Minutes of the Meeting of the London Social Forum
held on Tuesday 1st February 2005 at 7.30 pm at The Place Cafe on Dukes Road

1. Present
William Taylor
Helena Kotkowska
Lucy Rogers
Anne Gray
Doreen Massey
Frank Jacobs
Massimo de Angelis
Gail Chester
Mary Fee (part)
Les Levidow (part)
Teresa Hoskyns
Pauline Rowe
Richard Lee
+ 2 other members of ATTAC from France

Apologies: Michael Edwards

2. Main topic for discussion: "London as a Global City"
Due to the constraints of the venue, it was difficult to have presentations and discussion. Nevertheless, a scoping exercise took place to prepare for a full discussion at a later meeting. Doreen's interest is in going beyond the politics of place to challenge the role of London as a financial and imperial city. An awareness of London‚s role internationally as a finance centre, an oil city and the headquarters of transnational corporations enables us to better connect with the anti-globalization movement. A critique of the London Plan must include how it is building up London as a global City.

William works in the City, at St Ethelburga's Church in Bishopsgate, and his interest is in developing a narrative about the financial service sector and how to act in solidarity with those affected by what happens in London. This includes linking inequality in London with inequality beyond these shores. He thought it would be very appropriate to have a meeting about London as a finance centre at St Ethelberga's Church in the City. It was mentioned how the Olympics bid is leading to a new financial centre in East London around Stratford.  

Pauline gave an update on the Queen's Market campaign. This led to some discussion about the role of supermarkets in "eating up" floor space and "doing down" local communities, and also about fair trade issues.

It was agreed to have a fuller discussion about the Global City at the April meeting and to hold this at St Ethelberga's. To invite as speakers Doreen Massey, ATTAC and Pete Coleman from the Tax Justice network.

3. Organisation of meetings
Gail expressed a concern that meetings need to be better organized. There should be one person who takes responsibility to organize a particular event, with plenty of advance communication. There was support for Gail's sentiments. For the next meetings, it was agreed to have a preliminary part of the meeting on LSF business starting at 6.30pm then the talks/discussion at 8pm.

4. London Plan Conference
Regarding the booking of City Hall for the Conference, Richard reported that he had contacted Helen Cox, the Assistant to Darren Johnson (Green Party Member of the GLA). The criteria for room bookings included what role the GLA Member would have and whether the event would have „a scrutiny function making recommendations about an alternative way for London. It was felt we should proceed with trying to book City Hall, emphasising the participatory democracy approach of social forums, and that whilst we could not give a platform to any political party we could mention Darren Johnson as a GLA Assembly Member. We could answer the last question very positively.  

5. LSF website 
Mary explained that to retain the website we had no option but to pay £200. A collection was taken at the meeting and it was agreed a collection should be taken at the next meeting, if the full amount had not been raised.

6. Anti-Olympics Campaign
There was a discussion on the prospects of London winning the bid. There was a view that London was likely to lose for 2012, but that the ground was being prepared for 2020. It was also suggested that the work was a Trojan horse for the north east London development plans and the land would be bought anyway. Issues were raised about gentrification and how the Olympic Games were fronting corporate interests. This discussion involved two members from France and an international anti-Olympics campaign was mooted.

7. ESF update
Les reported on the December meeting in Paris and outlined the divergent positions. Frank circulated his election statement for the European International Solidarity sub-committee of UNISON trade union, standing on a platform of supporting the March 19th mobilization in Bruxelles (on public services) and supporting a debate on the European Constitution. It was pointed out that the Bruxelles march was called for by the Assembly of Social Movements at London ESF and was supported by the UK Network of Social Forums. However, the Stop the War demonstration in London takes place on the same day. It was proposed that there be further discussion about this at the March meeting.

8. A.O.B.
Gail mentioned the campaign against ASBO's (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) in Hackney.

9. Next Meeting
The next meeting will be on March 1st on Housing and take place at the Bartlett School of Architecture, 22 Gordon Street, WC1 (nearest tube: Russell Square/ Goodge Street). It was agreed to have speakers with a Haringey and Camden focus.