Party poopers
May 2004, The Big Issue
It's been hailed as Barcelona's biggest event since the Olympics; a celebration of cutural diversity, human rights and democratice values. But as andrew losowsky reports, the city's locals are not so enthusiastic about next month's Forum.
"We want intellectual dialogue and we want to experience cultural diversity. If we only wanted a debate, it could last only four or five days. But we want to experience it - the sense, the smell. It is this diversity that will help overcome fear."
This was how Joan Clos, the Mayor of Barcelona, launched the Universal Forum of Cultures 2004.
"Barcelona is the ideal place to celebrate it," reads the event's publicity. "A city that houses quiet local streets and vibrant inhabitants." Unfortunately, many of those inhabitants are using their vibrancy to protest against the Forum itself.
If you've never heard of the Forum, don't worry - it's purely an invention of Barcelona that will last from May until September. It has no connection whatsoever with the radical, anti-globalisation World Social Forums, previously held in Mumbai and Porto Alegre.
On the face it, though, the two may have a lot in common. According to its press office, the intention of this event is to be "the meeting point of people from all parts and a space of celebartion and dialogue to confront the most urgent problems of the 21st century. Celebration and reflection come together in search of new ways of living alongside each other in peace."
The difficulty comes in finding the truth behind the buzzwords. At first glance, it has some impressive credentials. Speakers include Mikhail Gorbachev and Northern Irish ex-Minister John Hume. UNESCO has given the event its backing, as have Oxfam, Save the Children and Medicins Sans Frontieres. There are shows and exhibitions from across the globe, such as the Chinese terracotta warriors from Xian, Norah Jones, plays from famous theatre directors Peter Brook and Robert Lepage, and inevitably, Sting. But not everyone is so impressed by its list of sponsors, which includes Nestle, Coca Cola and Indra - a company which develops military technology.
"It was clear from the start that the whole thing would be a sham," says a representative of the Council of Resistance Against the Forum, a local anti-capitalist collective leading the protests against the event. "If they really want dialogue, the City Council should invite all of its citizens to a public debate. Last year, the Forum approached a number of social groups to ask for their involvement in the event. When it was asked about the question of the sponsoring companies, it replied that these were not negotiable."
The location itself has also been controversial. The Forum will be housed in more than 200 hectares on the coast, near the city centre. The former residents were moved out, the space was flattened and a completely new complex has been built, including a shiny triangular conference hall designed by Tate Modern's architects Herzog and Mueron. Around 40% of the 3bn euro (£2.5bn) cost came from public money. The local residents associations have declared themselves against the Forum, feeling their taxes would have been better spent improving some of Barcelona's poorest areas that border on the new construction. Greenpeace also complained at the effect of a new man-made beach on local marine life.
"How can you find solutions to global social problems in a space built with the opposition of the location's own neighbours?" says the Council of Resistance. "The Forum isn't just trying to snatch Barcelona from its citizens - it's doing it with the language of the social movements, of anti-globalisation and the movement for peace, which have a lot of relevance in Barcelona. But this is a theme park, a Disneyland of solidarity."
Ticket prices for the Forum have further alienated locals: 21 euros per day or 42 euros for three, with no reduction for the residents whose taxes have paid for much of the event.
"When I first heard about it, I thought the Forum was very Catalan," says Tom Spencer, a visiting professor in global governance at the University of Surrey and author of Public Affairs and Power. "I think it came out of the aspirations of Barcelona to keep on doing cutting-edge events in the city's radical tradition - and to do a lot of property development on the side. But Barcelona tends to get away with these things. It's one of the most exciting cities in the world."
It's no coincidence that the Forum was thought up four years after Barcelona hosted the Olympics. The Catalan capital had been transformed by the Games but was suffering something of a slump. The mayor had tried to apply to host a World Expo and was turned down - just as the city had been in the 1920s when it wanted to host a World Fair. Instead, just as it did then, it invented an event of its own. In 1926, it was the Barcelona Universal Exhibition. This year, it's the Forum. And there's no danger of Barcelona being left with a Millennium Dome at the end of it - they're already advertising one of the new Forum spaces that fits 15,000 people, as "the best conference centre in Southern Europe".
Despite widespread cynicism in Barcelona itself, the Forum may yet succeed. Aside from its physical legacy to the city, the list of participating speakers includes many influential academics and thinkers while several of the dialogues appear worthwhile, including "Energy and sustainable development" and "Methods of conflict resolution".
The protesters can also be seen in the context of those that complained before the Olympic Games in 1992 - now widely recognised as having changed Barcelona for the better. Long a centre of anarchism, the Catalan capital has a tradition of dissidence and protest against any form of officially endorsed event.
Tom Spencer feels that we have no option but to wait and see. "The Forum won't be noticed globally until it's started," he says. "It's very difficult to get people excited about buzz words when they don't say exactly what it is. The range of potential outcomes ranges from some new hotels to some genuinely new and exciting ideas."
In the meantime, some discount vouchers and a little local conflict resolution could go a long way to changing the minds of the Barceloneans.
(ends)