SAND IN THE WHEELS (n°156)
ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 11 Dec 02
By Peter Wahl. Co-worker in the non-governmental
organization World Economy Ecology and Development -
WEED and a member of the coordinating group of ATTAC
Germany. Translation. coorditrad@attac.org volunteer
translators (*)
The dynamics of the antiglobalization movement
continue unabated. The first European Social Forum (ESF),
held from November 6th to 9th in Florence, has
confirmed this quite impressively. With a
demonstration of more than half-a-million people - the
largest in the history of globalization criticism -
Florence must be mentioned in the future in the same
breath as Seattle and Genoa. Approximately two-thirds
of the participants belong to younger generations.
It was expected that 20,000 participants would attend
the Forum itself, a three-day marathon of events with
ca. 200 podium discussions, seminars and workshops. On
the second day there were already twice this number,
and at the end there were as many as 60,000. Of course
the organizational problems associated with this
affected the quality of many events.
However, it isn't the quantitative aspect alone that
makes the ESF such an outstanding event. The
particular quality of Florence is to be found in the
fact that:
-
the movement has emerged from the shadow of violence,
-
it has successfully built a bridge to the theme of war
and peace,
-
its political pluralism and breadth have increased
further.
At the same time, the ESF has made visible several
problems and deficiencies of the antiglobalization
movement.
Emerging from the Shadow of Violence
The new movement has emerged from the shadow of
violence that lies upon it since Genoa. Florence
demonstrates once again that when really large masses
of people are mobilized neither provocation by the
state nor the orientation of small groups toward
violence have a chance.
The Berlusconi government had done everything possible
prior to the ESF to generate a climate of hysteria and
fear. A second Genoa would have suited it just fine,
in order to divert attention from domestic political
problems. Berlusconi had forecasted the destruction of
art works in the Renaissance city by talibanized
hordes, and spoken of the prohibition of the ESF. The
neofascists of the "Forza Italia" in the government
had agitated for weeks in the style of the "Stürmer",
for example, with caricatures of demonstrators with
hooked noses, a bottle of vodka in one hand and a
hammer and sickle in the other. The "Corriere della
Sera" brought a hate filled contribution from the
disaffected leftist, Oriana Fallaci, for the start of
the Forum. Under these influences many stores in the
historic old part of the city nailed their windows
shut.
On the side of the demonstrators there was no sign of
a "black bloc" of any kind. Other groups which tend
toward militancy, such as the so called "Disobediente"
("Disobedient Ones", a mixture of Punk and anarchism)
and the Tute Bianche, which had stood at the front in
the confrontation with the police at the IMF/World
Bank meeting in Prague, marched in a disciplined
manner with the demonstration.
Finally, Florence also invalidates the argument that
the attention of the media can only be gotten through
scenes of violence. After the confrontations of
Prague, Göteborg and above all Genoa, Florence
deprives the opposition of the possibility of
isolating or at least splitting the antiglobalization
movement with the issue of violence.
No to War
The dominant, or even sole theme of the ESF was war.
The rejection of the militarization of foreign policy
in general and of a war against Iraq in particular was
unanimous.
Although important and correct, this orientation also
carries certain risks with it. For example, there is a
danger that in the shadow of the confrontation about
the war the neoliberal course will be continued
relatively unhindered and the potential of critical
forces will be fully absorbed. It is certainly one of
the sociopolitical effects of militarization that
through the construction of enemy images and other
threat scenarios attention is diverted from domestic
problems. This is most clearly seen in the USA, where
the pressure for patriotic conformity is so strong
that not much of the spirit of Seattle remains.
Meanwhile, the acceptance crisis of neoliberal
globalization, which we saw in Seattle, has grown into
a veritable functional crisis. The stock market crash,
the inglorious end of the "New Economy", the so called
accounting scandals of large company groups, the
passivity of the IMF in the Argentina crisis and the
deflationary developments of many local economies are
only the top of the iceberg. For this reason it is
important not to consider the antiglobalization
movement and the peace movement in opposition to one
another, but rather to make the connections between
them clear.
Growing Pluralism and Breadth
The quantitative growth of the movement is matched by
a growth in political pluralism. Local social fora
were represented, as well as ATTAC, trade unions, the
peace movement, NGOs, diverse Kgroups (communist
groups, transl. note), Greenpeace, the youth
organization of the Party of the Democratic Left
(formerly PCI), Amnesty, Gays and Lesbians, Catholic
nuns, the Italian Greens, Christian Boyscouts, the
Rifundazione Comunista and last but not least, the
mayor of Florence and the president of Tuskany (both
DS). The latter had provided the Forum with political
and logistical support.
The popularity of the movement among varying political
camps signalizes the fact that the acceptance of the
ruling system of politics is disappearing. At the same
time there is an increased necessity for finding a
productive means of dealing with the pluralism of the
movement and steering against centrifugal tendencies.
It appears that a political culture of dialogue,
toleration of contradictions, and - except for some
Trotskyist splinter groups - a conscious renunciation
of avant-gardism and domination is developing.
This is seen most clearly with the Rifundazione
Comunista. Although the party, with its ca. 100,000
members, played a significant role in the preparation
and realization of the Forum and demonstrations, it
did not attempt to force its position on others,
neither in the internal preparations committee nor
publically. Apparently it has been realized that
self-restriction and the renunciation of the party
political instrumentalization of social movements is a
necessary condition for their success. The fact that
the Rifundazione seems serious about leftist pluralism
is also show by its renunciation of one of the holy
cows of Leninism, the requirement within its own ranks
to vote according to the party line. This invalidates
the oftexpressed suspicion that the ESF is a project
steered by the Rifundazione.
Against Privatization and GATS
The second theme that crystallized into a major focus
in Florence is the privatization of public services,
from education to health and pensions to water, energy
and transportation. The problem is becoming more and
more acute in the entire EU. The negotiations within
the WTO (GATS) related to liberalizing services are
closely linked to this. It was decided to launch a
European campaign, oriented first toward actions
during the end of March 2003, with a central
initiative in Brussels. By that time the negotiating
phase in the WTO in which the individual countries
present their liberalization offers and demands will
be ended, After that, the ministerial conference of
the WTO in Cancůn, Mexico, at the beginning of
September 2003 will become the next high point of the
campaign.
German Presence with Low Profile
Between 500 and 700 participants arrived from the
Federal Republic. Most of them belonged to ATTAC.
There were flags from VER.DI, (Union of Service
Workers, transl. note) and the IGMetall (Association
of Metal Workers, transl. note) was also represented,
NGOs, the foundations close to the SPD (German Social
Democratic Party, transl. note), the Greens and the
PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism, transl. note) as
well as the Anthroposophists and the BUKO (Congress of
Development Policy Action Groups, transl. note).
Christian Ströbele appeared at a forum about the
relationship of parties to social movements. He
criticised his party and pleaded for the cooperation
between the Greens and social movements. Frank Bsirske,
chairman of VER.DI, had cancelled at the last minute
on account of pressing matters related to the reform
of the healthcare system, but made known his interest
in participating further in the
process.
All in all, the profile and visibility of the Germans
was very low. Apparently little had been invested in
preparation. This needs to be remedied. It is not a
matter of presenting a national image. Rather the
German critics of globalization have the
responsibility for adequately integrating the social
movement of the largest of the EU countries into the
international movement.
Problems
As positive as the development as a whole is, there
are also several problems and deficiencies which can't
be overlooked:
There was scarcely any impulse at all emerging from
Florence toward developing conceptual alternatives to
neoliberalism. Onepoint approaches for modest reforms
still coexist side to side with very generally
conceived value orientations. There is still no real
discussion among the points of view. A typical example
is the Jubilee campaign, which seeks debt reductions
for the poor countries, while others press for a
complete and unconditional cancellation of the debt.
Yet neither one is a solution to the crisis in
Argentina. Protest and rejection as a common
denominator are the initial basis for change, to be
sure, but that is not enough in the long run. So the
actual goal of the ESF, to meet and discuss together
in peace, undisturbed by governmental summit meetings,
and to advance the process of selforganization
internationally, was met very incompletely.
The fact that the new movement is composed in the main
of young people is one of its great strengths. This
gives it a real touch of youth culture often, and for
broad stretches the Forum took on the character of a
happening. However, this should not disguise the fact
that, in view of the demographic relationships in the
industrial nations, young people are a structural
minority. The movement should not be allowed to limit
itself to being purely a movement of the young. Unity
with the demographic center of the society is
essential, if it is to have chances of success.
One facet of the youthful character of the movement is
a certain tendency to verbal radicalness, which is
notorious in the history of social movements. To be
sure, the problems of today actually do require the
testing of traditional concepts. Whether or not
one-sided dialogue and lobbying strategies, such as
are practiced by some NGOs, still make sense can
rightly be called into question after the failure of
the Rio-process. Also, the crisis of neoliberalism
could make imperative alternatives, which touch deeper
on the roots of the problem. It is just as necessary
to discuss thoroughly the claim of Bertinotti "Who
speaks of Neoliberalism cannot remain silent about
Capitalism," and not in the bad sense of an abstract
and historically dead opposing of "Reform and
Revolution". What is needed are the innovative answers
of a social critique which is current and which does
not clothe itself in the costume of irretrievable past
struggles. Worn out slogans such as "One Solution -
Revolution" will not bring us further. On the
contrary, they lead straight to sectarianism. Here a
second look at the experience of the Kgroups of the
'68 movement is useful.
Finally, we should be cautioned against transferring
the understandable euphoria of Florence and the
experiences of Italy onto the rest of the world. The
success of Florence is owed mainly to the domestic
constellation in Italy. Included among others is the
fact that:
-
the Italian left is generally quite strong in
comparison with the rest of Europe,
-
the conflict with Berlusconi had been growing for some
time and had already led to a general strike,
-
the US friendly stance of Berlusconi is met with broad
resistance beyond the left,
-
one day before the Forum Berlusconi rammed his law
regarding the free choice of judges through
parliament, which was rejected even in conservative
circles
-
psychological warfare with the spook of a second Genoa
led to counter reactions.
All these are factors, which cannot be transferred
onto other countries. Therefore it is too early, to
say the least, to attempt to rise up a German social
forum. The political preconditions are not (yet?)
present.
Contact for this article. peter.wahl@weedbonn.org |