European Social Forum gathering - Florence Nov 2022

Please circulate to potentially interested organisations and networks!

November 10th-13th 2022, twenty years after the first European Social Forum

2022FLORENCE

four days of European and international meeting - a step toward a new convergence of social actors in Europe

USEFUL INFO FOR JOINING AND PARTICIPATING

(after the international meeting on 14 September )

next preparatory meeting:

October 5th at 17:30 CET

……

The preparations for 2022Florence, the four-day meeting to foster the convergence of European social actors after a long period of geographical and thematic fragmentation, is going on.

The international meeting was held on 14 September, widely participated by social networks and organisations.

Below you’ll find useful information on how to join, participate, and add initiatives of your own network/organisation.

Organisations and networks wishing to join and participate, in addition to those already involved, are invited to participate in the construction of the event: there is still time and space!

We would therefore ask you to circulate the communication as widely as possible, so that everyone can have the necessary information.

FORMAT OF THE INITIATIVE

On November 10th and 11th November Florence will host meetings and self-organised initiatives. The initiatives will be promoted, organised and financed by networks, organisations and movements.

The provisional list can be consulted at this link:

The European and international assembly will take place on November 12th and 13th. The assembly will be divided into three sessions, to discuss three cross-cutting questions:

  1. Where is Europe going and what is its role in a changing world?

  2. From resentment and loneliness to collective hope: how to beat the consensus to right-wing forces inside the society?

  3. Being right is not enough: how to be effective in the time of emptied democracy?

The assembly will start at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and it will last at 1:00 pm on Sunday.

The assembly will have simultaneous translation: it will be possible to speak in Italian, English, French and Castilian and it will be possible to listen in Italian and English. The speeches will be organised so as to allow for a balance of gender and generations, of countries and topics.

On Sunday, from 2:00 p.m. till 4:00 p.m. a meeting will take place, with the aim to share info about the next mobilizations/campaigns/events and to plan the 2022Florence follow up . We invite you to organize your trips in order to guarantee the presence of at least one person of your organization to this meeting.

VENUE

The assembly on November 12th-13th will take place in Cinema Adriano, Via Giandomenico Romagnosi, 46. The cinema can be easily reached by tramway.

The self-organized events on November 10th-11th will take place in various venues: you will find them in the website, as soon as they will be finalized.

COMMUNICATION

To join, communicate or receive information write to: 2022firenze@gmail.com

The website (active but still under construction) that will host all the informations and the program in Italian and English is: https://2022firenze.eu

The logo is the one you can find in attachment and on the site.

ACCOMMODATION

The Florence committee will do its utmost to help the participants’ accommodation. Those who need support for finding a low-cost accommodation should write to: 2022firenze@gmail.com

A call will also be launched to find solidarity accommodation.

FOR PROMOTERS OF SELF-ORGANISED EVENTS

As the details of your initiative are finalised, it is essential that you email us all the useful info, so that we can integrate the shared file and update the website.

The shared file with the self-organized events is here:

Please email 2022firenze@gmail.com with only the essential details:

  1. the title of the self-organised initiative; 2) the promoter(s); 3) the type of event and in particular whether it is an internal meeting or an event open to participation by all; 4) the date and venue; 5) the languages in which the initiative will be held; 6) the contact person with his/her email address.

We recommend that you send this 6 essential info by email: we had to turn the shared file into ‘view only’ mode to avoid deletions and other technical problems that have occurred in the past weeks.

Then, when more extensive presentations of your event are ready, also send those by e-mail to 2022firenze@gmail.com, so that they can be published on the site.

If you need to find a space to realise your initiative, write to the e-mail address: we will do our best to help you. If you have already found a room for your initiative, send us an email as soon as possible with the place, date and time - this will help us in our search for rooms for other initiatives.

PROPOSALS FOR SPEAKERS IN THE ASSEMBLY

As soon as possible, please provide us with the names/organization/country of those you propose as speakers at the European plenary assembly on 12 and 13 November, indicating in which specific session of the plenary the intervention is proposed.

We will then have to work to compose a balanced programme (gender, generation, country, theme, etc.) of interventions in the assembly, and this will take time. Therefore, please do not send us the proposals at the last minute!

and … let us continue to involve other European and international networks and associations!

The next international preparatory meeting will take place on October 5th at 17:30 CET at this link:

ID riunione: 823 4239 4225

Passcode: 549981

Thanks, in solidarity

The Italian Organising Committee

The next international preparatory meeting will take place on October 17th at 17:30 CET at this link:

ID riunione: 881 3650 3233

Passcode: 571673

the meeting will be devoted to discuss about the contents of the assembly

The website of 2022Firenze isn’t 100% working yet, but here’sa translation of the ‘About us’ page:

20 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM

To the organisations, groups and networks from across Europe that participated in the first European Social Forum held in Florence in 2002.

To the new generation of collective actors and European social movements.

To all networks, organisations and associations across the continent that might be interested.

Next November will mark 20 years since the first European Social Forum, held in Florence from 6 to 10 November 2002. The event was one of the largest, most participative and important moments in the European and global anti-globalist movement.

Only a year after the harsh state repression in Genoa, and despite recurrent attempts to criminalise the movement, it arrived in Florence even bigger, broader and stronger, and was welcomed by an open, supportive, committed and courageous city. During the Florence ESF, we promoted and launched the largest demonstration ever held in the world, that against the war in Iraq on 15 February 2003.

Now it is not a question of celebrating the past, but of keeping alive a memory that can help us move towards the future. Florence was a moment of great strength and convergence of social movements and collective actors from all over Europe: similar strength and convergence are more necessary than ever today, in the face of the immense and dramatic challenges of the present, starting with the need to raise a strong and united voice for peace and against war on a European scale.

A European meeting of social movements and collective actors will be held in Florence on 10, 11, 12 and 13 November 2022. It should be a step forward in the process of rebuilding a network of communication, collaboration and possible convergence capable of tackling the dramatic times we are living through: war, eco-climatic crisis, exponential increase in social and gender inequalities, democratic crisis.

Overcoming the great geographical and thematic fragmentation that has characterised the mobilisations of recent years is now more necessary than ever, and the preparatory process that will lead us towards the ‘Florence 2022’ event can become an essential part of this reconnection.

The first two days of the Forum will be dedicated to self-organised and self-financed activities put in place by the different national and European networks, also with the aim of involving as many activists as possible from all over Europe and encouraging them to come to Florence.

On 12 and 13 November, all participants will gather in a European plenary meeting at:

Palaffari
Piazza Adua 1
Florence

The assembly will be divided into three sessions of three hours each. The themes of the three sessions will be transversal:

  1. Where is Europe going? What role for Europe in the changing world?
  2. How to move from resentment to collective hope? How to take popular consensus away from the Right?
  3. Being right is not enough: how to be more effective in the time of emptied democracy?

The assembly will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday and end at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The assembly will be simultaneously translated: it will be possible to speak in Italian, English, French and Castilian and it will be possible to listen in Italian and English. The speeches will be organised so as to allow for a balance of gender and generations, countries and topics.

On Sunday, from 14:00 to 16:00, a meeting will be held with the aim of sharing information on upcoming mobilisations/campaigns/events and planning the follow-up of 2022Florence. We invite you to make your travel arrangements to ensure the presence of at least one person from your organisation at this meeting.

We continue to involve other European and international networks and associations!

In solidarity

The Italian Coordination towards 2022Florence