To all people and infopoints involved with pga europe :

PGA Preparatory Meeting,
October 3-6, 2003

Saturday, October 4, 2003

Participants
EuroDusnie, EYFA/ nederlands, LARC, Cardiff Anarchist Network, Ferme du Hayon/belgium, Indymedia/Nantes/france, Longo Mai/grangeneuve/france, tanneries/dijon/france, APCM/geneva gyug!, ZMAG, Belgrade Indymedia, AZIN, DSM (Rebel House, Political Collective, Za Drugaciji Svet, BLOK, SUS)

Facilitator: A. from DSM

Summary
A. call for patience, DSM not very skilled and will need a lot of help to organize the conference Update on how much DSM did so far in preparing the conference DSM explains that it still has problems in picking the location. The town it opted for initially was Kragujevac. The town is in central Serbia and is very representative in terms of all the problems an impoverished country in transition is suffering from. There are a lot of strikes by workers who are left without work or have forgot when was the last time they got paid for what they do. It is also a university center with, probably, the worst studying conditions in the country. However, the lack of contacts in the town, as well as a hostile local government and general lack of accessible facilities will most probably exclude Kragujevac as the conference site. Also, the local population could be taken aback with the idea of having up to 1,000 or more foreign activists organizing something they do not understand. The other possible location is in the north of Serbia. It is a summer resort called Palic (lakeside) and it is near the town of Subotica, close to the Hungarian border. It is still uncertain whether the resort will be available in July 2004th, when the conference is due to take place. The other issue is whether the PGA network can raise enough money to cover expenses. The advantages of the resort are that it would be comparably simple to organize the conference in an enclosed area with enough space for accommodation and venues for events. On the other hand, since one of the main aims of the conference is its outreach towards the local community and the media, the resort is not a good location for that purpose. What remains for now are the two big towns/cities - Belgrade and Novi Sad. Both have the necessary infrastructure for accommodation and venues. They are also the best locations in terms of communication links and media accessibility. The possibility to rent schools during summer holidays was mentioned a few times.

Discussion points -
- the participants of the conference agreed to choose a place that would not be in the middle of nowhere and isolated from people. A place where we could meet and make links with local people and struggles" (C) - it has also been agreed that DSM should have an additional 2-3 months to find and announce the exact location for the conference. (C) - there was also a proposal to organize a caravan that could venture in central Serbia and gradually introduce the idea of a conference taking place in one of the towns in the area. The caravan would happen in december and people involved with pga and the conference were invited to take part, the first objective was to present "farewell to political parties" a book by kolektiv eimigrative art and it was supposed to be welcomed by people from an autonomous union apparently much active in kragujevatz. It therefore could be a way to meet people from this union and struggling workers as well.
- the convenor should have direct presence or links with local collectives in the town where it chooses to organize the conference in order to avoid animosity from the local population. and to be able to profit afterwards on what the conference could bring locally. (c)

Some collectives and people involved in pga dynamic should arrive one month before the conference to help. There was. another wish to have people that could come during one week or two at different times between now and the conference.

- DSM has two more months to find a suitable location. (C)

The discussion continued towards what were the particular needs and possible solutions in terms of accommodation and space for the conference.

these are a few things agreed.

- it was agreed to use a combination of solid housing (schools, squats, ?) and camp(s). (C) - we also spoke about the necessity to find circus tents or big tents to have part of the workshops and debates outside solid structures. (C) - we souldn't only focus on freeplaces but will have to find foundings to be able to rent places if needed. (C) - it was discussed to squat a place for the conference (as people have great difficulties to find autonomous collective places for activities in serbia) but we agreed on not mixing squatting action time an conference time. So there was either the possibility to squat a place well in advance or to take advantage of the big number of people to have a squatting action just after the conference. (C) - the possibility to have collectives actions in the day following the conference but clearly separated from the conference time was also discussed and left open, as well as the possibility to organize small caravans//travellings or meetings in other locations than the conference place, after the conference.

Discussion points
- DSM also raised the issue of the possible number of participants that could end up at the conference. The issue of whether there should be a limit to the number of participants, since there might be a problem to accommodate everyone. It was agreed that the convenors will update the PGA network with info on what kind of infrastructure for accommodation has been secured and the approximate number of people it can accommodate (in combination with camping space). The general view was that there should not be any limits on the number of participants but we agreed on 500 as a minimal starting point. (C)

The discussion at this point focused on how the PGA could assist DSM in helping them organize the conference.

• people from the entire PGA network would be invited to take charge of specific assignments necessary to organize the conference. (as sound, visas, finances, translation, building, newspapers.... and whatsoever)
• during the conference, we'll try to push collective self-management on everything and more or less keep leiden system of different pool and teams in wich people can get involved such as translation, facilitation, newspaper, cooking, cleaning welcoming, infos, computers and media...
• we'll to try to push a bit more than in leiden the involvment of people in daily practical basic matters such as cleaning and cooking, washing dishes...
• to have something really well prepared structures mostly organized before the conference so that people can easily know how to get involved
• a number of people from abroad will have to come to the chosen location a week or two (remains to be seen) earlier than the scheduled start of the conference to help DSM in preparations.
• we will announce on every call for the conference that everybody can come at least one week in advance to build and prepare the infrastructures of the meeting
• we'll announce that if people want to build sustainable anticapitalist self-made structures (such as self-made toilets or showers or energy system they're invited to do it, but that everybody doesn't have to get involved with the building of these self-made structures.
• we'll announce that the camp will also be a kind of open space / laboratory to bring and have workshops on any sustainable technologies such as windcraft, solar panels and such things.
• we'll have different kind of times and meetings specifically announced as either workshops, presentations, working group on a practical project...
• we'll have a meeting of five days with one day before for arrival, meeting with people, visiting locals and one extra day in the end to have a collective deconstruction of the camp and conference structures.

Content of the conference :
The discussion then talked about the issue of content. Some people had a problem with the large number of workshops that existed at the PGA conference in Leiden. The question was whether the large number of parallel workshops was a good solution and if people would not get lost in trying to pick one amongst many available workshops in the same time slot. The question of whether the number of workshops should be somehow limited arose. The discussion also touched the topic of the thematic aspect of the content

• there will not be a limit to the number of workshops since there is no one who may arbiter which proposal should be accepted and which not. There will however be attempts to group similar events into one or a few.
• the groups involved with the preparation of the conference will try to push some issues first discussed during this preparation meeting. This will be done by putting a list of issues that seem important to us on the present report and before the next meeting, trying to see if we can find people, collectives and a process to work on it and prepare it before the conference. In this way and because a beforehand dynamic arose, they will become important issues for the conference
• the next preparation meetings will therefore set forward these "big issues" and try to promote them as the most important aspects of the PGA conference in 2004

Sunday, October 5th, 2003

Participants:
Ferme du Hayon, EuroDusnie, tanneries/dijon, EYFA, LARC, Cardiff Anarchist Network, Indymedia Nantes, Longo Mai, APCM, ZMAG, Belgrade Indymedia, AZIN, DSM (Drustvo za Borbu Protiv Drustva, Rebel House, Political Collective, Za Drugaciji Svet, BLOK, SUS)

Facilitator: J. from EYFA

After a short summary of the things agreed on previous day (location, practicalities, duration of the conference, workshops) the discussion about content was continued.

A few proposals for content had already been submitted by Sans-Titre network and EuroDusney collective and some new issues were proposed

• it was decided to give some first contacts of people who want to start to think about one of these particular issues, work on it and be a contact point.
• These contacts are mentionned here when people didn't forget to put their names. Otherwise it may still be possible and very welcomed to add your names if you didn't do so during the meeting
  • wars, imperialism, nationalism and social control
  • eu enlargment
  • critic of industrial society
  • gender issue
  • western democracy as a model
  • situation in the balkans - balkans as third world
  • direct democratic alternatives to capitalism and self management
  • economic alternatives
  • what's next as an international movement ? how can we imagine a global change ? what's global in local struggle ? critic of summit hoping
  • going out of the activist ghetto
  • sustainable technology
  • pga in eastern europe

it was agreed that some specific emphasis should be placed on Balkans

• the question of content is not definite, nor closed, and the discussion on this topic will continue on PGA process list. (agreed)
• a working group that will try to help facilitate coordination for the programm and workshops will be formed.
• many proposals were made to start debates and collective work on these issues before the conference and during: questionnaries, finding questions or little text to present the different issues - having a reader where various collectives write a provocative text on different issues - having special evening events on some issues during the conference... In the end nothing was clearly agreed on this time. - at least, people will be invited to send texts or questionnaries or preparatory plans on each of this issues be fore the next meeting so that they can be clearer and rediscussed during the next preparatory meeting.

Discussion points
The question of communication before conference, workshops proposal and spreading information about conference was raised. - for workshops there will be an interactive application form on web. EuroDusney collective and DSM will work on this.

• applying for conference will not be limited for « computer users » only. Beside web form there should be a postal address as well
• PGA presentation newsletter should be spread before the conference
• other pga newsletter should be edited regularly before the conference
• but as far as I remember, the aim and content weren't really clear and it wasn't much discussed
• already existing PGA process list will be used for discussing content.

Gender issue proposals for the conference :
During the pga winter meeting in dijon in march 2003, it was collectively decided (by a group of thirty people involved with pga, people from various european countries and collectives) to give concrete proposals about gender issue for the next conference.. These proposals were linked partly with reports of sexual harassment during pga linked events, but moreover because of a feeling that the gender issue was often taken a secondary issue and discriminated inside pga and anticapitalists movements. Some people, espacially women, often involved with the network since quite a long time, felt more than fed up about it and wanted to find practical ways to push a bit more the gender issue both inside anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian movement and in society in general. These proposals were agreed by everybody at the winter meeting, a gender working group was started. The reason why these proposals were specifically rediscussed at this preparation meeting was to make sure that the pga conference conference preparation group would also agree with it, in order to know on what the gender working could concretely start to work on, and on wich basis it could make contacts with other groups struggling on gender issues.

• It was agreed to make a flyer which should be spread before the conference. Flyer should be a sort of warning on sexist attitudes, sexual abuses and harassment and ways to prevent it during the conference. It was agreed that the flyer would be included in a PGA practical guide that would be given to everybody at the conference.
• the proposal of specifically inviting feminist and anti-patriarchy collectives to participate and give workshops during the conference was also agreed on, as well as the fact to start an open questionnary on gender/anti-patriarchy struggles inside the movement. - some people also thougt that the proposals of the winter meeting were just about patriarchy inside the movement. It was explained that it wasn't, and agreed to make it clearer.
• It was proposed to make available a « men only » and « women only » space, where women and men could meet for specific discussions, and also for women as a place to feel safe in a case of sexist/sexual aggression. It was proposed as a tool of struggling against patriarchy and gender norms seen as usefull and quite usual for various people. By some participants this was seen as sort of segregation. Also, the question on « defining » women and men was raised (but left unanswered). The proposal was blocked.

Next proposition was that during the conference one whole day should be about gender issues (Gender day) in general, not only inside the movement. By some participants this was also not seen as a priority. (blocked as well)

Comment about the block:
in a group of twenty to thirty people, two people chose to block the "men" only and "women" only spaces, and the same people blocked as well the day about gender. On the other hand, various people expressed they felt shocked that such initiatives and proposals were blocked in the framework of pga and expressed their will and need to have sent on the process list some reactions and texts about gender issues in general, but also specifically on the usefullness of women-only or men-only spaces as tools to struggle against patriarchy and gender norms. Some people expressed at the time, that they wanted these feelings to appear on the report. This part of the discussion brought nevertheless strong tensions that will have to be overcome by one way or another. It was said that everybody should feel encouraged to give public feedback about this discussion. But it must also be said that the whole issue and reasons to refuse the proposal were discussed again two days later with one of the people who blocked it. Everybody should therefore also give a look at the gender group meeting report (still to come) to get more explanations. There will be also a work to give more details and explanations about the various proposals. A meeting to work specifically on gender issue was announced This group will meet after the preparatory meeting. (as said before, the gender working group was already formed during the wintermeeting and not this time)

In conclusion A debate is open till the next meeting where these proposals will be rediscussed

Monday, October 6, 2003

Two meetings were held on this day. On the first (« unofficial ») one, small group of people was present. Things that were discussed: Infrastructure.

All agreements, discussions, questions...were presented at the « big » meeting.

First meeting

Participants:
CAN, LARC, A SEED, EuroDusnie, EYFA, AZIN, DSM (Political Collective, Rebel House, Za Drugaciji Svet, BLOK)

Facilitator: M. from EuroDusnie

Agenda:

• meeting space
• sleeping space
• toilets, showers
• food
• water
• electricity
• sound system & FM radio station broadcasting
• translation
• transport during the conference
• video screens
• coordination office
• phones, mobiles
• sanitation, washing place
• garbage
• teams: medical, post
• legal group
• photocopier, printing machines
• containers - for ?personal things, bags? before the camp is built

Second meeting

Participants:
Ferme du Hayon, EuroDusnie, A SEED, Sans Titre network, EYFA, LARC, Cardiff Anarchist Network, Indymedia Nantes, Longo Mai, APCM, ZMAG, Belgrade Indymedia, AZIN, DSM (Rebel House, Political Collective, Za Drugaciji Svet, BLOK, SUS)

Facilitator: M. from EuroDusnie

– Toilets, shower

• there are some possibilities to give workshops about self-made showers and compost toilets.

– Food

• we'll try to find collective kitchens project in Serbia & Montenegro or elsewhere in the region (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Croatia - Zagreb, Pula; Bosnia & Herzegovina - Mostar; Bulgaria-Temisoara). Some of these locations will be checked out
• we first try to invite kitchens from the area and secondly to ask collective kitchens to bring hardware that can be left to create a new kitchen with local people and thirdly if it doesn't work to invite already existing collective kitchens as Rampenplan to do the cooking.
• Vegetarian food will be organized by the organisers of the conference : we invite only kitchens who will cook vegetarian but if some kitchen who cook meat come at the conference, we will not prevent them to do so.
• Deadline: 2 months

– Water, electricity

• we should be paying special attention on drainage contact plumbers and electricians

– Sound system & radio station broadcasting :

• there's a project to create a radio during the time of the conference

– pa system

• During the conference in Leiden, Power Amplification (PA) system was needed for plenary. There should be 4 smaller and 1 bigger PA. It's necessary to organize team for PA. It might be very hard to find such team in Serbia & Montenegro, and suggestion was to bring team from Holland.

– Translation

• a kit of diy simultaneous translation with small radio transmittors has been experienced
• Languages: Serbo-Croat, Russian, English, Spanish, German, French. Previous experience shows that students sometimes agree to do translation work for free as a practice. There was the proposal to invite people for sign language.
• Coordination: check in all collectives (someone is needed to do the coordination work)

– Transportation during the conference

• there should be organized transportation from the airport to the place of meeting. It's steal not possible to arrange details on this because we are still not sure about the place of the meeting.

– Sleeping and meeting spaces

• Most of the sleeping should be in camps
  But there should be also sleeping spaces for people with medical disabilities, and others who can't sleep in camps closed spaces are needed for meetings, concerts, video projections... Sleeping and meeting area should be separated, because this way confusion and overcrowding are avoided (experience from Leiden).
• Spaces that are needed:
  at least 5 spaces for 100 people approximately, during 5 days large central space for food and drink serving. Next to this place should also be an infopoint. there should also be a big gathering space for evening program

– Multimedia center :

• computers have already been brought by eurodusnie (with much troubles at the border)// there's also a project to have an indymedia conference in the balkans next summer and they could maybe bring some material after.
• equipment// theree could also be a tv//
• People are needed to coordinate it. People from print collective in dijon will be asked if they want to participate.

– créche pool / kid space

– other things listed :

• we need a phone line - an office - it would be good to use a football field because it's big and they usually have showers. - we have to ask people to bring big tents to have smaller meetings. - we could try to list people who would like to sleep at locals people houses and not to camp in case it's in a city and some people want to welcome conference participants in their houses.

– Office for coordination

DSM needs space for conference coordination.
A group who will check out possible places for office will be made, but some financial help will be necessary :

• we need a place// workspace to coordinate the conference for the dsm and the internationals coming to help.
• the space in azin could be used but it's small.
• it's nog going to be a regular working time office room and it would be better if it can be free and used all the time.
• there should be possibility to find some funds to help dsm renting an office
• some ngo's could offer them a place but people from dsm said they didn't want to have this kind of collaboration with ngo's
• dsm will take care of making this office project go further and ask for financial help.

– Other agenda points: telephones, garbage, photocopier, printing, video beam, legal team, medical team...were not discussed because of lack of time.

Date for the Conference

Proposals: last week of July, first week of August, and last week of August

Majority of people present at the meeting thought that the best time for the Conference is the end of July. One of participants first blocked this proposal, believing that the conference should be held at the beginning of July (because at that time a big music festival is held, so he thought that conference should offer some kind of alternative to this festival). At the end, consensus was achieved, and the last week of July was accepted as the best time for the conference. It was precised that the conference date will be just after an anticapitalist festival in mostar and there could be a plan of caravan from mostar to the conference. So, the PGA Conference will be held from 23-29. of July 2004. Arrivals will be on 23. July, and the 29th of july will be a day of collective deconstruction and cleaning.

Date for the next Preparatory Meeting,

Proposals:

– proposition of having an informal meeting/ conference presentation in paris during esf week (12th to 16 of november) because people involved with pga and many interested collectives will be there (N/tanneries will try to find a date and space for a preparatory meeting and make contact with the people who organize alternative events to esf) in paris) - in the end of february, there will be a wintermeeting of eyfa where we can have a presentation

It was decided that holding a next meeting in November was too soon, so this meeting on ESF will be a sort of informal meeting. For many things that should be done before the next meeting December is the deadline, so it was decided that the next meeting would be held in January. At the beginning of April will be another one, and in June will hopefully arrive people who will take part in organizing the Conference. The next PGA conference Preparatory Meeting will be in Belgrade, 10-12. of January 2004.

• this meeting should be publicised and appear on both pga newspaper and call for the conference.

Communication

Agenda:

• contact group
• goal of the conference
• newspapers
• documents of past conference
• report of this meeting
• translations
• info-points

New moderator for pga_process list was needed.

Invitation to the conference :
Groups endorsing the pga hallmarks will be invited for the conference. There was apparently a discussion to what extent groups participating should totally fit to pga hallmarks, but I think that nothing was clearly decided on that. In leiden, the participation was not limited, but everyone was informed about PGA principles. Apparently, the same tactic would be used here.

• The Pga hallmarks should appear on every call for the conference
• There should be work to contact groups that have never been involved in any PGA conference or initiative yet

Call for the Conference and for the next Preparatory Meeting in January.

Deadline for this call is: October 21, 2003.

• a call for conference will be written by dsm soon
• the text will be proposed on the process list before to be sent widely.
• it will be done as soon as possible
• the conference contact group and infopoints will find ways to translate and distribute it as widely as possible
• we agreed to have pga principles in the call and date of the next preparatory meeting.

PGA conference contact group :

• a contact group is formed, which will inform other collectives about the conference and generally spread tool of information about the conference to infopoints and people.. This contact group will start with the task to compile informations, distribute and make available ressources (pga presentation newspaper, call for the conference...), and to create a list of who has already been contacted...
• the contact work should be done mostly in a regional and decentralized way
• we have to promote the involvment of people in the preparation of the meeting and the conference
• we should forward the call widerly than the pga list - the money is a problem for people to come and we need to deal with it for the next preparatory meeting.
• there will be regular communication and report about the contact work through the pga list

A first small meeting of people from the contact group happened in austria a few days after the meeting to precise tools and objectives. A report will be sent on the process list.

Newspapers

• on the first Preparatory Meeting occured a discussion about documents/newspapers focused on PGA.
• the Newspaper should be translated on as many languages as possible. It should be placed on Internet as well, so that it could be printed and spread around.

October preparatory meeting report

• Two reports will be sent to PGA process list
• Deadline: October 14, 2003

WEB
three persons will work on the web site

radio project :
project of radio broadcast to present pga and dsm

Finances

• raising money for the Conference can be done through: benefit, left-funds, fund rising training... Every collective should try to raise some money. Mutual accounts will be opened.
• Should money be accepted from anybody? For the last conference it was not. Still, drawing the line is hard.
• responsability of every local group to raise money
• it's up to their judgments where the money comes from as long as nothing must be asked in return and as they do no publicity that specify the pga and conference.
• if they ask something in return or publicity we discuss it during the next preparation meetings

– First tasks of the finance group:

• placing the information about the money (needed) on the web site
• placing the information about the money collectives can raise (approximately) on the web site
• open public accounts

Discussion about making criteria about who should get the money (only people from Eastern Europe, or some people from Western Europe as well ? what kind of criterias ?) :

• we prioritize to give money to people who dont have any other ways to get the money than that
• People who will receive money have to come as a group or collective and sent following a group decision. And it must also be people that want to get involved in the preparation process and dont take it only as a kind of activist-tourist adventure
• the finance group will decide following these principles.
• we'll try to improve co-driving and free places annoucements before the meeting

Visas
This issue should be taken very seriously, since there was already a problem with who is allowed to enter Serbia & Montenegro. DSM will look into this, and information about visas will be included in the Invitation letter for the conference.

On decision making structure : the points of the decision making process, (e.g. what we have to decide on in pga conference, how can everybody participate, should there be plenery meetings or not...) were mentionned as really important a few times, announced on the agenda but got kind of lost in the process. It should therefore be one big point of the next preparatory meeting

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