ESF.

Lesson one is that the place to be is really Evian, Genoa or today, Miami. ESF is full of people with the right sort of concerns but the structure of the conference is presumably just the same as the interior of the G8 (badges, security, translation headsets, debate dominated by panels made of people largely from reformist interest groups) and I wouldn`t be surprised if a number of the delegates later find themselves crossing the fence as it were to become parliamentary liberal operators.

Judging by the vast number of ATTAC banners and flags on Sunday`s march they had the event fairly well stitched up with a message of moderation and guilt aversion rather than the spirit of disobedience and revolution that I had hoped. Hearteningly as it might be to sleep on a gym floor for a few nights with a group of bourgeoise kids who care about more than pop stars and big incomes (and to tell the truth the simple joy of remotely authentic engagement was energising) there was never the less the painful institutionalised castration of the debate by a creeping pragmatism that seeps in through a misguided faith in the possibilities a rigged game offers for improvement.

Everywhere the closeness to the flip side of the coin looms. Somebody tells us that Antonio Negri (recently released from prison) is talking at one of the smaller venues. We head over and the place has already filled up. The crowd outide begins chanting for Negri to come outside (despite the fact that hes just arrived in a hall full of people presumably also shouting for his attention). We disappear off to explore the intriguing gardens surroundnig the conference centre. An hour or so later Negri came outside and "debated" with Alex Callinicos (a marxist scholar and head of the SWP in the UK). Callinicos introduced Negri with an unnecessarily long, content thin eulogy. At which myself and phil began to ask "content?" to the packed crowd, the people climbing trees to crane their necks at the celebrity critique (available in all good books shops...). Our criticisms found some smiles but rather more frowns and we departed laughing to ourselves.

Lesson two is that a very different approach is needed if you want genuine participation. As it was you got too many speakers (six or so) speeching for too long (two hours plus) and then an hour or so of the more assertive members of the audience speeching too. Hearing lots of people speeching past each other is no way to spend your time. The authoritarian ethic lives and is happily reproducing itself across the spectrum of permitted "debate" in meetings like these. If you want praxis instead you need to be engaged in a job of work rather than a talking shop - this means organising and doing things at home, and taking the fight to the thieves wherever they meet. This is where youre gonna meet the seriously committed.

Still it was fun to go and was encouraged by the mood, as much as it points to problems to be solved, lessons have been drawn. Big fuck off to the dutch guy who confiscated all our cash at a petrol station near Breda. We did the decent thing, and you took the piss out of us...