South East Social Forum to be Launched

national | public consultation / irish social forum | press release Monday July 07, 2003 11:21 by South East Social Forum - SESF grwaterford at hotmail dot com

The South East Social Forum will be launched on Tuesday 15th July

The South East Social Forum will be launched on Tuesday 15th in the ATGWU Union Hall, Keyser Street, Waterford @ 8.00p.m. All are welcome.

Social Forums are born of grass roots social movements dedicated to ensuring that human rights are promoted, protected, and fulfilled by governments, intergovernmental organisations, companies and other non-state actors. The SESF is for anyone who wants to challenge the principles that the market is more important than the people who live on this planet. It will be a chance to participate in discussions with leading activists from across the country and to create campaigning networks of resistance.

The South East Social Forum will be part of the Irish Social Forum, whcih will facilitate open discussion with progressive groups who seek an alternative to type of world we currently live in, and who wish to bring the spirit of the global anti-capitalist movement to Ireland. This movement organised protests and events at the meetings of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, the G8 in Genoa and Evian, and was instrumental in the building of the anti-war movement and the international day of action against the war on February 15th. The ISF is a diverse group comprised of many groups and individuals of different political and social backgrounds.

The World Economic Forum will be meting in Dublin on October 20th-21st. The initial focus of the ISF will be organising protests and a counter-summit to challenge the ideology of this neo-liberal body. The WEF advocates policies such as privatisation of public services and slashing of public funding, which the Irish government implements with enthusiasm.

Many groups in Ireland are effected by the decisions at this summit. For example, trade unions fighting attacks on workers conditions, public workers facing privatisation, health workers and patients facing cutbacks, anti-incinerator campaigners, NGO’s campaigning for global justice, anti-service charges campaigns, anti-racist groups, community groups dealing with the effects of poverty and social exclusion, the list goes on.

To facilitate a local input into the ISF, we are establishing a South-East Social Forum at a meeting in the ATGWU Union Hall, Keyser Street on Tuesday 15th July. We hope you can attend this meeting and help create a real movement for change and social justice and attempt to establish the principal of People Before Profit.

Tel: 086-3274015
E-Mail: grwaterford@hotmail.com