CONSULTATION ON THE E.S.F. SOLIDARITY VILLAGE
to be held during the European Social Forum in London from 13th to 17th October 2004

Next planning meetings are to be held in London on Monday 19th July, 5-9pm at LSE Room H101 - ALL WELCOME and Tuesday 20th July, 3.30pm at Coin Street, SE1 for Social Economy Organisations A.G.E.N D.A Attendance and Apologies Minutes of the last Meeting - see below Context of the Event - see diagram on this website Update on Economics Topics and "Programme" Background on the idea of the Solidarity Villagege Discussion on resourcing the event Discussion on proposed September outreach event Next Planning Meeting AOB

M I N U T E S
The first meeting was held in Room H101 at LSE on Monday 19th July 2004 from 5pm to 7pm
Present:
Eve Durquety of the Union of Cooperative Workers in Paris, with Julien Metifeux helping with translation, Chris Cook of Partnerships Consulting and the Open Capital Network, Woody Bronson, and Mary Fee of Letslink and an Italian resident in London who is interested in participating in the ESF.

Members had been referred to the minutes of the previous meeting of the planning group which were on the website: The Context of the Event in relation to the ESF was portrayed by a diagram. Members were also referred to the topics being developed.

These picked up themes from the first LETS Co-operate Conference (a follow-up day is planned for Saturday 16th October 2004). Conference organisers had decided that it would be beneficial to run these topics in a separate venue from the main ESF because they were about sharing positive, practical information, rather than protesting about what is wrong with the world.

Eve and Julien described the planning of the Solidarity Village in Paris, which had taken place in a separate venue for the same reasons: www.londonsocialforum.org/wiki/esfsolidarityvillage. However in contrast to the first LETS Co-operate event, this was a well-resourced mainstream event, with a budget of over £50,000. Eve had worked on it solo for six months and a dedicated worker was in post during the three months leading to the event. The Village consisted of high and low cost information stalls, plus seminars and workshops all if which were well attended. Both the venue and ticketing service were provided by the main ESF.

The group walked across to Conway Hall, the proposed main venue for the event, and discussed the possibilities of expanding into
classrooms and lecture halls at LSE and building marquees on one or more of the squares for which permission would have to be sought.
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The second meeting was held at Coin Street Community Builders
99 Upper Ground, London, SE1 on Tuesday 20th July 2004: 3.30-5.45pm
Present:
John Goodman, Policy Adviser of Co-operatives UK, Marcel Hipszman, investor in social enterprises, Eve Durquety, Julien Metifeux, Ian Campbell, an independent consultant on the social economy, Dave Jones formerly of Poptel now at Indymedia, Woody Bronson and Mary Fee of Letslink. Chris Cook sent apologies.

After background information had been provided on LETS Co-operate, the 2003 Solidarity Village and on the forthcoming ESF, discussion focused on resourcing a 2004 LETS Co-operate/ Solidarity Village. John pointed out that Co-operatives UK was holding its own one-day conference on Thursday 13th October in London and had few resources to devote to organising any input into the ESF. Marcel recommended participation at the Alexandra Palace venue either through a seminar or running a stall. Mary pointed out that these would be provided more economically at the LETS Co-operate/ Solidarity Village venue. There was some discussion about which co-operative organisations might respond to either of these possibilities, and John undertook to send a "Call" out to the co-operative networks in his remit.