Global Policy Forum

By Sanjay Suri

Under as brave a banner as ''Another world is possible'', the third European Social Forum that concluded in London Sunday was always open to the question-but just how? The question had been raised at the European Social Forum (ESF) in Paris last year. The overwhelming view was that it is time now to move on from protests to proposals that lead to action.

''Social forums have so far been a popular university, an enterprise in people's education,'' Bernard Cassen, president of the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens (ATTAC, after its French name) had said at the end of the Paris ESF. ATTAC was the main organiser of that forum. ''Now, despite the successes in organising social forums to protest against the state of the world, the alter globalisation movement must think of new ways of influencing political decisions to achieve its goals,'' Cassen said. The keyword to come from that forum was 'alter globalisation', meaning a new form of globalisation based on international cooperation, human development and social justice. But as an activity, not only as an idea.

The ESF last week was expected to take that idea further and produce its answer on how it thought another world possible. That better world was discussed at more than 500 meetings addressed by more than 250 speakers. The answer was expected in what was described as ''the call of the assembly of social movements'' through the three days of the ESF Oct 15- 17.

A spokesperson said at the end of the forum: ''These last three days have been a truly remarkable time. It has rejuvenated those of us in the UK and those from around the world that, together, we have the strength of argument and the passion of purpose to make Another World Possible.''

More brave words that begged the same question: but just how? The ''call'' included a long list of perceived wrongs: the occupation in Iraq, Israeli occupation in the Middle East, climate change, G8 power, market-driven economy, genetically modified organisms, sexism, racism, the draft European Union constitution, privatisation and more generally, neo-liberalism.

By way of action, the groups gathered at the ESF held a protest march in London against the occupation of Iraq, and decided to gather support for an ''international week of action against the apartheid wall (in the West Bank) from Nov. 9 to 16,'' and for ''European days of action'' Dec. 10 and 11, the anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

Protests were announced for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Nice in February next year. ''We pledge to mobilise massively on the occasion of the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005,'' the declaration added. G8 is a group of the most industrialized countries that include the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and Russia. The outcome statement is substantially a protests diary and a restatement of known positions. Few other tools were on offer that would take the movement towards the idea of ''alter globalisation'' proposed a year ago.

''But this is people power,'' an activist at the ESF said. ''We are not the government, what else can we do?'' It was people power that had built such a strong case against the Iraq war, she said. Demonstrations at G8 meetings had forced leaders to rethink some of their policies, she added. But she accepted that one reason other plans could not be formed was that there was little agreement within what is loosely Europe's left.

Graham Coop, head of research at the Centre for a Social Europe, a Britain-based non-governmental organisation, told IPS that one the most important outcomes of the ESF was ''the creation of an informal network'' among European NGOs. ''It was very helpful for interchanging information,'' Coop said. ''For example it was only after we had an analysis from EU trade unions that we realised just how bad the directive on services can be.'' The directive proposed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, seeks to break down national barriers in provision of services in ways that could enable the poorest legislation for protection of workers and consumers in one country to be applied to another.

The ESF would also enable new and more direct contacts between groups, Coop said. ''We had no idea of the extent to which the French socialist left was opposed to the draft EU constitution,'' he said. Networking at the ESF could lead to ''more direct cooperation between the French socialist left and the UK labour left.''

There are others who expect the ESF to do a good deal more. Fausto Bertinoti from the Italian party Rifondazione Communista had warned last year that in organising protests without an alternative ''we risk becoming loud witnesses of the demise of democracy". The frustration of a new European social movement that comes together at the ESF is that on the one hand it is often more in tune with large sections of people than parties and political leaders, as shown by the strong anti-war protests last year in Italy and in Britain, but that on the other hand the groups have not worked out ways yet to channel this force to much effect.