Anti-capitalism rises in the East
by Emma Dowling and Rodrigo Nunes

Emma Dowling and Rodrigo Nunes report back from the recent People's Global Action summit in.

'Antiglobalists could stop the whole of'. Or at least that's what the newspapers said. According to one of our hosts in, the third European conference of People's Global Action (PGA) was nothing less than 'the most important international event since Tito's funeral'. That might say more about the lack of relationships between the country and the outside world than the conference itself. Indeed, the friendliness and eagerness of almost everyone we met spoke of a people who feel like they've been left out of something. In terms of media impact, the conference didn't disappoint: a late-night samba party in the streets of with coverage on the TV news and the next day's newspapers, and the presence of all those foreigners who clearly didn't belong there at the strike of local electricity workers, which gave rise to the headline above.

The reaction of the tabloids was typical of the nationalist discourse that dominates Serbian politics: another newspaper, under the headline 'The truth about strikes in Serbia', explained that the workers demonstrating in Belgrade had actually been organized and trained by an international sect (sic) called PGA, and even linked it to another strike in a town called Kostalac – where not even the people from DSM, the local coalition that convened the conference, had ever been. It remains to be seen whether, by employing the old theme of the 'international agitators', the Serbian right-wing press (and there doesn't seem to be any other) hasn't in fact helped to create space for a new politics that is neither a leftover from the Communist regime nor the currently hegemonic mixture of nationalistic discourse and neoliberal policies.

The tension between local and global politics, and how to deal with it in terms of autonomous organizing, is at the centre of the discussions in PGA, even if it remains mostly as its unspoken, unarticulated element. PGA was born at a conference in in 1998, as the result of a networking process begun at the second'Encuentro' in the previous year. Its purpose was to be a coordinating and networking tool for movements from the global North and South in the struggle against such bodies as the WTO and the G8. It was involved in the organization of the cross-European Caravan for Resistance and Solidarity in 1999, and in calling Global Days of Action like J18, and . As a'networking tool' it has no membership, no legal status, and very lean coordinating structures, and keeps going basically by means of mailing lists, websites and its conferences, organized in a system of rotation by local groups (convenors).

If that makes PGA the most open and horizontal of all the global processes that emerged in the late 1990s, it also brings with it lots of problems. For example, the fact that participation/coordination is mostly virtual represents an important challenge to the equal and constant participation of groups and movements of the global South. This has been a serious obstacle in Latin American and Asia, and has meant that the global process has remained very European (although many North American groups adhere to the five PGA hallmarks, only now is there talk of starting a PGA process in the region). This has also led to some movements who were originally involved in PGA, like those in Via Campesina , coming closer to the WSF process, with which, it might be argued, they also have greater political affinities. As a result the core beliefs expressed in PGA's hallmarks – anticapitalism, direct action, civil disobedience and anti-authoritarianism – tend to be given an interpretation with a mostly young, urban, white and Western European slant. The way this is played out in different cultural and political contexts raises lots of questions not only about the future of PGA, but also the very idea of global networks and whatever we call a global movement – are these principles entirely context-free? Should they adapt to local realities, and would that mean PGA becoming more of a sort of federation than a network? Or is the inflexibility in the interpretation another manifestation of Western cultural imperialism, this time with a radical leftwing edge?

The question 'what next?' was the one most people expected to see answered at the Third European Conference in the suburb of Jajinci, from July 23rd to 30th. There was no single answer, but a number of paths could be seen. One of the main differences in the conference was described by some as being between the 'social' and 'lifestyle' anarchists. While the latter criticise the former for having everyday practices which are at odds with their principles and bowing to the mainstream political game, the 'social' see the 'lifestyle' (mostly people involved in practices such as squatting or caravans) as turning politics into subculture, and sheltering themselves in an activist ghetto away from real political intervention. This difference in political approach was intensely debated, and even though there was no consensus at the end, some people have taken the initiative of starting a PGA-inspired booklet on experiences of engaging with other organizations such as trade unions and parties whilst holding out a politics of non-hierarchical and anticapitalist organisation.

The most remarkable example of how this discussion lurks in the background was the decision to call a Day of Global Action in support of the social struggles taking place in. On a normal day, you would have expected a PGA conference to dismiss Chavez as a populist leader, an odd mixture of Castro and Peron. However, the presence of a Venezuelan activist deeply involved in the process of the 'Bolivarian Revolution' – and with a very well-made video – managed to convince most people that what's going on is a social transformation that, even if started or galvanized by Chavez, transcends the mere cult of personality. After discussions on whether support for the Bolivarian Revolution would equal support for Chavez and therefore a government, the call-out was phrased as being in support of 'the social movements in Venezuela'. However, it's clear that given the complexity of the current Venezuelan context (the referendum and polarization), support of the social movements is also support of the government by default.

Other days of action were called around the theme of reappropriation, inspired by the work of group's like Spain's Yomango (www.yomango.org) and the 'For Free' campaigns in Hamburg and Berlin (act.so36.net, www.berlin-umsonst.tk). As an attempt to come up with innovative tactics, these are to take place in different places at different times (as opposed to the idea of global days of action) and be reported back to the PGA website so that people can read about different experiences around the globe.

The first ever 'gender day' at a PGA conference suffered from a rather non-PGA style 'you're either with us or against us' approach, although there were many stimulating seminars ranging from exchanges with local women's activist groups and discussions on trafficking and prostitution to the seasoned, yet by no means resolved, debate around essentialism. Unfortunately, the gender day passed with little of any gender awareness seeping through to the 'big boys'' debates. This is an area where much work is still required: men need to stop merely acknowledging that gender is important but then sending women, queers and transexuals off to 'do gender', whilst the latter still need to emerge more frequently from their respective spaces to transform this identity politics game into something more empowering.

Another expectation many people had was the possibility of networking with Eastern European groups. However, due to reasons ranging from local politics to lack of communication channels and money to travel, Western Europeans were the majority – mostly from Germany, France and the UK; but countries like Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Russia, Greece, even India and Brazil, were also represented. Relations with the local community of Jajinci were ambivalent. Much was said about the dangers of rampant homo- and xenophobia, and a few unpleasant incidents did happen. For the most part, though, the local people just seemed somewhere between glad and intrigued, and would happily hang around during the night, having a few beers and trying to interact despite the language barriers. Every day a few activists who wished for a change from the camp site' s vegan food could be found at a nearby fish restaurant, whose overwhelmingly friendly owner was always eager to talk about his experience in the Serbian army and to argue that his country wasn' t the only one to blame for the war. Other encounters with the local population included meetings with Roma people to discuss their situation; a visit to a Kosovan refugee camp; and a very fruitful exchange of views, stories and experiences with local self-organized workers who have occupied their factories.

The last days in Jajinci, after a week of non-stop heavy rains in normally sunny , had something of 'The Lord of the Flies' about them. To recover, we ended up spending a further week in central in the house of Nebojša Milikić, a political artist who works at an abandoned-cinema-turned-cultural-centre called Rex (www.rex.b92.net). One day he took us to the suburb of Kaludjerica, a massive stretch of squatted land where people have built their own houses since the late 1960s, when they saw the government couldn't meet their needs. Although it is a nice looking lower-middle class area, it until recently had no sewage system or 'legal' electricity until recently and the population's self-esteem suffered from being called ''s favela '. The conversation with Milikic turned to the flows and stages of's urban composition, and the work he has been developing in this area. Later, over a few beers, we discussed what the end of communism means today for any kind of politics which opposes the neoliberalism that presents itself as democracy. He told us that many people have the impression that what needs now is more of capitalism. There's still the feeling that, even though it's not great, capitalism is still better than what went before and only through a radicalization of capitalism (and its problems) can a new political force against it emerge. A good reminder of how, even before we start thinking on a global scale, there's always much more about the local than meets the eye. That's something that will certainly be even more remarkable when the next Global PGA Conference takes place in 2005 in the middle of rural.

www.agp.org
www.pgaconference.org

(October 2004)