WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Post-Socialist Europe Unconcerned

By Zoltán Dujisin Reprint | | Print |

Zoltán Dujisin* - TerraViva/IPS

PRAGUE, Jan 25 2008 (IPS) - As another crucial civil society event approaches, questions are once more raised over the almost non-existent participation of civic actors from post-socialist Europe.

In line with the World Social Forum&#39s new approach of holding several simultaneous events around the world, many European countries have announced a myriad of actions for Jan. 26, but east of Germany only Romania and the Czech Republic are shyly participating in the WSF&#39s Global Action Day.

There is seemingly no simple explanation for this notable absence: outsiders, authorities, the media and civic actors all seem to be contributing to the sad state of affairs in central-eastern Europe&#39s activist scene.

Although the WSF charter of principles has set as one of its goals the multiplication of social forums around the world, there are voices in central-eastern Europe that claim this has been discouraged by elements of the forum itself.

A short-lived attempt at organising a Central and Eastern European Social Forum (CEESF), which was meant to counter the low representation of the region in the European Social Forum (ESF) and to bring social movements closer to the realities of the region, ended abruptly in 2005. As its raison d&#39être the CEESF cited specific regional concerns caused by what it calls a badly managed systemic adaptation to globalisation: the spread of extreme-right ideas, elite-driven nationalism, the rise in poverty and unemployment and lack of food security.

"To organise a CEESF you need some financial and moral support, but the hidden leadership of the ESF blocked our initiative for political reasons," Matyas Benyik, head of ATTAC-Hungary and one of the founders of the CEESF initiative told TerraViva/IPS.

Members of the ESF claimed the decision was taken to avoid further dividing Europe into Western and Eastern blocks, but Benyik remained unconvinced by the justification. "The social forum doesn&#39t allow parties to participate but they, together with governmental organisations, are against our idea," Benyik said.

Asked to elaborate on the entities behind the ESF&#39s decision and their motives, Benyik accused traditional left-wing European parties such as the Italian Communist Rifondazione or the French Communist Party of thwarting the initiative.

"Whatever is connected to the past (communism in central-eastern Europe) is not welcomed by those left parties in the west that pursue a neo-liberal agenda. These parties are losing ground, and they are trying to find a social base in the social forum by manipulating and dominating the process," Benyik said.

Benyik explained how political interests achieve this. "Many civic organisations in the forum are not civic organisations but rather a disguise for parties or ruling elites."

The failure of similar events in the region could be attributed to a highly fragmented scene that lacks a collective identity. This is certainly the case for the Czechs, according to Marta Kolarova, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences in Prague who recently studied the phenomenon.

"Socialists and anarchists have many disputes," she told TerraViva/IPS. "Anarchists organised the protests against globalisation, IMF, NATO etc. but the Social Forum was organised by Trotskyites. That is why there was such a low participation."

"The Forum had low participation, it was a very small event and almost nobody knew about it. There was mostly an academic presence but not much action," the researcher said.

Participants in the civil society scene in the region agree that besides discouragement, there are deeper structural problems behind the little engagement with international social movements. Left-wing movements are seen with suspicion and frequently viewed in media and political circles as stubbornly struggling against an inevitable process of globalisation.

"Anti-globalisation protests are connected with violence in the Czech Republic and NGOs don&#39t want to be associated with this," said Kolarova.

The actions of many members of the civil society are also being limited by an excessive dependency on donor-driven programmes, often at the expense of complying with grassroots demands. These accusations are accentuated in the post-Soviet regions where NGOs have been entangled in a geo-political struggle between Russia and the West over the control of Russia&#39s immediate neighbourhood.

Benyik&#39s assessment of the region&#39s civic movements was harsh: "I would call them fakes, as a lot of them are part of the old regime and have only reorganised themselves, while others are just too dependent on donors and lack any independence."

"NGOs are project-oriented and get funding from big institutions like the European Union and cannot really protest against them," Kolarova said. "They are mostly working on projects of a very practical nature and not on larger issues such as war and globalisation."

In the Czech Republic the "No Bases" initiative plans to protest against U.S. plans to set up a missile defence system in Polish and Czech territory, but the topic is still tied up with a major domestic political battle between the Czech government and the opposition.

Many central-eastern European civic groups contacted by TerraViva/IPS failed to provide an explanation about the lack of interest for participating in the WSF, or even seemed to be unaware of it.

The region is still entangled in severe ideological, socioeconomic and cultural challenges. More worried about regaining, improving or far exceeding the living standards enjoyed under state socialism, there is little concern for internationally relevant topics in these fast-changing societies.

"People are still more concerned with surviving, there is a lack of solidarity for others, and we are told individuals are more important than the community," explained Benyik. "These ideological suggestions are supported by the media and lead to an atomisation of society."

In a region where individualism has been politically encouraged and legitimised only over the past two decades, calls for international solidarity can easily be dismissed as resembling the now widely rejected communist ideological slogans.

Local authorities, trade unions and churches have also failed to provide the necessary financial resources that social movements in other parts of the world tend to get. "Participation in the WSF is very expensive even with a strong civil society, but we are lacking support from these institutions," Benyik told TerraViva/IPS.

However it is only a matter of time until civic movements find their rightful place, the activist seemed to imply. "Following the systemic change, these former socialist countries had a very weak civil society. After 40 years of living under socialism we need time to get a real civic background."

(This report was published Jan. 15 by TerraViva, an IPS group publication)