced by the sheen of public image, section bosses do it pressed by the responsibility of their belonging to a big firm. Emotional blackmail, immaterial privileges, ideas of solidarity and political ideals, intangible promises, potential promotions, the opportunities that they generate, the viable projects, psychological harassment and benefits which depend upon favors and compromises constitute an emotional grammar well studied in certain spheres such as the domestic, where to go to the doctor is always a concession which compels some compensation, translated into time or work or tribute. The radically feminine relations between the lady of the house and the domestic assistant are, in this sense, a complex asymmetrical game of mutual dependencies in which they negotiate the intimacy of care and cleaning, blame, responsibility, and the total dependency which is generated by organizing a life around others’ needs.

./english/295.txt:5:David Graeber, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Yale University, and the author of Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, among many other scholarly publications. Last week Prof. Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. However, it was not Graeber's scholarship that was ever in question; rather it was his political philosophies that may have played a heavy hand in the administration's unwarranted decision. Graeber, a renowned anarchist scholar, recently spoke with CounterPuncher Joshua Frank about the fiasco. As one of our other favorite anthropologists David Price put it, this "is a ghastly look under the hood at how academic knowledge is manufactured at America's 'finest' institutions."

./english/295.txt:7:Joshua Frank: Prof. Graeber, can you talk a little bit about the circumstances leading up to Yale's decision not to renew your teaching contract? How much of their decision do you think was based on your political persuasion and activism?

./english/295.txt:21:JF: Do you think some of this extreme tension within your department, and the episode with the grad student you defended, played a role in your contract not being renewed? Or was this just an extension of an already contentious relationship? There seems to be a huge divide between some of the senior faculty and yourself. What else, if anything, have they done to show their dislike for your political persuasion - or is it more your activism that gets under their skin?

./english/295.txt:27:One thing that I've learned in academia is no one much cares what your politics are as long as you don't do anything about them. You can espouse the most radical positions imaginable, as long as you're willing to be a hypocrite about them. The moment you give any signs that you might not be a hypocrite, that you might be capable of standing on principle even when it's not politically convenient, then everything's different. And of course anarchism isn't about high theory: it's precisely the willingness to try to live by your principles.

./english/295.txt:29:JF: So are academics not supposed to be activists then? I'm thinking of Ward Churchill's recent controversy at the University of Colorado and Joseph Massad's at Columbia. Do you think your case is symptomatic of a larger problem in the US where radical professors are being targeted for their unpopular political views? Or are these just isolated incidents?

./english/298.txt:26:I think it would be good to start with the ‘big picture’, that is how the university is an open system opening onto the larger field of casualised and underpaid ‘socialised labour power’. The latter is also often referred to as ‘mass intellectuality’ or even networked intelligence (an abstract quality of social labour power as it becomes increasingly informational and communicative). I have been thinking about it in terms of the opening up of disciplinary institutions as described by Deleuze in his essay on control societies. I would like to move from the idea that the university is some kind of ivory tower or a self-enclosed institution whose current state and future concerns a minority of professionals to that of the university as part of the ‘diffuse factory’ as described in Autonomist work. I think that their description of a shift from a society where production takes place predominantly in the closed site of the factory to one where it is the whole of society that is turned into a factory – a productive site – is still very fitting politically. But in fact, the debate seems to be stuck in the false opposition between the static, sheltered ivory tower and the dynamic, democratic market.

./english/298.txt:32:MB: Anyway, it seems that the ivory tower myth persists because it has so many useful functions. For intellectuals, as well as many artists and activists, the idea of the university as a refuge often gives them the feeling of Archimedes – as if it offered a stable fulcrum from which they can move the earth itself. For others, the ivory tower image is a kind of smokescreen for the double-talk and structural transformations of neo-liberalism, a chastity belt as the Bush-Thatcher-Clinton-Blair bloc leads it to market: ‘the university is too much of an ivory tower – we have to make it practical’ on the one hand, and on the other hand: ‘because the university is so much of an ivory tower, we can trust that its profit-seeking will be benevolent.’ It signifies all the way around the political clock. Really, ‘ivory tower’ is the classic ideologeme – practically un-dislodgeable from any point of view.

./english/298.txt:63:TT: Yes, I think that it is an exciting transformation and does not necessarily need to be interpreted as a ‘dumbing down’. On the contrary, the entry of such a mass of students into higher education implies a political transformation in the role of the university – its reinvention, so to speak. The ways in which this transformation is being managed over here is totally predictable and unsurprising. On the one hand, there is a heightened level of top down, managerial, informational control – an endless, centralised output of new guidelines, targets and initiatives which introduce post-industrial management into the old guild-like university system and which in many cases is pushing teaching staff workloads to extreme limits.

./english/298.txt:96:TT: What seems to be at stake, then, is not simply the reproduction of a dominant ideology, but also more explicitly the attempt to induce and/or capture (and contain and control) a biopolitical surplus value that exceeds social reproduction, a potential to induce social transformations and produce new forms of life.

./english/298.txt:110:MB: Going back to the question you raised about the role of living knowledge labour in transformation. I completely agree with you that the biopolitical potential is there in the lived experience of the student.

./english/298.txt:128:TT: Autonomist work started with trade-union sponsored social research into the reasons for declining union membership. The result of that theoretical, empirical and political inquiry was a foregrounding of the alchemical dynamics of class composition. Union membership was declining because neither the structure of the union nor its culture could cope with a shifting class composition (such as an increasing number of young, male, unskilled immigrant workers and their refusal of the unionist work ethic). This was not simply a new contingent coming to join the old generation, but also implied a new set of social needs and desires which not only the union but factory work as such could not satisfy. The figure of this first transformation was the ‘mass worker’ – unskilled, mass factory work that challenged the industrial production machine through the rigidity of its escalating demands and its simultaneous social mobility. The mass worker demanded and caused a reinvention of politics, rather than simply joining the class struggle as a new contingent would – it gave new impetus to the struggle for life time against the ‘time-measure’ of the wage/work relation. An implication is that class is not simply about the reproduction of dialectical domination, but it is also endowed with its own historicity – a kind of dynamic potential, a surplus of value that antagonistically produces new forms of life and demands new modes of political and cultural expression.

./english/300.txt:10:It would be difficult for a political activist entering the ‘trade’ of geography to not be enthused or at least interested by the radical tradition in the discipline, more so in a time when political activism itself seems to be taking on more and more spatial thinking as a way to conceive of globalization. For different reasons though, one can often see that the development of radical geography did not necessarily develop alongside activism- often the two walk different paths. Yet at different moments and in different places, activism and the academy have ‘met’ and challenged each other in fruitful and paradigm-shifting ways.

./english/300.txt:29:The tradition of the new Geographical Expedition and the ‘Society for Human Exploration’, came about largely as a result of the contacts and initial exchanges of ideas between William Bunge and Gwendolyn Warren- the main academic representative and community representative initially (Horvath 1971; p. 74). It was an engagement between the serious problems of marginalization (of all sorts) in an African American community in Detroit, and engaged faculty and students at the University of Michigan. The idea was to combine academic and local expertise to create effective political tools, community empowerment, consciousness and provide educational opportunities (suited to greater or lesser degrees) for those inner-city communities. After several years of initial forays and exchanges-the final result became the D.G.E.I. Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute which lasted approximately from the summer of ’1969 until the fall/winter of 1970.

./english/300.txt:34:The methodology employed (or at least attempted) seemed to have been undertaken with the express goal of breaking down the wall between academy and activism mentioned earlier and creating a new political/educational beast in its wake. Different criteria were used to attempt to put these ideas into effect. For one, an Expedition had to set up a ‘base camp’/headquarters in the same neighborhood that was being ‘explored’ (Stephenson 1974; p. 98). The setting up of free classes with open access and no tuition for community members within a defined area was another important aspect. The class material was ideally to take into account the experience and knowledge of the community which made up the students, and also could count for college credit (Merrifield 1995; p. 55 and Horvath 1971).

./english/300.txt:37:Although the work done by the expeditions could result in tools or evidence for concrete political campaign work, it was made clear that the goal of the expedition was not to ‘organize’ the community. With an awareness of the implicit power relations between the ‘academic’ geographers and the ‘folk’ geographers that seems a premonition of later feminist critiques there was a clear slant against the idea of paratrooping into an place with a clear political program, even if the work was implicitly political and recognized as such (Stephenson 1974; p. 101).

./english/300.txt:42:Bunge’s thinking on this is interesting since he believed in the usefulness of academic geography (which was fairly rooted in quantitative methods) but increasingly felt “the urgent political necessity to ‘bring global problems down to earth, to the scale of people’s normal lives,’”. Academic geographers for him “tend to sever theory from practice and prioritize citing over sighting,” (Merrifield and Bunge in Merrifield 1995; p. 53). To help overcome this distance for Bunge then the geographers participating in the expedition could take a journey that would bring them into contact with a new reality. “The seven mile journey from rich suburban Detroit to its poor inner city is a trip half-way around the world in terms of infant-mortality rates,” (Merrifield 1995; p. 54).

./english/300.txt:44:While the expedition is one of the most salient examples and is cited by many who write histories of critical geography the discussion of how to bring together the production of research within the university and mobilization occurring in different sectors of society was occurring at a more general level amongst those geographers who were attempting to respond to the social reality they were embedded in. Many articles in the early editions of Antipode reflect this spirit, for example an article on ‘advocacy geography’ speaking to a wider audience on how to challenge notions of advocate-advocee and allowing communities to articulate their own ‘problems’ to be solved instead of the advocate dictating the problem. Mention of popular education and the methods of radical pedagogy of Paolo Freire come up (Campbell 1974). The experiences of critical planners attempting to work with community organizations are another example. In fact, the second issue of Antipode was dedicated to discussions of ‘radical methodology’. While that is a very broad term and included articles on bringing critical analysis into geography more generally, discussions also took place of how to make research more participatory and develop new ways of interfacing official academic work with non-official intellectual/political work.

./english/300.txt:58:Feminist geography emerged with and developed a very powerful and profound critique of research methodology, the implicit assumptions in status quo methodology and the voices or ideas silenced by it. In fact many of the developments in feminist geography represent a recapturing of the same spirit of contact between the academy and activism. Feminist geography has emphasized “politically committed, critical and place-based research,” (Nast 1994; p. 57). Feminist geographers have pointed out many dynamics of the research process that can hinder or help relationships with other groups outside the academy. Some of these ideas (among many others) include researching ‘with’ instead of ‘about’(Klein in Farrow, Moss and Shaw 1995; p. 71); the importance of keeping before oneself the power relations between researcher and researched (especially when dealing with marginalized groups) and how to address them (Farrow, Moss and Shaw 1995); the concepts and treatment of positionality, situated knowledge (Merrifield 1995), and representation (Nast 1994); also the notion that the process of research (topic selection, field work, etc.) is just as important as the finished product in terms of the dynamics and political implications of actions during each phase (Nast 1994 & Farrow, Moss and Shaw 1995).

./english/300.txt:59:With regards to breaking down the walls between academy and the ‘outside’ and challenging the researcher/researched divide feminist geographers have made some impressive contributions. Ideas on these issues come out very clearly in the symposium on feminist geographic research called ‘women in the field’ from 1994 in the Professional Geographer. The contributors pointed out that the political “objectives [of research] ideally work toward critical and liberatory ends, which are not formulated in terms of altruistically saving an exoticized ‘other,’” (Nast 1994; p. 57, italics original). Katz in the same symposium discusses how to establish a “mutual learning” process amongst participants in a research project particularly with reference on how each related to structures of power (Katz in Nast 1994). Nast and Kobayashi also discuss “…forging bonds between the academy (itself a ‘field’) and the world-at-large,” (Nast 1994; p. 57). Koboyashi explains “’[t]he political is not only personal, it is a commitment to deconstruct the barrier between the academy and the lives of the people it professes to represent,’” (Koboyashi in Nast 1994; p. 57).

./english/300.txt:65:In recent years (at least since the mid 90’s) there have been an increasing number of critiques coming from within geography of the degrees of separation between critical sectors of the discipline and activism going on ‘outside’ (see Blomely 1994 & 1995, Tickell 1995, Castree 1999 and Wills 2002). Blomely, during some early volleys on the subject discusses the disconnect he feels between his own critical geography work and his community activism: “I have been struggling with the linkages between that academic world and my community activism. The two clearly feel like they should be linked-many of my interests in one sphere fold over into the other.” He goes on to state “there seems to be a notable lack of discussion about progressive activism and the academy. In geography we used to worry about it a lot more, as witnessed by early issues of Antipode, or the examination of ‘relevance’,” (Blomely 1994; p. 383). Castree, citing work by Chouinard, Katz, Smith and Routledge on the same issue states that these articles “indicate a more general awareness of, and concern to discuss, the apparent disjuncture between our learned discourses and our seemingly impoverished political practices,” (Castree 1999; p. 81). Both authors (Blomely and Castree) mention the idea of opening spaces for mutual learning, the same sorts of ‘contact zones’, between the academy and activism. Castree in particular cites some interesting work in this regard- specifically Routledge’s work on “…a ‘third space’ of engagement, which subverts the separation of activism and the academy,” (Castree 1999 & Routledge in Castree 1999; p. 82).

./english/300.txt:74:Radical geography may be better placed now than during the sixties to engage with this apparently new round of social mobilization in a collaborative and participatory manner. While the tradition that began in the sixties had to ‘start off from scratch’ in some sense, critical geography has now had many years of development and has become a respected part of the general geographic inquiry. Feminist geographers have also elaborated complex critiques of methodology that could provide the necessary theoretical and practical considerations for the reconstruction of spaces to link the academy and activism. This could lead to a very productive engagement with the ‘here and now’ of current political praxis, that is if academic ‘path dependency’ (of the sort that authors above were complaining about).

./english/300.txt:76:Conversely geographers will need to recognize and engage with the elaborate amount of geographic thinking and analysis occurring within the movements of global resistance. A veritable potpourri of spatial practices and metaphors occupies many movement collectives’ imaginaries: the analysis of the links between the global and the local (as well as the regional and national) and the different sorts of political strategy necessary at each scale are often debated within movement groupings; the idea of ‘reclaiming’ is one that permeates much thinking within the movement-whether the reclaiming of concrete places (squatters’ movements) or reclaiming landscapes (such as Reclaim The Streets actions); the existence of groups with explicit names such as the Department of Land and Space Reclamation which is utilizing Lefebvrian thought on the creation of space and is now toying with uses of GIS to map corporate power in Chicago [2] ; the creation of ‘maps’ of networked power structures at a global scale to complement cognitive mapping practices and begin to visualize that global scale (Holmes 2003).

./english/303.txt:10:This paper explores militant ethnography as research method and political praxis based on my experience as activist and researcher among anti-corporate globalization movements in Barcelona. What is the relationship between ethnography and political action? How can we make our work relevant to those with whom we study? Militant ethnography is a politically engaged and collaborative form of participant observation carried out from within rather than outside of grassroots movements. Traditional objectivist perspectives fail to grasp the concrete logic of activist practice, leading to inadequate accounts and theoretical models of little use to activists themselves. Meanwhile, the classic figure of the organic intellectual has become increasingly undermined, as contemporary activists produce and circulate their own analyses through global communication networks in real time.

./english/303.txt:12:Militant ethnography breaks down the distinction between observer/intellectual and activist/practitioner. By organizing protests and gatherings, facilitating meetings, participating in strategic and tactical debates, and putting one’s body on the line during mass direct actions, militant ethnographers can better understand complex movement dynamics, while remaining active political subjects. Rather than generate sweeping political directives, collaboratively produced ethnographic knowledge aims to facilitate ongoing activist (self-) reflection about movement goals, tactics, strategies, and organizational forms. At the same time, there is often a marked contradiction between the moment of research and the moment of academic writing, publishing, and distribution, which involve vastly different systems of rewards and incentives. Indeed, the horizontal networking logic associated with anti-corporate globalization movements represents a serious challenge to the institutional logic of academia itself. Militant ethnographers must constantly negotiate such dilemmas, while moving back and forth among different sites of writing, teaching, and research.

./english/303.txt:20:In order to grasp the concrete logic that generates specific practices, researchers have to become active participants. With respect to social movements, this means precisely becoming engaged activists: helping to organize actions and workshops, facilitating meetings, weighing in during strategic and tactical debates, staking out political positions, and putting ones’ body on the line during mass direct actions. Simply taking on the role of “circumstantial activist” (Marcus 1995) is not sufficient; one has to build long-term relationships of mutual commitment and trust, become entangled with complex relations of power, and live the emotions associated with direct action organizing and transnational networking.

./english/303.txt:21:The kind of engaged ethnographic practice not only allows researchers to remain active political subjects, it also generates more penetrating analyses. In her study of everyday violence in a poverty-stricken shantytown in Northeastern Brazil, for example, Nancy Scheper-Hughes describes how she was coaxed into political organizing by her Bahian informants:

./english/303.txt:25:Scheper-Hughes refers to such ethically grounded and politically committed research as “militant anthropology,” which effectively captures the active and engaged style of ethnographic practice outlined here. At the same time, her subsequent call for a “barefoot anthropology” veers perilously close to paternalism, while her emphasis on “witnessing” differs from the kind of active struggle together with the women of Bom Jesus chronicled in the passage above. I thus refer to ethnographic research that is politically engaged and collaborative in nature as “militant ethnography,” which recognizes the influence of Scheper-Hughes, while distinguishing it from her somewhat differing conception. Moreover, the broader emphasis on ethnography also moves it beyond the exclusive realm of anthropology.

./english/303.txt:30:My own research explores the cultural logic and politics of transnational networking among anti-corporate globalization activists based in Barcelona. I am interested in how transnational networks like Peoples Global Action or the World Social Forum are built and constructed, and how activists generate emotional energy, while physically representing alternative networks through embodied political praxis during mass direct actions. Through militant ethnography I hope to shed light on the concrete processes through which activists can build more effective and sustainable movement networks. My specific project thus involved long-term participant observation with the international working group of the Barcelona-based Movement for Global Resistance (MRG), a broad network involving squatters, Zapatista support activists, anti-debt campaigners, radical ecologists, and other collectives. Between June 2001 and September 2002, I actively participated in action planning and coordination around mobilizations in Barcelona, Genoa, Brussels, Madrid, and Seville, while I had previously taken part in mass actions in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Prague. Moreover, since MRG was a European convener of PGA and many activists were also actively involved in the Social Forum process, I was also able to help organize PGA and WSF-related gatherings in Barcelona, Leiden, and Porto Alegre.

./english/303.txt:35:The most troubling aspect for Ricardo was that the GSF had not created any channels of communication with the militant anarchists, largely due to the Forum’s strict “non-violence” stance. The dominant political forces within the GSF- the White Overalls, NGOs, ATTAC, radical labor unions and Refundazione, the reformulated Communist party- were characterized by autonomous Marxist, socialist, and social-democratic perspectives and the use of strictly non-violent tactics. On the other hand, the guiding political ethos among decentralized grassroots networks like PGA or MRG is broadly anarchist, at least in the sense of horizontal networking and coordination among diverse autonomous groups. This networking logic also holds for the question of violence versus non-violence, where a “diversity of tactics” position generally prevails. For radical anti-capitalists like Ricardo, even those who would never engage in violent tactics, the important thing is to establish dialogue and coordination among all groups, regardless of the tactics they choose. The strict non-violence position of the GSF, along with their perceived unwillingness to communicate with groups outside their direct action guidelines, was thus perceived as a major obstacle to overcome through the mediation of the radical internationals.

./english/303.txt:39:There is insufficient time here for a full ethnographic account of the space of terror that subsequently emerged in Genoa (see Juris 2004). Rather, I want to simply point out that it was only by becoming deeply involved in the direct action planning process, which at times meant positioning myself at the center of extremely intense and sometimes personalized debates, that I could fully appreciate the complexity and logic of direct action planning and the accompanying fear, passion, and exhilaration. Moreover, it was only through engaged participation that I began to realize how diverse activist networks physically express their contrasting political visions and identities through alternative forms of direct action. Tactical debates were thus about much more than logistical coordination; they embodied the broader cultural politics that are so important to activist networking and movement building. Learning how to successfully negotiate differences on the tactical plane would thus serve to help build more sustainable networks more generally.

./english/303.txt:45:If ethnographic methods driven by political commitment and guided by a theory of practice largely break down the distinction between researcher and activist during the moment of fieldwork, the same cannot be said for the moment of writing and distribution. Indeed, one has to confront vastly different systems of standards, awards, selection, and stylistic criteria, as Paul Routledge (1996) suggests:

./english/303.txt:49:A brief anecdote from my own experience illustrates some of the stakes involved. In January 2004, some of my former MRG-based colleagues organized a conference in Barcelona to explore the theory and practice of what they called “activist research.” The idea was to create an open space for reflection and debate among those conducting research from within and for social movements, self-managed political projects, and others situated inside the academy.

./english/303.txt:52:For the militant ethnographer the issue is not so much the kind of knowledge produced, which is always practically engaged and collaborative, but rather, how is it presented, for which audience, and where is it distributed? These questions go to the very heart of the alternative network-based cultural logics and political forms more radical anti-corporate globalization activists are generating and putting into practice. Addressing them responds not only to the issue of ethical responsibility toward one’s informants, colleagues, and friends; it also sheds light on the nature of contemporary movements themselves.

./english/303.txt:54:Part of the issue has to do with how we understand the figure of the intellectual. Barker and Cox (2002) have recently explored differences between academic and movement theorizing. These authors present a critique of traditional objectivist theories that are about rather than for movements, partly explaining the differences in terms of the distinction between “academic” and “movement” intellectuals, which corresponds to Gramsci’s “traditional” and “organic” varieties: the former operate according to the interests of dominant classes, while the latter both emerge from within and work on behalf of subordinate groups. However, not only does this distinction often break down in practice, which the authors recognize; beyond that, it seems to me that the relationship between activists and intellectuals within contemporary anti-corporate globalization movements is more complex. Indeed, when nearly everyone engages in theorizing, self-publishing, and instant distribution through global networks, the traditional function of the organic intellectual- providing strategic analysis and political direction- is undermined. In this sense, militant ethnography does not offer programmatic directives about what activists should or should not do. Rather, by providing critically engaged and theoretically informed analyses generated through collective practice, militant ethnography can provide tools for ongoing activist (self-) reflection and decision-making, while remaining relevant for broader academic audiences.

./english/303.txt:58:Julia Paley (2001) enacts another kind of critically engaged ethnography, working with urban community groups in Chile to analyze power relations and political processes that shape and constrain their strategic options at particular historical junctures. In this mode, ethnography becomes a tool for collective analysis about the outside world. Finally, in his study of gender, race, religion, and grassroots Afro-Brazilian movements, John Burdick (1998) suggests that ethnography can help movements represent themselves in order to capture the social and cultural heterogeneity among mobilized and non-mobilized constituencies. Militant ethnography can thus help activists carry out their own ethnographic research.

./english/303.txt:63:1) collective reflection and visioning about movement practices, logics, and emerging cultural and political models; 2) collective analysis of broader social processes and power relations that affect strategic and tactical decision-making; and 3) collective ethnographic reflection about diverse movement networks, how they interact, and how they might better relate to broader constituencies. Each of these levels involves engaged, practice-based, and politically committed research that is carried out in horizontal collaboration with social movements. Resulting accounts involve particular interpretations of events produced with the practical and theoretical tools at the ethnographer’s disposal, and offered back to activists, scholars, and others for further reflection and debate.

./english/303.txt:67:Finally, the question remains as to the most appropriate context for practicing militant ethnography and how to distribute the results. One obvious place is the academy, which despite increasing corporate influence and institutional constraints, continues to offer a critical space for collective discussion, learning, and debate. Indeed, as Scheper-Hughes (1995) suggests, those of us within the academy can use academic writing and publishing as a form of resistance, working within the system to generate alternative politically engaged accounts. Moreover, as Routledge (1996: 400) points out, there are no “pure” or “authentic” sites, as academia and activism both “constitute fluid fields of social action that are interwoven with other activity spaces.” Routledge thus posits an alternative “third space,” “where neither site, role, or representation holds sway, where one continually subverts the other.” The more utopian alternative is suggested by the rise of multiple networks of autonomous research collectives and free university projects, including the “activist research” conference cited above. In my own case, by examining the cultural logics, networking activities, and utopian imaginaries within contemporary anti-corporate globalization movements, I hope to contribute to both academic and activist spheres through exploring, as the Argentine Colectivo Situaciones puts it, “the emerging clues of a new sociability within concrete practices (2001: 39).”

./english/303.txt:95:Routledge, Paul. 1996. Critical Geopolitics and Terrains of Resistance. Political Geography 15(6/7): 509-531.

./english/306.txt:21:The sexual uprising of Stonewall has reached its turning point in the reordering of habits, spaces and bodies under I.W.C. (Integrated World Capitalism). Once-abject sexualities are every day more presented as an inconsequential option in the free market, a prefab bedroom set (pink or blue?) with which to redecorate the lack of a intense, joyful political life free to all.

./english/306.txt:37:But we shortcircuit, we move the currents into our own bodies; we have situated ourselves. In the same way we situate ourselves in urban space. We situate ourselves and we begin to speak about precarious work, about the wild ones and the dangerous ones, the housewives and the agitators, the frigid ones, the lesbians, the transexuals, the married ones and the single ones, those that come and go, the whores and the queers and the feminists assaulting the global display-market in open revolt, subverting normalized ‘life-styles.’ We situate ourselves because the personal is political. Because we want to launch ourselves into the open insurrection of our lives. Social centers and public spaces are indespensable for the expression and the constant experimentation of a new way of ‘doing city’ which is not considered in the diplomatic agenda of the scenic capital. Because we are part of these territories we daily struggle to construct them and reorganize them. Plastic designs of the world we want. Brutal expansion of constrained desires. Legitimate reappropriation of our own living space, our city, our world…

./english/306.txt:51:La Eskalera Karakola is a women’s occupied house in a multiethnic working class neighborhood in the center of Madrid. For almost seven years, la Karakola has served as a convergeance point and a point of departure for feminist thought and political action both in the neighborhood and in the far-flung feminist networks in which we participate. An open and changing collective of women --mostly young, some not so young, of various sexualities, nationalities, class and educational backgrounds-- maintain the house as a public space for feminism, and from this space we generate projects which extend beyond the house itself.

./english/306.txt:57:Urban space hides itself in an opaque neutrality. We move through it so naturally that it is difficult for us to see that this space is not neutral at all, but rather the product of decisions and policies, struggles and demands, an accumulation of history and an incarnation of power. It forms us and transforms us; we are molded by the spaces through which we move, which structure our daily life, which determine whom we encounter and in what terms. Thus the space we live in is something intimate which constitutes our subjectivities at the same time that urban space –the streets, the squares– are “the public” par excellance, precisely that which is recognized as political.

./english/306.txt:61:Thus when we speak of a feminist space, we speak of a space in which the quotidian is recognized and approached as political, and where the political shows itself to be a daily matter: brought down from the heights, from the abstraction and the alienation, and occupied as a living space. Politicizing daily life –relationships, work, neighborhoods– requires a space from which to develop knowledge collectively, from which to reflect and think, from which to organize and experiment with new forms, new interventions.

./english/306.txt:63:Living life as political is a potent challenge, taking up the spirit of so many feminist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic struggles which have insisted in NOT accepting violence, exclusion or annoyances as “normal.” If these struggles have achieved important changes in society it is thanks to many years of fighting and wagering on the collective. But lets not fool ourselves; much remains to be done, it is not time to rest on our laurels.

./english/306.txt:67:This is not so. We must insist again: in this daily life resides the political. But that it may be recognized as such, that we may build bridges and break our isolation, that this may be conceived as the practice of citizenship, there must be spaces for us to meet each other, see each other, recognize each other. They must be public spaces open to all from which to continue the thrilling labor of forming bonds and relations between different people. They must be common spaces because the social fabric is woven upon the loom of what is shared. And the better equipped these spaces are, the less their users will be obliged to battle the walls which fall down around them.

./english/306.txt:71:And why do we insist that there be a space only for women? One response is that it brings us joy, strength and inspiration to be, create, speak among ourselves: we are comfortable, which is important in an often unfriendly world. But that’s not the whole story. We are also restless, agitated, upset. We fight our bid for collectivity, its difficulties and its limits. We stretch ourselves, mobilizing and pushing ourselves, daring ourselves to share our concerns and express our desires. We are many, different, each one with her story; the alliance is neither natural nor a priori but rather a continuous process of recognition and communication into which we launch ourselves again and again, committed to a strategy of uniting ourselves.To maintain a space where women can cultivate this kind of alliance is necessary because the general lack of meeting spaces is especially acute in the case of women, who either because we are between several precarious jobs or because we are confined to our houses and domestic tasks, because we feel threatened in the street or because we are marginalized within political organizations, have fewer opportunities to create the networks of support and solidarity which we need. It permits us a space from which to think through the multiple singularities of our lives, to create strategies and tools to politicize them, to explore new ways to express ourselves and relate to each other. A space for women is a deliberate space, a space which, because it situates itself outside the ‘normal,’ may function as a laboratory of social, political and artistic relationships.

./english/306.txt:73:In order that this space may maintain its function as a laboratory it must continue to be self-managed. This is not a social service center; there already are some of those, if not enough. Nor is it a cultural center in the strict sense. It is rather a necessary space in which each may express her fantasy and realize her project, creating political potency in the confluence of projects which this space houses.

./english/306.txt:75:Many projects of investigation and feminist study meet in the Eskalera Karakola. The house’s unique position as a self-managed feminist space makes it an important convergence point between the feminist movement and feminist thought, which in other environments are often divorced from each other by institutional policies which habitually separate the ‘active’ from the ‘reflective.’ The breadth and flexibility which self-management permits has also permitted stunningly diverse projects to arise out of the Karakola, and has permitted the cultivation of far-flung networks of feminist cooperation. The capacity to fit all these projects and concerns under one roof has produced a rich process of recombination and mutual feedback which transforms and strengthens all. This flux of knowledges, this collectivity of abilities determines the projects which arise from the Karakola and the political forms in which they take to the street.

./english/306.txt:81:Too many policies attempt to resolve the social needs of women through endowments for the family. These endowments are important and would that there be more of them, but in no way do they resolve the need which women have for our own spaces of encounter, creation and political and social organization. Not all women are mothers and all women are much more than mothers. The problems of family management are just some of the many which we face. The generalized flight of women from the traditional family and from reproduction makes ever more absurd this kind of attempt to speak of the necessities of women as if they were identical to those of reproduction in the bosom of the family. This practice constitutes an effort to deny and invisibilise the tremendous diversity among women, we who are young and old, who are singles, lesbians, transsexuals, migrants, students, precarious workers and so much more.

./english/306.txt:95:The processes which configure the space where we move, the space we inhabit, are processes saturated with power relationships. Urban space is configured through multiple transformations and political, social and economic negotiations. Urban space, then, is a non-neutral territory. In this territory the stamp of the global capitalist order is inscribed, but it is from here, also, from these micro-spaces (from the cities, from the suburbs, from the social centres, from the Karakola), where people constantly battle and renegotiate the configuration of territories. Different desires, different necessities or concerns, political practice, victories and defeats configure the terrain through which

./english/306.txt:103:The Karakola inserts itself in this complex map, and far from declaring itself outside this frame of power relationships, it extends a constant invitation to think ourselves and situate ourselves as political subjects capable of decision and action within our environment and within our own lives.

./english/306.txt:119:space hostile to women, but are inhibited from any kind of creative initiative proposing other ways to inhabit the city from our own point of view, with autonomy and as valid political interlocutors.

./english/306.txt:133:Going from a map to a territory has to do with the physical and symbolic re-appropriation of the space we inhabit. Because when we stop thinking about our environment as neutral and understand it as a space saturated with power relationships in which we participate and in which we move around, the map blurs and our capacity to draw the lines again, to deconstruct the limits, to mark the terrains that can be real settings for political action is born again.

./english/306.txt:135:Women have historically been excluded from political activities. The myth of eternal devotion to private or domestic space disappears, nevertheless, if we keep insisting that “the personal is political.” Our environment, our way of inhabiting, our daily life, cannot be understood without taking into account the power relationships which

./english/306.txt:137:configure them. The dichotomy between public and private then becomes meaningless; there is no foreign land of the social on one hand, and a private setting that would keep or lives and our bodies isolated on the other. Thus we can reorient and relocate ourselves, land ourselves and put the body in the centre. A body in which inside and outside cannot be distinguished, in which the marks of public and private use are blurred, and in which the incapacity to understand each other outside of the political framework invites us to a make a vital gamble for the constant and creative politization of our lives.

./english/306.txt:141:To us, squatting has to do with all these things: that the personal is political also means that power is inscribed within the most mundane of daily actions. It becomes a

./english/306.txt:145:In this sense self-management is essential, a point upon which we will accept no compromise. Self-management is to make this political bid real through constant experimentation, and above all, from an active and collective participation. The Karakola is an invitation to break with the relationships of passivity and patronage created and sustained by assistential institutions. It is an invitation to put into action the creative capacity of the collective, to invent real cooperation that often has inspired us to generate real political tools.

./english/306.txt:149:From here, from ‘the personal is political’, from the insertion of a new conception of the political in daily life, from self-management and the collective, from this position we insist on a new way of ‘doing city’.

./english/306.txt:151:Political processes are not unfamiliar to us; for this reason, we search for ways to promote participation in them, capacity of decision, of action, of transformation, in what we could call the formation of an active, public and participative citizenship. This is not something we can take for granted, especially as women who have seen the

./english/306.txt:173:denominated ‘precarious’. For us it is important to emphasize the impossibility of separating such analysis from the question of the feminisation of labour. This has to do with the transformation of power that goes from the social to the most intimate and vice versa (the characteristic of this power is in its production and in its reproduction, it is not a one-directional power: it’s circular, with no defined origin) which places the body as a privileged enclave from whence to read and where political practices are inscribed, such as expropriation by capitalism for its central production of qualities historically defined as ‘feminine’.

./english/306.txt:177:Questions such as care in general terms, affective capacity, relationship components, unstability, invisibility and vulnerability, have become not only the support, but also the requirement and a key in the new systems of production inaugurated global capitalism. To transit through this question of the feminisation of labour means to think that this model of work is not new but an extension of the typically feminine work that women have been doing within the ‘private sphere’. Thus we do not define precariousness as a new model of work but -being totally intertwined with life and indistinguishable from it- we’d rather talk about the precarisation of existence. Precarisation of existence and feminisation of labour are then the key points of departure in order to begin to understand the new political and social scenery and to be able to articulate general hypotheses and thereby to invent new acts of subversion and destabilisation of the imposed order.

./english/306.txt:191:political discourse.

./english/306.txt:211:This has been crucial for us: on one hand to understand the social order as an order ruled by the empire of the heterosexual, which has been essential in sustaining the logic of capitalism. An ahistoric, immobile notion of sexuality that rigidly maintains gender roles. But also and furthermore, to understand gender as a social and political construction and sex as a powerful technology through which social relationships are normalized, bonds are sowed, bodies made and institutionalised, and borders drawn. To think then about the space of subjection

./english/306.txt:217:capacity to reappropriate and reestablish its normalizing discourse in the daily practices of life by drawing new and more complex boundaries of exclusion. To us, breaking with the normalizing discourse, with the claims of ‘equality’, with the creation of stereotypes and the growing gay market, to make the sexualities that are ‘out’ visible, are prime questions in making a political criticism of the hetero-patriarchal order. Proposals such as “bollo no es una marca, es un desorden global” (“dyke is not a brand name; it’s a global disorder”) went in that direction. On the one hand, we insist on the denaturalisation of sex (including both heterosexual and homosexual identities), and on the other insist that our sexuality is irreducible to capitalism. It is always excessive, an excess that opens and makes possible the constant subversions and resistances against capitalism.

./english/306.txt:219:We also look to proposals such as that which arose from the group Rhetorics of Gender: for this year’s pride parade they planned a deconstruction of national ID cards, paying attention to other differences, not only sexual, but also in country of origin, race, ethnicity: crucial questions in the configuration of identities. In these documents, everything was changed in such a way that they showed the subjectivity of such categories and their political and social construction.

./english/306.txt:233:How can we think, then, how can we shape the feminist political contribution as a long-term proposal capable of generating, strengthening and channelling energies able to put a strain on the enclosures? How can we craft feminism as a powerful mechanism that pushes and forces the boundaries which tie and restrict us, with the aim of making room around us for broader relations and spaces of freedom? This is a main concern for the Eskalera Karakola.

./english/306.txt:235:Since we understand power not as a site but as a series of symbolic and material practices and relationships, we believe our own conception of “the personal is political” must include “the quotidian is political.” The feminist gamble, thus, must be one that brings politics into daily life as well as daily life into politics. It has to take into account flows and daily power relationships and get involved in their transformations. To conceive the places of institutional condensation of these relationships as absolute actors, as causes rather than as crystallizations engraved in the circuits where flows of power pass, can only confuse our analysis and disorientate our practices.

./english/306.txt:237:Of course these places of institutional condensation vary greatly in magnitude and in strength, from governmental institutions, supra-governmental, transnational and non-governmental organizations, to trade unions, neighbours’ associations, the academy, cultural and other pressure groups and social collectives… but what is important is our process of cartography placing them in the same multi-relational sphere more than in a hierarchical system of one or two directions. This way, the object of political transformation is the wider field of power relationships which participate in these crystallizations. When, on the other hand, one of them is placed throughout the whole political horizon, there is little space for real transformation since often proximity, concealing the complex plot existing outside our approach, allows us to only articulate a reactive politics of refusal and denial of one or several of these institutional condensations, or else a confusing and undetermined amalgam of them, which pretends to find an uncontaminated‘outside’ as a way of escaping those relational flows-, or a normalizing politic in search of an inside of some of these manifestations of crystallisation

./english/306.txt:245:their capacity, understanding capacity here as possibility and will. Conceiving, in other ways, the political transformation articulated in the refusal-as-reversion allows us to take into account not only flows and relations but also the places of their crystallisation. It allows us to recognise ourselves as saturated and pierced bodies without dismissing the possibility of their emancipation, without robbing us of the capacity to place ourselves critically and deconstructively within these relations. Reversion is an effective type of subversion, a practice which allows us to deviate the course, using our own bodies to de-contextualize them, getting them to signify in a new and change(d/ing) context, deconstructing them, linking them or breaking them, dyeing them with our own filters.

./english/306.txt:247:For us, this is a bid to make a political project of each life, a project of transformation of relationships that can only be carried out within a collective. With all its limits and its clumsiness, this is a bid for social centres in general and the Karakola in particular: a women’s project arising from the need to experience ourselves, to relate and to invent ourselves, to communicate and break the mechanisms of production of a heterosexual normalizing state, and of rigid marking of the imposed gender roles. A women’s collective that tries to constantly question the world and ourselves from a feminist stance, which means to confront the world from an analysis crossed by a complexity of structures, the very ones that comprise us, never innocent and always complex, the very ones that strain us and call us to understand ourselves as rooted in a certain sex-gender-desire system, in a certain socioeconomic class, in a certain age, in a certain ethnic group... in a certain space and time.

./english/306.txt:251:This is how we occupy and inhabit the Eskalera Karakola. Squatting as re-apropriation of physical space but also as re-apropriation of our own life-time, our own desires and emotions, our own bodies. The coherence and survival of a project like this requires us to formulate and build a feminist space as a field of connectivity which allows us to get down to the complex plot of socio-economic, ideological, cultural, and psychic hubs of domination which arise from dynamics of alienation, coercion, exploitation, prohibition and invisibility, act upon ours conforming our bodies and the space of constant transformation in which they act and are acted upon. If we all effect and are effected by practices and relationships in which we develop, if this is the only possible inside of. An effective political practice would try to negotiate the kind of practices we are going to allow with other actors. We claim this capacity of negotiation of our lives as one of the main prerogatives of the conformation --always collective-- of the political subject.

./english/306.txt:285:Which is like saying “only because we are capable of naming it.” The analysis, the investigation, must be tensed and tested by its practical articulation. Being able to imagine feminism as an ideal space of negotiated coexistence doesn’t mean we are going to be able to build this space. The transformation of our life conditions cannot remain in the world of ideas, it must be articulated in movement. Political action is configured as a laboratory of theory-practice. A laboratory where failure, defeat, are always an opportunity for improvement and astuteness.

./english/306.txt:289:When we name our bodies as political bodies, agent bodies, bodies pierced by power and producers of it, denied bodies, exploited, torn apart, technological bodies that ring the alarms of the border security lines, airports, ministries, supermarkets; bodies full of a complexity too big for the tiny sizes of the anorexic normalization of global capitalism; imperfect bodies, polluted, full of misery, subjection and contradiction, lacking of all politeness and ready to be rude and rebel. When we name our bodies as bodies full of oppositional and transforming potency, we are assuming the responsibility of not turning into a simulacrum, accepting the challenge so clearly raised in the words of another Pink operator:

./english/306.txt:307:a) The need to reactivate a sense of politics that foregrounds the personal, the quotidian, bodies and sexualities, that puts life itself at its centre. The need to think and create spaces that make these political practices feasible and that take into account the task of generating real and powerful conectivities in ways that facilitate a coming together and allow the articulation of political hypotheses.

./english/306.txt:311:c) And last, how to be able to effect real displacements and shifts in the very matrix of power. On the one hand, as we have noted, it is of crucial importance to address the issue of normalization or standarization upon which capital is nourished, visibilizing the new borders of exclusion and marginality. We need a political imagination beyond normalization, capable of articulating speech not from an alien "outside". On the other hand we must conceive ourselves as situated, colonized, power-saturated subjects able to provoke real break-downs and destabilizations from there. In this sense we know that such break-downs, with their emphasis on the body and the quotidian at the centre cannot depend upon individual, isolated choices; they require a collective prectice. The point for us is how to generate real collective agency inscribed in daily practices which do not suppress differences but are able to deconstruct and dislocate processes of normalization. How to build up a discourse that, from a sense of partiality, of the local and the fragmentary, can account for the multiple conections of the new global network.

./english/307.txt:4:What is and isn’t PUSM? PUSM is not a school for training cadres or leaders of NGOs and social movements. Although PUSM is clearly oriented towards action for social transformation, its aim is not to offer the kinds of skills and training that are usually provided by such schools. Nor is PUSM a think tank of NGOs and Social Movements. Although it highly values strategic research and reflection, PUSM rejects the distance that one and the other usually keep vis-à-vis collective action. The major objective of PUSM is to help make knowledge of alternative globalization as global as globalization itself, and, at the same time, to render actions for social transformation better known and more efficient, and its protagonists more competent and reflective. To meet its goals PUSM will have to be more international and intercultural than similar existent initiatives. Rationale The movement for an alternative globalization is a new political fact focused on the idea that the current phase of global capitalism, known as neoliberal globalization, requires new forms of resistance and new directions for social emancipation. From within this movement, made up of a large number of social movements and NGOs, new social agents and practices are emerging. They operate in an equally new framework, networking local, national, and global struggles. Present theories of social change cannot adequately deal with this political and cultural novelty. This gap between theory and practice has negative consequences both for genuinely progressive social movements and NGOs, and the universities, where theories have traditionally been produced. Both leaders and activists of social movements and NGOs feel the lack of

./english/313.txt:3:Political action and Investigation interactions Today:

./english/313.txt:12:The common will on these searchers is the political commitment, the volunteer on contribute to the social transformation process, being part of the critical network to the Neoliberal globalization. And also the criticism to any theory that want to speak from a neutral place, from where you can see everything. Instead it is recognized that the thought is always situated.

./english/313.txt:24:I’m presenting with this article some lines to draft an initial cartography of clusters of search on the interaction among politics and investigation. The perspectives, among the many others, to build this cartography is by ordering the space on the interaction among political action and investigation referring to the process of creation, if collective or individual, and the “management” of the knowledge, if by free or by property channels.

./english/313.txt:91:In a process of collective creation, it is nurtured by a spirit of experimentation and cooperation through an open network structure. The Guide is developed from a network of very politically and organizationally diverse nodes, such us, social movements internal research groups (Transform¡ Italia, Transnational Institute, Glocal a-research centre) or organizations of the social movements (ARCI, EYFA, UNITED for Intercultural Action), collaboration of academic departments/centres (The Centre for the Study of Global Governance- LSE), hackers support teams (Pangea), civil society institutions (IISH - International Institute of Social History) and a cluster of 40 advisers. With the collaborative interaction and recognition of the internal SF working groups, mentioned above.

./english/313.txt:115:There are many research groups keeping awake on the globalizations mechanism on the political institutions, like the reach develop by State Watch and also putting the accent into economical aspects, like Corporate European Observatory CEO, or the effects of the GMO, convening campaigns with the research, like ASEED, or the research for the denounce of regions doing very hard structural violence.

./english/313.txt:139:The anthropology and ethnography for its field work immersion methods of “being there” (Clifford Geerts) is more proclive to this questions as Jeffrey Juris rise “How can we make our work relevant to those with whom we study?”. Juris presents Militant ethnography as “a politically engaged and collaborative form of participant observation carried out from within rather than outside of grassroots movements”. But also consider its limitations, “If ethnographic methods driven by political commitment and guided by a theory of practice largely break down the distinction between researcher and activist during the moment of fieldwork, the same cannot be said for the moment of writing and distribution. Indeed, one has to confront vastly different systems of standards, awards, selection, and stylistic criteria”. That could explain the anger of this activist at the I International meeting on activist research and social movements: “You go back to the university and use collectively produced knowledge to earn your degrees and gain academic prestige. What’s in it for the rest of us?”.

./english/313.txt:143:As I present the text, this article tries to present the first line coming from an approach willing of mapping/cartography the fertile space crossing political and investigation, theory and practice, an initiative being develop on the “Action research network for the ESF process” framework, present and INVITE to participate on the reflection. To know better the possibility of a political action by research and to develop a useful tool to help to develop it.

./english/315.txt:9:After a navigationally-challenging half-hour suburban walk from the main Social Forum spaces of Bobigny, north-east Paris, we eventually found our allocated space for the somewhat grandly titled ‘Radical Theory Workshop’. We – Steffen Böhm (co-editor ephemera: critical dialogues on organisation, University of Essex), Jeremy Gilbert (Signs of the Times, University of East London), Jo Littler (Signs of the Times, Middlesex University), Oscar Reyes (Independent Student Media Project, University of Essex), myself (University of Warwick), Tiziana Terranova (University of East London) – registered the workshop as a response to our shared sense that the ESF in Florence last year, while electric, eclectic and inspiring, was rather low on theoretical content and reflection with regard to contemporary supranational socio-political ‘movement(s)’. Our blurb for the workshop registration process went something like this:

./english/315.txt:11:As part of the European Social Forum, we hope to establish an international network of intellectuals/activists who are interested in the relationship between new theories and new forms of politics. How can we move beyond a simplistic opposition to representative politics? How can the network form contaminate the institutional spaces in which a vast number of people live and work? How can we relate the analysis of new forms of power with experimentation in political practice?

./english/315.txt:15:But people kept on coming. By an hour later all the chairs were taken, and our intimate circle had expanded to fill the periphery of the room. The last time I took a note of numbers there were more than 50 people (37 men, 24 women), from a range of European countries (Finland, Denmark, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, the UK, Yugoslavia – apologies if I’ve missed any), as well as a few folk from North America. That such a diverse collection of individuals - streetwise activists, university lecturers, performance artists, students – should be drawn to a meeting entitled ‘Radical Theory’ in itself reflects a contemporary blurring of boundaries between the conventional (and impossible) theory/practice divide. Add to that the range of academic disciplinary backgrounds represented – cultural studies, organisation studies, anthropology, ecology, geography, media studies, political science, art, performance, critical theory (anything else?) - and we were at the brink of finding ourselves either a melting pot of radical intellectual activist potential, or an incoherent mess.

./english/315.txt:17:Given the burgeoning size of the group, and with our intentions for the workshop to provide a meeting and improvisational space rather than be directed by a clear and predetermined agenda, a decision was reached to divide into three smaller discussion groups and then report back in the larger group in the last half-hour of the workshop. Questions and issues raised related to things like: what do we mean by ‘Radical Theory’ anyway? What areas of thinking, what theoretical frames, might be included in this term? How to enhance our shared political and moral concerns through finding some sort of common discursive space when we come from such diverse intellectual and other backgrounds? How to provide a ‘learning space’ for those unconfident and perhaps distanced by the language and conceptual terms employed by theoreticians, but nevertheless drawn towards the radical potential of radical theory? And conversely, how to engender a similar space for those leaning more towards the ivory tower dimensions of academic life to encounter a perhaps more corporeal experience of activist practice?

./english/315.txt:25:How can theory also be radical political practice?

./english/315.txt:34:How does socio-political change emerge from these phenomena?

./english/315.txt:39:Going beyond ideological purism and sectarianism; political identity promotes sectarianism; a move from stating identity to affirming a practice, e.g. from ‘I am a feminist’, to ‘I advocate feminism’

./english/315.txt:44:Post-logos: a rethink/deconstruction of the categories of modernity, including the category of ‘political’

./english/315.txt:52:A substantial part of the meeting revolved around a discussion regarding the implications of naming, given that in many ways we are talking about, reflecting on, and participating in socio-political movements without names and/or with many names. This is both problematic and necessary: it is difficult to represent something that cannot be categorised, named and pinned down; by the same token, the contesting and opening up of the bounded categories fetishised by modernity is at the heart of contemporary radical resistance politics. A name implies another category with another boundary, another inside/outside border. Radical resistance politics resists fixity: embraces becoming rather than being.

./english/315.txt:54:Altermondialisation (alternative globalisation) was noted as an affirmative label. It moves away from being framed as anti- this or that, and also leaves open the space of possibilities for becoming something(s) beyond and alternative to what is being contested in the here and now. Someone also observed that it is astonishing how terms and concepts associated with radical socio-political movements have become normalised in popular discourse over such a short period of time: e.g. diversity, multiplicity, pluralism, reflexivity.

./english/315.txt:63:Appropriately, the list has been established with Riseup.net, an activist web host which operates to support ‘altermondialist’ political work and is resourced on principles of mutual aid.

./english/315.txt:65:As noted above, a number of the workshop participants felt that an opportunity existed for the establishment of a journal that linked radical theoretical work with political practice. A second evening meeting was held during the Social Forum to take this discussion further.

./english/316.txt:29:the feminisation of poverty, the commodification of women (the sex trade), the simultaneous formal endorsement and political denial of women’s and sexual rights;

./english/316.txt:112:Given their low-level of institutionalisation, and of the conventional quest for political power, both the WSF and the GJ&SM have to be considered in cultural/ communicational terms. But, whereas the movement’s protest events have been dramatically networked, and concerned with mass-media and alternative-media address, those of proposition, such as the WSF, have been rather less so, relying on such traditional (new) left forms as the panel and the demonstration. A path-breaking exception here has been, however, the anti-fundamentalist and anti-war masks, videos, posters and hoardings of the feminist Marcosur group at WSF 2 and 3 (Articulación Feminista Marcosur website).

./english/319.txt:18:The Greek political landscape, full of its own landmarks of in-fighting, can almost guarantee the potential for similar antagonisms in the next ESF (you can trust us on that; we can deliver!). Let’s save our energy for the real challenges.

./english/319.txt:29:Second, the formulation of concrete alternatives and strategies. The forum can not of course act as a representative legislative body or decide on a political programme. What it can act as, though, is a bright platform on which the very diverse analytical work that has already been done on specific issues and strategies can be brought together, debated upon and synthesised when possible. The point is not to come to a consensus; that is neither possible nor even necessary. What’s important is that ideas are analysed and contrasted, their advantages and drawbacks clearly elaborated, their starting and finishing points thoroughly mapped out. It will then be the task of the forum to publicise and champion this process and its outcomes as widely as possible, to put them out there as serious and concrete points of reference for the movement to draw on in present and future struggles. In practical terms, this could take the form of choosing a couple of issues each time and then having an opening plenary that will map out the process, a sufficient number of seminars that will tackle their different dimensions and a final plenary where the various approaches and ideas will be presented and debated upon.

./english/320.txt:13:This essay engages with the collective political agency of dominant and subaltern groups in the era of global neoliberal capitalism from three different angles. The first part of the essay outlines the basic framework of a Marxist theory of social movements, which proposes that the collective political agency of dominant and subaltern groups be conceptualized in terms of social movements from above and below. Moreover, the argument is made that the making and unmaking of historically specific social organizations of human practice are fundamentally animated by the dialectical relationship of conflictual process between the two. The second part of the essay applies this framework in a prolegomenon to an analysis of, on the one hand, the implementation, consolidation and globalization of neoliberal restructuring since the 1970s, and, on the other hand, the transition from defensive to offensive struggles against neoliberalism and the emergent crystallization of a new political subject in the form of the movement of movements. The third part discusses the role and relevance of normative ideals of rights and justice for the movement of movements, and argues for the development of an ethics of praxis through which new universalisms can be articulated. The essay concludes with some reflections on the role of activist research vis-à-vis these processes.

./english/320.txt:19:What I want to propose here is that Marxism does not have a specific theory about social movements because it is in itself a theory of social movements. To say this suggests a much broader view of social movements than that dominant in much mainstream sociology, where social movements are thought of as field-specific institutional formations– i.e. unconventional or informal political organizations and campaigns, but excluding (with a few honourable exceptions) such issues as revolutions, political parties, popular culture and consciousness, states and capital. What I propose is that the conflictual historical process of developing needs and capacities through the social organization of human practice constitutes the kernel of Marxism as a theory of social movements.

./english/320.txt:21:Rather this understanding of social movements, drawing in particular on Western Marxist theory, revolves around a view of history and the making and unmaking of social structures as the product of human practice – and, more importantly, the outcome of collective human practice, articulated in and through conflictswhich encompass the totality constituted by a given social organization of human practice, and in turn define that totality. These conflicts are not only grounded in the material activity of human beings; they also revolve around how that activity and its social organization are to develop: as Touraine (1981) puts it, these are conflicts over historicity, over the ways in which societies produce themselves. Social movements, in this perspective, are not considered as ruptures of an otherwise passive or institutionalized social/political landscape. They are the ways in which human practices are socially articulated. Thus, the following definition is appropriate:

./english/320.txt:31:We tend to think of class struggle only in relation to the proletariat, as revolutionary struggle. Marx’s point is that the possessing class itself wages a brutal and permanent struggle in defence of its own class interests, through violence and threats of violence, through exploitations both extensive and intensive, by maintaining a permanent army of the unemployed, and through thousand other means in the social, political, ideological and cultural arena. Class struggle has, in other words, not one side but two (1998: 34). Hence I propose a logical analytical distinction between social movements from above and social movements from below. In what follows, I shall elaborate briefly on the specific forms of movements from above and below respectively, and then chart their dialectical interrelationship in the making and unmaking of social organizations of human practice2.

./english/320.txt:36:An investigation of the collective agency of dominant social groups can help activists in avoiding the reification of exploitative and oppressive social structures. Hegemony is not a given or the result of “conformity”; it is the (temporary) outcome of political projects to establish and maintain a certain way of socially organizing human practice through leading, organising and articulating other people’s practice. Similarly, activists are not as alone in their struggles against hegemony as they may feel. Hegemonic projects from above invariably meet with resistance from below (albeit often fragmented and isolated), from subaltern social groups struggling against exploitation and oppression:

./english/320.txt:42:In the first case – a defensive movement from above – we are dealing with political projects that seek to counter challenges from below to the status quo. Such responses can be either accommodative or repressive. An accommodative project typically seeks to grant certain concessions to the claims emanating from social movements from below so as to appease and thus also defuse a political force that threatens to destabilize the social totality. A typical example here would be the various reforms that were implemented throughout Western Europe in the early and mid-twentieth century in response to the increasing strength of the workers' movement. This was of course a crucial dynamic in the

./english/320.txt:43:establishment of the social compact between capital and labour which underpinned the political economy of organized capitalism.

./english/320.txt:45:A repressive project typically counters insurgent political projects through violent coercion and the curbing of civil rights so as to silence or erase resistance. A typical example here would be the state terrorism unleashed by Latin American dictatorships upon campaigns for democracy in the 1970s and the 1980s. More recently, state practices have come to centre increasingly around control and discipline through legislation that curbs civil liberties and the containment of dissent through various forms of policing and surveillance. I want to emphasize here that I am not suggesting that accommodative projects

./english/320.txt:48:Accommodative projects seek to separate movements from each other and to incorporate them in selective ways (since to incorporate a movement from below more fully would be to abdicate, both in terms of power granted and in terms of interests). Activists facing such projects need above all to stress solidarity and find ways of building links with one another. In facing repressive projects, which seek to exclude movements from below, activists need to treat civil and political rights as the gains of past mvements (which they are), and understand that (whether legal or illegal) the exercise of such rights is the necessary precondition for movement action. This does not, of course, mean that movements from below should remain passive in this situation, which is after all one where movements from above are on the defensive. Rather, they need both to tackle these responses from above to their own movements and to find ways of taking the initiative further.

./english/320.txt:49:In the second case – an offensive movement from above – we are dealing withpolitical projects that seek to attack the truce lines left by past movement struggles,particularly through undermining or reversing victories won by or concessions granted tomovements from below. Through such attacks, offensive movements from below seek to extend ways of socially organizing human practice that consolidate social dominance. Privatization, for instance, can be understood as one such project, where the logic of commodification is extended into more and more spheres of people's lifeworlds, thus expanding and consolidating the power of capital over labour (see Harvey, 2004). These offensive movements from above often emerge at conjunctures where an extant social organization of human practice, in whole or in part, starts to show signs of breaking down. Such tendencies towards crisis open up a space for a contestation of the existent, and in this space, movements from above will tend to clash with movements from below and their projects for social change. An example of this would be the space of contestation that emerged with the onset of the crisis of organized capitalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where the New Right emerged as an offensive social movement from above to

./english/320.txt:73:However, they do contain – in the local rationality that spawns them – a germ of transcendence. As activists “join the dots”, connecting different issues, linking up with different groups, and criticising the structures that cause their problems or frustrate their campaigns, they are starting to move beyond this field at the same time as they find their place within it. (Those who have already reached this point nevertheless have to argue their case with those who haven’t: Barker and Cox 2002). Such movement processes emerge when activists take the process of abstraction one step further and relate the particular issues around which local struggles and field-specific campaigns emerged to the logic of a social totality and articulate a politics which seeks to rupture and go beyond this totality, towards the constitution of a political project for an alternative social organization of human practice.

./english/320.txt:107:From above, a “New Right” crystallized around a political project that sought to vindicate the liberal economic doctrines of Hayek, Von Mises and Friedman that had been marginalized by the hegemony of Keynesianism (see Harvey 2003: 157; see also Holloway 1995, Bonefeld 1995, and De Angelis 2000a).

./english/320.txt:116:At the dawn of the twentieth century, the process of neoliberal restructuringhad given rise to an epochal shift towards ‘global capitalism’ characterized by ‘therise of transnational capital and the supersession of the nation-state as the axis ofworld development’ (Robinson 2003: 12; see also Robinson 2001 and 2004). The poch of global capitalism emerged through a process of ‘intensive expansion’ in which ‘those ultural and political institutions that fettered capitalism are swept aside, paving the way for the total commodification … of social life worldwide’ (Robinson 2001: 159). This process has been designated by David Harvey (2003: ch. 4) as ‘accumulation by dispossession’ – a contemporary form of ‘primitive accumulation’ where social, ecological, cultural, and intellectual “commons” are commodified ‘and brought within the capitalist logic of accumulation’ (ibid.: 146). This unfettering has altered the power relations between capital and labour:

./english/323.txt:29:by the differences of our languages, locations, political positions, and their particular

./english/323.txt:45:of new political and theoretical impulses, spoke of the kinds of feminist re-articulations that

./english/323.txt:64:Studies as they would any other academic subject, their political interest in feminism was

./english/323.txt:66:The interventions on the mailing list indeed testified to the particular political expectations

./english/323.txt:122:personal, political, descriptive or emotional on the other. Moreover, questions how such a

./english/323.txt:176:capable of aligning these too often separate realms into new intellectual and political

./english/323.txt:201:possibilities for different forms of political struggle. Another point that increasingly informs

./english/323.txt:206:articulation of political positions.

./english/323.txt:229:political”, the politics of everyday life and the politics of desire.9 It is perhaps in the

./english/325.txt:18:When the important role of the student movement and the autonomous women’s movement diminished in the 1980’s in Europe –from this time on the feminist (and gay and lesbian) movements became more and more institutionalised -, the role of the squatters movement increased. Marxist ideas disappeared and anarchists’ notions got the upper hand. Especially in the Netherlands, the government bought different squat buildings after 1982, by which the threat of eviction disappeared and all kinds of alternative cultural and political initiatives could arise (Duivenvoorden 2000). Projects, little industries and services started which form the basis of the typical squat subculture: grocery stores, bookshops, clothes shops, hairdressers, tool rentals, bike repair shops, health projects, feminist centres, galleries, music studios, free radios etc. ‘Back then it was no problem at all to live in what might be called a squatted zone for almost 24 hours a day; even on holiday you could travel to squats in other European countries’ (Kallenberg, 2001: 92-93). But by the end of the 1980s things changed. Because of new ‘anti-squat’ legislation, from this time on house owners could easily evict the squatters, and so nowadays a lot of squats exist for a few months only. Therefore it is harder to create concert halls, restaurants, shops and other provisions. Some groups choose to move into legalized squats, organizing in these their cooperative of the ‘Volkskeuken’ (People’s Kitchen, vegan food for a few euros), their squatting consulting centres, info café’s etc. Another reason why most of the workshops and other provisions quitted or chose a legal format is that the social services no longer tolerate extended unemployment, nor useful or pleasant voluntary work being done on full unemployment benefit. Squatters are idealistic but also ‘strategic’: in order to survive, they constantly have to use the possibilities the system unintentionally offers them.

./english/325.txt:20:The Dutch squatters movement was a big movement between 1976 and 1984. Squatters were large in numbers and well organized into neighbourhood groups; they had political impact and staged spectacular riots and because of that, gained a lot of media attention. The squatters’ movement disappeared as a media event after 1984 (after the eviction of their biggest building Weyers), but the (legalized) squats and networks survived and turned out to be fertile soil for other initiatives and experimental ways of life (ibid: 95). Out of the squatters’ movement sprang ‘the’ movement: a network of squats, communally owned houses, food co-ops, Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS: doing ‘work’ for each other without money), music bands, festivals, action groups, research groups, mobile kitchens, groups helping refugees etc. Within this movement, a few thousand people are nowadays on the move in Holland. Some of them out of political motives, others because they want to live their life the way they want to. They want to express and realize their desires outside of the main ideology of the market and the state, their own ways of life and living together (ibid).

./english/325.txt:22:At the end of the 1980’s when the squatters movement was declared death by the media, another important change occurred: activists in ‘the’ movement explicitly rejected the idea of one shared ideal with one common political program, one shared utopia. Yet, like Lyotard has pleaded for, the desire to create something different here and now (White, 1991) still remains. There is an ongoing discussion about the necessity of creating an alternative economy, how life can be de-economized, how you can help other people and have a good life yourself, how the street can be used for more than just traffic, also for fun, dance, laughter, social contacts and love. Using the Do-it-Yourself (DiY)-culture of the punk movement, ‘the’ movement shows that everyone can make music, records, make ‘zines. Just do it. There are enough places to live in; you only have to occupy them. Today’s movement is relatively open and because of that it also lacks the pressure for uniformity what was characteristic of the squatters movement (also of the women’s and gay movements) before. In their network of friendships the contemporary squatters undermine the prevailing relations of production, society, politics, family, the body and sex. You can’t locate ‘the’ movement permanently, but it manifests itself in the occupation of public spaces that they temporarily give the meaning of non-commercialized meeting places. Lacking a single clear goal or program, we see a multitude of struggles.

./english/325.txt:24:As said, in the eighties the squatters’ movement not only became ‘the’ movement by the involvement of all kinds of networks, also a fierce feminist struggle took place. ‘In no other movement feminism has played such a big role as in the squatters movement’ (Huijsman, 1989, p. 221). Feminist activists organised themselves in autonomous women’s groups within the squatters’ movement; at the same time they criticized the male squatters continuously for their attitude and behaviour. ‘In the squatters’ movement the men in particular are changed by the feminist women’ (ibid, p. 250). In the journals of the squatters’ movement much was written about feminism, but the regular media didn’t give attention to this aspect of the movement. Therefore only a few people know that half of the squatters have been and are women. Like in feminism, in the squatters’ movement the slogan ‘the personal is political’ became central and also the notion ‘politics start in daily life’ (Kallenberg 2001, Van Tricht 1995). In this way the alternative, but mostly male squatters’ culture changed in a culture that was more open for other experiences in daily life.

./english/325.txt:25:In the eighties the squatters’ movement had some active lesbian and gay groups too. Because the unconventional way of life and dressing of the squatters, in the movement to dress in all kinds of gender bending clothes was never a problem, or boys with make-up and girls with bold heads. In the 1990’s these gay groups seemed to have disappeared, replaced by queers. But this didn’t happen before the end of the 1990s. One interviewed squatter-queer told the researcher Van Ree (2004): ‘For a long time sexuality wasn’t a hot discussed item in the squatters’ movement, but nowadays it is. (..) We queers are the needed colour for the scene. Now the word queer is on the lips of everybody, but in the years before sexuality was considered in a more conservative way. Last year I was involved in radicalizing Dutch sexual minorities by organizing special parties. Othes have the idea that this isn’t political enough and organize something for people on a more philosophical queer levell’. And another squatter told: ‘Queer is an effort to make the struggle more playful’ (ibid).

./english/325.txt:32:There are similarities and differences between queer theory and the queer movement. Both are developed from gay theoretical and political priorities, are inclusive in scope, incorporating not only gays and lesbians, but also bisexuals, transsexuals, transgenders and, indeed, anyone or anything not one hundred percent conventionally heterosexual. However, whereas queer theory seeks to destabilize all identities, queer politics often becomes an affirmation of identity, mobilized for strategic purposes. Queer identity is thus provisional and contingent, defined in relation to the heterosexual presumptions it seeks to unsettle. ‘Those who knowingly occupy a marginal location, who assume a de-essentialized identity that is purely positional in character, are properly speaking not gay but queer (Jackson, 2003: 70). This emphasis on de-essentializing identities shows already that queer theory (and for a part queer practices) hinges on some important aspects of postmodernism (Turner 2000: 30). In queer theory and movement common beliefs and traditional theories about gender and sexuality are contested and considered as constructions that can be deconstructed. Queer theory is oppositional to all binary categories (female-male, gay-straight) and wants to change the fixed character of these categories.

./english/325.txt:37:Yet, nowadays a big international queer movement exists (just as the feminist movement hasn’t died when it criticized the fixed female identity). However, it took years before the gay and lesbian movement could accept transsexuals, transgenders and drag queens etc. in their movement; they were largely treated as embarrassments in their “legitimate” fight for tolerance, acceptance and equal rights. Aaron Devor and Nicholas Matte (2004) give a clear description of this struggle in the United States from the 1970s till the 2000s. In particular in the lesbian and feminist movement hotly contested battles have taken place over the question of whether or not male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals are women for the purposes of inclusion in women-only organizations. ‘Transgendered and transsexed people have posed the greatest challenges to gender definitions at a historical moment when women in general, and lesbians in particular, have begun only recently to feel that they exist as political players in their own right’ (Devor/Matte, 2004: 181). Many lesbian-feminist organizations insisted on a definition of womanhood that leaves no room for women who were born male. For example at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, a five-day women-only event run every year since 1976, from 1991 on till 2003 trans-women tried to be allowed into the festival and set up an informational and protest ‘Camp Trans’ outside the gates of the festival. Eventually the organizers of the festival bowed to the pressure and said that anyone self-defined as a ‘womyn-born-womyn’ would be allowed into the festival.

./english/325.txt:41:However, although the struggle for rights remains important, I think the importance of queer theory and -movement is that it wants more. Like Foucault states: ‘Human rights regarding sexuality .. are not solved now, still I think we have to go a step further: the creation of new forms of life, relationships, friendships in society, art, culture and so on, through our sexual, ethical and political choices. Not only do we have to defend ourselves, not only affirm ourselves as an identity but as a creative force’ (Foucault 1989/1996: 383). You can see this ‘more’ already in the slogan on T-shirts of queers: ‘Queer, the privilege to imagine more’. Perhaps you can say, as Gwen van Husen does (2004:13) that the aim of queer theory is to queer (the whole) culture. She concludes after her small research of the people visiting the Queeruption festival in Amsterdam (June 1-7, 2004), however, that the queer scene limits itself to (their own) queer culture and is unwilling to queer mainstream society. I will elaborate on this.

./english/325.txt:56:3) A close connection to the anarchist squatters’ movement. Van Husen was surprised to see how the two scenes, at least in Amsterdam, do overlap, although not all queers are part of the squatters’ subculture and not all squatters identify themselves as queer. Some queers told her they ended up in the squat scene through their taste of music, or by frequenting squat parties (for these parties see also the end of part 1 of this paper). Others explained this link through political affiliation; for them, being queer automatically means having a radical left political orientation because political right denies them their existence. And other queers stated that the personal freedom within the anarchist movement made it into the one scene where queers could express themselves. As I told in part I of this paper, in the end of the eighties the squatters’ movement expanded their ideals and became ‘the’ movement, criticizing all kinds of abuses in society (see also Poldervaart, 2004: 127). According to Van Husen both queer and the anarchist movement are cultures of resistance; they share the same rejection of sexism, racism and other inequalities in mainstream culture. The DiY (Do it Yourself) aspect in Queeruption comes directly from anarchistic ideals and some queers told her that anyone unwilling to participate in DiY wasn’t welcome in Queeruption.

./english/325.txt:83:-the rejection of ‘collective identities’ because identity is considered as a process of creating and maintaining borders (between women and men, gays and hetero’s, black and white people etc.) and could encourage group conformity (Heckert 2002). The ideal is not to strive for one identity but for many identities. The concept of identity is changed into affinity (McDonald 2002). The most important thing is not to be something together, but to do something together, not where you come from, to which group you belong, but what your aim is (Holloway 2002). In this way they criticize the existing intentional communities, because in general most of these ‘communes’ don’t make much of a conscious effort to reach out to people who don’t share their political and/or counter-cultural views. Unlike these kinds of communities alterglobalists plea for ‘breaking out of the ghetto, to take up the challenge of putting into practice the importance of diversity, sacrificing the security, predictability and simplicity that come from relatively closed and homogeneous collective identities (Abramsky 2001: 554, my print in italics). Their ‘free places’ they see as alternative political and socio-economic spaces with room for differences and without precise boundaries and identities.

./english/325.txt:85:-personal change; politics starts in daily life. The rejection of collective identities doesn’t mean that identities are not important any longer. Is does matter whether you are a woman, a coloured person, homo or lesbian, what economic situation you have. Although the feminist slogan ‘the personal is political’ is used in the alterglobalization movement and DiY is described as ‘personal’ politics (Kingsnorth 2003: 327), till for a short time ago not so much attention is given to feminism and the gay-queer movement. Only some alterglobalist men recognize feminism as their forerunner: ‘The feminist movement tried to show us new insights and practices but we have generally managed to ignore them’ (de Marcellus, 2003: 6). But by the emphasis on personal politics, things are changing: ‘Self-criticism and personal change are not apolitical – refusing to be what the system requires you to be is a profound and powerful form of direct action’ (Subbuswamy and Patel 2001: 543). However, the activists recognize that they too are influenced by ‘the system’: ‘we have to eliminate all forms of oppression and domination within our own circles’ (Abramsky 2001: 562). Therefore they emphasis: politics starts in daily life.

./english/331.txt:13:A theoretical examination of ethical principles underlying key perspectives on economic globalisation is used to justify an approach to teaching the subject as an ethical issue. In the light of this, theories of moral development and approaches to moral education are considered and related to statutory requirements on teaching political issues and the guidelines of the Crick Report (1998). A developmental approach to teaching strategies is suggested. Practical issues in teaching a unit of work on economic globalisation are discussed, and implications for professional development are outlined. Recommendations are made for further research in this area.

./english/331.txt:19:3.Relate theory to practice through the recommendations of Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools: the final report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship (the Crick Report, 1998) for teaching controversial and political issues, with reference to personal observations and evaluation.

./english/331.txt:29:The aim and purpose of citizenship education is clearly stated in the Crick Report and it includes the phrase "to cultivate awareness and concern for world affairs and global issues'" (para.6.6). In addition it is stated that education should prepare children to deal with "controversies of adult life… knowledgeably, sensibly, tolerantly and morally" (para.10.1). The strategies recommended for achieving this within the constraints of the Education Act (1996) involve presentation of a balanced range of views, teaching pupils to recognise bias and critically evaluate evidence, and an emphasis on the development of good reasoning skills. The Education Act prohibits the promotion of partisan political views in schools.

./english/331.txt:33:Economic globalisation is a controversial and emotive issue. It raises questions of environmental responsibility, democracy and power, equality and justice, which are not value free, and I believe that the ethical context of economic processes should be taken into account when teaching pupils. I recognise that this position is inherently political, and necessitates extreme caution. It is, however, in line with Professor David Hargreaves' view:

./english/331.txt:34:"Active citizens are as political as they are moral; moral sensibility derives in part from political understanding; political apathy spawns moral apathy."

./english/331.txt:45:The process of economic globalisation has causes and consequences rooted in the inter-related economic, political, social and environmental spheres. Current debate addresses complex relationships between all of these factors. It is not my intention here to analyse these issues in depth, but to focus on the moral values that underpin key perspectives.

./english/331.txt:46:Three broad perspectives have predominated. On the 'right' the main features of the argument tend to be economic and political. On the 'left' the arguments concentrate on the social and environmental impact of the prevailing economic climate. A third perspective loosely aligned with 'third way' politics integrates aspects of both. I will identify how the debate is currently evolving beyond these perspectives in the search for practical solutions.

./english/331.txt:60:Wade (2001) points to an increasing polarisation between 'zones' of peace and turmoil, resulting in a large mass of economically excluded and angry young people. These "see migration to the wealthy zone as their only salvation, and a few are driven to redemptive terrorism directed at the symbolic centres of the powerful". He argues a strong case for the World Bank to change its view that rising inequality need not be negative: it does not account for political instabilities fuelled by inequality, and "this point holds even without any reference to notions of justice, fairness and common humanity".

./english/331.txt:76:Europe has mature and stable economies built on a long history of social democracy. Hutton argues that beneath European political values lies a conception of religion and morality that is crucially different to the evangelical, personalised Protestant morality of US conservatism: it is reconciled with the twin forces of reason and science to underpin an ‘infrastructure of justice’ (2002:45). In Europe, morality in the public sphere is about fairness and cannot be reduced merely to a function of personal choice.

./english/331.txt:78:In Britain, poised in no-man’s land between Europe and the US, New Labour has swept aside political opposition with a potent and pragmatic mix of social justice, personal morality and market place rhetoric.

./english/331.txt:87:Every week high profile left-wing writers (George Monbiot, Noam Chomsky, Mark Thomas, John Pilger to name a few) comment on the activities of corporate bullies and their partners in crime, corrupt politicians. Landmark publications have fuelled the anti-capitalist fire: Naomi Klein's No Logo was the book that united frustrated protestors into a global movement. Websites such as CorpWatch, Globalise Resistance and IndyMedia disseminate information and propaganda, and mobilise support - not just from rich kids in rich countries, but increasingly diverse groups from developing countries too. Each and every recent meeting of the World Economic Forum, WTO, IMF, World Bank, G8, in Davos, Seattle, Prague, Genoa, New York; environmental summits in Rio and Johannesburg, has had a contingent of protestors challenging the neo-liberal status quo. The left is still there, and it rejects both the conservative and the Third Way’s claim to the moral high ground. To the secular left, morality is compassion and justice on a global, humanitarian scale that transcends religious, ethnic or geo-political boundaries:

./english/331.txt:120:If economic globalisation is a moral issue, but cannot be separated from an increasingly political ideology, we are left with a dilemma.

./english/331.txt:121:Should we teach it as a controversial political issue and avoid the transmission of personal bias but risk accusations of moral relativism? Is it possible in any case to be truly neutral?

./english/331.txt:126:While it is tempting to suggest that one’s own viewpoint and moral values are the correct way forward, these will always be culturally determined and informed by some kind of political philosophy. It is clear, for example, from my discussion of ethics underpinning key perspectives on economic globalisation that I am no political conservative. Indoctrination is politically undesirable and is prohibited by law in schools. It is also ineffective as a means of fostering moral development.

./english/331.txt:138:"The Education Act 1996 aims to ensure that children are not presented by their teachers with only one side of political or controversial issues. Section 406 of the Act requires (schools) to forbid the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in schools"

./english/331.txt:224:Specifically, for example, pupils will learn about globalisation in a general sense at key stage 3 and already be familiar with key concepts by year 11. Abstract concepts such as human rights will have been revisited in different ways and through different topics at a more concrete level. This is bound to have an impact on attainment. Although this cohort will have had some opportunities to develop critical thinking skills in other subjects; their experience in dealing with abstract ethical principles, and their knowledge of the social and political world around them is extremely limited. This has implications for:

./english/331.txt:239:My awareness of political and ethical issues in economic globalisation is much more balanced: rather than an emotive prejudice against all things ‘capitalist’ based on the propaganda of the protest movement, I now have a solid base of theory and evidence to support this aversion!

./english/331.txt:241:I am much more aware of the political implications of my approach towards controversial issues, and understand how I can take practical steps to ensure that I comply with statutory requirements.

./english/331.txt:254:2.Critical analysis of the issues through the use of case studies, hypothetical moral dilemmas, or political perspectives as appropriate to the level of reasoning displayed by pupils; and a flexibility in approach to reflect the levels at which pupils are reasoning.

./english/332.txt:30:We think the emergence of the Anti-imperialist Space and Assembly at Athens ESF was a step towards this. The question is, will the forces that launched it, continue to take such steps? We believe that it is these forces and other left organization, political parties or trade unions like COBAS, who have already mobilised against the Prodi-government, have to unite on a the basis of joint initiatives and mobilisations against imperialism, racism and capitalism.

./english/333.txt:29:The estimate of her landholdings, which have immense political, legal and economic implications appear in Kevin Cahill’s book Who Owns the World, published by Mainstream on Nov 2nd.

./english/333.txt:55:This is a breathtaking tome of huge political, economic and social importance. It will revolutionise our understanding of our planet, its history and its land.

./english/336.txt:4:cwg) expresses his concern about the drawing out of the political crisis,

./english/336.txt:28:endless spitfulness for power, exacerbated political clashes between

./english/336.txt:62:We expect from the political elite to act at the interest of the country, in

./english/337.txt:15:First of all, we would like to stress the fact that we consider the ESF process to be one of the most important and indispensable spaces for European networking activities. The ESF process supports the building of a European space for « social movements ». In this space, our collective actors can exchange knowledge and weave links in order to elaborate alternatives to the neoliberal agenda. This space is also a privileged tool – not the only one - to build common mobilizations (G8, European Summit for 2007…). It stimulates the convergence of diversity. This process is clearly enriching for all of us (at least, for those of us who can directly take part in this process). There's hardly any other space that is capable of bringing together so many heterogeneous political actors, and without the ESF process political discussions would continue to be restricted either in an exclusively national framework or in the rather formal networks of traditional political parties, unions, large NGOs and their international co-operation.

./english/337.txt:17:The fourth ESF took place in Athens. From our point of view, this Forum was a good one: well organised, it has shown that the end of the « traditional » big plenaries (let’s say big meetings) had a positive effect on the event. This battle was useful. Another one has to be led : how to deal with the presence of political parties ? At this stage, the situation is still a caricature. We will come back later to this crucial point. Among the positive points of this Forum, we would like to underline the fact that the European issues and economic and social ones seem to be increasingly debated in the different activities.

./english/337.txt:35:A lot of debates, badly prepared, are still repeating themselves, sometimes with the same speakers. The Forum suffers from these juxtapositions of political positions well known by everybody. Debates should help to go past well known positions.

./english/337.txt:54:• A very tedious characteristic of the EPA is the missing agenda agreed upon beforehand. This would ideally allow to start the necessary discussions on local or national levels prior to the EPA and to feed the results back into the ESF process. A political document (attached below) was discussed and adopted during an EPA working group meeting in Brussels (15-16 January 2005). This document integrates several proposals regarding the preparation of EPAs. We should commit to using and updating it.

./english/337.txt:56:• Also problematic is the reluctance against the use of sophisticated technical tools supporting the ESF process. Before the ESF in Athens for example, the ESF Internet Team had, during countless hours, prepared a quite powerful Website to facilitate the coordination process (which included a web-forum supporting political or technical discussions). Apart from this, we also have a mailing list. Unfortunately these tools have not been used as a help for political discussions. As a consequence, the EPA has to carry the whole burden of all political discussions. This makes the ESF far more complicated than it would need to be if it had a proper agenda and completed some first discussions beforehand. In addition, this absence almost enforces the construction of a small and informal circle where discussing political topics is made easier.

./english/337.txt:58:• In Athens we saw the confirmation of the high influence and visibility of political parties, which is a clear breach of The Charter of Porto Alegre. Moreover, this situation could - even in the short term - drastically reduce the scope of potential participating groups or individuals, and ultimately prevent the needed extension of the basis for a future ESF. We urgently need to discuss the place of political parties within the process of the Forum. We obviously know that the question of the relationship between social movements and political parties is different from one country to another, from one tradition to another. We also know that a political party can use a social movement as a « showcase ». Nevertheless, we propose to open a calm and constructive discussion on this sensitive point, in order to find adapted solutions for the future, solutions inspired by the principles of the Charter of Porto Alegre.

./english/337.txt:87:A reminder of the function of the solidarity fund: its priority is to enable, whenever possible, delegates from South and Eastern collective groups and organisations, working on the dynamics of Social Forums in their respective countries, to take part in EPAs and the ESF. As a tool, it belongs to the EPA which has political responsibility and management over it. It is exclusively funded by the contribution of EPA participating member organisations (50 € per organisation), or by donations from organisations.

./english/339.txt:6:3.The great participation in the seminars showed that a lot of discussions were particularly interesting and, apart from the activists, a wider public was motivated to attend. These discussions did not only touch upon important social matters but they were distinguished by the wealth of their ideas. It was the first time that such a mass process of political dialogue had ever been held in Greece.

./english/339.txt:9:6.The national particularities and the current political occurence in each country were again underestimated when the time had come for the European mobilisations. Neither the Forum in his totality, nor the individual networks can function ignoring the fact that a European mobilisation cannot be organised with an administrative decision from above without a prior consultation process in a national level.

./english/342.txt:3: Some of the objectives that the European Assembly had put forward for the social and geographical enlargement of the forums were met in the 4th ESF. In more detail, the mass participation of —more than 2,0001— activists from the countries of the former Eastern Europe and from Turkey, the social profile of the participants from the above-mentioned countries (members of social and political organizations, ecological movements and workers’ associations, feminists, unemployed, people who experienced the Forum for the first time), as well as the “average age” of the delegations prove that the Forum might not only concern westerners, “citizens of the world” with the financial means to travel and to intervene, but also socially, politically and culturally wider groups. This orientation was given great importance by the overall political framework, which was the axis of the forum —although its building process was not always “peaceful”—, a framework that functioned as a beacon for the planning of the Program group, the Logistics group and the Finance’s group. To make a long story short, the decision to organize a Forum, that would be cheap, independent from state authorities, pluralist and open, with the aim to enlarge the participation in the movements formed the political point of the 4th ESF.

./english/342.txt:7:1.Solidarity Fund (S.F.). The Solidarity fund motivated all those people who wished to participate but were unable to do so, either because they lacked the financial means or because they could not find the necessary funds. There were no criteria (political or of any other kind) for the financial support of delegations and individuals, who wished to be included in the solidarity fund. Every person who asked us to cover the expenses —either full or by half— of their transport, accommodation (in hotels or in other spaces) and free feeding within the Forum was included in the S.F. Furthermore, there was provision for free feeding and accommodation for those people who arrived at the forum and were not included in the delegations or in those who had already registered. The total ammount that was allocated to these delegations was 69,280 euros (Eastern/ Central European countries) and about 20,000 euros to the participants from the Middle East. Undoubtedly, the undertaking of the S.F. has a long way to go. It is crucial to investigate and to systematize the raising of resources, not only in view of a ESF; such a practice should be the constant concern of a movement, avoiding though the financial involvement of state. Moreover, it is worthwhile to find ways to make the S.F. widely known so that not only those who have participated in the Forum process know about it. Finally, through the process of exchange and mingling with our companions it would be advisable to transfer the message that the “western organizing committees” are not committees of the “financially robust”, but of ordinary activists against the neo-liberal globalization.

./english/342.txt:8:2.Meetings in the countries of Eastern Europe, Turkey and Middle East. The organizations of ESF meetings and events with the collaboration of the local forums or other movements in the above-mentioned countries, apart from the political and personal benefits that provided to those who participated, are major and decisive steps towards the relative success of the following: a. The connection of the local resistances with the European mobilizations against neo-liberal globalization. b. The essential political dialogue and the effort to lay out common political initiatives among countries that have followed different paces and courses of integration in E.U. and among movements with different political traditions. Of course, such an effort of compatibility and accord in a political level seems extremely difficult even to the movements of “Western Europe”.

./english/342.txt:10:The experience of organizing the 4th ESF —and particularly our effort to issue visas for those coming from the above-mentioned countries— once more gave us the chance to underline that that the policy against “illegal immigration” and the so-called “terrorism” is present in our everyday lives and gives a hard time to those who wish to participate in a Forum. Specifically, in many occasions the applicants were asked to: a. prove that they are members of societies, b. submit documents that proved that they do not intend to immigrate (especially to those who came from the countries of the former Eastern Europe), c. to persuade the consulates —by means of personal interviews— that they do not use their participation at the Forum as a pretext in order to immigrate or to ask for (in vain) political asylum. Moreoever, there were cases that the authorities refused to issue group —and free— visas.

./english/342.txt:11: As the Enlargement group, but as every other group that contributed to the organization fo the 4th ESF, we tried to resolve the matters mentioned above in the best possible way (out of the 2,000 visa applications 50 were turned down) as well as for many other things. By exercising of political pressure, and through the “other policies” that in every occasion we plan together…

./english/343.txt:42:3. Bringing together actors is a process designed to end the isolation many struggles face, to build forces and to better coordinate. This allows us to identify a common enemy and enumerate the different mechanisms it uses to exploit and subject. In real terms the Assembly is also a space for debate and exchanging views on the international situation, on relations with political parties and left-wing governments, on the nature of and dialogue with the various resistance movements. By doing so we can define joint working approaches, agreements, agendas, calendars and joint campaigns, while at the same time respecting movements' independence. This type of process has to respect the rhythm of the various collective actors, for fear of paralysis and the alienation of grassroots militants. It is also necessary to draw up our own agenda separate from the agenda of capitalist institutions.

./english/343.txt:50:- to prepare the WSF in Nairobi. In particular with regard to the agenda for the fourth day dedicated to campaigns. The assembly of social movements should allow the consolidation of the campaigns and movements and should plan the fundamental political points to be debated.

./english/344.txt:35:I would have considered taking the two-hour train journey >from The Hague to try to solve this puzzle. But I was apparently fortunate in being thousands of air miles from Brussels, base of both major centres involved, whilst writing this piece. For it is in Latin America that there has been most interest in the merger – at least at regional level. This may be because of a recent rise in labour and other social protest in Latin America. Or because it is here that the WCL has a certain presence. It is in the sub-continent, in any case, that there has been expressed most concern about the political content of the merger, the autonomy it will allow at regional level and its implications at the national one. This I found in a slim collection produced by a regional consultative labour council (Consejo Consultivo Laboral Andino 2005) and published by the Peruvian labour NGO, PLADES. It consists of 13 short contributions, from union leaders and specialists, national, regional and international, and from a wide range of tendencies, including the Communist. It is available in both print and digital form, and provides a model which regrettably does not exist at the international level or in languages other than Spanish.

./english/347.txt:14:That Athens was much more radical, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist did not please everyone. Also the lifting of the ban on political parties was contested. Athens also saw the emergence of an organised opposition to the dominance of reformists and their hangers-on - an Anti-imperialist Space.

./english/347.txt:22:Most of the organisations at the ESF saw the main problems of the ESF as “lack of efficiency and transparency”. Of course, we are far from denying this. But behind these criticisms lies a political struggle, as a speaker of the L5I pointed out.

./english/347.txt:24:Whilst there has been a real increase in struggles over the past year or so, the ESF and the EPA have failed to either fully reflect this or have an impact back upon these struggles. It is not a question whether or not political parties are welcome as such, but what they stand for – for resistance to the attacks on workers and the oppressed or for carrying out neoliberal austerity measures and imperialist interventions. How can we ignore the fact that parties like RC in Italy are now actively pursuing the latter course? Nor can we ignore the fact that parties like PCF in France or the PDS –Left Party in Germany are heading in this direction. To be silent on these issues is the biggest “lack of transparency imaginable. The problem of the ESF therefore is not that it is “too radical” as Attac had claimed, but because it was and is not “radical, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist” enough.

./english/347.txt:42:Here one could see, the real existing balance of forces in the EPAs and ESFs on show. The whole question of transparency is used to avoid political conflict and bore people to death with vacuous debates on “method”. So an open “preparatory meeting” for the next Preparatory Assembly will take place in January. It will decide the exact date and venue of the EPA. This will meet again at the end of March 2007 to decide on the location of the next European Social Forum. The three candidates for holding its are Austria, Denmark-Sweden and Portugal.

./english/347.txt:47:It also included different political trajectories – a large part representing petit-bourgeois forces (the NGOs, populists and libertarians) or reformist forces, i.e. bourgeois politics, but from organisations socially rooted in the working class (like trade unions and reformist parties. The latter were impelled towards the anti-capitalist youth after Seattle in 1999 by the resolute march rightwards to full-blown neoliberalism by the big reformist parties – the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, the German Special Democrats.

./english/348.txt:7:From 4 to 7 May 2006, the 4th ESF proved to be a pole of debate and struggle with mass participation. It was a space that expressed the radical anti-US, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-globalization sentiments of the big majority of the participants. Particularly the mass and combative demonstration of Saturday 6 May confirmed, from political point of view, that the Athens 4th ESF had the most radical character compared to the previous ones except maybe Florence.

./english/348.txt:10:Also we think that the Anti-imperialist Space played a decisive role in the progressive, radical and militant "color" of the 4thESF and of the demonstration. The Anti-imperialist Space regrouped, on the basis of a militant line of joint action, dozens of progressive mass organizations, liberation movements and revolutionary parties from more than 20 countries. Despite the existing technical problems and the considerable financial constraints - we had the assistance of the Organization Committee to solve many of them - the Anti-imperialist Space has successfully coordinated our joint intervention (for the first time in a Forum) and "colored" the 4th ESF with its internationalist, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist presence and political line. Almost all the different movements and organizations that took part in the Anti-imperialist Space have expressed their satisfaction and their will to continue this form of coordination and joint action as an Anti-imperialist Network in the framework of the ESF.

./english/348.txt:15:Also we condemn the continuous repression of the democratic and progressive voices, organizations and mass media around Europe. Per example, in Turkey, the imprisonment of Ibrahim Cicek, chief editor, and Sedat Senoglu, chief coordinator, and the rest journalists of “Atilim” newspaper, and of the members of other progressive institutes and trade-unions. We want to support the political prisoners in death fast against the F-Type prisons and isolation as Sevgi Saymaz, the lawyer Belic Asci who is making death fast since 215 days in solidarity to the political prisoners, as also Gulcan Goruroglu. In the Basque Country, the Spanish and French states continue the repression, banning demonstrations, exercising macro-trials and continuing the criminal policy against the political prisoners.

./english/356.txt:30:don’t find the way of building alternatives locally in a global political

./english/359.txt:22:Moreover, by all evidence, the forums worldwide cause even disagreeing activists to congregate, to hear one another, to develop new ties, and to take seriously economic, political, gender, race, culture, ecology, globalization, and international goals and strategies. Some local forums excellently generate shared program and actions among subsets of participants. But even short of that, by at least enhancing solidarity and enlarging vision, all the local forums powerfully aid movements.

./english/359.txt:109:(11) Mandate that the forums at every level, including the WSF, welcome people from diverse constituencies using the forums and their processes to make contacts and to develop ties that can in turn yield national, regional, or even international networks or movements of movements which do share sufficiently their political aspirations to work closely together, but which exist alongside rather than instead of the forum phenomenon.

./english/360.txt:22:Moreover, by all evidence, the forums worldwide cause even disagreeing activists to congregate, to hear one another, to develop new ties, and to take seriously economic, political, gender, race, culture, ecology, globalization, and international goals and strategies. Some local forums excellently generate shared program and actions among subsets of participants. But even short of that, by at least enhancing solidarity and enlarging vision, all the local forums powerfully aid movements.

./english/360.txt:109:(11) Mandate that the forums at every level, including the WSF, welcome people from diverse constituencies using the forums and their processes to make contacts and to develop ties that can in turn yield national, regional, or even international networks or movements of movements which do share sufficiently their political aspirations to work closely together, but which exist alongside rather than instead of the forum phenomenon.

./english/361.txt:6:Like most social movements anarchism is diverse. Most broadly an anarchist seeks out and identifies structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination throughout life, and tries to challenge them as conditions and the pursuit of justice permit. Anarchists work to eliminate subordination. They focus on political power, economic power, power relations among men and women, power between parents and children, power among cultural communities, power over future generations via effects on the environment, and much else as well. Of course anarchists challenge the state and the corporate rulers of the domestic and international economy, but they also challenge every other instance and manifestation of illegitimate authority.

./english/361.txt:12:Distasteful "anarchism" is the brand that dismisses political forms per se, or institutions per se, or even plain old technology per se, or that dismisses fighting for reforms per se, as if political structures, institutional arrangements, or even technological innovation, all intrinsically impose illegitimate authority, or as if relating to existing social structures to win immediate limited gains is an automatic sign of hypocrisy.

./english/361.txt:22:It shouldn't be necessary to even discuss the above addressed "bad trajectory" of anarchism and its anti political, anti-institutional, anti-technology, and anti-reform confusions. It is perfectly natural and understandable for folks first becoming sensitized to the ills of political forms, or institutions, or technologies, or first encountering reform struggles to momentarily go awry and blame the entire category of each for the ills of the worst instances of each. But if this confusion were to thereafter be addressed naturally, it would be a very temporary one. After all, without political structures, without institutions per se, and/or without technology, not to mention without progressive reforms, humanity would barely survive much less prosper and fulfill its many capacities. But, of course media and elites will take any negative trajectory of anarchism and will prop it up, portraying it as the whole of anarchism, elevating the confused and unworthy to crowd out the valuable and discredit the whole. In this context, some of the most extreme (but colorful) advocates of these counter productive viewpoints will be highlighted by media. The whole unsustainable and objectionable approach will thereby gain far more visibility than warranted by its numbers, much less by its logic or values, and, thereafter, also a certain tenacity.

./english/361.txt:24:What about the good trajectory of contemporary anarchism, less visible in the media? This seems to me to be far more uplifting and inspiring. It is the widely awakening impetus to fight on the side of the oppressed in every domain of life, from family, to culture, to state, to economy, to the now very visible international arena of "globalization," and to do so in creative and courageous ways conceived to win improvements in people's lives now even while leading toward winning new institutions in the future. The good anarchism nowadays transcends a narrowness that has often in the past befallen the approach. Instead of being solely politically anti-authoritarian, as often in the old days, nowadays being an anarchist more and more implies having a gender, cultural, and an economic, as well as a politically-rooted orientation, with each aspect taken on a par with and also informing the rest. This is new, at least in my experience of anarchism, and it is useful to recall that many anarchists as little as a decade back, perhaps even more recently, would have said that anarchism addresses everything, yes, of course, but via an anti-authoritarian focus rather than by simultaneously elevating other concepts in their own right. Such past anarchists thought, whether implicitly or explicitly, that analysis from an overwhelmingly anti-authoritarian angle could explain the nuclear family better than an analysis rooted as well in kinship concepts, and could explain race or religion better than an analysis rooted as well in cultural concepts, and could explain production, consumption, and allocation better than an analysis rooted as well in economic concepts. They were wrong, and it is a great advance that many modern anarchists know this and are broadening their intellectual approach in accord so that anarchism now highlights not only the state, but also gender relations, and not only the economy but also cultural relations and ecology, sexuality, and freedom in every form it can be sought, and each not only through the sole prism of authority relations, but also informed by richer and more diverse concepts. And of course this desirable anarchism not only doesn't decry technology per se, but it becomes familiar with and employs diverse types of technology as appropriate. It not only doesn't decry institutions per se, or political forms per se, it tries to conceive new institutions and new political forms for activism and for a new society, including new ways of meeting, new ways of decision making, new ways of coordinating, and so on, most recently including revitalized affinity groups and original spokes structures. And it not only doesn’t decry reforms per se, but it struggles to define and win non-reformist reforms, attentive to people’s immediate needs and bettering people’s lives now as well as moving toward further gains, and eventually transformative gains, in the future.

./english/361.txt:28:Anarchism has historically focused on the political realm of life. But even there, even with the long history, the emerging anarchism of today's movements doesn't clarify for us what an anarchist polity could be. Assuming that societies need to fulfill adjudicative, legislative, and implementation functions in the political realm of life, and need to do this via institutions which citizens partake of and constitute, then what should these institutions be? If the bad trend is to say that we favor no political institutions but only spontaneous face to face interaction of free individuals each doing as they choose with no constraints on them, then what is the good trend’s better viewpoint? What kind of structures with what kinds of social roles and norms in an anarchist polity will accomplish political functions while also propelling values that we support?

./english/361.txt:30:It is perhaps premature to expect newly enlarging anarchism to produce from within a compelling vision of future religion, ethnic identification, or cultural community, or a future vision of kinship, sexuality, procreation, or socialization relations, or even a future vision of production, consumption, or allocation relations. But regarding attaining, implementing, and protecting against the abuse of shared political agendas, adjudicating disputes, and creating and enforcing norms of collective interaction, it seems to me that anarchism ought to be where the action is. Nonetheless, has there been any serious anarchist attempt to explain how legal disputes should be resolved? How legal adjudication should occur? How laws and political coordination should be attained? How violations and disruptions should be handled? How shared programs should be positively implemented? In other words, what are the anarchist’s full set of positive institutional alternatives to contemporary legislatures, courts, police, and diverse executive agencies? What institutions do anarchists seek that would advance solidarity, equity, participatory self-management, diversity, and whatever other life-affirming and libratory values anarchists support, while also accomplishing needed political functions?

./english/361.txt:32:Huge numbers of citizens of developed societies are not going to risk what they have, however little it may be in some cases, to pursue a goal about which they have no clarity. How often do they have to ask us what we are for before we give them some serious, sufficiently extensive, carefully thought through, and compelling answers? Offering a political vision that encompasses legislation, implementation, adjudication, and enforcement and that shows how each would be effectively accomplished in a non-authoritarian way promoting positive outcomes would not only provide our contemporary activism much-needed long-term hope, it would also inform our immediate responses to today's electoral, law-making, law enforcement, and court system, and thus many of our strategic choices. So shouldn't today's anarchist community be generating such political vision? I think it should, and I eagerly hope it will be forthcoming soon. Indeed, I suspect that until there is a widespread component of anarchism that puts forth something positive and worthy regarding political goals, the negative component decrying all political structures and even all institutions will remain highly visible and will greatly reduce potential allegiance to anarchism.

./english/361.txt:34:Some will say anarchism has more than enough vision already. Too much vision will constrain ingenuity and innovation. I reply that this is the same type mistake as dumping political structures, or all institutions, or all technology, or all reforms. The problem isn't vision per se. The problem is vision that is held and owned only by elites and that serves only elites. Public, accessible vision, political and otherwise, which truly serves the whole populace is precisely what we need.

./english/361.txt:36:So what about good anarchism’s potentials? I guess I would say that if anarchism has truly recognized the need for culture-based, economy-based, and gender-based, as well as for polity-based concepts and practice, and if anarchism can support vision originating in other movements about non-governmental social dimensions while itself providing compelling political vision, and if the anarchist community can avoid strange confusions over technology, political structures, institutions per se, and seeking to win non-reformist reforms—then I think anarchism has a whole lot going for it and could well become a main 21st century source of movement inspiration and wisdom in the effort to make our world a much better place.

./english/362.txt:18:Interview with Samir Amin, political economist and director, Third World Forum.

./english/362.txt:35:I consider these events important. I do not mean that there are no problems with them. There are many, and growing, social movements around the world. They are very different in nature, struggling either on social fronts, for the defence of labour and of the rights of the popular classes, or on political fronts for basic political rights. There are the feminist movements, ecological movements and many more. What is characteristic of the present time is that these movements are fragmented, in the sense that they are mostly national-based, or, in many cases, local-based. Most of them deal with a single issue or with a single dimension of the problem, without articulating it into an overall alternative political project.

./english/362.txt:41:Yes. As a result of these developments we have moved into a period characterised by fragmentation. There will be no alternative to the present powerful system, neo-liberal globalisation or imperialist globalisation, which is a new phase of imperialism, unless these movements come together to articulate an overall alternative. You cannot fight on a single front. Even if you are successful on that front, the success will be limited, fragile and vulnerable because things are inter-related and because, in the final analysis, we need an overall alternative in all its dimensions. The alternative vision obviously has to have an economic dimension. But the political, social, and cultural dimensions will also have to be addressed.

./english/362.txt:43:The WSF is not an organisation with a common political platform for devising strategies. But it is also not a forum that is open to everybody. It has a charter to which participating organisations must adhere. They must make it clear that they are opposed to neo-liberalism, not necessarily to capitalism. They must also be opposed to militarisation of globalisation - not necessarily imperialism, which means much more.

./english/362.txt:53:The common front did yield results. It created a space for these countries to achieve several decades of relatively high rates of economic growth. There was industrialisation and also gigantic efforts in education and in other fields. In political terms, it enabled these countries to transgress ethnic, local and national chauvinisms. The alliance among nations was based on politics, depending heavily on the countries' position against imperialism. That explains why someone like Nasser in Egypt was an ally of India, and not Pakistan. It was because India had an anti-imperialist position, unlike Pakistan. The fact that Pakistan was predominantly Muslim, like in Egypt, was not of any importance.

./english/362.txt:61:But owing to the erosion of the leaderships' support bases, these countries entered a vacuum, resulting in regression on all fronts. Afro-Asian solidarity was also eroded. This has opened the way for other patterns of pseudo-solidarities, which are very reactionary, based on ethnic or pseudo-ethnic chauvinisms or, on religious fundamentalism. Let me put it polemically: If the majority of the Indian people accept Hindutva, if the majority of people in the `Muslim' countries accept the nonsense of political Islam, there will be no change on the world scale if these are not transgressed by another vision of human solidarity.

./english/362.txt:65:There was some room for development because colonialism resulted in low levels of industrialisation in a few countries, and none at all in many others. So, there was room for industrialisation after national liberation. But as they moved along, it became costlier, in terms of cost of investment and technology. These countries also inherited social systems with very low levels of education, which offered enormous room for upward mobility for people, through education. As long as the children of the popular classes (the lower middle class and the peasantry) could move up through education - and this happened in a huge scale in India, Egypt and many other countries - the system benefited from legitimacy. Even if they were not democratic, they were seen as delivering something. Countries that had high rates of economic growth, accompanied by not-increasing levels of inequality (I do not mean socially just), and those that offered upward mobility for large sections of society, enjoyed credibility and legitimacy. Some of these countries were semi-democratic, like India. Others, like Nasserite Egypt, were not democratic at all. But they were equally legitimate and credible because they delivered. Once the system reached a point where it could not progress within the same logic and on the same basis, the political system became more corrupt and lost legitimacy. This created a vacuum, which reactionary forces started to occupy.

./english/362.txt:85:But these monopolies also need a global system to operate. The change in the nature of imperialism does not negate the importance of changes in the processes of labour and other dimensions, which need to be taken into account so that the popular classes can reinvent efficient forms of organisations. But in order to be efficient at the global political level, and in North-South relations, we have to take into account the basic fact that imperialism now operates collectively as a triad, represented by the U.S., the E.U. and Japan.

./english/362.txt:87:Does this mean that there are no contradictions among these powers? I say there are. We can see them developing, but the nature of the contradictions is different. Basically, there is no common state. And, capitalism cannot operate without a state. The claim that capitalism is ruled by markets, without a state, is complete nonsense. There is no single state, even confederal, of the North. Even Europe with its Union is built on national states, which in many cases have deep historical roots. Therefore, how is the political dimension of collective imperialism to be run? That is an unsolved question.

./english/362.txt:91:I would like to think I am right, without appearing to be arrogant. But yes, the centre of gravity has moved from inside nations to somewhere else. This has happened to all the nations - to the U.S., the European nations, and to the big and small nations of the Third World. This change is related to the size of dominant capital, which is global in scale. Since these are major decision makers, they cannot be submitted to a national logic. That creates problems. The issue was discussed at the European Social Forum, in Florence. Many people felt that a new Europe should be built. They said that a political Europe was needed, not necessarily with a unified state because, for historical reasons, there are nations with a long history of a common language and culture. Some suggested a kind of confederation. The point is that such a Europe cannot be based only on a common market; it also has to have a common political reality. Another Europe, like another Asia, is possible. This new Europe ought to be based on a social compromise between capital (because we cannot imagine the end of capital immediately) and labour and other popular classes. But I also believe we cannot achieve this other Europe without changing its relationship to the South. Europe cannot change if it continues to be a partner in the collective imperialist system.

./english/362.txt:101:You have to fight on two fronts. I am of the opinion that the crucial front is the one at the national level. Nothing will change from above. Things will change only when the balance of political forces within countries creates the possibilities for changes at the regional and even at global levels. Change has to start from inside countries. That is why the nation-state is so important.

./english/362.txt:105:I shall summarise the principles that could possibly govern another kind of global system. The first is the logic of the transition to socialism. This will combine the criterion of capitalism, that is, efficiency as measured by profitability; and, the criterion of social justice. Although the term social justice is very elastic, certain elements can be defined in concrete terms. I am sure any Indian citizen from the popular classes can tell you what he/she means by social justice. It would necessarily mean jobs, reasonable and decent wages, schools for his/her children and decent health care. That is social justice, not socialism. These are not going to be produced by the market, but these will be imposed on the market by a social policy of the state. This kind of system associates capitalistic criteria with social criteria, which will be in conflict. But the system recognises that they are conflicting and therefore must be managed without allowing the market to dominate society unilaterally. It also recognises the fact that the free play of markets creates problems for society. Therefore, society will solve the problem through the exercise of political power. If such a system obtains in several countries, then we can create the conditions for regional arrangements among them, and of changes in the global system.

./english/362.txt:111:Imperialism and cultural fundamentalism go together. Market fundamentalism needs religious fundamentalism. Why is this so? Market fundamentalism says: Subvert the state and leave it to the market at the global level to run the system. How can such a system be run? It can be done only when states are disempowered completely; and, within states, if the popular classes (the victims) are disempowered by the negation of their class identity. Moreover, the system can be run politically if the South is completely divided, with nations and nationalities hating one another. Religious fundamentalism and ethnic fundamentalism - they are similar - are perfect instruments for ruling the political system. This is the reason why they are supported - ideologically, politically, even financially - by imperialism. The U.S. has always supported Islamic fundamentalism. It has always supported the Saudi Arabian regime, just as it has always supported Pakistan and the Taliban. It continues to support such regimes even today, though they are now compelled to do this in a covert manner. In Europe it uses ethnic movements to achieve its goals, as in Yugoslavia.

./english/362.txt:115:I am a Marxist and have always been a part of the communist movement. That is not a secret. As a child, during the Second World War, I was enthused by the Soviet resistance against Nazi Germany. In those days, Egyptian society was highly politicised; even 13-14 year-old youth were quite politicised. While in elementary school, only about 20 per cent of those in my age group were non-political. The rest were distributed equally in two camps, communists and nationalists. The nationalists used to say that the main enemy of the Egyptian people was Britain; but the communists said that capitalism, operating through Britain, was the enemy. Egyptian society is not as politicised now. Many of my contemporaries were or are communists. I came from a relatively privileged family. I came from a family of the intellectual bourgeoisie, a family of doctors. My father belonged to the Waqf party, very much like the Congress party here. My mother owed allegiance to the radical socialists, the Jacobins, in France. Incidentally, my great great-grandfather was among the first republicans in Egypt, in the 1860s.

./english/363.txt:22:1. Historicising the "political economy of the working class": what's happening?

./english/363.txt:29:Lebowitz and the political economy of the working class

./english/363.txt:32:This "political economy of the working class" is not simply a history of resistance to an overpowering, and increasingly out of control (Giddens 1990), juggernaut. We are not in the world of Terminator II. For that juggernaut to continue rolling, we have to continue doing things. It is, after all, made up of our actions: capitalism, patriarchy, racism are things people do as they reproduce their everyday lives. When we think this as activists, it presents simply one more challenge: not just large-scale structures, but also everyday routines need to be resisted (Lichterman 1996). But when we think this from an understanding of ourselves as being the ordinary people who do this stuff, it gives us a remarkable potential.

./english/363.txt:36:I attempted a more historical reading of this problem when I was trying to make sense of how people lived their lives within the Dublin counter-culture (Cox 1999a). In essence, it seems that the challenge to organised capitalism comes first from below: it is, in fact, that event called for simplicity "1968" (see Fink et al. (1998) for a recent overview). Disorganisation from above, whose key dates are those of the oil crisis of the early 1970s, is then The Empire Strikes Back: ordinary people, in other words, are already actors, not simply victims, in the creation of the current situation. The Return of the Jedi, if that is what we are experiencing, is not a miraculous appearance of agency from nowhere, but an ordinary part of the political economy of the working class.

./english/363.txt:58:These movements of course represented a new kind of connection between activists remaking themselves for a new situation and ordinary people, stretching out to challenge established authorities of all kinds (state, church, science, family power, local government, etc.) As Barker and Dale observed (1997), levels of participation overall were in no way comparable to 1968. These were not, after all, revolutionary moments, even if they seemed so to some of us at the time. They were, however, remarkable moments of popular mobilisation whose effects in defining a certain kind of "social movement" as normal are necessary conditions for the current movement; and their various attempts at alliance and solidarity are theoretically and politically important markers if we want to understand where we are now (Goodwillie 1988, Antunes et al. 1990, etc.)

./english/363.txt:60:Barbara Epstein has analysed the political contributions and weaknesses of these movements in some detail (1991). Her conclusion is, I think, important: their experimentation with large-scale participatory democracy represents an important step forwards vis-୶is the authoritarian politics of the mid-century Old Left (and, it should be said, vis-୶is the cadre politics of the surrogate Old Left of the post-1969 period). At the same time, this is achieved at the cost of the kinds of theory and strategy which are needed to actually transform structural realities against determined opposition (5). The difficulty, then, is to find a way of working which both connects effectively with movement realities and is capable of winning.

./english/363.txt:108:By contrast, the legacy of the continental Sixties has been above all political. This is the case above all for (West) Germany, Italy and perhaps the Netherlands, where long histories of "pillarisation" have continued with the development of extensive "alternative scenes" (e.g. Consorzio Aaster et al. 1996, Cox 1992). This process, where political cleavage structures (Lipset and Rokkan 1967) hardened into separate and opposed institutional clusters covering everything from culture and the media through trade unions and political parties to sports clubs and youth groups, determined the development of the post-Sixties movements as well as that, earlier, of left and right, religious and secular subcultures covering all spheres of life.

./english/363.txt:110:This is in one sense a source of great strength: the alternative scenes of Hamburg or Milan, with their squats, radio stations, magazines, bookshops, pubs and all the rest of it, were in the 1990s (and in some cases at least still are) capable of head-on confrontations with the state, even if the outcome was often a foregone conclusion. In another sense, it seems to have been a source of weakness, in ghettoising new political developments within this relatively small social space and making mobilisation outside the "usual suspects" harder rather than easier.

./english/363.txt:117:In essence the point is that in such societies "the state is everything, civil society is nothing" (Gramsci 1975) - the "free spaces" of civil society within which movements can develop their political structures are radically compressed, and at a very early point of their development they must engage with the state - usually entering into relationships of clientelism and co-optation, but on occasion situations of violent opposition. It might also be argued that a similar relationship holds between attempts at cultural radicalism and the hegemonic cultural structures of such societies, notably kinship and religion, but it would be difficult to demonstrate. In any case, the net effect of the importance of the state in such societies is that it is extremely difficult to develop large-scale popular movements of any kind whose modes of organisation are independent of the state.

./english/363.txt:127:In terms of the perspective I developed at the start of this paper, "capacity-building", a key element of community politics in contemporary Ireland, is part of the "political economy of the working class" - ordinary people developing their own ability to act as subjects rather than objects through processes which are becoming part of ordinary life in working class Ireland. In particular, the valorisation of everyday skills, and the stress placed on starting from where people are, are important means of embodying this changed situation within the routines of everyday life.

./english/363.txt:243:Irish political élites at present tend to take popular consent in general for granted, even while recognising the need to maintain it in the particular in relation to local issues. The actual mechanisms of consent and hegemony are perhaps rustier than they think; but this will not become clear until it is actually put to the test on a large scale. What will "return the penny" at that point is the extent to which oppositional movements have managed to create any significant and effective alternative form of counter-hegemony.

./english/364.txt:57:The centerpiece of this year’s gathering in Porto Alegre are 26 plenary sessions over four days structured around four themes: "the production of wealth and social reproduction," "access to wealth and sustainable development," "civil society and the public arena," and "political power and ethics in the new society."

./english/365.txt:7:Many observers doubt the capacity of digital media to change the political game. The rise of a transnational activism that is aimed beyond states and directly at corporations, trade and development regimes offers a fruitful area for understanding how communication practices can help create a new politics. The Internet is implicated in the new global activism far beyond merely reducing the costs of communication, or transcending the geographical and temporal barriers associated with other communication media. Various uses of the Internet and digital media facilitate the loosely structured networks, the weak identity ties, and the patterns of issue and demonstration organizing that define a new global protest politics. Analysis of various cases shows how digital network configurations can facilitate: permanent campaigns, the growth of broad networks despite relatively weak social identity and ideology ties, transformation of individual member organizations and whole networks, and the capacity to communicate messages from desktops to television screens. The same qualities that make these communication-based politics durable also make them vulnerable to problems of control, decision-making and collective identity.

./english/365.txt:12:Networks of activists demanding greater voice in global economic, social, and environmental policies raise interesting questions about organizing political action across geographical, cultural, ideological, and issue boundaries. Protests against world development and trade policies are nothing new. For example, Rucht (1999) has documented such action in Germany dating from the 1980s. However, social justice activism in the recent period seems to me different in its global scale, networked complexity, openness to diverse political identities, and capacity to sacrifice ideological integration for pragmatic political gain (Bennett, 2003a). This vast web of global protest is also impressive in its capacity to continuously refigure itself around shifting issues, protest events, and political adversaries.

./english/365.txt:15:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 3 that activist networks are engaging politically with non-state, transnational targets such as corporations and trade regimes, and that there is growing coordination of communication and action across international activist networks (Arquilla & Ronfeldt, 2001; Gerlach, 2001; Lichbach & Almeida, 2001; Rheingold, 2002).

./english/365.txt:16:It is clear that personal digital media are important to these activists. One indicator is the expansion of a web-based communication infrastructure, marked, for example, by the growth of the Indymedia activist information network (www.indymedia.org) from one outlet to more than 100 in the three years following Seattle. Many activists cite the importance of personal digital media in creating networks and coordinating action across diverse political identities and organizations (see on-line interviews at http://www.wtohistory.org). A key issue is whether these communication practices merely reduce the costs or increase the efficiencies of political action, or whether they change the political game itself. My interest in this article is to explore some of the ways in which digital communication networks may be changing the political game in favor of resource poor players who, in many cases, are experimenting with political strategies outside of conventional national political channels such as elections and interest processes.

./english/365.txt:17:Observations reported in this article indicate that digital communication practices appear to have a variety of political effects on the growth and forms of global activism. These effects range from organizational dynamics and patterns of change, to strategic political relations between activists, opponents and spectator publics. In addition, patterns of individual participation appear to be affected by hyperlinked communication networks that enable individuals to find multiple points of entry into varieties of political action.

./english/365.txt:19:While there are many indicators that digital media have become important organizational resources in making this movement, there are also potential problems or vulnerabilities associated with these communication-based networks. For example, the ease of joining and leaving polycentric (multi-hubbed) issue networks means that it becomes difficult to control campaigns or to achieve coherent collective identity frames. In addition, organizations may face challenges to their own internal direction and goals when they employ open, collective communication processes to set agendas and organize action. Some organizations even experience internal transformation when they become important hubs in networks and must accommodate demands by other network members. These vulnerabilities are, of course, in constant creative tension with the strengths outlined above, making this movement an interesting case of large scale applications of networked communication as foundations for political organization and action. This analysis attempts to examine both strengths and vulnerabilities associated with various communication practices that make transnational activism possible.

./english/365.txt:21:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 5 amplify and economize communication in political organizations (Agre, 2001; Davis, 1999). For example, Agre (2001) argues that in most cases the Internet is subordinated to the existing routines and patterns of the institution using it, and that Internet applications merely amplify and economize areas that already define the institution. One observer has even gone so far as to assert that “the Internet is less applicable [to] the creation of new forms of democratic public spheres than [to] the support of already existing ones” (Buchstein, 1997:260; discussed by Agre, 2002). The problem with these and dozens of other “minimal effects” accounts of the Internet and politics is that they generally look at how established political institutions and organizations adapt the Internet to existing routines.

./english/365.txt:22:It is easy to see how conceptual confusion surrounds the political impact of the Internet and other digital media. When political networks are viewed at the level of constituent organizations, the implications of Internet communications can vary widely. Political organizations that are older, larger, resource-rich, and strategically linked to party and government politics may rely on Internet-based communications mostly to amplify and reduce the costs of pre-existing communication routines. On the other hand, newer, resource-poor organizations that tend to reject conventional politics may be defined in important ways by their Internet presence (Graber, Bimber, Bennett, Davis & Norris, forthcoming). In this analysis, I contend that the importance of the Internet in networks of global protest includes --but also goes well beyond – gains that can be documented for particular resource-poor organizations. For example, effects at the network level include the formation of large and flexible coalitions exhibiting the “strength of thin ties” that make those networks more adaptive and resistant to attack than

./english/365.txt:24:The implication here is not that the distributed (multi-hub, or polycentric) structure of the Internet somehow causes contemporary activists to organize in remarkably non-hierarchical, broadly distributed, and flexible networks. Digital media applications can take on a variety of forms, from closed and hierarchical, to open and broadly distributed. Preferences for the latter pattern reflect the social, personal, and political contexts in which many global activists define their mutual relationships.

./english/365.txt:30:A defining quality of the network society is that individuals are likely to form political ties through affinity networks based on repertoires of these narratives. This quality of networks contrasts sharply to the “modernist” tendency to forge social and political order through mutual identifications with leaders, ideologies and memberships in conventional social and political groups. Castells (1997) has documented how these highly individualized identity processes find creative forms of empowerment through diverse organizational capacities of the Internet. In many ways, the organizational, personal, and cultural diversity of global activism reflect what Wellman calls “networked individualism:” the ease of establishing personal links that enable people to join more diverse and more numerous political communities than they would ordinarily join in the material world (Wellman, 2000, paragraph 1.6). I explore these social and identity processes in greater detail elsewhere (Bennett, 2003b). The present analysis is focused on the ways in which identity-driven communication practices characterize and organize the politics of these activists.

./english/365.txt:32:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 8 patterns of network organization. Indeed, one of the classic accounts of such movement network organization is the SPIN model developed by Gerlach and Hine (1970). SPIN stands for Segmented, Polycephalous, Integrated, Networks. However, when Gerlach (2001) applied the SPIN model to contemporary global protest networks, he made two interesting conceptual adjustments which he passed over without the fanfare that I believe they deserve. First, he replaced the idea of polycephalous organization with polycentric order, indicating that, like earlier SPIN movements, global activist networks have many centers or hubs, but unlike their predecessors, those hubs are less likely to be defined around prominent leaders. In addition, he noted that the primary basis of movement integration and growth has shifted from ideology to more personal and fluid forms of association. In my view, these changes in the SPIN model reflect the identity processes of fragmented social systems that make electronically managed affinity networks such essential forms of political organization.

./english/365.txt:35:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 9 from governments has created a political sphere beyond normal legislative, electoral, and regulatory processes – a sphere that Beck (2000) calls sub-politics. The sub-politics of corporations and transnational economic regimes have been countered by activist sub-politics that include global demonstrations, campaigns against companies and economic development regimes, and the creation of epistemic networks to gather and publicize information on global issues (Keck and Sikkink, 1998).

./english/365.txt:36:The place of government in the activists’ political calculus clearly varies from nation to nation and from organization to organization. However, newly emerging forms of political action are being aimed beyond government nearly everywhere in the post -industrial North. These politics include creative experiments with publicly monitored labor, environmental, food, and trade standards regimes designed to hold transnational targets directly accountable to activist networks and their publics (see examples at www.globalcitizenproject.org, under labor standards, fair trade, and corporate social responsibility). These nimble campaigns aimed at corporations and transnational trade and development targets lend themselves to the repertoires of digital communication: lists and action alerts, swarming responses (e.g., denial of service attacks on corporate websites), and the continuous refiguring of web networks as campaigns shift focus and change players.

./english/365.txt:39:The emergence of a politics that is shifting away from organizational conventions such as leadership, ideology, and government processes invites a fresh theoretical perspective. The goal of this analysis is to begin explaining how webs of contentious transnational politics operate on such a large scale, particularly among groups and individuals joined by little binding leadership or ideology, and whose protests cover such diverse political issues.

./english/365.txt:45:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 12 merely reflecting or amplifying political organization. The following analyses suggest how the same communication practices that serve strategic political purposes can also operate as social organizational resources.

./english/365.txt:46:Communication as Political Strategy and Organizational Resource

./english/365.txt:47:This analysis is based on observations of various protest activities aimed at trade and development organizations and corporations. Materials developed by the research teams in these projects can be found at the Global Citizen Project (www.globalcitizenproject.org), and in the civic engagement, issue campaigns, culture jamming, and digital media sections of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, http://www.engagedcitizen.org). These studies support a number of generalizations about the Internet and activist politics, four of which are reported here. The intriguing feature of each generalization is that communication practices are hard to separate from organizational and political capabilities, suggesting personal digital communication is a foundation of this identity- driven subpolitics. The patterns of communication that both reflect and reproduce global activism are briefly summarized here and elaborated in the remainder of the article.

./english/365.txt:49:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 13 environmental NGOs, making them less centrally controlled, and more difficult to turn on and off. The networking and mobilizing capacities of these ongoing campaigns makes campaigns, themselves, political organizations that sustain activist networks in the absence of leadership by central organizations.

./english/365.txt:54:Permanent Campaigns and Political Organization

./english/365.txt:55:It is often said that we have entered the age of permanent political campaigns, whether waged by elected leaders in order to govern after they win office, or by interest groups to mobilize publics and promote their policy agendas. Campaigns increasingly do more than just communicate political messages aimed at achieving political goals. They also become long term bases of political organization in fragmenting late modern (globalizing) societies that lack the institutional coherence (e.g., strong parties, grass roots or bottom-up interest organization) to forge stable political identifications.

./english/365.txt:57:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 15 Some of these campaigns resemble traditional boycotts in the sense that they are run by relatively centralized organizations or coalitions, and they can be turned off when specified goals are accomplished. However, an increasingly common pattern is for whole activist networks to latch onto particularly ripe targets such as Nike or Microsoft because their heavily advertised and ubiquitous logos stick easily to lifestyle meaning systems among consumer publics. This stickiness of logos helps activists get political messages into the mass media, reaching audiences whose attention is often limited in matters of politics. Thus, unlike boycotts, many contemporary issue campaigns do not require consumer action at all; instead, the goal is to hold a corporate logo hostage in the media until shareholders or corporate managers regard the bad publicity as an independent threat to a carefully cultivated brand image.

./english/365.txt:58:Success in publicizing hard-to-communicate political messages may bring new players into campaigns even as others leave a network having declared their goals met. The influx of large and unwieldy networks of activists running through political territories once occupied in more orderly fashion by a small number of rights, environmental, consumer protection, labor and development NGOs presents an interesting strategic dilemma for movement organizing. One attraction of centrally run campaigns is the ability to stop them, which reinforces the credibility of activist organizations by rewarding the compliance of campaign targets. The attraction of decentralized campaigns is the ease of joining them and adding new charges against targets.

./english/365.txt:61:Observations of long-running campaigns suggest several hypotheses. Campaigns are likely to continue over time, and change in terms of networks and goals to the extent that: a) the target is widely recognized and newsworthy; b) the target can be connected to various lifestyle concerns (consumer protection, endangered species, environmental quality, human suffering, political corruption); c) weblogs, lists, and networked campaign sites create an epistemic community that makes the campaign a source of knowledge about credible problems, while making the target an exemplar of both problems and solutions.

./english/365.txt:67:Such networks that do not produce common ideological or issue frames allow different political perspectives to co-exist without the conflicts that such differences might create in more centralized coalitions. On most days, conservative United States Senator Orrin Hatch and consumer activist Ralph Nader would not find themselves in the same political universe. Yet they have comfortably occupied network space for years in the anti-Microsoft network. The network of opposition to Microsoft includes businesses (Sun, Oracle, Netscape and others), consumer protection organizations, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Government Accountability Project, labor organizers, and thousands of direct “hactivists” (Manheim, 2001; Bennett, 2003c). These

./english/365.txt:81:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 23 appear in demonstration organizing networks after Seattle, the organization has evolved into a confusing array of different organizations in different national contexts. To some extent, the entry of diverse players into the debt relief game (from rock stars such as Bono of U2, to nations themselves) put pressures on weak church networks to open their political and religious frames to larger networks of activists. One result is considerable instability in the Jubilee organizational system, with various name changes, new coalitions in different nations, and most recently, very different political frames in North America and Europe. For example, the United States coalition (www.jubileeusa.org) retains more of its original religious grass roots identity and network structure, while the United Kingdom hub (www.jubilee2000uk.org) has moved so far from its religious origins that they are barely evident in its far flung international think tank and policy NGO network. Even the name of the latest incarnation of the UK organization has changed to Jubilee Research, although the URL remains the same as in the last incarnation.

./english/365.txt:89:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 25 networks helped to create successor organizations to mobilize future events. For example, the A16-2000 umbrella organization that coordinated the demonstrations at the Washington, D. C. International Monetary Fund meeting in April of 2000 opened its web site to announce a constantly changing roster of participants. The site enabled newcomers to post their own rallying messages at the top of the site (A16-2000Network\A16The Network List.htm). The user interface emphasized the political diversity of participating groups, along with an amazing number of different political reasons for opposing the IMF. The list of endorsing and participating groups (692 and still growing at the time I captured the site) was indexed by geographical location so that organizations in different locales could be viewed on the same page. Another page of the site revealed an equally diverse core group of demonstration sponsors: 50 Years is Enough, Alliance for Global Justice, Campaign for Labor Rights, Global Exchange, Mexico Solidarity Network, National Lawyers Guild, Nicaragua Network , and Witness for Peace, among others.

./english/365.txt:94:Applications of the Internet and other digital media may also affect the internal development of organizations themselves. As noted in the last section, Le Grignou and Pattou’s study of ATTAC in France (forthcoming) found that communication practices affected the political identity of the organization. They also find that the structure of the organization is affected by those communication practices:

./english/365.txt:96:Thinking about how digital networks can transform the political capacities of both nodes and collectivities raises some interesting questions about measurement. Some combination of ethnographic observation, member narratives of organizational roles, and network link mapping seems appropriate. It is clear, for example, that link maps alone are often difficult to interpret. A study of Web sites linked to by other organization sites at the time of the Seattle protests showed the official WTO site was the link leader (2129 links), followed by several protest hubs with impressive links: One World (348); Institute for Global Communications (111), Seattlewto.org, the sponsored site of the NGO coalition (92); and Corporate Watch (74), among others (Smith & Smyth, 2000). Various accounts of the Seattle protests (www.wtohistory.org; Levi & Olson, 2000) suggest that one could not easily derive the key mobilizing coalition players from these link patterns.

./english/365.txt:97:Bennett Communicating Global Activism 28 A promising approach is Van Aelst and Walgrave’s (forthcoming) analysis of organizations that received news coverage surrounding the 2001 protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Montreal. They found that the top 17 organizations mentioned in the news also maintained substantial cross communication channels on the Internet, and that most of them maintained on-line calendars for the FTAA and other protest activities. By these measures, there was a mutually engaged political action network that operated with a high degree of coordination through digital channels. What is interesting is that the underlying coherence in the digital channels linking these organizations was also reflected in mass media attention to the individual members of the networks. This suggests that digital networks have found paths to jump their communication from relatively personalized digital channels to the mass media. It is important to begin understanding these crossover communication effects of digital networks as well.

./english/365.txt:101:An interesting example of micro-to-mass media crossover in global activism began with an e-mail exchange between a culture jammer named Jonah Peretti and Nike (Peretti, 2003). Peretti visited a Nike website that promised greater consumer freedom by inviting customers to order shoes with a name or slogan of their choice on them. He submitted an order to inscribe the term “sweatshop” on his custom Nikes. Several rounds of amusing exchanges ensued in which Peretti chided the company for breaking its promise of consumer freedom. Successive rounds ended with Nike’s awkward and less automated refusals to put any of Peretti’s requests for political labels on its shoes. Peretti sent the exchange to a dozen friends, who forwarded it to their friends, and, so, the Nike-Sweatshop story spread in viral fashion, reaching an audience estimated from several hundred thousand to several million (Peretti, 2003).

./english/365.txt:109:Why has a movement that has learned to secure good publicity for particular issue campaigns and organizations not developed more effective media communication strategies for mass demonstrations? I think that the answer here returns us to the opening discussion of the social and personal context in which this activism takes place. Not only are many activists in these broadly distributed protest networks opposed to central leadership and simple collective identity frames, but they may accurately perceive that the interdependence of global politics defies the degree of simplification demanded by most mass media discourse. While issue campaign networks tend to focus on dramatic charges against familiar targets, most of the demonstration organizing networks celebrate the diversity of the movement and resist strategic communication based on core issues or identity frames. For example, Van Aelst and Walgrave (forthcoming) found at least 11 political themes that were shared by substantial portions of the network involved in the FTAA demonstrations in 2001. Thus, demonstrations may be staged mainly as reminders of the human scale, seriousness, and disruptive capacity of this movement, while issue

./english/365.txt:115:What can we conclude from weighing these strengths and vulnerabilities, and from the balance between the virtual and the material in these networks? Perhaps most importantly, it seems that the ease of creating vast webs of politics enables global activist networks to finesse difficult problems of collective identity that often impede the growth of movements. To a remarkable degree, these networks appear to have undergone scale shifts while continuing to accommodate considerable diversity in individual level political identity. Moreover, the success of networked communication strategies in many issue and demonstration campaigns seems to have produced enough innovation and learning that keep new organizations emerging despite (and because of) the chaos and dynamic change in those organizations. In order to grasp these properties of communication-based politics, it is important to resist the temptation to view this scene from the perspective of particular organizations or issues. Instead, the dynamic network becomes the unit of analysis in which all other levels (organizational, individual, political) can be analyzed most coherently.

./english/365.txt:116:The rise of distributed electronic public spheres may ultimately become the model for public information in many areas of politics, whether establishment or oppositional. It is clear that conventional news is withering from the erosion of audiences (more in commercial than in public service systems), and from the fragmentation of remaining audiences as channels multiply (Bennett 2003b). Perhaps the next step is a thoroughly personalized information system in which the boundaries of different issues and different political approaches become more permeable, enabling ordinary citizens to join

./english/365.txt:119:Agre. P. (2002) “Real-time politics: The Internet and the political process”. The Information Society. 18: 311-331.

./english/365.txt:122:Bennett, W. L. (1998) “The Uncivic Culture: Communication, Identity, and the Rise of Lifestyle Politics”. Ithiel de Sola Pool Lecture, American Political Science Association, published in P.S.: Political Science and Politics, 31 (4), pp. 41-61.

./english/365.txt:125:Bennett, W. L. (2003c) “Branded Political Communication: Lifestyle Politics, Logo Campaigns, and the Rise of Global Citizenship”. in M. Micheletti, A. Follesdal, &

./english/365.txt:132:Davis, R. (1999) The Web of Politics: The Internet's Impact on the American Political System, New York: Oxford University Press.

./english/365.txt:133:Gamson, W. (2001) “Promoting Political Engagement”. in W. L. Bennett and R. M. Entman (eds.) Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 56-74.

./english/366.txt:12:The day sent a clear message about the grassroots organizing power of the net: It enabled the antiwar movement to turn out its base quickly and cheaply, do an end run around corporate-controlled media and reach into the politically disaffected American mainstream. The coming months and years will test how deeply the new movement can tap this potential, and to what extent "nets roots" organizing will be adopted by more established political players, liberal and conservative alike.

./english/366.txt:28:The global vigils were but one of a string of Internet-enabled antiwar actions facilitated by UFPJ and MoveOn. MoveOn itself was founded well before the war, or even Bush's presidency, as an effort during Bill Clinton's impeachment to push Congress to censure the President and "move on." The petition went viral, gathering half a million signatures in a few weeks. After that, the group used its list to raise money for progressive Democrats, and by the time Bush was threatening war, MoveOn had become a well-oiled machine. The group raised millions of dollars online to run national TV spots and print ads, delivered a petition of 1 million signatures to the UN Security Council and got 200,000 people to call Washington on a single day. MoveOn facilitated leafleting efforts in cities and small towns across the country and coordinated volunteer-led accountability sessions with almost every member of Congress. None of this stopped the war, but it did help put antiwar sentiment squarely on the political map--and made the case for how powerful the net can be in mobilizing social protest.

./english/366.txt:34:A good e-mail list is not something you can buy or borrow. "Every MoveOn member comes to us with the personal endorsement of someone they trust," Pariser says. It is word-of-mouth organizing--in electronic form. E-mail is cheap, fast and easy to use, and it has made mixing the personal and the political more socially acceptable. Casually passing on a high-content message to a social acquaintance feels completely natural in a way handing someone a leaflet at a cocktail party never could.

./english/366.txt:36:This "tell a friend" phenomenon is key to how organizing happens on the net. It gives people who feel alienated from politics something valuable to contribute: their unique credibility within their particular circle of acquaintances. A small gesture to these friends can contribute to a massive multiplier effect. It is a grassroots answer to the corporate consolidation of media, which has enabled an overwhelmingly conservative punditry to give White House spin real political momentum, and the semblance of truth, simply through intensity of repetition.

./english/366.txt:42:Zack Exley, a former SEIU organizer and MoveOn's organizing director, says that the group reaches deep into politically disaffected middle-class constituencies--what he calls America's "silenced majority." Unlike the traditional left, he says, "we trust people. We don't think Americans are crazy or stupid or brainwashed or apathetic. We're not trying to drag them kicking and screaming over to our view. We know that there are millions of Americans in every community and walk of life who already know that something is terribly wrong with our country and who are as angry as we are and who are mostly just looking for a meaningful way to do something about it."

./english/366.txt:44:According to Pariser, most MoveOn members do not define themselves as activists. Rather, MoveOn is often their first step into political action--and what brings them to take that step is usually an e-mail message. "A lot of 'Take action now' e-mails feel like they were written by a focus-group e-newsletter robot," says Madeline Stanionis, who as a senior consultant for San Francisco-based Donordigital has developed scores of online advocacy campaigns. "MoveOn e-mails feel personal and fresh. They write from their hearts." The e-mails about the global vigil came directly from Pariser. His voice was strong yet level-headed. There were no ideological digressions. He got to the point early and kept it action-oriented. It was easy to trust.

./english/366.txt:56:Tim Cairl, 28, a financial consultant whose only previous political involvement had been to call his Congressperson a few times when prompted by MoveOn, put himself forward as host of the Atlanta Dean meet-up when it was first coming together. In March, forty-two Dean fans crowded together in the back room of a downtown restaurant. The group was mostly white but ranged widely in age and occupation; the majority were new to political involvement of any kind. The typical attendee--upset about the war, and curious about Dean after seeing him on TV--had browsed his campaign website, and then found her way to meetup.com. "Meetup.com gets us in the same room," Cairl says. "We have to take it from there."

./english/366.txt:68:Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Third World Majority, a digital media collective, says the racial skew to who's online further limits the usefulness of using e-mail to hash out political disputes. With only 3 percent of the world's population online, the divide is even more pronounced in international campaigns. "When you're online," she says, "a whole lot of people are not in the room." Kauffman says that UFPJ organizers, conscious of these demographics, were careful to use a mix of outreach strategies for the February 15 mobilization, distributing 1.2 million pieces of literature in six languages in every corner of New York City.

./english/366.txt:76:In the first month after MoveOn installed its meeting tool on the Dean campaign website, supporters self-organized more than a thousand local events--testament, perhaps, to the stirrings of a democratic revival, in which large swaths of disaffected Americans are finding forms of political participation that feel fulfilling, effective and connected. MoveOn's Zack Exley asks us to imagine a political landscape, five years from now, with fifty MoveOns, each tapping different political currents, with a whole new ability to mobilize grassroots power. In June, United for Peace and Justice announced plans for a protest during the Republican National Convention in August 2004. But unlike the Philadelphia demonstrations in 2000, this protest will go global. Such plans are a sign of activists' growing confidence, post-February 15, in the potentially explosive convergence of common global concerns and the wide reach of the Net.

./english/367.txt:25:In the 1967 elections, the ruling Congress Party suffered major blows, and in a number of provincial legislative assemblies it fell short of the halfway mark. But forming governments under such circumstances necessitated left-right alliances, stretching from the Jana Sangh (forerunner of the present ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP) and the right-wing Swatantra Parry to the Socialists and the Communists. Maoist pressure kept the CPI(M) out except where the Jana Sangh and the Swatantra were kept out. The CPI, in contradiction to its own erstwhile theory that the “progressive bourgeoisie” was in the Congress Party, had fewer scruples about joining coalition governments. By and large the experiences were disastrous, with each partner in the coalition pushing its own agenda. But this, and subsequent experiences of short-term governance, also shaped the consciousness of younger generations of cadres in diverse ways. While a new breed of apparatchiks came up, interested only in the realities of power—the likes of Anil Biswas, Biman Bose, and Buddhadev Bhattacharjee of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, for example—others became intensely anti-parliament. In the case of the Maoists, this was encapsulated in the slogans: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”; and “Parliament is a pigsty.”

./english/367.txt:44:New movements called forth new organizations, or breathed life into old ones. And there were inevitable conflicts, some common the world over, some specific to the Indian situation, between old mass organizations and parties, on the one hand, and the new organizations. This was to result in the formation of a new type of radical milieu. The movements stressed autonomy, identity, and participatory democracy. By autonomy they meant that the movement must be independent of state control as well as control by any other external force — including political parties. The stress on identity was a response to all overarching claims that sought to subsume distinct struggles under a hegemonic banner. This included nationalism as well as the claim that the resolution of the class struggle would solve all other issues in passing.

./english/367.txt:52:A whole series of voluntary organizations were formed at that time. Initially, these were formed by radicals who thought they would be carrying on the class struggle, the caste liberation struggle, the women’s liberation struggle, etc., through these means. So these were open and democratic organizations. However, many of these groups soon found that there was a need to organize services, to work in such a manner within civil society that some self-help could be arranged, and so on. This meant the transformation of the structure of the organization. Willy-nilly, it was now working within civil society while accepting the existing social and political framework, especially the state. It was now making demands upon the state for reforms. This did not make the movement, or those sectors of the movement, automatically reformist. But this did pose serious questions before the Marxists working within those organizations or in those movements about what they should do in order to raise within every partial movement the historic, long-term goals of struggle, and what the appropriate ways of doing that should be.

./english/367.txt:56:So there began a search for funds, which led to a transformation of many of the voluntary organizations. In many of the cases this led back to the Indian state, under the claim that the state has the constitutional duty of providing for many services to the people, so there is nothing wrong with insisting that this be done partly though these voluntary organizations. In other cases there were linkages formed with like-minded people abroad, especially in the First World, and funding often came from them. However, once this funding began, and a definite structure came into existence, new dynamics began taking over. Regular funding became, from a partial goal, the central object of the fund-receiving organization. The search for donors steadily became more indiscriminate. And eventually, this meant a softening of the political stance. This happened in ways which are not unique to India. On one hand, donors began insisting on conditions to be fulfilled, and on the other hand, they began making funds more easily available for certain types of projects rather than certain other types.

./english/367.txt:73:An attempt was made to organize a second major pole, where all would be allowed to come with their own banners and leaflets, so long as they agreed to two central slogans — opposing imperialist aggression in Iraq, and opposing warmongering by India and Pakistan. This time the effort was torpedoed by a most unlikely combination. The CPI(ML) Peoples War does not function openly as a party, but only through front organizations. It, as well as the front organization of the MCC, joined hands with the West Bengal state unit of the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements to scuttle the bid to form an inclusive bloc by arguing that neither political parties nor NGOs should form part of the alliance. Their plea to exclude parties played on the anti-party sentiment of many people, but had the ulterior motive of excluding those organizations which openly function as parties while allowing their own front groups full freedom. The National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements is of course a different type of network. It was initiated by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Campaign, one of India’s best-known pro-toiler environmentalist organizations) and it includes diverse mass organizations as well as NGOs. For the NAPM, or even for one of its units, to flatly reject working with NGOs on the ground that they are agents of imperialism, was a surprising stand, reflecting more likely the personal stand of a few leading members of the state unit. As a result, several small initiatives developed, and none could be sustained for long.

./english/367.txt:93:An ideological think tank connected to some Maoist groups in India has come out with a publication asserting that the WSF is a creation of imperialism. In a nutshell, the following is a summary of the points made by the publication entitled “The Economics and Politics of the World Social Forum: Lessons for the Struggle against ‘Globalization’” by the Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE):

./english/367.txt:97:Failing to curb this movement by open force, imperialism sought a political strategy.

./english/367.txt:117:There are two souls of the NGOs, as we discussed earlier. On one hand they represent a desire to break out of the entirely party-dominated political culture, a desire to find or create space within civil society. On the other hand they also reveal major weaknesses — not merely because they are funded organizations, but also because, as single issue organizations, overall social transformation as an idea gets diluted, and struggle for a very specific aim takes such precedence that as long as that specific goal will be advanced, they are often willing to settle happily for lobbying bourgeois politicians and capitalists. The 65,000 whom I witnessed at the European Social Forum were mostly young, mostly committed to radical social transformation. The over 20,000 who thronged to Hyderabad likewise contained many who desire real social change. The way forward consists of trying to seriously link up with their concerns and, to paraphrase the Communist Manifesto, of raising within these struggles the historic goals of the toiling people.

./english/367.txt:145:The participatory budget in Rio Grande do Sul was undoubtedly an important learning experience for the workers and others who participated in the process. It undoubtedly contributed to the participants’ understanding of economic and political questions and their desire for more control over the decisions that affect their lives. And this concept was not developed by those who would ultimately surrender meekly to the IMF. However, as long as the state apparatus remains in the hands of the capitalists, the extension of democracy to direct democracy would not be as massive a change as Novak seems to have imagined. There would be a necessary conflict between the aspirations of the toiling people assembled in the participatory budget’s discussion processes, and the demands of the IMF, of imperialism, of Brazilian big capital and the central banking system.

./english/367.txt:155:But there is a point in the criticisms of RUPE, or of the Gujarat-based members of the Inquilabi Communist Sangathan (ICS). The latter issued a statement, falsely in the name of the entire Indian Section of the Fourth International, though they had not discussed it with anyone from outside Baroda, and not even with all their Baroda comrades. This intervention was simply one that stressed the undemocratic character of keeping political parties at arm’s length. There are real problems here. The RUPE essay similarly takes on the WSF because it excludes forces that use individual terrorism (in a somewhat different formulation). This does rule out some forces on the radical left. At the same time, some of the arguments are disingenuous. Forces like the Communist Party of the Philippines, or the PW or MCC in India, have used violence indiscriminately. They have murdered other left activists in their turf wars. Unless they show a real willingness to have dialogues with other types of radicals, unless they are serious about pluralism and wider democracy, it is difficult to see how others on the left can provide them with much space.

./english/368.txt:8:This is an html version of the original draft of a chapter for John Holloway and Eloína Peláez (eds.), Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Mexico, London:Pluto Press, 1998. The article published in that book is a somewhat shorter, edited version of this original draft. The book consists of a collection of new articles, mostly from Mexican scholars and political analysts. See background on this article. All constructive comments to the author are welcome.

./english/368.txt:11:In the narrow terms of traditional military conflict, the Zapatista uprising has been confined to a limited zone in Chiapas. However, through their ability to extend their political reach via modern computer networks the Zapatistas have woven a new electronic fabric of struggle to carry their revolution throughout Mexico and around the world.

./english/368.txt:12:Initially the Mexican state tried to restrict the uprising to the jungles of Chiapas, through both military repression and the limitation of press coverage (most Mexicans get their news from the state controlled TV network, Televisa). Those efforts failed. First through written communiques and personal interviews with independent journalists which were flashed around the world by fax and electronic mail, then through more detailed reports by Mexican and foreign observers circulated in the same manner, the Zapatistas were able to break out of the state's attempted isolation and reach others with their ideas and their program for economic and political revolution. As vast numbers of Mexicans responded with sympathy and mobilized in support, the Chiapas uprising kindled a more generalized pro-democracy movement against the centralized and corrupt Mexican economic and political system. Inspiring many others outside of Mexico, the Zapatista uprising set in motion a new wave of hope and energy among those engaged in the struggle for freedom all over the world.

./english/368.txt:14:Despite its initial defeat, a key aspect of the state's war against the Zapatistas (both in Mexico and elsewhere) has been its on-going efforts to isolate them, so that they can be destroyed or forced to accept co-optation. In turn, the Zapatistas and their supporters have fought to maintain and elaborate their political connections throughout the world. This has been a war of words, images, imagination and organization in which the Zapatistas have had surprising success.

./english/368.txt:38:This enclosure resembles that of other capitalists who have fenced off agricultural land or industrial space in order to control it. In cyberspace just as in the geographical frontiers of the Americas (the North American West, the South American Pampas or Rainforests) there has been a dynamic struggle between the pioneers and the profiteers. Just as mountain men, gauchos and poor farmers have sought independence through the flight to and colonization of new lands, so cyberspace pioneers have carved out new spaces and filled them with their own activity. Just as big capital (agribusiness, railroads, etc.) has come hard on the heels of homesteaders, seeking to take over their lands, forcing them out or reducing them to waged labor, so too has business chased after the new electronic frontiers with the object of buy-out or take-over. Those threatened with enclosure, of course, have always fought back. As a result, just as the campesinos of Morelia under the leadership of Zapata cut barbed wire to liberate the land in 1910, electronic hackers have chopped down electronic barriers and liberated information, creating a pirate underground of free activity constantly slipping beyond corporate and state control. So too have the colonists of cyberspace defended their own spaces against monopolization in other ways, including public campaigns both legal and political against big business and state control.(9)

./english/368.txt:42:Beyond an understanding of this flexibility, it is important to recognize that The Net does not exist independently of what are often called its "users". The Net is not some objective or politically neutral technology to be "used" in this way or that. It is not a "form" to be filled arbitrarily with "content"; both form and content are constantly being autonomously reinvented and transformed. Networks have been put to uses which have escaped the intentions of their designers and thus become something new, while new networks have been created for purposes unimagined by the designers (and vendors) of the hardware and software employed. These things have made any assertion of "objectivity" or technological determinism less and less credible.

./english/368.txt:44:ARPANET, for example, was conceived as a military weapon and a political tool of the Cold War. It was supposed to link government-paid researchers to shared computers. It was, however, soon transformed by its "users" into an interactive electronic post-office linking them to each other. The machines ceased to be the focal point and were demoted to the means for human-to-human connections. ARPANET's major traffic ceased to be defense-related long distance computation and became whatever its individual "users" created: from personal correspondence to science-fiction discussion groups. "In no time at all, the ARPANET developed into a free-swinging intellectual community in which nearly anything could be said and often was."(11) The struggle over the content, and thus the nature, of cyberspace emerged at the moment of its birth and has continued ever since.

./english/368.txt:58:This problem of access is great in Chiapas and for the Zapatistas. Despite all the media hype which came with the discovery of the role of cyberspace in circulating Zapatista words and ideas, Subcommandante Marcos is not sitting in some jungle camp uploading EZLN communiques via mobile telephone modem directly to the Internet. Zapatista messages have to be hand-carried through the lines of military encirclement and uploaded by others to the networks of solidarity. Similar problems of access exist within those networks. Many who might be sympathetic to the Zapatistas, e.g., various rural and urban communities of Native Americans, Mexicanos and Chicanos in the U.S. and Canada, have few means to plug into The Net. There too, access for most people must be mediated by groups of humanitarian or political activists who download EZLN Communiques and upload expressions of solidarity from off-line organizing.(17)

./english/368.txt:60:Moreover, even accessible computer communications don't magically produce collaboration --all the usual obstacles to mutual understanding and solidarity must still be faced by those involved in struggle, e.g., differences in language, politics, background knowledge, experience, national identity and relative position in the global wage/income hierarchy. The Net provides new spaces for new political discussions about democracy, revolution and self- determination but it does not provide solutions to the differences that exist; it is merely a means to accelerate the search for such solutions.

./english/368.txt:70:For those in Mexico who read those messages and found them accurate and inspiring, this blockage was an intolerable situation which had to be overcome in order to build support for the Zapatistas and to stop the government's repression. What they did was very simple: they typed or scanned the communiques and letters into e-text form and sent them out over The Net to potentially receptive audiences around the world.(21) Those audiences included, first and foremost, UseNet newsgroups, PeaceNet conferences, and Internet lists whose members were already concerned with Mexico's social and political life,(22) secondly, humanitarian groupings concerned with human rights generally,(23) thirdly, networks of indigenous peoples and those sympathetic to them,(24) fourthly, those political regions of cyberspace which seemed likely to have members sympathetic to grassroots revolt in general(25) and fifthly, networks of feminists who would respond with solidarity to the rape of indigenous women by Mexican soldiers or to the EZLN "Women's Revolutionary Law" drafted by women, for women, within and against a traditionally patriarchal society.(26) Again and again, friendly and receptive readers spontaneously re-posted the messages in new places while sometimes translating the Spanish documents into English and other languages. In this way, the words of the Zapatistas and messages of their communities have been diffused from a few gateways throughout much of cyberspace.

./english/368.txt:88:Over the months separating these dramatic events, the issues the Zapatistas were raising, e.g., NAFTA, poverty, land rights, justice, exploitation, environmental preservation, women's rights, democracy, and so on, tended to become more and more the subject of discussion. Issues such as the democratization of the Mexican political system, which was initially dismissed as a fantasy, became --through a multitude of political meetings, including such national events as the Convencion Nacional Democratica (CND)-- so central to public discourse as to dominate Mexican politics --to the utter dismay of the very undemocratic ruling party (the PRI). A pro-democracy movement developed the power to force a reformation, if not total revision, of the formal electoral system. Faced with the popular excitement stirred by the Zapatistas' vision of an open democratic system no longer monopolized by professional political parties and recognizing the autonomy of indigenous ethnic groups, the PRI (so internally divided as to assassinate its own leaders) began to cede ground.

./english/368.txt:90:As the dual phenomena of a rapidly growing pro-democracy movement and an increasingly unstable and desperate ruling party have became more and more apparent, peoples' sense that things could change significantly in Mexico has grown. As the multiplying flows of information, analysis and debate have provided the sense of collective concern and organizing necessary for committed forms of action, increased numbers of caravans and observers have gone to Chiapas, less to "learn what is happening" than to curb state abuses and bring aid and solidarity to those suffering the brutalities of the state's counterinsurgency strategy of so-called "low intensity warfare", i.e., a generalized terror campaign against all viewed as sympathetic to the EZLN and radical change. In turn, political innovation in Chiapas, from the CND through the formation of a Rebel Government of Transition to the EZLN's calls for a broad-based Liberation Movement and a general plebiscite have circulated to the rest of Mexico and beyond.

./english/368.txt:92:The result for business, the state and the ruling class generally is a continuing crisis of "governability" wherein virtually every historical mechanism of domination is being challenged and ruptured from below. The old combinations of repression and co-optation have not been working and the traditional elite coalitions are splitting apart. The PRI has had to accept electoral reforms, cede state governments to the opposition Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), tolerate public denunciations from its own human rights commission, suffer repeated exposures of massive state corruption, while watching the center of gravity of public political debate and action shift toward radical groups like the EZLN or moderate groups like Alianza Civica. Desperate in the face of so many crises, the fragmenting ruling alliance has struck back with its usual violence --military repression in Chiapas, police state repression all over the place. At the same time, unfortunately, it has not collapsed and is hardly without resources --both financial and human-- even in extremis. As a result we have begun to see some new efforts to fight back on various fronts, including that of cyberspace.

./english/368.txt:96:In less public view, researchers in universities and think tanks have been paying much closer attention and have seen serious threats to the current political order. Even before the role of the Internet in the Zapatista struggle was recognized, analysts were beginning to call the attention of policy makers to grassroots uses of electronic communications. One widely quoted report was Sheldon Annis' 1991 "Giving Voice to the Poor" published in Foreign Policy, an influential American journal in that field. Annis provided details of how grassroots utilization of The Net was "empowering" and "emboldening" the poor by undermining elite control of information. Generously, if somewhat naively perhaps, he recommended that state institutions such as local governments and the World Bank shift expenditures toward increasing flows of information which can assist the "political empowerment" of the poor and "processes of democratization".(37)

./english/368.txt:98:In the summer of that same year, Cathryn Thorup, then Director of Studies and Programs at the Center for U.S. Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, published an assessment of "cross-border coalitions" in the Columbia Journal of World Business.(38) Her primary focus was on the actions and impact of the anti-NAFTA network. She traced the development of opposition to and lobbying against the governments' "fast-track" approach to railroading NAFTA through Congress as well as elite efforts to divide and conquer that opposition. While calling the debate "healthy for both societies" (the U.S. and Mexico), she also highlighted the "tremendous vulnerability" of the state to such organizing and discussed how state policy makers might seek to convert such opposition into "valuable political allies" by consulting with them and cutting deals. Her vision of how the political system might cope with the emergence of these new rogue networks would seem to lie squarely in the tradition of pluralism, i.e., integrate and co-opt the new forces into a slightly modified fabric of governance.

./english/368.txt:100:In a more recent paper written for RAND, Thorup analyzed the development of US and Mexican NGO organizing around immigration in the San Diego - Tijuana border area and its interaction with the U.S. and Mexican governments.(39) Here again she explores both the threat of such grassroots "wild cards" to elite policy making as well as the possibilities of harnessing NGO activity. "Both governments [US & Mexican] will find it necessary to complement efforts to cultivate and nuture their official relations with a more vigorous pursuit of direct communications with a variety of non-governmental actors in both countries."(40) One example she cites is the Mexican government's success in harnessing NGOs' "moral authority" to use them as mediators between itself and immigrants who are "fearful of government entities".(41) She notes how such efforts have "enabled the Mexican government to demonstrate its concern for the plight of its nationals in the United States and, in passing, to make political gains with first, second and third generation latinos residing in the United States." Strengthening its support among Mexicano communities across the border is certainly important to a Mexican state-in-crisis all too aware that such communities have been prime sites of mobilization in support of the Zapatistas.

./english/368.txt:106:The theme of "governability" was widely discussed in the wake of the Trilateral Commission Report on The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies that was published in 1975.(45) That controversial report located the roots of the economic and political crises of the 1970s in the ways grassroots movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s had generated too much "democracy" and its authors called for a restoration of the balance in favor of elite "governance". The theme resurfaced in Mexico in the wake of the Zapatista uprising and prior to the August 1974 presidential elections as a variety of political analysts and pundits worried about the possible collapse of the PRI party-state.

./english/368.txt:120:The state has since extended its repression to those using The Net to challenge its political hegemony, sometimes charging others with its own crimes, e.g., terrorism. One good example was the March 1995 Carabinieri Anti-Crime Special Operations Group raid on the Italian "BITS Against Empire" BBS whose members were accused of "subversive association with intent to subvert the democratic order".(53) The "Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995" submitted to Congress after the Oklahoma bombing threatens to facilitate such repressive tactics in the U.S. The Spring 1995 passage in the House of Representatives of "The Communication Decency Act" to mandate FCC censoring of the production and circulation of pornography threatens to provide the state with an opening wedge for legal repression. Alternative, anti-FCC legislation (the Cox/Wyden Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act) passed the Senate in August. The two bills are in conference in the Fall of 1995. How and whether such censorship can be enforced is still very much an open question. The battle against the Senate legislation passage has involved widespread mobilization throughout The Net by those who saw their freedom of speech menaced, even indirectly.(54)

./english/368.txt:136:Thus, at present, the Mexican government's public propaganda strategy on the Internet is no different from its more general strategy vis a vis the EZLN: by minimizing public attention it seeks to create the illusion of stability and at the same time maximize the possibilities of either neutralization or suppression. This strategy is a familiar one and so far the traditional rigid structures of the PRI-party-state are merely reproducing their old habits in this new sphere. As a result, visiting such state sponsored sites is largely a waste of time if not a total dead-end. If, as a result, official spaces in The Net are bypassed and ignored, their political usefulness will be reduced. Clearly the government has not yet been able to achieve anything like an active counterinsurgency presence in The Net.(59) The same can be said, as far as I can see, about all other governments, including that of the United States.

./english/368.txt:144:At the same time, such analysts see that "netwar" is quite different from traditional forms of either guerrilla warfare or intelligence and counterintelligence warfare. Arquilla and Ronfeldt clearly understand that the broadbased, grassroots struggles being carried on in cyberspace (such as the pro-Zapatista efforts) primarily involve the open circulation and open discussion of political ideas, news about events and detailed reports about on-going situations. Clearly any kind of politically effective state response would have to go beyond covert disruption to sophisticated overt intervention. While this has yet to happen --to all appearances-- it would hardly be without precedence.

./english/368.txt:152:At this point the reform movement itself is probably the key terrain of struggle between the Zapatistas and capital. Those forces within the movement pushing for the Zapatistas to convert themselves from a revolutionary force into one more traditional political party can be seen as the embodiment of the Mexican state's traditional strategy of co-optation (repression via assimilation).(64) As Ronfeldt and Thorup's joint work suggests, the conversion of the Zapatistas into a political party might not even be required for their neutralization. It might be enough to merely convert them into one more "independent" organization among others in a domesticated and neutralized civil society.

./english/368.txt:154:To some degree, the forces pushing for such non-revolutionary solutions are already present on the terrain of cyberspace. For the most part they have not yet become active participants but their voices are regularly heard through articles taken from the political battles in the written Mexican press. With the PRI and its official government increasingly discredited, it would seem that the main threat to the development of the Zapatista struggle and to the elaboration of its ideas of real change will come from the ranks of such reformers.

./english/368.txt:156:What all of this means is that as the struggles on The Net have moved from mobilization against military repression to the circulation of Zapatista ideas and the discussion of their political visions and programs, the conflicts in this electronic fabric of connections will increasingly take on all the complexity of the more general political, economic and social crises in Mexico.

./english/369.txt:11:The conference had on its agenda: the situation of the left in Europe; the policies of the EU; a common political declaration; the counter-summit in Copenhagen during the upcoming Danish presidency; and a point of information on the general strike in Spain and the mobilisations in Seville.

./english/369.txt:13:The conference noted major progress during this fourth meeting, including: strengthening of most of the participating organisations in their respective countries; Rifondazione Comunista's entry into the conference (without its having left the GUE/NLG [European United Left/Nordic Green Left], which includes most of the European Communist parties); the participating organisations' substantial involvement in the social movement against capitalist globalisation, the anti-war movement and the movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people; and a basic consensus on the analysis of the political situation and the role of the anti-capitalist left.

./english/369.txt:19:The conference decided to coordinate its work better, particularly in the struggle against any new war waged by US imperialism and its allies, in solidarity with immigrants and in the struggle for "European-wide social rights". It will take this opportunity to adopt a common logo in order to underscore its political identity as a European anti-capitalist current.

./english/369.txt:29:The political situation in the EU is at a turning point. If the German "Red-Green" government is defeated in the September 2002 elections, the EU will be completely dominated (except for Sweden, Greece and Finland) by an aggressive, reactionary right. Blair is just a false exception: a pioneering social-liberal who managed to build successive coalitions with various EU governments in preparation for the new antisocial, militarist offensive.

./english/369.txt:35:Fascist and far right demagogues are exploiting this reactionary terrain. Traditional bourgeois parties are using it as well for their political manoeuvres. For the moment, it is not the advent of fascism which is on the agenda but "class struggle" bourgeois governments, whose main difference with "left" governments is that they will have their hands free to launch a new "European neo-liberal" offensive: ongoing privatisations and antisocial measures; EU involvement in the international arena ("the war on terrorism" and eastwards enlargement); and putting in place the coherent, efficient core of a European proto-state apparatus.

./english/369.txt:37:But for the first time in twenty years, the ruling classes' political offensive is running up against a significant new social movement, borne by a new generation of youth, which is global, offensive, internationalist and against the system from the start. Defensive social battles, which have never ceased, are losing their "rearguard" aspect, because the movement against capitalist globalisation has provided them with a new political framework, an offensive spirit, a perspective and an alternative. The centre of gravity for political initiatives and mass mobilisation is located at the moment outside the traditional labour movement. Although weakened, the European trade union movement still brings together, according to national statistics, millions of workers and thousands of activists. As long as the wage-earning class, which is a majority social force, does not become active, as long as it does not struggle massively for its own immediate demands and broad aspirations, as long as it does not organise itself on an ever widening scale, neither the ongoing globalisation of the market nor neo-liberal and pro-war policies will be stopped. The general strikes and gigantic citizens' mobilisations in Italy, the Spanish general strike, the recurrent social struggles in Greece and the renewal of sectoral strikes in Germany (particularly among metal and construction workers) clearly herald a stronger resistance to the bosses and governments' ongoing offensive.

./english/369.txt:39:In this framework, a "new" anti-capitalist and alternative left is making visible, though still modest, progress in several countries, including on an electoral level. From this point on, the political situation cannot be summed up as a new right-wing offensive. The new factor is that the political situation also includes a polarisation towards the left in society as well as in the social and workers movement.

./english/369.txt:75:We fight against any form of xenophobia or racism, whether of state or popular origin. We extend our solidarity to all the victims of the bosses' and governments' discriminatory policies. We demand immediate equality, and full social and political rights for all men and women who live in our countries. But we are conscious that it is necessary to deal with the roots of the problem: we have to fight and organise for solidarity and unity within the world of labour. To do this the labour movement must take a radical turn and stop setting native-born workers against those who are newly arriving and male workers against female. This means making organising newly arriving workers a moral and social priority, so that they share the same struggles, the same demands, the same organisations, and the same program that puts "people before profits".

./english/369.txt:77:d) The market annexation of the eastern European countries, which is a genuine "periphery" dominated by the imperialist EU, will reinforce these developments even more. This absorption will not occur without a major crisis in the countryside and a considerable social regression in the cities, with a massive rise in inequality in each of these countries—all the more so because the EU will impose its neo-liberal prescriptions without ensuring the promised transfers that are indispensable to relaunching these economies (the EU's agricultural policy, structural funds and grants). It is up to the eastern countries' own peoples to decide whether they want to join the EU under these conditions. We will struggle inside the EU to ensure that they get the same social, environmental, political and democratic rights and norms that we have. We propose to the world of labour, women and youth to join in a single struggle for a different Europe. We will struggle for a trade unionism that unites male and female workers as well as all the emancipatory social movements throughout the European continent. The anti-capitalist left commits itself to developing the best possible contacts and collaboration with the east European left, which is active in social, political, trade unionist, feminist, environmentalist, anti-racist, pro-peace and anti-war and citizens' movements.

./english/369.txt:79:As for Turkey, its laws, rights and policies at the level of political democracy are incompatible with those of EU member states. We support all the progressive forces in this country, still dominated by the military caste, in their struggle for a radical change on these issues. In particular, we are in solidarity with the Kurdish people, which is struggling for its national-democratic, political and cultural rights.

./english/369.txt:85:The European bourgeoisies have set major objectives for themselves for the near future, all related to their search for a European great power: market annexation of the eastern European countries; incorporating the UK, Denmark and Sweden into the monetary union (the euro); creating a single European financial market (related in particular to the privatisation of the retirement system); creating an "economic government", essential to synchronising monetary and economic management with the European Central Bank; rapid activation of a European armed force, which could also be used to intervene in the major social crises that are looming in Europe; and reinforcing EU diplomatic, political and military intervention in the world arena.

./english/369.txt:89:This explains the mad rush forward that produced the Convention, whose selection, composition, method and objective are a simulacrum of democracy. Its only real objective is to equip the EU quickly with a small but strong and efficient executive, capable of confronting the growing financial, political and military instability in the world. This executive would dominate all other EU institutions. It will be directly subordinated to the European Council of member states' governments, and in the service of the big European corporations. In short, it will also be a more effective machine for waging war on the people and the wage earners, here and abroad.

./english/369.txt:105:Our alternative program is as simple, easy and clearly defined as the bosses' neo-liberal one: a full-time, stable job, a decent wage, and a liveable replacement income (in the event of unemployment, disease, disability or retirement) for everyone; radical reduction of working time without loss of pay or intensification of work, with compensatory hiring; the right to housing, education and professional training and health care, all good quality; and access to means of public transport. These political and social rights will be equal for all workers, native and immigrant, men and women. Implementing them requires: a radical extension of public services; a recasting of the state budget (including the tax system) that drastically increases social spending; and a radical redistribution of wealth and income from capital towards labour. For this purpose, all anti-capitalist measures must be taken that are needed to control and, if necessary, expropriate private property and transform it into social, public property.

./english/369.txt:107:We want to share these economic, ecological, social, political and cultural alternatives with all of humanity.

./english/369.txt:119:For the first time in many years, a political polarisation is taking place in Europe, clearly and visibly, in struggles, in the various social movements and trade unions and in elections. This anti-capitalist polarisation is developing, not on the basis of abstract ideological debates, but on the basis of big, earth-shaking events and the lived experience of the popular masses.

./english/369.txt:121:The struggle against the ("anti-terrorist") war and neo-liberal policies, linked to capitalist globalisation, of which the EU is an essential piece; the central place of the "movement of movements" and its indispensable link with the trade union movement; the search for radical answers and for an anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, ecological and internationalist alternative—all these elements are pushing forward political clarification and convergence among organisations of this "new" anti-capitalist political current in gestation.

./english/369.txt:127:One of our major difficulties at this stage is reflecting social demands and the social relationship of forces on the political level in order to defeat neo-liberal policies. Our conclusion is that we urgently need to develop the perspective of a European political formation as a space and process in which social and political, anti-capitalist and alternative lefts engage in discussion so as to move forward.

./english/369.txt:131:The organisations that come together in the conferences of the European Anti-Capitalist Left are moving ahead. First, we are staking out our own political identity, made concrete through a "common logo". Second, we are setting to work on more detailed positions on immigrant issues and on the Charter of Social Rights, as a basis for joint activities. Finally, the next Conference of the EACL, the fifth one, will take place in Copenhagen, in December 2002. It will be organised by the RGA.

./english/371.txt:40:The World Social Forum is not merely an annual event in Porto Alegre. It has become a global movement, a continuous process to create an open space for free and equal exchange of thoughts and action. In terms of numbers it grew from 25,000 people in the first meeting 2001 to more than 100,000 this year. But it is not just the numbers that count. The Forum has created an alternative to capitalist globalisation. It has created a new hope, a new power which is playing a profound role in helping to free people all over the world from the shackles of despair and false consciousness propagated by the global media. But more thinking is needed to close the gap between what is called political activities and social activities, between women’s groups and socialist groups.

./english/371.txt:44:The left, the socialist movement (including the Marxists) have learned a great deal from women’s movements in our countries and all over the world. They tend to combine social activities with political, economic, religious, historical, and other activities. Women’s input to human thought and to philosophy has been and continues to be significant and should not be ignored.

./english/371.txt:46:In Egypt, as in countries all over the world, the traditional left-wing (including the new anti-globalisation groups) tend to exclude women in spite of having learned new ideas from them. The traditional left-wing groups should change their old habits. Most of the people at Porto Alegre were women and youth. But there were old professional political groups there too, and they tended to regress to old habits in order to monopolise and exclude the women and young people.

./english/371.txt:54:They need to move on from the conception of “giving help” to that of equal exchange. They must stop focusing so obsessively on economic capitalist globalisation and look at other types of globalisation and exploitation in the every day life of women and men. These myriad other forms of globalisations have been playing havoc with the private and public life of women, refugees, immigrants and workers under the guise of so-called revivals of religion or spirituality, or even socialist ideologies. We need to unmask the post-modern game of new political groups, and de-mystify the new language of progressive groups which work for us and not with us.

./english/371.txt:60:In Porto Alegre I met a few participants from Egypt and other Arab countries. Most came from Europe and the US. However the Palestinian flag dominated the demonstrations, and the protesters against the war in Iraq were visible, though all the other flags were drowned in the red of the flags carried by the Brazilian peasants and workers. The forum in its totality condemned American unilateralism, militarism and lack of global responsibility in spite of its claims as a global superpower. Power without responsibility is a political disease inherited from the patriarchal class system that was born with slavery. This is one of the dichotomies forced on us by religion and philosophy. We must resist this idea of an irrevocable split between a good, divine power and the devil’s responsibility for evil. We must un-mask and strip away the language of George W. Bush the father, son, and holy ghost, and his axis of evil.

./english/372.txt:13:The depth of the problem first really struck me when I first became acquainted with the consensus modes of decision-making employed in North American anarchist and anarchist-inspired political movements, which, in turn, bore a lot of similarities to the style of political decision-making current where I had done my anthropological fieldwork in rural Madagascar. There's enormous variation among different styles and forms of consensus but one thing almost all the North American variants have in common is that they are organized in conscious opposition to the style of organization and, especially, of debate typical of the classical sectarian Marxist group. Where the latter are invariably organized around some Master Theoretician, who offers a comprehensive analysis of the world situation and, often, of human history as a whole, but very little theoretical reflection on more immediate questions of organization and practice, anarchist-inspired groups tend to operate on the assumption that no one could, or probably should, ever convert another person completely to one's own point of view, that decision-making structures are ways of managing diversity, and therefore, that one should concentrate instead on maintaining egalitarian process and considering immediate questions of action in the present. One of the fundamental principles of political debate, for instance, is that one is obliged to give other participants the benefit of the doubt for honesty and good intentions, whatever else one might think of their arguments. In part too this emerges from the style of debate consensus decision-making encourages: where voting encourages one to reduce one's opponents positions to a hostile caricature, or whatever it takes to defeat them, a consensus process is built on a principle of compromise and creativity where one is constantly changing proposals around until one can come up with something everyone can at least live with; therefore, the incentive is always to put the best possible construction on other's arguments.

./english/372.txt:21:One might argue this is because anarchism itself has made such small inroads into the academy. As a political philosophy, anarchism is going through veritable explosion in recent years. Anarchist or anarchist-inspired movements are growing everywhere; anarchist principles--autonomy, voluntary association, self-organization, mutual aid, direct democracy--have become the basis for organizing within the globalization movement and beyond. As Barbara Epstein has recently pointed out, at least in Europe and the Americas, it has by now largely taken the place Marxism had in the social movements of the '60s: the core revolutionary ideology, it is the source of ideas and inspiration; even those who do not consider themselves anarchists feel they have to define themselves in relation to it. Yet this has found almost no reflection in academic discourse. Most academics seem to have only the vaguest idea what anarchism is even about; or dismiss it with the crudest stereotypes ("anarchist organization! but isn't that a contradiction in terms?") In the United States--and I don't think is all that different elsewhere--there are thousands of academic Marxists of one sort or another, but hardly anyone who is willing to openly call herself an anarchist.

./english/372.txt:23:I don't think this is just because the academy is behind the times. Marxism has always had an affinity with the academy that anarchism never will. It was, after all was invented by a Ph.D.; and there's always been something about its spirit which fits that of the academy. Anarchism on the other hand was never really invented by anyone. True, historians usually treat it as if it were, constructing the history of anarchism as if it's basically a creature identical in its nature to Marxism: it was created by specific 19th century thinkers, perhaps Godwin or Stirner, but definitely Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, it inspired working-class organizations, became enmeshed in political struggles... But in fact the analogy is rather strained. First of all, the 19th century generally credited with inventing anarchism didn't think of themselves as having invented anything particularly new. The basic principles of anarchism--self-organization, voluntary association, mutual aid--are as old as humanity Similarly, the rejection of the state and of all forms of structural violence, inequality, or domination (anarchism literally means "without rulers"), even the assumption that all these forms are somehow related and reinforce each other, was hardly some startlingly new 19th century doctrine. One can find evidence of people making similar arguments throughout history, despite the fact there is every reason to believe that such opinions were the ones least likely to be written down. We are talking less about a body of theory than about an attitude, or perhaps a faith: a rejection of certain types of social relation, a confidence that certain others are a much better ones on which to build a decent or humane society, a faith that it would be possible to do so.

./english/372.txt:35:Now, this does imply there's a lot of potential complementary between the two (and indeed there has been: even Mikhail Bakunin, for all his endless battles with Marx over practical questions, also personally translated Marx's Capital into Russian.) One could easily imagine a systematic division of labor in which Marxists critique the political economy, but stay out of organizing, and Anarchists handle the day-to-day organizing, but defer to the Marxists on questions of abstract theory; i.e., in which the Marxists explain why the economic crash in Argentina occurred and the anarchists deal with what to do about it. (I also should point out that I am aware I am being a bit hypocritical here by indulging in some of the same sort of sectarian reasoning I'm otherwise critiquing: there are schools of Marxism which are far more open-minded and tolerant, and democratically organized, there are anarchist groups which are insanely sectarian; Bakunin himself was hardly a model for democracy by any standards, etc. etc. etc.). But it also makes it easier to understand why there are so few anarchists in the academy. It's not just that anarchism does not lend itself to high theory. It's that it is primarily an ethics of practice; and it insists, before anything else, that one's means most be consonant with one's ends; one cannot create freedom through authoritarian means; that as much as possible, one must embody the society one wishes to create. This does not square very well with operating within Universities that still have an essentially Medieval social structure, presenting papers at conferences in expensive hotels, and doing intellectual battle in language no one who hasn't spent at least two or three years in grad school would ever hope to be able to understand. At the very least, then, it would tend to get one in trouble.

./english/372.txt:49:At any rate the Saint Simonians at any rate actively sought to recruit artists for their various ventures, salons, and utopian communities; though they quickly ran into difficulties because so many within "avant garde" artistic circles preferred the more anarchistic Fourierists, and later, one or another branch of outright anarchists. Actually, the number of 19th century artists with anarchist sympathies is quite staggering, ranging from Pissaro to Tolstoy or Oscar Wilde, not to mention almost all early 20th century artists who later became Communists, from Malevich to Picasso. Rather than a political vanguard leading the way to a future society, radical artists almost invariably saw themselves as exploring new and less alienated modes of life. The really significant development in the 19th century was less to idea of a vanguard than that of Bohemia (a term first coined by Balzac in 1838): marginal communities living in more or less voluntary poverty, seeing themselves as dedicated to the pursuit of creative, unalienated forms of experience, united by a profound hatred of bourgeois life and everything it stood for. Ideologically, they were about equally likely to be proponents of "art for art's sake" or social revolutionaries. Contemporary theorists are actually quite divided over how to evaluate their larger significance. Pierre Bourdieu for example insisted that the promulgation of the idea of "art for art's sake", far from being depoliticizing, should be considered a significant accomplishment, as was any which managed to establish the autonomy of one particular field of human endeavor from the logic of the market. Colin Campbell on the other hand argues that insofar as bohemians actually were an avant garde, they were really the vanguard of the market itself, or more precisely, of consumerism: their actual social function, much though they would have loathed to admit it, was to explore new forms of pleasure or aesthetic territory which could be commoditized in the next generation. (One might call this the Tom Franks version of history.) Campbell also echoes common wisdom that bohemia was almost exclusively inhabited by the children of the bourgeoisie, who had--temporarily, at least--rejecting their families' money and privilege; and who, if they did not die young of dissipation, were likely to end up back on the board of father's company. This is a claim that has been repeated so often about activists and revolutionaries over the years that it makes me, at least, immediately wary: in fact, I strongly suspect that bohemian circles emerged from the same sort of social conjuncture as most current activist circles, and historically, most vanguardist revolutionary parties as well: a kind of meeting between certain elements of (intentionally) downwardly mobile professional classes, in broad rejection of bourgeois values, and upwardly mobile children of the working class. Though such suspicions can only be confirmed by historical investigation.

./english/372.txt:51:In the 19th century idea of the political vanguard was used very widely and very loosely for anyone seen as exploring the path to a future, free society. Radical newspapers for example often called themselves "the Avant Garde". It was Marx though who began to significantly change the idea by introducing the notion that the proletariat were the true revolutionary class--he didn't actually use the term "vanguard" in his own writing--because they were the one that was the most oppressed, or as he put it "negated" by capitalism, and therefore had the least to lose by its abolition. In doing so, he ruled out the possibilities that less alienated enclaves, whether of artists or the sort of artisans and independent producers who tended to form the backbone of anarchism, had anything significant to offer. The results we all know. The idea of a vanguard party to dedicated to both organizing and providing an intellectual project for that most-oppressed class chosen as the agent of history, but also, actually sparking the revolution through their willingness to employ violence, was first outlined by Lenin in 1902 in What Is to Be Done?; it has echoed endlessly, to the point where the SDS in the late '60s could end up locked in furious debates over whether the Black Panther Party should be considered the vanguard of The Movement as the leaders of its most oppressed element. All this in turn had a curious effect on the artistic avant garde who increasingly started to organize themselves like vanguard parties, beginning with the Dadaists, Futurists, publishing their own manifestos, communiquŽs, purging one another, and otherwise making themselves (sometimes quite intentional) parodies of revolutionary sects. (Note however that these groups always defined themselves, like anarchists, by a certain form of practice rather than after some heroic founder.) The ultimate fusion came with the Surrealists and then finally the Situationist International, which on the one hand was the most systematic in trying to develop a theory of revolutionary action according to the spirit of Bohemia, thinking about what it might actually mean to destroy the boundaries between art and life, but at the same time, in its own internal organization, displayed a kind of insane sectarianism full of so many splits, purges, and bitter denunciations that Guy Debord finally remarked that the only logical conclusion was for the International to be finally reduced to two members, one of whom would purge the other and then commit suicide. (Which is actually not too far from what actually ended up happening.)

./english/372.txt:55:The historical relations between political and artistic avant gardes have been explored at length by others. For me though the really intriguing questions is: why is it that artists have so often been so drawn to revolutionary politics to begin with? Because it does seem to be the case that, even in times and places when there is next to no other constituency for revolutionary change, the one place on is most likely to find one is among artists, authors, and musicians; even more so, in fact, that among professional intellectuals. It seems to me the answer must have something to do with alienation. There would appear to be a direct link between the experience of first imagining things and then bringing them into being (individually or collectively)--that is, the experience of certain forms of unalienated production--and the ability to imagine social alternatives; particularly, the possibility of a society itself premised on less alienated forms of creativity. Which would allow us to see the historical shift between seeing the vanguard as the relatively unalienated artists (or perhaps intellectuals) to seeing them as the representatives of the "most oppressed" in a new light. In fact, I would suggest, revolutionary coalitions always tend to consist of an alliance between a society's least alienated and its most oppressed. And this is less elitist a formulation than it might sound, because it also seems to be the case that actual revolutions tend to occur when these two categories come to overlap. That would at any rate explain why it almost always seems to be peasants and craftspeople - or alternately, newly proletarianized former peasants and craftspeople - who actually rise up and overthrow capitalist regimes, and not those inured to generations of wage labor. Finally, I suspect this would also help explain the extraordinary importance of indigenous people's struggles in that planetary uprising usually referred to as the "anti-globalization" movement: such people tend to be simultaneously the very least alienated and most oppressed people on earth, and once it is technologically possible to include them in revolutionary coalitions, it is almost inevitable that they should take a leading role.

./english/372.txt:57:The role of indigenous peoples in turn leads us back to the role of ethnography as a possible model for the would-be non-vanguardist revolutionary intellectual--as well as some of its potential pitfalls. Obviously what I am proposing would only work if it was, ultimately, a form of auto-ethnography, combined, perhaps, with a certain utopian extrapolation: a matter of teasing out the tacit logic or principles underlying certain forms of radical practice, and then, not only offering the analysis back to those communities, but using them to formulate new visions ("if one applied the same principles as you are applying to political organization to economics, might it not look something like this?"...) Here too there are suggestive parallels in the history of radical artistic movements, which became movements precisely as they became their own critics (and of course the idea of self-criticism took on a very different, and more ominous, tone within Marxist politics); there are also intellectuals already trying to do precisely this sort of auto-ethnographic work. But I say all this not so much to provide models as to open up a field for discussion, first of all, by emphasizing that even the notion of vanguardism itself far more rich in its history, and full of alternative possibilities, than most of us would ever be given to expect.

./english/373.txt:12:It is my opinion that, when talking about the so-called anti-globalisation movement, it is possible to trace two parallel processes. One, which I named new radicalism, began with the Zapatista insurrection, has brought about creating of the Peoples’ Global Action network. The second one, I call traditionalistic, has developed separately, culminating by the creation of the WSF and regional forums. The history of these tendencies that have mainly developed simultaneously is relatively well known. Demonstrations – the Global Days of Action – and forums, as well as the Indymedia that has inaugurated a quite specific mode of activist communication, have all become the most important distinctive manifestations of the movement itself. The new radicalism implies an attempt to distance from the practices of the old left; to move away from the area of the conventional politics and to devise a new political space, the "politics from below"; pre-figurative politics (i.e. the modes of organization that consciously resemble the world you want to crate); direct action and social disobedience; anti-capitalism and anti-statism.

./english/373.txt:16:Although certain changes can be felt in the rhetoric (especially when the notorious "civil society" is the issue), the practice has remained the same: trying to reform and humanize capitalism, lobbying over and through political parties, recruiting of new party members to fight for a new revolution that will not be the "revolution betrayed". The traditionalistic paradigm implicates loyalty towards the traditional practices of political action, as opposed to new radicalism and the intentional breaking of the old paradigms.

./english/373.txt:18:The traditionalists have comprehended, and they are to be congratulated for it, that there is something really new in the new movement: the proof is the very idea of organizing "forums" – the institution that is "new" although organized in the "old" way – as well as the striving of political parties to transform themselves into networks such as ATTAC. As I have already pointed out, these two directions have mainly formed their identities independently from one another. I do not deem, however, that this difference is necessarily a handicap. On the contrary, I believe that these differences are good for the movement. They feed it with different energies. It is possible to learn a great deal from the reformists. Very often one can learn much more than from the anti-authoritarian sectarians who take pleasure in marginalizing and in a certain "anti-authoritarian narcissism". Problems, however, occur when the "globalise the resistance" becomes "monopolize the resistance". When the balance between the two spirits becomes disturbed. When the dialogue space becomes narrow. The last WSF was a convincing evidence of the dis-equilibrium relating to the recently ended ESF in Florence. Bureaucratisation of the movement and establishing of the forum bureaucracy is becoming more and more obvious. The danger of turning the "globalisation from below" into "globalisation from the middle" is becoming more clearly discernable. The phenomenon of "NGO-isation of the movement" is increasingly present as connected to BINGO politics (Big International Non Governmental Organizations). Do we really want to create a movement that will resemble a cocktail party in the Plaza Hotel lounge in Porto Alegre? Do we want a movement dominated by middle-aged bureaucrats wearing Palestinian scarves, armed with the memories from 1968 (or 1917)? Do we want social forums with invisible organizers?

./english/373.txt:28:HUB and Intergalactica have promoted an interesting model of an area organizing itself, a laboratory and experiment on social disobedience, organized in the spirit of complete horizontality and breaking of classical "conference" model of political debating. The reproaches directed to HUB, during ESF in Florence, related to the lack of organisation, the neglect of theory and thinking about vision. The new radical activism should not become a permanent global party. Life After Capitalism was envisaged as a forum within the forum that focuses on strategy and political and economic vision and on many dimensions of daily life. The whole occurrence included into the programme the very successful Peoples Global Action conference. The reproaches directed to LAC related to insisting on the classical form of discussion.The new radical activism should not become a permanent global conference.

./english/373.txt:30:All these experiments, with all their virtues and shortcomings, were extremely interesting and deserve attention. But all of them were successfully marginalized. LAC was moved into a suburban country club, while Intergalactica was dislocated into a tent that would have been difficult to find even by Karl May’s Vinetu. Why? My answer is probably a bit dissonant with respect to the angry intonation of most of the authors that have dealt with this problem. Namely, I do not believe that it was an organized political purpose in question. I think it is the bureaucratic myopia that was the issue there, i.e. the bureaucratic dis-interestedness of the forum organizers who did not take us seriously enough. Perhaps the time has come to prove them wrong.

./english/373.txt:34:The lack of democratic approach and of "transparency" (the term favourite with the "civil society" theoreticians) permeates the institution of a forum, the way it is today, at all levels. An appropriate question can be posed here, which even the members of the so-called International Council have no answer to: Who actually organizes these forums? Reading of the list of organizations participating in the IC is like getting through the woods of names of anonymous non-governmental organizations. The IC, as it seems, is a kind of honoured body that only approves the already brought decisions, agreed on probably somewhere along the Paris-Sao Paolo path, that are brought by the OC. What is the OC? I have no idea. Probably the same people who have established the Orwellian Secretariat for Call of the Social Movements which is to be found somewhere in Sao Paolo. The same is valid for the ESF. I was the witness of the preparatory meetings of the ESF, in which the bureaucratic and old left, owing to the experience they had had in such a kind of political struggle, pushed out without difficulty the grassroots initiatives. Thus we bump into an unusual paradox: those who have made this movement interesting and distinctive and who, in a way, are the most deserving for its success, are not adequately represented in its "institutions", in the forums.

./english/374.txt:66:Our Arnerica is integrated by a group of more or less homogeneous countries and in most parts of its territory U.S. monopolist capitals maintain an absolute supremacy. Puppet governments or, in the best of cases, weak and fearful local rulers, are incapable of contradicting orders from their Yankee master. The United States has nearly reached the climax of its political and economic domination; it could hardly advance much more; any change in the situation could bring about a setback. Their policy is to maintain that which has already been conquered. The line of action, at the present time, is limited to the brutal use of force with the purpose of thwarting the liberation movements, no matter of what type they might happen to be.

./english/374.txt:74:But there are special political conditions, particularly in Indo-China, which create in Asia certain characteristics of capital importance and play a decisive role in the entire U.S. military strategy.

./english/374.txt:96:The social and political evolution of Africa does not lead us to expect a continental revolution. The liberation struggle against the Portuguese should end victoriously, but Portugal does not mean anything in the imperialist field. The confrontations of revolutionary importance are those which place at bay all the imperialist apparatus; this does not mean, however, that we should stop fighting for the liberation of the three Portuguese colonies and for the deepening of their revolutions.

./english/374.txt:114:New uprisings shall take place in these and other countries of Our America, as it has already happened in Bolivia, and they shall continue to grow in the midst of all the hardships inherent to this dangerous profession of being modern revolutionaries. Many shall perish, victims of their errors, others shall fall in the touch battle that approaches; new fighters and new leaders shall appear in the warmth of the revolutionary struggle. The people shall create their warriors and leaders in the selective framework of the war itself - and Yankee agents of repression shall increase. Today there are military aids in all the countries where armed struggle is growing; the Peruvian army apparently carried out a successful action against the revolutionaries in that country, an army also trained and advised by the Yankees. But if the focuses of war grow with sufficient political and military insight, they shall become practically invincible and shall force the Yankees to send reinforcements. In Peru itself many new figures, practically unknown, are now reorganizing the guerrilla. Little by little, the obsolete weapons, which are sufficient for the repression of small armed bands, will be exchanged for modern armaments and the U.S. military aids will be substituted by actual fighters until, at a given moment, they are forced to send increasingly greater number of regular troops to ensure the relative stability of a government whose national puppet army is desintegrating before the impetuous attacks of the guerrillas. It is the road of Vietnam it is the road that should be followed by the people; it is the road that will be followed in Our America, with the advantage that the armed groups could create Coordinating Councils to embarrass the repressive forces of Yankee imperialism and accelerate the revolutionary triumph.

./english/375.txt:82:Now let me talk about the working class. Chris is insistent about the priority of the industrial working class as an organisational force and the need for it to exercise political hegemony over other forms of labour.

./english/375.txt:85:There is also an exclusion of the poor, of unemployed. They are not part of the working class. They can be threat to the working class. They have to kept out of the political movement. Marx’s own writings about the lumpenproletariat – at what I consider unfortunate moments in Marx’s writings – do coincide with Chris’s point.

./english/375.txt:87:Harman-Hardt debate/rough transcript 10So unpaid domestic labour is excluded, the poor are excluded. The peasantry also is excluded. There is long tradition of this in Marxist and socialist thought. It is in many senses an unfortunate tradition. The claim was in the 19th century among Marx and Engels that the peasantry and the industrial working class did not have common conditions of labour and that they could not unite politically. The peasantry, he said, because of their incommunicability, their dispersion, could not unite politically, could not act politically. At best – this is the very bad tradition on our shoulders – at best the peasantry can act under the guidance of the industrial working class.

./english/375.txt:90:But we see many movements today that are very properly challenging this. The best examples for me being the Zapatistas, the Sin Tierra and the piqueteros, which are not only objecting to that tradition, the political division, but also demonstrating the utility of organising across that division, of ignoring that division in a way of expanding the notion. The notion of the multitude is an attempt to reconceive for today the concept of the proletariat rather than that of the working class. Because the working class has become an exclusionary concept, whereas proletariat means, at least in its original formulation, all of those whose labour is employed by capital, those who are waged and those who are unwaged, those who work in the fields and those who work in the factories. So this expansion of the notion of the proletariat is what we try to capture with the notion of the multitude.

./english/375.txt:91:It implies, and I can come back to this later, a radical critique of the way most labour unions are organised today, in a corporatist way. Our critique is an attack on the corporatist practices of the unions and an expansion of the political mobilisation of those outside those privileged sectors of the working class, privileged in a series of senses.

./english/375.txt:93:Like I say, Toni and I see multitude as a class concept, as a way of seeing class and its political uses. Generally, people accept the notion there are two conceptions of class. There is one which is usually associated with Marx’s own work which we think of as the unitary model of class. This is grounded in Marx’s work when he continually talked in his work about the tendency in capitalist society for a reduction of class differences so as to tend to a two class model of capitalism, the class of those with nothing to sell but their labour power, the proletariat, and the capitalist class. So Marx talks about the reduction to the two class, or unitary model, with one class of labour.

./english/375.txt:98:What is going on here is that Marx’s unitary model of labour can either be seen as a tendency – that there are many classes, but that the tendency is towards a single class of labour. Or another way of seeing it is that he sees the single class as a political project. It’s not that today there is a single class of labour, but that it could be our political project to create a commonality of labour and to recognise that commonality in political terms. That I think is the way we understand this term the multitude.

./english/375.txt:101:Let me make a few contrasts and I’ll then try to give you what that means in terms of political organisation.

./english/375.txt:102:First5 of all it’s important for us to distinguish the concept of the multitude from the concept of the people. What we mean is that the concept of the people has traditionally been used in political philosophy as unitary concept. In other words, the concept of the people is of a single thing abstracted from the population, and by unitary is meant self identical. National identity comes under that category.

./english/375.txt:112:First of all we saw in Seattle the groups that we thought were objectively antagonistic, contradictory to each other were actually acting in common. The trade unionists, the environmentalist, the gays and lesbians, church groups, the anarchists, the communists, they were actually working together yet keeping their differences. We’ve seen a new model of organising, a model that refuses the contradictory couple of identity and difference, that refuses to say either we all united under the same centralisation or each act individually in our separate parts. What we’ve seen instead is that we have to recognise – we even have difficulty; understanding it at a conceptual level, but we have to understand it at a political level – that we can remain different, that we have to remain different, but that we must act in common. Sometimes this is referred to as a movement of movements, to grasp this notion of our autonomy and our commonality. Sometimes as the notion of network, thinking of the distributive notion of the network of the internet, these various terms have come about independently to try to understand this new model of organising.

./english/375.txt:161:I want to make a critique of the critique, as it were. Many comrades still face to read it as work in progress. They see it a fallen from the sky, rather than as product of work both political and analytical over 30 years.

./english/375.txt:167:When I spoke of the hegemony of immaterial labour over other forms of labour I did not mean a political hegemony of immaterial workers over other workers. I am not trying to

./english/375.txt:169:Harman-Hardt debate/rough transcript 18propose that Microsoft workers in Seattle are going to lead us to the future. It is rather used in an analytical mode to try to recognise how other forms of labour are being transformed, how industry is being informationalised. Even questions of agriculture have much more to do with information. Questions about seeds are questions about information. So various sectors of the economy are becoming informationalised. But there cannot be a hegemony in a political sense of informational workers.

./english/375.txt:205:There are three issues I want to take up. The issue of the subject, of strategy and of political organisation.

./english/375.txt:210:I am from South Africa. I would like to express disappointment about the way this discussion has been conducted. A sharp contrast has been drawn between something called class struggle and something called the multitude. I think both Michael and Chris are to blame for that dichotomy being created. In South Africa what we called the class struggle was a political struggle that involved the race question, the question of nationality, of gender, of land,. of every conceivable kind of issue. What united us was a common sense of what oppressed us.

./english/377.txt:5:At the Asian Social Forum, as at the World Social Forum and other gatherings, the need for strong sovereign states, the need to rebuild the state, to address politics would appear to be central. Also, the difficult negotiations within the diverse groups and locales to find 'political' consensus – to deal first with the big rogue state, the father of all rogue states, and then their own rogue states. Only then can the enormous street confrontations, the valiant successes of people's movements on the ground, push back this new hegemony, the Bush power.

./english/377.txt:10:Brinda Karat, general secretary of the AIDWA, speaking on a panel discussion on TV, referring to the gathering at the Asian Social Forum, said they are resisting the “Empire”. Indeed the gathering of 14,000 persons in Hyderabad, of whom unusually almost half if not more were dalits, and a good proportion of women, apart from those who work with the rights of the most oppressed and excluded, could be seen as a defining moment for the ‘Empire to strike back’ on many counts. As an expression of the vitality of the numerous identities, like dalits, displaced persons, unorganised workers and their ability to share a common space. As an expression of the widespread understanding of the international order, revealing the fact that information on the ‘big picture’ has reached the remote, thus justifying or affirming the value of forums and networks which have worked hard to carry the message of where and how the increasing pressures on dignity and survival are coming from. As a quest for alternatives to the current political and economic regimes and the theories that back them up. And, last but not the least, evidence that civil society has developed the mode and skills to hold international or world conferences outside of the UN’s initiative; an important step forward, as the UN world conferences are beginning to become counterproductive as the conservative forces and the unipolar world debases them.

./english/377.txt:16:A young man, who is part of the electoral reform and accountability campaign, located in Bombay was so overwhelmed by the throbbing, procession and drums and loudspeaker filled campus or fields of the Nizam College – and all so peaceful, no violence at all, no garbage thrown all around like a political party congress, no hierarchies at all, no cars, just space, space and space, and crowds, crowds and crowds milling together, finding their way around – was so captivated with this marvel, he was transformed for life. He realised that what he was doing was just a small corner, compared to where other campaigns had reached.

./english/377.txt:22:They were not deterred by the falling sky. The overpowering march of that great exterminator, the new political face of economic power, Bush and his allies. The impending war against Iraq, the overpowering of the UN as an international arbiter and protector of the sovereignty of nations, the hot pursuit into Pakistan, the incapacity of any other comity of nations to challenge the crushing march of this monolith; the many domestic laws, in the US as well as in all other countries, promulgated as anti-terrorist laws which violate human rights; the hate language built around religion which has given new pugnacity to domestic fundamentalist forces may have been in their consciousness, but there was also a resolve to get on with their work on the ground.

./english/377.txt:24:There were murmurings that the Forum was dominated by the ‘leftists’, while there was also the phenomenon of some left groups publicly dissociating themselves from the Forum. The alliances like the NAPM, the NCL, apart from many others such as the movement spearheaded by Vandana Shiva, bear shades of the Gandhian inspiration. As has been commented upon by many in recent times, the progressives in the India of today are increasingly referring to Gandhi’s political and economic ideas and methods as inspirational. So the alliances of left and Gandhi were not on a collision path or even demeaning or demonising each other as was wont some time ago. Yet the reference to Gandhi had to be muted, as the dalits would dissociate from the explicitly Gandhian presence. Ideological premises, controversial ikons, did not impede the ‘soul’ of the space, the sense of oneness of the gatherings.

./english/377.txt:28:To a criticism that all these alternatives do not add up to a unity, mere celebration of identities, in such diverse contexts and approaches cannot provide the basis for a challenge to the exterminator, there was an interesting reply by a feminist, who was once a member of the CPML, that it was good to be free of a unifying political theory. Belonging to such formal ideologies had been suffocating, as it quelled difference of opinion, debate and transformation. Confusion was good, as it gave the space to form new alliances, shape new formulations, design new approaches, and maybe even new theories to underpin all the alternatives. Unity can be forged, but not forced as was happening before the diverse groups got a shared space to understand their differences and shape their commonality.

./english/377.txt:30:Was there sufficient attention to the post-September 11 reassembled world? Since some of the language was from the old categories of capitalist, imperialist, the analysis also came from the classical mode which divided the global landscape on those lines. The reconfiguration of the world powers, the new hegemony, where location and religion superceded the ownership of capital; where political leaders were unselfconscious in using the language of hate, where the sovereignty of nations was crumbling, and where conservatism in political leadership was being supported by citizens, did not challenge the intellectual speakers to redefine globalisation. It was not moved from its simplistic characteristics of privatisation and liberalisation to its new face of militarisation and unipolarity. Not enough attention was paid to the design of a response, the importance of a comity of sovereign, independent even in economic terms, nations who could challenge this new monolith; thus the importance of building strong states, but with a political leadership which was different from what was in existence. Politicians were denigrated, but the strategy for political alternatives not developed. The potential within the people’s movements for entering the campaigns for electoral reform, for strengthening grass roots democracy, for releasing new energies into formal politics, through campaigns to fill the elected bodies with women, excluded groups, leaders of movements for social justice, what Gandhi called constructive workers was not central to the agenda as the mood was anti-state and therefore anti-politics.

./english/377.txt:32:Perhaps at the World Social Forum and other gatherings the need for strong (not majoritarian nor soft) sovereign states and for configurations like the NAM of old which had a political stance, which distanced itself from the former colonisers, the need to rebuild the state, to address politics would appear central. Also the difficult negotiations within the diverse groups and locales to find ‘political’ consensus to deal with first the big rogue state, the father of all rogue states, and then their own rogue states. Only then the enormous street confrontations, the valiant successes of people’s movements on the ground, can push back this new hegemony, the Bush power.

./english/378.txt:35:The shortage of trained and experienced people, however, is not the main thing. The movement is faced with serious political problems, which went practically undiscussed at the forum. The demonstrations are becoming increasingly massive, but this is in no way equivalent to political success.

./english/378.txt:57:As Russia's recent history shows, authorities can go for years without heeding public opinion while still retaining the appearance of democratic "legitimacy." The West is not Russia, of course. Western politicians have to pay more attention to what their people have to say. But in the past two years, the West has started to look a lot more like the East. The political establishment senses its independence and invulnerability.

./english/378.txt:63:It must figure out how to cooperate with various organizations and agencies, political parties and the press. It must not only win the support of a disorganized public, but the backing of the majority -- people who realize that their very freedom is at stake.

./english/379.txt:16:As the third millennium unfolds, one of the most dramatic technological and economic revolutions in history is advancing a set of processes that are changing everything from the ways that people work to the ways that they communicate with each other and spend their leisure time. The technological revolution centres on computer, information, communication and multimedia technologies. These are key aspects of the production of a new economy, described as postindustrial, post-Fordist and postmodern, accompanied by a networked society and cyberspace, and the juggernaut of globalization. There are, of course, furious debates about how to describe the Great Transformation of the contemporary epoch, whether it is positive and negative, and what are the political prospects for democratization and radical social transformation.[1]

./english/379.txt:20:In this paper, I will engage some issues involving globalization, technological revolution and the alleged rise of a new economy, networked society and cyberspace in relationship to the problematic of revolution and the prospects for a radical democratic or socialist transformation of society. Globalization and the rise of a new computer and information technology-based economy and society is interpreted in both popular and academic literature as a revolution in which new technologies are transforming every mode of life from how individuals do research to how people communicate and interact socially. There is some truth in this notion, but it is also true that the technological revolution perpetuates the interests of the dominant economic and political powers, intensifies divisions between haves and have nots, and is a defining feature of a new and improved form of global technocapitalism.

./english/379.txt:24:Yet even as I argue that there are novelties and discontinuities in the current configuration of economic, political, social and cultural constellations that constitute the contemporary moment, there are also continuities with the previous forms of åmodernπ society to be noted. In particular, the ånewπ economy exhibits crucial features of the åoldπ capitalism such as the driving forces of capital accumulation, competition, commodification, exploitation and the business cycle. From this perspective, globalization and technological revolution are best theorized as forms of the global restructuring of capitalism in which technological development and a turbulent socio-economic transformation are intrinsically interconnected.

./english/379.txt:28:As to whether globalization renders revolution in the classical Marxian tradition obsolete, I would argue that much significant political struggle today, especially resistance to globalization, is mediated by technopolitics. The use of computer and information technology is becoming a normalized aspect of politics, just as the broadcasting media were some decades ago. Deploying computer-mediated technology for technopolitics, however, opens new terrains of political struggle for voices and groups excluded from the mainstream media and thus increases potential for resistance and intervention by oppositional groups. Hence, if revolution is to have a future in the contemporary era it must incorporate technopolitics as part of its strategy, conceiving of technopolitics, however, as an arm of struggle and not an end in and of itself.

./english/379.txt:34:Technopolitics and oppositional political movements

./english/379.txt:38:Significant political struggles today against globalization are mediated by technopolitics, that is the use of new technologies such as computers and the internet to advance political goals. To some extent, politics in the modern era have always been mediated by technology, with the printing press, photography, film, radio and television playing crucial roles in politics and all realms of social life, as McLuhan, Innis, Mumford and others have long argued and documented. In representative democracies participation is mediated by technology, as the disastrous failure of voting machines and the voting-counting process in the US 2000 presidential election dramatized (see Kellner forthcoming).

./english/379.txt:42:What is new about computer and information technology mediated politics is that information can be instantly communicated to large numbers of individuals throughout the world who are connected via computer networks. The internet is also potentially interactive, allowing discussion, debate and on-line and archived discussion. The internet is increasingly multimedia in scope, allowing the dissemination of images, sounds, video and other cultural forms. Moreover, the use of computer technology and networks is becoming a normalized aspect of politics, just as the broadcasting media were some decades ago. The use of computer-mediated technology for technopolitics, however, opens new terrains of political struggle for voices and groups excluded from the mainstream media and thus increases potential for intervention by oppositional groups, potentially expanding the scope of democratization.

./english/379.txt:58:However widespread and common computers and new technologies become, it is clear that they are of essential importance already for labour, politics, education and social life, and that people who want to participate in the public and cultural life of the future will need to have computer access and literacy. Although there is a real threat that the computerization of society will intensify the current inequalities in relations of class, race and gender power, there is also the possibility that a democratized and computerized public sphere might provide opportunities to overcome these injustices. Cyberdemocracy and the internet should be seen therefore as a contested terrain. Radical democratic activists should look to its possibilities for resistance and the advancement of political education, action and organization, while engaging in struggles over the digital divide. Dominant corporate and state powers, as well as conservative and rightist groups, have been making sustained use of new technologies to advance their agendas. If forces struggling for democratization and social justice want to become players in the cultural and political battles of the future, they must devise ways to use new technologies to advance a radical democratic and ecological agenda and the interests of the oppressed.

./english/379.txt:62:There are by now copious examples of how the internet and cyberdemocracy have been used within oppositional political movements. A large number of insurgent intellectuals are already making use of new technologies and public spheres in their political projects. The peasants and guerrilla armies who formed the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, beginning in January 1994 used computer databases, guerrilla radio and other forms of media to circulate their ideas and to promote their cause. Every manifesto, text and bulletin produced by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation who occupied land in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas was immediately circulated through the world via computer networks.[5]

./english/379.txt:70:Seeing the progressive potential of advanced communication technologies in revolutionary struggle, Frantz Fanon (1967) described the central role of the radio in the Algerian revolution, and Lenin stressed the importance of film in spreading communist ideology after the Bolshevik revolution. Audiotapes were used to advance the insurrection in Iran and to disseminate alternative information by political movements throughout the world (see Downing 1984 and 2000). The Tienanman Square democracy movement in China and various groups struggling against the remnants of Stalinism in the former communist bloc used computer bulletin boards and networks, as well as a variety of forms of communications, to promote their movements. Anti-NAFTA groups made extensive use of the new communications technology (see Brenner 1994 and Fredericks 1994). Such multinational networking and distribution of information failed to stop NAFTA, but created alliances useful for the politics of the future. As Nick Dyer-Witheford notes:

./english/379.txt:78:Thus, using new technologies to link information and practice and to advance oppositional politics is neither extraneous to political battles nor merely utopian. Even if immediate gains are not won, often the information circulated or the alliances formed can have material effects. There are, moreover, striking examples of how internet-centred organizing campaigns effectively worked against the institutions and corporations of capitalist globalization. Successful struggles against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in 1995-1998 involved websites and e-mail campaigns against the US-supported effort to develop binding rules on how states treat foreign investors and list-serves linking the groups struggling against the åagreementπ. Obviously, the internet alone did not defeat this initiative for capitalist globalization, but it enabled the non-government organizations fighting against it to circulate information, share resources and link their struggles (see Smith and Smythe 2000).

./english/379.txt:94:On the whole, labour organizations, such as the North South Dignity of Labor group, note that computer networks are useful for organizing and distributing information, but cannot replace print media, which are more accessible to many of their members, face-to-face meetings and traditional forms of political action. Thus, the challenge is to articulate one's communications politics with actual movements and struggles so that cyberpolitics is an arm of real battles rather than their replacement or substitute. The most efficacious internet projects have indeed intersected with activist movements encompassing campaigns to free political prisoners, boycotts of corporate projects, and various labour and even revolutionary struggles, as noted above.

./english/379.txt:120:The new movements against globalization from above have thus placed the issues of global justice, democracy and the environment squarely in the centre of the political concerns of our time. Hence, whereas the mainstream media had failed to vigorously debate or even report on globalization until the recent past, and rarely, if ever, critically discussed the activities of the WTO, World Bank and IMF, there is now a widely circulating critical discourse and controversy regarding these institutions. Stung by criticisms, representatives of the World Bank, in particular, are pledging reform. Pressures are mounting concerning proper and improper roles for the major global institutions, highlighting their limitations and deficiencies, and the need for reforms like debt relief for overburdened developing countries to solve some of their fiscal and social problems.

./english/379.txt:130:A key to developing a robust technopolitics is articulation, the mediation of technopolitics with real problems and struggles, rather than self-contained reflections on the internal politics of the internet.[10] The Zapatista movement in Chiapas is addressing problems of survival and transforming social, cultural, political and economic conditions, using new technologies as an instrument of political struggle. Likewise, the campaigns against major capitalist corporations and the institutions of capitalist globalization are attempting to advance progressive political agendas and to engage key issues of the day.

./english/379.txt:138:Clearly, right-wing and reactionary forces can and have used the internet to promote their political agendas as well. In a short time, one can easily access an exotic witch's brew of websites maintained by the Ku Klux Klan and myriad neo-Nazi assemblages, including the Aryan Nation and various militia groups. internet discussion lists also disperse these views and right-wing extremists are aggressively active on many computer forums, as well as radio programmes and stations, public access television programmes, fax campaigns, video and even rock music productions. These organizations are hardly harmless, having carried out terrorism of various sorts extending from church burnings to the bombings of public buildings. Adopting quasi-Leninist discourse and tactics for ultraright causes, these groups have been successful in recruiting working-class members devastated by the developments of global capitalism which has resulted in widespread unemployment for traditional forms of industrial, agricultural and unskilled labour. Moreover, extremist websites have influenced alienated middle-class youth as well (a 1999 HBO documentary on Hate on the Internet provides a disturbing number of examples of how extremist websites influenced disaffected youth to commit hate crimes).

./english/379.txt:146:Different political groups are in fact engaging in cyberwar as adjuncts of their political battles. Israeli hackers have repeatedly attacked the websites of Hezbollah, while pro-Palestine hackers have reportedly placed militant demands and slogans on the websites of Israelπs army, foreign ministry and parliament. Likewise, Pakistani and Indian computer hackers have waged similar cyberbattles against opposing forcesπ websites in the bloody struggle over Kashmir, while rebel forces in the Philippines taunt government troops with cell phone calls and messages and attack government websites.

./english/379.txt:152:The internet is thus a contested terrain, used by the left, right and centre to advance their own agendas and interests. The political battles of the future may well be fought in the streets, factories, parliaments and other sites of past conflicts, but all political struggle is now mediated by media, computer and information technologies and increasingly will be so. Those interested in the politics and culture of the future should therefore be clear on the important role of the new public spheres and act accordingly.

./english/379.txt:156:Active citizens thus need to acquire new forms of technological literacy to intervene in the new public spheres of the media and information society. In addition to traditional literacy skills centred upon reading, writing and speaking, engaged citizens and public intellectuals need to learn to use the new technologies to engage the public and participate in democratic discussion and debate.[12] Computer and digital technologies thus expand the field and capacities of the intellectual as well as the possibilities for political intervention. During the Age of Big Media, critical-oppositional intellectuals were by and large marginalized, unable to gain access to the major sites of mass communication. With the decentralization of the internet, however, new possibilities for public intellectuals exist to reach broad audiences. It is therefore the responsibility of the active citizen to creatively work with these new technologies, as well as to critically analyze the diverse developments of the cyberculture. This requires dialectical thinking that discriminates between the benefits and the costs, the upsides and downsides, of new technologies and devising ways that the technological revolution can be used to promote positive values like education, democracy, enlightenment and ecology. Active citizens thus face new challenges, and the future of democracy depends in part on whether new technologies will be used for domination or democratization, and whether each individual will sit on the sidelines or participate in the development of new democratic public spheres.

./english/379.txt:164:This study has suggested that in the era of globalization and the internet political struggles are at once local and global, that there are continuities and discontinuities with struggles and movements of the past, and that we can therefore continue to draw on the most progressive ideas of the modern tradition while also developing new concepts of politics and new strategies for social transformation. A revolution of the future needs to articulate models and ideals of a post-capitalist economy, a radical democratic polity, an egalitarian and socially just multicultural society, and diverse, free and open culture. Ideals of the past can and no doubt will enter into revolutionary thought of the future, but new ideals, values and forms of everyday life will no doubt emerge. The future of revolution is thus open and requires new theory and practice as well as appropriation of the best progressive heritages of the past.

./english/379.txt:172:[1] This study and the concepts of globalization and technological revolution developed here are grounded in the studies of Best and Kellner, forthcoming. By årevolutionπ, I am assuming a concept of fundamental economic, political, social and cultural transformation, such as was developed in the works of Herbert Marcuse. See Kellner 1984 and the six volumes of Marcuse's collected and largely unpublished papers that I am publishing with Routledge.

./english/379.txt:182:[6] There was, however, an assassination of Zapatista supporters by local death squads in early 1998 -- which once again triggered significant internet-generated pressures on the Mexican government to prosecute the perpetrators. Likewise, there has been ongoing government repression and sporadic violence, although, so far, the kind of massive repression of the movement favoured by many in the Mexican military and political establishment has been avoided. I should also mention here the incredibly conflicting interpretations of the Zapatista movement by its supporters and detractors, and the problem that it has been given iconic significance with all the attendant mythologization in the contemporary era. For my purposes, it represents a strong example of how new technologies can be used as an arm of political struggle and how computer-mediated technologies can help generate global support networks and circulate information of revolutionary struggles and movements.

./english/379.txt:218:Cleaver, H. (1994) åThe Chiapas uprisingπ, Studies in Political Economy 44: 141-57.

./english/379.txt:244:______. (1997) åIntellectuals, the new public spheres, and technopoliticsπ, New Political Science 41-42 (Fall): 169-88.

./english/380.txt:13:Moreover, advocates of a postmodern break in history argue that developments in transnational capitalism are producing a new global historical configuration of post-Fordism, or postmodernism as an emergent cultural logic of capitalism (Harvey 1989; Soja 1989; Jameson 1991; and Gottdiener 1995). Others define the emergent global economy and culture as a "network society" grounded in new communications and information technology (Castells 1996, 1997, and 1998). For others, globalization marks the triumph of capitalism and its market economy (see apologists such as Fukuyama 1992 and Friedman 1999 who perceive this process as positive, while others portray it as negative, such as Mander and Goldsmith 1996; Eisenstein 1998; and Robins and Webster 1999). Some theorists see the emergence of a new transnational ruling elite and the universalization of consumerism (Sklair 2001), while others stress global fragmentation of “the clash of civilizations” (Huntington 1996). Driving “post” discourses into novel realms of theory and politics, Hardt and Negri (2000) present the emergence of “Empire” as producing emergent forms of sovereignty, economy, culture, and political struggle that open the new millennium to an unforeseeable and unpredictable flow of novelties, surprises, and upheavals.

./english/380.txt:17: Indeed, globalization is one of the most hotly debated issues of the present era. For some, it is a cover concept for global capitalism and imperialism, and is accordingly condemned as another form of the imposition of the logic of capital and the market on ever more regions of the world and spheres of life. For others, it is the continuation of modernization and a force of progress, increased wealth, freedom, democracy, and happiness. Its defenders present globalization as beneficial, generating fresh economic opportunities, political democratization, cultural diversity, and the opening to an exciting new world. Its critics see globalization as harmful, bringing about increased domination and control by the wealthier overdeveloped nations over the poor underdeveloped countries, thus increasing the hegemony of the “haves” over the “have nots.” In addition, supplementing the negative view, globalization critics assert that globalization produces an undermining of democracy, a cultural homogenization, and increased destruction of natural species and the environment.[2] Some imagine the globalization project -- whether viewed positively or negatively -- as inevitable and beyond human control and intervention, whereas others view globalization as generating new conflicts and new spaces for struggle, distinguishing between globalization from above and globalization from below (and Brecher, Costello, and Smith 2000).

./english/380.txt:21: I wish to sketch aspects of a critical theory of globalization that will discuss the fundamental transformations in the world economy, politics, and culture in a dialectical framework that distinguishes between progressive and emancipatory features and oppressive and negative attributes. This requires articulations of the contradictions and ambiguities of globalization and the ways that globalization is both imposed from above and yet can be contested and reconfigured from below. I argue that the key to understanding globalization critically is theorizing it at once as a product of technological revolution and the global restructuring of capitalism in which economic, technological, political, and cultural features are intertwined. From this perspective, one should avoid both technological and economic determinism and all one-sided optics of globalization in favor of a view that theorizes globalization as a highly complex, contradictory, and thus ambiguous set of institutions and social relations, as well as involving flows of goods, services, ideas, technologies, cultural forms, and people (see Appadurai 1996).

./english/380.txt:73: Some poststructuralist theories that stress the complexity of globalization exaggerate the disjunctions and autonomous flows of capital, technology, culture, people, and goods, thus a critical theory of globalization grounds globalization in a theory of capitalist restructuring and technological revolution. To paraphrase Max Horkheimer, whoever wants to talk about capitalism, must talk about globalization, and it is impossible to theorize globalization without talking about the restructuring of capitalism. The term "technocapitalism" is useful to describe the synthesis of capital and technology in the present organization of society (Kellner 1989a). Unlike theories of postmodernity (i.e. Baudrillard), or the knowledge and information society, which often argue that technology is the new organizing principle of society, the concept of technocapitalism points to both the increasingly important role of technology and the enduring primacy of capitalist relations of production. In an era of unrestrained capitalism, it would be difficult to deny that contemporary societies are still organized around production and capital accumulation, and that capitalist imperatives continue to dominate production, distribution, and consumption, as well as other cultural, social and political domains.[3] Workers remain exploited by capitalists and capital persists as the hegemonic force -- more so than ever after the collapse of communism.

./english/380.txt:85: Today, critical theorists confront the challenge of theorizing the new forms of technocapitalism and novelties of the present era constructed by syntheses of technology and capital in the emergence of a new stage of global capitalism. The notion of technocapitalism attempts to avoid technological or economic determinism by guiding theorists to perceive the interaction of capital and technology in the present moment. Capital is generating innovative forms of technology just as its restructuring is producing novel configurations of a networked global economy, culture, and polity. In terms of political economy, the emergent postindustrial form of technocapitalism is characterized by a decline of the state and increased power of the market, accompanied by the growing power of globalized transnational corporations and governmental bodies and declining power of the nation-state and its institutions -- which remain, however, extremely important players in the global economy, as the responses to the terror attacks of September 11 document.

./english/380.txt:101: The experience of September 11 points to the objective ambiguity of globalization, that positive and negative sides are interconnected, that the institutions of the open society unlock the possibilities of destruction and violence, as well as democracy, free trade, and cultural and social exchange. Once again, the interconnection and interdependency of the networked world was dramatically demonstrated as terrorists from the Middle East brought local grievances from their region to attack key symbols of American power and the very infrastructure of New York. Some saw terrorism as an expression of “the dark side of globalization,” while I would conceive it as part of the objective ambiguity of globalization that simultaneously creates friends and enemies, wealth and poverty, and growing divisions between the “haves” and “have nots.” Yet, the downturning of the global economy, intensification of local and global political conflicts, repression of human rights and civil liberties, and general increase in fear and anxiety have certainly undermined the naïve optimism of globaphiles who perceived globalization as a purely positive instrument of progress and well-being.

./english/380.txt:113: In any case, the events of September 11 have promoted a fury of reflection, theoretical debates, and political conflicts and upheaval that put the complex dynamics of globalization at the center of contemporary theory and politics. To those skeptical of the centrality of globalization to contemporary experience, it is now clear that we are living in a global world that is highly interconnected and vulnerable to passions and crises that can cross borders and can effect anyone or any region at any time. The events of September 11 also provide a test case to evaluate various theories of globalization and the contemporary era. In addition, they highlight some of the contradictions of globalization and the need to develop a highly complex and dialectical model to capture its conflicts, ambiguities, and contradictory effects.

./english/380.txt:117: Consequently, I want to argue that in order to properly theorize globalization one needs to conceptualize several sets of contradictions generated by globalization's combination of technological revolution and restructuring of capital, which in turn generate tensions between capitalism and democracy, and “haves” and “have nots.” Within the world economy, globalization involves the proliferation of the logic of capital, but also the spread of democracy in information, finance, investing, and the diffusion of technology (see Friedman 1999 and Hardt and Negri 2000). Globalization is thus a contradictory amalgam of capitalism and democracy, in which the logic of capital and the market system enter ever more arenas of global life, even as democracy spreads and more political regions and spaces of everyday life are being contested by democratic demands and forces. But the overall process is contradictory. Sometimes globalizing forces promote democracy and sometimes inhibit it, thus either equating capitalism and democracy, or simply opposing them, are problematical. These tensions are especially evident, as I will argue, in the domain of the Internet and the expansion of new realms of technologically-mediated communication, information, and politics.

./english/380.txt:133: My intention is to present globalization as conflictual, contradictory and open to resistance and democratic intervention and transformation and not just as a monolithic juggernaut of progress or domination as in many discourses. This goal is advanced by distinguishing between "globalization from below" and the "globalization from above" of corporate capitalism and the capitalist state, a distinction that should help us to get a better sense of how globalization does or does not promote democratization. "Globalization from below" refers to the ways in which marginalized individuals and social movements resist globalization and/or use its institutions and instruments to further democratization and social justice. While on one level, globalization significantly increases the supremacy of big corporations and big government, it can also give power to groups and individuals that were previously left out of the democratic dialogue and terrain of political struggle. Such potentially positive effects of globalization include increased access to education for individuals excluded from entry to culture and knowledge and the possibility of oppositional individuals and groups to participate in global culture and politics through gaining access to global communication and media networks and to circulate local struggles and oppositional ideas through these media. The role of new technologies in social movements, political struggle, and everyday life forces social movements to reconsider their political strategies and goals and democratic theory to appraise how new technologies do and do not promote democratization (Kellner 1997 and 1999b).

./english/380.txt:137: In their magisterial book Empire, Hardt and Negri (2000) present contradictions within globalization in terms of an imperializing logic of “Empire” and an assortment of struggles by the multitude, creating a contradictory and tension-full situation. As in my conception, Hardt and Negri present globalization as a complex process that involves a multidimensional mixture of expansions of the global economy and capitalist market system, new technologies and media, expanded judicial and legal modes of governance, and emergent modes of power, sovereignty, and resistance.[6] Combining poststructuralism with “autonomous Marxism,” Hardt and Negri stress political openings and possibilities of struggle within Empire in an optimistic and buoyant text that envisages progressive democratization and self-valorization in the turbulent process of the restructuring of capital.

./english/380.txt:141:Many theorists, by contrast, have argued that one of the trends of globalization is depoliticization of publics, the decline of the nation-state, and end of traditional politics (Boggs 2000). While I would agree that globalization is promoted by tremendously powerful economic forces and that it often undermines democratic movements and decision-making, I would also argue that there are openings and possibilities for both a globalization from below that inflects globalization for positive and progressive ends, and that globalization can thus help promote as well as undermine democracy.[7] Globalization involves both a disorganization and reorganization of capitalism, a tremendous restructuring process, which creates openings for progressive social change and intervention. In a more fluid and open economic and political system, oppositional forces can gain concessions, win victories, and effect progressive changes. During the 1970s, new social movements, new non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and new forms of struggle and solidarity emerged that have been expanding to the present day (Hardt and Negri 2000; Burbach 2001; and Foran, forthcoming).

./english/380.txt:145: The present conjuncture, I would suggest, is marked by a conflict between growing centralization and organization of power and wealth in the hands of the few contrasted with opposing processes exhibiting a fragmentation of power that is more plural, multiple, and open to contestation than was previously the case. As the following analysis will suggest, both tendencies are observable and it is up to individuals and groups to find openings for political intervention and social transformation. Thus, rather than just denouncing globalization, or engaging in celebration and legitimation, a critical theory of globalization reproaches those aspects that are oppressive, while seizing upon opportunities to fight domination and exploitation and to promote democratization, justice, and a progressive reconstruction of the polity, society, and culture.

./english/380.txt:201: The new movements against capitalist globalization have thus placed the issues of global justice and environmental destruction squarely in the center of important political concerns of our time. Hence, whereas the mainstream media had failed to vigorously debate or even report on globalization until the eruption of a vigorous anti-globalization movement, and rarely, if ever, critically discussed the activities of the WTO, World Bank and IMF, there is now a widely circulating critical discourse and controversy over these institutions. Stung by criticisms, representatives of the World Bank, in particular, are pledging reform and pressures are mounting concerning proper and improper roles for the major global institutions, highlighting their limitations and deficiencies, and the need for reforms like debt relief from overburdened developing countries to solve some of their fiscal and social problems.

./english/380.txt:209: Of course, rightwing and reactionary forces can and have used the Internet to promote their political agendas as well. In a short time, one can easily access an exotic witch's brew of Web-sites maintained by the Ku Klux Klan, myriad neo-Nazi assemblages, including the Aryan Nation and various militia groups. Internet discussion lists also disperse these views and rightwing extremists are aggressively active on many computer forums, as well as radio programs and stations, public access television programs, fax campaigns, video and even rock music productions. These organizations are hardly harmless, having carried out terrorism of various sorts extending from church burnings to the bombings of public buildings. Adopting quasi-Leninist discourse and tactics for ultraright causes, these groups have been successful in recruiting working-class members devastated by the developments of global capitalism, which has resulted in widespread unemployment for traditional forms of industrial, agricultural, and unskilled labor. Moreover, extremist Web-sites have influenced alienated middle-class youth as well (a 1999 HBO documentary on Hate on the Internet provides a disturbing number of examples of how extremist Web-sites influenced disaffected youth to commit hate crimes).

./english/380.txt:217: There have been widespread discussions of how the bin Laden Al Qaeda network used the Internet to plan the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., how the group communicated with each other, got funds and purchased airline tickets via the Internet, and used flight simulations to practice their hijacking. In the contemporary era, the Internet can thus be used for a diversity of political projects and goals ranging from education, to business, to political organization and debate, to terrorism.

./english/380.txt:221: Moreover, different political groups are engaging in cyberwar as adjuncts of their political battles. Israeli hackers have repeatedly attacked the Web-sites of Hezbollah, while pro-Palestine hackers have reportedly placed militant demands and slogans on the Web-sites of Israel’s army, foreign ministry, and parliament. Likewise, Pakistani and Indian computer hackers have waged similar cyberbattles against opposing forces Web-sites in the bloody struggle over Kashmir, while rebel forces in the Philippines taunt government troops with cell-phone calls and messages and attack government Web-sites.

./english/380.txt:229: The Internet is thus a contested terrain, used by Left, Right, and Center to promote their own agendas and interests. The political battles of the future may well be fought in the streets, factories, parliaments, and other sites of past struggle, but politics is already mediated by broadcast, computer, and information technologies and will increasingly be so in the future. Those interested in the politics and culture of the future should therefore be clear on the important role of the new public spheres and intervene accordingly, while critical pedagogues have the responsibility of teaching students the skills that will enable them to participate in the politics and struggles of the present and future.

./english/380.txt:236: And so, to paraphrase Foucault, wherever there is globalization-from-above, globalization as the imposition of capitalist logic, there can be resistance and struggle. The possibilities of globalization-from-below result from transnational alliances between groups fighting for better wages and working conditions, social and political justice, environmental protection, and more democracy and freedom worldwide. In addition, a renewed emphasis on local and grassroots movements have put dominant economic forces on the defensive in their own backyard and often the broadcasting media or the Internet have called attention to oppressive and destructive corporate policies on the local level, putting national and even transnational pressure upon major corporations for reform. Moreover, proliferating media and the Internet make possible a greater circulation of struggles and the possibilities of new alliances and solidarities that can connect resistant forces who oppose capitalist and corporate-state elite forms of globalization-from-above (Dyer-Witheford 1999).

./english/380.txt:264: As I have argued in this study, the term "globalization" is often used as a code word that stands for a tremendous diversity of issues and problems and that serves as a front for a variety of theoretical and political positions. While it can function as a legitimating ideology to cover over and sanitize ugly realities, a critical globalization theory can inflect the discourse to point precisely to these deplorable phenomena and can elucidate a series of contemporary problems and conflicts. In view of the different concepts and functions of globalization discourse, it is important to note that the concept of globalization is a theoretical construct that varies according to the assumptions and commitments of the theory in question. Seeing the term globalization as a construct helps rob it of its force of nature, as a sign of an inexorable triumph of market forces and the hegemony of capital, or, as the extreme right fears, of a rapidly encroaching world government. While the term can both describe and legitimate capitalist transnationalism and supranational government institutions, a critical theory of globalization does not buy into ideological valorizations and affirms difference, resistance, and democratic self-determination against forms of global domination and subordination.

./english/380.txt:268: Globalization should thus be seen as a contested terrain with opposing forces attempting to use its institutions, technologies, media, and forms for their own purposes. There are certainly negative aspects to globalization which strengthen elite economic and political forces over and against the underlying population, but, as I suggested above, there are also positive possibilities. Other beneficial openings include the opportunity for greater democratization, increased education and health care, and new opportunities within the global economy that open entry to members of races, regions, and classes previously excluded from mainstream economics, politics, and culture within the modern corporate order.

./english/382.txt:17:Still others who attended that first forum were refugees from doctrinaire Communist parties who had finally faced the fact that the socialist "utopias" of Eastern Europe had turned into centralized, bureaucratic and authoritarian nightmares. And outnumbering all of these veteran activists was a new and energetic generation of young people who had never trusted politicians, and were finding their own political voice on the streets of Seattle, Prague and Sao Paulo.

./english/382.txt:21:The World Social Forum didn't produce a political blueprint — a good start — but there was a clear pattern to the alternatives that emerged. Politics had to be less about trusting well-meaning leaders, and more about empowering people to make their own decisions; democracy had to be less representative and more participatory. The ideas flying around included neighborhood councils, participatory budgets, stronger city governments, land reform and co-operative farming — a vision of politicized communities that could be networked internationally to resist further assaults from the IMF, the World Bank and World Trade Organization. For a left that had tended to look to centralized state solutions to solve almost every problem, this emphasis on decentralization and direct participation was a breakthrough.

./english/382.txt:29:For some, the hijacking of the forum is proof that the movements against corporate globalization are finally maturing and "getting serious." But is it really so mature, amidst the graveyard of failed, left political projects, to believe that change will come by casting your ballot for the latest charismatic leader, then crossing your fingers and hoping for the best? Get serious.

./english/383.txt:18:Goldman, Michael (Ed.). 1998. Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global

./english/383.txt:20:Examines the reasons behind the political resurgence of the commons and the

./english/383.txt:54:Discusses the political economy of international negotiations over global

./english/383.txt:131:Political perspective on the commons as "a broad metaphor … (applying) to all

./english/383.txt:199:Sandler, Todd. 1997. Global Challenges: An Approach to Environmental, Political and

./english/383.txt:201:Economic and policy approach to environmental, political and economic global

./english/385.txt:21:Yet several experienced activists of color in the Bay Area who had even been offered full scholarships chose not to go. A major reason for not participating, and the reason given by many others, was lack of knowledge about the WTO. As one Filipina said, "I didn't see the political significance of it how the protest would be anti-imperialist. We didn't know anything about the WTO except that lots of people were going to the meeting." One of the few groups that did feel informed, and did participate, was the hip-hop group Company of Prophets. According to African American member Rashidi Omari of Oakland, this happened as a result of their attending teach-ins by predominantly white groups like Art and Revolution. Company of Prophets, rapping from a big white van, was in the front ranks of the 6 a.m. march that closed down the WTO on November 30.

./english/385.txt:45:Yet if only a small number of people of color went to Seattle, all those with whom I spoke found the experience extraordinary. They spoke of being changed forever. "I saw the future." "I saw the possibility of people working together." They called the giant mobilization "a shot in the arm," if you had been feeling stagnant. "Being there was an incredible awakening." Naomi, a Filipina dancer and musician, recalled how "at first a lot of my group were tired, grumpy, wanting to go home. That really changed. One of the artists with us, who never considered herself a political activist, now wants to get involved back in Oakland. Seattle created a lot of strong bonds in my small community of coworkers and friends."

./english/386.txt:11:The changes that have encompassed the world in the recent past have obviously not left India unaffected. These changes are the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the end of the cold war, the emergence of the uni-polar world, marginalised role of the UN system and the victory of the neo-liberal economic and political agenda. These have affected India's domestic economy and political structures and policies.

./english/386.txt:36:Between 1980 and 1991, India's external debt increased from Rs.15.5 bn to Rs.1004.25 bn, an increase of 547% in just 11 years. This again excludes the defence debt and short-term debt of less than six months duration. Since the adoption of the SAP, figures rose rapidly to Rs.1990 bn by March 1992 and Rs.2440 bn by September 1992 ($87 bn) (Economic and Political Weekly 6 March 1993 and 5 June 1993). The annual report of the Reserve Bank of India (1993) states that between March 1990 and March 1993, the foreign debt increased from $61.5 bn to $89.5 bn, that is, in rupee terms it represented a jump from Rs.1059.04 bn to Rs.2800.76 bn in just three years. In 1998-99 the external debt is $95.2 bn. This means the repayment problem is more intractable today than it was in 1991. And currently the ratio of debt service payments to export of goods and services is 30.8%, which is about Rs.250 bn. India is now the third highest indebted country in the world, and every Indian family has to pay Rs.1,400 p.a. ($ 38) to foreign powers for serving the debt alone. In 1993, the debt servicing was about $8.2 bn, including $3.3 bn in interest payments.

./english/386.txt:100:Political Implications

./english/386.txt:101:There are serious political consequences inherent in the emerging nexus between new institutional arrangements, new values and new individual drives through which people are being `marketised'. Quite apart from the decline in the role of the State in preserving spaces for the underprivileged and protecting peoples and cultures from globalising trends, there is the danger of the whole normative framework of democracy being undermined.

./english/386.txt:117:The frightening fact is that the political parties in India were unable to offer any credible resistance to Globalisation and there now seems to be a consensus amongst these parties on the issues of Globalisation though the perception on the issue differ among themselves. The differences are on specific programmes, measures to be taken, sectors of investment, etc. However organised trade unions related to different political parties offered resistance to the onslaught ofd Global capitalism by differing from their respective party positions.

./english/386.txt:139:The various social movements in the country have effectively challenged the neo-liberal paradigm which more or less uniformly marginalised communities of people from resources and power. The neo-liberal globalist vision of governance through "market" faces serious challenge and the re-emergence of new politics that requires the construction of new kinds of social and political institutions which will create a real space for the articulation and mobilisation of the poor and the most socially oppressed sections of society.

./english/386.txt:160:Several publications were brought out for the purpose. These addressed many misconceptions spread by the mainstream political forces representing the elite, including the ruling party and the parliamentary opposition. For example, the myths of health and health care and role of MNCs, the myths of Dunkel and GATT, World Bank, IMF and SAP, myths of free trade and markets.

./english/387.txt:13:The second factor is their embrace of a national socio-political agenda. In discussions with many peasant leaders at the CLOC conference (as well as in prior meetings over the past 5 years) the fundamental issue was “self-determination,” the idea that only the farmworkers through their own organizations can liberate themselves. The FENOC in Ecuador, the MST in Brazil and the Paraguayan Peasant Federation, all of which have played a major role in shaping the national debate on agrarian reform, emerged from peasant organizing from below, developed their own structures and leaders, and were not beholden to any party.

./english/387.txt:20:In Brazil, the MST has settled over 150,000 families representing almost a million people on uncultivated lands through direct action—land occupation movements. Through actions in 21 states the MST has pushed land-reform to the center of political debate. One indicator of its success is found in recent polls in Sao Paulo (Brazil’s largest city) which indicate that over 75 percent of the population support land distribution favoring landless farm workers.

./english/387.txt:28:The contemporary peasant movements are not comparable to past movements, nor do they fit the stereotype of local, traditional, illiterate peasants struggling for “land to the tiller.” Most of the peasant and Indian delegates at the CLOC Congress were educated (both self-taught and with at least six years of formal schooling) and aware of national and international issues. The new peasant movements have a national agenda: they are not solely concerned with rural issues. More specifically they are aware that land distribution policies can only succeed with credit, technical assistance, and protected markets. They recognize that political alliances with urban classes and organizations is necessary in order to transform the regime. They are not simply “economic organizations.” They are socio-political movements, struggling against the free market policies of privatization, de-regulation, and export promotion. The rural movements have formed political alliances with trade unions and have contributed to the organization of urban slum dwellers. The general strikes that rocked Ecuador in February 1997, Brazil in June 1996, Bolivia in December 1996 for example, were based on peasant-Indian-trade union alliances.

./english/387.txt:34:The upsurge of the new peasant movements faces important challenges that were raised in both the formal sessions and informal discussions. For example, one of the slogans of the conference was “agrarian reform, anti-imperialism, and socialism,” yet the representatives of the Guatemalan organization (CONIC) told me that it was impossible to raise any of those issues in Guatemala. “The mass terror and the continual operation of the paramilitary death squads still weigh heavily on the peasants.” The peace accords signed by the guerrilla commanders left the genocidal generals immune to any prosecution. The emerging electoral political system is still linked to the state institution of violence (army, judiciary, and secret police) which have been only given a facelift, renamed, their personnel reshuffled.

./english/387.txt:36:“The highest priority is to create an umbrella organization for the dozen or so peasant organization that have emerged in recent years. We have to temper our activity as to not endanger the precarious and very limited political space that we occupy,” one peasant leader commented. U.S. AID has utilized its rural funding to create rival organizations to the militant peasant movements and to encourage groups to think in terms of “projects” not agrarian reform.

./english/387.txt:43:What became clear, however, in the course of the discussions was a profound difference between these militants and the public figures that the Western mass media present as “Indian spokes people.” For example, the Bolivians spoke disparagingly of the so-called “Quechua-speaking vice-president” who talks to the Indians and works for the rich foreigners. The Guatemalans were very critical of Rigoberta Menchu for her embrace of symbolic “Mayan” cultural changes divorced from the larger political-economic and human rights issues. And the Ecuadorean FONIC-I leaders spoke critically of two Indian leaders of the umbrella CONAI movement who were co-opted by the corrupt free market Bucaram regime. The leaders of the Indian movements at the CLOC congress were not falling victim to the “cultural identity” politics designed to divide and co-opt local leaders in order to undercut the movement’s demands for land rights.

./english/387.txt:64:In Peru, the Peasant Confederation of Peru (CCP) is in the process of regrouping forces, battered by assassinations by the Fujimori regime, Sendero Luminoso the fanatical Maoist sect, and the political divisions provoked by the Leftist electoral parties cannibalizing members. In some regions the CCP has organized “rondas campesinos,” peasant self-defense groups to resist paramilitary forces and the “exemplary actions” of Sendero sectarians. Lopez and other peasants are critical of the trajectory of former movement leaders who gain elected office. “The closer to parliament the further from the people.”

./english/387.txt:75:Peasants have learned from the past that even well meaning progressive professionals have used their support for peasants to build a political or lucrative professional career as a foreign consultant or expert. That doesn’t mean that peasants are turning their back on intellectuals or professionals. The main difference is that they want the intellectuals to be resource people for the movements, rather than the movements serving the intellectuals and professionals as sources for outside grants.

./english/387.txt:80:The most promising aspect of the new peasant movements is their understanding of the limits of strictly “peasant movements” confined to rural struggles. All of the major peasant movements are making a concerted effort to build an urban base of support and to coordinate rural and urban struggles. In Ecuador, FENOC is involved in the struggle to elect a constitutional assembly, reflecting the interests of the urban and rural poor. The Paraguayan Peasant Federation has formed an Agrarian Reform Forum including students, professionals, and businesspeople. They have expanded their political horizons to oppose free market capitalism and the narco-capitalist elite. In Bolivia the coca farmers have formed a new electoral party, the Alliance for the Sovereignty of the People. It swept to victory in all the coca growing countries, gathering over 60 percent of the vote and electing Evo Morales to Congress.

./english/387.txt:82:In Brazil the MST has begun a systematic effort to organize the giant favelas or slum settlements that surround Sao Paulo, Rio, and other major cities. They have found great receptivity among the favelados, mainly because of their successful rural struggles and the fact that most favelados are recent emigrants from the countryside. The MST is not only focussing on immediate demands for land titles and infrastructure (lights, water, paved roads, public transport, etc.), but also on political education through leadership training schools and the development of an anti-­capitalist perspective based on an understanding of the exploitative nature of financial and real estate capital. They hope to avoid the previous pattern where local leaders who led a courageous struggle, then got themselves elected to the City Council, and subsequently built electoral machines based on clientelistic politics.

./english/387.txt:84:The MST sees their urban organizing project as part of a national political struggle. To that end, they have formulated a program called “Project Brazil” which is based on a reversal of all the major free market counter-reforms: the re-nationalization of basic industries (petroleum, telecommunications, etc.), the socialization of the strategic heights of the economy—banking, foreign trade and an integral agrarian reform, which limits cheap exports and promotes linkages between cooperatives and industrial food processing plants.

./english/388.txt:33:There is a sixth conflict which is not fully articulated in the book, although it is present in the foreword by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (authors of Empire). It is the conflict between political parties and social movements. Parties tend to appropriate the aspiration of social movements. But at the same time they have been crucial for implementing many of the best ideas that political activists have brought forward.

./english/388.txt:43:In the 1960s and 1970s, the themes of class and anti-colonialism were important to social movements. In the 1980s and 1990s, the focus shifted to the theme of identity. Now I think that the [key issue] for movements is the question of democracy, but democracy in its most radical sense, not just political, but economic, ecological and cultural democracy.

./english/388.txt:79:TP: This has come out in the International Council. There is a debate on whether the International Council should make a statement about the war on Iraq. One group argues that the forum should be a political agent, while another says no, the forum should be a pedagogical space. These are two different visions. It is a good debate to have.

./english/389.txt:9:The World Summit on the Information Society proposes to develop “a common vision and understanding of the information society and the adoption of a declaration and plan of action.” A vision of society must necessarily have people at its center and an understanding of the fundamental rights and needs of humankind. The goals of such a society should be based on principles of social, political and economic justice.

./english/389.txt:21:• Each of the themes consider the human ethical and social dimensions as well as the technical, political and economic mechanisms and instruments necessary to address these;

./english/390.txt:51:In India the movement against corporate globalization is gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political force to counter religious fascism.

./english/392.txt:17:in the World Social Forum in particular and in the dynamics and politics of civil and political

./english/392.txt:60:civil space and activity in all areas of social, economic, and political life.

./english/392.txt:65:reduce and restrict civil and political space, in both the South and the North and at domestic,

./english/392.txt:128:I believe our somewhat adversarial, divisive, and territorial political culture militates

./english/392.txt:143:there is already a major civil−political formation in place in the country, around

./english/392.txt:200:political−ideological terms (within, of course, a broadly agreed spectrum, agenda, and

./english/392.txt:308:in conjunction with and as a complement to other ongoing civil and political initiatives

./english/392.txt:343:strive to keep open the civil and political space that has been created by

./english/393.txt:25:of the original 2001 version. On October 28 2003 Peter Waterman (researcher, writer, and political

./english/393.txt:122:positions of political responsibility, mandated by their peoples, who decide to enter into

./english/393.txt:188:politically. As a meeting place, it is open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities

./english/393.txt:216:in them, except organizations that seek to take people’s lives as a method of political

./english/393.txt:244:activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and respecting nature.

./english/393.txt:248:building to centre economic activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and

./english/394.txt:43:Forum as an idea.6 India is a big country, with a very large number of social and politically active

./english/394.txt:50:conclusion that the Charter as it stood did not fully address social and political conditions as they

./english/394.txt:67:Equally, Peter Waterman, researcher, writer, and political commentator based in The Hague,

./english/394.txt:111:take part in them, except organizations that seek to take people’s lives as a method of political

./english/394.txt:163:people’s lives as a method of political action” would seem to have been replaced by the emphasised phrase

./english/395.txt:61:and transformation, and that modes of civil and political association are changing; and it must

./english/395.txt:69:I believe the primary significance of the Forum lies in the political culture it represents and is

./english/395.txt:70:attempting to explore, and that its main contribution is in political-strategic terms. The Forum, as

./english/395.txt:170:play in translating these possibilities into real social and political alternatives; how, to use Teivo

./english/395.txt:173:many social and political actors. But it is going to have to reinvent itself, as it constantly tends to

./english/395.txt:226:(such as who takes part in roundtable discussions with political parties), and thereby tending to act

./english/395.txt:254:political process. The dominant impression that remains is therefore that the WSF is basically a

./english/395.txt:267:disintegration of the political culture that the Forum in principle represents, and of a creative

./english/395.txt:280:political action.” (Clause 11, emphasis mine) In this section, I am concerned not with the second

./english/395.txt:345:This is not only a moral and ethical question, but also a deeply political and strategic one.

./english/395.txt:359:as a method of political action.” I am here concerned with the second part of the Clause. There have

./english/395.txt:367:as a method of political action”) may be acceptable as a boundary for such an initiative, it is tending

./english/395.txt:369:use violence. But there are clearly contexts in which this question of violence in political action is

./english/395.txt:378:been political parties and orthodox religions that have been built like this.

./english/395.txt:380:and international levels have members belonging to organisations affiliated to political parties whose

./english/395.txt:391:There are many instances to indicate that this is the understood political culture of the

./english/395.txt:410:driven organisation, such as a political party or an organised religion ?

./english/395.txt:415:Sousa Santos put forward the important proposition that conventional social and political processes

./english/395.txt:423:the Forum too is creating absences by virtue of the political culture it has adopted and is practising

./english/396.txt:279:As in their other marathons, this global link made by women, for women, in the hands of women with this racism marathon is FIRE's strategy for building awareness among women in order to understand that personal oppression is one of many global exploitations, which are linked in multiple ways (such as the link between sexism, racism, poverty, exclusion of women from political power and control over media and technologies). Thus these marathons are designed to empower women locally and globally into action.

./english/396.txt:299:Lesley described to FIRE the commitment of women in South Africa to develop strategies and actions toward WCAR "related to our own lived experience." She announced plans for a national women's conference to be held in June that would tackle issues such as: "poverty; political participation; HIV/AIDS--which is a huge problem facing women at the moment; violence against women--because South Africa has the highest incidence of violence against women in the world; and culture and tradition....We have to look back to see how apartheid was institutionalized in order to exclude women--and black women in particular--from socio-economic areas, political participation, etc."

./english/396.txt:301:Although the new South African Constitution and Bill of Rights includes equality clauses, Lesley noted that the results of these laws remain to be seen. "For that we need a change of mind, and for all a change of approach of everybody within the society." And WCAR offers this chance, particular for women: "For us this conference is very important because it is going to say that we as women are not going to stand by and observe what is happening around this conference...We are taking control over the situation, we are engaging in reflections, discussions, research and analyses, to come up with a plan of action and a set of strategies, which will contribute to what is the decade of mobilisation against racism and that will give as an equal place in the political discussion."

./english/396.txt:457:· Politically pre-established ideological contents that are sexist, violent and that alienate people.

./english/396.txt:475:Recent studies show that access and use of new technologies runs almost parallel to the access and use of power in other spheres, becoming more and more pronounced in what begins to be known as the “digital divide.” In it, the social and politically excluded groups are facing the same fate with technologies, as the fate they have faced in regards to political, economic, cultural and social life.

./english/396.txt:561:Another key dimension in FIRE´s strategy has bee the fact that it have promoted women as technicians, allowing them to use the controls and learn to do the technical work in new technologies, thus guaranteeing that they broadcast the voices even in the most adverse settings, be they technical, political or economic.

./english/396.txt:620:(From a Chinese journalist living temporarily in the US): I was a journalist in China. I took my experience as a journalist for granted. It was not until being asked (by FIRE) to talk about my experience as a woman journalist in China that I began, while preparing for the talk, to see that it was indeed a privilege to be in the position as a journalist from 1991 to 1997 to witness all the changes China went through…It was a very good feeling know that I indeed had observations and comments to share on issues women in other parts of the world would take an interest in. Though never thinking of women as different species from men, these experiences have helped me recognize that men and women have very different perspectives on political, economic, social and life issues….I am very pleased that I was involved, by participating in the Marathon Program (for November 25th) on FIRE, in the effort to promote women’s voices that has been traditionally and still is in many parts of the world under-heard and under-respected. Talk to you soon, Qiu Mei, (former journalist with China Radio International, Denver, CO USA).

./english/397.txt:6:For all its failings, the international system of the UN is based on principles of partnership. It has also recognized the parallel growth of ivil society?alongside the market and the state. An international form of ivil society?has begun to emerge. One of its tasks is to monitor international commitments made by national governments ?see chart below ? where serious problems are now evident. These are political issues, often in direct conflict with the self-interest of the market or the state. Whether effective international agreements are reached and implemented depends on the political influence of social movements t home? This is no less true of the official labour movement and its international bureaucracy which need to get closer to wider social movements.

./english/398.txt:8:'So what will victory look like ?' asked one. 'Why is the movement projected as one led by groups in the North?' asked another while several complained about the way trade unions and political parties were being treated WSF organizers as lower down in the pecking order to NGOs and civil society groups.

./english/399.txt:38:Special Branch had heard or them before, but always dismissed them as (relatively) harmless anarchistic cranks. After the Carr Bombing they took them rather more seriously, asking themselves if this was the beginning of something big - the Revolution that people had been predicting throughout the 60's? Special Branch informants and files on political groups were useless. In fact the only real clue they had was a list of targets included in an earlier communiqué: "Embassies, High Pigs, Spectacles, Judges, Property." The third from last term "Spectacles" intrigued one enterprising Special Branch sergeant, who started visiting Liberatarian bookshops and sifting through underground magazines and literature.

./english/399.txt:40:The enterprising Special Branch sergeant found that the word Spectacle was a popular slogan, used by a Paris based group known as Situationists, to describe capitalism, the state, the whole shooting match. Owing as much to the Surrealists and Dada as Marx and Bakunin, the Situationists starting point was that the original working class movement had been crushed, by the Bourgeoisie in the West and by the Bolsheviks in the East; Working class organizations, such as Trade Unions and Leftist political parties had sold out to World Capitalism; And furthermore, capitalism could now appropriate even the most radical ideas and return them safely, in the form of harmless ideologies to be used against the working class which they were supposed to represent.

./english/399.txt:44:On the surface the Situationists appear as extremely cynical fatalists. They began by condemning as redundant and articulately destroying anything that came before them. Everything from the Surrealists and the Beat Generation fell in their wake. Yet they had a fundamental, utopian belief that the bad days will end. Their criteria was basically, "if we explain how the nightmare works, everyone will wake up!" An inevitable optimism absent, by the very fact of their existence, from traditional political groups: who always operate on the premise that people are too thick to decide for themselves.

./english/399.txt:84:The presiding Judge pronounced; "The accused have never denied the charge of misusing the funds of the student union. Indeed, they openly admit to having made the union pay some 650 pounds for the printing of 10,000 pamphlets, not to mention the cost of other literature inspired by the 'International Situationniste'. These publications express ideas and aspirations which, to put it mildly, have nothing to do with the aims of a student union. One only has to read what the accused have written, for it is obvious that these five students, scarcely more than adolescents, lacking all experience of real life, their minds confused by ill-digested philosophical, social, political and economic theories, and perplexed by the drab monotony of their everyday life, make the empty, arrogant and pathetic claim to pass definitive judgements, sinking to outright abuse, on their fellow students, their teachers, God, religion, the clergy, the governments and political systems of the whole world, rejecting all morality and restraint, these cynics do not hesitate to commend theft, the destruction of scholarship, the abolition of work, total subversion and a worldwide proletarian revolution with 'Unlicensed pleasure' as it's only goal.

./english/399.txt:113:Les Enrages capitalized on this development by parading up and down the hall of the Sociology building, with placards displaying blown-up pictures of alleged plain-clothes police. One of the staff complained and tried to enforce the college ban on political demonstrations. There was a scuffle and the Dean called the police.

./english/399.txt:117:Les Enrages continued to build on this emotional reaction to the authorities repression, until 3 anti-Vietnam War bombings took place in Paris. 5 members of 'The National Committee For Vietnam' were arrested. On March 22nd, as a protest against the arrests, a group of Les Enrages and some anti-Vietnam war demonstrators occupied the administration offices at Nanterre and decided to get a real Movement going. "THE MOVEMENT OF MARCH 22nd" was to have no organization as such, no hierarchy and no hard and fast programme. Obviously it was political, but it did'nt follow one political doctrine. There were anarchists, Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, all manner of -ists, and of course, a bit of Situationist in there somewhere.

./english/399.txt:157:The SI and Les Enrages at the Centre Censier tried to show how it could be followed up by producing leaflets on self-management and workers' councils. Whilst, at the same time, denouncing the leftist recouperators who were trying to take the credit and manipulate things for their own party political ends. The Communist Party, who refused to acknowledge any individual revolutionary activity actually by the people, were having decidedly unproductive dialogue with Cohn-Bendit. Dany the Red ended up calling them "Stalinist Filth" and the big Communist Trade Union, the CGT, refused to back the Revolution because it wasn't under the control of their central committee. The same story as the Spanish Civil War where the communists blew it because it wasn't on their terms. But at least they did'nt back the elections called for by the opposition.

./english/400.txt:65:The remainder of this section compares key features of the four 'cybercampaigns', starting with the nature of the adversary and campaign objectives. Three campaigns (A, C and D) had a clear industrial focus: in two cases (A and D) the campaigns grew directly out of specific national disputes. Campaign C emerged from broader industrial relations difficulties with the company, particularly in Australia, but elsewhere also. In this case, the longer-term objective has been to open channels of communication with the company and establish norms for union activities. Campaign B, while also supporting ICEM affiliates, had a more general and political focus, targeting the Russian government and international financial institutions.

./english/400.txt:87:The Campaign B pages similarly included protest links, this time primarily to email addresses and web sites of the Russian government and intergovernmental financial institutions. The Web pages had a greater informational component than the industrial campaigns. They provided detailed background information and briefings on the developing economic and political situation in Russia, with a strong emphasis on the protests of Russian trade unions (derived both from first-hand reports from affiliates and from international newswires and news databases). As with the other campaigns, the pages invited visitors to send protest messages, this time to national and international institutions involved in or influencing Russian economic policy. Given the emphasis on providing information to an international audience, the pages were predominantly in English though some were also available in Russian. The site attracted substantial interest from academics, business people and labour activists with an interest in Russia. The campaign attained a greater profile on the Internet with prominent links from major sites with an interest in Russia, as well as recommendations and listings in Russian sections of Web directories such as 'Excite' and 'Yahoo!', and the Web sites of conventional media organisations. Numbers of visitors to the campaign pages showed substantial increases during high-profile activities in Russia such as the national Day of Action by Russian trade unions on October 7, 1998 and the campaign pages continued to attract substantial traffic into early 2000.

./english/400.txt:121:Cleaver, H. (1998) The Zapatista effect: The Internet and the rise of an alternative political fabric, Journal of International Affairs, 51(2), pp. 621-640

./english/401.txt:35:[Ecological awareness] leads to profound shifts in and threats to the power of labour and its organized interests…[T]he labour movement becomes doomed by what, in an earlier historical development, was a necessary precondition for its social existence: the decoupling of the product, the legendary 'indifference' to which the system compels and habituates waged labour, the ousting by the labour contract of the question of the social purpose and usefulness of the product of labour, and thus of one's own labor power […I]f the labor movement does not intend to be elbowed out of history – and one would expect the future development of democracy to depend substantially upon that – then one ought to start in good time to formulate and implement an offensive, socio-politically orientated 'product policy'…In other words, workers should not merely respond 'acidly' to ecological and other critiques, but accept them actively, preventively – perhaps putting themselves into unconventional coalitions at the vanguard of criticism…Such a 'greening' of the trade-union movement might well bring with it a new political spring. (Ulrich Beck, 1995:151-2)

./english/401.txt:74:The aspiration for multiculturalism and self-determination often takes the social form of a struggle for justice and citizenship. It involves the claims for alternative forms of law and justice and for new regimes of citizenship. The plurality of legal orders, which has become more visible with the crisis of the nation-state, carries with itself, either implicitly or explicitly, the idea of multiple citizenships coexisting in the same geopolitical field and, often, the idea of the existence of first, second, and third class citizens. However, non-state legal orders may also be the embryo of non-state public spheres and the institutional base for self-determination, as in the case of indigenous justice.

./english/401.txt:150: Véras/Brazilian Metalworkers. This is another paper focused on the industrial and national struggles of Brazilian auto/metalworkers, and concerned with their efforts to re-assert themselves nationally in the face of a neo-liberal globalization that has profoundly changed the socio-political weight of the industrialized and unionized working class in that country. Véras concentrates on the mobilization of workers for a national-level collective contract for the auto sector in Brazil (see Oliveira above). He refers to the attempts to develop a union presence within the Mercosur and union activity in relation to the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA, see Mello e Silva above). He also mentions the activities of the CUT to create new alliances at local, national and international levels. The CUT has been active in relation to the environment, children's rights, citizenship and education, and against the neo-liberalism of the Cardoso government:

./english/401.txt:152:New alliances—particularly with social movements, NGOs, and political parties opposed to neoliberal-inspired policies—have also been pursued at the international level, through participation in demonstrations such as the one in Seattle (at the WTO meeting, in 1999), in Washington (at the IMF meeting, in 2000), and in Quebec (at the FTAA meeting, in 2001); in the constitution of networks, such as the Continental Social Alliance…; and in events such as the World Social Forum…[in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2001 – PW]…CUT's discourse has been increasingly incorporating the expression “citizen union” to designate (not without internal tensions), in an adverse context, a union practice of a more ["propositional"] character, that takes as its central issues the defense of employment and of social rights, that seeks to expand its action to institutional spaces and have a more direct influence on the formulation and execution of public social policies, that seeks to construct closer links with other organizations and social movements, at local (by focusing on the question of “local government”), national (by discussing a “national project”), and international levels.

./english/401.txt:156:Romero/Bananeros in Colombia. Romero's paper is about banana workers in an isolated region of north-western Colombia, on the border with Panama. It is primarily concerned with the self-transformation of the workers there from 'subjects to citizens'. Robero recognizes that Urabá represents an odd case, in so far as the citizenship relates not so much to the national as the local state, and then to a political arena from which the insurrectionary left has been more or less eliminated and in which counter-insurgent vigilantes have consolidated their power. If the bananeros have nonetheless – along with the post-insurrectionary left - established themselves within the region, this is because of 1) the perceived threat posed to both local capital and labor by the still-insurrectionary FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), 2) regional interests in relation to the central state, and even 3) the role played by the Presidential Peace Commission. The conflict between the armed left and the political left for the loyalty of the bananeros seems to have been won by the latter. The local elite has been prepared to give recognition to the union and the political left in exchange for some protection of the local economy and polity from the FARC.

./english/401.txt:160:These international alliances between Sintrainagro and progressive European unions, and the labor activism of Sintrainagro beyond the regional borders of Urabá, seem to contrast with the local public agendas, focused on order and security. This is the context in which the union has to operate though it appears contradictory. Knowing the strategic capabilities of the Sintrainagro leadership and their allies, the possibility can not be dismissed that this international activism is being used to counteract the relative isolation of Sintrainagro on the national union scene, and to construct alliances and supports vis-a-vis eventual changes in the national political arena as a result of the peace process with the FARC. Likewise, these international links can give Sintrainagro autonomy in the face of dominant local powers supported by the paramilitary groups.

./english/401.txt:166:As we know, Communist mythology has now collapsed and, as a result, ‘class unionism’ is today riven by innumerable problems and fragilities. Not only have the strikes of the working class been ‘cannibalized’ by capitalism, the administrative structures of the main trade unions have also largely become instruments of state regulatory action. The trade unions themselves have also contributed to this process, by ‘cannibalizing’ the old proposals of emancipatory action. In the midst of all this, the conquests made by workers and by the traditional trade union movement have largely given way before the pressures of co-option, and have imperceptibly entered the dynamic of the system, becoming absorbed by the rationale of regulation… However, alongside the discrediting of the ‘old’ worker- and national-based trade unionism, there are signs of revival, especially on the level of ideas and political debate. These, which occur as much in academia as in the trade union domain, point towards the emergence of a ‘new’ social trade union movement of global or international character…

./english/401.txt:189: Lambert and Webster/Southern Initiative on Globalization and Trade Union Rights. This paper deals with a particular attempt to create a new kind of union internationalism, originating in and primarily oriented toward the South. ('South' is here defined not geographically but politically, as a common project of 'some of the world's most exploited working classes, many…denied basic ILO…rights') SIGTUR is a network of old and new left or radical-nationalist unions, 'which would still claim to be fighting for a socialist transformation'. Under the provocation of neo-liberal globalization, it is taking direct and common action across, or regardless of, particular party-political affiliations locally, or international affiliations globally. Rooted in the left and internationalist traditions of Perth/Fremantle, in Western Australia, it began life around 1990, as an Indian Ocean network. It was, and is, most effectively linked at this ocean's two extremes, the other one being Durban, South Africa. However, the network has expanded, with growing links to Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea. And then, with a link to the Brazilian CUT (which has its own warm relations with South Africa's COSATU), it adopted its present name. It has seen a series of effective solidarity campaigns, including those of the South African and Indian with Australian workers and unions. The network claims to combine the old (union institutions) with the new (networking, campaigning, computer communication). L&W – both of them academics long-involved with the South African and/or West Australian and international unionism – set up an opposition between the Old Labor Internationalism (hierarchical, centralized, bureaucratized, formal, diplomatic in orientation, workplace-focused, etc) with the New Labor Internationalism (networked, decentralized, de-layered, oriented to mobilization, focused on coalitions with new social movements and 'Southern'). SIGTUR is presented as exemplifying the latter. Despite earlier opposition from the ICFTU internationally, and from rightwing unionists or neo-liberal governments nationally, SIGTUR evidently meets a common desire for leftwing unions confronted with globalization and aware of the ineffectiveness of the existing internationals. Recognizing, on the one hand, the severity of the neo-liberal offensive, on the other the commonly weakened condition of unionism, SIGTUR is working out a modest and practical alternative:

./english/401.txt:195:Following its 1999 conference in South Africa, SIGTUR undertook three campaigns: for a common Mayday 2000, around the issue of jobs; a corporate campaign against the anti-union Rio Tinto mining multinational (involving union cooperation with environmental, indigenous and human rights campaigners), and a 'global unionism' project. The authors report success on all three campaigns. The Rio Tinto campaign is of particular interest in so far as it involved a traditional international labor organization, the International Chemical, Energy and Mineworkers Federation (ICEM). By 'global unionism' SIGTUR apparently means direct cross-national ties of intensive practical exchange and solidarity, as here exemplified by an agreement between port/dockworkers' unions in Durban and Fremantle. L&W recognize four present challenges: uneven union organizational capacity and different local political traditions; the lack of resource commitment to the network by even the stronger national confederations; the necessity for unions to broaden their support base by organizing the casual, part-time and informal sector workers, as well as forming structured coalitions with women's, ecological and other such movements; and finding the right way of relating to the traditional institutionalized union internationals.

./english/401.txt:214:· Political Levels, Interconnections: overwhelmingly national to regional, whether the regional is defined in terms of the sub-continent, the hemisphere or the South.

./english/401.txt:226: Labor object/subject World/ sub-region Political levels/inter-connections Worker type ConceptualReference

./english/401.txt:241:· Political Levels, Interconnections: the global level, the inter-state unions and organizations dealing with labor (International Labor Organization, international financial institutions), the area of culture, media, communication – particularly that represented by computers and cyberspace.

./english/401.txt:256:The studies certainly reveal the unions as either defenders of worker and democratic rights under neo-liberal or global attack, or as proponents of a deeper or more extended democracy. The attachment to democracy, the attention to citizenship, the extension of those addressed from union members to working people, women, children and others – all these are new, notable and valuable. In many cases, however, what the unions are trying to establish is a meaningfully liberal democracy in situations where this does not yet exist. Given the multiple shortcomings of liberal democracy, as revealed yet again by its globalized war against Afghanistan, this is a utopia turning into a distopia: islands of political democracy in oceans of social fascism - as Sousa Santos somewhere declares) – with the implication that the two spheres are inter-dependent. Even where the talk is of 'counter-hegemony', this is mostly in recognition of its non-achievement. And, even where it is seen as being achieved, such 'counter-hegemony' does not seem to amount to either the old socialism, nor a post-capitalist political alternative - nor even the old union utopia of the welfare state! The issue of 'international', 'cosmopolitan' or 'global democracy' does not arise here. Moreover, the extension or transformation of democracy within the trade unions is hardly (if at all) mentioned, though this has been recognized as the problem of unionism ever since the classical formulation of the 'iron law of oligarchy' early in the last century (Michels 1915).

./english/402.txt:20:There are good reasons for such caution. The Call – like other Forum bodies and initiatives – is surrounded by a certain amount of mystery. Given overlapping memberships, are we to understand the Call as a device for going beyond the Forum’s self-limitation on making political declarations? How come the Secretariat of the Call, in Sao Paulo, only came to this interested observer’s attention one year after it came into existence? Why did it take seven or eight months for the signators of Call 2 to be publicly identified (at least on a website), when those of Call1 were published instantaneously? What, for the purposes of this new initiative, is a social movement?

./english/402.txt:24:Is the network going to be primarily political/institutional or primarily communicational? In the first case, communication is likely to be made functional to the political/institutional. In the second case, we may be into a different ballgame or ballpark. In the first case, there is likely to operate a ‘banking’ model of information, in which maximum information is collected, to be then dealt out to customers in terms of power and profit. In the second case, there can operate the principle of the potlatch, or gift economy, in which individual generosity is understood to benefit the community. The understanding here is a common African saying: I am who I am because of other people.

./english/402.txt:40:The open secret of the electronic media, the decisive political factor, which has been waiting, suppressed or crippled, for its moment to come, is their mobilising power. When I say mobilize… namely to make [people] more mobile than they are. As free as dancers, as aware as football players, as surprising as guerrillas. Anyone who thinks of the masses only as the object of politics, cannot mobilize them. He wants to push them around. A parcel is not mobile; it can only be pushed to and fro. Marches, columns, parades, immobilize people […] The new media are egalitarian in structure. Anyone can take part in them by a simple switching process […] The new media are orientated towards action, not contemplation; towards the present, not tradition […] It is wrong to regard media equipment as mere means of consumption. It is always, in principle, also means of production […] In the socialist movements the dialectic of discipline and spontaneity, centralism and decentralization, authoritarian leadership and anti-authoritarian disintegration has long ago reached deadlock. Networklike communication models built on the principle of reversibility of circuits might give indications of how to overcome this situation. (Hans Magnus Enzensberger 1976:21-53)

./english/403.txt:7:Mass actions by networks that identify themselves as anti-capitalist have prompted both extensive mainstream media coverage and broad public interest in recent years. Nor has all of this attention been drowned out by what Matthew Fuller (2002) calls the current ‘war over the monopoly on terror’. As is proper, the anti-capitalist potential (or otherwise) of such movements has been widely debated. Amongst other things, this have involved assessment of their engagement (or otherwise) with contemporary class composition, and the risks within many of them of particular understandings of political practice: above all, the ‘activist’ syndrome (see, amongst others, Aufheben 2002; RTS 1999). Even making sense of the terrain and parameters of these movements is not always an easy task. Whilst formally constituted organisations play an integral part within them, in certain cases these movements’ experience of ‘"organising" may not take the form of "organizations" but of an ebb or flow of contact at myriad points’. Indeed, some have argued that their very confluence may lend a number of today’s movements an anti-systemic edge, to the point where ‘current struggles for particular changes are linking up into a collaboration whose impact may wind up being much larger than the sum of the individual influences’ (Cleaver 1999).

./english/403.txt:55:Abstractly this is fine, but it begs essential questions: what is to be communicated, by whom to whom? In the "information age," it is all too easy to be deluged with information. This is not helpful unless the information is well organized for some use — which only raises the question, who will organize the information? The EZLN and its supporters have been marvellously inventive in using networks, but multiply Chiapas by even 10, never mind the thousands needed: how many channels can the mind consider? This is not the individual's problem. Sorting information requires political collectivity. It implies calculated division of labor and aspects of centralization: someone else will decide for you (presumably with your consent) what reaches you and what is the most important information. It also poses the related problem: what struggles deserve what attention, and who decides?

./english/403.txt:59:The most detailed response to Neill came from Stefan Wray (1997), who argued that what might at first seem to be political issues were often instead technical problems with software solutions. Criticising one push-based model for a global communications network (RICA 1996) that threatened to bury recipients under what he termed ‘a mountain of information’, Wray argued instead for a ‘user-based information retrieval system’. In his model, e-mail would be deposited at an archive, where automated software residing on subscribers’ computers could interrogate it by keyword, selecting only those files identified as relevant to the individual user.

./english/403.txt:137:Downing, J. (1984) Radical media: the political experience of alternative communication. Boston: South End Press.

./english/405.txt:16:Ten years later, this enchantment is broken. An expressive and growing part of public opinion, in many countries, has adopted values whose anti-systemic potential is evident. A few examples: the fight for human rights is even more present in the agenda of societies but it has also gained another sense. Today, it means that the right to a decent life (in terms of its political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects) must be assured for everyone, notwithstanding what they earn which is something that follows a logic that goes against capitalism.

./english/405.txt:26:Besides providing an open space for the articulation of common action, the editions of the WSF have been important laboratories of social science, where theories of transformation are being constantly re-elaborated. This power plant of ideas has at least two remarkable characteristics. It puts all emancipatory streams into contact with each other. Marxisms, Gandhiism, feminism, liberation Christianity, Gaia theories, thirdworldism, humanism, and others all dialogue and enrich each other constantly. They are present, as theoretical influences, in the self-organised activities during the Forums, where more and more we see the common factor is the meeting of participants from diverse countries and cultures. But this is exactly the second relevant idea: the debate of ideas does not happen only at an academic level, or within political parties. The Forum breaks barriers between intellectuals and activists. Intellectuals of international importance and leaders of different

./english/405.txt:27:political streams debate, as every other participant, in the same environment, where there are no pre-established truths or leaders.

./english/405.txt:30:Equally, this is where Social Forums and alterglobalisation are producing their first results. The refusal to repeat old formulas, the openness to learn from different points of view, and the reduced importance given to old political and academic hierarchies are allowing the birth of a new political

./english/405.txt:33:The new political culture tends to reject any attempts of creating hierarchy (that contest equality) or uniformity (that violate diversity) both directions that set it apart from capitalism and the ideas that come from the old forms of struggle against it. There are no "historic" social categories that are more capable than others to lead the world transformation. There are no campaigns that are a priori, more relevant than others. There are no directions ? either academic, or from political parties ? that are legitimised to define such campaigns in our names, outside our dialogue spaces.

./english/405.txt:42:Under such entirely new conditions, is there any sense in appealing to old strategies that reduce politics to the "conquest" of State power ? and because of that, emphasise the necessity of identifying "historical personalities" and building dominating political parties?

./english/408.txt:12:But what light did the Bombay Forum throw on the development of the global movement? First of all, the long-standing debate over the relationship between social movements and political parties was given a different modulation. In Porto Alegre the presence of the Workers Party (PT) was so all-informing that it could be taken for granted (Olivio Dutra, one of the founders of the Brazilian Forum and now Minister of the Cities in Lulas government, represented the PT in Bombay). India has the largest Communist movement in the world - two mass parliamentary parties, the quasi-Maoist Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (pro-Moscow in the days of the USSR), plus various Marxist-Leninist (M-L) organizations that often lead very large and militant movements in different parts of the country. The WSF couldnt have happened in India without the support of

./english/408.txt:18:But the M-L criticisms have some validity: some Dalit-lower caste coalitions are controlled by the Western NGOs that finance them; it was obvious from the banners that often prominently displayed the name and even the image of the movements president that organizing the oppressed can become a vehicle for political entrepreneurship and clientilism; and movements to organize the Dalits and the lower castes have become integrated in complex ways in Indias highly fragmented and corrupt political system.

./english/408.txt:24:Before endorsing this judgement we should consider what results the Assembly has produced. At the first ESF in Florence in November 2002 it issued the call for a day of protest against the war in Iraq on 15 February 2003. At Porto Alegre the following January the anti-war and activists assemblies turned that into a global call. We know the outcome: the biggest day of international protest ever, which led even the New York Times to acknowledge the emergence of a second superpower. Here in Britain the shock waves from the anti-war protests last spring are still sweeping through the official political system, but 15 February has broader implications than that.

./english/409.txt:12:If Seattle was, for many people, the coming-out party of a resistance movement, then, according to Soren Ambrose, policy analyst with 50 Years Is Enough, "Porto Alegre is the coming-out party for the existence of serious thinking about alternatives." The emphasis was on alternatives coming from the countries experiencing most acutely the negative effects of globalization: mass migration of people, widening wealth disparities, weakening political power.

./english/409.txt:23:Part of the challenge was that the organizers had no idea how many people would be drawn to this Davos for activists. Atila Roque, a coordinator of IBase, a Brazilian policy institute and a member of the organizing committee, explains that for months they thought they were planning a gathering of 2,000 people. Then, suddenly, there were 10,000, more at some events, representing 1,000 groups, from 120 countries. Most of those delegates had no idea what they were getting into: a model UN? A giant teach-in? An activist political convention? A party?

./english/409.txt:45:On these questions there was no consensus. Some groups, those with ties to political parties, seemed to be pushing for a united international organization or party and wanted the forum to issue an official manifesto that could form a governmental blueprint. Others, those working outside traditional political channels and often using direct action, were advocating less a unified vision than a universal right to self-determination and diversity: agricultural diversity, cultural diversity and, yes, even political diversity.

./english/409.txt:47:Atila Roque was one of the people who argued forcefully that the forum should not try to issue a single set of political demands. "We are trying to break the uniformity of thought, and you cant do that by putting forward another uniform way of thinking. Honestly, I dont miss the time when we were all in the Communist Party. We can achieve a higher degree of consolidation of the agendas, but I dont think civil society should be trying to organize itself into a party."

./english/409.txt:49:In the end, the conference did not speak in one voice; there was no single official statement (though there were dozens of unofficial ones). Instead of sweeping blueprints for political change, there were glimpses of local democratic alternatives. The Landless Peasants Movement took delegates on day trips to reappropriated farmland used for sustainable agriculture. And then there was the living alternative of Porto Alegre itself. The city has become a showcase of participatory democracy studied around the world. In Porto Alegre, democracy isnt a polite matter of casting ballots; its a contact sport, carried out in sprawling town hall meetings. The centerpiece of the Workers Partys platform is something called "the participatory budget," an initiative that gives residents, through a network of neighborhood councils and a shadow city council, a direct say in such decisions as how much of the municipal budget should go to sanitation versus transportation.

./english/409.txt:63:Some of this criticism was unfair. The forum accommodated an extraordinary range of views, and it was precisely this diversity that made conflicts inevitable. By bringing together groups with such different ideas about power--unions, political parties, NGOs, anarchist street protesters and agrarian reformers--the World Social Forum only made visible the tensions that are always just under the surface of these fragile coalitions.

./english/409.txt:70:There is a serious debate to be had over strategy and process, but its difficult to see how it will unfold without bogging down a movement whose greatest strength so far has been its agility. Anarchist groups, though fanatical about process, tend to resist efforts to structure or centralize the movement. The International Forum on Globalization--the brain trust of the North American side of the movement--lacks transparency in its decision-making and isnt accountable to a broad membership. Meanwhile, NGOs that might otherwise collaborate often compete with one another for publicity and funding. And traditional membership-based political structures like parties and unions have been reduced to bit players in these wide webs of activism.

./english/410.txt:18:So far, the groups in Porto Alegre may share certain doubts about neo-liberalism and US foreign policy, but they are far from embodying a coherent – or at least compatible – set of political opinions. Except for the difference between radical anti-capitalist groups and more conservative organizations, a seriously contested issue was the question of culture. Many participants echoed the criticism that socialism is yet another Western agenda with a strong disregard for different cultural traditions. In that context, culturalist critics of left-wing groups argued that the world public opinion has increasingly turned to religions and cultural traditions in its disillusionment with Westernization. According to them, the global left remains oblivious to the widespread, rapid growth of religions and cultural identities. Indeed, religious groups with political aspirations – such as the Orthodox church in Russia, certain Hindu movements, and a wide variety of Islamic groups – were hardly represented in Porto Alegre.

./english/416.txt:5:First we had a discussion about using the mailing list of our Network, criticizing other Network members and dealing with political differences between us. A solution could not be found during the meeting but only the day after.

./english/416.txt:17:Related to the practical consequences of the "War on Terror" we should put in the centre of our political activities during the coming period the efforts of the Turkish state to apply its terrorist laws and methods inside and outside of Turkey. The new law was applied in the persecution of Turkish trade-unionists and anti-imperialist organi­zations and at least the relating methods also against the struggle of the Kurdish people for self-determination. In parallel efforts the EU and some European countries helped Turkey by banning these organizations and putting them on the EU Black Lists.

./english/417.txt:76:approach of dealing with different political constellation and local approaches. Political sup-

./english/417.txt:84:  Some inflexible priorities were made in advance, based on some political decision: In

./english/417.txt:159:- Political situation within the Greek left was difficult for the forum; the European political

./english/417.txt:166:-> If Political Parties become too prominent in networks, further work is often hindered.

./english/417.txt:195:there was a strong focus on regional networks as political agents as well as a focus on con-

./english/417.txt:245:-> The Forum should remain a space for reflecting on political failures and successes, there-

./english/417.txt:259:-> EPA should be used for political debates and real open analysis

./english/417.txt:290: grating approach, so that different political constellation and local approaches can be

./english/417.txt:292:  In order to deal with visa issues/immigration control, political support and pressure

./english/417.txt:318: party, since the Forum should remain a space for reflecting on political failures and

./english/417.txt:320: take place somewhere else. If Political Parties become too prominent in networks, fur-

./english/417.txt:336:  For following EPA’s a slot should be reserved on Friday for serious political debate

./english/418.txt:6:The Algerian Delegation has come to represent all the members of the society and the principal political movements, in order to ratify the unconditional support from Algeria towards the fair cause of the Saharawi people. Delegates from South Africa have taken part in the conference too.

./english/418.txt:8:The EUCOCO Conference greets the resistance of the Saharawi People in the occupied territories and pays tribute to the victims of the Moroccan repression. The conference also denounces the massive violations of the human rights by the Moroccan authorities in the occupied territories, as well as the systematic and bloody reprisals that Saharawi people suffer. The conference informs us on the violence against women; 35% of missing people are women. The conference welcomes the associations and the Moroccan political parties that defend the right of the Saharawi people to self determination.

./english/418.txt:10:The Conference denounces the political repression and the black out imposed by Morocco in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. In fact, Moroccan occupiers put the territory under embargo and keep the international community uninformed of the inadmissible situation that the Saharawi People is living through police force. The Conference also calls for the concerned institutions of the UN, European Union (EU) and different NGOs in order to confront the situation, and take responsibility on the protection of the Saharawi population and against those who commit crime against humanity with efficacy.

./english/419.txt:4:IG. 1. We still need the ESF because it is a useful space, is a reality, is a common space to search for consensus, is a platform for discussions, we can build political projects, we can co-ordinate effective actions, build alternatives, exchange experiences, confront different points of views

./english/419.txt:14:IG. 11. What link with political parties?

./english/419.txt:15:IG. 12. East/ West : a crucial political point. We have to discuss the past to know what we can do together now

./english/419.txt:19:IG. 16. There is not enough debates on Europe / European Union political strategies

./english/419.txt:23:IM. 3. How to articulate network themes within a more global political reflection.

./english/419.txt:28:IM. 8. What is the role of the assembly of social movements : what’s the link with the struggles in different countries, how to improve the visibility of an European strength? Why the actions decided aren’t carried on? Do we need more flexibility? What about its representativity as some org.s participating in the ESF don’t recognize the Assembly of Social Movements as the place where having political discussions and co-ordinating decisions?

./english/419.txt:29:IM. 9. What is the place of political parties ?

./english/419.txt:43:IE. 5. Needs of visibility of networks, more networks but also more transversality. Risk that network become affinity political groups

./english/419.txt:44:IE. 6. Not yet a space during the EPAs to debate on European political issues, to confront different point of views, co-ordinate campaign and actions

./english/419.txt:71:PE. 1. EPAs should have always a space for political discussion and to decide campaigns and common actions (Assembly of movements ?) specially if there isn’t an ESF every year

./english/420.txt:11:sovereignty only in conjunction with the political unification of Europe; we

./english/420.txt:30:nation states are said to demonstrate the impossibility of a political

./english/420.txt:34:Europe that is politically capable of action and bound in a democratic

./english/420.txt:41:national law. The entire process takes place beyond the political public of

./english/420.txt:44:explained by Europe's lack of an internal political constitution. The next

./english/420.txt:58:classic international law to a politically defined world community.

./english/467.txt:7: Soon after the coup against the government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, Chilean graduates of Friedman’s economics department, who were soon dubbed the “Chicago Boys,” took over the helm of the economy and launched a program of economic transformation with doctrinal vengeance. In light of his much-quoted assertion about political freedom going hand-in-hand with free markets, the irony that in Chile a free market paradise was being imposed with the bayonets of one of Latin America’s most bloodstained dictatorships could not have escaped the guru.

./english/470.txt:13:Moreover, by all evidence, the forums worldwide cause even disagreeing activists to congregate, to hear one another, to develop new ties, and to take seriously economic, political, gender, race, culture, ecology, globalization, and international goals and strategies. Some local forums excellently generate shared program and actions among subsets of participants. But even short of that, by at least enhancing solidarity and enlarging vision, all the local forums powerfully aid movements.

./english/470.txt:97:(11) Mandate that the forums at every level, including the WSF, welcome people from diverse constituencies using the forums and their processes to make contacts and to develop ties that can in turn yield national, regional, or even international networks or movements of movements which do share sufficiently their political aspirations to work closely together, but which exist alongside rather than instead of the forum phenomenon.

./english/471.txt:10:These discussions voiced a rich variety of views from the environmental, women’s, tribal, indigenous peoples’, workers’, peasants’ and other movements, and diverse intellectual and political tendencies. Such a plurality is built into the forum and its charter, in the form of the concept of an ‘open space’ that encourages contending opinions to debate and exchange experiences. This space includes those figures (like Joseph Stiglitz and Mary Robinson) who want a reformed liberal model to replace the neo-liberal ‘Washington consensus’ that dominates the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the OECD; and more radical critics who seek anti-capitalist alternatives (like Immanuel Wallerstein, Samir Amin and Walden Bello).

./english/472.txt:11:They also join in opposition to the proliferation of free trade agreements through which developed countries subject underdeveloped economies to unfair competition. In the Porto Alegre meetings, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a chief target. What’s more, many fear that the FTAA and other trade agreements cement U.S. economic and political control over the region, exacerbating the ability of IFIs and U.S.-based corporations to exert pressure.

./english/472.txt:13:The Forum held its first three meetings in Porto Alegre, Brazil and the fourth in Mumbai, India. The fifth met in Porto Alegre from January 26 to 31, 2005, as this article went to press. The WSF has been a heady experience for its many participants. Imagine a gathering with tens of thousands of people (100,000 in 2003) successfully communicating across barriers of language, political orientation and issue emphasis. The scene bursts with energy as people who work on particular causes at home—feminism, the environment, indigenous rights, economic justice, human rights, AIDS treatment and prevention and many more—compare notes and strategies. Musicians and other performers entertain in the open air during breaks, and dozens of organizations and publishers promote their projects and publications.

./english/472.txt:21:The WSF is self-limiting; its charter, adopted at the first forum in Porto Alegre, explicitly excludes political parties and forswears taking political positions or proposing actions.4 It is a space, not an actor: it opens its agenda to all the forces wanting to discuss the issues relevant to the struggle for a better world.

./english/472.txt:35:The founders created an Organizing Committee with representatives from six leading Brazilian NGOs and the country’s largest labor federation, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), as well as the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST). The NGOs are broadly progressive but nevertheless part of the national and international civil society establishment; the CUT hews closely to the moderate, pro-Lula line in the PT; only the MST is distinctly on the left within Brazilian politics. This composition puts the Organizing Committee on the center-left of the political spectrum. It later created an International Council of leading activists and intellectuals, mostly European and mostly to the left of the Organizing Committee. The two bodies have not always agreed.

./english/472.txt:43:The fourth Forum moved to Mumbai, symbolically staking in Asia the claim to be a genuine world forum. About 80,000 people attended, making it smaller than the previous meeting at Porto Alegre, but larger than the first two, and laying to rest the fears of some that it would be impossible to attract similar numbers from the many cultures and the extreme poverty of South Asia. The atmosphere was festive, following local traditions of including musical and dramatic performance in political demonstrations. The widespread Indian NGO network brought more poor people to the Mumbai Forum than were in evidence at any of the Porto Alegre meetings.

./english/472.txt:48:After the 2003 Social Forum, many of those who had celebrated it for the first two years began to complain that the WSF was not living up to its promise to serve as a model of democratic organization. Indeed, the forum now contends with four big issues of internal debate: internal democracy, political action, global vs. local struggles and class inequality. The first two issues have been debated extensively in the forum’s councils and on the Internet. The latter two have not been so openly recognized.

./english/472.txt:56:Along with the issue of internal democracy, the Forum debates the strategic issue of its external projection: whether it can take concerted political action as a body. The Charter adopted in 2001 ruled out joint action, but many participants, including many on the International Council, want the Forum to propose and undertake worldwide political action. The political moderates, however, especially those within the NGO community, value the Forum as an opportunity for international networking and the exchange of ideas. They do not want the forum to go beyond its provision of a “space”: it should be a talking shop for civil society and should steer clear of political intervention.

./english/473.txt:11:The impulse to raise the stakes and turn the World Social Forum into a more consolidated political force is in some ways an expression of frustration. But several of the founders of the WSF, among them world-renowned social activist Chico Whitaker , are unequivocally opposed to the growing number of calls for manifestos and proposals.

./english/474.txt:30:Last year's WSF witnessed the emergence of a "hard line" in favour of strengthening the activist aspect of the event, when two of the Forum's founders, Emir Sader of Brazil and Samir Amin of Egypt, urged participating intellectuals to adopt a manifesto calling for concrete actions and a more clear-cut political stance.

./english/474.txt:32:"The utopian outlook of the earlier forums seems to be fading in Caracas, and there are those who want to bring about an extreme shift towards a more political nature," commented Plinio Arruda Sampaio, a leftist Brazilian community activist who has participated in previous WSF meets.

./english/474.txt:34:According to Sampaio, the Forum "is facing a delicate moment, and will have to decide what course to take with caution, because it is in danger of losing much of the ground gained since 2001, when it emerged as a counter-current to the World Economic Forum," which hosts an annual meeting of the world's business, economic and political elite in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

./english/474.txt:42:Edgardo Lander, a member of the Venezuelan organising committee, admitted that the WSF "is relatively fragile, and must be handled with care. It is a political forum, which undertakes campaigns, but it could be hurt by a more militant commitment."

./english/475.txt:19:* To a degree that is decisively more so than holding the Forum in Mumbai in 2004, this year¹s Forum by the choice of locations - is evidently trying to open up social and political space : In Venezuela as an apparent ally of anti-imperialist popular forces in Latin America (and now made only the more so, with the election of Morales in Bolivia and his visit to Venezuela and Hugo Chávez in this past week); and in Pakistan, still formally a dictatorship, with the army and a general in firm control (of state power, at least). What has the leadership of the World Social Forum hoped to achieve by doing this by choosing these locations for this major

./english/475.txt:24:* More specifically, and despite the sometimes trenchant and even bitter discussion of the manner in which the Workers¹ Party in Brazil has influenced the emergence and politics of the World Social Forum as an idea, and also about the dominating influence of political parties in the

./english/475.txt:25:continental / regional Fora (the SWP Socialist Workers Party in the case of the London European Social Forum in November 2004, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the Communist parties in the case of the WSF in Mumbai) and all this despite the fact the WSF¹s Charter specifically prohibits the participation of political parties in the Forum - there is very little discussion of the fact that the Caracas Forum seems to be virtually being sponsored by Hugo Chávez and his government and to be completely dominated by them, and where the Caracas Forum will quite obviously be used by him as a platform and as a way of promoting his understanding of the Forum. (For a glimpse, see his speech to the Forum in 2005 - Mario Dujisin, January 2005 OHugo Chávez, President of Venezuela : "The WSF Should Have A Strategy Of Power"¹, January 31 2005, on

./english/475.txt:28:These are serious questions. It is not enough just to innocently Ogo and take part¹ in Othe World Social Forum¹ and to then think or feel that you have been sold down the river when you are there (or indeed, even if you do not go, because all this is being done in our name the name of so-called Ocivil society¹, both local and global). In short : Do you agree that the Forum should and can be organised by political parties and by governments, towards their partisan ends ? If Chávez in Venezuela, then why not Musharraf in Pakistan ?

./english/476.txt:12:The formula was original and quite different from the historic antisystemic movements, including Communist and other "Internationals." And it caught fire. The second meeting at Porto Alegre attracted 40,000 participants, including now a large group from North America. The third, in 2003, had 70-80,000 participants. Every conceivable kind of movement - reformist and revolutionary, every variety of oppressed or marginalized persons, the Old Left and the New Left, social movements and NGOs, came. So did an increasing number of political figures. The world press paid increasing attention.

./english/477.txt:8:The formula was original and quite different from the historic antisystemic movements, including Communist and other Internationals. And it caught fire. The second meeting at Porto Alegre attracted 40,000 participants, including now a large group from North America. The third, in 2003, had 70-80,000 participants. Every conceivable kind of movement, reformist and revolutionary, every variety of oppressed or marginalized persons, the Old Left and the New Left, social movements and NGOs, came. So did an increasing number of political figures. The world press paid increasing attention.

./english/477.txt:18:The wish to expand the geographic scope of the WSF was behind the move to Mumbai, and it was a spectacular success. In 2002, according to the chief Indian organizer, not 200 people in India had even heard of the WSF. In 2004, hundreds of organizations, and more than 100,000 Indians alone attended it, coming from every conceivable social group - at least 30,000 dalits (untouchables), adivasi (tribal peoples), and women everywhere. Furthermore, against all of previous Indian political culture, they represented a wide range of political views, working together. The WSF will return to Porto Alegre in 2005 and is planning to go to Africa in 2006.

./english/480.txt:16:anti-globalization movement is part and parcel). I also affirm the value of a political praxis which

./english/480.txt:17:knowingly and purposefully exploits ambivalent moments in political, pedagogical, representational

./english/500.txt:4:PENANG, Malaysia, Mar 24 (IPS) - While a buzz of excitement surrounds the World Social Forum, now underway in the Pakistani city of Karachi, veteran activists and political scientists here are having reservations over the regional approach to the global event, with some even unaware it was taking place.

./english/500.txt:28:''I have a few misgivings about splitting the venue (the polycentric approach), but I guess it's all part of the new political experimentation in devolved democracy and real participation that I find attractive about the WSF,'' said Glasgow-based political scientist and author John Hilley, who has written about neo-liberal militarism, the WSF and Southeast Asian politics, in e-mailed comments to IPS.

./english/500.txt:30:He felt that the WSF and wider anti-globalisation movements have to work through multifarious alignments, coalitions and strategies. ''If the prevailing power structure is built around a corporate-political-military hegemony which utilises globalisation and all its ideological resources, any alternative bloc has to think at a similar level,'' he said.

./english/500.txt:32:Some argue that the global justice movement should be a political movement and that there is no harm in backing political figures and causes worthy of support.

./english/500.txt:34:Hilley pointed out there is no essential contradiction with the WSF's founding principles and its capacity to engage either intellectuals or key 'left' political leaders.

./english/500.txt:36:While intellectuals are an integral part of the movement, too close an alignment with political leaders could be problematic.

./english/500.txt:48:Penang-based political scientist, Johan Saravanamuttu, who participated in the Mumbai WSF, was not even aware of the Karachi event until IPS contacted him. ''The publicity is bad,'' he told IPS. ''Somehow I haven't even caught any news about the Karachi event unlike the WTO event in Hong Kong.''

./english/502.txt:16:Ten years later, this enchantment is broken. An expressive and growing part of public opinion, in many countries, has adopted values whose anti-systemic potential is evident. A few examples: the fight for human rights is even more present in the agenda of societies but it has also gained another sense. Today, it means that the right to a decent life (in terms of its political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects) must be assured for everyone, notwithstanding what they earn which is something that follows a logic that goes against capitalism.

./english/502.txt:26:Besides providing an open space for the articulation of common action, the editions of the WSF have been important laboratories of social science, where theories of transformation are being constantly re-elaborated. This power plant of ideas has at least two remarkable characteristics. It puts all emancipatory streams into contact with each other. Marxisms, Gandhiism, feminism, liberation Christianity, Gaia theories, thirdworldism, humanism, and others all dialogue and enrich each other constantly. They are present, as theoretical influences, in the self-organised activities during the Forums, where more and more we see the common factor is the meeting of participants from diverse countries and cultures. But this is exactly the second relevant idea: the debate of ideas does not happen only at an academic level, or within political parties. The Forum breaks barriers between intellectuals and activists. Intellectuals of international importance and leaders of different

./english/502.txt:27:political streams debate, as every other participant, in the same environment, where there are no pre-established truths or leaders.

./english/502.txt:30:Equally, this is where Social Forums and alterglobalisation are producing their first results. The refusal to repeat old formulas, the openness to learn from different points of view, and the reduced importance given to old political and academic hierarchies are allowing the birth of a new political

./english/502.txt:33:The new political culture tends to reject any attempts of creating hierarchy (that contest equality) or uniformity (that violate diversity) both directions that set it apart from capitalism and the ideas that come from the old forms of struggle against it. There are no "historic" social categories that are more capable than others to lead the world transformation. There are no campaigns that are a priori, more relevant than others. There are no directions ? either academic, or from political parties ? that are legitimised to define such campaigns in our names, outside our dialogue spaces.

./english/502.txt:42:Under such entirely new conditions, is there any sense in appealing to old strategies that reduce politics to the "conquest" of State power ? and because of that, emphasise the necessity of identifying "historical personalities" and building dominating political parties?

./english/510.txt:13:- a forum reserved for civil society, without elected representatives, governments, or political parties (except as outside speakers) tempted to use their participation for political purposes;

./english/510.txt:26:But the great challenge is found elsewhere. This is the taking advantage of an invaluable opportunity, made available through respect of the World Social Forum's Charter of Principles, for strengthening civil society in each of the three countries as a new political actor independent of governments, parties, and political leaders. A Social Forum opens the way for building links between organizations, by overtaking the barriers that generally divide them and by the mutual recognition and the discovery of their autonomous strength, with respect for their diversity.

./english/512.txt:10:This is evidence of the increasing assimilation of the way of doing politics that is written into the WSF Charter of Principles: by horizontal action in networks, without internal struggles for hegemony, making room for civil society to emerge as a new political actor, autonomous of parties and governments.

./english/512.txt:15:The aim of the political process launched in 2001 by the WSF remains the same: to permit encounters among “groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth” (1).

./english/512.txt:30:It may be that holding the next World Forum in Africa – a new social, economic and political reality – will reduce the scope for proposing that kind of single focus. The way of doing politics that it expresses, however, is the same as lies behind four challenges that the WSF process faces if it is to continue and expand, which may be a subject to be discussed by the International Council in March. Two of these challenges could be said to come from outside the Forum, and two from inside.

./english/512.txt:33:The two challenges that come from outside result from the action of governments and parties. Continuing with the political struggle in the same way as it has always been pursued, they find it hard to understand – and therefore to accept – what the WSF intends. This difficulty shows up clearly in the way parties and governments – and with them, international intergovernmental organizations – very often seek to associate themselves with the Forums. The WSF Charter of Principles establishes that they may not organise activities at the Forums, although they may take part at the invitation of participants, in activities that those participants organise (on the self-organised basis of the Forums).

./english/512.txt:35:The Forums’ organisers ask something even more difficult of governments that dialogue with the WSF process – because they take a position on the same field of battle against neoliberalism: they ask them to help without interfering. Not all governments are willing to do that. It is hard for them to resist the temptation for self-promotion at the event. This difficulty in respecting the autonomy of civil society is a natural result of the political culture that prevailed throughout the last century.

./english/512.txt:37:That difficulty is also experienced by political parties, which until now have enjoyed a hegemony over political activity, the aim of their activities being to take government power. To their leaders there is no sense in acting outside of them or in intending to do anything without taking power. That difficulty grows to the extent that parties’ hegemony is threatened by civil society as a new, emerging political actor.

./english/512.txt:41:It is not a question of bringing the Forums as such into those battle lines. In themselves they are not political actors – and thus cannot set themselves to become the new “subject of history” that the experts in politics hope to encounter. They are just a space. But they are a civil society space, for the different sectors of society to exchange ideas and experience and find avenues to effective political action, including the means to pressure and constrain governments and parties, and to contribute to bringing about changes by doing whatever is within their grasp without depending on either. Never before did civil society have an instrument of this kind with which to develop its interrelations autonomously.

./english/512.txt:56:It results from the enormous weight of the conception according to which all and any political struggle must have leaders or vanguards to mobilize the militants and direct the action. When that combines with the authoritarianism fostered by capitalism and which marks many positions, including those of the left, it leads to struggles for hegemony over leadership of what action is actually to be taken. This is expressed in permanent competition for power among the forces that oppose the dominance of capitalism, meaning that the prevailing logic is one of dispute rather than mutual openness, and space is opened up for all kinds of anti-democratic manoeuvrings and coups to gain terrain.

./english/512.txt:60:both the first and second challenge give rise to the risk of splintering and re-splintering that is already so much a part of the history of the left – as a result of the all too well known strategy of the dominators, to divide and rule. If union is a necessary condition for building a political force really capable of standing up to capitalism, and it is urgent that we build such a force, the temptation is to try to achieve it not by conviction – which however militant takes time – but by unified commands capable of imposing discipline and obedience – which are purportedly more effective.

./english/512.txt:69:The Bandung Conference, in the struggle for economic and political independence for Third World countries, was a conference of heads of state, not of peoples – even though the former may present themselves as representatives of the latter. Its proposal thus presupposes that everything depends on governments, and that real action for change depends on taking political power. Now that is a hotly debated issue in the WSF process, which is a space for peoples to interrelate through their organisations. In that respect, the initiative taken at Bamako adds to one of the challenges coming from outside the Forum, that is, the endeavour to increase governments’ presence in its actions. Caracas offered na unparalleled opportunity to gain a vigorous ally: President Chavez, who is notorious combatant in the anti-imperialist cause, and presented by some at “the leader we were needing”.

./english/512.txt:82:This challenge is the greatest of the four mentioned here. It first arose at the 2001 Forum, where for the first time the organisers of the Assembly wanted to put out their final “Appeal” as coming from all the participants at the event, and using the official Forum website for that purpose (3). It associates the value set on action by the social grassroots – which is an option taken by the Forum – with the feeling of urgency of calls to action. But instead of integrating naturally into the process that is underway, it holds to the type of competitive political action that is felt has to be changed in order to build the necessary union.

./english/512.txt:84:The final effect of the Assembly’s actions may be fatal to the Forum, by transforming it into a movement with a single line of action and a single direction, thus alienating all those who do not accept that action and direction. How can that be prevented? Meeting that challenge will call for open and frank dialogue among those who advocate for one position or the other. If we manage that we will have managed to take a decisive step towards a new political culture that is needed in order to build the “other possible world”. Preparations for the Kenya Forum may just offer us the right opportunity.

./english/513.txt:12:The Forum also revealed that daily life is more political than ever, and that changes are forged from transformations involving people and human relations as a whole. However, for these changes to become reality it’s necessary to uproot unequal relations wherever they appear.

./english/513.txt:26:Thus, to speak of the Forum’s future implies the decision to think about where it wants to go. There are hundreds of possible ways of responding, each one with its corresponding political responsibilities, with actors who propose and support these possibilities from their own respective realities and viewpoints.

./english/513.txt:39:Can the Forum collectively define common world gatherings or rallying points in order to enable the struggles taking place everywhere to express themselves in one or more key moments, and so achieve greater impact? Can it provide a focus for a common agenda and calls that inter-relate the multiple, inter-related resistances/struggles to the different sources of oppression within the system? Can the Forum’s agenda prioritise vital issues such as dignity, sovereignty, justice and peace? Common sense says so; the political significance of the agenda of struggle against the model also says so, and in fact it is already happening, but these issues still don’t form part of its explicit aims.

./english/513.txt:65:The Forum is undoubtedly the largest planetary initiative, bringing together citizens, in history. Its accumulated experience is benefited by the wealth of an important trajectory of struggles and resistance to old and new forms of domination; its heritage of critical thought, alternatives and visions of change are an inexhaustible source of proposals and actions; its participatory, pluralistic and diverse character is the terrain for building new democratic practices. In sum, in its short life the Forum has begun a wide-ranging process of opening up possibilities for struggle against the development model. Its growth now implies the need to invent strategies to politically organise resistance to the model and to do so, from a pluralist and diverse prospect of hope, that the Forum awakened on a planetary scale when it affirmed that “Another World is Possible”.

./english/513.txt:67:Up until now the Forum has managed to face up, with verve and ingenuity, to most of the challenges it has come across as part of its innovative project; and so it will undoubtedly take on the great task of assuming the role of the political actor which its own development has generated.

./english/519.txt:10:Due to the high level of confrontation, the global movement (or alter-globalization), which struc-tured itself as from the Seattle protests, is facing – since mobilizations against the Iraq invasion on February 15th, 2003 – difficulties regarding political initiatives and is aware that international initia-tives, which structure the movement, are dispersed. Mobilizations that are centralized for “counter-summits” such as the ones that occurred parallel to the WTO in Cancun (August, 2003) and Hong Kong (December, 2005) were very limited and had little effect on the events’ dynamics; the same occurred during the 4th Summit of the Americas, in Mar del Plata (November, 2005). The evalua-tion of the protests that took 250 people to the streets against the G8 in Edinburgh is an ambiguous one, but it does not repesent the Seattle-Geneva cycle’s recovery. The result brought by these meet-ings was determined by disputes among governments and groups of governments.

./english/519.txt:16:In Europe, the defeat of the European Constitution proposal in referendums in France and Holland represents an important obstacle for the Maastricht project’s fulfillment, because a political renewal would be given to the neo liberal construction of the European Union as a big market, a problem to which, up to now, there is no solution – with the poor youth protesting in France showing the latent risks contained in the present path. In the United States, in spite of the repressive and defensive con-text, many important social mobilizations have recovered themselves, such as the transportation strike in New York. The same is happening with political struggles, particularly within peaceful movements and movements for the withdrawal in Iraq. However, the predominance of a very con-servative political atmosphere remains within central capitalist countries (including Japan, Australia and Canada) and within the great performers of the global system (Russia, China, and, to a certain extent, India).

./english/519.txt:20:It is in Latin America where the most consistent winds of resistance to neo liberalism and aspiration for changes blow. If Lula’s election has enormously frustrated the Brazilian and the international leftist movement and his settlement with the current order strengthens a series of “left without changes” (or social liberals) governments in the region (Uruguay, Chile, and to a certain extent, Ar-gentina), Brazilian government needs to keep dialogue with the reality established by Chavez, in Venezuela (supported by Cuba). The recent election of Evo Morales may be considered, at this moment, a strengthening fact to the transforming pole of Latin America’s left wing. Since 2005 (4th Hemispheric Meeting Against ALCA, in Havana), Chavez has been keeping a strong political ini-tiative within the region, supported by the Cubans; Chavez has launched the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) proposal, which imposes itself on the discussion as a concrete alternative to FTTA. Another important fact may be the recent zapatists’ change of political course, which came with the Marcos’national tour, introducing, therefore, new elements on the board. All socie-ties in the continent are clearly in movement.

./english/519.txt:26:The four WSF editions in Porto Alegre and the Mumbai edition were marked by local political con-ditions, and this was not different in Bamako and Caracas events, whose profiles have reflected each region’s left wing protagonists’ actions. But these particularities were intensified by the global movement’s general situation, which did not provide to local experiences the same counterbalance, as it did before.

./english/519.txt:30:The political space in Caracas has been marked by the bolivarian experience and by the presence of Chavez government – which is natural, due to the characteristics of the proc-ess, in which the State has a string role. The Caracas WSF was an opportunity for international left wing sectors to get more acquainted with the Venezuelan experience and to dialogue with the axle built by Chavez and Castro, with its political initiatives, and to relate themselves with the Latin-American left wing recovery process.

./english/519.txt:32:The Caracas Forum was also influenced by the Evo Morales’ electoral victory in Bolivia, which is a result of the indigenous peoples’ long insurrection in that country – and the indigenous issue was a very strong point in the event. Chavez tried to capitalize the Forum taking place in Venezuela – as Lula had done in Porto Alegre, in that case to try to justify the idea of not having an alternative to neo liberalism – strengthening his presence on the continental scene as well as straiten Caracas’ re-lationship with movements from the region. This transformed the way social movements, political parties and government relate to each other in terms of an important matter regarding the Forum and has given a new value to the debate on the state-power issue.

./english/519.txt:36:These events have expressed tensions that are part of the WSF, which have been present in the process since its beginning. In one side, there is some questioning about its characteristic of being an open space that is not deicision-making. In the other side, regard-ing its autonomy before government and political parties. Although these tensions are not new, they have gained more intensity, mainly due to the current conjuncture of the global movement being more dispersed politically, but also due to each Bamako’s and Caracas’ events particularities.

./english/519.txt:42:The WSF has shown itself very efficient in giving impulse to the left wing’s political struggle in the beginning of this century. Innumerous declarations, platforms and calls have been coming out of the process’ events and have been fundamental to organize from the referendum on the FTTA in Brazil to the protests against the invasion of Iraq on February 15th, 2003. In each forum, social movements network meetings agree on an agenda for global mobiliza-tions, which is reference to thousands of movements and organizations. Declarations such as the “World Charter on the Rights to the City” have been produced in many forums. During the Caracas Forum, de declaration “Another integration, urgent, possible and necessary” was made. The “Ba-mako Call”, written in a seminar that took place one day before the Forum, is an important refer-ence to our days, assembling much of what the WSF has produced up to now. Some examples of “conclusions” produced “during the Forums” could be multiplied infinitely, and many would point out its efficiency as an impelling force to the organization of initiatives which are central to the left-ist movement nowadays.

./english/519.txt:44:But, in spite of all these evidences showing the WSF’s efficiency, some still insist that if the Forum does not undertake resolutions, declarations or platforms, it will “end up being a fair”. Therefore, this insistence seems to rely less on what is made explicit within the discourse (how to organize the struggles better) and more on acting methods and political culture conceptions, to rely on what should be the model of organization for the political action adopted by us. This discussion needs to be done without ambiguities.

./english/519.txt:48:The global movement in which the Forum’s existence is based on has brought to us three important lessons: it demonstrates the efficiency of network-like organization to articulate current struggles (which opposes itself to pyramidal structures, which are conservative and bureaucratic); the revalue of internationalism within the left; and valuing pluralism within social and political composition of any emancipation project without establishing hierarchy among its components. The Forum-like format (open-space, self-organized, structured in network and non-decision making) copes with these challenges and must be defended against any kind of past “international directions” nostalgia.

./english/519.txt:50:Some IC members see the WSF as a possible new historical subject of the 21st century’s struggle for emancipation. They think of its constitution as a similar one to the 20th century’s internationals. But the subjects (plural) of contemporary people’s struggle have already shown themselves at the WSF, uniting in a flexible manner, up to the extent in which their political understanding points to this direction. Institutionalizing the WSF as “the” subject, allowing the space to debate and articu-late in overlap with its actors, would prevent these subjects from developing, whereas these subjects should be strengthened, by getting closer to a wider number of struggles and regional, national and local movements.

./english/519.txt:52:Adopting resolutions “as” the Forum means the establishment of deliberative bodies that surpass the powers and the function of being the process’s facilitators (as they are today, from the IC to the OCs). This would mean to open processes – natural, but inevitable – of dispute for power, with all its problems, something that the Forum has succeeded in avoiding. Within the processes of delibera-tion, this would mean imposing the opinion of some people upon others, which would jeopardize the efficiency of the Forum in its current format where the political argument and the voluntary ad-hesion to any proposal, declaration or campaign prevails. To abandon theses victories obtained by the Forum would mean a great political retrocession to the current left wing.

./english/519.txt:71:This quote may give rise to various criticism, regarding topics that go from “denying” the fact that the Forum has actively participated in the fight for ‘another possible world’ (as a space) and it was an important agent in the global ideology struggle for revaluing leftist projects, up to its “ultimate” character as if it was the last chance to correct a mistake, which would be producing its current marginality. We may also think about it as nostalgia of a past in which there were countries whose governments represented international tendencies of the socialist movement. Moscow, Belgrade, Beijing, Havana, Tirana and even Pyongyang were already presented as the ones which would lead socialism to victory — geopolitical determinations that specific sectors have tried to turn into politi-cal imperatives.

./english/519.txt:73:If the leftist governments ought to be defended from the imperialist ag-gressions, we should also learn with the “real socialism” collapse and emphasize the fragility of so-cial change processes whose focus is unilaterally the state machine — and this fragility became clear to many Caracas Forum participants. This should not be seen as an antagonistic critic to the Bolivarian Revolution, but as a part of a dialogue that tries to contribute to the improvement of this process. This is the same kind of criticism that many components of the WSF process have made to castrism, from the leftist point of view, what we, the Latin American people do emphasize stressing the difficult conditions imposed by the imperialistic enclosure to the Havana regime and the Cuba people heroic resistance — approach that usually leftist sectors from outside the continent take as condescendence. On the other hand, the concrete problems of revolutionary processes in progress stimulate the debate within the WSF on the political power and the State as a changing element to-wards another world.

./english/522.txt:26:Musical groups and poets gave an emotional power to the political speeches. In the seminars, some women wearing shawls or veils removed them - in Pakistan, there are many who wear no headgear. Women were numerous and mixed company was the rule in the spaces and the tribunes of the forum. The atmosphere was joyous, the speech and behaviour liberating.

./english/522.txt:32:Fourth element of success, the presence of youth and the return of politics. Hundreds of youth, particularly from Karachi, participated in the forum as volunteers. For many among them, it was their first political experience - sometimes a little disconcerting, it seems, because of the changes of programme. More generally, the forum allowed a reaffirmation of the authenticity of the political terrain in the face of the military regime which sterilises it in the name of the imperatives of national security and faced with the fundamentalist movements which sterilise it in the name of religious imperatives. The forum has reopened the debate on the place of politics and it is not the least of its results.

./english/522.txt:47:4 On the left. This polemic on the nature of the social forums divided the Pakistani left. Some political movements supported the process from the beginning. This is particularly the case of the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) whose activists were perfectly at home in the forum. The Awami Tehreek (from Sind) was very present. A little before the forum, a front was set up between six left organisations [5]. That probably facilitated a broader participation of left forces in the forum.

./english/522.txt:57:1. The functionality of the forums. With the emigration of the WSF outside of its Latino-European countries of origin - after Mumbaï (2004), Bamako and Karachi (2005) - the utility of the forums (of this type of forum) has now been tested positively in very varied contexts. Nothing is universal or eternal, but the adaptability of this form of action (and of the process which supports it) has proved remarkable. It has been tested on the international level in countries where the social movements are strong or weak, in favourable and unfavourable political situations, in highly defensive or counter-offensive conjunctures.

./english/522.txt:59:Of course, each forum has its own characteristics and functions. But the form “forum/process”, “meeting space/place of impulsion of actions” clearly responds to needs linked to the period and not only to a specific political geography. We already knew it, but this is a confirmation of it. The forums allow the rallying of resistance (in its diversity) in a time of globalisation, when the crisis of the socialist reference has not been overcome and the modes of centralisation of the past period (around the workers’ movement or armed struggles) do not work as before.

./english/522.txt:61:2. The significance of the Pakistani experience. The Karachi forum illustrates this first point of conclusion. The political situation in the country is not good. There are key struggles, sometimes victorious, but the trade union and social movement remains fragmented and globally weak. The country is extremely divided. Social structures are often very different according to province, or even inside the same province like the Punjab. The whole history of the Pakistani state since its formation in 1947 is traversed by conflicts between the elites of “ethnic” groups and provinces for the control of the administration and the army (which are dominated by the Punjabis, but also the Mohajirs). Regional or national conflicts are numerous (Baluchis, Pashtoons, Kashmiris, Sindhis and so on) and can lead to internal wars. Statistics show 97% of Pakistan’s population are Muslims, with all the ambiguity linked to the use of categories of religious (or cultural?) appearance against a complex social reality (don’t doubt it, there are Pakistani atheists). But we have seen the multiplicity (Sunni, Shiite, Ahmadiyya, Sufis and so on) and the violence that this “unanimous” percentage hides.

./english/522.txt:67:The evolution of the world of NGOs poses a problem? Effectively. Some, in the name of global civil society, weaken the local or national activist fabrics. In the name of a citizen-based discourse, they stifle social radicalism. In the name of democracy, they monopolise visibility to the detriment of otherwise more representative organisations. But the world of the NGOs is not homogeneous; and it is not alone in creating a problem. The same is true of the trade union bureaucracies, intolerant “rank and file” movements, authoritarian political leaderships, of naïfs and cynics and (oh how many!) egotistical personalities and manipulative individuals. In short, it is not enough to denounce the NGOs (many of whom have their place in the forums) to ensure the popular dynamic of the process.

./english/522.txt:73:4. Globalisation of resistance. The process of internationalisation of forums began from 2002 with the European Social Forum in Florence. It experienced a qualitative leap with Hyderabad (India) and Mumbai in 2003-2004. It is today again the case with Bamako and Karachi (Caracas occupies a specific place in the deepening of political themes). That will again be true in 2007 with Nairobi.

./english/524.txt:14:Based on the experiences in Mali, polycentrism appears to be a good idea: it was Africans themselves who determined the agenda and were seeking appealing responses. Of course, the jargon that is so typical of the struggle against “neo-liberalism” was voiced here as well as the anger about political leaders with enormous foreign bank accounts. But much more striking was the way in which from within the continent itself, a quest for a vision on Africa’s future was clear. Pan-Africanism had returned: one radio MTV station for the whole of Africa; complete economic integration; and railway lines that would run right through and over the whole continent. The forum itself however, was a living testimony of the necessity to transcend the frontiers drawn by colonialism. Of the people who had registered from Eastern and Southern Africa only few actually appeared. In francophone Mali, it was the Malians who dominated together with other francophonians.

./english/524.txt:17:Debt cancellation and a call for a forceful response to shameless robbery in the exploitation of Africa’s natural wealth (“how is it possible that we who possess the biggest natural wealth on the whole earth are the poorest continent at the same time?” a participant wondered). There was an appeal to develop Africa’s full potential, taking as a basis precisely those youth who are now looking for possibilities elsewhere due to lack of work. A primary issue then is education – “Eduquer ou périr” (educate or perish) the African philosopher Ki Zerbo said already fifty years ago – but directly connected with work. This implies changes in the political, economic, and socio-cultural environment. Remarkably, participants did not just see African culture as a good thing but also as an impediment for initiatives coming from people themselves. The individual deserves respect, not just as a member of a group, but also based on her own values and dignity. Organizations for human rights implementation are active all over the continent, also precisely in the struggle against poverty.

./english/527.txt:32:Hard political questions

./english/527.txt:34:The political dividing lines within the movement are paralleled by differences on the process of change that the movement aims at. One has to wonder, indeed, whether the public outcry against neoliberalism and the demands for more democracy are equally understood by all movements. For some, democracy is an end in itself. Radical democracy is seen as synonymous with socialism. For others, democracy is only an instrument to dismantle neoliberalism, or even just an epiphenomenon.

./english/527.txt:36:Mostly, a rather negative analysis is made of national states, political parties and representative democracy. Though few seminars of the WSF are discussing these points, they permanently influence debates on what is possible within the WSF and what is not.

./english/527.txt:38:No one will disagree on the need for more participatory democracy. However, the question on how and if movements can ally with politicians and/or political parties is much more difficult to answer. The WSF in Caracas was a case in point, since many observers and participants feared that Chavez would try to appropriate the forum. There was quite some resistance against a possible funding of the WSF by the Venezuelan government. Civil society, it was said, has to be autonomous and cannot work with governments. This debate was sharpened by a letter from Chico Whitacker, one of the Brazilian founders of the Forum. Because of the corruption within Brazilian politics, he dismissed from the PT (Worker’s Party) and fiercely defends a politisation of society, without political parties.

./english/527.txt:40:This debate was highly favoured by the ‘horizontalists’ who believe in a self-managed and autonomous movement. Horizontalists look at states and political parties as parts of the oppressive system of capitalism. The hierarchies they conceal are said to be hindering the emancipation of people and thus have to be dismantled.

./english/527.txt:44:The presence of political parties at the forum is also controversial. Surely the Charter of the WSF talks of a possible participation of elected representatives ‘in their personal capacity’ and assuming they respect the principles of the Charter. Public authorities are not our enemies, as Bernard Cassen rightly states. But then, how to explain the presence in some seminars of civil servants from the World Bank or the UNDP?

./english/527.txt:48:The argument that movements should only talk with governments and parties of the left is not always acceptable, since governments, necessarily, are holding power. It is ‘power over’, as Jai Sen observes, and not ‘power to’, the power that civil society wants to have. The Forum has to try to dismantle power relations and offer alternatives. In this context the example of the European Social Forum in London is mentioned, where one political party of the left apparently dominated.

./english/527.txt:50:These differences between the advocates of civil society and the politically minded participants would be easier to understand if there were no power relations within the forum. The WSF has created its own elite, people who decide were and when to meet, that are part of the secretariat or the international council, people that do not have to queue and wait two hours in order to register for the forum, people that live in expensive hotels and know what is good for the ordinary activist. One might suspect some horizontalists to just defend their own interests and power. Those who want to avoid any hierarchy and are against any political influence, often just try to perpetuate existing and informal power relations.

./english/527.txt:70:In 2005, nothing was done with this proposal. Until the WSF in Bamako of January 2006. One day before the Forum a number of movements gathered to discuss and adopt an ‘Appeal of Bamako’, a text of some 20 pages with an interesting programme. Most post-capitalists should be able to agree with it, certainly if they believe in strong states and the important role of political and social agency. The initiative was promoted by Samir Amin, François Houtart and the people of ‘Le Monde Diplomatique’, all founders of the WSF process.

./english/527.txt:98:The discussion on the future of the movement has now started and that is a very positive result. However, binary dichotomies can better be avoided, like civil society vs the state, local vs global action, etc. The main challenge consists in finding the right way of linking different levels and different agents. There are no political levels or agents that can be neglected. A political dialogue does not conflict with the autonomy of movements. We should not fall into the trap that neoliberal discourses are setting for us. WSF could usefully consult the feminist movement that has some experience with the re-invention of democracy. For the WSF, gender is a transversal issue, though women, their experiences and their issues are under-represented. Concerning issues as pluralism and diversity, their contribution could be very useful.

./english/527.txt:100:The WSF has to find its way, as François Houtart notes, ‘between a 5th International and a social Woodstock’. The WSF is a festival and the WSF is political. The WSF has to be politicized, which means that many political actions within the forum should be possible. The WSF should not become the victim of its success. Its process has to be deepened in order to find a number of practical, post-capitalistic, radical democratic alternatives. The WSF is an open forum and should remain an open forum. But it also should be able to encourage the wording of strategies and alternatives, in both a pragmatic and idealistic way. We will indeed have to change ourselves. As Peter Waterman says, the main problem of emancipation is not the enemy, it is us.

./english/529.txt:14:Objections have been voiced that many of those seeking a change in the world do not know what they are looking for. Naomi Klein, the author of No Logo who attended the first forum, wrote, "After a year and a half of protests against the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the World Social Forum was billed as an opportunity for this emerging movement to stop screaming about what it is against and start articulating what it is for." President Chavez of Venezuela where the WSF was held in January also expressed the same fear when he appealed for a serious political discussion and the need for direction. I didn’t hear a whole lot of visionary discussion at the Karachi Forum. There were countless NGO’s presenting their efforts, railing against the powers that be, but other than a sense of solidarity, no discussion arose by which the global activist community might grow their movement. I didn’t see any "Big Picture" emerging.

./english/529.txt:20:Pakistan is also directly affected by the American global hegemony project, -which is an issue that no amount of democracy can resolve. The direct link between the American trans-Afghan pipeline scheme, and its intended route to be ploughed across Balochistan to deliver central Asian oil to the Arabian Sea, and the Pakistan Junta’s military atrocities in the area is well recognized. Balochi’s have always been fiercely independent and their country takes up 43% of what’s called Pakistan. This shortest route to the oil-ports is of course, the only reason that Americans, and their Canadian lackeys have ever had the slightest interest in Afghanistan. The USA Neocon’s badly want a north-south pipeline across Balochistan, but they will not tolerate the proposed east-west "Peace Pipeline" which would deliver Iranian natural gas to India, and would require peaceful, stable good relations for all involved. And it seems that neither the American, nor Pakistani or even Indian government has recognized that no matter how much force of violence is exerted, if the Balochi’s don’t agree to a pipeline, it won’t happen. Having been recently insulted by the stingy, fortified Bush ’visit’ after his gushing sojourn in India, Bush should recognize that the "Goodwill to Muslims" political capital he invested in the Pakistani earthquake has been amply upstaged by the 1200 Cuban doctors, -600 women and 600 men, who continue to toil in the disaster zone.

./english/529.txt:22:The overwhelming feeling of solidarity which pervaded the whole event, was especially important given the context in which it was held, -the extremely precarious and divisive Pakistani political situation. For Pakistanis to meet so many fellow actists was more important than the big picture discussion. Although some people might believe the pipe dream that what ails Pakistan, -multiple independence struggles, environmental and natural catastrophe, widespread poverty and illiteracy, and the leadership of an unelected, uniformed USA-Puppet general commanding a military junta can be solved within any existing democratic process they are wasting irreplaceable time. It’s abundantely clear that no politics can deal with, or is even recognizing what will happen to Pakistan’s, or any other economy in the world, once the price of fuel, doubles, triples or quadruples, as it may well do this very year There is no political system in the world that can deal with this, nor have any even begun to consider it.

./english/529.txt:24:Not a single status-quo extant political system, nor any of its players, which are currently arrayed along a left/right cline are offering anything which can check our path-dependent, headlong rush to global catastrophe. No Robert’s Rules meeting can produce the required course of action. A clear majority of humanity understands clearly what is wrong with this world, yet is completely stymied by the zero political options to turn around this hell-bent march to destruction. This human majority is mutually instantly recognizable, -we can spot each other out of crowds of thousands, regardless of nationality, class, colour or creed. There is a desperate need for a new political paradigm, and that’s what needs to be discussed at these kinds of Forums. The World Social Forum should be the place where this discussion happens. I don’t know of any bigger gathering of people who are trying to believe that "Another World is Possible."

./english/532.txt:5:Openness – as an organising principle and political ideology – has become an article of faith across networked social movements. From its role as a central tenet of free and open source software production to its current popularity within activist circles, the concept of openness is attracting enthusiastic adherence. Here, as part of our series on the politics of alternative media structures, JJ King takes a less credulous view of what lies beneath the dream of organisational horizontality

./english/532.txt:13:This idea of openness is now frequently deployed not only with reference to composing software communities but also to political and cultural groupings. For many, this is easily explained: FLOSS’ ‘self-evident’ realisation of a ‘voluntary global community empowered and explicitly authorised to reverse-engineer, learn from, improve and use-validate its own tools and products’, indicates that ‘it has to be taken seriously as a potential source of organising for other realms of human endeavour.’[4] In these circles, openness is now seen as ‘paradigmatic’. Computer book publisher and guru Tim O’Reilly’s presentation at the Reboot conference in 2003, entitled ‘The Open Source Paradigm Shift’, placed FLOSS at the vanguard of a social phenomenon whose time, he said ‘had come’; its methods of ad hoc, distributed collaboration constituting a ‘new paradigm’ at a level consistent with, for example, the advent of the printing press and movable type.[5]

./english/532.txt:15:Such accounts of the social-political pertinence of the FLOSS model are increasingly common. A recent essay by activist Florian Schneider and writer Geert Lovink, for example, exhibits the premature desire to collapse FLOSS-style open organisation into a series of other political phenomena:

./english/532.txt:23:Rushkoff does not try to draw direct parallels between FLOSS and other forms of activity in the manner of Schneider and Lovink, but argues equally problematically that the model used in open source software composing communities could be usefully applied to democratic political organisation. A growing willingness to engage with the underlying code of the democratic process,’ he contends, ‘could eventually manifest in a widespread call for revisions to our legal, economic and political structures.’[8] Clearly, then, the idea of openness has appeal across rather different constituencies – here we already have both the reformist-liberal and the radicals activists claiming openness as their ally. Indeed, as ICT theorist Biella Coleman suggests, the widespread adoption and use of the idea of openness and its ‘profound political impact’ may precisely be contingent on its peculiarly transpolitical appeal. ‘FLOSS,’ she writes, resists

./english/532.txt:25:political delineation into the traditional political categories of left, right or centre [...but] has been embraced by a wide range of people [...] This has enabled FLOSS to explode from a niche and academic endeavour into a creative sphere of socio-political and technical influence bolstered by the internet.[9]

./english/532.txt:29:The chief purpose of this article is not to answer these questions by examining the ‘self-evident’ truths of open source production. Such studies are already being carried out in forums like Oekunux [http://www.oekonux.de]; indeed, in this issue of Mute, Gilberto Camara, Director for Earth Observation at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, publishes research that challenges some key tenets of the FLOSS model. His research exposes the possibility that, in many cases, FLOSS does not innovate significantly original software, or sustain projects outside of corporate or large scale academic involvement. Instead this article seeks to address the intense political expectation around open organisation among diverse elements of the diffuse activist organisations which, post-Seattle, have been loosely referred to as ‘the social movement’ or ‘social movements’. In referring to the social movement, this article concerns itself primarily with groups such as People’s Global Action, Indymedia, Euraction Hub and other such non-hierarchised collectives; it does not have in mind more traditionally structured organisations like the Social Forums, Globalise Resistance or so-called ‘civil society’ NGOs.

./english/532.txt:49:The majority of demonstrations are organised using the above methods. Not only is their organisation ‘open’ but, within a certain range of political persuasions, anyone may attend. Self-policing is not ‘hard’ but ‘soft’.

./english/532.txt:70:Structures like PGA and those being experimented with more widely are part of the social movement’s general rejection of organisational models based on representation, verticality and hierarchy. In their stead comes ‘non-hierarchical decentralisation’ and ‘horizontal coordination’. ‘From this movement,’ writes Massimo De Angelis, ‘emerges [...] the concept and practice of network horizontality, democracy, of the exercise of power from below.’[13] For this ‘radical political economist’[,] this form of ‘social-cooperation’ is ‘ours’. It is ‘our’ horizontality and these are ‘our’ networks, part of a set of modes of coordination of human activity that

./english/532.txt:82:Accounts such as this and De Angelis’ bear out my argument that an extreme amount of expectation is being focused on openness as an agent for change. Not only is openness central to the organisation of the social movement, but in many cases it is taken as read that the organisational quality of openness is inherently radical and will be productive of positive change in whichever part of the social-political field it is deployed. This is seen, for example, in the work of the group Open Organisations, comprised of three individuals – Toni Prug, Richard Malter and Benjamin Geer – who were previously closely involved with UK Indymedia, and who have until relatively recently been united in their belief in the radically liberatory potentials of openness. For them, it is simply an as-yet insufficiently theorised and elaborated form and thus they have been working on what might be characterised as a ‘strong’ or ‘robust’ openness model which recommends a set of working processes or practices intended to foster it. ‘Open Organisations’ are entities that

./english/532.txt:87:In effect, by creating ‘structured processes’, Open Organisations try to provide for a consistent openness. In doing so, they implicitly recognise that there are inconsistencies between the rhetoric and behaviour of contemporary political organisations. But what are these problems and who, indeed where, are openness’ discontents? In fact they may be found everywhere. In the case of Inydmedia’s ‘open publishing’ project, for example, openness has been failing under the pressures of scale. Initially small ‘cottage-industry’ IMCs were able to manage the open-publishing process very well. But, in many IMCs, when the number of site visitors has risen past a certain level, problems have started to occur. Popular IMC sites have become targets for interventions by political opponents, often from the fascist right, seeking opportunities to disrupt what they regard as an IMC’s ‘countercultural’ potential and a platform from which to spread their own rhetoric. Of course there is nothing to prevent this in the IMC manifesto; but it has impelled the understandable decision to edit out fascist viewpoints and other ‘noise’, using the ad hoc teams whose function was previously to develop and maintain the IMC’s open-publishing system. Some IMCs have ultimately been seen to take on a rather traditional, closed and censorial function that is all too often undeclared and in contradiction with the official IMC ‘become the media’ line. In other words, Indymedia channels are often politically censored by a small group of more-or-less anonymous individuals to quite a high degree.

./english/532.txt:93:This problem runs through the temporary constitutions and dissolutions of ‘open’ organisations that make up the social movement. The avowed ‘absence’ of decision-making bodies and points of centralisation can too easily segue into a concealment of control per se. In fact, in both the FLOSS model and the social movement, the idea that no one group or person controls development and decision making is often quite far from the truth. In both cases it is formally true that anyone may alter or intervene in processes according to their needs, views or projects; but practically speaking, few people can assume the necessary social position from which to make effective ‘interventions’. Open source software is generally tightly controlled by a small group of people: the Apache Group, for example, very open-handedly controls the development of the Apache Web server, and Linus Torvalds has the final say on the Linux kernel’s development.[19] Likewise, in the social movement, decision making often devolves to a surprisingly small number of individuals and groups who make a lot of the running in deciding what happens, where and when. Though they never officially ‘speak for’ others, much unofficial doctrine nonetheless emanates from them. Within political networks, such groups and individuals can be seen as ‘supernodes’, not only routing more than their ‘fair share’ of traffic, but actively determining the ‘content’ that traverses them. Such supernodes do not (necessarily) constitute themselves out of a malicious will-to-power: rather, power defaults to them through personal qualities like energy, commitment and charisma, and the ability to synthesise politically important social moments into identifiable ideas and forms.

./english/532.txt:95:This soft control by crypto-hierarchies is tacit knowledge for many who have had first hand experience with ‘open’ organisations. Statements such as the following by a political activist introduced to what he calls ‘the chaos of open community’ at a Washington State forest blockade camp in 1994 and then later the Carters Road Community, are typical:

./english/532.txt:111:What this initial investigation has indicated is that the idea of openness, which is receiving such a promotion on the heels of the Free-Libre and Open Source software movement, is not in and of itself an immediately sufficient alternative to the bankrupt structures of representation. There seem to be good reasons for the discontent with open organisation felt by many activists, much of it based on evidence that must remain, by nature, anecdotal. But what is clear is that, if we are going to promote open organisation within the social movement, we must also take care to scrutinise the tacit flows of power that underlie and undercut it. The accounts here suggest that once the formal hierarchical membrane of group organisation is dismantled – in which, for example, software composition or political decision-making might have previously taken place – what remains are tacit control structures. In FLOSS, limitations to those who can access and alter source code are formally removed. But what then comes to define such access, and the software that is produced, are underlying determinants such as education, social opportunity, social connections and affiliations. The most open system theoretically imaginable, this is to say, reveals perfectly the predicating inequities of the wider environment in which it is situated; what the idea of openness must tackle first and most critically is that a really open organisation cannot be realised without a prior radicalisation of the social-political field in which it operates. And that, of course, is to beg the oldest of questions.

./english/534.txt:10:The Venezuela forum (also known as the second Americas Social Forum, after a similar hemispheric meeting in Quito, Ecuador two years earlier) began on January 24 with a massive rally through the streets of the capital city, Caracas. Over the next five days, delegates gathered in approximately 2000 workshops, panels, and sessions to discuss and debate a wide variety of social, economic, and political issues.

./english/534.txt:20:Holding the forum in Venezuela was controversial, and reflects long debates within the forum over the relationship between civil society and party politics. On one hand, Hugo Chavez's government is engaging in a process of social change in line with the goals of the WSF. As such, Caracas was a logical venue for a debate on how to construct a better world. On the other hand, from the beginning, the WSF was designed to be an expression of civil society that explicitly rejected the participation of political parties, armed groups, and statist solutions. These debates over the role of state structures in fostering social justice have long run through the political left, these debates within the WSF are only its most recent manifestation.

./english/534.txt:22:For Venezuela, having the forum in their country was an excellent opportunity to both exchange experiences with others, as well as, build international understanding and solidarity for the Bolivarian Revolution. Venezuela does not historically have a strong civil society, but the Chavez's government appears to have provided political space for its significant growth. One fourth of the 2000 panels in Caracas were organized by Venezuelan organizations.

./english/534.txt:28:Chavez argued that the forum should take advantage of its momentum and build a political struggle, and that it is important to support governments like that of recently elected Evo Morales in Bolivia. He noted that the concrete advances in Venezuela would not have been possible without taking political power. Some participants resented Chavez injecting himself into one of the key debates in the forum; Chavez, however, argued that even if he were not president he would still be present, advancing these ideas. He stated, "I am just one more person like the rest of you in forum."

./english/534.txt:30:Lining the streets around meeting spaces vendors sold all sorts of Chavez memorabilia: hats, t-shirts, watches, and even dolls. Was his omnipresent image on the edges of the forum merely a reflection of opportunistic informal economic actors motivated by profit, or a manifestation of gung-ho supporters determined to use the forum to advance their political agenda? In either case, by their purchases many participants demonstrated their interest in, and support for, the Chavez agenda.

./english/535.txt:8:Many participants at the WSF were inspired and hopeful that the winds of electoral change will blow Northward. One panelist, at a workshop on Latin American social movements, said he was hopeful that the left would win the presidential election in Mexico this July. With left, indigenous, or socialist leaders elected in Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina there is a great deal of enthusiasm and hopefulness that the trend will continue. Most U.S. participants could not help but be excited by this string of electoral victories and how that might effect the political situation in their own country.

./english/535.txt:10:With tens of thousands of participants at this year’s WSF in Caracas (there are no official numbers at this time) there was a wide range of experiences. Most participants were only able to attend two or three events a day out of the hundreds taking place. In addition to the workshops on issues as diverse as learning about Latin American social movements, environmental justice, or building a low power FM transmitter, there was something for everyone. Yet, many participants realized there was a political undercurrent, which developed into a question about the purpose of the WSF.

./english/535.txt:26:Participants were asked where they considered themselves on the political map. 60.1% thought of themselves as left, 19.8% were center-left, 4.5% were center, 0.6% center right, and 1.6% were right. 13.4% of the participants had no opinion about where they are at on the political map.

./english/535.txt:30:The WSF clearly has the ability to bring progressives from social and political movements, intellectuals, and grassroots activists from all over the world to come together as an alternative to globalization and the neoliberal agenda. The question is - can the WSF shift gears and move the left to develop a unified strategy and tactics that will counter this system which has created so much inequality, poverty, and war? Perhaps the better question is - does the WSF even want to move beyond providing an opportunity for people to come together to discuss issues and network?

./english/544.txt:22:Pakistani NGOs have never been famous for mobilising the masses for any cause. The process of creating awareness and bringing people together for social change has not been easy in this country. The basic tool used by activists, namely interpersonal meetings, has had limited application in a society where community participation and social capital have not been its strength. The agencies which facilitate these contacts, such as trade bodies, students unions, human rights groups, have been destroyed over the years by oppressive governments that feared their power. Another tool used by social activists, namely, lobbying to influence policymakers has been more widely used. But in the absence of mobilisation and the backing of a large number of people, the lobbyists have at times not had the political clout that is needed to persuade those in office to change policies.

./english/544.txt:24:Pakistan lacks the most important factors that facilitate the dissemination of social messages at the grassroots level, namely, literacy and education, increased mobility of groups, freedom of expression, a measure of economic independence and a close link between social activism and the political process.

./english/544.txt:26:The Pakistan Social Forum, which organised the Karachi event, was formed in March 2003 when 50 civil society organisations, labour federations and trade unionists, rights-based people’s movements, teachers, journalists associations, political and social activists had a two-day consultation in Lahore. Their idea was to disseminate in Pakistan the ideals of the WSF - a forum of progressive, social democrats, socialists and other anti-imperialist, pro-peace and democratic forces from all over the world.

./english/544.txt:30:The experience of the WSF session in Karachi highlights the organisational challenges the PSF faces. The most vital issue that will determine the future course of social change in Pakistan is the capacity of organisations working for change to mobilise at the grassroots level. Owing to the factors listed above and the lack of political will in the mainstream parties it is becoming increasingly difficult for NGOs and political parties to bring people together for a common cause. Small wonder then that it is not possible to draw a decent crowd for a protest demonstration against the American war on Iraq - something for which it would be impossible to find even one supporter in this country.

./english/544.txt:32:The only groups which can pull massive crowds are the religious parties that now excel in the art of organisation, mobilisation and charging a crowd with their fiery rhetoric. They also have the advantage of having a captive audience since they follow up their public ideological stance with tangible service on the ground - whether one agrees with their political and social character or not.

./english/548.txt:9:With the slogan “another world is possible,” the forum is filled with speakers, workshops, panels, debates, marches, and cultural events. The forum provides an open platform for activists to discuss strategies of resistance to globalization and to present constructive alternatives. Although hardly known or recognized in the United States, the World Social Forum has quickly grown into the most dynamic and important political event in the world.

./english/548.txt:24:Placing elected political officials at the middle of WSF discourse is rather ironic given that the forum began explicitly as a gathering of civil society that discarded state-centered solutions to social problems. Many activists, however, are rethinking the relationship between social movements and political parties. This has led back to an emphasis on the importance of the state in achieving fundamental social changes.

./english/549.txt:12:But, the WSF was not created to be against issues covering the rainbow of political colours but rather it was created to be for something. My thesis here is that the WSF process is a process for initiating a process toward global democratisation.

./english/549.txt:25:We could begin by pushing for a solution to the indebtedness of the developing countries. Since 1982 when Mexico defaulted on its debt, and despite numerous calls from various high political offices, the international system for administering and managing the debt burden remains unchanged. Today, the debt burden is 2,5 times as high as it was in 1985 and in pure interest, the developing countries have paid international financial institutions, private and public creditors six times what they owed in 1985. These figures indicate that the debt problem of the developing countries is above all a political problem, as opposed to an economic problem. Solving the debt problem through an independent arbitration procedure can reverse this political control over indebted countries. Research by UNCTAD illustrates the urgency of solving the issue by indicating that the world will be shaken by a new debt crisis in 5-10 years, given that interest rates do not rise.

./english/549.txt:31:· Poor and formerly indebted countries would possibly be less prone to pressure and blackmail from the North and would be allowed space for political self-determination.

./english/565.txt:10:digital alternatives and political subversives.

./english/565.txt:73:software movement, as a political act of resistance against proprietary

./english/565.txt:110:political offensive against proprietary software and values. While

./english/565.txt:139:extending free software's political spectrum, merging it with ongoing

./english/565.txt:150:political authority, whose power can override anybody's, provided it has

./english/565.txt:180:mechanisms, and distributes {social,economical,political} power in

./english/565.txt:199:[15]. Unlike most other political factions, these movements generally

./english/565.txt:259:communication has always been part of political activism, as has shown

./english/565.txt:315:developers, some of whom have been debating the political nature of the

./english/565.txt:350:computer-inclined political activists and free-software hackers. They

./english/565.txt:366:issues to activists' political concerns, introducing free software as an

./english/565.txt:368:political choice, campaigning was extended to bringing awareness to the

./english/565.txt:524:remains independent from institutions, corporations or political

./english/565.txt:529:and were going through hectic political times, like Argentina or

./english/565.txt:658:either a political system or a computer system", as claims an

./english/565.txt:664:implants, to unite technical knowledge and political awareness. In the

./english/565.txt:720:political perspectives and tendencies, see the Anarchist FAQ at

./english/565.txt:754:such as concerts, benefit parties for political causes, debates,

./english/569.txt:13:Two issues are involved here. One is the question of principle. In our view it was a mistake to impose a ban on parties, since political organizations are inextricably intermingled with social movements and articulate different strategies and visions that are a legitimate contribution to the debates that take place in the social forums. In fact, the Porto Alegre Charter has always been circumvented, but the Lula rally has made the resulting hypocrisy absolutely flagrant. It would surely be more honest to amend or scrap this tattered ban. 1

./english/569.txt:15:The second issue is more urgent. Whatever he was in the past, Lula is now one of the global leaders of social liberalism, belonging to a political axis that binds him to Thabo Mbeki, Gerhard Schröder, Bill Clinton, and - terrible to say - Tony Blair. His government voluntarily adopted a target for the budget surplus higher than that demanded by the International Monetary Fund and recently pushed up interest rates to levels condemned by Brazilian industrialists as serving the interests of finance capital.

./english/569.txt:23:3. Maybe the domestic political pressures on the Brazilian organizers of the WSF were simply too great for them to resist the demand that the Forum itself should be a venue for the attempt of Third Way politicians to appropriate the agenda of the altermondialiste movement. But they must taken responsibility for how the WSF itself was organized. Taking inspiration from the 4th WSF in Mumbai, they moved the Forum from its old main site at the Catholic University (PUC) to a specially dedicated zone along the right bank of the Guiba river.

./english/569.txt:25:This had the great advantage, compared to previous forums at Porto Alegre, of physical contiguity (although the walk from one end to the other, particularly in the summer heat of a city in the grips of a drought, was pretty arduous!). But this gain was undercut by the division of the site into 11 distinct 'Thematic Terrains', each devoted to their own political theme: Thus Space A was devoted to Autonomous Thought, B to Defending Diversity, Plurality, and Identities, C to Art and Creation, and so on. The effect was tremendously to fragment the Forum. If you were interested in a particular subject - say, culture or war or human rights - you could easily spend the entire four days in one relatively small area without coming into contact with people interested in different subjects.

./english/569.txt:29:This effect of this fragmentation, particularly in combination with Lula’s intervention, is not politically neutral. It runs counter to the trend in the wider movement to make connections between the challenges we face, between neo-liberalism and environmental catastrophe, for example, and crucially between corporate globalization and war. As Emir Sader, one of the leading intellectuals of the Brazilian left and a WSF founder, put it,'while the Forum emphasizes secondary issues, there is no major debate about the most important issue of the day - the struggle against the war and imperial hegemony in the world.'

./english/569.txt:33:And we should acknowledge that some of the difficulties are a product of political disagreements. The giant meeting that Hugo Chávez addressed towards the end of the Forum was a rallying point for the anti-imperialist left, and as such a tacit answer to the Lula rally earlier on - the implicit confrontation between the two leaders was underlined by the fact that both spoke to equally packed meetings in the same Gigantinho Stadium. We need to continue to have forums and mobilizations where the followers of Lula and Chávez - as well as those of us who have reservations about Chávez too - can comfortably work together and debate.

./english/571.txt:19:Many debates have been waged in and around the WSF about whether it should be considered simply a space for these movements or could it become some kind of movement of movements itself. There are many actors who would like to see the WSF evolving into a fully-fledged political movement. The idea is that this movement should make a real political difference by altering the course of globalisation. The official line in the WSF process has, however, been that political projects that go beyond the Charter of Principles can be an attribute of the organizations that take part in the WSF but never of the WSF itself.

./english/571.txt:25:What is the point of this gigantic global gathering? In Mumbai there were a number of panels and roundtables that discussed critically whether the WSF space could simply continue to grow and open up further or whether the time has come to turn it into an organisation that somehow could translate diversity into a common political will. Would there be alternatives to these two possibilities? How should political will-formation be organised in the global world? Is the WSF only a step towards new forms of political agency, or a new understanding of political parties? Or should it remain a space from within which something new could emerge?

./english/571.txt:29:One way to avoid political silence without violating the Charter of Principles is to facilitate processes whereby organizations that take part in the WSF produce political declarations. The most important attempt to move beyond the self-imposed limits for declarations and other forms of political action is the Assembly of Social Movements that has taken place in all annual events of the WSF. Ideally, most of the participating organizations would sign such declarations and they could have powerful political impact. Until now, the social movement declarations produced during the WSF events have not been circulated very widely and their impact has been relatively modest. Nevertheless, they have created controversies among the WSF organizers.

./english/571.txt:31:Even if these declarations do not officially claim to represent the WSF as a whole, Chico Whitaker, one of the key initiators of the WSF process, and others have been highly critical of them. Whitaker fears that the media may consider them as semi-official conclusions. This can then lead to political disputes about whose concerns get to be expressed in the declarations. In the 2005 WSF in Porto Alegre, a “manifesto” signed by 19 intellectuals that included Ignacio Ramonet, Immanuel Wallerstein, Samir Amin, Bernard Cassen and (mostly) other “non-young” males, caused similar concerns (6).

./english/571.txt:35:There exists no clear dividing line between the “social movements” and the “non-governmental organizations”. NGOs are founded and often small, while popular movements emerge out of heterogeneous influences and actions, including those of NGOs. However, sometimes a clear-cut dichotomy between them emerges in the debates within the WSF governance bodies. In this dichotomy, the organizations recognized as “movements” are more willing to issue statements and formulate common political goals, whereas members of the constructed “NGO community” tend to be more cautious. This division has been reflected, for example in the debates on the periodicity of the main WSF events. In the meeting of the WSF International Council on 4-7 April 2004 in Passignano, Italy, the original proposal of the Brazilian Organizing Committee was that centralized world meetings of the WSF should no longer be organized on an annual basis but every two years. This position got support from some of the key social movements, and the representative of the influential Via Campesina coalition of peasants even advocated for organizing the main WSF every three years.

./english/571.txt:45:The same article of the Charter states that representatives of political parties cannot participate in the WSF either. Since the two main communist parties were visibly involved in the organization of the forum in India, this rule caused confusion. The issue had been debated in the International Council, for example in its meeting in Miami in June 2003, and an understanding was finally reached that the parties would not be formally inside the Indian Organizing Committee or other official bodies of the WSF in Mumbai, even if representations within these bodies were in many cases allocated taking party membership considerations into account.

./english/571.txt:51:One of the biggest challenges for the WSF process is how to find innovative ways of being political in the globalizing world. On the one hand, many would agree that traditional party politics, geared toward conquering state power, is not sufficient to change the world. On the other hand, an increasing amount of activists are getting frustrated with the prevalent depoliticized understandings of civil society. How to be political in the 21st Century? Reproducing traditional political parties on a global scale may not be possible or desirable, but we believe interesting intellectual and political work could be done to explore the possibilities and limitations of party-like transnational organizations. The following offers simply some sketchy notes of this process.

./english/571.txt:57:Global projections of institutions that are rooted in national political communities risk reproducing the problematic aspects of domestic analogies. Ever since Hedley Bull (1977, 46-51) coined the term, criticisms of domestic analogy have sometimes been used to criticize attempts to apply democratic principles to world politics. Straight-forward proposals of global parliamentary federalism often do include simplistic analogies, but we believe that there are also possibilities to democratize world politics that go beyond simply projecting democratic institutions as we know them into global contexts. As we have elsewhere explored from a non-federalist perspective the possibilities of applying also parliamentary mechanisms into global politics (see Patomäki and Teivainen 2004), here we would like to reflect on another institution that has generally emerged in nation-state-centric politics but that could also offer useful insights for transnational contexts, namely political party.

./english/571.txt:59:While one of the main challenges of the WSF is to change the meaning of politics, debates about its relationship to present and future political parties are waged in an overwhelmingly traditional language. In the debates on the possibility of global political parties, one should be cautious about simplistic dichotomies of political party/social movement that have been reproduced and to a certain extent useful in the national contexts. It is equally important to try to avoid the reproduction of the categories of Western national politics of the late 20th century. Political parties have often been seen as an eroding institution, which has increasingly become part of the state administration.

./english/571.txt:61:Political parties emerged in modern Europe and Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although there were parties of opinion and cliques in the ancient city-communities of Hellas, the metaphor of body politic dominated political imagination until early European modernity. The idea was that in one organism or body, it is not healthy to have conflicts or contradictions. Organised political parties were invented only when this metaphor was replaced with the individualist idea of social contract (see Ball 1988). The idea of a party representing the universal interests of humanity also emerged in the 19th century, which led, after the Russian revolution of 1917, to the construction of totalitarian one-party states. During and since the Cold War, the model of polyarchy (competitive elitism) has prevailed in the West.

./english/571.txt:63:In the polyarchies of the West, members of political parties stand as candidates in elections and for various state offices. Thereby they gain access to the process of law- and policymaking. Other political actors may lobby representatives and officials or put pressure on them through media, for instance. Although in reality the powers of national law- and policymakers have been increasingly limited, at least there remains a relatively unambiguous idea what politics is all about. In world politics, however, it is not clear what forms political activities should assume. If the WSF became a movement, and a more formal organisation, could it also become a global political party in some sense, even in the absence of parliamentary institutions? Alternatively, should the WSF somehow facilitate the creation of global political party-like organizations? What should world political parties do?

./english/571.txt:65:It is clear that the WSF forms a loosely defined party of opinion. “We oppose neoliberalism, imperialism and violence in all their forms.” “Another world is possible.” The idea of the WSF is clearly not, however, to create a well-defined political programme, compete in elections, or take over states. The question is, is it possible to do anything else than merely organise a pluralist space for meetings, discussions and festivities? Can transnational civil society organisations and movements accomplish anything efficacious to bring about “another world”? This question may also be detached from the abstract possibility of constructing a global party in some unspecified sense. For now, at least, the focus could perhaps be on how different kinds of transnational political actors and alliances could be empowered to contribute to democratic transformations of our world.

./english/571.txt:67:We believe it is important that concrete strategies of change will emerge from within the space (or movement) of the WSF. Global democratic changes are not possible without transformist global political movements, which must consist of not only civic actors but at least in some point also of states. Any transformation requires regulation also in the form of international – and later perhaps global – law. Currently, only states can create and change international law. Whatever form global civil society will assume, including the possibility of replacing the term “civil society” with something much more accurate and imaginative, it can only achieve transformations by making interventions in more traditional-sounding processes, with the aim of creating new forums of deliberation, agenda-setting and decision-making. To the extent that the empowerment of global movements will be based on well-articulated programmatic visions, they may also constitute steps toward world political parties.

./english/571.txt:71:The World Social Forum is a crucial process of rethinking politics and political possibilities to create “another world”. With Mumbai the WSF process itself became more global and less tied to one particular locality, the city of Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil. Gradually and hesitantly, the structures and procedures of the WSF are becoming more clearly defined and, possibly, democratic. While the WSF acknowledges that it is actually making at least some decisions on behalf of all the participants, it continues, first and foremost, to provide spaces for NGOs and movements.

./english/571.txt:75:The WSF V, back in Porto Alegre in January 2005 and bigger than ever before, has also received an overwhelming amount of positive commentaries, especially by people who were already articulated within the networks that constitute the “planet of Porto Alegre”. For casual observers, the event may have seemed somewhat chaotic. For those more involved in the process it was a good (even if limited) example of the methodology that emphasized constructing processes. The particular WSF events are excellent opportunities to meet and debate, but the emphasis is increasingly in the intellectual and political activities that continue all year round.

./english/571.txt:89:Ball, Terence (1988) Transforming Political Discourse: Political Theory and Critical Conceptual History, Basil Blackwell: Oxford.

./english/571.txt:105:Rikkilä, Leena and Katarina Sehm-Patomäki (eds.) (2002) From a Global Market Place to Political Spaces – the North-South Dialogue Continues. NIGD (Working Paper 1/2002): Helsinki.

./english/574.txt:4:With 155, 000 participants from 135 different countries, the fifth World Social Forum held in a specially constructed site in Porto Alegre’s Marinha Park was bigger than ever, and with a wider geographic spread. Yet the future of the WSF was on trial. Was it becoming its caricature: a kind of political , Hugo Chavez pulling the crowds instead of Mick Jagger?

./english/574.txt:10:A profound political frustration underlies this self-doubt. The global social justice movement and the anti-war movement have both effectively won the moral arguments. But they have had not had a commensurate impact on the exercise of political and economic power. This was visible in the smoke signals coming from the World Economic Forum across the geographical and political divide in Davos. There, the corporate elite were morally on the defensive, desperate to prove that they too cared about poverty yet stubbornly continuing the policies which daily mean millions go to sleep hungry – including the poor of Brazil whose government, under president Lula, (who made a brief and controversial appearance at the Forum) is being forced by the IMF to pay in debt relief which would otherwise go towards the social programme for which the leader of the Brazilian Workers Party was elected was elected.

./english/574.txt:13:The organisational methods of the Fifth World Forum itself - the way in which the activities of the forum were decided, the spatial and political relationship between the different seminars, workshops and debates during the five days of the Forum, the way the food, the waste and the architecture of the Forum was organised according to the principles of the society we are trying to create, the 35,000 strong Youth Camp at the centre of the Forum’s riverside encampment – all provided glimpses of an answer. These innovations showed that the organisers of the WSF are trying to create a closer, more directly supportive and catalytic relationship with the campaigning movements and initiatives which are the source of the Forums extraordinary energy.

./english/574.txt:19:It was a radical experiment. It would provide a test as to whether there really was the capacity and will to go beyond a social and political market place and make contact, common cause and shared effort to develop alternatives both in day to day practice and ways of living and policies and visions. In other words the new methodology would test whether there really existed the basis connecting the plurality of initiatives, of a self conscious, purposeful force for global transformation, a `new subjectivity’ as the Italians put it; or whether the WSF is simply an event which because of its welcoming organisation, interesting locations and charismatic platforms attracts a variety of campaigns and initiatives who vaguely share common values but little more.

./english/574.txt:25:My own experience was similar in Terrain F on Social Movements and Democracy. The registration of self-managed activities produced an interesting pattern of very similar seminars around themes of `new politics,’ `participatory democracy’; `knowledge, democracy and power’ from different continents, proposed by groups who had not even heard of each other. The facilitator for Terrain F brought us all together and after several meetings we created new global network of activist researchers working on the new thinking and practice around democracy, political parties and the innovative political power of social movements. Far more productive and exciting than sitting listening to worthy lectures arranged by a well intentioned committee second guessing what we want. Not everyone’s experience was so positive.

./english/574.txt:33:It was only a beginning, however, involving only a fraction of the Forum’s participants. But it reflected a recognition that the WSF itself is not the embryonic framework of a new political force but rather the catalyst for the variety of assembled collectivities to build that force themselves. What this new `subjectivity’ will be is also an open question. Certainly it will not be singular. The old agencies of left politics were socialist parties, providing leadership of different kinds for the broader working class movement. The development of Social Forums is leading the more innovative left political parties to rethink their role, their understandings of leadership and representation. The traditional organisations of labour are also using the Forum to create new alliances and develop new tactics in the face of capital’s global reorganisation and the new insecurity and fragmentation of labour.

./english/574.txt:35:At its best, the new self-organised Forum provides an opportunity for developing the mutual understanding across cultures, generations and political traditions that is a precondition of sustained common action. The co-ordinated demonstrations against the Iraq war on February 15th 2003 was the first proof that the Social Forums – both the WSF and continental forums like the European Social Forum – can act as a catalysts for a power greater than the sum of those who attend their meetings. Next year, the WSF will be held in three different continents, the year after in . This decentralisation and new location will be a test of whether the cohesion of Feb 15th was a `one off’ or whether the experiments at this year’s World Forum stimulated a further maturing of an new, innovative source of political power.

./english/576.txt:10:The question of Porto Alegre, then, and of the Forum's fifth anniversary, is what has become of the event that was once synonymous with the city's name? And what is the World Social Forum, alternately regarded as a laboratory of progressive vision and a rapidly ossifying political Woodstock, building toward?

./english/576.txt:14:"I am a political militant," said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, clad in a white jacket, as he addressed a stadium full of people during the first day of workshops. "I belong here." Downplaying the roaring PT loyalists, the press would overstate the impact of a small but energetic section of protesters who chastised Lula for continuing to pay Brazil's foreign debt and for failing to buck the economic policies prescribed by the IMF. It is nevertheless true that the President, a former metalworker and union leader who many viewed as a leftist icon when he took office two years ago, had the record of his administration critically scrutinized by a variety of panels throughout the week. As in the past, Lula also visited Davos this year. He went, he said, on a mission to confront wealthy leaders with the same demand of eradicating poverty that he championed in Porto Alegre and to elaborate a "new geography" of politics in which Southern countries would not submit to being considered inferior.

./english/576.txt:16:It is also true that Lula did not receive as enthusiastic a reception at the Forum as did Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who addressed the same packed stadium on the last day of workshops. Wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt as bright red as the berets of his watchful security detail, Chavez was less prone than Lula to speak of "partnership" with the North and more likely to denounce "imperialism." In a press conference before the rally, Chavez declared the Social Forum one of "the most important political events taking place each year in the world today," he invoked his "Bolivarian revolution," and he labeled the 2002 coup attempt against him "Made in the USA." Ms. "Condolencia" Rice, he quipped, "may say that Hugo Chavez is a negative force in Latin America. I say the government of the United States is the most negative force in the world today!"

./english/576.txt:25:Thus far the Forum's charter, which at least formally prohibits participation of political parties, has held firm. Those who cheered Chavez's social democratic reforms cited active participation at the local level as the most positive part of the government's transformation. And even those inclined to defend Lula said that pressure is needed to train state focus on the needs of Brazil's poor majority. During each presidential address, the dozens of other panels outside strategized about how to generate this pressure--and how to apply it to all governments, no matter how friendly.

./english/576.txt:32:If state power represented a first possible conception of the Forum's end goal, some of these prominent speakers would ultimately provide a second suggestion for what the event is building toward: a common agenda for political action.

./english/576.txt:40:Critics immediately charged that the celebrities' document contravened the "horizontal" character of Forum. Some signers, like Brazilian Forum organizer Chico Whitaker, took pains to emphasize that the proposal was merely one of many to emerge. (The Forum's closing press release cryptically indicated that "352 proposals so far" had been accepted.) Others like Ramonet, however, made clear that they considered such a unifying platform essential if the Forum is to move forward as a political force.

./english/577.txt:16:The differences were there for all to see. Not just in the different languages that people spoke, in the many different ways they expressed themselves, the different ways in which they dressed, but also in the political articulation of the way forward. Possibly nothing captured this as well as the massive 100,000 strong opening march of the WSF on January 23. In 2003, the opening rally was akin to a victory celebration for the then recently installed Lula government in Brazil. Posters of Lula and flags of the PT (the Partido dos Trabalhadores or Workers Party which Lula represents) dominated the march in 2003 and vied for attention with the sea of Che Guevara posters and green Palestinian scarves. In 2005 Che still dominated the march, the Palestinian scarves were as prominent, but the posters of Lula were few and far between. Instead there were far louder voices questioning the policies of the Lula government, some claiming that the government was pursuing the same neoliberal policies of the previous government. The PT was there in force with T-shirts that had “100% Lula” stamped on them, declaiming their support for the government. The PCDoB (the Brazilian Communist Party) had a huge contingent that marched behind a massive truck from where slogans were raised that underlined their critical support for the Lula government. The CUT (the central federation of trade unions in Brazil) also had a huge presence, with a prominent participation by large numbers of youth – both men and women. Between this huge political mobilisation of different hues marched those who espoused a large variety of causes – anti-war and anti-Bush protestors, anti-WTO activists, environmentalists, for cancellation of global debt, for a sovereign Palestinian state, a dignity rally led by the landless peasants movement (MST) in Brazil with a large Indian participation from dalit groups, and so many others. With them marched artists who performed dances, skits and mimes throughout the route, some walking on ten feet high stilts. But not just these – one could also hear a few chants of Hare Krishna from saffron robed men and women and also a handful of saffron clad Ananda Marg activists.

./english/577.txt:24:The WSF was conceived as a Forum that was not designed to lead or take decisions on behalf of movements, but rather to provide enabling conditions for movements to come together, exchange experiences and opinions, and forge alliances. The WSF space cannot and should not dictate to movements, nor should it force movements to take unified positions unless they are willing to do so. But the impatience to move forward is sometimes being translated into trying to make the WSF a body that takes decisions and positions on behalf of movements. This is a major challenge today for the WSF: how to accelerate the space for movements to forge common actions and strategies, while at the same time keeping the space friendly for everyone opposed to neoliberal globalisation to join in. Given the complex political entitities that form part of the Forum, an attempt by any force within (however well meaning) to hegemonise the Forum at the level of ideas, might well sow the seeds of the Forum’s ultimate collapse.

./english/577.txt:26:The challenge for the Forum, thus, is not of how certain kinds of ideas may dominate, but to ensure that the Forum is truly representative of the upsurge of global opinion against imperialist globalisation. Today, large mass and political movements are handicapped in their ability to participate in the Forum, because of lack of resources. As a result the Forum tends to be dominated by highly funded NGOs, largely from the North. While many of such NGOs have and are playing a major role in opposing globalisation, there is an inherent asymmetry in the participation in the Forums. It is critically important, if the Forum is to become truly representative of global mass movements that the WSF process is able to draw in a much larger participation from such movements. This is happening to an extent and the proactive manner in which mobilisation for the Forum was done for the WSF 2004 in Mumbai – where a conscious effort was made to ensure representation of mass and political movements – has contributed to this. But a lot has still to be done in this regard, and if the WSF process is to be “directed” in any manner it should be to ensure that such movements are able to come into the process in large numbers and also that they represent adequately all geographical regions of the globe. If the Forum becomes really representative, then it would really be up to the movements to use the space provided by the Forum to work out shared visions and actions. Clearly, the WSF is not going to be the forum to take forward such actions, that is something that the movements themselves would have to decide.

./english/577.txt:30:The 2005 Forum, while formulating the programme, had articulated in clearer terms the direction provided by WSF 2004 in trying to ensure that shared concerns and themes are not discussed in dispersed events. The attempt from the event registration process itself was to try to ensure that events are largely organised by combining the efforts of different organisations. This is a process that has to be accelerated, and the methodology used in 2005 to be evaluated to improve upon it further. The WSF 2005 had also departed from earlier practice by not having any events directly organised by the WSF – i.e. all events at the WSF 2005 were organised by individual participating organisations. The response to this innovation was mixed this year, and many felt that the absence of some large “unifying” events with broad political messages led to the diffusion of the political sharpness that the Forum was able to provide. This is again an issue that will have to be evaluated by the International Council of the WSF. In fact, in the absence of such unifying events, the only two large events this year were those addressed by President Lula of Brazil and President Chavez of Venezuala. While these were not formally part of the WSF programme, they drew huge crowds from WSF participants.

./english/578.txt:13:This must be our vision for the WSF in Africa: to destroy the capitalist cage that imprisons Africans and all of humanity's social, economic, political and cultural development. Any lesser vision will be a capitulation to the bird-seller who sells us the birds' freedom but is the one who imprisoned — and continues to imprison — the birds in the first place.

./english/578.txt:21:We should use the build-up to the WSF 2007 to build and strengthen the social movements in Africa. We need a program of action for this momentous task. We should broaden and strengthen the ASF as the tool to co-ordinate this work. Maximum internal democracy, accountability, collective leadership and mass participation are crucial in building the ASF. NGOs and research institutes are important and welcome in the ASF but only those who agree to the primacy of mass organisations in the struggle; only those who privilege methods of struggle which actively involve the rank and file rather than rely on few specialists to fight it out. The WSF 2007 in Africa should be structured logistically, organisationally and politically to favour the social movements and their daily struggles.

./english/579.txt:6:Asia from West, South and East was well represented as also Western Europe; the rest of the world less so. This concentration when coupled with the unmatchable social and cultural diversity of India, fully represented at this WSF, created a general atmosphere of collective political solidarity and vitality that has clearly set a new standard for future WSFs.(1) By contrast, the social composition of participants at the 3rd WSF was far more middle class and youthful. If the youth camp in Porto Alegre was a considerable success, in Mumbai it was organizationally and politically a disappointment. The ironies and contrasts do not end here. Lula, unwanted at, and uninvited to, the WSF was the honoured guest of the Indian government at this year’s official Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2004.

./english/579.txt:8:There was a legitimate worry that shifting the WSF from South America, the continent of greatest resistance to neoliberalism, to the Indian subcontinent where the government’s neoliberal trajectory is still only weakly challenged, could be a mistake. It is in South America that, indisputably, mass politicization is deepest and widest. At Mumbai the flip side of the WSF’s wonderful diversity, of the delightful displays of music, dance and street theatre, of the strong presence of Dalits, tribals, women’s groups and trade unions, was the fact that political awareness was more limited and sectoral in character. Neither leaders nor ordinary members of so many of the large movements and groups gathered there showed much interest or involvement in the conferences, seminars and workshops lying outside their specific areas of concern. Low literacy levels and breakdowns in the technical facilities provided for translations did not fully explain this weakness whose basic roots are political.(2)

./english/579.txt:16:In addition, a conscious effort was made (with uneven success) to promote more thorough reflection on the relationship between political parties and social movements, on discussing alternatives to neoliberal globalization, and on the role of the nation-state and nationalism in an era when many are calling for new structures of global governance. The extent to which various activist groups were able to utilize Mumbai WSF to enhance international coordination, networking and planning for common actions clearly varied, and the results of their endeavours will only become evident in the future. What hopes and lessons for India and globally does WSF 2004 carry? Before addressing this crucial question, there is another shorter term question that needs a direct answer. What has been, or is likely to be, the political impact of Mumbai WSF on the current Indian political scene?

./english/579.txt:20:Frankly, the answer must be little or none. Mega-event though it might have been, the mainstream national (i.e. English language) media treated it as a one-off, self-indulgent jamboree of the politically marginalized. Reportage was limited and inadequate. Commentary, with few exceptions, ranged from the contemptuous to the patronizing. Control of Mumbai municipality rests with the Shiv Sena, the most rightwing and Hindu chauvinist of the regional party allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the Shiv Sena and the BJP-led Central government decided it was more infructuous politically to disrupt the WSF than to ignore it. The Maharashtra state government currently run by an alliance of the Congress and an earlier breakaway from it, similarly paid little heed. Not surprising this, given that the Congress leadership is as committed to the post-1991 neoliberal reforms as the BJP (indeed, sees it as its own offspring) and believes that there is no alternative for itself but to pursue a ‘soft Hindutva’ domestically and befriend the US externally, albeit less effusively. The WSF was too radical for its liking though the odd Congress political bigwig did register his presence only to go largely unnoticed.

./english/579.txt:22:There remains a significant disjunction between the political realities on the ground and the kind of political context in which the holding of a WSF could be expected to have an immediate and meaningful impact. Since the beginning of 2002 the fulcrum of Indian politics has moved further to the right.

./english/579.txt:26:The Central government is clearly determined to push through privatization of valuable public properties. Since few would wish to buy up loss-making or sick industries unless they have high-value assets worth stripping, or can easily be made highly profitable, New Delhi has tried to follow a dual strategy. This is to sell off some of the big profit makers (oil companies like Hindustan Petroleum and Chemicals Limited and Bharat Petroleum and Chemicals Limited) and to starve potential profit-makers of necessary modernisation-investment funds. The latter tactic is being applied to Air India and Indian Airlines whose most profitable air routes are being opened up to competitors. Failing balance sheets and profit and loss accounts can then be used to justify equity divestment and privatization. HPCL and BPCL were nationalized by Acts of Parliament, and a Court ruling that this status can only be changed by a similar political process has stalled matters; while resistance to efforts at privatization of the Indian banking system is still strong.(5) In the beginning of the nineties, public sector assets were around 15 percent of GDP. Today, they are around 12 percent of GDP.

./english/579.txt:28:After the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, the Indian government congratulated itself on not prematurely moving towards full capital convertibility. It is still some way from this but the intent is clear. In the new millennium New Delhi eased restrictions to allow Indian companies to invest up to 25 percent of their net worth abroad, no questions asked. Today, free capital investment abroad is allowed up to 100 percent of a company’s net worth. Apart from stubbornly high fiscal deficits, stagnant savings rates, persistent poverty, growing social and regional inequalities, the major area of unease for the government is the relatively jobless character of current growth patterns compared to even the eighties. The number of unemployed reached a staggering 34.85 million in 2002 and is expected to reach 40.47 million in 2007. The employment elasticity of output has fallen from 0.52 between 1983-94 to 0.16 between 1993-2000. It is here that the political weak spot of Indian neoliberalism resides – in the not too distant prospect of a substantially greater proportion of youth mostly educated in provincial colleges and belonging to the middle and lower echelons of the ‘middle class’ becoming disillusioned with the heady promises of neoliberal project that currently still retains its appeal.(6)

./english/579.txt:32:On February 27, 2002, a brutal communal assault by an angry Muslim mob in the town of Godhra. Gujarat, served as the awaited trigger for a carefully pre-planned, state organized ‘retaliatory’ pogrom in which according to official figures (actual figures were much higher) over 2000 Muslims were butchered and around 150,000 driven out of their homes. There was looting, property destruction, sadistic beatings, injuries and rape on a massive scale. This was not only the worst case of sustained communal violence since Partition but the first time that a state government had been so deeply involved in preparing and carrying out such a massacre.(7) What marked it as a decisive turning point was not so much that the direct perpetrators got away with their criminal behaviour – this has happened often enough before – but that the Sangh/BJP got away politically! During the pogrom and its aftermath, strong recriminatory pressure had been built up not only by the Opposition parties but also existed amongst the BJP’s allies in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Massive extra-parliamentary mobilisation by the Opposition at the national and regional levels, inside and outside Gujarat, could have broken the ruling coalition government. This never happened. The Congress, which should have led such a campaign, had neither the courage, the confidence nor the anti-communal commitment to take such action.

./english/579.txt:44:Should the Congress collapse, the BJP will become the only national party and will have institutionalised its status as the ‘normal’ fulcrum of bourgeois political rule, a deeply disturbing development with momentous implications and ramifications.

./english/579.txt:50:This could result in a more honest dialogue between party spokespersons and others. The former could no longer dodge direct critiques of their record of behaviour in and out of office. Surely this would encourage a less manipulative relationship whereby genuine adjustments and greater mutual respect could be forged? The fear in India certainly is that Social Forums would become arenas in which the pressures of electoral/political competition would then trump efforts at accommodation still more possible if mass fronts but not parties themselves were present. Besides, it might lead to interminable arguments as to which parties to allow in or keep out. If the CPM which has made major concessions to neoliberal pressures in West Bengal is to allowed in, then why not the Congress?

./english/579.txt:65:3. Though many of their criticisms are valid – pointing out the political limitations of the WSF as currently constituted, the continuing legitimacy in at least certain situations of violent self-defence, the dangers of NGOization, the ulterior motives and purposes of certain funding sources -- none of this precluded their participation in the WSF even while retaining and expressing these criticisms. Respect for the role played by some of the major groups in MR in defending the poorest sections of society in their countries (this is certainly the case in India) should not prevent one from recognising their time-warp politics nor their unfortunate sectarianism.

./english/579.txt:75:8. While the official tally of deaths in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi was around 3000 and local Congress party leaders had been behind this, it pales in comparison to what happened in Gujarat. The communal character, context and history surrounding the two cases were very different. Anti-Sikh sentiment was the result of a specific conjuncture marked by the rise of the Khalistan separatist movement. Anti-Muslim sentiment has a much longer history, wider roots and, above all, the existence of a powerful grassroots organisation whose raison d’etre is the cultivation for political purposes of an enduring hatred for Muslims. Anti-Sikh communalism has withered as the Khalistan movement withered. While the leaders most responsible for the 1984 violence have not been punished, the Congress has publicly apologized for what happened and for the role played by its local leaders. The levels of brutality and sadism reached, the scale, geographic extent and duration of communal violence was much greater in the case of Gujarat. The degree and extent of complicity on the part of the apparatuses of the state was also far greater while the negative political implications of Gujarat 2002 were much more profound.

./english/580.txt:19:It was important to make these connections because there has been a tendency to view imperialist globalisation only in terms of its economic impacts -- i.e. in terms of impact on trade, debt, poverty, social and physical infrastructure, food security, etc. By explicitly articulating the foci, the attempt was to bring out the immediate and most striking impacts of neo-liberal globalisation. This, it was felt, would allow the programme to make explicit the connections between neo-liberal globalisation and its impact on the social and political space, and not just the economic space.

./english/582.txt:10:Around Jose Miguel there is an anthill of people, a whole parade with hundreds of cords of people following and entwining each other. Even if remarkable ( here is an advance, for example, with the call for the international day of protest against war for March 20th, anniversary of Iraq invasion) the blocs that express explicit political demands are the minority. Much more larger are those who want to show to the WSF – and maybe mostly to themselves - that they have identity, beauty, culture, expression. They emerged from the abysmal poverty to say that they do exist.

./english/582.txt:28:Thanks to the All India’s People Science - an organization with 300 thousand members than promotes alphabetization and political formation all around India – it was inaugurated the practice of cultural workshops. Along the four days, one of the 140 rooms, was the scenario of a series of amazing music, dance and theatre spectacles, performed not by professional artists, but by Indian communities. Although amateur, the performances were produced carefully: uniformed, practiced, and proud groups. The public frequently invaded the scenario, to sing and dance. The aim of the organizers was to show, through art and emotion, that Indians must be proud of the extraordinary diversity of the country – instead of shutting in the peculiarity of the local traditions.

./english/582.txt:51:Would it be necessary, in that case, to increase a little bit more the idea of open space, that made possible the WSF and made it, for four years, a remarkable event in the international political scenario?

./english/586.txt:4:The fourth edition of the World Social Forum (WSF), which took place in Mumbai (India) this past January (16-21), was a very significant step towards consolidating the WSF process. The three previous editions, having taken place in Porto Alegre (Brazil) and attracting only a modest number of African and Asian delegates, led many to believe that the WSF, even though allegedly world-wide, was indeed a Latin-American and European initiative. The success of the Mumbai WSF signifies that the spirit of Porto Alegre — the “Porto Alegre Consensus” that a more just and solidary world is possible, as is the political will to fight for it — constitutes a universal aspiration. If the WSF could be recreated in Asia, there is no reason why it couldn’t be recreated in Africa or in any other part of the world. As a matter of fact, the decision has already been made that the WSF following the one in 2005 — set for Porto Alegre since last year — will take place in Africa. Whether in 2006 or 2007 depends on whether the WSF continues to be an annual event or becomes biennial, a decision to be taken at the next meeting of the WSF International Council (IC) this coming April.

./english/586.txt:6:The Mumbai WSF succeeded in demonstrating that the spirit of Porto Alegre, while being a universal aspiration, acquires specific tonalities in different regions of the globe. Its universality is actually a product of the very reach of neoliberal globalization, which subjects every region of the world to the same economic model and its consequences: deepening of social inequalities, demoralization of the state, destruction of the environment. In this sense, the choice of Mumbai as the venue of the 2004 WSF could not have been wiser. With its population of almost 15 million, Mumbai is the living symbol of the contradictions of capitalism in our time. An important financial and technological center and the site of India’s thriving film industry — Bollywood, producing more than 200 movies a year for an increasingly global audience — Mumbai is a city whose extreme poverty easily shocks western eyes. More than half of the population live in slums (roughly two million on the streets), whereas 73 percent of the families, usually large, live in one-room tenements. The recent spread of informal economy has turned 2 percent of the population into street vendors. In India, however, the struggle against this background of inequalities gains specific nuances that have left their mark on this Forum. First, on top of economic, sexual and ethnic inequalities there are caste inequalities, which, though abolished by the Constitution, continue to be a decisive factor of discrimination. The Dalits, one of the lower castes, formerly designated as the “untouchables,” made a very strong appearance at the Forum. Of the 100.000 participants, more than 20. 000 were Dalits, who saw in the Forum a unique opportunity to denounce the discrimination that victimizes them. Second, the religion factor, which in the West tends to carry less weight in view of the secularization of power, is in the East a crucial social and political factor. Religious fundamentalism — a plague all over Asia, including India itself with the increasing politicization of Hinduism — was a major topic for debate, as was the role of spirituality in the social struggles for a better world. Third, having taken place in Asia, the Forum could not help but pay special attention to the struggle for peace, not only because it is in the West Asia, from Iraq to Afghanistan, that US’s war aggression is strongest, but also because today South Asia (India and Pakistan) is a region full of nuclear weapons. Having all this in mind, the Social Movements Assembly called a world march against the war on March 20, the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Fourth, at the Mumbai WSF the western conception of ecological struggles gave way to broader conceptions, so as to include the struggle for food sovereignty, land and water, as well as the preservation of biodiversity and natural resources, and the defense of forests against agro-business and lumber industry.

./english/586.txt:10:The twofold need to evaluate and spread the accumulated knowledge and prepare plans of collective action with a sound political and technical basis led to more discussion than never before in previous Forums of the relationship between expert and grass-roots knowledge, and, more specifically, between social scientists and popular struggles. Several workshops were devoted to this general topic. One of them, entitled “New Partnerships for New Knowledges,” was organized by the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra. The participants were social scientists and activists. Immanuel Wallerstein (USA), Anibal Quijano (Peru), D. L. Sheth (India), Goran Therborn (Sweden), Hilary Wainright (UK) and myself were among the social scientists; Jai Sen (India), Irene Leon (Equador) and Moema Miranda (Brazil) were among the activists. The discussion concentrated on themes that are at the core of the idea of public sociology: the relationship between expertise and engagement; from critique to plans for action; the reliability of the knowledge underlying social struggles and its critique; the impact on social scientists of their engagement with lay or popular knowledges; activists as producers of knowledge.

./english/587.txt:8:The first impression was of cacophony. India itself is more than 1 billion people, a diverse world speaking many languages – more than 40, nearly half of them official – with its castes, the social exclusion of dalits (untouchables or casteless people) and around 300 million living in abject poverty. At the other extreme, around 200 million are integrated with the globalised market. The impact is culturally and politically staggering, especially to the heightened perceptions of activists of an emerging planetary movement. Inevitably, we are led to ask ourselves whether we do enough, whether we are outraged enough at the inhumanity that so many women and men - children, adults and elderly - are condemned to and whether we are truly radical in our proposals for change.

./english/587.txt:12:The success of the WSF in Mumbai must be judged by the determined heart-and-mind political adhesion to its message, to the dream. In fact, the cacophony was a powerful demonstration of the diversity of social individuals who hold to the idea of a different world and want a hand in its making, where the standard is all human rights for all people. Until 2003 we were mostly Latin; now we are more universal, well rooted in Asia, where half of the world’s people live. The World Social Forum has come to be adopted as a place where broad grassroots sectors can express their identities and proposals. That was a huge quality leap towards overcoming the geographical and social deficit in terms of individuals embodying the WSF.

./english/587.txt:14:The new languages and the need for translation to link between equality in diversity are the greatest political and cultural challenges that emerge from Mumbai. The strength of new languages, expressing identities unrecognised and rights denied – where the dalit movements were prominent – adding in to the gathering wave of clamour for another world, set the tone of the many marches at the WSF. From 8 in the morning to 10 at night, the dusty main street was transformed into an avenue of planetary citizenship. This was the epicentre of the World Social Forum in Mumbai. We did not need to understand literally what the marches said, it was enough to surrender to their symbolism heavy with denunciation and demands. The major events (conferences, panels and round tables) on militarism, unilateralism and war, on oppressive global power and the trenches of resistance, on movements for peace, joined them and were re-qualified by them. Meanwhile, the living laboratory of over a thousand seminars and workshops, going their own ways in their own way, but all asserting the possibility of starting here and now on building another world.

./english/587.txt:16:All in all, it was a Forum that caused impact because it was surprising. Certainly, we are still just spinning our wheels in terms of methods for dialoguing and collectively constructing proposals and strategies. We are aware that, by building on the diversity of social actors and respect for pluralism, we are grasping the opportunity to bring into being a new political culture, one that is universal, cosmopolitan, inclusive; that is, a new way of doing change-making politics. However, we have set ourselves a task that calls for more daring and radicalism than first apparent. Given the crisis besetting the dominant order that grants almost exclusive rights to capital, adhesion to the message is a guarantee of the strength of the wave of citizens action. However, we must transform that into strength for reconstructing a sustainable, democratic world in solidarity, for ourselves and for future generations. That is the main lesson to be drawn from Mumbai.

./english/589.txt:61:The BJP, a right-wing nationalist party, has dominated the Indian political life over the past few years. It has systematically kindled the Indian nationalist feeling and launched an arms race, notably in nuclear weapons, with neighbouring Pakistan. Simultaneously, it has encouraged racist and ethnic moves on the part of the Hindu majority leading to actual pogroms in the state of Gujarat: almost three thousand people were killed two years ago, almost all of them Moslems. The persons responsible for the slaughters were encouraged and protected by the highest leaders of the BJP, some of them being ministers in the current state government. The BJP has systematically fostered communalism, that is, the use of the religious identity of a community for political purposes. During the election campaigns, there is no or almost no question of any discussion of the great social or economic issues, communalist ideas prevail. It is literally a deadly issue. The Congress Party (Gandhis and Nehrus inheritor) which had dominated political life for a long time after the independence in 1947 progressively abandoned its policy of social pact and state intervention. It no longer carries any social message. Pushed back into the opposition by the BJP at the national level (although still in power in some of the states that make up the Indian federation), it wants to return to power at all costs and makes alliances everywhere to reach that end. The traditional leftwing, essentially two communist parties (The Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India - Marxist) are in power in West Bengal and are often in the government in Kerala. They have representatives in the National Parliament. They are sharply criticized by the social movement’s activists for their conciliatory attitude towards the neoliberal attack. They are reproached with not matching their acts to their socialistic rhetoric. Their acceptance of the increasing interference of industrialized countries’ transnational corporations into the economic life of states where they are in the government attracts particular criticism. To complete this political survey we must mention small socialist parties (two of them part of the BJP coalition in the current government, [3] and some are inspired by Gandhi), and also of a dozen radical left parties, most of them coming from the division of the two communist parties in the 1970s and 1980s. The two traditional communist parties (CPI, CPI-M), several formations of leftist radicals and some socialist parties were present at the Word Social Forum through their mass organizations (trade unions, youth and women groups).

./english/589.txt:62:In international political matters, India who has long maintained a close relationship with the Soviet Union has changed her tack and has recently taken a drastic turn by becoming pro United States and pro Israel.

./english/589.txt:114:A factory of the multi-national company, Coca Cola, set up premises in Kerala (State in the southwest of India) in 1998, in Plachimada. Authorisation was given by the Left Front government (the Left Front is made up of the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India - Marxist). Since that date, the Congress party is back in government after having won the elections in Kerala and provides support for Coca Cola. The factory, covering a dozen hectares, employs 370 workers who produce an average of 1,200,000 bottles per day. 130 workers have permanent jobs. They are paid the equivalent of 1 euro per day (60 rupees for men, 50 rupees for women. In January 2004 1 Euro = 55 rupees). All other workers are temporary and are often recommended by local politicians. Temporary workers recommended by political leaders get an amount of 100 rupees per day. Only 30 to 50 workers were recruited among local inhabitants.

./english/590.txt:12:The first question concerns a danger, which it is necessary to surmount and which, after Mumbai, shows itself to be particularly present. It concerns attempts which - contrary to the Charta of Principle of the WSF, to its spirit and its way of proceeding so far - try to establish a “political leadership disguised as an avant-garde, baptised Assembly of the Social Movements .” Born with the WSF of 2001, this assembly - which as Cassen remarks, should call itself “of some” and not “of the” social movements - would have the right and even the duty to exist. One of the objectives of the WSF is precisely to give birth to discussions, if these do not overthrow the whole logic of the forum. However, this assembly succeeded its most daring coup at the Mumbai Forum: its representatives, after having convinced the Indian organisers that this was nothing but the tradition of all the Forums, had taken the microphone on occasion of the closing ceremony in order to present their “Call”, thereby reducing the whole richness and diversity of the Forum to a single proposition. We can all be in agreement with this proposition, but not necessarily with the fact that it stands as the only conclusion of the Forum or maybe even that it is now treated as the priority of priorities. Of course, this occurrence provided the Agence France Press with the right to say, in its dispatch regarding that closing session, that this “assembly” is the “decision-making body of the World Social Forums” and therefore “the organ entitled to take decisions within the WSF, which itself issues no final declaration”…

./english/590.txt:16:The other question I would like to address is that of the “political expedients”, a recurrent theme since the success of the first Forum. Bernard Cassen expresses this preoccupation, when he says that the question of the “passage to action to make ‘another world a reality, remains entirely open. And it nourishes legitimate frustrations.”

./english/594.txt:10:WITHIN THE WSF: There were differences of approach to the organisation of meetings. Large meetings with full platforms, which allowed for little if no time for any serious debate and discussion among ordinary delegates were of limited benefit. It was noticeable that one important concrete decision, the 20th March world wide action against the war, came out of a different kind of forum: the general anti-war assembly, which involved much more participation and discussion by activists. Also my experiences of excellent political debates with many Indian comrades came from meetings organised in seminar rooms by the International Socialist Tendency. I’m sure other delegates had other similar experiences.

./english/594.txt:14:BETWEEN THE WSF WORLD WIDE AND THE THAI PEOPLES MOVEMENT: What was noticeable was the way people took it for granted in the WSF that the imperialist war in Iraq was linked to neoliberalism and that the anti-war struggle would hit the US government at its most vulnerable point and thus help spur the anti-neoliberal struggle. This is not something understood generally by the Thai movement which has suffered from an “apolitical” position, mainly as a result of the legacy of Maoism and the influence of conservative NGOs. Many Thai delegates to the WSF were unaware of the anti-war meetings and any of the decisions (eg 20th March) and do not seem to understand the importance of organising for the 20th March.

./english/594.txt:18:DEPRESSION VS HOPE: Even within the WSF there were those who talked of another world, but could not imagine such a world. The speaker from the European Green party, who spoke at the large meeting on parties and social movements, could not imagine any other form of political party other than one which “had to compromise” inside parliament. But at the smaller meeting on “Life after capitalism” speakers discussed how we could organise society in a completely different manner from today.

./english/594.txt:20:Finally, what filled me with hope was the unity meeting of 45 left-wing organisations, Maoists and Trotskyists, which decided that we all need to work together in a concrete manner to contribute to a new socialist and non-sectarian world within the WSF process. One very important issue which the left must come to terms with is the attitude towards NGOs, especially in Asia. We must get away from narrow sectarianism and find ways to work with NGO activists in opposing neo-liberalism and imperialism, while at the same time never shying away from political debates. The failure of narrow sectarianism was clearly shown in the case of the isolated Mumbai Resistance 2004 which attracted a few thousand people compared to the 100,000 who attended the WSF.

./english/595.txt:22:The means for obtaining a global vision, to facilitate legibility sufficient to highlight the wealth of the debates and proposals, also remains a task on standby. Efforts have been made in the sectors of documentation and systematising the ideas formulated at the Forums since the first forum at Porto Alegre in January 2001. There is no nostalgia in this quest to keep archives on the forums. An amnesic movement is liable to become diluted, or else others will write its history. The work of archiving, documentation and systematisation is essential for emphasising the intercultural, social and political wealth contributed by the participants themselves. This effort permits proposing the new ideas and alternatives that social actors are implementing in order to respond to and overcome the policies dictated by the proponents of neo-liberal and neo-imperialist globalisation. The capacity to innovate to ensure that the programmes and methods of the forthcoming forums are genuinely original and participatory will be one of the key elements for continuing the alternative world movement.

./english/595.txt:24:2. Historic and political challenges. Are we standing between the devil and the deep blue sea ?

./english/595.txt:30:Since this is the context in which we must situate ourselves, we must ask ourselves whether we are standing between the devil and deep blue sea ? On the one hand, there is an empire that dictates its rationale of “pax Americana” through war and the social and political organisation that it comprises and, on the other hand, there are groups that organise repeated terrorist attacks and organised Mafia type networks that operate clandestinely and determine the lives of millions of human beings who survive in conditions of slavery. Given this rationale (the term is debatable), the civil society now emerging and that we are seeking to develop must avoid becoming a hostage.

./english/598.txt:7:As the fourth World Social Forum in Mumbai showed, the social-forum movement continues to go from strength to strength. Hilary Wainwright explains what distinguishes this new way of organising for social justice from the labour movements and political parties of old.

./english/598.txt:9:Can you ask them to go? an anxious volunteer pleaded with Gautam Mody, trade union organiser turned honest spin doctor for Januarys fourth World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai. A group of politically motivated Buddhists were performing a dance outside the forums media centre and taking up a lot of space. Leave them, said Mody, as firmly as a conventional press officer might order a demonstration to end. Why does it take so long for people to let go of the old way of doing things? he grumbled. He went on to explain how the streets outside his union offices in Delhi are always cleared of anyone loitering with political intent. Were creating a new culture here, Mody said. In the past the labour movement too often preferred to meet behind closed doors, and we would even send people to investigate who was listening. The social-forum process is completely open. That is not always easy to accept.

./english/598.txt:19:Political parties excluded

./english/598.txt:21:The organisations most challenged by the theory and practice of social forums are the traditional political parties of the left - both from the social democratic and Leninist traditions. The WSFs principles specifically exclude the direct participation of political parties. The basic idea is all about building up the power of social and trade union movements. The WSF, says the forums Charter of Principles (agreed by the WSF International Council in 2001), is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that inter-relates organisations engaged in concrete action[,] from the local to the international in order to build another world… Neither party representatives nor military organisations shall participate in the forum.

./english/598.txt:25:In this way social forums put into practice the assertion of the womens and ethnic minorities movements of the 1970s, that movements of the oppressed and marginalised need autonomy to develop and identify their own needs, identities and sources of power. Political parties do not have a monopoly of the power to achieve change; indeed generally they have flunked the task of reform. The emergence of social forums doesnt make the political party redundant. It leaves it a distinctive contribution to the wider process of struggle carried out by a plurality of actors: the role of linking extra-parliamentary campaigning with the very different timetables and tactical necessities of electoral politics. To perform this role effectively - to act as amplifiers rather than mufflers of the movements in the streets and the workplaces - parties have to open up their methods of organising and thinking. Every way of reforming party policy has to start from an experimental approach, Rifondazione Communista leader Fausto Bertinotti told the Mumbai Forum. Practice has to come before theory. The collective intellect is the movement, and the party is helping to contribute to that, but it cannot in itself be that collective intellect.

./english/598.txt:27:Crucial to this rethinking of the role of political parties, especially their relationship to social movements, is a challenge to conventional ways of understanding knowledge, whose knowledge is important and how it is produced. Traditional parties of the left have long acted as if knowledge can be centralised for dissemination to a passive membership. The mass membership have not been seen as creative, knowing, autonomous and interconnected human beings; they have been treated as supporters, voting fodder or, in the military analogy, the rank and file. Historically, this attitude has deprived left parties of a huge source of creative power.

./english/598.txt:32:The sharing of knowledge is closely linked to the discovery and creation of different sources of power. The campaigning movements and networks that met in the old warehouses and newly constructed tents at the WSF site in Mumbai do not assert a rival monopoly to that of traditional political parties. Rather, they demonstrate, in practice more than in theory, a belief in diverse sources of power. One purpose of social forums is to find ways of connecting those different sources of power and making them more than the sum of their parts.

./english/598.txt:38:Coordinating linkages that are horizontal rather than vertical, that function across popular movements rather than up from the masses to the party leadership, was the original vision of the social forum [idea/ founders]. Chico Whitaker, an activist intellectual from Brazil with a history of involvement with the Workers Party and radical movements associated with the Catholic Church, was one of those who formulated [it/ the WSF Charter of Principles]. A modest man, now in his 60s, Whitaker believes that the forum idea draws on the most important political discovery of recent times - the power of open, free horizontal structures. He told Red Pepper: It is this idea that explains the success of the first three WSFs in Porto Alegre as well as of Seattle and the 15 February demonstrations [against the war in Iraq] and now Mumbai.

./english/598.txt:42:In this way the social forums, whether internationally or locally, are experimenting (not always successfully, it must be said) with new ways of integrating the particular - ie, demands and campaigns on single issues - with the universal - the wider effort to bring about a radical transformation of the whole of society. Historically, this was exclusively the function of the political party.

./english/598.txt:48:The World Social Forum (WSF) developed out of the anti-capitalist movements in the late 1990s. It was organised as an alternative to the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, at which neo-liberal intellectuals and political leaders meet to discuss and supposedly solve the problems of the age.

./english/605.txt:8:There is an estimative that 135,000 to 150,000 people took part in the 1,200 WSF activities. The WSF 2004 has done a great impact in Indian left sectors. This country is marked by regionalism, communalism and diversity in languages, religions and cultures. It has been prepared since 2002 – in fact, the Asian Social Forum in January 2003 was its first rehearsal. It was done in a more plural and demanding context than the former WSFs, stimulated by a more heterogeneous left sector than the Latin American or European ones. It was the result of the unitary action of organizations who come from very distant political traditions – from Gandhism to the more traditional Communist Parties, from various Maoist organizations to NGOs. This unity was carefully built thanks to a wide preparation and mobilization process in the different regions in the country. That explains why the Forum was marked – respecting its Charter of Principles – by a less reticent posture towards the political parties, eliminating the image, for times raised, that they are strange to the Forum and to the wider struggle that makes sense to it.

./english/605.txt:12:Therefore, the IV WSF was made in a context so far away from the western political culture. It was an highly popular event, militant and feminist – reinforced by the massive presence of ground popular movements, not only from India but from most parts of Asia. There, the Forum has become a space for activities which were, first and foremost, protests and invitations to political action. Mumbai and the Indian Organization Committee have qualitatively enriched the WSF process, introducing several elements that must, from now on, be considered in future initiatives.

./english/605.txt:38:The renewal of the WSF process in Mumbai was amplified by strong presence of the Asiatic delegations – from Pakistan to Japan, from Bangladesh to Filipines, from Palestine to Afghanistan. Exiled tibetan monks marched side by side with participators of popular movements in Thailand; activist against war in Central Asia countries and in the muslim world were with Korean trade-union militants. Their problems, cultures, organization forms and political practices introduced lots of questions that will take time to be assimilated by the WSF process.

./english/605.txt:40:For large part of the delegates present in Mumbai, the international political agenda has a clear center, the fight against Bush government, to North American imperialism and its military offensive. This was the core of the discussion over Irak, Afghanistan, Korea and Palestine, the most visible range of themes. Of course the fight against the free trade agreements that multiply in the region has found its place, as well as the struggle against expulsion of the immigrant workers in Korea or Japan, for the weapon control, for “Making Tibet a peace zone”, for food security and preservation of biodiversity and natural resources etc. But nothing has weakened the force of the fight against the threat represented by government Bush to the world. That explains the strength of the Gerneral Assembly of the Global Movement against War claim – that took part in the Forum – for a world journey of fight against the end of occupation in Irak in March 20th.

./english/605.txt:42:In a wide view, the IV WSF seemed less dispersed, from the thematic point of view, as the III – particularly if we take in consideration, beside the conferences, round tables and talks, the 31 big panels. India Organizing Committee has acted efficiently in the sense of more political gathering in the large events.

./english/605.txt:44:The popular character of the IV WSF resulted in a big measure by its wide process of preparation, evolving an Indian committee, embracing almost every progressist movements in the country, an Asiatic net of support (which realized two very representative meetings, in Chennai and Mumbai) and an organization committee with greater operational capacity. All of this meant a big effort of dialogue and political understanding and had been expressed in pluralism and evolving of the ground movements in the Mumbai event.

./english/605.txt:53:Part of the popular and militant character of the IV WSF has resulted and was result also from the efforts and resources dedicated to the cultural dimension of the event, conceived not as “entertainment” or “show”, but essentially as political manifestation. Since Asiatic Social Forum it was clear that the treatment given by Indians to this issue was very different and politically more suitable than the former forums. The cultural initiatives were not shows by professional artists, but part of the present communities´ and movements´ struggles. Even the exhibition of “western” cinema were conceived by many cultural activists embraced as Forum´s organic cells.

./english/605.txt:63:The political parties and the Forum

./english/605.txt:64:Mumbai consolidated the “method” of open space established by the Charter of Principles of the WSF. Today almost everyone in the left know that the Forum do not take resolutions, that political parties and guerilla organizations do not participate in the organization and why is that so. They know, in the other hand, that political parties are not unwelcome guests – in fact they are important participators in the process with which the Forum dialogues and wants to empower. The game rules, although strange to certain political cultures, are less and less inquired.

./english/605.txt:66:In Mumbai, that originated a clear political delimitation. We had had parallel events organized with the intention of concurring with the Forum – which the Indian Organizing Committee has wisely treated as complementary initiatives. The most important one was the Mumbai Resistence 2004, convoked by a little international net of Maoist parties, through their mass fronts. They had inquired the idea of open space, the fact that the Forum does not take resolutions, its not explicit socialist character and the fact that the WSF does not valorize the armed fighting in the social change. But we also had had the II People´s Encounter, whose promoters had broken up with the WSF process because they did not accepted working with the mass organizations which identified themselves to political parties. Both events (and sectors from the Forum itself) had echoed also the critics that the international financial ties of certain organizations active in the process condition and moderate its political agenda. In the end the parallel events had had a marginal participation, which symbolizes the political delimitation established by the WSF process, of its ability of imposing a new and very united field of discussion.

./english/605.txt:68:But the relation between social movements and political parties had had an important step with the IV Forum. Until now, it was Brazilian reality – where most of participants had supported PT and meant that the best option was to let the party away of the process as institution – which had informed, in a good measure, the perception of this relation. The political culture dominant in some European countries, such as Italy or England, had brought to the process some inquiries on the “form” posed by the Charter of Principles (which naturally conditions its results). These inquiries were administrated in the European Social Forum. Now, Mumbai experience had introduced new elements.

./english/605.txt:70:Very heterogeneous from the political point of view, the Indian left had found in the Forum´s formula a practical manner of building a process of unity that was urgent to it. Pressed upon by the hinduist fundamentalism and religious sectarism, struggling with an extreme-right government which threatens the acquisitions obtained since the Independence, the Indian left had shown that today almost every single political formations – from parties born in the official communist movement to the gandhist socialism – can deal positively with the method of the open space.

./english/605.txt:74:However, most revealing of the incidence of the global movement and of the WSF on the political recomposing processes, was the meeting carried out in January 20th in Mumbai among “radical” political parties (convoked by initiative of the European Meeting of Anti-Capitalist Parties and the political streams of Asia-Pacific, with highline to Indian Maoists engaged with support to Mumbai Forum. For the very first time, streams so distinct – from Trotskism to Maoism, from the official communist to the critic Marxist – met, debated the new situation of the left in the world and created a net to continue this dialogue.

./english/605.txt:78:From this body of initiatives, it seems clear that slowly a very positive modus vivendi is built between political parties and the Forum process (and vice versa).

./english/605.txt:81:Mumbai has enriched the WSF agenda and integrated new and important forces in the process. But also reinforced the will of the Forum being a new and more useful tool to multiply political action and moving current correlation of forces. The more the neoliberalism seems sold out, the more this aspiration nourishes. At last, the Forum is not an end in itself, but a mean so what thousands of movements in the world can articulate and strengthen their struggles. And in Mumbai, with the consolidation of the Forum in the most conflictive and populated zone of the planet, this will has gained a sense of emergency. That has expressed in several critical discussions and self-criticism among the process protagonists, who point the need of changing directions towards Porto Alegre 2005. What balance can be made today about the Forum´s role in motivating our alternatives?

./english/605.txt:87:In this field, the balance is much less clear. The role of the Forum is more indirect and unequal. An interesting dynamics seems to have been established in the relation between the regional and national plan in Western Europe, through the European Social Forum, although it is too early to a definitive evaluation. Sometime in the next future, we can study also the strategic results of the process for India. But after three years it seems clear that we have a problem of enrootment to be overcome in Brazil and Latin America case – although the continental campaign against ALCA has been empowered by the Forum process. TheV WSF must sediment its vocation of creating a new political culture in the country and region.

./english/605.txt:94:But articulation and formulation of plans of action should be put in the right context. When one demands that the Forum make alternatives, proposals and plan of action viable , in fact, what is demanded is a change of the correlation of forces that only can come from a wide process of retro-feeding between the Forum and thousands of movements and national and local entities. Some exemplar actions, such as the proposal by Arundhati Roy in the Mumbai´s opening (Do Turkey´s Enjoy Thanksgiving? in www.forumsocialmundial.org.br) – boycotting in a systematic way two big and emblematic corporations in neoliberal globalization –, can be made viable in Forums such as the present ones. That is not the same for dozens of proposals that are already becoming patrimony of the global movement. In order to switch so much the force correlation, we should make a great political and organizational quality jump, making it possible the capillar articulation in the international processes with a great number of national processes.

./english/605.txt:98:Mumbai had given important steps in definition of a new shape for the event, based on the self-organized activities. However, moving forward in the direction of the dimension of the Forum process is not just a question of anticipation of inscription dates and fusion of activities (as correctly has been elaborated), it presupposes also the condensing of the net of relations among thousands of entities and movements all over the world. That makes the event a moment of encounter of permanent processes articulated in shape of vast nets. There already are, in a dispersed way, several thematic nets and very important campaigns. When the Brazilian Organizing Committee followed, in II and III WSF, the movement´s pressure for participation in the events promoted, it had reached more than thirty thematic nuclei. Bringing these thematic or sectorial focuses inside the Forum as open and dialogical processes, which maintain their own dynamics is, as already put by the indian female comrades, a great organizational and political challenge for the WSF. And it demands a huge investment in cheering up, permanent communication (of contents and not only of procedures) and memories of multiple kinds of processes and initiatives.

./english/605.txt:102:The situation today challenged is transitory. The International Council, created between the I and the II WSF, has freezed its composition immediately after the II WSF, showing great difficulty to deal with the expansion of the process and becoming more plural – what becomes unbearable with the consolidation of the Asiatic process, in which do not exist entities with the kind of structure of those which composed the IC still today (especially the international nets of NGOs and great trade union centrals with access to international trips). Besides, mentalities and postures characteristic to international organizations of hierarchical kind still shock, in their interior, with the net conceptions and practices. And, at last, the limitations of the regional processes still did not viabilize the constitution of a sufficient number of facilitating nuclei of the process, so that could become natural the redefinition of the functions between a qualitatively wider and more plural IC, with a more political and less organizational role, and these nuclei with ability of collective and quotidian acting. The process architecture will be shaped and stead, in a great measure, by development of the regional forums, by the experiences provided by them and by the constitution of organization collectives which are socially rooted and emerged as their Organizing Committees.

./english/605.txt:104:But the consolidation regional forums must still overcome several obstacles. It is not enough that a group of entities from a certain area have good will or even material resources for making viable and stable a Regional Forum process. The real processes flow through central countries in each region, in which the structure of civil society is more solid and the political situation is more cozy. The search of alternative ways may here be a disaster. Besides, the regions (almost) never are continents in the geographic sense – for example, if there is a more stable identity of the Europe (Western) or even America (Latin), there are lots of Asias, far beyond the Indian subcontinent, regions which must find their own tracks. We must find a difficult balance between resisting to substitutivism (which could take us to passivity) and effectively support the most fruitful initiatives.

./english/605.txt:106:Thus, the formatting of the WSF 2005 – as a friendly and efficient process in the articulation of proposals and political action to effective them – can only lead to a jump of quality in consolidation of the WSF process if accompanied by the internalization, by the process, of a important part of the campaign activities and more acting international nets, of changing the “institutional” architecture of the process, structuring it in a system of nets, and the consolidation of a certain number of regional stable forums inspired in their real dynamics. The challenges are not small. But are not unreacheable.

./english/607.txt:10:The fact such issues and more were intensively debated by delegates from more than 90 countries and many political tendencies makes the WSF much more representative than the World Economic Forum to which it is in part a counterpoint. The activists and leaders represent the mass of their peoples and their aspirations far more than the finance ministers and CEOs that meet in Davos, representing the power and capital that dominates the world. The WSF is a significant effort to right this balance by facilitating dialogue and shared experience - and this was clear in Mumbai, where the poor and marginalized were present in depth.

./english/611.txt:18:Roy herself, and a few others from India, and some folks from outside as well, quite courageously conveyed to the WSF attendees, as best they could in the time allotted, a picture of Hindu fundamentalism engorging its appetites with little restraint. They werent tossing around epithets like "fascist" and "fundamentalist" lightly, as many in the U.S. do when referring to Bush. They knew what the words imply, and they used them knowingly, describing the thugs seeking to rise to ultimate power as willing, able, and already quite practiced at ripping the innards out of people - mostly Muslims -- for street sport as well as political gain.

./english/614.txt:33:· Lastly, the relation with politics and the space to political parties has been a field in which theory has not much to do with reality. Therefore, whereas the “Charter of Principles” excludes explicitly the participation of political parties, the presence of the PT, of institutional or government employees and, also, heads of state… and a media overexposed projection have been a reality within the WSF. It’s clear that it’s no longer possible to keep living this contradiction and that it’s necessary to coordinate a space of the political parties and institutions in the framework of the WSF.

./english/614.txt:35:In those countries where the social mobilizations have shaken the society the most, or the antiwar mobilizations, have put politics and the relation among the social and the political in the first place, and the relation among social movements and political parties and the institutions in the center of the debate. This is a reality to which one can not turn its back, but it’s necessary to approach it in a way that does not hurt the identity of the WSF.

./english/618.txt:9:It was these grassroots delegations that really took possession of the space offered by the forum. Each of the delegations communicated with the others by way of their demonstrations and political and cultural activities: theatre, mime, dance. One Tamil remarked: “We can’t talk to each other, our languages are very different. But when I see them performing, I understand their message, I can recognise situations in common. We meet somewhere beyond language barriers. That’s exciting for both of us. We are glad to be here, together”.

./english/620.txt:29:Without going into the merits or otherwise of the above criticism, the larger issue is how can a space be created that allows for not only a diversity of issues, but also of political streams and size? We feel that this cannot be done by a set of ‘rules’ or by an IC/International Secretariat imposing its “decisions” on the organisation. The groups that are a part of the WSF must internalise a vision of WSF by which all hegemony is seen to be counter productive. The IC/Secretariat can only reinforce this by the WSF process and in constructing the program of the events.

./english/620.txt:46:The distinction between the WSF organisers organising the space while the movements organise the activities/action plan should continue. The WSF organisers are not necessarily of the movements: the WSF organisers should preferably not compete with movements for space. Any success in building a global anti-imperialist struggle depends on the movements coming together, both politically and in organisation terms.

./english/625.txt:16:All this reflects the more participative process in which the WSF was built up in India. First, a great Asian committee was set up, then a broad-based Indian committee and, finally, an organising committee. This structure contemplated the diversity of political positions and organisational outlooks, so as to maintain dialogue among all social forces. This implied balanced participation, alternating public exposure, a multiplicity of mechanisms to contemplate a diversity of standpoints.

./english/625.txt:36:Considerable pressure is also being exerted by a sizeable group of institutions towards changing the frequency of the WSF global event from yearly to two-yearly. Some argue that we do not have the staying power to hold it every year, that there are no resources available and that as a result grassroots social movements are in less of a position to participate than NGOs and trade unions. Others argue that more time must be given for grassroots political work, for the day-to-day endeavour for social change. Those who are against any move away from an annual WSF argue that it would be a sign of failure, given that the Economic Forum at Davos has kept to its annual format for many years.

./english/625.txt:40:Last but not least, a venue has to be set for the next WSF after Porto Alegre 2005. There is intense political will to hold it in Africa, but conditions are not yet ripe for that.

./english/629.txt:12:The first of these questions is the most conclusive, once the adopted option generates different answers for the others. A fourth issue, that should be addressed, is how it should relate itself with the political parties. In the following notes I will consider only the first three themes.

./english/629.txt:28:Furthermore: if we do it, we will be – without any help from those we are fighting against...- throwing away a powerful instrument of struggle that we were able to create drawing on the most important political discovery lately: the power of the free horizontal articulation, which explains the success in Porto Alegre, as well as in Seattle and of the February 15th manifestations against the war. And we have to bear in mind that if the horizontal social articulation still has so much to contribute now for our fight, it will also be necessary in the very process of construction of the world we want.

./english/629.txt:56:The Forum’s Principles Charter reinforces even more this perspective when it deals with the question of “final documents”. Even if they succeeded in not being oversimplifying or narrowing, as it is usually the case with “final documents”, it so happens that the Forum does not have them, as a Forum. It is not a matter of non-commitment with the fight and with the mobilization needed to face the neo-liberalism, as the ones most concerned in transforming the Forum in a movement might interpret. The fact is that a square does not make “declarations”. It is clear that those inside it can do it. The participants of the World Social Forum can do whatever final declarations they wish - and these are most welcome. But they will never be declarations of the Forum as Forum. As a common space to all, it does not “speak”. Or rather, it “speaks”, and a lot, through its own existence. As more and more people and organizations get together in order to find ways to overcome the neo-liberalism, this is in itself an expressive political fact. It is needless that somebody should speak on behalf of the Forum.

./english/629.txt:78:I would go as far as to affirm that it is this character of the Forum that explains the great joy that reigns in this “square”, like an enormous fair – a real party with spaces even to manifestations and “performances” of different types in the circulation spaces. Nobody is anguished because nobody has to fight to see his or her own proposals and ideas prevail over the others. Nor is one worried for having to defend oneself from others trying to control, impose orientations or rules of behavior – still less of political behavior, as it occurs in groups and “delegations” that have to get together to evaluate, decide, undertake tasks, as in good and disciplined parties or movements. Such meetings are even possible but never obligatory for those who are not militants of this or that movement. Those who want to take advantage of the opportunity to do so, also have freedom for that, provided that they limit themselves to gather their own militants with these objectives in mind.

./english/629.txt:82:Such “militants” of so many struggles - many of them long being severed due to different ideological and political options - find in the Forum an unprecedented opportunity to know each other and, if possible, to get together, overthrowing the partition to which they were driven by the dominant parties. This meeting with “old friends” - if one might put this way - is initially, for many, a surprise, followed by joy, when they realize that they are in fact united.

./english/629.txt:90:To maintain the WSF as a space is then, maybe, the best way to guarantee its biggest asset, which must be preserved at any cost. Therefore, without overrating, we could go as far as to say that, those who want to transform it into a movement - will end up, if they succeed, by working against our common cause, whether they are aware or not of what they are doing, whether they are movements or political parties, and however important, strategically urgent and legitimate their objectives might be. They will be effectively acting against themselves and against all of us. They will be hindering and suffocating its own source of life – stemming from those articulations and initiatives born in the Forum - or at least destroying an enormous instrument that is available for them to expand and to enlarge their presence in the struggle we are all engaged in.

./english/629.txt:128:When it is regarded as a movement – in this case demanding a “political” direction – it becomes strategic, for the political forces that participate in it, to integrate their Organization Committees, with a view to influencing the decisions. Tensions then arise between those who are already inside it and practically took “possession” of it, and those who feel themselves “excluded”, or simply want to get in and participate in that “direction”.

./english/629.txt:130:There are also those who deem it necessary to bring that dispute even to the Brazilian Organization Committee – currently the Secretariat of the Forum process – and to its International Council. They even say that the present composition of the Brazilian Committee is not representative, because it does not take into account the proportional participation of all the forces or political tendencies that should be in the direction of the Forum process. They also say that the International Council should be “conducted” by some persons, or reduced to a group representing the others.

./english/629.txt:132:These proposals would only be justified if the Forum was a movement, but they are not adequate to a Forum-space, to a “square”, that, as we have already seen before, does not admit a representing “political direction”. It demands, more than anything, people and institutions willing to perform the task of organizing the use of the square without interfering in the contents discussed in it and even less in the freedom that should be granted to all participants. That is to say, it depends on people and organizations willing to devote their time and resources – as an executive body – to promote the gathering and the articulation of all people engaged in the struggle for “another world”.

./english/629.txt:134:It would seem desirable that the composition of the Organization Committees of the Forums-spaces had a diversity ensuring the respect to diversity in the events. But it won’t be necessary to count on the proportional diversity and importance of the organizations and movements that will participate in these events, as these organizations and movements will not come to the forum to receive orders. And yet, still more important than the diversity in the committees is the credibility of people and organizations composing it. They need to invite all the others without leaving any doubt about the real interest of this invitation. Or without rendering those invited afraid of the possibility of being used, by those who invite, to carry out their own real objectives – as it might happen when political parties decide to assume “generously” the support of the process.

./english/629.txt:136:In this perspective, the concept better adapted to the organization committees and also to the International Council, within the option Forum-space, is of a “facilitator”. Facilitators do not command. What they do is making it possible for the existing or future movements to progress in their struggles. In order to create incubators of movements and engagements and to build “squares” and “factories of ideas”, they don’t need confrontations among them, discussing alternatives about how to change the world, still less do they have to try to impose ideas and proposals to each other. What they need is to be concerned within the common perspective that they adopt, in making each event organized by them accomplish the objectives of the Forum itself. What they need is to choose and operate, considering the political picture of each time, the best alternatives of organizing the time and the space that will be made available and will be used by those who should and wish to come to the “square” to discuss alternatives, advance proposals of action and, get together to fulfill them.

./english/629.txt:140:Such perspective of work is more difficult to be adopted once it is not as “heroic” as the exercise of political leadership, provided by the option Forum-movement. Its adoption would perhaps lead to a decreased interest in participating in the organization of events. Sparing the efforts and resources to amplify adhesions, links and articulations during the event would be more crucial...

./english/634.txt:6:In numbers, it clearly was a triumph, doubling the number of those participating the previous year to as many as 120,000 people, many of them from nearly 5,800 social movements of 156 nations. According to Eduardo Tagliaferro of the Buenos Aires daily Página 12, WSF organizers like to say that the growth in numbers “is a worldwide wave that is forming a new citizenship” (my translation, cited in Correo de Prensa de la IV Internacional Boletín Electrónico No 562 - América Latina y el Caribe - 30/1/03 – < germain@chasque.net >). As one of those organizers, Jeferson Miola of Brazil, concluded: “The formidable political, cultural, theoretical, and moral authority conquered after three successive FSM world meetings allows us to enter this new phase with a greater ability to affirm values and references for the conquest of a post-neoliberal world founded on peace and justice, with multilateralism, respect for diversity, and the self-determination of peoples” (my translation, Miola, “Fórum

./english/634.txt:12:But reader beware! As Naomi Klein has observed: “The key word at this years World Social Forum…was "big". Big attendance….Big speeches: more than 15,000 crammed in to see Noam Chomsky. And most of all, big men. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the newly elected president of Brazil, came to the forum and addressed 75,000 adoring fans. Hugo Chavez, the controversial president of Venezuela, paid a "surprise" visit [outside the WSF, however, jc] to announce that his embattled regime was part of the same movement as the forum itself….But wait a minute: how on earth did a gathering that was supposed to be a showcase for new grassroots movements become a celebration of men with a penchant for three-hour speeches about smashing the oligarchy?” (Klein, “More Democracy – Not More Political Strongmen” The Guardian, February 3, 2003 < More Democracy – Not More Political Strongmen>).

./english/634.txt:33:On the other hand, the number of “reformists” was larger than ever at Porto Alegre III—it’s just that their position could not hold people’s attention without moving to the left, something many of them are reluctant to do beyond the rhetorical level. Meanwhile, a few groups of the world’s miniscule far left boycotted Porto Alegre III because they thought it was too “reformist.” India’s prize-winning novelist and political activist Arundathi Roy, who was on the panel featuring Noam Chomsky, received far greater applause than Chomsky did when she ended her moving speech with these words: “The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing” (the entire speech is available on ZNet, January 28, 2003, www.zmag.org/).

./english/634.txt:35:My own impression is that the political tensions within the WSF remain fructifying, fortunately with the usual joyful (if tense) tolerance and pluralism that has come to characterize the WSF. This democratic spirit is healthy. Divisions within the two main schools of thought—anti-capitalist left and radical reformist—also continue to percolate of course. One is the continuing division between anarchists and participatory socialists within the anti-capitalist left, although I notice more in common between their positions each year. The occasional putdown at Porto Alegre III of anything on the left as “sectarianism” carries less weight than ever, a bit like beating a dead horse.

./english/639.txt:1:More Democracy - Not More Political Strongmen

./english/639.txt:18:Still others who attended that first forum were refugees from doctrinaire communist parties who had finally faced the fact that the socialist "utopias" of eastern Europe had turned into centralised, bureaucratic and authoritarian nightmares. And outnumbering all of these veteran activists was a new and energetic generation of young people who had never trusted politicians and were finding their own political voice on the streets of Seattle, Prague and Sao Paulo.

./english/639.txt:22:The original World Social Forum didnt produce a political blueprint - a good start - but there was a clear pattern to the alternatives that emerged. Politics had to be less about trusting well-meaning leaders and more about empowering people to make their own decisions; democracy had to be less representative and more participatory. The ideas flying around included neighbourhood councils, participatory budgets, stronger city governments, land reform and cooperative farming - a vision of politicised communities that could be networked internationally to resist further assaults from the IMF, the World Bank and World Trade Organisation. For a left that had tended to look to centralised state solutions to solve almost every problem, this emphasis on decentralisation and direct participation was a breakthrough.

./english/639.txt:31:For some, the hijacking of the World Social Forum by political parties and powerful men is proof that the movements against corporate globalisation are finally maturing and "getting serious". But is it really so mature, amidst the graveyard of failed left political projects, to believe that change will come by casting your ballot for the latest charismatic leader, then crossing your fingers and hoping for the best? Get serious.

./english/645.txt:13:Lulas visit to the WSF and then days later to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos meant that the message from Porto Alegre is now direct and political.

./english/646.txt:4:The spectacular growth of the World Social Forum has outstripped its opaque structures of governance. How should it be reformed? To be effective, must it become a decision-making body, or instead reinvent itself as a smaller theatre for delegated representatives? Should it cut its shadow relationship to the World Economic Forum? These questions of governance reflect fundamental issues of political direction for movements seeking a way beyond the current globalisation model.

./english/646.txt:10:Earlier attempts to democratise global power, such as the NIEO project, tended to see the problem more in terms of inter-state relations. But now, instead of asking that a particular ‘third world’ state be given more decision-making power in global affairs, today’s activists are beginning to seek more power in civil society groups that confront both governmental and corporate power all over the world. This trend holds many promising aspects. But we may need political structures that ‘civil society’, as it is generally conceived, is unlikely to deliver.

./english/646.txt:38:Most people calculate that the thousands of visitors filling local hotels, restaurants and other commercial establishments bring in much more money than whatever is spent by the local authorities in organising the forum: a major reason for municipal and state governments of different political backgrounds to have a welcoming attitude toward the WSF. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil’s president during the first two forums, however, has upbraided local authorities for misallocating taxpayers’ resources.

./english/646.txt:58:The underlying assumption in this working method is that the World Social Forum is not a deliberative body or actor that would take political stands and that it therefore needs no rigorous decision-making procedures. Until now the system has worked relatively well, making decisions through what some Brazilian organisers call construção, constructing them in a critical debate and sometimes laborious consensus-building. The IC is not supposed to have mechanisms either for disputing representation, or for voting. The only vote ever taken was to decide whether the meeting following the first IC meeting would take place somewhere in Europe or in Dakar. The overwhelming majority voted for Dakar.

./english/646.txt:86:Further debate ensued in Bangkok in August 2002 when the Brazilians strongly opposed the plans of the Italians to invite political parties to take part officially in the European Social Forum. According to the Charter of Principles, the WSF process is “non-party”, but the Italian delegates responded by accusing the Brazilian Organising Committee of hypocrisy, since the PT was so visibly present in all the Porto Alegre forums. The Italians claimed that the open violation of the Charter by the Brazilians had been always accepted by WSF participants and that therefore the Brazilians should not get upset when minor political parties play a small role in a regional forum.

./english/646.txt:92:Apart from the semi-official list of regional and thematic forums, a myriad of local events have been organised under WSF banners. Many of these events have neither received, nor asked for official recognition by the WSF governance bodies. Their proliferation is one of the most vital signs that the WSF process is indeed expanding. But the fact that they are often beyond the control of any centralised WSF body complicates the attempts to see the WSF as a movement of movements, with a more or less clearly defined political strategy.

./english/646.txt:94:How to be and not be political

./english/646.txt:96:The WSF provides a flexible space for actors who may wish to construct projects in very different contexts, local and global. Those organisers emphasising such flexibility urge the WSF to avoid issuing declarations of support for any one political process. As Cândido Grzybowski puts it, “political action is the responsibility of each individual and the coalitions they form, not an attribute of the forum”. Sensing a more pronounced dichotomy between forum as a space and forum as a movement, Chico Whitaker meanwhile has criticised the “self-nominated social movements” that “seek to put the forum inside their own mobilising dynamics, to serve their own objectives.”

./english/646.txt:98:Among the organisers and participants there have been different ways to approach these different identities. For some they are by no means incompatible: it is possible to be an arena and an actor simultaneously: a “movement of movements”. However, my impression is that there are increasing pressures to overcome the current reluctance to issue political statements.

./english/646.txt:100:One of the reasons for the reluctance to become an explicitly political actor is that the WSF does not have internal procedures for collective democratic will-formation. No one, therefore, can legitimately claim to represent the WSF’s multitude of movements. However, those who acknowledge this lack of a democratic mandate draw different conclusions. Many in its governing bodies would rather see the WSF avoid becoming a political actor. More critical voices argue that the correct way forward is to create mechanisms for democratic participation within the political architecture of the forum, as a driver for a collective movement.

./english/646.txt:102:Increased pressures for more explicit political will-formation are also expressed by and through the media. The press has tended to look at the WSF as a (potential) political actor in itself, while many of the organisers have wanted to downplay this role, emphasising the facilitating function in simply providing a space for different groups to interact. These different conceptions of the event have clashed when the press has asked for “final statements”, considering the lack of such documents as a patent proof of weakness.

./english/646.txt:108:Until now, social movement declarations produced during the WSF events have not been circulated very widely and their impact has been relatively modest. The clearest exception is the call for anti-war demonstrations of 15 February 2003 that many movements gathered in the WSF 2003 in Porto Alegre made public. Nevertheless, they have created controversy among the organisers, with people like Chico Whitaker fearing that the media may consider them semi-official. One way to avoid political silence without violating the Charter of Principles may be for the organisers to facilitate their production and endorsement.

./english/646.txt:120:It was therefore not surprising that the Cuban representatives no longer had a prominent official role in 2002, even though Cuba’s delegation was more numerous than the year before. The island’s political visibility has in the last two forums been clearest in the marches and the environs of the venue, where one could observe plenty of Che Guevara paraphernalia displayed by participating organisations.

./english/646.txt:148:Then there are the issues of funding. WSF events have received considerable funds from organisations such as Oxfam UK, the Ford Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. This support has not hitherto awakened any significant debates on the possible relations of dependence it could generate. But it should be taken into account, for example, that in order to get funding from the Ford Foundation, the organisers had to convince the foundation that the Workers Party was not involved in the process. Since autonomy from political parties has been important for the WSF organisers for various other reasons as well, the importance of funding conditionality should not be exaggerated. However, the organisation of WSF 2004 in India may imply more critical attitudes towards foreign funding.

./english/646.txt:152:Being anti-something can be politically useful, but only up to a point. Protesters in Seattle and at similar events have been very effective in exposing the authoritarianism of the capitalist world-system. But even if the various groups participating do have programmatic statements for alternative futures, the way these events have been staged has not been very conducive to bringing these futures to public attention. Not being able to show a credible alternative, or any alternative at all, has become a problem for the legitimacy of the protest movements.

./english/646.txt:154:In most events post-Seattle, protesters have often been labeled as “anti-globalisation”, and some of them have used the expression themselves. It would, however, be analytically faulty and politically unwise to simply define the movements as being against globalisation, if the term is to be understood as the increasing transgression of nation-state borders on a worldwide level.

./english/654.txt:9:But this increase is even more meaningful if we consider the increase in the number of delegates, that is to say, the number of people registered in the Forum as representatives of entities and movements of the civil society: they went from 4,000 in 2001 to 15,000 in 2002, representing 4,909 organizations from 131 countries. In fact, what attracted so many delegates were the innovative characteristics of the Forum: its pluralistic and non-directive character, which unifies while respecting diversity; its openness to all those who want to participate - except representatives of governments, political parties and military organizations; and the fact of being an initiative of the civil society for the civil society, that created a new meeting place - the first and may be the only one of this kind in a worldwide level - without the control of any governments, movements, parties or national or international institutions which dispute political power.

./english/654.txt:15:This difference in objectives and contents lead to a difference in method, too: the main activity developed in Davos consists in conferences and debates on previously defined issues, to which the organizers invite great intellectual representatives of the neo-liberal "unique-monolithic thought", the most powerful nations political leaders and great multinationals owners or executives. In the Porto Alegre Forum an important space is also given to conferences and debates, as well as to testimonies of people with significant experiences or reflections. In order to do that, Porto Alegre, like Davos, invite people who have already reflected or are already acting in domains relevant to the issues being discussed - though in 2002, the Porto Alegre conferences have being conducted not by isolated people but by great world nets. But the most enriching activity in the World Social Forum is the one related to the workshops and seminars freely proposed and organized by the participants themselves: 400 in 2001 and 750 in 2002. In fact, it is the joyful people movement around these workshops and seminars that create the atmosphere of enthusiasm of the World Social Forum, in the corridors and gardens where the Forum is held, with a variety of sounds and colors, good spirited protests and presentations of proposals and actions, as well as unexpected performances and events - exactly the opposite of what happens in the well-bred gray of Davos. Obviously, these organizing options of the World Social Forum are not carried out without misunderstandings, pressures, deviations and even attempts at manipulation of the Forum as a whole. Its large scale induces greed and its horizontal character puts in a uncomfortable position those who are in a hurry to see changes taking place and were also brought up within the traditional paradigms of political action.

./english/654.txt:21:Naturally, there are other tensions that come up even among those who organize the Forum or those who come to help them. For instance there are those who would prefer the Forums International Advisory Council to become a new world direction of the struggle against neo-liberalism, controlling and guiding that process. The perspectives of continuity assumed by the organizers seem to aim in another direction, with the consolidation of the method oriented by the Forums Principles Chart. It is more and more accepted that the Forum is a process and not an event or a new international organization directed by the leaders of a substitutive "unique-monolithic thought", which would be fatal to the Forum itself. It is also necessary , for example, to see to it that the conferences dont end up with guiding syntheses, voted by their respective audiences, or that they do not prevail over the workshops. At the same time, the decisions taken by the organizers so far aim at enabling the power of attraction of the Forum to generate in other parts of the world the same mobilization it has engendered in Brazil. The 2003 Forum will probably start with some ten regional or thematic Forums in the different geopolitical areas of the world, from September to December 2002, before a new world Forum, to take place once again in Porto Alegre. In September 2003 it would start in the same way, with the possibility of finishing it with a world meeting in India in 2004.

./english/654.txt:23:In fact, the biggest challenge for the organizers of the World Social Forum does not consist in defining new and better contents that could lead to even more concrete proposals, but to guarantee the continuity of the form the Forum was given - a case in which the means are determinant for the aim to be reached. The contents will naturally arise from the process thus launched, within mankinds struggle towards another world, and they will necessarily lead to the different editions of the Forum, with matters common to all and with the specific issues of each region of the world where it will take place. What is most important is to ensure that that new paradigm of political transforming action, created by the World Social Forum, is not absorbed by the "old models".

./english/658.txt:6:I have decided not to stress the enormous social and political contributions produced by the Forum dynamics. All the articles sent in to evaluate this experience, underscoring the many facets of the event, have already done just that, much better than I possibly could.

./english/668.txt:6:The only way to really describe the World Social Forum (WSF), that just ended here in Brazil, is a global political "carnaval." Not that there was much of the glitter and hedonism associated with that most famous Brazilian street party which begins later this week. Rather, inside the conference halls and out, this astounding event--part-political convention, part-art and music festival, part-intellectual gathering of social movements, was in a state of nearly perpetual celebratory protest for five days and five nights.In the friendly territory of the socialist-run Porto Alegre government, one demonstration followed another. Protests spilled into the streets for womens rights, Indigenous rights, Palestinian rights and for land reform.

./english/668.txt:9:While last year 15,000 people showed up, this year, all told more than 51,000 people from 131 countries officially participated in the World Social Forum. In the virtual realm, the WSF website found itself hosting another half million visitors a day. Overall, the event was extremely well organized, with barely any noticeable glitches or conflicts.Tens of Thousands in the Streets -- PeacefullyIn contrast with the streets of New York City -- or for that matter Seattle, Prague or Genoa -- police presence in Porto Alegre was once again nearly non-existent as huge marches peacefully wound through the street. The opening ceremony saw more than 40,000 people demonstrating. The anti-FTAA protest, held on the final day, gathered about 10,000. The beautiful and inspiring closing ceremony, held in a giant hall at the main venue -- the beautifully appointed Catholic University -- was packed with a diverse group of 6,000 people; it was simulcast to thousands more at two other venues.This being a left-political gathering in the heart of Latin America, Che Guevara was everywhere.

./english/668.txt:15:Strategy sessions addressed not only how to combat the WTO, the World Bank and giant corporations, but also on how to build alternative economic, political and cultural structures. The main conference on corporate power, in which CorpWatch participated, focused on a series of proposals to "separate the corporation and the state." The argument went that just as we need to separate church and state to avoid a religious fundamentalist nation and build democracy, it is also necessary to separate the corporation and the state to avoid market-fundamentalist governance. From there sprang a fruitful discussion.This approach fit well with one of the most interesting and innovative movements to make its voice heard in Porto Alegre.

./english/671.txt:4:Rather than opposing the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre to the World Economic Forum in New York, it is more revealing to imagine it as the distant offspring of the historic Bandung Conference that took place in Indonesia in 1955. Both were conceived as attempts to counter the dominant world order: colonialism and the oppressive Cold War binary in the case of Bandung, and the rule of capitalist globalization in that of Porto Alegre. The differences, however, are immediately apparent. On one hand the Bandung Conference, which brought together leaders primarily from Asia and Africa, revealed in a dramatic way the racial dimension of the colonial and Cold War world order, which Richard Wright famously described as being divided by the colour curtain. Porto Alegre, in contrast, was a predominantly white event. There were relatively few participants from Asia and Africa, and the racial differences of the Americas were dramatically underrepresented. This points toward a continuing task facing those gathered at Porto Alegre: to globalize further the movements, both within each society and across the worlda project in which the Forum is merely one step. On the other hand, whereas Bandung was conducted by a small group of national political leaders and representatives, Porto Alegre was populated by a swarming multitude and a network of movements. This multitude of protagonists is the great novelty of the World Social Forum, and central to the hope it offers for the future.

./english/671.txt:10:The encounter should, however, reveal and address not only the common projects and desires, but also the differences of those involveddifferences of material conditions and political orientation. The various movements across the globe cannot simply connect to each other as they are, but must rather be transformed by the encounter through a kind of mutual adequation. Those from North America and Europe, for example, cannot but have been struck by the contrast between their experience and that of agricultural labourers and the rural poor in Brazil, represented most strongly by the MST (Landless Movement)and vice versa. What kind of transformations are necessary for the Euro-American globalization movements and the Latin American movements, not to become the same, or even to unite, but to link together in an expanding common network? The Forum provided an opportunity to recognize such differences and questions for those willing to see them, but it did not provide the conditions for addressing them. In fact, the very same dispersive, overflowing quality of the Forum that created the euphoria of commonality also effectively displaced the terrain on which such differences and conflicts could be confronted.

./english/671.txt:13:The Porto Alegre Forum was in this sense perhaps too happy, too celebratory and not conflictual enough. The most important political difference cutting across the entire Forum concerned the role of national sovereignty. There are indeed two primary positions in the response to todays dominant forces of globalization: either one can work to reinforce the sovereignty of nation-states as a defensive barrier against the control of foreign and global capital, or one can strive towards a non-national alternative to the present form of globalization that is equally global. The first poses neoliberalism as the primary analytical category, viewing the enemy as unrestricted global capitalist activity with weak state controls; the second is more clearly posed against capital itself, whether state-regulated or not. The first might rightly be called an anti-globalization position, in so far as national sovereignties, even if linked by international solidarity, serve to limit and regulate the forces of capitalist globalization. National liberation thus remains for this position the ultimate goal, as it was for the old anticolonial and anti-imperialist struggles. The second, in contrast, opposes any national solutions and seeks instead a democratic globalization.

./english/671.txt:17:The non-sovereign, alternative globalization position, in contrast, was minoritarian at the Forumnot in quantitative terms but in terms of representation; in fact, the majority of the participants in the Forum may well have occupied this minoritarian position. First, the various movements that have conducted the protests from Seattle to Genoa are generally oriented towards non-national solutions. Indeed, the centralized structure of state sovereignty itself runs counter to the horizontal network-form that the movements have developed. Second, the Argentinian movements that have sprung up in response to the present financial crisis, organized in neighbourhood and city-wide delegate assemblies, are similarly antagonistic to proposals of national sovereignty. Their slogans call for getting rid, not just of one politician, but all of them que se vayan todos: the entire political class. And finally, at the base of the various parties and organizations present at the Forum the sentiment is much more hostile to proposals of national sovereignty than at the top. This may be particularly true of ATTAC, a hybrid organization whose head, especially in France, mingles with traditional politicians, whereas its feet are firmly grounded in the movements.

./english/671.txt:19:The division between the sovereignty, anti-globalization position and the non-sovereign, alternative globalization position is therefore not best understood in geographical terms. It does not map the divisions between North and South or First World and Third. The conflict corresponds rather to two different forms of political organization. The traditional parties and centralized campaigns generally occupy the national sovereignty pole, whereas the new movements organized in horizontal networks tend to cluster at the non-sovereign pole. And furthermore, within traditional, centralized organizations, the top tends toward sovereignty and the base away. It is no surprise, perhaps, that those in positions of power would be most interested in state sovereignty and those excluded least. This may help to explain, in any case, how the national sovereignty, anti-globalization position could dominate the representations of the Forum even though the majority of the participants tend rather toward the perspective of a non-national alternative globalization.

./english/671.txt:21:As a concrete illustration of this political and ideological difference, one can imagine the responses to the current economic crisis in Argentina that logically follow from each of these positions. Indeed that crisis loomed over the entire Forum, like a threatening premonition of a chain of economic disasters to come. The first position would point to the fact that the Argentinian debacle was caused by the forces of global capital and the policies of the IMF, along with the other supranational institutions that undermine national sovereignty. The logical oppositional response should thus be to reinforce the national sovereignty of Argentina (and other nation-states) against these destabilizing external forces. The second position would identify the same causes of the crisis, but insist that a national solution is neither possible nor desirable. The alternative to the rule of global capital and its institutions will only be found at an equally global level, by a global democratic movement. The practical experiments in democracy taking place today at neighbourhood and city levels in Argentina, for example, pose a necessary continuity between the democratization of Argentina and the democratization of the global system. Of course, neither of these perspectives provides an adequate recipe for an immediate solution to the crisis that would circumvent IMF prescriptionsand I am not convinced that such a solution exists. They rather present different political strategies for action today which seek, in the course of time, to develop real alternatives to the current form of global rule.

./english/671.txt:28:Like the Forum itself, the multitude in the movements is always overflowing, excessive and unknowable. It is certainly important then, on the one hand, to recognize the differences that divide the activists and politicians gathered at Porto Alegre. It would be a mistake, on the other hand, to try to read the division according to the traditional model of ideological conflict between opposing sides. Political struggle in the age of network movements no longer works that way. Despite the apparent strength of those who occupied centre stage and dominated the representations of the Forum, they may ultimately prove to have lost the struggle. Perhaps the representatives of the traditional parties and centralized organizations at Porto Alegre are too much like the old national leaders gathered at Bandungimagine Lula of the PT in the position of Ahmed Sukarno as host, and Bernard Cassen of ATTAC France as Jawaharlal Nehru, the most honoured guest. The leaders can certainly craft resolutions affirming national sovereignty around a conference table, but they can never grasp the democratic power of the movements. Eventually they too will be swept up in the multitude, which is capable of transforming all fixed and centralized elements into so many more nodes in its indefinitely expansive network.