[NextGenderation]
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Activities in and outside the European Social Forum
(17-21 september) in Malmö, Sweden.
1. ESF 2008 Action Network
2. Convergence center + infopoints
a. Convergence Center Utkanten
b. Cafe Glassfabriken
c. Smålands nation (Lund): Out of Action-area
d. Food
3. Radical Assemblies
a. Radical Women Assembly. Thursday 18 sept, 14.00.
b. Radical Assembly on precarity and workplace
struggles. Thursday 18 sept, 16.00.
c. Radical Assembly on squatting, free spaces and
social centers. Friday 19 sept, 14.00.
d. Radical Assembly on future mobilisations, Europe
as a shared space of conflicts. Friday 19 sept. 16.00.
e. Workshops
4. Actions and demonstration
a. Street party.
b. Anti-capitalist block
c. Climat action
d. Migration action
e. Antiwar actions
f. Housing/segregation action
5. Newspapers and magazines
a. Action Network magazines: From thoughts to
action
b. Turbulence
6. Official ESF
a. Repression against summit protests
b. Free public transports / fare dodging
(Planka.nu)
c. The Network Labor & Globalization
d. Cinema Panora
e. etc...
7. ESF Open autonomous spaces
a. Via Campesina Youth camp
b. European Peace Action
c. No vox
d. Migrant labour and precarity
f. European Security Architecture
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1. Action Network
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Network of radical social movements and
extraparliamentary leftwing organisations, such as
Syndicalist Youth Federation, Antifascist Action,
Women Political Forum, Malmö Free Feminists and a lot
of autonomous groups.
http://www.esf2008a ction.net/ en
What are the Action Network?
During 17th -21st the European Social Forum will be
hosted by Malmo, an event planned to give social
movements and radical organizations all over Europe
the opportunity to enter into dialogue with each
other. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend
this five-day Forum which will offer seminars,
workshops, and art events, including music, all with
the slogan Another Europe is Possible.
Simultaneously, various kinds of demonstrations, mass
activities and street events will take place, some as
part of the official ESF, but others outside and
independent of this. The ESF 2008 Action Network is
intended to co-ordinate these organizations from
other parts of Sweden and Europe that wish to work
independently and get involved in mass activities and
other events in Malmo during the ESF period. The
purpose is especially to help different groups
communicate, and to help organize their mobilization.
The ESF 2008 Action Network is independent of the
official ESF, politically as well as economically, and
all participants in the Network will little by little
shape its slant and aims. The mass activities wont
take place in opposition to the official Forum, but on
the other hand, they wont be in the least committed
to that political agenda or social practice which the
wealthiest and most powerful forces no doubt will
express through the official ESF. Quite the contrary:
we know that many of the thousands of activists
expected to travel to Malmo because of the ESF will
welcome the chance to turn their own political
opinions into action through mass activities. Within
the Network, there will be time and place for a wide
spectrum of different kinds of practice. Respecting
each others methods, but without compromises, people
will act together, or at least during the same days,
towards our common goals.
http://www.esf2008a ction.net
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2. Convergence center + infopoints
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a + b.
There will be a "convergence center" in the
activistcenter Utkanten, with space for assemblies,
workshops and an action space. The Convergence center
is run by the Action Network. The convergence center
is an autonomous structure to ESF, so people who
participate dont need to pay fee or participate in the
official ESF (if they dont want to). There will also
be an Open Space in the official ESF where its
possible to hold "spontanous" meetings, with more
space then Utkanten has. Close to the official
ESF-area there will be an open infopoint at the cafe
Glassfabriken.
More information will come.
http://www.esf2008a ction.net
c + d.
The five days of action will need a lot of resources.
We ask for support to make the make the best possible
out of the actions. Do you have a travelling kitchen
that can provide food for many people? Have you worked
with Trauma Support/Out of Action areas? Do you have
ideas for cultural events in the evenings?
Practical information Due to a shortage of facilities
we have to direct you to the official ESF who will
provide sleeping places for the participants of the
forum. We will focus our resources to provide
accommodation for people with children or other
special needs. There will also be an area close to
Malmo where sleeping places for a limited number of
people will be available. This place is also
recommended if people need to take a break from the
actions for a shorter time.
http://www.esf2008a ction.net
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3. Radical Assemblies
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The Radical Assemblies will be open assemblies at the
convergence center Utkanten. They're meeting structure
will be as much as possibly participatory, to
stimulate exchange of information and experiencies.
The RAs are an autonomous structure to ESF, so you
dont need to pay participatory fee to ESF to take
part.
More information about the RAs will come soon.
a. Radical Women Assembly. Thursday 18 sept, 14.00.
A paneldiscussion and workshop on womens double work
(in public sector, as parttime worker,
housework/housewife , women salaries ecc).
b. Radical Assembly on precarity and workplace
struggles. Thursday 18 sept, 16.00.
Practical workshop for sharing experiences from
workplace struggles and combating precarity in our
daily lifes: as informal or formal collectives,
working inside or outside unions, as supportive social
movements, the use of enquires ecc.
c. Radical Assembly on squatting, free spaces and
social centers. Friday 19 sept, 14.00.
Practical workshop for sharing experiences from the
recent wave of struggles for social centers, freezones
and squattings i Europe.
d. Radical Assembly on future mobilisations, Europe as
a shared space of conflicts. Friday 19 sept. 16.00.
A forum for presenting upcoming events and giving
reports from recent networkmeetings, like:
Upcoming network meetings and reports: PGA,
Euromayday, ecc
Upcoming Days of Action: Migration, Climat, Mayday
ecc.
Upcoming Summit Protests: Climat Summit Copenhagen
2009, Nato Summit 2009, EU-Summit Sweden 2009
e. Workshops:
There is possibility both at convergence center
Utkanten and in the ESF "Open space" to hold
workshops, "outside" the official program or
spontanous meetings.
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4. Actions and demonstrations
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a. Reclaim the Street/City- party friday night in a
central place in Malmö.
b. Invitation for participation in the Anti-capitalist
Action Block run by Action Network on September 20th
2008.
The major demonstration during ESF in Malmo will take
place on Saturday September 20th at 12.00. The
demonstration will be divided into different blocks,
where Action Network has organized the Anti-capitalist
Action Block, which has a freedom of tendencies. It
means that the block is open for participation for all
groups who consider themselves anti-capitalist and
revolutionary.
Why an anticapitalist block? The Nordic countries have
a long tradition of a mutual agreement between the
state, the political parties and the unions. This has
caused us to forget the political disobedience that
characterized our movement one hundred years ago. We
have chosen to organize an anti-capitalist block
because we do not believe in parliamentary reforms or
lobbying as a strategy for change. The cooperation
between states and major corporations to keep the
capitalist order in place needs to be overthrown by
unity and cooperation between the oppressed peoples of
the world. Change does not come from above- It´s
organized from below.
For more information about the planned activities by
Action Network during ESF 2008. See further on our
homepage
www.esf2008action. net
Contact:
demoblock@esf2008ac tion.net
c. + d. + e. + f.: More info will come soon.
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5. Newspapers and magazines
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a. Action Network magazine: From thoughts to action
>From thoughts to action. In September, in Malmö,
Sweden, the European Social Forum will once again
converge. In Sweden several independent media on the
left have joined forces to highlight and put focus on
questions autonomous and libertarian groups on the
left work with. Internationally seen there are many
groups focusing on the same issues in Sweden as well
as abroad, we have an ambition to tie these struggles
together to show on similarities and build a
strengthening point for each other.
We want to connect theory with practice and will
therefore focus on the below mentioned themes in a
tabloid: feminism, antifascism, autonomous
spaces/living areas, precarity, security/repression
and environment. Is your group involved in work in one
or several areas of these questions? We are looking
for contributions, written as well as photos,
drawings, quizzes….Contact tabloid@esf2008acti on.net.
We will try to mix analysis with shorter activist
reports, political questions with personal stories and
global with local perspective.
Some of the questions will be points in the program on
ESF and in the Action Network, others will be actions
taking place during the days of the forum. We will
also work with a longer perspective with focus on
questions for the future, as the climate summit in
Copenhagen 2009 and Sweden holding the role as
president over the European Union in the latter half
of the same year.
The tabloid will be free and handed out during ESF in
September. It will be in English to be able to reach
as many people as possible. While most people have
English as a second language we ask you to think about
this when formulating your contribution! Our ambition
is also to be able to provide the texts on the
homepage translated to other languages, please feel
free to contact us if you have skills to share.
See you in the streets,
Brand, Direkt Aktion, Embryo, Motkraft, Yelah
(Swedish mediaprojects from the radical left)
b. Turbulence
Turbulence come with an summer issue that will be
handed out for free on ESF. Check their webpage for
more info.
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6. Official ESF 2008
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The proposed activities for the ESF:
http://www.esf2008. org/program/ list-of-proposed
-activities
More information will come.
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7. ESF Open autonomous spaces
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a. Open space
There will be an Open space provided by the ESF. The
Open space is based on a meeting space without
activities planned beforehand but announced on the
spot during the ESF. The Open Space will be at
Sofielunds Folkets Hus. The Open space will be close
to the Media&Memory Lab of the ESF. The working group
taking care of building the Media & Memory Lab is:
http://openesf. net/projects/ documentation- esf-2008/
project-home
b. Via Campesina Youth camp
The European youth of Via Campesina organizes a camp
from the 17th to the 21st September in Malmö, Sweden,
parallel to the ESF. Through this camp, we want to
contribute to the dynamic of the European Social
Forum, linking more theoretical debates with more
practical alternatives. During the camp, we will
propose workshops and debates on sustainable family
farming, food sovereignty and ecology (visit of local
farms, workshops on how to set up community supported
agriculture, on anti-GMO actions, on self-building of
houses, on land occupation, on how to produce energy,
etc...).
This camp will be organized in an autonomous way,
which will require the participation of all people
staying there (collective cooking, daily assembly to
discuss the life of the group...). We wish to
implement as much as possible food sovereignty and
will thus cook with local season products. Staying in
the camp will be free of charge. A voluntary fee will
be asked for the meals. The space there should allow
to have about 200 people staying there.
Youth camp opened : 16 - 22 September
Activities : 18 - 21 september
via campesina
If you wish to receive more information, please
subscribe to the newsletter : ....vcampmalmoe@
lists.openesf. net ..........
If you wish to take part to the organization of the
camp, you can contact: ...smekens.m@ hotmail.com ....
c. European Peace Action
Welcome to a European peace forum in Malmö focused on
direct action!
In 2008 the ESF, European Social Forum, will be
arranged in Malmö, Sweden. We will grab this
opportunity to bring together different active peace
movements from all over Europe. We will organise a
European peace forum, European Peace Action, which
will create a network of European peace groups for
direct action. Our goal is to develop common
strategies and campaigns.
The forum will run between the 17- 21 September 2008
and the programme will contain presentations,
discussions, practical work and networking.
The forum will focus on 4 themes: NATO and the
militarisation of the EU, nuclear weapons,
militarisation of space, and the international
military industrial complex.
The over-reaching theme for the entire forum will be
how to strengthen our resistance against
militarisation. During the forum there will also be
possibilities to do direct actions against arms
companies in the region. The forum welcomes anybody
who is interested in peace work, not only people who
are already active but also those who don't have any
previous experience at all in peace activism.
If you have any questions about the forum, if you want
to have a look at the preliminary programme or get
active in other ways, contact us on:
forum@europeanpeace action.org
Welcome! Ofog
www.ofog.org
d. No Vox
According to the Open ESF website No Vox (France) is
expecting to have their own space at the ESF in order
to organise activities. More information will come.
e. Migrant labour and precarity
After the conference Migrant / Media / Metropolis -
New labour struggles in the global city in Amsterdam
last february some activists came together and
discussed first time the idea to organize a kind of
assembly on precarity and migrant labour in the days
of the next European social forum in Malmö in
september. we are actively involved in various
transnational networks and all of us could imagine,
that a coming together on this topic from at least
three approaches would be very interesting: from
euromayday, from union
organizing campaigns and from the migrationrelated
networking. we agreed in the needs and in the
potentials to deepen such a cross-over debate in order
to strengthen common struggles. We believe that
migration policies and migrations management are a
crucial perspective in order to understand the
contemporary transformation of labor and the whole
process of precarization. Starting from different
experiences of organization and struggle against
precarity and exploitation, it would be possible to
make a step forward, particularly on a transnational
scale.
This kind of interaction already took place in Europe:
for euromayday 2008, in the call and in the parades of
many cities the demands of migrants have been a
crucial part, and in Milano migrants had built first
time the front of the mayday demonstration, which was
focused on the political centrality of migrant labor
in the process of precarization. At the same time,
migrant labour was one of the crucial topic within the
frame of the Transnational Chain of Migrationrelated
Actions, which is actually going on in Europe and
beyond Europe.
So the base is even better now to promote a process of
political discussion and communication focused on the
issues of migration and precarity. We want to use the
wider participation in the next esf to organize a
coming together, where also new people and groups can
be involved. It should be the occasion to share, on
the one side, our various experiences and approaches
and to deepen, on the other side, the questions
related to the interaction between migrant labor and
precarization, and to the necessity and difficulties
of a process of transnationalizatio n of the
struggles.
This kind of meeting should probably be organized in a
space outside the Esf in September in Copenhagen, and
if more people are interested to participate in the
preparations, please let us know.
/ justice for janitors - global campaign amsterdam,
tavolo migranti italy, euromayday hamburg, no one is
illegal hanau
f. European Security Architecture
in september there will be the next ESF in malmö. also
there is some autonomous structure getting organized
to prepare workshops and
assemblies for radical left and anarchists and of
course other interested people. it seems that some of
the autonomous general
assemblies might take place at rooms of the official
ESF. workshops might be at social centre and other
spaces in malmö.
one of the panels at official ESF will be repression.
to get an impression about what people from
scandinavia want to discuss, what was
and is going on see:
www.gipfelsoli. org/Repression/ Goeteborg_ 2001/5045.
html. it talks also about the discussions in sweden
after gothenburg EU-summit 2001.
we (a bunch of people in germany and netherlands) try
to strenghten at the ESF and also the autonomous forum
to discuss more about the so
called "european security architecture" , that mixes
inner and outer security, such as military and police,
leading to more european
surveillance, repression and war.
find a summary on institutions, agreements and
techniques on
http://gipfelsoli. org/Multilanguag e/English/
4819.html or see the
presentation for workshops (as pdf) on
http://euro- police.noblogs. org/gallery/ 3874/euro-
police-networkin g.pdf.
we will make a proposal in malmö to take the
NATO-summit in france/germany 2009 as a reference to
struggle against new police- and
army-collaboration in europe.
one of our aims is to focus more networking between
groups in other countries that are working on that
issues.
so please feel invited to join the preparations for
the workshops in malmö!
/ Gipfelsoli
Elin Svedjemo
C/O Montin
Gebersvägen 24
12865 Sköndal
+46(0)735351522
Skype: elin.svedjemo
www.ekbo.se
