By Andrea Tognina
Translated By Isobel Johnson
SwissInfo
November 6, 2002
Some 150 Swiss representatives from NGOs, unions and political parties are participating in the first European Social Forum in Florence. Activists say they intend to target Swiss banking secrecy and the World Economic Forum during the five-day meeting.
Anti-globalisation activists started arriving in Florence on Wednesday. Italian border police said the first bus loads crossed the Swiss frontier in the early hours of the morning. The Italian interior ministry said it was expecting about 200,000 people to attend the meeting.
The European Social Forum gathering is Europe's version of the world meeting that took place in Porto Alegre in Brazil in February this year. That meeting was the anti-globalisation answer to the World Economic Forum, which brings together business and political leaders every year.
Switzerland is sending a large delegation, which include representatives from NGOs such as Attac Switzerland, the Berne Declaration, the communications union Comedia, the group for Switzerland without an army and the Swiss coalition of development organisations.
Three goals
"For me Florence has three goals," Attac Switzerland's Alessandro Pelizzari told swissinfo. "First of all, it's a symbolic place, which gives an identity to a very varied movement. "But we will also try to discuss realistically the alternatives and to compare different ideas and projects. It's a discussion that was already started in Porto Alegre."
Pelizzari says the Tuscan capital is also a place where future campaigns can be coordinated. "For us in Switzerland, the most important thing in the next few months is the mobilisation against the World Economic Forum [summit] in Davos. In Florence we want to create a European network against the WEF," he explained.
Privatisation
Along with other Swiss and European groups, Attac Switzerland has helped to organise five seminars, one of which is on the privatisation of public services. "It's a topic which has been at the centre of our campaigns in Switzerland," explained Pelizzari.Another theme the Swiss want to focus on in Florence is tax evasion and banking secrecy. Joining Attac Switzerland in the two seminars organised on tax evasion are Berne declaration and the Swiss coalition of development organisations.
Sensitive topic
"It's really important for us," says Pelizzari, "to show our European partners that there's also a campaign in Switzerland against banking secrecy. "It's a really sensitive topic everywhere in Europe, especially in relation to the new bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the European Union."
Swiss organisations have also helped to organise seminars on the relations between globalisation and militarisation (mobilisation), as well as the role of multinationals - Nestlé in particular - in Columbia.
Why Florence?
Inspired by the World Social Forum in Brazil, anti-globalisation movements and organisations in Europe decided to hold their own forum in Florence. The Italian city was chosen over locations in France and Greece because of the strength of the "no global" movement in Italy and for its capacity to mobilise people, as already witnessed during the demonstrations at the G8 summit in Genoa in summer 2001.
The meeting is divided into 18 conferences, 150 seminars and various workshops on themes such as the future of the European Union, privatisation, human rights, terrorism and war. It will wrap up on Sunday with a huge demonstration against war on Iraq, in which several thousand people are expected to participate.
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