European Social Forum, Istanbul
A delegation of 8 GUE/NGL MEPs are attending the European Social Forum in Istanbul this week (1-4 July). Eva Britt Svensson, Gabi Zimmer, Søren Søndergaard, Ilda Figueiredo, Jürgen Klute, Marisa Matias, Rui Tavares and Cornelia Ernst are the MEPs on the delegation and who are taking part in seminars dealing with poverty and global solidarity as well as debates and workshops focusing on issues around democracy, the environment, feminism, human rights, employment and immigration.
World March of Women - June 30th, Istanbul
A gathering of European feminists took place June 30th in Istanbul. This was followed by a demonstration, in which members of GUE/NGL expressed our solidarity with Turkish and Kurdish women in their struggle for women’s rights and people’s self-determination. We articulated our idea of an open, democratic and secular Europe in which all women can enjoy and benefit from their rights as full citizens. This demonstration took place on the eve of the opening of the European Social Forum and GUE/NGL MEP and Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Eva-Britt Svensson took part.
Photos from the Women's March:
GUE/NGL MEP Eva-Britt Svensson at the Women's March:
GUE/NGL workshops on poverty, biodiversity and global solidarity at the ESF
WORKSHOP I : European year for combating poverty and social exclusion
GUE/NGL MEPS Gabi Zimmer, Eva-Britt Svensson and Ilda Figueiredo at the workshop
During the first workshop, MEP Gabi Zimmer spoke about fuel poverty and its consequences for thousands of people each winter in Europe.
MEP Eva-Britt Svensson highlighted how poverty affects women: "poverty has a woman's face" and she emphasised the importance of public housing in dealing with poverty - maximum rent levels and provision of accommodation allowances were key in this area. Her intervention was welcomed for her rights-based approach to housing and energy.
MEP Ilda Figueiredo said that in this EU year for combating poverty, the poor were facing the worst attacks against them. The Portuguese MEP spoke about her report on a minimum income, which calls for the minimum income to be set at 60% of the median income in each member state.
Participants in Workshop I
ESF debate on "Left perspectives on ecology"
The debate was about the key challenges to the left on environmental problems and how to improve the articulation of a social and environmental agenda. GUE/NGL MEP Marisa Matias focused on climate change and energy policy.
Seminar: State of Play of Public Services in Europe and Challenges for Social Movements.
“Politicians like to talk about the importance of equality between men and women. However, when it comes to real actions which would bring real change, and therefore demand resources, they always back down. At the same time, these politicians spend billions on military arms that could be used on public services. This is obviously unacceptable and something we have to change”, said GUE/NGL MEP Eva-Britt Svensson. Nearly 80 people attended this seminar on Thursday.
Seminar: Which political answer to the crisis?"
At this seminar organised by transform!, MEP Jürgen Klute explained the work of the GUE/NGL group and how we are trying to influence the Parliament's position on the crisis by opposing austerity and policies that force working people to bail out the banks,
WORKSHOP II: Political action on European level in global solidarity for 2010 and beyond
MEP Marisa Matias spoke about biodiversity and renewable energy and climate change.
Seminar: The consequences of EU policies for women’s lives
GUE/NGL MEP Eva-Britt Svensson spoke at this seminar, which was attended by about 50 people from various NGOs and networks. During the debate, Svensson stressed that men had created the financial crisis but that women were shouldering the burdens created by it. “It is important to ask oneself if the same situation would have arisen if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters?”
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Final declaration adopted by the ESF in Istanbul
We, the participants at the Istanbul ESF, affirming that we have a strong commitment against all war and occupation and that we are for a political resolution of the Kurdish issue, have made the following resolution:
Act together in Europe against the crisis
In the context of a global crisis and faced with the EU’s, governments’ and the IMF´s offensive to impose austerity and social regression policies, the social movements which have gathered at the ESF in Istanbul issue a call to act together in Europe.
Mobilisation and resistance movements are developing across Europe to challenge these policies. It is urgent to build, in the long term, a convergent struggle in Europe, which brings together social movements, trade unions, associations, organisations, and citizen networks. This is why we issue a call for a first step on the way to developing mobilisation across Europe, on the 29th September and the surrounding days.
We must impose alternative policies, which enable us to fulfill social needs and ecological requirements.
All social movements call for a European assembly on the 23-24th October (or 13-14th of November) in Paris to further our mobilisation and the coordination of our movements and also to evaluate and discuss the future of the ESF.