WOMBLES: Beyond ESF - Background

Background

Our involvement in the social forum discourse started when we were asked to participate in the first London Social Forum [LSF] in October 2003. The LSF had taken a critical position towards the various leftist parties (like SWP and their front-group Globalise Resistance) on the way they had dominated the ESF mobilising process. It was clear to us that there were progressive attempts by ex-leftists and academics to go beyond the hierarchical characteristics of their previous involvement in politics and engage with the rise of anti-capitalism and its subsequent radicalisation.

Their approach to us (an anti-authoritarian direct action group) to participate was a step forward, although because of our experiences with other social forums (Genoa and the ESF project) we were more than a bit skeptical. It at least meant that we were engaging with other parts of a movement which we had previously been hostile to. During this initiative we came into contact with a lot of people who had a passion to organise using consensus and collective decision-making processes, something which in the past had only existed within the anarchist/anti-authoritarian direct action movement. Though their methodology was different, the experience educated both 'sides'.

With the ESF coming to London in October 2004, seen by the left as 'the next step for the anti-capitalist movement', we feel it is important to make clear our position and analysis about the ESF. Instead of just being against the way it has been organised (like a commercial rock concert or trade expo), we have sought to analyse the socio-political role of the WSF-ESF, its constituents, its birth and its danger for those who have been radicalised through the various mobilisations and confrontations of the past five years.

Together with this analysis, we have attempted to pull together the various strands of the movement to help organise autonomous spaces in London during those days. This process to define the autonomous processes is still ongoing, with some components just wanting to reform ESF and others, like us, wanting to go beyond the boundaries of it and continue the radicalisation to a revolutionary perspective. We ask for the participation of all in this discourse.

UK Indymedia ESF section >>>

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