The 6th ESF took place in Istanbul
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Be it in the framework of the ESF or based on totally different attempts, there is the need of establishing platforms that will gather not only social and political organisations in the name of their representatives but at the same time as a mass basis and going beyond the level of the ESF.

 

1 July 2010 / International Bulletin / No 95 

The 6th European Social Forum, which is organised every second year under the slogan "Another world is possible!" and which gathers thousands of workers and labourers from different social organisations took place in Istanbul from July 1-4.
As every year, the ESF in Istanbul, which is considered with quite strong doubts by the European forces that form the ESF because of the Kurdish question and the colonial Turkish fascism's oppression, was a meeting that reached its peak in terms of the political particularities of the ongoing period as well as of the particularities of the social struggle in this country.
The outstanding highness of the panels' and actions' quality was among the most special particularities of this year's ESF. There was mass participation in the seminars dealing with the experiences of socialism lived and the future of socialism. The resistances aiming national liberation such as in the Basque country, Palestine and different geographies in the world as well as especially the Kurdish national question were discussed in many seminars. There were seminars organised with the participation of the NKP (Maoist) and the experiences of the revolution in South Asia, and these had a huge effect on the revolutionary choices attracting a lot of interest at the social forum. The problems of the struggles developing against the economical crisis, the current analysis of the imperialist system and the militant struggles developed by the working class and the labourers against the crisis were among the topics that were of highest interest. Meanwhile due to the Anti-imperialist Space organised by different revolutionary forces and supported also by our party MLCP revolutionary forces became fort he first time a visible political force at the ESF 2006 in Athens, at this year's ESF, they became the main colour outraging.
Besides, this year's gathering of the ESF was a period that openly showed the discussions on the future of the ESFs and the own crisis of the ESF.
The disinterest of the masses that could be registered yet in Malmö continued in Istanbul and couldn't be prevented. Besides the problems that occurred during the preparation period of the ESF and the fact that this year's ESF had the lowest prices, the fact that the ESFs couldn't meet with the problems of the mass movement and especially the search for an international action alliance were the main reasons for this weakness.
The blockage and discussions on the future of the ESF that especially came up after the Social Forum in Athens in 2006 mainly result in the truth that it couldn't be changed from a discussion platform into an action platform, particularly when the level the mass movements have reached in Europe makes this inevitable. The ESF couldn't fulfil this necessity, and this does, of course, not result in daily problems but in the main understandings of its structures and contents.
The social forums had started in the years after the SU and the Eastern Bloc had come down accompanied by an intensive and unrestrained anti-communist attack. At that time, the actions and resistances of the working class and labourers showed a weak development under the propaganda that "socialism is dead" and when organised revolutionary alternatives generally lost power and were rejected.
Under these conditions they had the function as a place where social movements gathered and discussed their experiences. Undoubtedly, there were many points of the ESF that could be criticised in terms of the principles of gathering and its leadership. First of all, the social forums had come up as a direct product of a period during which the existence of the working class, that especially with the attacks of sub-contracting and flexible production was split and separated, was questioned, and during which the sayings "goodbye proletariat" and "socialism is dead" reached its peak. They were formed on the basis of concepts like "radical democracy" and similar understandings, which are in the context of popular arguments of bourgeois ideologists like „identity based movements have taken the place of class-based movements and identities have taken the place of classes in the social struggles."
With this characteristic on the one hand, while developing in the hegemony of these ideological arguments of bourgeois characteristics and even having the characteristic of propagating these arguments, on the other hand it was undoubtedly of great importance as a gathering of the masses searching for a "new world", as a form of spontaneous mass movement. Because of this, with different flags and approaches our party MLCP concentrated on conveying the alternative of socialism to the working classes and the labourer masses who already became active with the need of having an opportunity except capitalism, and joined these meetings actively. It concentrated and concentrates on revolutionary intervention.
However, the crisis of the European Social Forums is deepening depending on the changes of this mass movement's characteristic. The period was characterised by the weak situation of the revolutionary forces and the strong loss of reputation of the idea of socialism among the masses. The imperialist war, the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the resistances and rage developing against these all over the world, the cuts on social rights with neo-liberal politics the deepening of the destruction of labourer peasants with strong interventions, the cuts on the fields of education and health and other developments as well as the world economic crisis and the financial crisis following all these resulted in important changes for the mass movement. This time, it were the resistances against the occupation in the Middle East and the revolutionary struggles' rise in Latin America and Asia that were outstanding and starting to become revolts in Europe.
Leaving aside to show alternatives of organising more progressively or pulling the mass movement more ahead, the ESF's level has been outrun by the level of the spontaneous mass movement. It is even under the level of these movements. As the highest level of spontaneous mass movements in Europe, the revolt in Greece pointed towards a junction for all social and political organisations until this period. Today the ESF has entered a junction on the basis of these facts. The ESF's principle of ousting parties that mainly aims at revolutionary organisations and its rejection of any organ that should coordinate actions and the organisation between two forums under the pretext of "becoming professional" as well as other structural characteristics don't make changes possible that would fulfil the needs.
While these characteristics open the way for the fact that the "grassroots movements" of the ESFs remain a "discussion platform", they also draw attention to the "action platforms" that are moreover the need of the "grassroots movements" and the actions of the ESF.
Be it in the framework of the ESF or based on totally different attempts, there is the need of establishing platforms that will gather not only social and political organisations in the name of their representatives but at the same time as a mass basis and going beyond the level of the ESF.
International mass meetings are an important characteristic developed by the ESF and that must be continued. This form must be concentrated on by revolutionary and consequent anti-imperialist organisations and developed further.
 

 

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The 6th ESF took place in Istanbul
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Be it in the framework of the ESF or based on totally different attempts, there is the need of establishing platforms that will gather not only social and political organisations in the name of their representatives but at the same time as a mass basis and going beyond the level of the ESF.

 

1 July 2010 / International Bulletin / No 95 

The 6th European Social Forum, which is organised every second year under the slogan "Another world is possible!" and which gathers thousands of workers and labourers from different social organisations took place in Istanbul from July 1-4.
As every year, the ESF in Istanbul, which is considered with quite strong doubts by the European forces that form the ESF because of the Kurdish question and the colonial Turkish fascism's oppression, was a meeting that reached its peak in terms of the political particularities of the ongoing period as well as of the particularities of the social struggle in this country.
The outstanding highness of the panels' and actions' quality was among the most special particularities of this year's ESF. There was mass participation in the seminars dealing with the experiences of socialism lived and the future of socialism. The resistances aiming national liberation such as in the Basque country, Palestine and different geographies in the world as well as especially the Kurdish national question were discussed in many seminars. There were seminars organised with the participation of the NKP (Maoist) and the experiences of the revolution in South Asia, and these had a huge effect on the revolutionary choices attracting a lot of interest at the social forum. The problems of the struggles developing against the economical crisis, the current analysis of the imperialist system and the militant struggles developed by the working class and the labourers against the crisis were among the topics that were of highest interest. Meanwhile due to the Anti-imperialist Space organised by different revolutionary forces and supported also by our party MLCP revolutionary forces became fort he first time a visible political force at the ESF 2006 in Athens, at this year's ESF, they became the main colour outraging.
Besides, this year's gathering of the ESF was a period that openly showed the discussions on the future of the ESFs and the own crisis of the ESF.
The disinterest of the masses that could be registered yet in Malmö continued in Istanbul and couldn't be prevented. Besides the problems that occurred during the preparation period of the ESF and the fact that this year's ESF had the lowest prices, the fact that the ESFs couldn't meet with the problems of the mass movement and especially the search for an international action alliance were the main reasons for this weakness.
The blockage and discussions on the future of the ESF that especially came up after the Social Forum in Athens in 2006 mainly result in the truth that it couldn't be changed from a discussion platform into an action platform, particularly when the level the mass movements have reached in Europe makes this inevitable. The ESF couldn't fulfil this necessity, and this does, of course, not result in daily problems but in the main understandings of its structures and contents.
The social forums had started in the years after the SU and the Eastern Bloc had come down accompanied by an intensive and unrestrained anti-communist attack. At that time, the actions and resistances of the working class and labourers showed a weak development under the propaganda that "socialism is dead" and when organised revolutionary alternatives generally lost power and were rejected.
Under these conditions they had the function as a place where social movements gathered and discussed their experiences. Undoubtedly, there were many points of the ESF that could be criticised in terms of the principles of gathering and its leadership. First of all, the social forums had come up as a direct product of a period during which the existence of the working class, that especially with the attacks of sub-contracting and flexible production was split and separated, was questioned, and during which the sayings "goodbye proletariat" and "socialism is dead" reached its peak. They were formed on the basis of concepts like "radical democracy" and similar understandings, which are in the context of popular arguments of bourgeois ideologists like „identity based movements have taken the place of class-based movements and identities have taken the place of classes in the social struggles."
With this characteristic on the one hand, while developing in the hegemony of these ideological arguments of bourgeois characteristics and even having the characteristic of propagating these arguments, on the other hand it was undoubtedly of great importance as a gathering of the masses searching for a "new world", as a form of spontaneous mass movement. Because of this, with different flags and approaches our party MLCP concentrated on conveying the alternative of socialism to the working classes and the labourer masses who already became active with the need of having an opportunity except capitalism, and joined these meetings actively. It concentrated and concentrates on revolutionary intervention.
However, the crisis of the European Social Forums is deepening depending on the changes of this mass movement's characteristic. The period was characterised by the weak situation of the revolutionary forces and the strong loss of reputation of the idea of socialism among the masses. The imperialist war, the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the resistances and rage developing against these all over the world, the cuts on social rights with neo-liberal politics the deepening of the destruction of labourer peasants with strong interventions, the cuts on the fields of education and health and other developments as well as the world economic crisis and the financial crisis following all these resulted in important changes for the mass movement. This time, it were the resistances against the occupation in the Middle East and the revolutionary struggles' rise in Latin America and Asia that were outstanding and starting to become revolts in Europe.
Leaving aside to show alternatives of organising more progressively or pulling the mass movement more ahead, the ESF's level has been outrun by the level of the spontaneous mass movement. It is even under the level of these movements. As the highest level of spontaneous mass movements in Europe, the revolt in Greece pointed towards a junction for all social and political organisations until this period. Today the ESF has entered a junction on the basis of these facts. The ESF's principle of ousting parties that mainly aims at revolutionary organisations and its rejection of any organ that should coordinate actions and the organisation between two forums under the pretext of "becoming professional" as well as other structural characteristics don't make changes possible that would fulfil the needs.
While these characteristics open the way for the fact that the "grassroots movements" of the ESFs remain a "discussion platform", they also draw attention to the "action platforms" that are moreover the need of the "grassroots movements" and the actions of the ESF.
Be it in the framework of the ESF or based on totally different attempts, there is the need of establishing platforms that will gather not only social and political organisations in the name of their representatives but at the same time as a mass basis and going beyond the level of the ESF.
International mass meetings are an important characteristic developed by the ESF and that must be continued. This form must be concentrated on by revolutionary and consequent anti-imperialist organisations and developed further.