Greetings from Finland!
Dear friends,
During the 6th Finnish social forum held recently in Helsinki a session was
organised around the day of mobilization in 2008. Attending were apart from
Finnish friends of the World Social Forum process and actors in social
movements, also activists (one each) from Germany, Norway and Sweden. As the
WSF International Council and its working groups are preparing for the
discussions on the issue at the next WSF IC meeting in Berlin, we report
from the session some main comments and concrete proposals. Please note that
the following is not in any way a joint statement from the Finnish social
forum or any organisations on the mobilisation issue, but presents our
personal opinions and constitutes a mere beginning point of discussions in
our localities and movements (see also a brief report with further
justifications from the meeting below):
1. We support the decision taken at the WSF IC meeting in Parma of a WSF
mobilisation week in 2008, with a global day of action on 26-27 January
2008.
2. We support the idea as put forward in the WSF IC meeting of Nairobi of a
ticking clock accompanying, symbolising and visualising the time for change,
and the mobilisations around the world.
3. We feel that a clear global interconnectedness between the mobilisations
all over the world would be crucial, whilst leaving room for plurality and
diversity as to the exact nature of the mobilisations.
4. We feel that the slogan of Another World is Possible as well as the
alternatives the WSF process wants to be instrumental to should be upfront
during the mobilisations.
We suggest:
a. a coordinating body to gather one liner information on the initiatives of
mobilisation from all over the world into a program of mobilisations, in
which the actions could be listed both according to time zone as well as
according to theme in order to point to the global nature of struggles.
b. interactive communication means as video (screens) set up between
different mobilizing venues during the mobilisation day.
c. innovative activities to bring the theme of Another world is possible as
well as the theme of alternatives out in the open, with some elements which
could be carried out globally.
Concrete suggestions:
– Making the slogan Another World is Possible visible in as many different
ways (and different languages) as possible in the mobilizations around the
world. Hanging banners from buildings, wearing it on one’s clothing, forming
the words with torches...the possibilities for creative experimentation are
endless. These activities can have a global nature and be a form of
connecting throughout the mobilising moment.
– We see a need to bring in more people, especially youth, into our
movements and the WSF process. Therefore, cultural acitivities such as
parties and concerts should be important elements of the global day of
action, next to events focusing more directly on the proactive political
content.
with kind regards,
Otto Bruun, ATTAC Finland
Hanna Kuusela, Attac Finland
Lisa Larnesjö, Attac Sweden
Marte Nilsen, Attac Norway
Mikko Sauli, Attac Finland
Ruby van der Wekken, NIGD
Tuomas Ylä-Anttila, NIGD
Session notes
Suomen sosiaalifoorumi - towards WSF-mobilization january
2008. 23.4.2007
Background
A session was arranged during the 6th Finnish social forum about the day of
mobilization in 2008. Attending the session was apart from Finnish friends
of the World Social Forum and actors in social movements, also activists
from Germany, Norway and Sweden.
The session started off with noting the decisions made by the international
council in Nairobi during the WSF 2007, notably, that no WSF as such will be
organised in 2008 - but rather that a week/day/weekend of mobilization will
take place. More accurately this was defined as a minimum of a day of action
around the world, during which people from all over could mobilize around
the world. This is important to keep the WSF-process alive and vital, it has
been thought.
General notes
The participants in the session felt that
1) the mobilization is meaningful
2) it is definitely worth putting effort in organising something on the 26th
of January
3) the day of action poses some challenges in the Nordic countries due to
weather reasons, while the time of year is really dark and cold
4) we should try to arrange something else upon the typical open
meeting/demonstration -like activities, which are already quite common and
used as a general setting in most social movements.
5) plurality and openness need to be respected
6) securing the global feeling of any events during the mobilizations is
important
7) strengthening the role of expressing and showing alternatives during the
mobilization is important, to make the alternatives more outspoken.
Questions of slogan, common themes etc.
We thoroughly discussed the question of the need for a common slogan.
Several participants felt a sense of fatigue with the old "another world is
possible" -slogan. A common worldwide slogan is still needed - and one of
the ideas could be to revitalize the “another world is possible” -slogan, by
making it figure in many different contexts and making visual renewal. We
need to symbolically use the slogan in a more innovative and inspiring way.
Another possibility was the theme of “Another world is under construction”.
Both slogans are viewed as potentially good, and they allow for the crucial
plurality. A concrete proposal that rose was to make the slogan of “Another
world is possible” figure in as many forms as possible - one idea was to
light it up with torches in the dark Nordic cities. This would mean making
the slogan Another World is Possible visible in as many different ways (and
different languages) as possible in the mobilizations around the world.
Hanging banners from buildings, wearing it on one’s clothing, etc.
Participants did not straight away see one common thematic to be agreed upon
as easy or even desirable. Still, having the theme of alternatives (see next
section) could make the mobilizations more concrete, and some elements of
the theme could maybe be carried out even globally. The possible idea of a
theme related to human dignity was also discussed, but still left open.
Later during the forum, the idea of mobilizing together under the banner of
democratic initiatives was discussed, but was not taken into account during
the session itself.
Thoughts on possible action and some proposals
Besides allowing for plurality, the Finnish social forum session
participants called for a global collection of initiatives before the day of
action. These could then by the secretariat be distributed globally -
strengthening the global common spirit and allowing for better mutual
awareness of initiatives around the world. Whereas it is difficult to agree
on just one theme, it would be great to know what social movements are
mobilizing for in different countries. This would support the efforts to add
content and concrete initiatives to the process. Adding to this, it would
also be in line with the theme another world is possible - as several
initiatives for change would be gathered and presented.
To make the idea of “another world is possible” more concrete and use more
of its potential, we also called for the concrete alternatives to be more
present during the day/week of mobilizations, for instance like being some
kind of theme. Both the slogan of Another World is Possible as well as the
alternatives the WSF process wishes to be instrumental should be upfront
during the mobilizations.
Furthermore we concluded that local mobilisations are important to
contribute to the specific needs of the local movements.
The key challenge for the global mobilization is to figure in the global
media in some way - how to do that is still an open question. Otherwise the
mobilizations will be mostly felt as national ones.
Action proposals in Finland concerned both a joyful party-like come together
and activities outside in the snow, adding light or torches to the
manifestations. This planning did not take speed, but will be continued when
more people will be able to join our forces in the planning of the January
mobilization. The idea of a party-like manifestation for another world would
especially be important, as we later noticed the importance of more young
people joining the movement.
We support the idea as put forward in the WSF IC meeting of Nairobi of a
ticking clock accompanying, symbolising and visualising the time for change,
and the mobilisations around the world. We hope that the feelings and the
mobilization of this could also be shared in some way via modern technology
(live videos and screens, maybe?), in order to strengthen the sense of a
really global mobilization, although we see that this will be very
challenging to achieve with the limitation of resources in mind.
Background - social movements in Finland
Inspired by the Norwegian analysis of social movements we discussed the
challenges Finnish social movements have in general.
Some of the challenging questions are related to political culture - others
relate to the spreading of the movement and of the few new activists that
have joined lately. Moreover, concerning the results of our activities, more
co-operation with trade unions and the likes was called for. These
challenges seemed to be shared by many of the international guests, at least
those from other Scandinavian countries.
The Finnish Social Forum also included a seminar on the ESF and its future
path, as it will take place in either Malmö or Copenhagen in the late summer
of 2008.