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National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

1st Irish Social Forum 17-19 Oct'03: details 27 Workshops + 5 Plenaries with over 40 groups

category national | public consultation / irish social forum | event notice author Tuesday October 14, 2003 01:04author by Barry Finnegan - ISF Communications Groupauthor email john.finnegan3 at mail dot dcu dot ieauthor address http://www.irishsocialforum.org/author phone 085-1223454 Report this post to the editors

1st Irish Social Forum: The Solidarity & Co-operation Summit.

Dear all,
here is the amended list of 27 Workshops and 5 Plenaries of the 1st Irish Social Forum: The Solidarity & Co-operation Summit, of Fri. 17th to Sun 19th Oct. ’03, at UCD Students Centre (& Mother Redcaps, Dublin city centre) with speakers from over 40 Irish and global NGOs, organisations, collectives and parties are available below these notes.

NOTE TO SPEAKERS:
Could plenary speakers please complete a transcript of their talk so as to document the Irish Social Forum as it progresses and for web and possible future hard-copy publications. Workshop minutes takers are also asked to write up the main points and proposals etc of their workshops for display in the final Plenary hall [Sun. 19th Oct.] (also for web and possible future hard-copy publications). Facilities will be available at UCD Students Centre for those wishing to write up and multi-copy more detailed workshop analysis.

MAKING PROPOSALS AT FINAL PLENARY:
If people wish to make proposals at the final Plenary session on Sun. 19th Oct. these must be submitted in writing so we can multi-copy them for participants. Submit in typed format at Registration Desk on the Fri. 17th or Sat. 18th Oct., or email (with deadline 1.00pm Sat. 18th) to john.finnegan3@mail.dcu.ie

CRÈCHE:
There will be a crèche available on Saturday 18th at the UCD Students Centre [In order to guarantee a place please book before 5.30 pm this Thursday 16th Oct. @ 085-1223454; john.finnegan3@mail.dcu.ie]

ACCESS:
UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible.

COST:
ISF Registration Fee: The 5 Plenaries and 28 Workshops over the entire weekend have a Registration Fee to participants of €5 for unwaged, and €12 for waged. (UCD Students entrance free with ID card].
Workshop Hosting Fee: Organisations and Groups hosting Workshops are asked to pay a workshop registration fee of €50 to the Irish Social Forum in order to cover the expenses of the weekend [subject to ability to pay].

TRANSPORT:
Transport: Dublin Bus No.s 10A, 2, 3, 17, 46A, 11B. Last bus out of UCD on Saturday night is 11.15pm.

THE SOCIAL:
There will be a fundraising gig (€5?) for the ISF in UCD on Saturday night from 8.00pm with bands and DJ’s.
Tuesday evening the 14th Oct. there will be a fundraising Table-Quiz at 8.30pm in Mother Redcaps, back Lane, Dublin 8.

THE MARCH:
There will be March/Parade assembling at 1.15pm at the Central Bank in Dame St. celebrating the four Plenary themes of the 1st Irish Social Forum [YES TO PEACE - NO TO WAR; PLANET BEFORE PROFIT; DEFENDING PUBLIC SERVICES - PRIVATISATION AND PUBLIC SPACE; YES TO EQUALITY - NO TO RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION].
============================

IRISH SOCIAL FORUM - Plenaries
The Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity
Oct. 17th - Oct. 19th 2003

PROGRAMME OF PLENARIES for Fri. 17th Oct., Sat. 18th Oct. & Sun. 19th Oct.
Venues:
Fri. 17th ’03: University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin 4.
Sat. 18th ’03: University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin 4.
Sun. 19th ’03: Mother Red Caps, Christ Church, Back Lane, Dublin 8.

Details:
- ISF Registration Fee: The 5 Plenaries and 25 Workshops over the entire weekend have a Registration Fee to participants of €5 for unwaged, and €12 for waged. (UCD Students entrance free with ID card].
- UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible
- What is a Plenary?: Plenaries have up to a 300 person capacity. They consist of a series of speakers on a topic for 5 to 10 minutes each. At least half of the allotted Plenary time will be available for facilitated debate, comment, observations, suggestions, etc from all in attendance. They will be conducted with the World Social Forum Charter of Principles in mind. They will be conducted with the accepted consensus practices of Irish Social Forum meetings and all-island gathering, eg: in the interests of openness and solidarity speakers must state their name, what groups/organisations they are members of, and if any what political party they are members of.
- UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible

FRIDAY 17TH Oct. 2003, UCD Students Centre.

7.15 - 7.45pm

Welcome Opening Gathering of the 1st ISF: The Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity
Speakers relating their involvement in and the importance of the Irish, European and World Social Forums

8.00 - 10.00 pm

YES TO PEACE - NO TO WAR Plenary
[focusing on issues of neoliberalism and war]

Facilitator: Brendan Butler, NGO Peace Alliance

Osama Qashoo, an organiser of the International Solidarity Movement's campaign of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Dermot Nolan, member of the National Executive of PANA (Peace And Neutrality Alliance).

Aoife Ni Fheargail, secretary of the Irish Anti War Movement.

Karen Kenny, International Human Rights Lawyer, Co-founder International Human Rights Trust.

speaker: An Iraqi citizen, living in Ireland.

SATURDAY 18TH Oct. 2003, UCD Students Centre.

11.00 - 1.00pm
PLANET BEFORE PROFIT Plenary
[focusing on issues of climate change].

Facilitator: David Healy, Friends of the Irish Environment.

Richard Douthwaite, environmentalist; author (inc.: The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Has Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many, and Endangered the Planet; &, Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in An Unstable World); co-founder of Feasta: The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability).

George Marshall, author; head of Rising Tide UK.

Pat Finnegan, climate change specialist; head of Grían.

Deirdre DeBurca, member of Feasta and Co. Wicklow Green Party councillor.

2.00 - 4.00pm

DEFENDING PUBLIC SERVICES - PRIVATISATION AND PUBLIC SPACE Plenary
[focusing on issues of local and global reduction and commodification of public services].

Facilitator: Paul Dillon, President UCD Students Union.

Asha Amirali, People's Rights Movements of Pakistan.

Luciano Muhlbauer, Italian Trade Unionist (cobas), Italian ESF Co-ordination.

Bill McCamley, SIPTU activist; CIE worker-director (Dublin Bus).

Heike Vornhagen, Community Workers Co-Op.

speaker, Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax

5.00 - 7.00pm

YES TO EQUALITY - NO TO RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION Plenary
[focusing on issues of local and global reduction and commodification of public services].

Joanna McMinn, Director National Women’s Council of Ireland (speaking about the issues facing women).

Jonny Glackin, Kick Off Homelessness; journalist with the Big Issue (speaking about issues facing homeless people).

Ivana Bacik, Faculty Of Law, Trinity College Dublin (speaking about the legislative framework).
Ailbhe Smyth, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC, UCD), (speaking about the issues facing gay and lesbian people).

Dermot Toolan, Irish Council of Civil Liberties, Democracy Commission (speaking about issues facing people with disabilities.

speaker, Irish Traveller Movement (speaking about the issues facing Travellers).

speaker (female Nigerian refugee), Residents Against Racism (speaking about issues facing female asylum seekers/refugees).

speaker, (male South African migrant worker), Residents Against Racism (speaking about the issues facing migrant workers).

SUNDAY 19TH Oct. 2003, Mother Red Caps.

11.00 - 1.00pm

CLOSING PLENARY OF THE IRISH SOCIAL FORUM: THE SUMMIT OF CO-OPERATION AND SOLIDARITY

Facilitator: Jean Somers, Debt and Development Coalition.

Details:
- A2 sheets will be displayed around the hall with the main points of 28 Workshops.
- There will be four short report-backs from the Plenaries of the previous two days, total 10 minutes. This will be followed by 30 minutes of open discussion.
- Luciano Muhlbauer, Italian Trade Unionist (cobas) and of the Italian ESF Co-ordination will speak for 10/ 15 minutes.
- Brendan Young, will give 10 minute presentation contextualising the Irish Social Forum and the forthcoming Irish EU Presidency.
- This will be followed by 30 minutes of open discussion relating to the future of the Irish Social Forum and related issues.
- This will be followed by the reading of written submitted proposals followed by related open discussion (30 minutes).

============================================

IRISH SOCIAL FORUM - WORKSHOPS
Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity
Oct. 17th - Oct. 19th 2003

PROGRAMME OF WORKSHOPS for Saturday 18th Oct. 2003.
Venue:
All workshops take place in University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin.

Details:
- Workshop Hosting Fee: Organisations and Groups hosting Workshops are asked to pay a workshop registration fee of €50 to the Irish Social Forum in order to cover the expenses of the weekend [subject to ability to pay].
- ISF Registration Fee: The 5 Plenaries and 25 Workshops over the entire weekend have a Registration Fee to participants of €5 for unwaged, and €12 for waged. (UCD Students entrance free with ID card].
- UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible
==============================

Title: DOCUMENTARY MAKING AT THE MARGINS

Host: TRÓCAIRE

Chair:
Donnacha O Briain, Documentary Filmmaker, co-director of ‘Chavez – Inside the Coup’.
Speakers:
E. Deenadayalan, The Other Media, India.
Muireann de Barra, Gaffer Productions
Ian McDonald, Comhlamh Media
Time & Room: Blue Room, 1st Fl., 2.00 - 4.00.

Details:
Documentary Making at the Margins: this workshop will explore the experiences of documentary makers from India and Ireland in working with marginalised communities to highlight their struggles for social justice and to broaden and deepen the principles and values of democracy, justice and peace.
Deenadayalan works with a Trócaire partner organisation in India – The Other Media. The Other Media was set up due to the mainstream media’s tendency to ignore, distort or misrepresent the struggles and issues that affect the most vulnerable groups in civil society. Deenadayalan has produced and directed documentaries on caste-based violence in Gujarat and throughout India; the struggle of the indigenous Naga people in North East India. He is currently working on a film about women negotiating conflict and violence in their everyday lives and the role of women’s agency for change and transformation in everyday situations.
Muireann de Barra has worked in Ireland with drug-affected communities and with rural communities in Chiapas, Mexico, in a solidarity film and art-based project to recreate a mural on Peace and Freedom which was destroyed by the Mexican military. This project was captured in a Documentary called ‘Muralistas’ which has been screened on national TV networks in Ireland and the US and has also been shown in Chiapas.

==============================

Title: CIVIL RESISTANCE AND STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE & RIGHTS IN PERU (includes a documentary film on the health and environmental consequences of intense mining activities in the heart of the Peruvian Andes.)

Host: TRÓCAIRE & LATIN AMERICA SOLIDARITY CENTRE

Speakers:
Ernesto Cabellos - Peruvian
Stephanie Boyd - Canadian
Time & Room: Solidarity Hall, Ground Fl., 11.00 - 1.00.

Details:
This workshop will present a documentary film on the health and environmental consequences of intense mining activities in the heart of the Peruvian Andes. It highlights the struggle of peasant communities to seek justice and their rights following a devastating mercury spill by one of the world’s richest gold-mining corporations (Newmont). The workshop will also look at civil resistance in Peru and how other communities organise and prepare themselves to – participate in decision-making around local development in their area.

==============================

Title: SOLIDARITY ON THE GROUND: THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS IN
CONFLICT ZONES.

Host: IRELAND PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN & EAST TIMOR IRELAND SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN & LASC.

Speakers:
Osama Qashoo, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine.
Seán Steele, East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign.
Eoin O'Donnell, returned protective accompaniment volunteer in Guatemala.
Time & Room: Solidarity Hall, Ground Fl., 5.00 - 7.00.

Details:
Workshop leaders to include Osama Qashoo, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine; Seán Steele, East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign and returned protective accompaniment volunteer in East Timor; Eoin O'Donnell, returned protective accompaniment volunteer in Guatemala. This workshop will look at the role of international protective accompaniment volunteers in a variety of situations. It will provide a forum for returned volunteers to discuss their experience and will also seek to address the issues for people who may be considering participating in such work and for organisations which facilitate it.
==============================

Tile: PEOPLE'S LIVELIHOOD STRUGGLES IN PAKISTAN

Host: PEOPLE'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT, PAKISTAN.

Speaker:
Asha Amirali, from The Peoples Rights Movement Pakistan.
Time & Room: Blue Room, 1st Fl., 7.00 - 8.00.

The Peoples Rights Movement is a confederation of grassroots social movements in Pakistan which includes tenant farmers fighting eviction and privatisation of their land, squatter communities fighting for the right to shelter, students and teachers resisting privatisation of education, fisherfolk communities struggling to protect their livelihood from corporate foreign fishing fleets, indigenous forest dwellers protecting their forests from timber mafia’s, and people displaced by mega “development” projects asserting their right to life. In this workshop Asha will describe some of their struggles, and suggest ways - to be explored more fully in the remainder of the Irish Social Forum - of building solidarity between people in Ireland and Pakistan.

[At the 2pm Plenary Asha will tell the story of the Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (Sharecropper Tenants Association of the Punjab), a grassroots social movement in which 1,000,000 farmers in central Pakistan are engaged in a life and death livelihood struggle against eviction from the lands on which they have been tenants for as long as 100 years. The agenda behind this dispossession is the need of the para-statal (semi-states) companies and institutions who control the land to -realise their assets- before being privatised.
When addressing an audience of tenant farmers in Co. Mayo in 1879, Charles Stewart Parnell might easily have been speaking to their struggle as he said:
--You must not allow yourselves to be dispossessed as your fathers were, you must help yourselves, and the public opinion of the world will stand by, and support you in your struggle to defend your homesteads.--
Yet although no other country in the developed would should be able to identify with the struggle of these communities more effortlessly than Ireland, through demands made on Pakistan in recent trade negotiations at the WTO (specifically GATS), Ireland in fact appears to be complicit in the agenda behind this dispossession. In addition to describing the struggle of these communities, Asha will suggests connections between people's struggles in Pakistan and Ireland.]
==============================

Title: PRIVATE PRISONS AND PUBLIC INTERESTS

Host: IRISH PENAL REFORM TRUST

Speakers:
Rick Lines, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust.
Ivana Bacik, Faculty Of Law, Trinity College Dublin
Time & Room: White Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 12.30

Details:
In recent months, both the Prison Service and the Minister of Justice have identified prison privatisation as being under consideration by the Government. This workshop will examine the implications of the involvement of the corporate sector within the Irish criminal justice system, with a focus on human rights, international experience, and the creation of a progressive and effective justice policy.
==============================

Title: GATS: LINKING THE EROSION OF PUBLIC SERVICES AND DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN IRELAND AND AROUND THE WORLD.

Host: ASSOCIATION FOR THE TAXATION OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS FOR THE AID OF CITIZENS (ATTAC)

Speakers from:
Asha Amirali, People's Rights Movement, Pakistan.
Barry Finnegan, ATTAC; Article 133 Information Group.
Conall O Coaimh, Comhlamh
speaker, Anti Incineration Campaigns
speaker, Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax
speaker, Dublin Bus Workers
Time & Room: Blue Room, 1st Fl., 5.00 - 7.00.

Details:
This workshop will show how GATS is removing democratic control of public services both in Ireland and around the world; it will also focus on the practical possibilities of building cooperation and solidarity between the many groups affected by GATS. GATS is the General Agreement on Trade in Services. It is an international trade agreement from the WTO which is being adopted by / forced on, governments / peoples around the world. The GATS attack on vital public services is linked to the EU Treaty of Nice, the proposed EU constitution, and the commodification and privatisation of waste management, transport, health and education in Ireland, while for people in poorer countries the battle against GATS is often one of survival.
In the afternoon plenary, Asha will have described the role GATS in playing in the dispossession of a million tenant farmers in Pakistan and the urgency which these communities need solidarity and support.
This workshop is intended as a chance to explore practical ways in which we might mutually inform and strengthen our campaigns through practical cooperation, information sharing, solidarity, and perhaps feeding into larger European and international campaigns against GATS.
==============================

Title: NEW IRISH SOCIAL MOVEMENTS & DIRECT ACTION

Host: WORKERS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

Speaker:
Dermot Sreenan
Time & Room: Bar Function Room, 1st Fl., 5.00 - 7.00.

Details:
Direct Action and its connection to and use in, modern social movements. More details and speakers to be confirmed.
=============================

Title: WHERE NOW FOR THE ANTI-CAPITALIST MOVEMENT

Host: GLOBALISE RESISTANCE

Speaker:
Rory Hearne, convenor Globalise Resistance, Ireland.
Joe Campbell, Globalise Resistance,
Valentina Benivegna, Giovanni Communisti/e (youth wing of Refundazione Communisti/e)
Time & Room: Bar Partition Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 12.45.

Details:
Globalise Resistance is an anti-capitalist network in Ireland. We have groups in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and affiliated groups in Cork and Waterford. We are activists who are trying to build the anti-capitalist movement by organising protests, stunts, pickets and information meetings. We organised mobilisations for the Genoa 2001 protests, for Florence 2002 and to go to Evian at the anti-G8 protests this year. We also organised protests and meetings against racism and deportations, around the WTO meetings and now we are trying to build a mobilisation for the European Social Forum in Paris. We unite human rights activists, trade unionists, environmentalists, socialists, anarchists, students and concerned citizens in a network that believes another world is possible and is fighting now for that world! contact globalise_resistance@yahoo.com, www.freewebs.com/globalise Giovanni Communisti/e are the youth wing of Refundazione Communisti/e who were involved in the Genoa Social Forum and are very involved in the trade union and anti-capitalist movement in Italy.
==============================

Title: PANA A.G.M. & PUBLIC MEETING

Host: PEACE AND NEUTRALITY ALLIANCE (PANA)

Speaker:
Ulla Sandbaek, MEP, and member of the Danish June Movement
Time & Room: Solidarity Hall, Ground Fl., 2.00 - 5.00.

Details:
There will be reports from PANA and elections (restricted obviously to paid up PANA members). However the AGM of PANA is open to the public and the invited keynote speaker is Ulla Sandbaek MEP, a member of the Danish June Movement who campaigned actively against the war in Iraq, so it should be of interest to people attending the Forum.
==============================


Title: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AN EXAMINATION

Host: INDYMEDIA IRELAND COLLECTIVE

Speakers:
Ciaran Moore - on political and economic issues; he worked in the software industry since before the dotcom bubble, generally under ridiculously restrictive non compete and non disclosure agreements.
Daithi MacSithigh - on a review of current Intellectual Property law; he is a law student in Trinity college Dublin and has just returned from a year in Canada where, in part, he researched the use of copyright in software
JD - on, in favour of copyright; as a photographer, much of JD’s income is affected by copyright, especially the use of images he publishes in other locations without permission or payment.
TBC - Open Source Code, philosophy and impact.
Time & Room: Orange Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 1.00.

Details:
From the use of an open source codebase, Oscailt, (purposely built for the Irish site) to covering (the WTO) TRIPS and (the WTO) GATS issues, especially in relation to Article 133 and the Nice referendum, Indymedia reporters, editors and others have found that the current issues around Intellectual Property are seen in the strangest of places. To this end we will be hosting a workshop on Intellectual Property issues as part of the Irish Social Forum to present these issues and relate them to a range of struggles, from anti-privatisation to global development, from biased media to labour rights.
Method: 4 presentations covering legal, technical, political / economic aspects of Intellectual Property. 1 presentation will be a pro-copyright piece from an Indymedia volunteer who works in photography.
Indymedia Ireland is part of the global network of Independent Media centres, which have grown to over 140 groups covering 80 countries since their origins in Seattle in 1999. Based around the slogan ‘Be The Media’ and using an open publishing framework to cover stories that other media ignore, the Irish group has been in existence for over two years and has produced media in the form of films, video compilation CD, audio CD, printed material and a website with over 60,000 news and review postings.
Each of the speakers will present for between 5 and 10 minutes.
Daithi will look at forms of intellectual property, how it is protected and what the current changes are in US, Irish and international law.
Ciaran will look at issues such as TRIPS, GATS and the recent WTO talks in relation to intellectual property. He will also look at the impact of recent digital rights management initiatives. Ciaran
JD will present a devils advocate view of copyright.
A.N. Other (to be confirmed) will discuss the open source software culture, how it works and the impact it is having.
This will be followed by a Q&A session.
Finally each presenter will propose a set of actions to deal with the issues they raise. Time 1hr 30 mins. www.Indymedia.ie
==============================

Title: FARMERS RIGHTS NORTH & SOUTH

Host: PEOPLE'S RIGHT MOVEMENT (PAKISTAN), MACRA NI FIRMA, OXFAM IRELAND

Speakers:
Asha Amirali (People's Rights Movement)
Colin Roach (Oxfam)
Shane Fitzgerald (Macra na Feirme)
Time & Room: Bar Function Room, 1st Fl., 12.30 - 2.00

Details:
Across the world family farming is in crisis. This workshop will explore the experiences of small farmers as they struggle to stay on their land, drawing particularly on the experience of farmers in Ireland and
Pakistan, while looking at some of the daunting issues to be addressed in the rules of international trade and agricultural policy.
==============================

Title: INITIATIVES IN CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY AND GRASSROOTS PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY AND LAW.

Host: CHRISTIAN AID IRELAND

Speakers:
Oisin Coghlan, Christian Aid Ireland
Asad Farooq, People's Tribunal (Lok Sath) Pakistan.
Time & Room: Green Room, 1st Fl., 3.30-5.00

Details:
In this workshop, Oisin will discuss the initiative of global civil society to develop an enforceable charter of corporate accountability. Asad has been working with the Anjuman Mazarain Punjab, a social movement of tenant farmers fighting eviction in Pakistan (see afternoon plenary), as well the Chashma campaign of people in central Pakistan struggling against the impact of mega water projects on their communities. He will be describing his experience with grassroots initiatives in people's democracy and people's law, through the process of a Peoples Tribunal.
============================

Title: WHAT IS A FEMINIST ORGANISATION?

Host: BANÚLACHT

Facilitators:
Eilish Dillon and Maeve Taylor, Banúlacht.

Speakers:
Salome Mbugua, Akina Dada Wa Africa - Sisters from Africa (AkiDwA).
Raihana Diani, Acehnese Women's Democratic Organisation.
Time & Room: Orange Room, 1st Fl., 3.30 - 5.00.

Details:
This workshop will explore different questions about what it means to be a feminist organisation in the context of Ireland and Aceh. How can feminist analyses inform what justice issues are addressed by a group or organisation? Does being a feminist organisation make a difference to how people work together or how they talk about and view the world? What are the challenges of calling an organisation feminist?
=================================

Title: TRADE, DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVISM IN IRELAND AND AROUND THE WORLD

Host: TRADE JUSTICE IRELAND & DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT COALITION IRELAND

Speakers:
Jean Somers, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland.
Caroline Maxwell, Action Aid Ireland.
Aisling Wheeler, World Bank Boycott
Donnacha O Briain, Tobin Tax Initiative
Colin Roche: Oxfam Ireland
Monica Corish: Comhlamh Trade Justice Group
Ian McDonald: Comhlamh Media
Oisin Coghlan: Christian Aid Ireland

Time & Room: Blue Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 1.00.

Details:

This workshops will describe some of economic injustices that ensure that the majority of the world's people are kept in poverty, and explore the rich and growing opportunities for people in Ireland to become part of a rapidly growing and maturing global movement in which ordinary people are demanding that these injustices be rectified to ensure a just equitable world for. It will begin by explaining the current position on debt cancellation/debt campaigning and identify how individuals can get involved. The workshop will place debt campaigning and resistance to IMF/World Bank imposed programmes in indebted countries in a global and local framework. Questions looked at will be: the impact of people's movements /global campaigning : what has been achieved on debt; what are the pressing current debt issues in the South and North of the- globe e.g. illegitimate debt, tackling the globalisation/debt link, cancellation for development; where Ireland stands/opportunities during the EU presidency. The Boycott the World Bank Campaign will then describe how the role international institutions such as the World Bank are coming under increasing public scrutiny, and how people in Ireland can join an international campaign to put pressure on World Bank to end its destructive policies. Donnacha of the Tobin Tax Initiative will then describe the Tobin Tax Campaign which was recently launched in Ireland to advocate a simple tax on currency speculation which could, in one stroke, protect developing countries from the often devastating economic volatility caused by currency speculation while simultaneously raising billions that could then be used to assist counties in their development.
The second hour will be hosted by the Trade Justice Ireland coalition. Speakers will come from several of the 17+ groups who formed this coalition earlier in the year to campaign against incredible injustices that run through the rules of international trade (typically negotiated and enforced through the World Trade Organisation). Across the world, more and more people are become aware of the seriousness of these injustices and how they are increasing and reinforcing poverty in the developing world on an vast scale. This workshop will describe how the Trade Justice Ireland coalition is providing opportunities for people in Ireland to add their voices to the growing cry of an international movement demanding trade justice for all the world's people.
==============================

Title: ABORTION – A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE

Host: ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE

Speaker:
Sinead Kennedy, Alliance For Choice.
Time & Room: White Room, 1st Fl., 2.00 - 3.30.

Details:
The 1983 8th Amendment to the Constitution Must Go. We will promote a bill for presentation to the Dáil, facilitating a referendum to delete Article 40.3.3. We will promote legislation to remove information restrictions in the 1995 Act We will work with other information providers and women’s organisations to provide information to women seeking abortions. Further information will be provided – for example a booklet containing reflections on the 20th anniversary of the amendment; pro-choice badges produced by the Cork Women’s Right to Choose group.
==============================

Title: GLASTONBURY LEFT FIELD: FAIR TRADE AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY (Includes a short film on the Left Field.)

Host: WORKERS BEER COMPANY
Speaker:

Anthony Burbage, Workers Beer Company.
Time & Room: Bar Function Room, 1st Fl., 2.00 - 3.30.

Details:
The Workers Beer Company (WBC) is a fundraising organisation established by local trades unions in south London in the mid-1980s. The company runs bars and beer tents at large outdoor music events and festivals. The fundraising mechanism is simple. Trades union branches and campaigning organisations send volunteers to work in the bars pouring and serving drinks, and WBC pays the organisation for every hour that their volunteers contribute. Since its inception WBC has raised over two million Euro for the organisations that work with it. The Company has had long links with colleagues in Ireland and has managed bars at the Feile, Fleadh Mor and at Homelands. The WBC have had a long association with the Jim Connell committee in Kells. Jim Connell was the man who wrote the Red Flag, the labour movement anthem, and we supported a memorial in his birthplace in Kells as well as underwriting the Jim Connell Mayday in 2002. There's more on www.workersbeer.co.uk
The Company's heady mix of music, commerce, fundraising and plain fun has captured the imagination of a new generation of trades union and campaigning activists, and brought a labour movement message to hundreds of thousands of young people at festivals and music events. There's more on www.workersbeer.co.uk
At the Glastonbury festival we run the Left Field, a mixture of music and political debates in the heart of the world's largest festival. The themes of the Left Field were fair trade and international solidarity and we have a film of the event that we will show at the ISF. You can find out more about the Left Field on www.leftfield.coop Part of our fair trade campaign is the brand 'Ethical Threads' that we set up in order to drive the sweatshops out of the music merchandising business. www.ethicalthreads.co.uk for more information.
==============================

Title: CHALLENGE FOR THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT: HOW DO WE ORGANISE YOUNG WORKERS?
Host: LABOUR YOUTH

Chair:
Peter Malone, International Officer Labour Youth and member of the board of ECOSY (European Young Socialists)
Speakers:
Rhonda Donaghey, SIPTU Official; former President of Dublin Council of Trade Unions, former Vice President of European Trade Union Confederation Youth.
Bernard Cantillon, Former Equality Officer of the Union of Students in Ireland, Former LGB Rights Officer UCD Students Union, Former director of ICOS (Irish Council for International Students), Former editor of the UCD College Tribune.
Time & Room: Orange Room, 1st Fl., 5.00 - 6.30.

Details:
This workshop will discuss practical ways and ideas for organising young workers in unions and for building the trade union movement. There will be a heavy emphasis on participation and discussion from the floor.
==============================

Title: GAIAN DEMOCRACIES

Host: FEASTA DEMOCRACY GROUP

Speaker:
John Jopling, co-author of latest Schumacher Briefing - Gaian Democracies, Redefining Globalisation and People-power.
Time & Room: Orange Room, 1st Fl., 2.00 - 3.30.

Details:
Feasta's main area of interest is the design of sustainable economic systems. We have many good ideas on this. But the Global Monetocracy which now dominates the world is a single economic and political system. We need to replace this with a global network of Gaian Democracies. This workshop will discuss what these would be like and how we can create them.
==============================

Title: THE DEMOCRACY COMMISSION: CHALLENGING POLITICS

Host: THE DEMOCRACY COMMISSION

Speaker:
Professor Ivana Bacik, Member of the Democracy Commission.
Donal Toolan, Member of the Democracy Commission.
Paula Clancy, Director of tasc - a think tank for action on social change
Time & Room: Green Room, 1st Fl., 2.00 - 3.30.

Details:
Whole sections of our society consider our political system irrelevant to their lives: How do we change this? A strong democracy relies on participation in public decision making, if citizens cannot and/or will not participate in this decision making, then democracy is weakened. We have a situation where whole sections of our society consider our current political system irrelevant to their lives – only half of all under 25-year-olds who could vote actually did so in the last election and the rates for participation among people living in poorer communities were reckoned to be even lower. For people who are socially marginalised, it stems from a belief that they have no stake in the political system. The Democracy Commission was established in response to widespread concerns about the capacity of political institutions in Ireland to be inclusive and egalitarian, and by the belief that collective participation by all citizens in political and public decision making is critical to achieving equality in our society. http://www.democracycommission.ie
=========================

Title: LIFE IN THE BALKANS - AFTER WAR AND NATO

Host: June Kelly (WESTMEATH PEACE GROUP)

Speaker:
June Kelly
Time & Room: Orange Room, 1st Fl., 6.30 - 8.00.

Details:
We were misled over Iraq - what about the Balkans? Daily life, depleted uranium, corporate takeover of media, NATO troops, democracy?
==============================

Title: INTERNATIONALISING THE WEST PAPUAN STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SURVIVAL
Host: WEST PAPUA ACTION

Speaker:
Mark Doyle, co-ordinator West Papua Action
Time & Room: White Room, 1st Fl., 6.30 - 8.00.

Details:
Internationalising the West Papuan struggle for independence and survival.
==============================

Title: BOYCOTT COKE

Host: UCD BOYCOTT COKE CAMPAIGN

Time & Room: Green Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 12.30

Details:
Will be conducted in conjunction with LASC (Latin America Solidarity Centre) and UCD students speakers who were involved with the referendum on banning coke from UCD. Focusing on the alleged links between Coca Cola company activities in Columbia and the murder and intimidation of trade union organisers at the hands of paramilitary death squads. Updates on the local and global boycott.
==============================

Title: THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM, PARIS 12TH - 16TH NOV. ’03. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

Host: IRISH ESF MOBILISATION COMMITTEE.
Speaker
Luciano Muhlbauer, Italian Trade Unionist
Time & Room: Green Room, 1st Fl., 5.00 - 7.00.

Details:
Luciano Muhlbauer is part of the Italian ESF co-ordination, he was involved in the Genoa Social Forum, and is an active Trade unionist and will be involved in the upcoming metal workers strikes in Italy. He will be talking about the ESF in Paris and the role of the ESF in the wider movement both in Italy and the rest of Europe. If you are interested in going to Paris or finding out more about the ESF come along to this meeting. Luciano will also be speaking at the Sunday morning Final Plenary in Mother Redcaps and at the Public Services Plenary Session on Saturday Afternoon. The cost of his flight is 165 euros so we need money from the ESF mobilising committee to pay for that. Can people please bring along money on Saturday to pay for the flight or ring 086 1523542 to let us know when you can get it to us. www.esf2003.org
==========================

Title: to be confirmed

Host: SINN FÉIN

Time & Room: Bar Function Room, 1st Fl., 11.00 - 12.30.

Details: More details forthcoming.
==============================

Title: ANTI-RACISM WORKSHOP

Host: Soccer Against Racism Ireland (SARI)

Time & Room: White Room, 1st Fl., 3.30 - 5.00.

Details: More details forthcoming.
==============================

Title: THE FIGHT FOR FREE EDUCATION

Host: UCD STUDENTS UNION

Speakers:
3rd level students and student union officers involved with the fight for free education.
Time & Room: White Room, 1st Fl., 5.00 - 6.30.

Details:
Students won a major victory earlier this year for the retention of free 3rd level college, this workshop will look at the future strategies to maintain free education and to widen and further improve access.
==========================

Title: ANARCHIST PRISONER SUPPORT WORKSHOP

Host: ANARCHIST PRISONER SUPPORT

Speakers:
From NUIG Ecology Society and UCD Global Action
Time & Room: Bar Function Room, 1st Fl., 3.30 - 5.00.

Details:
Relating to the Four Anti-Capitalist Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Greece. We will have a stall for a petition, our sponsored head shave and a "workshop" which will actually be a letters to prisoners writing session. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/09/278180.html

==================

author by lishpublication date Tue Oct 14, 2003 18:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

if anyone needs accomodation for the weekend of the irish social forum or has space to offer please get in touch with liz at liz@lapsedhippy.com
saying how many people you can take & if it's spare bed, floorspace etc.
there'll also be a sign-up sheet on the fri.in ucd but in advance is better so we can tell people.
anyone's who's thinking of travelling to dublin for this come on .we'll find somewhere for you.
liz

author by Seánpublication date Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:30author address author phone Report this post to the editors

is the boycott coke talk on?

author by Cianpublication date Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This workshop will in fact be happening at 11 on Saturday morning. It will be held in the UCD Arts Block and will not take place at 5 as advertised above.

 
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