The idea of convening a new European meeting of activists of the alter-globalization movement and its surroundings was born between Genoa and Florence during the meetings on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the G8 counter-summit in 2001 and the European Social Forum in Florence in 2002 It was in that passage that the European networks of activists had the opportunity to meet again after years in which first the economic crisis, then Covid, then the wars had distanced and fragmented the movement for another possible world and dried up its capacity. of mobilization of Social Forums.
The commitment to meet again was maintained with a generous effort by the French associations, in Marseille, a multi-ethnic city governed by the left which, as the 2013 European capital of culture, also inherited the suitable spaces: the large tobacco factory of La Belle de Mai, disused and now a public place of experimentation, creation and cultural enjoyment, in particular of youth cultures, managed by a social cooperative. A suitable place also for the numerous spaces available.
Three days of discussion, 76 seminars, four plenary assemblies, a thousand participants from almost all European countries, including, this time, also Eastern countries. The ECSA (European Common Space for Alternatives) in Marseille perhaps did not have the breadth of other meetings, but it was an occasion in which activists from all over Europe exchanged opinions, experiences and telephone numbers. With the promise of returning to work together, at least on the major issues affecting the planet: European rearmament and war, climate change, the advance of the right, the continuous erosion of the European welfare state.
It is not yet a restart, but perhaps a passing of the baton, judging by the quantity of young people, boys and especially girls, who participated by personally managing working groups, assemblies, drawing up conclusions with an inclusive and participatory method. Also new, at least for us who came from Italy, was the large and active presence of activists, sons and daughters of immigration, permanently in Europe, who have fully entered the leadership of many organizations. Which in Italy is still far from having happened.
And it was perhaps also due to this large presence that, given the unhesitating solidarity towards the Palestinian population subject to occupation and apartheid and now genocide, the entire meeting was strongly permeated by the decolonial discourse.
Evidence of this is not only the insistence on this theme, which emerged in many seminars and is connected to many issues, starting with climate change expressed in terms of the North’s debt towards the South and migration seen as a consequence of neocolonial trade policies. In the conclusions of the working group on European identity, colonization is indicated as the true root of this identity. Among other things, we also discussed the campaign for the establishment of a “European Day for the Remembrance of the Victims of Colonialism”, which I proposed on behalf of Un Ponte Per and which could take shape in the coming years.
The possible welding/alliance between the social, pacifist, feminist, environmental and rights struggles in Europe with the tendency of the Global South to free itself from dependence on the centre, which can be read in many more recent episodes of international politics, can perhaps be glimpsed as a trend to watch carefully.
Another aspect that has worried and has affected ECSA is the alarm over the spread and growth, within governments, political forces and among the population, of far-right and fascist tendencies. Italy is widely cited, as an example of the first country among the founders of post-war Europe to be governed by a political force of neo-fascist extraction, with the fear that the contagion could spread to other central countries. Numerous appeals to form a common front against the right.
The large youth presence brought a burst of anti-capitalist radicalism which was confronted with a more calm and reflective posture of the “old guards”, not so much in terms of analyses, but rather in terms of accents. However, it was not a clash, but rather a confrontation in which everyone questioned themselves and each other on the best way to counter the growth of the right, between the search for broad alliances and revolutionary calls.
What seemed visible to me here in Marseille is that a new radical, optimistic and combative generation of young people, boys and girls, white and black, with a great ability to network on the continent and who look to the future with the hope and the desire to change it. In the coming years they could be a serious obstacle to Europe’s seemingly unstoppable return to an armed neocolonial power and Western suprematism. And perhaps this is already starting in US universities.
