We, Globalization from Below, call for the second meeting of the Nordic network. The meeting will take place 25-27 April in Stockholm.

The first meeting of the network was held in Copenhagen in October 2002.

Then it was called the Nordic PGA-forum. The network is based on the 5 hallmarks of the People's Global Action (www.agp.org).

With the summit protests a temporary rise for the left was created. This power has been difficult to convey on a local level to the gray conflicts of every day life. We think that we must try to generalize the summit struggle out to the entire society. How can we politicize peoples invisible struggles? How can already existing struggles be strengthened, coordinated and connected? How can we reach beyond the reactivity, and instead set our own agenda? These are some questions we believe are important to discuss end develop.

We want a broad co-operation for the future struggle and therefore we invite a multitude of groups working with everything from environmental issues to feminist struggle.

This is a first invitation with the most important information in this very moment. More information is to come.

Everyone that agrees with the hallmarks are welcome!

For more information or questions:
gu@motkraft.net

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalization;
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organizations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker;
4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximize respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism;
5. An organizational philosophy based on decentralization and autonomy.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The globalization movement and summit protests have created a global rise for the leftwing. Seattle, Genua and Gothenburg opened up for social forums and now most recent the global day of action with twelve million people participating in demonstrations against the war.

But there are signs that the leftwing upsurge is flattening out. The summitprotest doesn't make the same headlines in media and the governing powers have learned how to counter the protests. Our problem has been to transfer the mobilization to other areas, and bring them back to the gray conflicts of everyday life. How do we "generalize" the summit protests to the whole of society?

CIRCULATION OF STRUGGLES

We are today standing in front of the same project as before the summit protests broke out:

1. We must be succesful to start struggles or to make ongoing struggles visible.
2. We must connect the struggles, make them circulate and spread to other areas and involve more people. We must make some kind of connection, a transversal between them, that makes them strengthen each other in their simultaneity; communicating and relating to each other.
3. We must move them away from reactivity. We can't let others set the agenda and only reply on the latest reactionary mobilization or capitalist restructuring. We must be able to take the initiative, leave the usual rules for the game and set the agenda by our self.
4. We must break us out of the formula "struggle->repression->anti-repression" and find inclusive and developing methods to act inside conflicts.

Issues we should discuss (please send us your own suggestions):

1. Workplaces.
2. Communities
3. Commons (Health care, privatizations, public transportation, citizen's income)
4. Schools
5. Prisons
6. Global war
7. Borders

LESSONS

There is a lot to learn from the summit protests that we should use in other struggles. It was the extraparliamentary left that created this upsurge, through several methods:

1. Diversity of tatics. The protests were based on a multiplicity of tactics. Everybody could participate in their own way, and it was possible to create spaces for different kinds of militancy and radicalism.
2. The creation of a common image of an enemy. The movement was made of "one no - many yesses". The diversity was different from the identity politics because different issues weren't pitted against each other, but rather linked together in a struggle against a common system: against the neoliberal economic globalization and its institutions.
3. Common channels of communication. Through IMC, PGA, social forums and different networks a common public space was created that connected struggles and contributed to a feelings of simultaneity.
4. Global days of action. One of the most important ingredients to create a global feeling of simultaneity.

OPENESS & COMMUNICATION

One of the importent goals we must reach in our struggles is to make them expand, circulate and spread. The "openess" is here an important part.

The struggles must:

1. Create participation and be inclusive. They must involve more people in the existing struggles.
2. We must consider how we communicate through our struggles. Which signals are we sending out, which images and myths are we creating and how can we make others relate to them.
3. We must use the "openess" as a protection: to make other organizations trust us, create support for our actions, methods and analyses. The struggles must create consensus (horisontal) and conflicts (vertical).
4. We must use "shields": other social movements, parties and media as a protection against repression and to create legitimacy for our struggle. Ex: The border crossing to the EU-summit in Copenhagen, the election campaign in Finland.
5. Which forums, netprojects and magazines can we work inside, communicate through and develop theory in. Ex: IMC, Motkraft/Modkraft/Yelah, the nordic PGA-mailinglist, websites, netprojects.

LABORATORIES & ENQUIRES

The globalization movement has shown us that we can't repeat a winning concept again and again. The movement must be kept in motion. We must always be moving to new areas and cross boundaries and limits. Also the development of our struggles demands that were participating and investigating - even in our research we must keep moving and take part as activists. We must create laboratories that produces activity. Struggles must be developed out of our needs and demands. But we must also make sure that we don't get stuck in local reactive narrow struggles and be able to plan more further ahead, expand, move beyond everyday struggles to build a anti-capitalist movement.

RE/ACTIVITY

Struggle takes several forms. For example purely reactive: as a confrontative struggle against being subordinate, to limit exploatation. But also an active setting of the agenda: it's a fleeing struggle that is keeps itself away from the manegment and exploatation of capital. When we develop struggles we must make sure that we consider both of these forms and build on an actual existing struggle, even if it's invisible, individualised, isolated and spontaneous._

The left wing has traditionally had a perspective on power that state and capital has been seen as active, and the working class and the social movements as reactive. We have been subject to use of power and oppression from above, which has created a resistance from below that has confronted the powers. With this perspective, we haven't chosen the struggles by ourselves, but have only been forced to react on the oppression we have been subjected to. According to this perspective the power from above functions negative and limiting for our needs and desires.

Other people in the left have with Foucalt turned the perspective and see the working class as active and the capital as reactive. Our needs and desires are productive, they result in self-activity and a "constituant power" from below. The capital reacts on this productivity, "captures" and exploits it. In this perspective capital is functioning as a parasite. The struggles takes the form of one who flees, a "flight" where we set the agenda and a refusal to put our productivity in the favor of capital. "Flight is not about isolating ourselves from the world in the wilderness, but an active refusal of work, border crossings, refusal to pay for public transportation, and different kinds of "auto-valorizations".

When we talk about concepts as "disobedience" or "resistance" we don' t meen merely the negative part, the refusal to obey - but also the active one who flees: to find new forms outside of the controll of capital to use our creativity to satisfy our needs. We can choose confrontation when the conditions of power are right or we can turn our weakness to our advantage. With the "flight" we flee repression and decide for ourselves how to act.

QUESTIONS

1. Which struggles are happening around you? Which are you participating in and which happen outside the "movement"? What is the character of the struggles (open or hidden, mass struggles or "individual")?
2. How do these struggles communicate with each other? How do they communicate internally and externally (media, organization, symbols)?
3. How do you try to create simultaneity and connect the struggles ( gathering concepts, days of action, coordination)?
4. Is there a diversity of tactics being used? Which tactics can cooperate and which are in conflict?
5. What is holding the movement together (method, enemyimage, analysis, a common history)?
6. Which broader open forums are you working inside (social forums, networks, coordinations of social movements)?
7. What kind of shields are you using against repression?
8. What is the relation between theory and praxis? Is there a theoretical discussion connected to the struggles?
9. Which kind of "laboratories" are you using to start struggles and create activity (journeys, courses, training for actions). What kind of "enquires" do you use to develop the struggles (workplace enquires, evaluations, study groups)?

TEXTS

You can find texts for the meeting on:
http://www.ulydighed.dk/nordisk
nordic network for an alternative globalization