So, the Peoples Global Action conference in Belgrade is finally over.
There had been many interesting innovations regarding PGA structures in Europe- reformulation of the global days of action, establishment of "global estaffete" and "global launch", with "torch of rebellion", which I find to be very nice ideas- then new infopoints, new collective willing to organize a winter meeting, decision about global conference in Nepal, report from Asia where the process was never so strong as it is now, very successful model of spoke council ( first time introduced on pga conferences), new model of convernorship... My feeling is that PGA is definitely on the upswing. Conference leaves PGA in a much healthier place. As a comrade from PGA wrote, "PGA is about as difficult to nail into a coffin as the proverbial phoenix. Hopefully, we are witnessing now its actual state of incarnation."
Few people are working on a report from the conference. Coming soon.
On the downside, problems of the conference were: Eastern European outreach ( not so many activists from Eastern Europe, certainly less then we expected, with the notable exception of Greek activists), stark difference between lifestylist anarchist on one side and social anarchists and libertarian Marxists on the other, many week points in logistic preparation of the conference....
From the local point, the one of the local convenors, the conference was a huge local success.
Why?
- During the conference there was a workers assembly organized, with participation of seven struggling workers communities from all over Serbia. Around 200 workers attended the meeting. Interesting international debate with workers from Greece and Belgium. Workers established a "coordination for the fight against the privatization" and there was a common press declaration as well as establishing a time table of direct actions and meetings, beginning from 1st of September .
- Refugee assembly was organized in one of the camps- there sre 484 refugee camps in Serbia- which was carefully prepared, together with an international debate between local refugees and international friends from Universal Embassy.
- A whole series of meetings with different Roma communities were organized and local coordination was formed.
- There has been a really good debate about the Balkans, with around 100 people present, and there is a proposal about new Balkan anti capitalist coordination based on pga hallmarks. First meeting is going to be held, most probably, in Thessalonica.
- We had a really interesting presentation of the "Erased" ("rubbed out") from Slovenia.
- Excellent gender day with participation of a good number of post YU feminist and gay and lesbian groups.
- Debate was organized with asylum seekers, Chinese migrants and Romanian undocumented workers.
- Nice samba direct action at the last day, with reclaim the streets kind of an action.
As for the mainstream press...
Situation is not naive. Almost all front-pages of Serbian dailies are full of pictures of rioters (from Genoa and other places) saying that "Peoples Global Action is training the workers, giving them tips how to block roads and deal with police....". PGA is, according to right wing press, "behind all demonstrations in Serbia".
We are in a very uncomfortable position. On one hand, it is almost funny, because I don't think that PGA was so much promoted in right wing press since Geneva in 1998. ( almost every daily has a report about "antiglobalists blocking whole Serbia"- one title among so many) and on the other it is ominous because it is, of course, an action of big business lobby with intention to distract the attention from the real causes of the protests, discovering an "organizer from abroad" ( old technique state was entertaining in 70's when "communist busses" were coming to Germany to "train workers in strike"); this could be an introduction to more serious state repression. There is already some attempts in this regard.
In any case, PGA made headlines here. Big time. Visibility, heh?
But, more seriously, this could turn out to be a very dangerous game.
We'll see.
I am attaching some reports/announcements re "off Broadway" debates held in Cultural Center.
ACTION DAYS IN BELGRADE
Student Cultural Centre, Kralja Milana 48, Belgrade
phone: +381.11.2682.351, fax: +381.11. 360.2025Tuesday 27th of July 2004 at 21h: Transit migration project presentation,video and audio performans, discussion with the authors of the YU-related part of this international transdisciplinary research, film and exhibition project.
Wednesday 28th of July 2004 at 21h The Erased of Slovenia Pre-premiere of the movie directed by Dimitar Anakiev, followed by a discussion with Aleksandar Todorovic, it's main protagonists, and the activists from Dostje!
Thursday 29th of July 2004 - 18h to 24h: Peoples´ Global Action
Visibility day of the 3rd European conference of the PGA network in BelgradeIF IT RAINS, ALL THE PROGRAMS WILL BE HELD INDOORS
Garden of the Student Cultural Centre
Kralja Milana 48, Belgrade
Tuesday 27th of July 2004 at 21hTransit migration
Dont Rhine (Ultrared, Los Angeles)
Manuela Bojadziev (Kanak Attak, Frankfurt)
Rutvica Andrijasevic (Transgenderation)
- project presentation...
- ...video and audio performans...
- ...discussion with the authors
Transitmigration is an international transdisciplinary research, film and exhibition project. It is focused on the links between the new European border controll systems and the transnational migration movements cross those borders. It explores the issue of the transnatiolnalization of Europe from the viewpoint of it's peripheries, as well as fhe strategies of distancing the 'Fortress Europe' from its eastern and southern territories. Transmigration is to result with textual material, workshops, international symposia in Athens and Cologne, script for a migrative tele-novella, a film, artistic and photographic works, and finally with a show show in cooperation with DOMIT e.V. and the Kölnischer Kunstverein.
- visibility of borders ...
- ... invisibility of border controll systems....
- ...authonomy of migration
WEB LINKS:
Transit Migrations:
http://www.transitmigration.org/homekonzept_e.html
Rutvica Andrijasevic: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Rutvica.Andrijasevic/personal/
Ultra-red: http://home.earthlink.net/~dontr/id1.html
Kanak Attak: http://www.kanak-attak.de/Garden of the Student Cultural Centre
Kralja Milana 48, Beograd
Wednesday 28th of July 2004 at 21hThe Erased of Slovenia
Pre-premiere of the movie directed by Dimitar Anakiev, followed by a discussion with Aleksandar Todorovic, it's main protagonists, and the activists from Dostje!In 1992 the Slovene state erased 18305 people from the register of permanent residence {according to the official data of the Slovene Ministry of Internal Affairs}. The majority of the erased originate from other republics of the former Yugoslavia and had permanent residence in Slovenia before 1992. The erasure means that you have no documents and that you loose all social rights - the right to work, the right to an apartment, the right for education, social and health security. The erasure means that you are a stranger in your own country. The hypothesis of the movie is that erasure was a Slovene variant of ethnical cleansing in the framework of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Ten years after the erasure the erased organized themselves in the Association of the Erased Inhabitants of Slovenia. As a result of their fight the Slovene Constitutional Court declared the erasure as an unconstitutional act and demanded that all erased should get back their permanent residence from the day of the erasure onwards. Meanwhile the question of the erased became not only a legal but also a political problem. The Slovene nationalistic right started a xenophobe campaign against the erased and the so called left has proven once again that their only interest is only power and not rights. So in the pre-election year the erased have become an object of a game between parties. The decision of the Constitutional Court has not been taken into practice and the political parties are doing everything to prevent the actualisation of the decision. The activists of the Dostje! network are convinced that the problem of the erased is indicating the necessity of the constitution of a new political space beyond political parties, a solidarity network. Dostje! group is a new political subjectivity that arose from the movement for a different globalization. They define the erased as an paradigmatic example of explotation in the era of neoliberal globalization. They argue that all ethnical cleansings and aggressive nationalisms in the 1990s have supported the neoliberal economic and social project. For the movements for a different globalization the fight against nationalism is the primary task.
The director of the movie Dimitar Anakiev is an autonomous movie author and has been erased himself. The original title of the movie is »Rubbed Out«, it lasts 45 minutes and is mainly in Serbian language with English subtitles. The main protagonist is Aleksandar Todorovic, the president of the association of the erased. Trough the testimony of one of the erased the movie is presenting the microphysics of power trough which we can read the whole complex of relations in contemporary society.
Dostje! is an informal network, a communicative and activists project that explores the structures of power and the forms of resistance in the period of globalization.
WEB LINKS:
about the movie: www.kdzvezda.orgo
about dostje: www.dostje.orgStudent Cultural Centre
Kralja Milana 48, Beograd
Thursday 29th of July 2004 from 18h to 24hPeoples´ Global Action
Visibility day of the 3rd European conference of the Peoples´ Global Action (PGA) network in Belgrade:Peoples Global Action is a global network of local struggles, worldwide network that works towards a durable political, social, borderless and directly democratic alternative to capitalism and all systems of oppression, far away from the logic of parties , states and ideological aparatuses of the state (etatized trade unions, NGO's and so on and so forth). It is a place where anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist initiatives meet. Drugaciji Svet je Moguc! ( Another World is Possible!) coalition is the European convener of this PGA conference. It is a group of groups, collective of collectives based in Belgrade, striving to create a new political space unaffiliated with political parties or the so-called non-governmental sector. The earliest European convenors were "Reclaim the Streets", a group with its roots in radical ecology and road protests that had helped renew anti-capitalist direct action techniques, notably through the use of street parties as blockades and by establishing connections with workers' organisations such as the Liverpool dockers or London Underground workers. In Asia, convenership work has been done by organisations like KRRS, an Indian farmers' union with a membership of several million, best-known for setting fire to Monsanto GM crop fields, and the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements, a national platform of grassroots movements from the whole country (which includes Narmada Bachao Andolan, the National Fisherfolk Forum, the Union of Landless Labourers of Andhra Pradesh, etc). The current Asian convenor is the Krishok Federation (the landless or otherwise marginalised peasant movement) from Bangladesh. In Latin America, PGA has gathered very diverse cultures and backgrounds, from CONFEUNASCC, a small-scale farmers' union in Ecuador, Movimiento de la Juventud Kuna, the Bolivian cocalero movement in Chapare, to the Colombian Process of Black Communities.
Program
1: Big space
18h-20h- Presentation of the PGA (Peoples' Global Action): speakers from India, Bangladesh, USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Australia, Europe. Topics: history of global movements from 1994, seven reasons why to confront the European Union, against privatization, on ecology, on gender equality, on how to sabotage capitalism while having fun.Program
2: Small space
18h-24h- "20 stories of direct actions around the world" ( Undercurrents video collective)Program
3: Garden
22h- 24h -...h Peoples Global Party - how to sabotage capitalism while having fun.
Belgrade Conference | pga europe | www.agp.org | www.pgaconference.org