europe.pgaconference.org

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Peoples' Global Action International Prepmeeting in Maribor
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

:Time: 2008-03-04 -> 2008-03-06
:Place: Maribor, Pekarna Cultural Centre

Meeting in the Gustaf hall.

People from...

- Berlin
- Budapest
- Denmark
- Lljubljana
- Maribor
- Nis
- Zagreb
- ...

***********************
Presentations on Monday
***********************

===========
PGA history
===========

I. Intercontinental Gathering of Humanity Against Neoliberalism

Foundation:

II. Intercontinental Gathering of Humanity Against Neoliberalism

in Spain. Special efforts has been done to get ppl from Asia. Lot of
farmers' groups working against WTO.

Collective space which is not defined by membership which deals with
WTO as a process and keep the dynamix b/w countersummits.

1st gahtering: 1998 Feb Geneva -- preparing global mobilisation,
global days of action -- before the summit, not at the summit!

Very successful GNA 60 cities and big in Geneva. "End of history"
mentality was very strong then, so GNA shaked thinks up. Zapatistas
and countersummits and GDAs articulated the rage under the ground.

Crazy project in 1998 in Europe. Working name TCP -- Totally Crazy
Project. Let's do sth that is impossible w/o a functioning global
grassroots network. Indians: if you organise for us in Europe we go
there where the governments and multinationals are. "Intercontinental
Caravan for Solidarity and Resistance. 500 reps travelling through
Eurasia.

Such a project had to involve many groups from many places and in a
decentralised way -- that established a network. 6 months working like
crazy. People got used to meet every couple of weeks.

Next: **Prague**.

**First International Social Forum**. Also large contingent from
outside the NGO spectrum.

Basis of consensus:

* 1998 1st Global PGA Conference

* 1999 Bangalore, India

* 2001 Cochabamba -- decision to stop the global process. We have to
develop alternatives instead of spectacular actions. To give time to
focus on the local.

"The PGA hallmarks offer a broad political foundation that appeals to
a spectrum of different global left groups. Provides unity of action
and freedom of action at the same time. They encapsulate the basis of
radical left action." (German Secret Service, after G8)

==========
Euromayday
==========

May 1. at Aachen (Charlemagne awards) action and platform:

- european basic income
- freedom of movement
- freedom of sharing
- freedom of organising

Sarkozy gives to Merkel this prize.

"Capitalism will not end in revolution but in catastrophy."

Leninist Q: "What is to be done?"

But we know what is to be done!

We don't know who we are.. :)

Convoke a new International!

=================
0th Transnational
=================

June 17-21 Maribor

Read the Call for a Zeroeth Transnational if you are interested.

Jist of the discussion:

* Alex & Co.: Our political space is Europe and we need a common
identity, complete with ideology, minimum demands as middle term
goals, and surely iconoly. These are the basis of the formation of a
new political subjectivity that goes beyond the antiglobalisation
movement. The triumph of neoliberalism, neoconservatism and the
church and finally the war have shown that these weak
meta-identities like noglobal does not work so well when confronted
with traditional/old-school ideologies.

* Sergio & Co.: We have to build a global movement and because of the
differences in political culture the global consensus cannot be
formed on basis of an ideology. Also, what will give political
expression to the unsatisfaction and rage that is building up in the
population is not an identity but a process of organisation through
common action and collaborative campaigns. By working together in
constructive practical project we can create a new cycle of
struggles.

=========
anti-NATO
=========

Venue confirmed, sleeping places OK.

Workshops, lectures. German collective is doing exhibition and movie
projections on *extraordinary rendition*.

Hopefully demo as well.

Antinato infotour is on the road (organised by Germans)!

===========================
ROG social centre Ljubljana
===========================

- Active since 2 yrs.

- Working on opposing detention centres.

Trend: From political asylum to quota policy -- from full citizenship
rights to limited rights. When they are not needed anymore they are
sent away.

Detention centre: Restricted movement and communication and resources
for ppl waiting for asylum status.

In post-fordist environment the cultural work has to be organised in
another way than the national administration is doing it. ROG invited
everyone to contribute freely to the process but also declared the
process anti-sexist, etc.

In the first time there was contact with city administration but they
wanted to impose hieararchical ways of organising. There were
conflicts b/c of this so no there is no communication. ROG is
basically waiting for eviction now.

Environment: The regime of apartheid is introduced and the cycle of
investment is in high tide. So it's really important to establish a
place for ppl to meet w/o censorship. ROG is also experimenting with
*self-valorisation*. What ppl want to do w/ their life? Workers from
construction centres can learn how to be DJ or VJ in the social centre
which is part of the struggle against work.

Anti-sexism and internationalism is rampart in the ROG, some meetings
are done in Serbo-Croatian which is a non-existent language
officially.

CRAX from Barcelona is collaborating with ROG and exchanging ppl and
struggles. Erasmus from below!

Eurovision of Conflicts -- an event to present all important social
conflicts today. Counterpower. This is in June -- 20, 21.

Convergence on the political processes on *migration*. The system of
repression is built on circulation and non-circulation of people.

**European SQUAT Days of Action?** We are technically a squat but we
don't articulate it like that. Nobody declared it squat. It was only
"opened". The first group who entered only wanted to highlight that
squatting is *an agent of gentrification*. The complexity of ROG
disabled us to work in the SQUAT Days of Action context.

Erased ppl -- permament residency.

============================
Discussion: Map of Struggles
============================

* Erased

* Freedom of movement

* Get NATO out of Europe

* Indymedia

* Pirate Bay

* Militant anti-prohibitionism -- "They would love it, man! It would be
immensely popular!" :)

* Workfair (Ghost ISP Anerson?)

* Warfair

* New secularism -- how to divide the nation with the state. Going
beyond the sovereignity of the state. Criticism: they will build
institutions on it and that worries us. Europe has to integrate
Islam or it ceases to be a global power. Some bishop wrote in a
newspaper that he is in favour of using Islam law in civil cases
for certain people. We have to be clear on the point that we are
against governance of the population. We should say fuck
multiculturalism and fuck integration? Why? Because
multiculturalism as it is deployed in Europe (the British rule of
Empire -- 'divide and rule'). When they give power to legislative
power to communities it's not the communitarianism of Latin America
but giving power to traditional structures. Liberal identity is
weak in front of this traditional identities politicians say that
we are secular but let's stick to our Christian rule. It's like
monoculturalism. Two identities: **nationalism for the poor,
neoliberalism for the rich**. Multiculturalism is a virus of
Europe (?). We have to be careful when we do European Identity --
b/c officially it is internationalism &
multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is used to control a wide
spectrum of people by corporations.

----

We need a global process and a global movement -- and if you move into
the global arena, forget about ideologies!

Ten years ago we lived in a different world: the legitimacy of the
state was defined in a positive way: there was a broad consensus that
capitalism will provide good life for the majority of the
population. Now, the legitimacy of the state is expressed in negative
terms: it is supposed to defend the citizen against a spectrum of
dangers.

*************************
Working groups on Tuesday
*************************

===========================================================
0./a. Presentation: Balkan Infotour (by Dirdala Collective)
===========================================================

Dirdala collective: two people from the small town Nis. Infoshop at
home, organising small events, concerts, screenings, etc. Problems
with local fascist pigs -- now they are well known. Hard core!a

Collect ppl from Balkans and Eastern Balkans (Croatia, Serbia,
Slovenia, etc.)

1st stop was Zagreb
-------------------

* 30 ppl
* tired b/c of borders
* 2 copies each b/c afraid of the borders

What they presented?
--------------------

* PGA
* Hallmarks
* Digital tools

* Problem:
- How to explain that PGA is not an organisation?
- You do what you are doing now but do it better through PGA!

* PGA Conference in Athens 2008
* Emails for mobilisation
* Explained about Visas
* *It seems Macedonians cannot get visas for Greece!*

* Lot of ppl subscribed to PGA lists b/c of Infotour.

What were the experiences?
--------------------------

* Nis, Sofia is very close, but we didn't know the collectives there!

* Zagreb Bookfair is a very good networking opportunity!

* Anti-projectile / ANTI-NATO actions Romania w/ PGA Europe Prep. Meeting

* Anti-NATO Caravan Berlin --> Greece (?)

* The ppl were most interested in a-NATO: in Serbia a-NATO is a
far-right topic and ppl are against NATO but for wrong reasons.

* Decentralised Action Day for Squats and Autonomous Spaces 11-12 April.

* Long discussion about problems with other groups, pseudo-antifa
groups, personal conflicts which disrupts the scene, etc.

* The NGOs are focused too much on money.

* In Hungary any action on the street is automatically presented as
right-wing anti-government action controlled by the right wing
party in opposition, so it's hard to make an autonomous political
point with a street action (or in another way).

* Soros Foundation and Open Society Institute came to Hungary after
the change of system and trained all the critical people how to
make NGOs and gave a lot of money so everybody who had critical
ideas were artificially channelled into the NGO scene. Thus,
there's not really much grassroots activity.

* Also in post-Yugo area bags of dollars are coming from United
Nations and other organisations so there is a lot of NGOs and
temptation to get money and get coopted.

* Reference to yesterday's discussion on identity: do we need the 0th
Transnational? Groups like we talked about are (1.) not effective
and (2.) have no identity and visibility. Having no identity in
terms of not having a bad history is a good thing.

* We have to find out if ppl from Kosovo need separate visa
process. Or at least help them if we can to find out.

Post-scriptum: report from rijeka
---------------------------------

:Subject: [PGA_Europe_process] report from rijeka
:From: malo_kucence@riseup.net
:To: "pga balkan" ,
:Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 14:55:37 -0800 (PST)
:Sender: pga_europe_process-bounces@squat.net
:Reply-To: PGA Europe process list
:User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.12
:Importance: Normal

so we are now in sarajevo after traveling 15 hours from rijeka. we left
sergio so we hope that hes ok!

so in rijeka it was really great
during the day we went to tribunal on the faculty of low called "why
nato?" which was organized by deputy of minister of defence. there werent
lots of people, mostly students of low who came only for the reason of
getting + from their profesors. the good thing is that there were people
who asked some really good questions and although they didnt get an answer
they had a chance to tel the other side of the story.

so in the evening we had a meeting in the infoshop called "skatula" which
is really great. there were around 10 people. they liked the idea of
getting involved with pga network and we collected their e mail, so ill
send it to vlanto later. we talked about the site and all. two of them are
comming for sure to the conference and they dont need visas, which is
great.
also we talked about anti nato in romania and they are planing to do some
actions in rijeka, acctually theyre already working on that, cause croatia
is about to enter nato.
also planning to do something to to some actions on 11th and 12th of
april. in rijeka have never been any squats, and their infoshop is not so
autonomus space,but they are making some efforts.

so thats all for now well write soon again!

snowy greetings from sarajevo

======================================
0./b. Presentation: Energy (by Sergio)
======================================

**0. Sergio on Energy 12:00 -- 13:00**

Thesises on the contemporary historical situation
-------------------------------------------------

* Things are fucked up all over the world, Eastern-Europe is not so
special in this manner.

* There is a sense that things have to change radically, but there is
no perspective about this change. Collective desire for change and
collective awareness of a historical crisis.

* Facilitating the articulation of this desire for change. The South
already has an effective movement and they even had it before the
antiglobalisation movement took off. The relationship created a good
dynamics.

* After 9/11 the movement lost initiative. Before we made actions,
without demands and representatives -- so the only political
mediation from the states was repression. But this repression thing
was a bad idea because general ppl had a sense that the movement
has a point.

* Then we lost initative b/c states created a state of exception --
wars. We didn't act but we reacted: we tryied to stop them but we
couldn't. This was the mobilisation against Iraqi.

* Securitanism -- states are not good anymore b/c they provide good
life but because they *defend* ppl from outer and inner threats.

* The collective intelligence that is there in the ppl have to be
addressed.

* The strategic question is how to inspire a process that creates a
snowball effect -- inspiring ppl so they join and they inspire more
ppl.

* Issue-based politix is a thing of the past. If the issues are
isolated we are isolating ourselves and creating an atomised
movement.

* This is the framework in which the energy topic will be explicated!

Climate and Energy Package
--------------------------

European Commission: January 23th "Climate and Energy package"
(proposal of directives) -- to deal with climate change and a lot of
low-carbon energy stuff. Big PR campaign to argue that this is the
coolest documents ever produced on the topic:

- 10% of energy consumption to be from renewable energy
- +20% energy efficiency
- -20% CO(2) emission

Media & NGOs are celebrating the package and saying that EU is better
than USA. BUT if you read the actual document, it is a disaster:

* Renewable energy: only *bio-fuel* is addressed concretely. Bio-fuel
is occupying a lot of land -- but we already use too much cultured
land b/c we consume and eat stupidly! There is not enough land in EU
for this -- so the bio-fuel fields will be outside EU.

* UN says 40 million ppl in Earth will loose their land, livelihood,
perhaps life b/c of expansion of bio-fuel plantation.

* Amazon is cutted in two North-South -- so far it has been only the
Trans-Amazonia road going East-West. This is suicidal for
Earth. Non-linear effect to create climate change.

* BP & Shell will not sell fuel but bio-fuel. Recolonilasation of the
South -- they have to control the land. "Green energy!"

* End of the story: **their plan is to destroy the climate in the
name of saving the climate!**

The others are treated together and because of the market mechanism
that they want to set up these energy sources will disappear or become
unsustainable.

Spain: had a very progressive policy -- but this is not good for EU
business b/c it is not "a market based-mechanism". This law was that
anybody can set up a windmill and then their production is bought for
a guaranteed price for 20 years.

UK: corporations did not want to build nuclear plants b/c they are too
expensive b/c of insurance costs. But now the government is paying for
the insurance (through guaranteeing future income).

So people are concerned about CO(2) emission and the state strategy is
**to move from renewable energy to no-emission energy** -- nuclear.

Who is going to get the remaining nuclear material? Military question
-- don't let the countries outside get their hands on it!

Carbon capture and storage -- a technology to be used to pump the last
volumes of oil from old reserves. Working with CO(2) and liquifying it
to use to push out the oil. They are reselling this technology to
stuck all the CO(2) under ground. "Clean coal & clean oil" -- pilot
projects are funded now. This takes more energy than which can be
gained by burning the oil that is produced. But sooner or later all
CO2 will come up from the ground -- so we are just delaying the
problem!

The problem with these externalities is similar to the problem with
nuclear energy.

ETS -- European CO2 Trading Scheme. There is already law for large
emitters to reduce their emissions. If they don't do this they need to
buy emission reduction volumes from other emitters.

Part of the package is the second part of ETS -- not emitters get
emission rights for free, more than they need. So they can sell these
rights that they got free. 1. Money from energy prices. 2. Money from
selling emission rights. 3. ??? This system also supports
concentration of companies. Energy is one of the most concentrated
sectors in Europe.

So the package is stupid. Addressing the problems created by
capitalism by more capitalism.

Energy: based on traditional macho culture like nuclear POWER and big
cars! But renewable energy is decentralised and small scale. Many
women are fighting on the renewable side.

**We need to make decisions and voice actual demands.** This resonates
with general ppl's concerns. They will never introduce progressive
energies in Brussels (or make a directive saying that ppl should
self-organise and self-manage their lives and energies), but history
have shown in Denmark and Spain that the general population and
grassroots participation can introduce renewable energy strategy --
and then the government had to pass laws to make possible small local
cooperatives of windfarms. Now 150.000 households who were owners of
landfarms. 15.000 people put together money and subsidies in
Copenhagen to build an offshore landfarm. All this started as part of
the *anti-nuke* campaigns in the 70s!

**Let's not make protest but build alternatives!**

**It's not about energy but about the way to organise society!**

- But we don't even own our places!

- Yes but this is a project that will not work without braking out of
the activist ghetto -- and this is a good thing! PGA was acting like
this, especially in 1999 w/ Transcontinental Caravan where a lot of
peasants' organisations participated not just the usual european
suspects -- althouth these peasants are as radical as we are.

- But where do we put the windmills in a city?

- You have to collaborate with the countryside around or be creative.

- So this is an ambitious project but also it seems feasible and it
can highlight and develop the constructive face of the movement!

- Social energy and energy energy.

- Pekarna will be renovated by 2012 -- 7 million EURs. So there is a
possibility to make the establishment running on renewable
energy. Also, can we connect also with the infrastructure around us
to give extra energy if we have and take when we need?

B/c there is nothing happening at the moment but there is an
accumulation of desire so we can design big projects that require more
resources than we have! How do we get the resources? Because this is
not just protest but building a lot of infrastructure. We have to
build cooperation with South where ppl are already building popular
power and taking control of their own life -- for example the
movements are strong enough to occupy lands and keep them. We have to
get to that point (sooner or) later. **Let's get control of the means
of production!**

But how do we do this in a non-NGO way?

So there will be a transition b/c we run out of coal, uranium, etc. --
but corporations imagine this is that they play the old game until the
last minute and make the transition during the final crisis. The
transition will be into another way of production in capitalism.

Get renewable energy out of the market!

================
1. Digital Tools
================

1. **Digital tools** for Balkan Decentralised Network & PGA
13:00-14:00

- balkans.puscii.nl
- europe.pgaconference.org
- pgabalkan@eurodusnie.nl
- Balkan Infoshop mailing list
- pga_europe_process@squat.net

14:00-15:00 TV Lunch -- Caravan of the Erased screening

=================
2. Communications
=================

2. **Communications** for Balkan Decentralised Network & PGA
15:30-16:30

- Updating Balkans Decentralised Network leaflet
- Balkan Newsletter
- Press group
- PGA inspired newsletter

=============
3. Infopoints
=============

3. **Infopoints** for Balkan Decentralised Network & PGA
16:30-17:30

- What is a PGA infopoint?
- How to become an infopoint?
- List of existing infopoints.
- Communication between infopoints.
- Distribution network.

Discussion about having infopoints -- why to create structures?
---------------------------------------------------------------

- If there are official infopoints PGA becomes more an organisation than
a network?

- There are infoshops -- why call them PGA infopoints? If we do good
work infoshops will do everything to get their hands on our materials
and to talk about us and promote the network.

- Instead of having infopoints it's more useful to make trainings on
organisation, to work together on campaigns -- and that doesn't
involve **creating structures**.

- **Social talk** is very important to keep the network and the mailing list
alive. So we have to send short comments about events, politics,
books, materials, etc. to the list and discuss them.

- **Book exchange**: Idea to photocopy or scan books and send it to infopoints who are
interested in it and after the transfer discuss it virtually or even
possibly in real life.

Review of Existing Infopoints
-----------------------------

* Berlin -- Install Autonomy collective

- Unified with Carambolas

- Probably next convenor for 2010

**UPDATE!**

* Athens and beyond DIYmusic.org

- DIY Greece -- UPDATE!

- Different address.

Other tools to network infoshops
--------------------------------

- Abolishing the Borders from Below

- Anarchist Yellow Pages

- other tools.

===================
6. Radical Exchange
===================

6. **Radical exchange**
19:30-20:30

- EVS
- IFA money
- Invitations
- How to spread and store the invitations and coordinate radical X
change places?
- Role of the infopoints in spreading information and promotion

1. European Voluntary Service
-----------------------------

- All ppl under 30 can apply.

- Part of Youth in Action Programme.

- Both organisations have to have EVS certificate. The organisation
which applies for volunteers for 3-12 months. Or you need a
coordinating organisation. Criteria for inclusion is basically that
you have to be an NGO.

- You have to find a sending organisation.

- What is surprising is that very few ppl know about EVS.

- National agencies are very pro-european. Politically correct
vocabulary.

- There are multiteral EVS programmes: a packet of exchange of different
ppl betwen different organisations. Then you also get money for doing
the meetings.

- It changes the way organisations work! Two networks that started
grassroots ended up being NGO offices. It can be really destructive to
base networks on this opportunity. This erodes in a very visible way.

- Deadline is 1st June to apply for Pekarna -- now it's sending and
receiving ideology.

- There is a catalog for EVS organisations with all the places.

- If you are inviting somebody you can make false bills and get a lot of
money from the EU but it is a lot of work!

2. Youth Initiatives and Youth Exchanges
----------------------------------------

This is another programme for shorter stays, if I understand
correctly.

3. Social Centre Network Proposal
---------------------------------

* Initiative from ROG.

- People at ROG are putting together a network for social centres!

Came out of Barcelona Migrants' Rights -- meeting of social centres in
Europe. KRAKS (?) meeting in April -- cultural centres are networked
(Trans-European Halls), but more political places are not networked
yet so we should work on it. Also how to insert these things into the
city and secure the spaces. In June in Ljubljana, there will be a
meeting and shortly a common call. Close connections to Spain, Italy,
etc. Triple event ideas:

1. How to network autonomous places in general?
2. Convergence of the political processes, mainly on migration
3. **Eurovision of Conflicts**: presentations of the most important
struggles in Europe.

- "Exploitaiton is the system of borders today."

- Contra-doxa.org -- NATO critique in Romania.

- Trans European Halls -- specialised EVS network of alternative
centers (we need something similar with political places).

======================
4. Political Narrative
======================

4. **Political narrative**

17:30-18:30

- Research
- Correspondents
- Editorial team

* The idea is to construct a political narrative (a more/less coherent
story) from the news of different struggles that are posted on
different mailing lists, websites, etc. We have to "connect the
dots" of struggle to construct a single story, an explanation to
what is happening. Also we need correspondents or researchers on the
ground (from different collectives) to gather information and
knowledge, insight, commentary, etc. Then we need a few people to
synthesise this.

* This is something like a 0th Transnational (0T) / PGA project.

* We decided to use the radical-europe@listes.agora.eu.org

* Josip seems like coordinating this.

====================
5. Money Money Money
====================

5. **MONEY MONEY MONEY**
------------------------

18:30-19:30

- Solidarity parties
- Merchandise (buttons, T-shirts, patches, cds)
- Common money pool + collectives' money
- Projects, NGO
- Transportation

We didn't really have time to discuss this. Several people said they
would be interested in organising solidarity parties to grow the
common PGA money pool to have money for future projects that come out
of the process:

* Ovis, Maxigas -- Budapest
* Alex Foti -- Milano
* Virus Collective -- Athens
* Carambolas Collective -- Berlin

END of notes from the meeting compiled by maxigas.