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Dear Friends of the International Liaison Committee:
Over the past few years, the ILC has published a series of critical
articles on the various World Social Forums held in Porto Alegre,
Brazil. While these Forums have been hailed as big breakthroughs for
workers and progressive activists by many in the liberal and left media,
we have presented, based on an in-depth examination of the facts and
official WSF documents, a critical assessment of the entire WSF process
-- from its funding sources; to the central role played by institutions
such as the European Union, ATTAC, the World Bank, the Davos Forum, and
the NGOs; to the actual content and character of the WSF deliberations
and decisions.
The Social Forums process is now branching out beyond Porto Alegre -- at
the behest of the governments and international financial institutions
of globalization, with, of course, the support of organizations such as
ATTAC (Association for the Tobin Tax, based in France) and others on the
"left," particularly the United Secretariat.
The next World Social Forum will be held in Mumbai, India, in January
2004. If you received ILC Newsletter No. 38 (Aug. 5, 2003), you had the
opportunity to read an important Open Letter to the WSF coordinators in
India written by Brother N. Vasudevan, joint convenor of the Indian
Trade Union Solidarity Committee. [If you wish us to send you a copy of
this Open Letter, please drop us a note.]
We are now sending you below an article that appeared in the Aug. 27,
2003 issue of Informations Ouvrieres [Labor News], the weekly
publication of the French Workers Party, on the European Social Forum
that will be held outside Paris this coming November. We think you will
find this article of great interest.
Thanks for your interest and ongoing support,
ILC Support Committee
1)
A Closer Look at the European Social Forum in Saint-Denis, France
(November 2003)
2)
Some Facts About the Paris-Saint-Denis European Social Forum: Let Us
Discuss
3)
What About the ESF's Funding? Let Us Turn to the ESF's Documents for
Figures
4)What
is the Program of the European Social Forum?
4.1)
"General Interest Services" that Combine Public and Private
Providers
4.2)
The "Social" Issue in the Draft European Constitution.
4.3)
An Opportunity for Merry-Making.
5)
All Out in the Streets of Paris on Saturday, Sept. 20!
********************
1) A Closer Look at the European Social Forum in Saint-Denis,
France (November 2003)
[This article is reprinted from the Aug. 27, 2003 issue of Informations
Ouvrieres (Labor News). The article appeared originally under the
title, "Answers to a Few Questions on the Paris-Saint-Denis
European Social Forum: Let Us Open the Discussion."]
A reader from Eure [one of France's 95 Departments -- Translator's Note]
sent the editorial board of Informations Ouvričres a letter in
which the reader "agreed" with our struggle, which, he said,
"is the struggle for the survival of humanity" -- but
disapproved of "our method," of which he "has always been
wary." He writes about initiatives such as the Larzac gathering in
August 2003 and adds: "I am not deceived by the heaped-up
contradictions and impasse that characterizes this sort of
gathering"; but he goes on to note, "the one significant thing
is that right in the midst of a heat wave, when just getting there was a
tremendous feat for motorists, a large number of people assembled
against imperialism, seeking to debate how the world should radically
change. ... I consider we must cease being sectarian toward those who
gathered there."
To summarize his point of view, this reader recommends that we should be
"bolder," we "should swim in the mainstream of the
general movement, accompany it and give it a direction ... through
suitable adjustments, which would enable the necessary political
organization to develop more speedily in this period, when it is so
crucial."
Another reader from Haut-de-Seine [another French department situated in
the vicinity of Paris--T.N.], a union activist, writes to us about the
upcoming Paris-Saint-Denis European Social Forum (November 12-15, 2003):
"I understand and share most of your critical attitude toward the
organizers of that Forum, and more broadly toward the ATTAC leaders and
the leaders of alternative globalization movements.
"But shunning the opportunity to voice those criticisms and
disagreements within the European Social Forum itself does not stand to
reason. For all we know, hundreds of discussion meetings and gatherings
are planned; all the points of view will be accepted. Why should the
Workers Party point of view remain stranded?"
The National Bureau of the Workers Party read those letters and wishes
to thank the readers for their candid criticism. That criticism touches
upon highly important political issues. That is why we decided to
publish excerpts from those letters together with our answer as a
supplement to Informations Ouvričres. We do not wish to put the
lid on the debate, quite the reverse; we wish to open it wide. We are
using the only suitable method for whoever defends the interests of
workers and youth: We will state all the facts.
********************
2) Some Facts About the Paris-Saint-Denis European Social
Forum: Let Us Discuss
What is the Paris Saint-Denis European Social Forum? Is it a large
gathering called by hundreds of political and labor organizations to
discuss the horrors of globalization? It certainly is that. Will it be
possible to express various viewpoints during the numerous discussion
forums? Certainly. It can even be said that from its organizers' vantage
point, and from the point of view of those who support it, it will be
all-encompassing framework where everybody can meet and discuss. In
short, anyone who wishes to express disapproval of globalization, or any
such aspect of that general policy, is welcome in the ESF.
That is true -- but all within the strict limitations provided by the
Paris Saint-Denis European Social Forum's inner set of rules. Among
others, these include:
- The ESF cannot and will not discuss or vote on any final ESF
statements or resolutions, nor will it take any action decisions; its
concluding statement has been previously crafted and agreed to by the
Organizing Committee, and no vote will be taken for or against this
final statement at the gathering.
- The group discussion moderators have been carefully screened during
the several months of preparation so to keep a fine balance between the
various components coming from the political, associative, trade union,
and governmental circles that are organizing the forum.
Nevertheless, our reader is right to suggest that a participant might
take the floor during a couple of minutes to speak about the Workers
Party's views. Some participants there might even be interested. But
does that answer the question of whether or not the Workers Party should
participate in this ESF?
Let us be straightforward. As a Party, we are not prejudiced against or
critical of those who will participate in this European Social Forum,
just as they have participated in other such initiatives in the past.
Witnessing a world spiralling out of control under the lethal impetus of
the capitalist system that endlessly spawns its own decay quite
naturally arouses indignation and revolt. People are casting about,
looking for ways to act. Not only do we refrain from criticizing the
participation of these activists in these Social Forums, we also know
that their motivations correspond to those of workers and young people
who, by the millions, feel legitimate indignation over the harm wrought
by the capitalist system. Their concerns are also the concerns of the
members of the Workers Party.
But should we thereby conclude that this Social Forum provides a sort of
non-committal framework to which anyone can bring his or her
contribution, and that only discussion is the order of the day --
without any other implication for those who take part? In other words,
is this just a neutral gathering for discussion about the ills of
globalization? We don't think so. Let us turn to facts for evidence.
********************
3) What About the ESF's Funding? Let Us Turn to the ESF's
Documents for Figures:
In Genoa, Italy, on July 19-20, 2003, the European preparatory
meeting of the Paris Saint-Denis European Social Forum was held. The
report of this meeting can be read on the various websites created by
the ESF and its parent organizations.
The second point on the meeting's agenda was about funding; Marc
Mangenot of the Copernic Foundation reported. Here are the figures:
- Total estimated expenditures: 4,353,000 Euros *
- Total estimated income: 3,867,000 Euros
- Estimated deficit on June 30: 486,000 Euros
(note: a Euro is worth roughly US$1.15 today)
Let us remark that the estimated projected deficit amounts to more than
half-a-million dollars. No comment is made about it; the organizers
apparently are unconcerned about the deficit and how to make up for it.
Concerning the estimated income, the 3,867,000 Euros are distributed as
follows:
- Registration fees: 450,000 Euros
- Public funding: 3,357,000 Euros
- Sale of by-products: 60,000 Euros
If one reads the figures correctly, 87% of the estimated funding of the
European Social Forum is public funds. We should also mention that the
State not only flings open its coffers, but it also helps out with
hosting and housing: The report of the August 14th meeting refers to the
"housing facilities made available in the Eastern Fort in
Saint-Denis and the old Stock Exchange-Palais Brogniart." The army
barracks and the old stock exchange are hence being provided by the
government to house the anti-globalization forum. Š A tell-tale symbol
in and of itself!"
What are those public funds and where do they come from? First, the
French government promised the ATTAC leaders -- the main organizers of
the event -- that they would provide important financial support ("Le
Figaro" January 17, 2003) and that they would ask the European
Union to provide similar support. The money is also to be provided from
the budgets of the regions and departments, the town councils, and so
on.
Moreover, in the official report of the August 22, 2003 meeting of the
organizing secretariat of the ESF, one can read:
"The conclusions of the meeting between a delegation of the
organizing secretariat and a representative from [French Prime Minister]
Mr. Raffarin have been circulated. The European preparatory assemblies
as well as the French Initiative Committee acknowledged that no private
funding could be accepted, therefore only public funding was acceptable,
coming from city authorities, the Ile-de-France [the administrative
region that comprises Saint-Denis - T.N.] regional council, general
councils and governments. That was the rationale for the meeting with
Mr. Raffarin's representative."
What do the readers of Informations Ouvričres who wrote us make
of this? Is this massive funding by the government devoid of any
political significance or content?
It is well known that the French government is very strict about
financial matters.
- Whenever the Maastricht Treaty [which set up the European Union] has
demanded that the "convergence criteria" be strictly
respected, the French government -- not just the present one, but the
previous one as well, despite its different political hue -- has
faithfully implemented the EU directives. It has implemented massive
cuts in public financing for hospitals (a major reason 13,000 people
died during this summer's "heat wave"), it has stopped funding
prescription medicine, it has slashed public services, and the list goes
on.
- When the clerical staff and teachers of the public education sector --
and more generally, all the public service workers -- went out on strike
in April-June 2003 to defend their retirement pension systems against
the EU-imposed plans of regionalization, the French government pleaded
poverty, ignored the workers' demands and is now very vocal about making
the strikers pay from their union funds the "financial cost"
of this spring's massive strike wave.
And yet the government is far less stingy when it comes to funding the
European Social Forum! The coffers are flung open to the tune of
3,357,000 Euros!
********************
4) What is the Program of the European Social Forum?
Why is the European Social Forum so attractive to Maastricht-influenced
governments, again whatever their political hue? To answer that
question, just refer to the program of the forum itself -- again, as it
is presented publicly by its organizers.
In the Forum's agenda, three issues deserve our attention.
4.1)
"General
Interest Services" that Combine Public and Private Providers
On November 12, as the opening act of the European Social Forum, a
European Trade Union Forum will be held, co-sponsored by the misnamed
European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC) and the European Social
Forum Organizing Committee. What is the ETUC? Contrary to what its name
indicates, it is not a trade union organization, but rather an
institution of the European Union -- created, financed and controlled by
the EU. Within the framework of the European Union, the ETUC and the
main European employers' associations have submitted in common a
European "directive" calling for the creation of what they
call "General Interest Services."
What is a GIS? According to the recently submitted directive, it is a
"service provided to the public whose providers can be organized
either as a private corporation, a public entity, a mixed private-public
entity, or an inter-communal enterprise."
Every government in Europe today is creating these GISs by placing
heretofore public services in competition with private services, thereby
privatizing one sector of the public services at a time and transferring
them to private corporations or NGO-type associations. In the process,
the public sector workers, who were unionized for the most part, lose
their civil service status, their union rights and their jobs. In
addition, entire sectors of public services are eliminated -- as they
are deemed "unprofitable."
Shouldn't one give some thought to the fact that the European Social
Forum organizers are opening their event with a so-called "trade
union" forum in which the inventors of the GIS would like all trade
unions (French or others) to join them in devising the best way to
dismantle public services? ATTAC chairman, Mr. Nikonoff, has stated
publicly and with great candor that the matter of moving rapidly to
devise and implement a whole system of General Interest Services is at
the core of the entire European Social Forum: "It is decisive that
trade unions form an alliance with alternative globalization activists
in support of GISs. Š For instance, in France, under various guises,
there are coordinated movements in this direction undertaken by the CGT,
the G-10 [that is, the governments of the 10 most advanced capitalist
countries], FO, the CFTC and even the CFDT."
Let us be clear: What is at stake is an attempt to get labor
organizations to assimilate, buy into, and implement the European
directives against public services and working class rights. Do
Maastricht-inspired institutions bear this goal in mind when they fund
the European Social Forum? Of course they do! Should we join them in
this effort, as they so loudly summon us to do with all their publicity,
funding and fanfare?
We say no. We believe that for working people to promote the fight for
democracy and working class rights, they must safeguard the independence
of their labor organizations. And that cannot be accomplished by
assimilating into the neo-corporatist structures funded by the very
institutions of globalization.
4.2)
The "Social" Issue in the Draft European Constitution.
An important discussion will take place at the European Social Forum
-- according to the report from the European Union's General Assembly
meeting of July 2003 -- around the Draft European Constitution drawn up
by a team headed by former French President Giscard d'Estaing. The
organizers of the European Social Forum have levelled a criticism of
this text, stating, "Social issues are left out of the Draft
Constitution." We were simply flabbergasted to read such a
statement.
We simply advise our readers, and more widely all workers who wish to
form their own opinion, to read the Draft Constitution. First, the Draft
incorporates entirely the spirit and text of the Maastricht Treaty and
all the European directives. Here are just a few examples:
- The Draft European Constitution makes it a rule that all public
services "should be made competitive." This directive pertains
to all public power facilities and distribution, railways, healthcare,
telecommunications, welfare services, education, and so on. If this
Draft Constitution is adopted, it means that EDF-GDF [French Gas and
Power production facilities and distribution--T.N]] and the French
railway system and public services are doomed.
- Are "social issues" really left out?
- The Draft European Constitution gives the European Central Bank and
the Brussels Commission [which oversees the implementation of all
European directives--T.N.] the capacity to adopt "laws" that
must be implemented immediately in each country, thus supplanting all
national legislation. Hence, a European directive emanating from the
power granted by the new European Constitution would have precedence
over national legislation maintaining EDF-GDF and the French rail system
as public services.
And contrary to what the ESF organizers claim, the "social
issues" are explicitly part of the "shared field of
activity" provided in the Draft Constitution. This means that each
time Europe says so, its "social" laws will take the place of
national laws; that is, the rights and gains that workers have secured
through bitter struggles in each country in the framework of national
legislation and the nation-state itself.
This simply means that all the labor codes, national
collective-bargaining agreements, civil service statuses, social welfare
laws, etc., can simply be wiped out and removed from all national
legislation through the stroke of a pen -- as all these rights are part
of the "social" issues addressed explicitly in the new Draft
Constitution!
The European Constitution makes it mandatory to generalize "regionalization"
and to shatter what unites the working classes in each country and also
what provides the unity for the existing democratic frameworks (national
systems of public education, national systems of public healthcare,
national transportation systems, etc.). So are the "social issues
left out"? Hardly.
So we ask: How is it that among the reams of "literature"
produced in preparation for the European Social Forum (and this is also
true for the various World Social Forums), nowhere can one find the
demand of "Defend all the rights and guarantees won and secured by
workers within the framework of the nation"? Why is a deliberately
vague and hypothetical "European social right" always
mentioned? Isn't such language deliberately deployed by the European
Union and its ETUC "trade union" affiliate" to provide a
cover for the entire ruling class operation aimed at dismantling all the
rights and guarantees that the workers have secured and codified into
national laws in each country?
4.3)
An Opportunity for Merry-Making.
Finally, the July preparatory document of the European Social Forum
announces: "On Saturday, November 15, 2003, the Forum will end with
a festive demonstration/parade and with chants in support of the ESF
[pre-arranged-- our note] agenda." The document continues:
"All the European organizations that have participated in the ESF
will be invited to join and become full and ongoing participants in the
ESF's project."
So, if we read the preparatory documents correctly, every one will
celebrate, with songs and dances -- and then everyone will happily go
back home when the fun is over.
During three days, there will have been talks and some discussion about
how to sprinkle a pinch of "social" dust over the juggernaut
of the Draft European Constitution, which is hell-bent on smashing all
the rights won by working people. Some people at the ESF, it is true,
will have "openly disapproved" of some of what was said at
this gathering, but everything -- criticisms and all -- will remain
safely anchored in the bedrock framework set by the European Union, the
bosses and the governments in their service. But never mind about this,
everyone will have taken part in the merry-making.
Hence, thanks to a modest financial contribution, the European Union and
its crony governments will have secured the participation of all the
components of so-called "civil society" -- from
representatives of governments, employers' associations, trade unions,
NGOs, and community organizations -- into the implementation of its
destructive plans, so that all can be convinced to pursue this
destructive work with greater "equanimity" and
"understanding."
********************
5) All Out in the Streets of Paris on Saturday, Sept. 20!
Comrade, workers, readers, and militants who read this Special
Supplement of Informations Ouvrieres. We have produced verifiable
and incontrovertible facts to explain our attitude toward the European
Social Forum. But that is not enough.
Now we propose our conclusion: Isn't the independence of labor
organizations from governments, from the Europe of Maastricht and the
bosses the most precious tool to be able to wage an effective fight in
defense of the working class? Should this independence be exchanged for
the shadow of participation in a Social Forum, whose sole purpose is to
integrate us into their destructive plans?
To the contrary: Isn't it most urgent to mobilize on Saturday September
20 by the thousands in the national demonstration called by militants
from every corner of the working class, by elected leaders, by secular
militants to say:
- The Republic must remain one and indivisible.
- Down with regionalization
- Yes to equal rights for citizens before the law.
- No to the dismantling of the nation.
- Yes to secular institutions, both in the state and in education
- Stand up in defense of all public services, all public hospitals.
Let us debate together, let us make this demonstration a success.
-- The Editors,
Informations Ouvrieres
87, rue du Faubourg St. Denis,
75010 Paris, France
email: informations-ouvrieres@fr.orleane.com
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