About the ESF

The European Social Forum is a part of the global social forum process that was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001. It was a reaction on the World Economic Forum, where the world’s elite meet annually and declare that public service budget cuts and privatisations not only are necessary, but unavoidable. At the social forums people meet who are critical to these politics and who are suffering its consequences. Since the start, the forum process has spread around the world, and today different forums are being held at the local as well as the global level.

The event in Malmö in 2008 is the fifth edition of the European Social Forum. ESF is a forum where the European social movements determine the contents and are offered a place to meet, to learn from each other and be strengthened in the work for another world. The creation of the ESF arena is a nordic responsibility, and the Nordic Organising Committee has organisations from all Northern Europe as members. Member organisations are rooted in different parts of society and work with a number of different issues, but what unites us is the common conviction that another world is possible and that we must fight together to create a better future!