European Social Forum

The European Social Forum (ESF) was a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement (also known as the Global Justice Movement). In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries. The conference was last held in 2010. It aims to allow social movements, trade unions, NGOs, refugees, peace and anti-imperial groups, anti-racist movements, environmental movements, networks of the excluded and community campaigns from Europe and the world to come together and discuss themes linked to major European and global issues, in order to coordinate campaigns, share ideas and refine organizing strategies. It emerged from the World Social Forum and follows its Charter of Principles.

The first forum was held in Florence in November 2002. The slogan was "Against war, racism and neo-liberalism," with specific reference to US president George W. Bush's plan for regime change in Iraq. The Assembly of Social Movements held directly after the ESF launched a call for a Europe-wide day of action against the incipient Iraq War. The call was echoed by the Assembly of Social Movements held after the World Social Forum a few months later and eventually led to the "largest protest event in human history", the February 15 Global day of action against the war.

Before its opening the ESF created a large political debate between different Tuscan local personages. The President of the Region, Claudio Martini, although criticised on some points by no-global activists, had been a supporter of the movement since the time of the Genoa Group of Eight Summit protest on one side and the right-wing Italian government on the other. People feared that the ESF could provoke riots and accidents such as those of the Genoa Group of Eight Summit protest, from July 18 to July 22, 2001. Florentine individuals, such as the controversial journalist Oriana Fallaci, intervened in the debate. Fallaci invited the people of Florence to shut up every shop and stay in their houses. She also compared the ESF to the nazi occupation of Florence. Other opponents of the ESF included the political scientist Giovanni Sartori, a liberal critic of Silvio Berlusconi's government but an admirer of the United States, and the filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, whose right-wing political views were already well-known. Another group of intellectuals from various political strands defended the ESF and signed an appeal favourable to the meeting. Among these were the journalist Tiziano Terzani and the organizers of the "professors' movement" (a group of university professors that had organized both a demonstration and discussion groups against Berlusconi's policies).

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