Albert Interviews Grubacic Regarding the European Left

(1) The European Social Forum is coming up in early November. Broadly, what is its relation to the WSF. And what positive promise does it hold for a growing and unified European Left?

The European Social Forum is a chapter of the WSF and a part of what it is now being called a " Porto Alegre process". It is a part of a collective effort on the left--well, some parts of the left--to give a sort of European articulation of the social movement. Yes, it is coming in the first week of November and I hope that it is going to provide a space for some interesting debate, and an autonomous space for the grassroots radical movements coming from Europe.

Attending will be a wide range of groups and individuals ranging from trade unions and catholic activist groups up to more radical minded people. ATTAC is going to be there, of course, and Italian groups such as ARCHE, which are going to lead the show. There is a lot of confusion in the European activist scene right now. There is a posibillity that this Forum will clarify things. There is an official presentation of the Forum on www.fse-esf.org. On the other side of the activist spectrum you have an European People's Global Action meeting going on in Leiden as we speak, from 29. of August (www.agp.org). The "hosts" of the meeting are the Euro Dusney collective from Holland and the left libertarian MRG from Spain. So there are lots of conferences and important conversations, mostly related to the structure of PGA. We have also had an important No Border Camp in Strasbourg (www.noborder.org).

(2) What is the European Consulta?

It is something I feel much more enthusiastic about then European Social Forum, I have to admit. ESC has emerged from a social movement that is challenging neoliberal globalization (it's origins are in Spain) and it could be situated within three broad contexts:

1. The process of the convergence among the multitude of social movements fighting against neoliberal globalization. These movements include groups coming from Spain, Italy, Germany , England , the Balkans and so on. Promoter groups are a very important part of this process.

2. The necessity of creating a common space for sustained coordination, in the atmosphere of informed social debate, collective participation, and mobilization.

3. The idea of questioning the established democracy through acts of participatory democracy.

As the European Social Consulta has as its goal the transformation of society, it stresses a few important objectives:

1. To deepen the analyses and critique of our current economic, political and social system while building alternatives and proposals. Alternatives which are anti capitalist, of course.

2. To reinforce the work of local groups and networks fighting against the neoliberal globalization in Europe. You see, the process like ESC is very much needed in Europe, because it offers a chance to crystalize social movement in a network-based organizing system, shaped by grassroots and operating in a participatory, horizontal, and decentralized fashion.

(3) What can you tell us broadly about the basic hallmarks of the Consulta?

I can be precise. A few official hallmarks to guide this process:

- A clear rejection of capitalist-neoliberal- globalization.

- A rejection of all systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patrirachy, racism, classism, and religious fundamentalism of any creed.

- A call for critical debate, direct action, and development of the alternatives to the current system as tools of social emancipation.

- An affirmation of direct and participatory democracy and the capacity of all human beings to create the world in which they want to live and actively participate in the decisions that most affect them.

- An organizing philosophy based on decentralization, horizontalism, autonomy and a will to coordinate.

(4) Would the European Social Forum deny any of these points you raise? How is the ESC different in these respects from the ESF?

I honestly do not know. We will have to wait and see how things are going to unfold in Florence. European Social Consulta is much more grassroots in it's way, yes, and it's essence, as I have told you already, is anti-capitalist. European Social Forum includes many different groups with many different agendas. Some of them are very reformist. Some of them are more radical. Again, I hope that ESF is going to help the social movement in Europe to resolve many of the divisions now weakening it.

(5) What is the essence of European Consulta process?

The best example we currently have at this moment is without doubt the network of Argentine Popular Assemblies (www.caceroleando.8m.com/asampopu.htm). These assemblies are the equivalent of the local assemblies proposed in the European Social Consulta. The way they are networking with a different and diverse alternative projects that are already operating helps inspire what I have mentioned above. For example, in Argentina the number of people participating in the "Global Trueque Network" ( www.trueque.org.ar), which promotes alternative, moneyless economy has grown in the past 6 months from 1 to 7 milion people. In Europe, of course, we are still very far from the situation in Argentina where the more advanced level of social precariousness has helped to radicalize the majority. However, the idea of ESC is to make experiments and to embrace new political and cultutal practices which point in the same direction.

So, this Internal Consultation process is already under way and the first groups who begin working on it developed a tool for collective discussion called the internal Consultation Guide . This document is a questionnaire accompanied by a few basic proposals. You can find it, translated to several lenguages, on www.consultaeuropea.org. Promoter Groups, which are giving the direction to this consultation process are open to openminded people from different political cultures and backgrounds. In terms of the agenda, there will be a gathering of European Promoter Groups this October in Barcelona. The idea is to exchange experiences and proposals about how to move the International Consultation forward and, concretelly, to decide how to prepare for the first European Gathering , which is currently set for the end of February 2003.

6) What can you tell us broadly about the state of the left in Europe -- are there generalizations that can be made? On the other hand, are there sharp differences from region to region or country to country?

Yes, I think so. There were many attempts on conceptualization of the alter-globalization movement in Europe. Cristophe Aguiton was arguing about the distinction between "radicals, reformists, internationalists and nationalists". Waterman is speaking about the "celebration, rejection and criticism" which could be found among the participants. Hardt recently sketched a division between radicals (grassroots networks) and reformists (political parties). I am arguing for a slightly different conceptualization, the one which would distinguish "traditionalism", including many old style reformists, radicals, but even traditionally minded libertarian marxists and anarchists, from what I am calling "contemporary radicalism" which would embrace all the individuals and groups who are trying to adapt their strategy of social change to the new situation and who are influenced, in the first place, by anarchism and "zapatista" ideas. PGA and European Social Consulta are the perfect example of this merger of libertarian marxist and anarchist ideas. I see these two as a way to resolve a dilema which is strangling the left in Europe, and to stand, so to say, on the other side of reformism (folks who find the word revolution itself, abhorrent) and irresponsible radicalism (folks who decry fighting for anything but revolution now).