50,000 anti-capitalist and anti-war activists will be heading for Paris this autumn for the Second European Social Forum (ESF), to be held from 12 to 16 November. A huge demonstration is planned against neoliberalism and war to mark the end of the forum. Thousands of students and young people will be going from Britain to debate and demonstrate against a world of wealth and war: Socialist Resistance explains some of the issues being debated.
The ESF was created as an alternative to meetings of global business and political elites - such as the Davos Forum, World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund and G8 summits. However, they are not simply an 'anti-summit demonstration'. War and imperialism The ESF in Paris this year is hosting over 800 seminars, debates and workshops, but it is not just a talking shop. At the ESF in Florence last year, activists agreed to make February 15 2003 a European day of action against the impending war on Iraq. On that day, anti-war activists in over 300 countries held simultaneous demonstrations, the biggest worldwide mobilisation in history against war. Another
Bush and Blair's war drive has not ended in democracy in Afghanistan or Iraq, but in more instability in the middle east. The world is a more dangerous place today than it was before 9/11. Even though the US and Britain insist that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, none have been found.
The war and occupation of Iraq is about oil, and who controls it. The 19th century saw the world carved up into what imperialist powers like Britain and France called 'spheres of influence'. India became an enclave of the East India Company, oppressing the people of the subcontinent in order to exploit huge reserves of natural resources.
Israel is an important outpost for US imperialism. The US government provides huge military subsidies to Israel; $3 billion a Recommended Seminar Against War & poverty: How young people can change society Sponsored by; Jenesses Communistes Revolutionnaires (France), Socialist Resistance (Britain), Equarda Revolucionaria (Spain) Avanti (Germany) AK2000 (Holland) year to kill Palestinian men, women and children.
The ESF will provide a Europe-wide forum for debate on questions of imperialism, war and the struggles to resist the warmongers. Alternatives to capitalism Across the world, governments are trying to privatise health, education and transport, and are attacking the living standards of the poorest. The past few years has seen the emergence of the anti-capitalist movement, often in reaction against water and electricity privatisation in the global south.
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been the focus of mas sive resistance to attempts by the government to attack pensions. Huge strikes have recently taken place, alongside demonstrations and festivals of 300,000 people
Worldwide resistance to capitalism is calling for a solution. The emergence of social movements is an inspiration; but is it enough, or do we need a political alternative in the form of parties? Mainstream parties across the world from Argentina to Britain have been discredited because they further the interests of big business.
Many young people refuse to vote for them. Is it possible to create political parties against capitalism and war? And if so, how?