FSE 2006

Enthusiastic and qualified participation in various initiatives on the urban/housing issue organized by a number of networks during the ESF in Athens was a very positive occasion that presented these issues to the attention of the European new global movement including associations, movements, individual activists and supportive public administrators for the first time.
it's important that all of us continue our common struggle to discuss and confront these issues and mobilize ourselves as equal participants, each contributing to our united common effort.

Coordinated by Sylvie Lacroux, ex director of UN-Habitat Europe and Teresa Hoskyns of the London Social Forum, the seminar held during the ESF involved over one hundred participants from the European Union, the Russian Federation and Turkey.
The result of the unification of the proposal by the International Alliance of Inhabitants and that of the London Social Forum, the seminar was enlivened with many interventions and thought provoking ideas deriving from the variety of approaches and subjects intervening. For this reason everyone agreed that it was the most important seminar on urban issues organized by the ESF.
The seminar concluded with a calendar of the next steps which calls for the efforts of all involved to take the next steps together.

Over 150 participants from 15 European countries attended the presentations on the violations of housing rights on the old continent.
The interventions demonstrated how the European variant of neoliberal globalization is causing similar negative effects on the inhabitants of different cities. At the same time, the associations and urban social movements are reacting in a diversified way, organizing opposition, proposing self managed solutions or partnerships, demonstrating a capacity to create sustainable alternatives, but also showing that it is impossible achieve lasting results only on the local or national level. Therefore the construction of the European Union cannot be delegated to the promoters of the Bolkenstein Directive, which attacks public services, including the housing sector, but should be promoted on the basis of the involvement of the inhabitants themselves, migrants included, with public policies capable of promoting civil rights.

Athens, May 4-7 2006

With only a few months remaining before the ESF, various proposals have been put forth for seminars, working groups and conferences on the housing and urban issue by organizations and individuals in various countries, at times drawn from diverse backgrounds: tenants’ associations, housing cooperatives, lobby groups, urban planners, volunteer organizations, NGO’s, local authorities.

We therefore put forward the idea that a multi-disciplinary “right to housing/right to the city” themed approach be developed with the possible establishment of a physical space.

This could take the form of an “Urban Tent” or even a suitable ESF structure where such types of initiatives could evolve at close quarters and with continuity. In fact, this would be a follow-up to a similar experience during the 2005 WSF.

Unity, Development, Solidarity: the Urban Tent serves to contribute to building this new phase of anti-globalisation.

What is your opinion?

ONLINE FORUM FOR THE 2006 FSE

You are invited to contribute to the discussion by sending your ideas, suggestions and criticisms participating to ONLINE FORUM in order to improve definition of the joint proposal for the 2006 FSE. Or write to info@habitants.org in order to improve definition of the joint proposal for the 2006 FSE.