BRITAIN: Some 20,000 global rights activists are attending the European Social Forum in London, Lynne O'Donnell went along
Perhaps it was ironic that a forum of alternative views opened in London this week with a demonstration by around 1,000 people who felt they were being excluded from the main event by being locked out of a church on the southern bank of the River Thames during the opening speeches.
That's what happened when 2,000 people turned up at Southwark Cathedral on Thursday night to hear London Mayor Ken Livingstone open the 2004 European Social Forum, which has attracted 20,000 global justice activists to London.
Accusing organisers of anti-social behaviour, the excluded delegates tried ramming the cathedral doors to get inside and escape the rain. When that failed, they chanted, clapped and complained about poor organisation.
With a panel that included Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara's daughter, Aleida; globalisation academic Ms Susan George; and the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, Mr Livingston set the tone of the conference, which he described as the biggest in British history, saying: "All the people in the world have an interest in overthrowing the existing financial regime of the IMF and the World Bank."
Ms Guevara followed the theme, telling those who made it into the cathedral: "Socialism is still a possibility. Solidarity is of paramount importance."
The forum is an umbrella for a vast array of organisations representing an alternative to mainstream views that many believe are being ignored by established political parties. It describes itself as "a giant gathering for everyone opposed to war, racism and corporate power, everyone who wants to see global justice, workers' rights and a sustainable society."
It grew out of the World Social Forum gathering in Brazil in 2001 and organisers say its two annual meetings so far, in Florence and Paris, attracted a total of 50,000 people.
The sprawling grounds and conference rooms of of Alexandra Palace, in London's leafy northern suburbs, have been transformed into a damp cornucopia of stalls where delegates are spending three days discussing the main forum themes: war and peace; democracy and fundamental rights; social justice and solidarity; social and women's rights; corporate globalisation and global justice; and environmental crisis and sustainable society.
Alongside workshops and talkfests is a cultural program of theatre, film, exhibitions and debates. The convention will culminate in an anti-war demonstration through London tomorrow.
The central events are supplemented by people like Dr Robin Upton (33), who has a PhD in statistics and artificial intelligence, calls himself an interdisciplinary consultant and runs Altruists International, a non-profit group dedicated to promoting altruism.
Attending the forum convention, Dr Upton said, provided opportunity to meet like-minded people and to find people to help him develop software for building an altruistic network in which money was usurped by good deeds.
For Dr Upton, modern technology and the pursuit of profit have undermined the close-knit family-based communities that were once the core of human existence.
"The world is not a market, it is full of people, but in modern transactions there is no consideration for the fact that something I buy was made by a person. Economic theory says we don't need to be informed about the existence or life of that person, it is not a factor," he said.
"There is an element to our society that is trying to find alternatives to the emphasis we put on impersonal monetary transactions. We need to go through a stage of material prosperity and spiritual shortage. How many people don't know their neighbours?
"People are stressed and tired, and work very hard for relatively small amounts of the money that is generated. And this is leading people to look for alternatives," said Mr Upton, who for two years ran a clinic in Bangladesh and devised a computerised Bengali writing system that he gave to the government.
"There was no profit in it for the major software corporations, so they didn't do it," he said. "I could do it, and other people can benefit from it, so I gave it away."
Mr Upton did not see the forum as a platform for protest, "because it's a negative sentiment. We all have to work in this world for the moment, but I'm looking ahead to where we can go. There are a lot of vested interests benefiting enormously from the prevailing situation, but it can change."
Mr Livingstone has offered delegates free transport, and has transformed the much-maligned Millennium Dome, in the docklands, into a massive backpacker lodge for up to 5,000 delegates who will be charged £10 plus the £25 fee for affiliation to the conference.
"I have always considered the dome to be one of London's most beautiful structures and I knew it would be very useful at some point," Mr Livingstone said of the billion-pound landmark that went bankrupt and closed down in 2002.
London has contributed £480,000 to the forum.