III INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY  OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SOCIAL FORUM

PERVOLIA, CYPRUS, 26-28 MARCH 2004

MEDSF METHODOLOGY SESSION

Since the start of the international organization toward the Forum, a series of issues have worried the networks that take part in the international assembly:
 

1. The extension (diffusion) process of the Forum: not all the Mediterranean territories have been reached, and those that have need more information. The steps taken (meetings in Dubrovnik, El Cairo, Catania...) have proven to be successful. Because of this, we believe that it would be useful to spread news about the Forum through specific activities that would be included in many Mediterranean organizations agendas.

2. Internal communication: it is necessary to invigorate the Forums electronic maillists.

3. Different working habits between social movements and organizations in North, South and East.

4. There is a need to structure a real working network in all the Mediterranean shorelines to put the alterworld struggles into action.

In this sense, the Barcelona secretariat suggested during the working session in Barcelona and the Cyprus Assembly (with the Barcelona suggestions incorporated) the creation of a new working structure and a new methodology that would allow these problems to be solved.

The proposal keeps the proposed structure in Rabat and Naples (Assembly, three working commissions, programme, extension and infrastructure & finances, and a technical secretariat), but adds an INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION GROUP, which was agreed upon during the Cyprus assembly.

This international coordination group should help to:

• Facilitate the FSMed process.

• Help towards the extension needs (diffusion) of the FSMed.

The international coordination groups main characteristic is that it must follow the basic principles of the Forum. Therefore, it must be an open group, self summoned and guided by the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum.

This international coordination group will take into account the following criteria:

• Its members must belong to the different working commissions (programme, infrastructure and finance and extension). The international coordination group is based in these commissions work.

• Balance between Northern, Southern and Eastern participants.

• Gender equality.

• It must reflect the diversity present in the Mediterranean, and its significance.

Another fundamental reason to create this international coordination group is the need to both harmonize the process and to have a global view of what is going on during the organization process toward the Forum.

In any case, this coordination group will not take decisions nor make agreements, that belong to the assembly.

The basic duties of this group are:

• Invigorate the process and make suggestions to the working commissions.

• Keep watch over the political decisions taken by the assembly.

• Follow up process between assemblies.

• Prepare the next international assembly.

The international coordiation group meetings will take place:

• Between international assemblies.

• The day before the international assembly, so that it allows the assembly to be prepared and also encourage participation through minimizing expenses of the participants.

• It is necessary to boost the work through the maillist (coordinacio-grup@fsmed.info)

This groups capability to work will depend on funding possibilities. In this sense, it is agreed that all organizations implied in the process will be partly responsible for part of the travel expenses. The Barcelona Technical Secretariat does not take responsibility for all of this groups expenses.

(Written by Mnica Sabata)
 

INFRASTRUCTURE AND FINANCE COMMISSION

The Infrastructure and Finance Commission informs the Assembly that, due to the postponement of the FSMed and the problems witnessed at the European Social Forum in Paris, mainly originated by the distances between places where it was held, the venue for the FSMed has been changed. Instead of the university spaces and civic centres originally planned, a 40,000 m2 has been booked in the Montjuic Fair, where different exhibitions and conferences are constantly held. This will allow us to have all the acts, talks and seminars in one single venue, thus facilitating participation in all activities. The Fair (Fira de Montjuich), is near the Plaza de Espaa, a very central location with many public transport options at hand.

As was suggested in this Commissions meetings during the Naples Assembly, we insist on the need of total transparency in everything related to finances. In this sense, the Barcelona Technical Secretariat hands out to those present a detailed relation of income and expenses of the Secretariat at the moment. It also gives a first draft of the budget proposal, insisting on its draft status, as it has been prepared without the Assemblys specific criteria on financing.

Because of its host status, the Barcelona Technical Secretariat will take on part of the organization expenses, seeking funding from local government agencies (Town Council, Parliament and the Catalunya Generalitat). In accordance to the main target agreed upon by the Commission in Naples, which calls for all the institutional donations to be public and destined to specific expenses, the Technical Secretariat has started negotiations for local government institutions to pay for rent of spaces needed, physical structures for conference halls and seminar rooms, and the simultaneous translation equipment.

We will have 1 hall with seating available for 2,500 people; 2 halls for 1,500 people; and 40 rooms for between 200 and 300 people; all of them with equipment for simultaneous translation, service which will be provided by the volunteer translators of Babels. We plan to install 5 cabins per hall, which would allow translation to 6 languages.

The Infrastructure Commission suggests that the Assembly take into consideration the inscription fares for organizations and individual participants, as well as for seminar organization, experiences and stand spaces, with the following amounts:

Individual inscription fares:

• Students, jobless and Southern shoreline participants: 10

• Workers with income lower than 1200 : 20

• All others: 30

Organization fares:

• Inscription (includes 1^st participant fare): 50

• Seminars: 250

• Experiences: 100

• Stand rental: 300 (to those organizations involved in the Forum preparation process, the charge will be 50% of this amount)

It is suggested to increase the mentioned charges by 10%, as a contribution to the Solidarity Fund.

Always with full transparency as the main financing criteria, the Commission plans to seek contributions from foundations not linked to companies, and from the wealthiest social organizations and trade unions. Also, it asks the organizations and national networks involved to present, within a two month period, an outline about their financial contribution capabilities.

We consider necessary to diversify the income to guarantee economic viability not only of the first FSMed, but, above all, of its future continuity.

We also consider essential to guarantee the participation of all social movements based in the Mediterranean shoreline, for which a Solidarity Fund is suggested with 300,000 in funds, to help those organizations and movements that do not have enough means to attend the Forum.

With respect to the preparatory process, as a general criteria, we plan to subsidize travel for two individuals from each country or nation of the Southern shoreline, to participate in the general Assembly, anticipating three more assemblies before the Forum.

Also, it is considered necessary to intensify the extension tasks, by contributing the necessary means to reach those territories less involved so far in the preparation process of the Forum.

The Technical Secretariat manifests that it cannot commit itself to cover all these expenses of the International Coordination Commission, reason why it asks the Northern shoreline organizations involved to contribute toward these expenses.

(Written by Luis Blanco)

EXTENSION COMMISSION

1. Communication

1.1. External communication: creation of an electronic newsletter:

• The editorial criteria will be responsibility of the International Coordination Group, with the Secretariats technical support;

• The writing up will depend on two working centres (Lina Mahmoud will be responsible for the Southern one, while the Northern one has not yet been designated).

• The proposal will be facilitated by Vicent Garcs.

The newsletter will be organized in three parts:

• FSMed preparation process information;

• Mobilisation agenda information;

• Debates and issues in depth.

1.2 Internal Communication:

• The web page must be more active (Sumer Alun)

• The maillists must work better

• An electronic forum must be created

1.3 The Babels network will be thoroughly involved in the FSMed preparation.

2. Visas

2.1 Planning: All meetings must be planned at least two months in advance.
 

2.2 Visa follow-up:

• The organizations responsible for invitations must send copies of the invitations to the diplomatic representatives of the countries involved, along with a letter supporting the visa application that the invited participant will request.

• Each of the countries involved in the FSMed must have a correspondent who will be the Forums interlocutor with those interested in attending, to inform them of the requisites and steps to obtain a visa.

2.3 Political campaign: it has been decided to launch a campaign aimed at the public opinion, politicians and institutions, to promote freedom of movement of Mediterranean citizens among shoreline countries. This campaign will start during the Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting which will take place in Dublin on May 5 and 6, 2004.

3. Agenda and Thematic lines

3.1 Elaboration and touching up of an international agenda:

• We will call on each country to send the dates of their agenda to the Commission.

• A group will facilitate the agendas updating

3.2 Activities agenda of the International Coordination Group

3.3 Facilitation of the regional work dynamics with regards to the thematic lines.

3.4 Contact and stirring into action with and on the absent regions in the process (Balcans)

3.5 Relations with institutional processes

(Written by Jean-Luc Cipiere)

PROGRAMME COMMISSION

The Mediterranean Social Forum will design its programme on seven thematic lines:

• Democracy, citizenship and human rights of men and women

• Conflicts, military occupations, militarism and peace

• Economic, social and cultural rights, and development models. Work and conflicts

• Migration

• Cultural diversity and transcultural dialogues

• Development model and environmental sustainability

• Women and Mediterranean

At the beginning of the document a phrase will be added which will make evident the transversality of the womens issue. In this sense, there was an effort to make evident the presence of women in each of the thematic lines.

The document will also include education.

In this version of each of the thematic lines, some issues raised by those present in the meeting have been added.

A general title for the Mediterranean Social Forum is agreed upon (which had already been suggested in Naples): MEDITERRANEAN: A SEA OF RIGHTS

There will be a call for participation jointly with the Extension Commission. It must be a text with an important pedagogical focus. It will be considered to add other reference documents about the Forum.

It is suggested and accorded that for the definition of each of the subthemes of each thematic lines, a definition process be started.

The possibility to hold specific activities and talks is encouraged by the numbers given by the Infrastructure Commission. FSMed will have: 9 large talks, between 260 and 280 activities in halls with a capacity to 200-300 people (seminars and experiences).

A working calendar is suggested, and agreed upon, for the programme design, with three more International Assemblies in mind, and the Forum in Barcelona.

• September 2004. IV International Assembly in France: finishing the subtheme definition of the thematic lines, large conferences, and call out for topics proposals for seminars and experiences.

• January 2005. V International Assembly: large conferences and beginning of preparation for seminars and experiences.

• April 2005. Final programme.

• 16, 17, 18 and 19 June 2005. Mediterranean Social Forum in Barcelona.

It is also suggested that there be an extension effort on each of the subthemes that the assemblies have defined for each thematic line.

(Written by Monica Sabata)

AGREEMENTS ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION GROUP

The International Coordination Group is open to participation from all organizations and social movements that want to take part in its process.

To ensure its operations there needs to be a fundraising effort for the airfares for Southern participants. A solidarity fund will be created for this purpose, to which all organizations involved will contribute.

This International Coordination Group consists on the work done by the different commissions.

The working commissions elected the groups members with the following criteria:

• Gender equality.

• Territorial equality.

• They must be people involved in the design process.

To guarantee this groups performance, a minimum of 13 members is agreed upon, with the following distribution:

• Extension Commission:

• Aida Touma - Suliman

• Noureddine El Harra

• Jean-Luc Cipiere

• Gianni Fabris

• Programme Commission

• Congres Mondiale Amazigh (a woman, tbc)

• Francesca Spampinato

• Cyprus Social Forum (name tbc)

• Sheriff Hatata

• Raida Hatoum

• Infrastructure and Finance Commission

• Luis Blanco

• Someone from the Balcans

• 2 people from the Barcelona Technical Secretariat (women)

(Written by Monica Sabata)

WOMENS ASSEMBLY
 

The womens assembly was mixed, as even when most participants were women, there were also a few men. The nationalities gathered were: Cyprus (Greek-Cypriots), Palestine, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Spanish State (Andaluca, Catalua), Libya, Turkey, Italy, Malta, Argelia.

At the beginning, we were around thirty people. The meeting started with general interventions on topics like:

• If we want a one or one and a half day womens assembly at the FSMed.

• How we see transversality.

• Extend the FSMed to other women, as individuals and as groups.

• Preoccupation about differences between North and South, and the diverse realities that women from all countries in the region live. Participation from the South should be guaranteed, but also that of the Balcans, region which was not present at the meeting.

• Doubts about if it is ideal for women to meet apart.

After a while of general interventions, the Rabat and Naples meetings were remembered, in which a few agreements were made, so we did not start from scratch.

Accords and reflections for our work

• The womens assembly will be held, if possible in accordance with the general programme, on the Friday afternoon, to allow for as many women to be present.

Here is how we imagine this event:

Womens testimonies, experience exhibition, other talks... In our minds the different realities must always be present, and we must prepare an event that helps us all. What came through very clearly is that the assembly will finish with a party.

Transversality. Women do not want to be vases (ornaments) in the FSMed. We ask that each central talk of the seven thematic lines, have women expert on the topic linking the thematic line with that of gender (focusing on the topic as women). This does not mean that women should not participate in other seminars, workshops and wherever they like. But as women who are organizing this Forum, we must guarantee a minimum appearance and value what interests us most. In any case we must realice that we are in a design process of the FSMed, and that nothing is yet definitive.

Central talk of the thematic line Women and Mediterranean. The topic will be patriarchy. This is present in all Mediterranean cultures and all of the regions women suffer it. This issue can unify us. We could think on three of four women of different regions specialized on the topic. It was suggested to invite a man to our round-table in order to offer an overview of the womens movement contributions to social movements and organizations, in the whole. There was a special reference about avoiding anyone to come and give lessons to women on how we had to practice feminism.
 

The conference is open to all, it has the same rank as any other central talks of the other thematic lines. Us women have to make the proposal of who will take part and when we want to hold it. I say this to clarify that it is outside the womens assembly. We can suggest that it takes place before the assembly, or after, that is on Saturday morning. We must think what would be the best formula.

Seminars. The topics had already been agreed on at the Naples Assembly, and we established working groups but these never worked (although we could take up again this idea).

1. Poverty: social rights, work, inequality, emigration...

2. Memberships / fundamentalism...

3. Womens rights / citizenship.

4. Armed conflicts / violence / prostitution networks

5. Life sustainability / production / reproduction.

This are ideas to be developed. We can think more about them, make new proposals, reformulate those that have already been made, reduce them, taking into account that seminars will cost and whoever organizes one must pay. We can agree on this issue and share costs among the different associations interested in making them, or we can think of other ways to finance them.

The cost of the central talk will be covered by the FSMed organization. In this sense, the FSMed will also take into account the gender criterion to subsidize and guarantee womens participation.

During the FSMed, there will be an exterior area (outdoors) for different activities: exhibitions, audiovisual presentations, bar, meeting point, market stalls of different womens organizations (with a variety of materials...). An open space will be seeked to organize workshops in case some women ask for them.

From the Barcelona Technical Secretariat, we will try to make a specific list of womens issues.

Regarding the FSMeds extension, we commit ourselves to ensure participation of many more women, by collaborating in efforts on our zones, towns, regions, countries, etc., and informing about this project. It was also considered to participate in the European meeting of the Womens Global March which will take place in Vigo (Galicia) on May 22 and 23, as FSMed women, as well as taking advantage of all the events that the March organizes from now until the FSMed, to spread the word about the process and invite more potential participants.

We value the suitability to have an encounter with the regions women to be better prepared for the IV preparatory meeting.

In the Programme Commission framework

We discussed about the seven thematic lines included in the Rabat and Naples document. In this text there is a brief one line explanation that says that the womens issue will be transversal. It is suggested to add to the line: Democracy, citizenship, human rights, the phrase for men and women, because it is common that when using the word human, many forget that it includes women. There also was a suggestion to re-write the Women and Mediterranean. However, the person who re-wrote it did not turn it in. In any case, we disliked it and we leant towards keeping it more or less as it originally was. In any case, we commit ourselves to recover it and present it in the next meeting.

The programme will close in the last Assembly before the FSMed. This does not give enough time to think, value, change... things. As I have said before, we are in a design process, and nothing is definite.

In the debate about Character and Content of the FSMed, there were many general interventions. Some women decided to participate in a very concrete manner with the banner that presided the Assembly: No to War, No to liberalism. Us women improvised by adding No to Patriarchy (and we added a touch of colour, see photo...).

We chose a permanent commission to follow up on the Assemblys accords, with territorial, gender and availability criteria (This commission is open, but a minimum base of 12 people was accorded, to insure its functioning): 1 for logistics and finances, 4 for extension, 4 for programme, 1 for Balcans, 2 for the Barcelona Technical Secretariat. In total, there were three women, but it was agreed that the Balcans representatives be a woman, as well as the Berebere region one. The three women representatives were from Italy, Palestine, ??. This coordination commission will be revised in the next Assembly, which is suggested take place in the South of France (Toulouse or Marseilles), in September 2004.

(Written by Amelia Tormo)

ARAB REGION PARTICIPANTS ASSEMBLY

1. Those present debated about the Social Forums name, and showed reticence against the Arab Social Forum because: it would give the impression of being an ethnic social forum; it would seem not to include those non-Arabs living in Arab regions; it would be confusing as to whether it should include or not Arab countries outside the Mediterranean.

Decision taken: Peoples of the Arab Region Social Forum.

2. The participants stressed the importance of creating a dialogue and an experience exchange, as well as creating new forces that work in line with the World Social Forum and the Mediterranean Social Forum objectives.

3. This meeting is not seen as an alternative to the Arab Social Forum initiated in Barcelona, as it rather is part of it. There will have to be cooperation and contact with the committee created in Barcelona.

4. The participants debated the document prepared by Dr. Sheriff Hatata and Dr. Nawal Al-Sadawi. A few changes were suggested and a new paragraph was added about the lack of democracy in the region. The group asked Aida Touma to incorporate the changes and add them to the document.

5. The group decided to approach the committee in Beirut and ask that all those who wish to be included in the committee especially those who signed the document in Cyprus should be included .

6. Those who are able to participate in the Beirut meeting should attend and bring the discussions and conclusions this meeting reached to the committee.

7. Dr. Sherief and Dr. Nawal will host the next meeting for the preperation for this Social Forum on the 5^th of June in Cairo. All participants will be invited .

8. The changes were made and the document was signed .

9. Dr. Nawal will be responsible for the contact with Ziad Abdel-Samad to inform him about this meeting and to get updating about Beirut Meeting .

The minutes were taken by : Aida Touma - Suliman

The Document agreed upon by the participants from the Arab region in the preparatory meeting for the Mediterranean Social Forum

Cyprus 26-29^th March 2004

1- These points have been developed on the basis of discussions engaged in during previous meetings of the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre 2002 and 2003, in Mumbai 2004 as well as during the preparatory assemblies for the Mediterranean Social Forum held in Rabat, Naples and Barcelona. They are also based on the efforts of many women and men in the countries of the Arab region who are active in the struggle against neo-liberal capitalist globalisation imposed by the multinational corporations, a globalisation built on an accentuated exploitation of the peoples of the world, especially the poor and women, in complicity with corrupt local autocratic systems and carried out in the name of promoting democracy and free trade.

2- As a result of these experiences and discussions, a growing number of men and women active in the field of social movements have become engaged in attempts to set up a Social Forum of the peoples in the Arab region and local social forums in each country. The aims and activities of these Social Forums are in harmony with the general aims and activities of the World Social Forum in the struggle against the economic, military, social and mediatic offensive launched by the multinational corporations and by imperialist forces seeking too impose their world hegemony. The war against Iraq and its occupation by the military force, the racist Israeli massacres of the Palestinian people and the continuation of the occupation of their land with all the catastrophic results of these wars on the peoples of the Arab region especially the problem of the Palestinian refugees and their avoided right of return. The increasing impoverishment of the Arab regions peoples is forcing more and more of them to seek refuge and livelihood in other lands, and the children work are amongst the most prominent manifestations of this corporate neo-imperialist economic wars.

3- The Arab region has become a theatre for ongoing and for future wars. It is therefore a region of special importance in the struggle against war for a lasting peace built on justice. The military occupation of Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom, The Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people are not issues that concern the Arab people alone, their dangers extend to the lives of people all over the world. They therefore constitute an important and primordial incentive for the creation of a new and more far-reaching peoples solidarity capable of penetrating through the barriers that separate between them overcoming obstacles related to nationality, religion, gender and class without destroying the richness which stems from different histories and cultures. It is a solidarity which must motivate us to seek solutions for the contradictions between different peoples and different interests by peaceful and democratic means based on equality , mutual respect and search for understanding and justice .

4- The Arab region lies at the confluence of Africa and Asia and is a part of both These continents. It also lies along the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This geopolitical location can be a factor in penetrating through the barrier which has separated the Arab people and the peoples from Africa and Asia, barriers which the new imperialists seek to reinforce. It can facilitate the transformation of the Arab region into a theatre of exchange and a meeting place for the movements of peaceful, democratic social struggle, and contribute to the creation of the peoples world movement aimed at defeating the global policies and projects engineered by the corporate multinationals. Therefore our attempts to build a Social Forum for the Arab region and Local Social Forums in the Arab countries do not contradict with our participation in an African or an Asian Social Forum. In the same way there is no contradiction between the establishment of the Social Forum of the Arab Region and participation in the Mediterranean Social Forum. On the contrary, it can contribute to making our efforts more effective and more positive. It can lead to a cross-fertilisation, to useful exchanges of experience and knowledge, and can help us to escape from the isolation and parochialism in which the United States, neo-imperialists, Zionist and fundamentalists wish to imprison us .

5- The Mediterranean Social Forum can be of special importance and support to us in this very difficult period of our history. Europe was and remains until this day a centre of imperialist interests where the neo-liberal capitalists especially in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, function to impose their roles over the Arab countries in cooperation with the corporate leadership of the United States despite some of the contradictions which arise between the interests of these capitalist countries. As a result the development of cooperation and various forms of common struggle between the peoples in the Arab region and the peoples of the European countries bordering the northern shores of the Mediterranean in resisting to the global plans of neo-liberal capitalism can drive a significant wedge into the alliance of global capitalism and can weaken its capacity to impose its hegemony. It can sap at the base of global capitalism and help to prepare the way for democratic social restructuring of the area for another system than the one under which the peoples of the Mediterranean countries, both north and south, are living. It can be a step in the creation of another world .

6- Half of the oil resources of the world are located in the Arab region, this makes of the region an important cornerstone in the imperialist economic and military machine. The social movements in the Arab region therefore have a special responsibility in ensuring that this machine ceases to function at the expense of the peoples of the world and in facing the problems which undermine the effectiveness of the social movements and the establishment of an effective Social Forum in the Arab region. This responsibility can be shouldered by evolving policies and methods of action that are new and creative, and therefore capable of playing a role in the building of a new Arab region and another world.

7- The project for a Greater Middle East evolved by the Bush administration is now under discussion with the European Union and with the European partners of the United States. It threatens the peoples of the Arab region with new dangers, with a re-planning and a re-structuring of the region aimed at transforming it into a United States / Israeli Settlement, under siege and under the total domination of the economic military machine ruling in the United States. This requires that we accelerate our efforts to build bridges with the struggles of other movements and people who are prepared to cooperate with us and to discover common forms of action and solidarity. We must not remain alone in the face of this most dangerous project .

8- We face in our countries major challenges because of the oppressive regimes supported by the neo imperialist forces, in the fields of democratic rights, freedom of speech, opinion and organization, and in the human rights for all the peoples of the region.

9- The problems of women in our region are most pressing. they are victims of an assault by neo-colonial, neo-liberal capitalist forces, by fundamentalist religious forces and by the oppression experienced by the patriarchal family. This assault is leading to increasing exploitation of women and to their growing marginalization in our societies. Women can play an important role in revitalising the social movements and in the establishment of effective Social Forums at Arab regional and country level.

10- It is necessary to expand the scope of efforts and representation in the establishment of the regional and Local Social Forums of the peoples of the Arab region. As a step in this direction, the preparatory committee that has been set up, and which includes only thirteen members should be expanded to include all those who signed this document and representatives of other organizations and associations as well as public figures.

11- We should envisage re-examining the arguments of those who refuse to participate in Social Forum meetings at regional or world levels where representatives of the Israeli people are present. The Israeli people like any other people in the world include men and women who fight for a just peace with the Palestinian people, who are against aggression, building the wall and against the neo-imperialist policies of global neo-liberal capitalism.

12- Immigration of people from our region to European countries is the source of many conflicts. Activities should be undertaken aiming to reinforcing dialogue and cooperation between the migrants and the men and women citizens of the host countries. Regional and local Social Forums can help a great deal in this task which is particularly necessary in the light of the increasing growth of the religious and racist fundamentalist movements, and the increasing terrorism, both within the structures of the State and amongst the groups or movements with fundamentalist political ideologies

Agreed and signed by :

Dr. Sherief Hatata;  Dr. Nawal Al-Sadawi;  Noor AlDeen Alharraq

Aida Touma -Suliman Jaafar Farah Daleela Taleb

Jihad Akel Raida Hatoum Milad Al-Shebani

Mahmoud Zeidan Lina Mahmoud Faheem Daoud

Khaleel Al-Amour