(Decadent) France hosts anti-globalisation forum
By Robert Graham in Paris
FT.com site; Nov 11, 2003
<<They are going down! They are going down!!>>
The second European Social Forum which opens on Wednesday in Paris will welcome some 50,000 people drawn from over 1,200 differing organisations seeking to exchange ideas and find common ground to counter globalisation and the perceived dangers of the free market in Europe.
The three day session of plenary meetings, seminars and workshops spread over four locations, will test the strength and diversity of the anti-globalisation movement as it seeks to build on the first such forum held in Florence last year and the success of the original gathering at Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001.
The main agenda will discuss propositions for an alternative 'anti-liberal' development model for the European Union that is also more citizen friendly. But attention will also focus on ways to challenge US 'unilateralism'.
The forum is being hosted and largely sponsored by Paris city hall, along with three of the capital's red belt satellite cities and on President Jacques Chirac's instructions €500,000 of the €3.7m organisational budget is coming from the French foreign ministry and the prime minister's office.
This government and local level sponsorship underscores the anxiety of French political parties of all colours to try and exploit the popularity of the anti-globalisation movement. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, prime minister, said earlier this week France was welcoming the Forum "with good humour and generosity."
He went on to admit politicians had come up with few ideas on how to come to terms with the problems presented by a globalised economy. It was therefore important, he said, not to demonise the movement but instead to take the opportunity "for a thorough reassessment."
Ever since Mr Chirac showed sympathy for those injured in the violent anti-globalisation protests at the Group of Seven summit in Genoa in 2001, he has been careful not to alienate this sector of the electorate. Mr Chirac like other mainstream politicians is anxious to stop a trend whereby the anti-globalisation movement becomes a magnet for voters disillusioned by traditional politics.
The Socialists, now the main opposition party, have also endorsed the idea of introducing a tax on cross-frontier financial transaction. This so-called 'Tobin Tax' is at the core of the platform of Attac, the French based organisation spear-heading the anti-globalisation movement. Meanwhile the hard-left parties, which polled 10 per cent of the vote in last year's first-round presidential elections, now see those attending the forum as a fertile ground for political recruitment.
However the anti-globalisation movement is embracing an ever-expanding list of issues as evidenced by this forum - from feminism, immigration, Islamophobia and racism to the environment, junk food, the cultural exception and social dumping. Such diversity is making the movement increasingly difficult to organise and direct.
This is reflected in the problems at Attac. Until a change of leadership last year it was the intellectual driving force behind the anti-globalisation movement. But it is now riven by internal differences and unclear whether it should become more directly involved in parliamentary politics or remain a pressure group on the margins.
Equally many former supporters of José Bové, the leader of the radical small French small farmers organisation, are concerned his fight against GM products - with such acts as destroying a MacDonalds fast-food outlet - has changed him from activist to media celebrity.
The trades union continue to be the most wary of identifying too closely with the latest forum. Of the three main confederations in France, only the CGT is directly involved and this reflects its traditional ties with the Communist Party. |
