[lbo-talk] Re: European Social Forum

[mullah_omar at email.it]

I am sorry to say that I agree with many criticisms on social forums: from
what I've seen (here in Italy and Porto Alegre 1- 2001) and read, one of the
main problems is the opposite of Doug's view, that is, most of forums are
hegemonized by older people/organizations/networks, and that the ngo-like,
"legitimizing" (to use a Castells' term) or pressure group's registry, is
prevailing, often in "covert" and not transparent ways.

   I agree ever more with Bauman, which in his 1987 book wrote that "power
of destruction" (of value chains) is the main determinant of surplus
distribution among groups. Since strikes are ever more impractical (given
deindustrialization, deunionization, individual bargaining, etc.), with all
this blurb about civil society and moltitudes we still did not find any
means to exercise pressure on power elites, which, as we learnt since Genoa,
does not mind much about hundred of thousands people in the streets, until
they got enough cops.

  Of course, speaking about power of destruction sounds a no-no in these
times of holy war to terrorism, but it encompasses even the threat of
delocalization by a firm -a perfectly legitimate endeavor- used to gain
concessions from the state and/or its employees.

  It seems to me that the social forums are already in decline, not much for
the warlike situation, but for their lack of clear aims and means, that is,
strategies and resources, without which they seems ever more similar to
hare-krishna bonzis.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 10:42 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: European Social Forum


> Chuck0 wrote:
>
> >Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> >>I doubt that anarchists and autonomists have money and manpower to
> >>organize such assemblies as Social Forums.  The benefactors and
> >>beneficiaries of World and European Social Forums must be (A)
> >>old-time political parties such as the Workers Party (Brazil), the
> >>Socialist Party (France), and the Communist Refoundation (Italy),
> >>(B) foundations such as the Ford Foundation (cf.
> >><http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=2&cd_language=2>
> >>&
>
>><http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm
?report_index=391>),
> >>and (C) NGOs/front groups that are supported by either (A) or (B).
> >
> >We anarchists could do it easily if we thought that social forums
> >were a critical part of our strategy.
>
> Seems to me that a lot of old-line leftists - even those who are not
> old in years - are as annoyed as hell that a new radical movement has
> grown, devoid of affiliations to the old-line left. So a lot of
> resentments are being aired in the form of implausible theories. Of
> course, a lot of the more imaginative old-line leftists could be
> inspired by the new movements, and be willing to listen to them and
> join their forums and protests. And why not? Why come up with such
> entirely cynical analyses, Yoshie?
>
> Doug
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