European Social Forum - Third ESF

Third ESF

The third European Social Forum was held in London, mostly at Alexandra Palace but also with events throughout the Bloomsbury area of London on the 15–17 October 2004.

The organisers claimed that approximately 25,000 people took part in 500 plenaries, seminars, workshops, and cultural events, which were addressed by over 2,500 speakers. Participants came from across the continent and even from beyond the boundaries of European Union.

This forum showed a marked increased in participation from minority groups such as black, Asian, Muslim, and refugee networks. More women were represented on the speaker platforms than in previous forums. The forum also included for the first time a three day cultural programme organised through open submission through the ESF website.

Well known participants and speakers included Ahmed Ben Bella, the leader of the Algerian resistance to French rule, Dr Aleida Guevara, daughter of Che, George Galloway, a leader of the UK anti-war movement, and Dr Mustafa Barghouti from Palestine. Activist writers such as Susan George, John Pilger and George Monbiot were prominent, and Gerry Adams was one of many Irish figures speaking. The Forum opened with a rally in Southwark Cathedral.

Unlike the Paris forum, in London there was initially no money provided to pay for events. Funding eventually came from the Greater London Authority and the Mayor's office (Ken Livingstone and his officers, many of whom are in Socialist Action), several Trade Unions such as NATFHE (the college lecturer's union), AMICUS (a largely technical and industrial union), the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) and UNISON (the UK's largest public sector union), which provided funds, office space, subsidised tickets for unemployed and asylum seeker attendees and paid for some of the meeting space at Alexandra Palace.

The Socialist Workers Party, Globalise Resistance, the Tobin Tax Network and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were central to bringing the event to London.

Other groups, for instance the London Social Forum, felt that the main organizing approach was too top-down and instead set up "horizontally" organised fringe events. These were known as the 'autonomous' or 'beyond' ESF events. Participants ranged from non-governmental organisations, to political parties such as the Green Party, to unaligned anarchists and socialists.

The Millennium Dome was turned into a giant hostel for over 5,000 participants to sleep in during the course of the event.

Subhi al Mashadani, the leader of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, was due to speak in a meeting on the Iraq war, but never got to speak. He was shouted down by some members of the audience who felt he was collaborating with the occupation and who surged towards the stage when he attempted to address the 2,000 strong audience. The ESF's security took no chances and dragged a furious Mashadani from the stage for his own protection. The "End the Occupation" session was stopped, a first in the history of the ESF.

Later in the day an intervention was made by some of those who had been involved with the autonomous spaces during a meeting on anti-fascism. They intended to invade the stage during the speech of the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone (who opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but is a member of the Labour Party which supported it). In fact, Ken Livingstone had already decided not to speak at the event. His decision has been attributed by the National Assembly Against Racism to threats from anarchists but the intervention went ahead. The SWP's Weyman Bennett, a steering member of Unite Against Fascism and chair of the meeting, claimed that he was assaulted by an anarchist. A banner was hung up stating "Ken's Party > War Party" and the stage was turned into an open-microphone event with speeches against the 'vertical' organisation of the ESF, the war in Iraq, and recent attacks on freedom of speech by the FBI (such as taking Indymedia servers down with international articles). After the intervention, the originally planned meeting about anti-fascism went ahead but with a reduced audience. These events echoed the attempts by anarchists to attack French Socialist Party speakers in the Paris forum, an attack that was stopped by security.

The end of the forum saw a massive international demonstration through central London and a rally at Trafalgar Square. However, the Metropolitan Police arrested a number of anarchists on their way to this event. Javier Ruis was arrested at the Rally itself. He subsequently claimed that the West Essex Zapatista were responsible for the threats against Ken Livingstone, claiming that this was an example of Neoist Invisible Theatre. The size of the rally was seen as a sign of its success as an event, though many European critics noted that all of the speakers were British and chosen by the British organisers. Estimations of the numbers present ranged from 70,000 to 100,000 people. Speakers called for an end to war, racism and privatisation. They advocated peace and social justice for Europe.