4/7 May 2006, Athens, Greece - http://athens.fse-esf.org/


Friends of the Earth is participating since the early days to the European and World Social Forum, and works actively on a further integration of the environmental concerns into the alter-globalisation debate. The ESF is one central arena for building the bridges and develop, with other partner organisations from the social movements, the joint work on the alternatives for that other world that we believe is possible!

Follow Charly Poppe, Trade campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe!
Read his daily update from Athens!

See PHOTOS of FoEE at the ESF !
  

ESF 2006 in Athens

Follow Friends of the Earth team at the ESF in Athens! Read the daily update of our Trade campaigner and see photos!

Friends of the Earth at ESF, 2004 in London

Final demonstration at ESF, 2003 in Paris

What is World and European Social Forum?
The first World Social Forum (WSF) was held in January 2001, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was timed to coincide with the holding of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Every year since 1971, an exclusive club of chief executives of the world's largest and most influential transnational corporations meets with academics and political leaders in the Swiss resort town of Davos, to chart the global economic agenda. The WSF was thus also seen as a counterweight to the options proposed by the World Economic Forum.

The basis of the World and European Social Forum is the conviction that ' another world is possible'. The basic idea is the creation of a space for everyone to come together with a respect for that space.

The World or European Social Forum is not an organisation, not a united front platform, but "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 centred on the human person". (From the WSF Charter of Principles)

The European Social Forum (ESF) is a regional forum based on the same principles as the World Social Forum (WSF). Friends of the Earth has taken part in all three editions of the European Social Forum. The first one was held in Florence 2002, the second in Paris 2003 and the third edition in London the 14 - 17 October 2004.

In 2006 the ESF is taking place in Athens, 4-7 May 2006. See http://athens.fse-esf.org/.

Read more about Friends of the Earth Europe speaking events at the ESF 2006!