The ESF website
The European
Social Forum (ESF) is an open space where civil society groups and movements
opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of
imperialism, but engaged in building a society centered on the human person,
come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to
formulate proposals, to share their experiences freely and to network for
effective action.
This website is therefore an open space to facilitate the
ESF process that was embodied in [Firenze,2002], [Paris,2003] and [London,2004]
and will be in [Athens,2006].
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Report of Women’s Meeting
in the preparatory
assembly of
6-8 January 2006
of the European Social Forum
Introducers:
Josette
Rome
Chastanet
( World March of Women,
In
this meeting took part: 38 women from 12 countries (Catalonia, Italy, Germany,
Austria, Sweden, Turkey, Great Britain, France, Holland, Hungary, Romania and
Greece) and 28 organizations from all over Europe : FSG (Greece),
Cidette (France), Rouge (France), Kokkino (Greece), No Vox (France), Sud Ptt
(France), Hungary hoc.for
« HEP » Association, Union Syndical Solidaires (France), DEA (Greece),
Colletivo Bellaciao (Britain), Imece Women Solidarity (Turkey), Network Health
Cobas (Italy), Romanian Social Forum (Romania), Intersindical Alternativa de
Catalunya (Catalunya), COBAS (Italy), Wilf Europe (Germany), ASF fem Forum and
KPO (Austria), Platki Women (Germany),
Steiriche
Friedens-Platform
(Austria),
Initiative of Homosexuals against oppression and Genoa Initiative 2001 (Greece),
Social Forum (Turkey), Hungary
Social
Forum
Association
(Hungary), Abortion
Rights,
(Britain), National
Assembly
Agaist
Racisme,
(Britain), International
Free
Women’s
Foundation,
(Pays Bas), IFE
EFI,
(France), ADEDY (Greece), Women’s World March (Greece).
The
meeting of women in Vienna’s Preparatory Assembly, reaffirmed that the
attendance of movements for women’s rights during the 4th European Social Forum,
will deal with :
Α)
The
organization of an Assembly of Women in the frame of the 4th ESF in
Athens.
The
Assembly of Women in the 4th ESF will
constitute an autonomous space of discussion with the objective to allow the
women of the European feminist movement
speak and make our special oppression visible.
It
should
be
the
CLIMAX
and
the
CENTRAL
POINT
of
movements’
attendance
for
women’s
rights
within
Forum’s
framework.
The
main task of the Assembly of Women will be to converge into a common place all
different thematic tasks in the seminars and the laboratories that will take
place during the ESF, concerning the elaborations of the area of the “Feminist
Alternative Proposal” itself, as well as those of other countries that will
present the dimension of women’s rights.
An
invitation will be launched for collaboration and participation in the Assembly
of Women, to all organizations and collectivities that will organize seminars
and laboratories that will treat the specific gender dimension in their
works.
Thus,
the function of the Women’s Assembly will almost be the same with the one of the
Social Movements’ Assembly.
Β) A European Manifest will be adopted
during the Women’s Assembly. It will include the proposals that will come up
during the ESF by the workshops, the seminars and the laboratories of feminists
and other social movements that are fighting for women’s
rights.
A
draft of the European Manifesto will be launched as soon as possible. The target
of this manifest is:
C)
The organization of a women’s space
This
space will be in a central place (not isolated from other movements) in order to
unite stands and kiosks, it will be self-organized and will offer the
possibility to show videos, organize exhibitions etc. It will serve as a meeting
point.
D)
The
proposal for thematic seminars and workshops that will be useful in order to describe
and analyze the problematic of women’s rights and to construct networks and
campaigns.
The
seminars and the workshops should take place before the Assembly of Women so
that there will be an interaction between them.
Some
of the seminars’ titles that have been proposed are: “Preparation of a european
campaign against violence against women. The preparation of the mobilization for
the 25th of November and the demand of a unique European law against violence due to
gender”, «Women Rights, secular state, democracy and equality, feminists for a
secular
You
can be informed for the program, be connected, register or propose the seminars
or your workshops in the electronic address:
Ε)
The visibility of the Women Assembly. As we have already stressed, we demand
that the Assembly of Women constitutes a main event of the entire ESF, and that
it takes place in a central space of the Forum. Since the seminars and the
workshops should take place before the Assembly of Women, therefore the Assembly
should be organized either on Friday afternoon (17-20 hour) 5th of
May 2006 or Saturday morning 6th of
May 2006 (this will depend on the hour of the demonstration). We ask the support
of the ESF and the Greek committee, so as, if it is possible, the Assembly of
Women does not coincide with another big event organized at the same hour.
Finally, organizations and individuals can register to a European feminist mailing-list, after having been in touch with the following e-mail: soniamitralia@gmail.com
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