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ESF Culture
The ESF grew out of the World Social Forum in Port Allegre. The European Social
Forum is "…an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic
debate of ideas formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences
and inter- linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society
that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital
and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a society centered
on the human person" (From the World Social Forum Charter of
Principles).
The ESF was launched from the World Social Forum (WSF) meeting in Porto Alegre,
Brazil. Its first two massive gatherings were in Florence (2002) and Paris
(2003), bringing together a host of progressive social movements including
trade unionists, NGO's, anti-war activists, environmentalists, community campaigns,
anti-racists etc to discuss major European and Global issues. One
issue of course is culture and the arts. We have already had positive responses
from a number of companies including Theatre Royal Stratford East; Cardboard
Citizens; RNT Education department, IETM, Ampress publishing etc.