'Indeed, the UK ESF Organising Committee has employed on a full-time paid basis
three people to assist in the delivery of the requirements for Babels full
participation in the ESF in London.'

Is there any truth in the rumour that at least 4 'horizontals' are being paid around £2000 per month by the UK ESF Organising Committee to help deliver the infrastructure, including accommodation'?

Please could Trade Unionist explain how you go from "3 people" to "4 horizontals"?
I cannot work out this impressive mathematical transformation.

While the UK ESF Organising Committee 'has employed on a full-time paid basis
three people to assist in the delivery of the requirements for Babels full
participation in the ESF in London.' I think you will find the number of people employed on a full-time basis by the UK ESF Organising Committee are more than 3.

"tradeunionist", how many do you think are employed then? I have no idea myself.

And does anyone know whether this is an official statement by the ESF, or just someone's opinion? Is it pasted from their website?

Urgent statement by Babels ESF 'O4 European coordinators to the UK ESF
Organising and Coordinating Committees, the Directors and Treasurer of the
ESF UK Company, affiliated bodies, and all other organisations, groups,
networks, delegates and activists participating in and organising the ESF
2004 in London.

The following is an urgent statement regarding the growing crisis of
voluntary interpretation for the ESF 2004. It is issued by the 25
coordinators from Babels France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, who
took part in a European-wide coordination meeting in London on the weekend
of 26-27 September 2004. In short, with only days to go before the ESF
begins, there is a looming accommodation and reimbursement of
transportation crisis for Babels volunteer interpreters threatening their
full participation in the ESF. Unless these problems are resolved quickly,
several Babels coordinations will have no choice but to withdraw
immediately from the ESF process with potentially disastrous consequences
for this year’s event. To avoid this, Babels suggests that a number of
solutions are adopted by the organisers. The statement now follows.

****

Babels, the international network of volunteer interpreters and
translators, has been centrally involved in the European Social Forum
process since its very beginning. More than 1500 Babels volunteers
contributed to the international nature and the two previous ESF in
Florence in November 2002 and in Paris in 2003.

We are committed to the development of the Social Forum process and want
to take this opportunity to reaffirm Babels’ commitment to the London ESF
to which our network will provide over 550 volunteers.

It is therefore only due to the extreme gravity of the situation that some
of our volunteer coordinators and coordinations are contemplating
withdrawing their participation to the ESF 2004. This is because some
essential conditions required for volunteer interpretation to take place
have not yet been met, and if the ESF organisers continue to ignore our
concerns and demands those conditions are unlikely to be met.

The most important issue concerns the working and living conditions for
the 550 volunteer interpreters whose time and skills are being given
freely to provide all of the interpretation and translation needs of the
ESF. It is the agreed responsibility of the ESF process to provide the
following:

* Appropriate accommodation for the 500 Babels volunteers not based
in London;
* Immediate reimbursement of all volunteer interpreters' and
translators' travel costs.

Accommodation Crisis

As of Monday 4 October, the ESF has received only 80 offers of home stay
accommodation. This represents a massive shortfall in the accommodation
needs for Babels volunteers.

Babels-co-ordinators have repeatedly made constructive suggestions to
increase the number of home stay offers based on our network's direct
experience of dealing with these issues during the previous ESFs.
Unfortunately, none of our proposals have been implemented by the
organisers of the ESF, meaning that in comparison with previous ESFs, four
fundamental deficiencies exist: (1) there is no accommodation database on
the ESF website in which delegates can register online their offer of home
stay; (2) there has been no urgent appeal for solidarity accommodation on
most of the several thousands of leaflets that have been printed to
promote the ESF; (3) delegates are not automatically asked to provide
home stay when they register for the event, and 4) there has been no
appeal for home stay in the relevant local press.

Simultaneous interpretation is a very stressful and mentally exhausting
activity that requires a high level of concentration. It is therefore
essential that interpreters have the opportunity to rest and sleep
comfortably. This means that the first and most basic condition for the
involvement of Babels is that each interpreter be provided with a
guarantee of appropriate accommodation. Appropriate accommodation for
interpreters means that every single one of them has a bed to sleep in and
a shower to wash in and that interpreters are housed in rooms of no more
than four people per room.

The crisis of accommodation provision for Babels volunteers at the London
ESF is the responsibility of the ESF organisers and therefore Babels makes
the following demands:


Action

* We demand that Babels receives written guarantees that all volunteer
interpreters and co-ordinators (more than 500) will be provided with
appropriate accommodation. We also demand that concret and immediate
action is taken to make those guarantees possible, including a detailed
procedure explaining how solidarity accommodation will be secured and how
Babels volunteers will be put in contact with their hosts.

* Babels volunteer co-ordinators need to receive the above guarantees by
Tuesday 5th October at 5 pm. In the absence of any appropriate action
being taken, some Babels volunteer co-ordinators will suspend the final
selection of interpreters and Babels will no longer be able to guarantee
interpretation for all seminars and plenaries of the ESF.

Reimbursement Crisis and Consequences

Babels coordinators have spared no effort in trying to find the cheapest
possible flights, trains, and coaches to bring volunteer interpreters and
coordinators to the ESF so as not to exceed the allocated travel budget.
This is saving the ESF huge sums of money. In return, interpreters and
coordinators are expecting that the ESF Company will honour its agreement
to provide immediate reimbursement on site for all travel expenses.

Unfortunately, with less than 12 days to go before the ESF begins, there
is still no system or set of agreed procedures in place for how and when
this reimbursement will happen. The need to both implement certain
security measures, and observe a number of specific legal requirements in
carrying out hundreds of reimbursements means that this process cannot be
somehow improvised at the last minute. Consequently, many interpreters and
co-ordinators are now increasingly reluctant to carry on with the booking
and confirmation of travel arrangements to London, again placing Babels’s
participation in the London ESF in jeopardy. Babels makes the following
demands:

Action

* We demand that Babels receives written guarantees that its volunteer
interpreters and coordinators will be reimbursed on site during the ESF
'04 from the 13th of October to the 17^th October. These guarantees must
include a concrete and detailed procedure for how these reimbursement will
be carried out.

* Babels volunteer co-ordinators need to receive the above guarantees by
Wednesday 6th October at 2 pm. In the absence of any appropriate action
being taken, some Babels volunteer co-ordinators will interrupt the
booking and confirmation of travel arrangements and Babels will no longer
be able to guarantee interpretation for all seminars and plenaries of the
ESF.

Now is not the time for recriminations and analysis of what has gone wrong
and who is to blame. However, the above difficulties are undermining the
international nature of the European Social Forum and are endangering the
participation of Babels interpreters in future Social Forums. The lack of
guarantees of appropriate accommodation and reimbursement of costs have
already led to many volunteer interpreters pulling out, and unless
satisfactory action is taken now to sort out the problems, hundreds of
interpreters may follow suit.

We are appealing to all those responsible for the organisation of the
London ESF to respond and help in a constructive manner, and reiterate
once again Babels's true commitment to the success of International Social
Forums.

Yours in solidarity,

Volunteer Co-ordinators from Babels France
Volunteer Co-ordinators from Babels Germany
Volunteer Co-ordinators from Babels Italy
Volunteer Co-ordiantors from Babels Spain
Volutneer Co-ordinators from Babels UK

The situation is this: [if this gets removed I will cry]

Babels is an international network of volunteer interpreters and translators that has been centrally involved in the European Social Forum process since its very beginning in Florence in 2002. Babels is now also participating in the World Social Forum (WSF) and various other international Social Forums and events that adhere in letter or spirit to the Porto Alegre Charter of Principles. In other words, Babels is full of horizontals because IT ADHERES TO THE CHARTER, which is a fairly clear statement of participatory, non-hierarchical democracy. The fact that the thugs in the GLA, SWP and Trade union leaderships are authoritarian party members who have sold out the ESF process and the politics behind it at every stage so far - and who will NEVER again be allowed into another ESF meeting after London - is another matter, although worth bearing in mind in this discussion.

At the European Assembly of the ESF in Istanbul earlier this year, Babels was formally invited to organise all of the interpretation needs for the London ESF. In return, the Babels coordinations set a number of conditions to the ESF THAT WERE FULLY AGREED TO.

Since then, the ESF/SWP/GLA have played a quite disgusting game with all aspects of the communication and language needs of the ESF, treating Babels in particular as service provider, and not as a political actor affiliated to the ESF process.

One of the essential conditions THAT WAS AGREED TO BY THE GLA/SWP/ESF was that the ESF would pay all the costs of the Babels coordination - REMEMBER Babels will be providing over 550 interpreters and translators FOR FREE. The estimated financial value of this is over £40,000 if I remember correctly - it is being donated IN KIND by Babels because it exists to try to provide all language needs for the social movements. All that was asked for in return was that all costs incurred by volunteer interpreters - travel, accommodation and food - be paid for; and that 3 full-time coordinators would be paid for between July and October. That means a 4-month job - this, incidentally, did not happen as was promised and some people were severely fucked around in the process.

What 'Trade Unionist' above forgets to ask is: "Are there x number of verticals being paid by the ESF and GLA to stitch up the ESF office?"

To which the answer is yes.

So that everyone knows: the appointments procedure for the ESF official office was corrupt and saw one Socialist Action member and one SWP member appointed AT ALL COSTS to PAID, FULL TIME JOBS. These two people had already been moved into place without any consultation within the ESF organising and coordinating committees - their insider status then made appointment a mere formality, helped by a 'politically appointed' interviewing panel. Honestly, come back Stalin, all is forgiven.

Since then, an army of 'volunteers' have appeared who are actually paid GLA employees working for the ESF office.

I will wait till after the ESF to tell you the rest but Livingstone's cronies and the SWP are corrupt and we have pretty jaw-dropping proof to show you all.

i think Babels encompasses the true spirit of the ESF and the new social movements:support energy, committment and time freely given for an ideal,non hierarchial and built on consensus. Not like the time servers. opportunists, hacks and careerists of the SWP/GLA/SA and other wreckers...

still going tho, its starting to look good...

'All that was asked for in return was that all costs incurred by volunteer interpreters - travel, accommodation and food - be paid for; and that 3 full-time coordinators would be paid for between July and October.'

Not sure what your problem is. The UK ESF Organisng Committee has always agreed to cover the costs incurred by volunteer interpreters. 3 full-time volunteer co-ordinators are being paid around £2000 a month each.

to register for the ESF go to fse-esf.org

Sorry, Trade Unionist, cant let you get away with this. You pretending to be in the know, but you are just repeating the information published above, to cover up your original error: "at least 4 'horizontals' are being paid around £2000 per month" .

There are 3 and are they are not horizontals.

I think you will find there are people paid full-time in the ESF Babels Co-ordination and the ESF Office who would describe themselves as 'horizontals'.

You will find that paid full-time or volunteer - as most of us are - we are working together to make the ESF in London a success.

Just for the record, the 'trade unionist' posting here isn't me, who posted over the last few weeks on various topics. Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming exclusive rights to call myself a trade unionist, there are millions of us! But just for clarity. Ta.