On the Participation of the  Social Movements in the Mediterranean
Social Forum and Other Matters

Sherif Hetata (Egypt)

International Coordination Committee
Marseilles 14-15 January, 2005

[A] Introduction

The Mediterranean Social Forum like the other social forums can become one of the most prominent public manifestations of an alternative globalisation process, a space in which new forces and new struggles will be able to clarify their aims and define their forms of action. Its importance lies in the fact that together with the other social forums it can help the different forces and movements involved in the struggle against neo-liberal corporate capitalism to avoid dispersion, to think and act in a more concerted manner, while maintaining the spontaneity, the vitality and the character of its many constituents.

The creation of the Mediterranean Social Forum is an important step in the struggle against neo-liberal corporate globalisation. It is part of the geographic expansion needed in order to move towards a world-wide alternative globalisation process. It is of particular importance because it seeks to bring together social movements in countries which were involved in colonial expansion and in which the ruling systems are today a part of neo-liberal capitalist corporate globalisation endorsed by the Barcelona Partnership Agreement, and social movements in the once colonized and now neo-colonized countries e4xtending along the Southern shores of the Mediterranean sea.

This makes its development a difficult and complex task. The process is still at its beginning, more advanced in some limited geographic areas, less so in others and still weak along the Southern parts of the Mediterranean. Much remains to be done in order for it to become a more encompassing process, to involve more and more of the social movements in the various countries. Its future depends on progressing to new stages, on avoiding the dangers of rigidity, of lack of movement or creative ideas. It depends on bringing in women and youth movements trade unions, peasant movements, peace movements, human rights and civil society groups and associations. It should also assist in the promotion development and strengthening of national and local social forums in the member countries.

These tasks require a clear assessment of the present situation, of its strengths and its weaknesses. The World Social Forum has decided to reshape the process during the meeting to be held at the end of January 2005 in Porto Alleghre. The Mediterranean Social Forum process will probably also require a reexamination in the near future.

[B] The Preparatory Assemblies

(1) i. Four Preparatory Assemblies have been held in Rabat, Naples, Barcelona and Larnaca (Cyprus) and this is the fifth. Only six months remain until the time when the Mediterranean Social Forum will be held in Barcelona. So far the participation of the different social movements in the preparatory process continues to lag. This is reflected in the lack of thematic discussions on issues of war, racism, and migration, and on economic, social and environmental issues concerning youth, women, workers, peasants as well as people involved in cultural and artistic activities and in various professions related to health, education, housing etc. If the different social movements active in these areas were sufficiently represented in the Preparatory Assemblies, these thematic discussions would have taken place. In addition we would have had a clearer idea of the program for the plenary sessions, workshops, seminars, etc during the Mediterranean Social Forum meeting to be held in Barcelona next June.

(1) ii. It is therefore necessary to deal with this situation without delay, to take steps which can lead to a wider involvement of the social movements in the next Preparatory Assembly and in the Mediterranean Social Forum of June. This wider involvement in turn will help to define the program of plenary sessions, seminars, workshops, and events to be organized during the Forum.

(1) iii. The involvement of the social movements can be greatly enhanced by the preparation of a detailed and substantive document which covers the birth of the Mediterranean Social Forum, its nature and aims, its progress, the process including Preparatory Assemblies, Technical Secretariat, International Coordination Committee etc. This document should also include guidelines for the plenary sessions, the workshops, seminars and meetings, how best to organize the discussions, raise key points, arrive at conclusions. This document or brochure can be widely distributed to the Social Movements in the different Mediterranean countries by those who attended the various Preparatory Assemblies.

(1) iv. The members of the Preparatory Assembly should be asked to prepare a list of the social movements in the countries to which they belong, or with which they have contacts or can contact. They can use these contacts to distribute the document or brochure mentioned in section one, to clarify the composition and aims of the Mediterranean Social Forum process, and to pave the way for participation of active members in these social movements in the Preparatory Assembly and in the workshops / seminars / meetings of the Mediterranean Social Forum which will be held in Barcelona during mid-June 2005. It would be most useful if the extension committee is kept informed by the members of the Preparatory Assembly of efforts made in this direction and of their results.

The aims of the Preparatory Assembly should be:

(2) i. To finalize the broad lines of the program for the Mediterranean Social Forum (Barcelona, June, 2005). This should include:

a) The themes of the Plenary Sessions, why they have been chosen and possible mass action to which they can lead, suggestions related to possible speakers and of how the sessions should be run to obtain maximum results.

b) Guidelines for the operation of workshops / seminars / meetings.

(a) and (b) should be the task of the program committee.

(2) ii. To follow up on the activities of the Preparatory Assembly mentioned in (1). This is essentially the task of the extension committee which will report on them to the Preparatory Assembly.

(2) iii. The main aim of the Preparatory Assembly should be to help create conditions in the Mediterranean Social Forum meeting of June 2005 favourable to the launching of mass mobilisations on local, national and Mediterranean wide scales.

(2) iv. As an important part of this aim the Preparatory Assembly should discuss the implementation of a day against war and militarisation for peace. This day can be organized in cooperation between the Mediterranean Social Forum, Focus on the Global South and perhaps other organisations and could include:

a) A major plenary session to which well known and militant effective speakers (as well as actresses, writers, actors, football players etc.) will be invited to address.

b) The reading of a joint statement against militarisation and war for peace.

c) The reading and approval of the final statement in the plenary.

d) The enumeration of proposals for mass actions which have gained wide support and their dates.

e) A final demonstration against militarisation and war which will march through the streets of Barcelona starting after the plenary is over at 14:00 or 15:00 hrs and last until 20:00 hrs. Participation in the march can include the persons mentioned in the major plenary session

(2) v. This plenary and demonstration should take place on the fourth and final day. The other three days will be devoted to the Mediterranean Social Forum alone. The third day will be devoted to the Plenary of Social Movements.

[C] Methods of Work

In the Preparatory Assembly

(3) i. All discussions should be on the basis of reports from the extension and program commissions, the technical secretariat and the thematic groups. All meetings of the Preparatory Assembly, commissions, technical secretariat and thematic groups should designate someone to chair and one or more rapporteurs according to the need. Meetings of the Preparatory Assembly should be recorded since the Preparatory Assembly is the decision making body.

(3) ii. In the Assembly of Social Movements the Technical Secretariat and the International Coordinating committee should be informed ahead of time about the social movements which will be attending the Mediterranean Social Forum meeting in Barcelona (June, 2005). This information should include name, nature of activities, address, email, fax and telephone. A preliminary meeting of representatives of the social movements should be held in Barcelona one or two days before the Forum of Social Movements is held and preferably before the Mediterranean Social Forum begins. The aim of this meeting should be:

a) To suggest the agenda (program and sessions) which will be submitted for agreement by the participants in the Forum of Social Movements at the beginning of their meeting.

b) To decide on the sessions. How they will be chaired, and recorded by rapporteurs (? Plus a recording system).

c) To prepare a draft resolution or final declaration to be presented and agreed upon by the movements attending the meeting.

d) To arrange for publicity, media, newspapers etc. during the meeting.

e) To decide how the proceedings will be published later.

(3) iii. The social movements should come to the meeting with written reports about their activities, proposals for action etc.

(3) iv. These arrangements should be communicated to the social movements that will be attending ahead of time at least one month before the date of the Mediterranean Social Forum in Barcelona.

[D] The Plenary Sessions

(4) i. To maintain the Mediterranean Social Forum as a space is the best way to ensure its future expansion. With this in mind it is necessary to ensure that the plenary sessions do not take place at the expense of the multiple activities (seminars, workshops, youth and women’s meetings, exhibitions “artistic, food, music and songs” etc.) The plenary sessions should not take up all the best spaces in the Forum, and can perhaps be reduced in number if the other activities necessitate this reduction. Plenaries are good for publicity but in them the audiences are listeners.

(4) ii. All plenary sessions should be recorded and speakers asked ahead of time to send or bring with them written interventions even if they do not read them.

[D] Proposed Themes for Discussion  in the Assembly of  Social Movements

The eleven items listed below in this “Proposal Program for discussion in the Assembly of Social Movements” are too numerous and too complex to be dealt with during the one day devoted to this Forum. The program can be finalised by discussion with representatives of the social movements who will be attending the Forum and can chose out of them those they consider as being priorities.

(I) What is our past experience in the struggle against neo-liberal policies implemented by corporate capitalism in the Mediterranean countries. What were the successes and the failures of the social movements ? What new forms of struggle can we suggest ?

(II) The Mediterranean Social Forum. How in the future can it help to create a favourable atmosphere for the exchange of experiences, ideas, interconnections and joint actions between the social movements ?

(III) The struggle against militarization and war for peace. What results have been achieved so far ? How can the social movements enhance and develop the struggle against war, military bases and nuclear weapons in the Mediterranean area including a just and peaceful settlement to stop the Israeli aggression on Palestine ?

(IV) What policies and actions can be fostered and encouraged by the social movements to contain and minimize the spread of religious fundamentalism, racism and terror in the Mediterranean area ?

(V) The women’s movement is of extreme importance in the struggle for peace against war for democracy and social justice. How can social movements and organisations contribute to the development and reinforcement of women’s movements ?

(VI) How can social movements pave a way into the media, and at the same time develop alternate media.

(VII) Proposals for joint action against intellectual property rights and the price of drugs.

(VIII) The privatisation of water resources and their distribution. What are the dimensions of this problem, its dangers and how can we begin to face it ?

(IX) Agricultural subsidies as they are practiced cause great harm to farmers and peasants in the Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries. How can joint actions be taken to face this problem and ensure food sufficiency, security and suitable crop distribution ?

(X) Treatment of emigrants and the question of free circulation for men and women.

(XI) The neo-liberal assault on health, social security and social services. What policies should be implemented to face this assault, and how can we reinforce popular resistance to corporate exploitation of essential services ? What are the most important battles the social movements face at the moment in this area ?

[E] Draft Final Declaration of the Assembly ofSocial Movements - Barcelona June 2005

The social movements gathered here today within the framework of the Mediterranean Social Forum declare that together with other social movements, organisations and associations in civil society they will , on the basis of a free and democratic exchange of ideas, seek to develop joint mass non-violent actions in the countries of the North and South Mediterranean in order to transform these lands which have been and still are the seat of rich and diverse societal structures, histories, and cultures into a region of peace, democracy and social justice for all men and women. They declare that the Mediterranean which lies at the confluence of three continents should become and can become “a sea of rights” instead of the theatre of neo-liberal policies imposed by national governments at the service of corporate capitalist interests based in the United States, in Europe and in Japan. As an integral part of the growing popular alternative globalisation movement in the countries of the Mediterranean they are witnesses of how such policies are causing widespread social destruction and misery, how the neo-imperialists are imposing the domination of multinational interests and plunder on the people of this area, reinforcing the stranglehold of the North over the South, the dictates of international debts and systems of so-called “free trade” which are leading to greater and greater inequalities between the rich and the poor, to the marginalisation of vast populations and the erosion of social security, to a regression in human and democratic rights, and to the nurturing of autocratic and dictatorial regimes intent on breaking people’s resistance.

In order to impose these neo-liberal policies the capitalist corporations need war, need fundamentalism, need racism, need gender discrimination, need to divide people in different ways, need to imprison the minds of men and women, to dull and destroy their consciousness through the media, educational systems and a consumer culture.

As a result of the wars in Iraq and in Palestine, of future wars being planned against Iran or Syria, or North Korea, of accelerated corporate militarization headed by the United States the peoples of the South and North Mediterranean are plunged more and more into the depths of horror, violence, state and non-state terror. The Mediterranean has become a huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, of nuclear and other bombs and rockets, a region with a growing network of military bases, a zone of conflict and insecurity.

The problem of war and foreign military occupation in Iraq and Palestine, of neo-imperialist American, British and Israeli aggression grows more serious every day and new wars are threatening. New nuclear so-called tactical weapons and one ton (or more) “intelligent” bombs have been, or are being developed. Military bases in the countries of the North and South Mediterranean are being established, extended, or reinforced. A rapid intervention military force of 35,000 or more troops is underway and more can follow. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is being extended to both shores of the Mediterranean. All this is taking place in the name of combating terror, protecting democratic regimes and defending women’s rights and human rights whereas all the ruling systems involved whether in the neo-imperialist aggressor countries or in the neo-colonized countries of the South Mediterranean are collaborating in this corporate neo-liberal economico-military process, suppressing their own populations whether men or women by state autocratic and even terrorist measures and closing the door to any economic, social or cultural progress, causing increasing conflicts, strife, violence, impoverishment and misery, and oppressing the national peoples and religious minorities.

War and policies of war are a pivot in the strategies used by the multinational corporations to carry on and aggravate their continued exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the Mediterranean.

That is why the Social Movements in this Assembly call upon all social movements, on women’s and youth movements, trade unions, cooperatives, cultural, social and human rights groups to consider the struggle against war, militarization, military bases and weapons of mass destruction, against Israeli occupation of Palestine and its refusal to reach a just peace and to respect the territorial rights of the Palestinian people, against American and British aggression and military occupation in Iraq as crucial to the rights and life of all peoples in the Mediterranean region. It calls upon them to work out new and creative mass forms of resistance to war for peace, to struggle for an end to all military aggression, for the abolition of military bases in the region and its transformation into a nuclear free zone where weapons of mass destruction no longer exist.

The social movements in this Assembly together with others will seek to evolve more and more effective forms of resistance to neo-liberal policies, Free Trade Agreements, for the abolition of international debts, to develop alternatives to these policies built on people’s democratic participation. They will struggle for the abolition of all forms of discrimination and inequality built on race, gender, religion and class, for the destruction of all walls whether concrete like the Israeli wall in Palestine, or socio-economic and cultural walls which divide the Mediterranean into zones where populations are marginalised or suffer different degrees of apartheid. They will make patient and stubborn efforts to open up new perspectives for peace and the respect of human life, of personal and people’s rights, to build a Mediterranean region into a space for life, and open exchange between men and women living in it, a space in which freedom of circulation is not limited to capital and merchandise.

As a program for action the Social Movements in this Assembly consider that they should contribute to the best of their ability to :

1. Reinforce the Mediterranean Social Forum as a space for the free exchange of ideas and experiences and the development of initiatives in the struggle against neo-liberal corporate policies for peace, justice and democracy in the Mediterranean countries.

2. Develop new and diverse mass actions against war, militarization and military bases and for the reduction of military budgets.

3. Foster policies and actions which will help to contain and minimize the spread of religious fundamentalism, racism and state or non-state terror in the region.

4. Evolve ideas, policies and actions conducive to the reinforcement and extension of the women’s movement particularly important in the struggle for peace, democracy and social justice.

5. Make special efforts to develop alternative media and to struggle against the barriers which prevent alternative globalisation from finding its expression in the corporate media.

6. Engage in joint actions against Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and reduce the price of drugs.

7. Unmask policies aiming at privatisation of water resources and their distribution and suggest actions against such policies.

8. Combat the policies related to agricultural subsidies and engage in actions which ensure appropriate crop distribution and food security for the peoples of the Mediterranean and protect small farmers and peasants.

9. Engage in actions against the neo-liberal assault on health, social security, education, public housing and transportation, cheap electricity etc.

10) Defend the rights of migrant populations, struggle for the free circulation of people and develop joint action between different social groups in the countries of the North and South Mediterranean.