[Spotykach] conference date & ESF

[Katrin]

Dear all,

Conference dates

here at EYFA we have discussed the dates of the conference in more 
detail and came to the conclusion that the original dates which we 
mentioned in the funding application (18-25 April) firstly were too 
close for us to the European Social Forum (6-9 April) because we are 
attending and organising meetings there and starting to organise a 
campaign from April onwards. The ESF dates were not decided at the point 
of application so we just had to give some date we thought fitted and 
which was within the project dates of the funder which end on 30 June 
(European Youth Foundation (EYF), Council of Europe). Further, Olga (our 
local organiser!) expressed her wishes to set the date of the meeting as 
late as possible, but end of June was not possible because we couldn't 
include the follow up in the final funding report (reader etc). Also, 
Ecotopia is set in the first week of August and preparation work in EYFA 
office starts quite early for that, so 30 June is too late for EYFA 
office as well.

I have therefore asked the EYF to change the conference dates to

Wednesday 24th to Tuesday 30th May 2006

I hope that all of you have understanding for the fact that we had to go 
ahead with these changes without cross-checking with everyone on the 
list about their personal agendas, it would have been impossible really 
to find one week that suited everyone. Please put these dates in your 
agenda so we all have the pleasure of your necessary participation and 
input in this long-awaited event:)

However, we would also like to hear from you if there are any 
INSURMOUNTABLE obstacles to your attending this conference because of 
these dates. We will do anything we can to make it possible for as many 
people as possible to come.

ESF

We have heard there has been a debate on changing the original dates of 
the European Social Forum, which were decided to be 6-9 April in 
Instanbul at their last meeting. Sara who works in EYFA office and is on 
all the ESF lists reported that a meeting in Florence where many ESF 
groups were present talked about changing these dates to end of May, but 
we hope that this will not be the case because it would clash with our 
conference, amongst others. Until there has been no official ESF date 
change we will therefore continue planning an interaction of people and 
content between the ESF and the Est-West meeting in Berlin, counting on 
the ESF to take place well before the Berlin conference.

For this it would be good to know if any of you were planning to go to 
the ESF? EYFA wants to take part in the autonomous space in the ESF next 
year, the local organisation is not that far yet for us to be able to 
arrange accomodation or programme I think, but we want to be present in 
any case.

I thought it would be good to present East-West issues at the ESF, I 
heard the ESF has its own debate on these issues and it would be useful 
if these could be presented in turn at the meeting in Berlin. E.g. how 
do political activists assess and deal with the differences in political 
history and current economic adn political circumstances and different 
political culture? What are the attempts to overcome these differences 
(if any) and formulate a common (not homogenised), anti-capitalist (?) 
goal for the future without falling into old party communist rhetoric? 
These questions are being debated within western Euroepan circles at 
every European network meeting, be it the former noborder network, the 
Euromayday network, the frassanito network, you name it. National 
differences always play an issue with regard to political practice. 
Because East-West meetings are not so common because of visa, language, 
historical ties etc., these debates have not moved as far between 
Eastern and western European groups, how do we plan to bring them 
forward (if this is what we want?)

These are just a few questions that come to my mind, there are 
definately more, but whatever they are, I think we should use the energy 
and opponrtunities of the ESF to exchange experiences and inspire debate.

So who's planning to go and interested in linking the two meetings?

take care and warm greetings from an increasingly cold and grey Amsterdam,

Katrin xx