Europe Follow

WHAT A tremendous year for the movements against war and corporate globalisation. The European Social Forum in Paris, which drew over 50,000 activists from those movements together two weeks ago, was proof of that. It reflected the vibrancy of the movement and also the increasingly intense debates about how to go forward.

EUROPEAN countries are stepping up their war against asylum seekers with plans to establish a new list of safe countries.

THOUSANDS OF activists from across Europe converged on Paris this week for the European Social Forum.

SEVENTY FIVE percent of people across Europe now believe the war against Iraq was wrong.

THE EUROPEAN Social Forum (ESF) next week will see at least 100,000 gather in Paris for an event that will concentrate the militant mood building up across the continent. The ESF is the body that met in Florence, Italy, last year.

ANTI-CAPITALIST forces moved to the centre stage of French politics last weekend. The country's two main far left organisations announced their united electoral challenge in important regional and European elections due next June-the same time as similar elections in Britain.

THE EUROPEAN Social Forum aims to bring together the resistance across the continent to war and neo-liberalism. It takes place from 12 to 16 November with hundreds of meetings, workshops, debates and countless opportunities for informal discussions. A high point will be a demonstration on Saturday 15 November.

THE EUROPEAN Working Time Directive was introduced in 1998.

PEOPLE WILL be heading for the French capital in November to take part in the second European Social Forum (ESF). The first ESF was in the Italian city of Florence last November, when 60,000 people took part in three days of rallies, debates and forums. The Florence forum culminated in a million-strong demonstration against war. And it was out of meetings at Florence that activists from across Europe called for massive anti-war protests on 15 February this year.

OLIVIER BESANCENOT is the young postal worker who shocked the French establishment when he won 1.2 million votes standing as a revolutionary socialist in the presidential election in April last year. One in seven of the people under 25 who voted backed Olivier. He is a leading member of the socialist Revolutionary Communist League. He spoke to Socialist Worker about the build-up in France towards the European Social Forum.

ON WEDNESDAY of last week some 1,000 pensioners descended on Westminster to ask for a £10 increase to the state pension and the restoration of the link with earnings. The demonstration came following strikes to defend pensions in Europe. There was a rally organised by the NPC pensioners' convention and a lobby of MPs.

I DON'T know about you, but I hate columnists who write about their holidays abroad. So I had better apologise in advance! This year I stayed in a tiny village just outside Marciac in the south west corner of France. Marciac, a village of 6,000 inhabitants, puts on the biggest jazz festival in Europe. Over two weeks some of the greatest names in jazz played there-Wayne Shorter, Oscar Peterson and Wynton Marsalis.