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If you live in Barcelona, you can’t fail to have noticed the fever-pitch publicity surrounding the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures. Hyped as “An event that will move the world” the five month extravaganza between May 9th – September 26th arranged by The Spanish Government, The Generalitat, The Ajuntament and Unesco, claims it will be: “An unprecedented, unparalled international event...a gathering of people from all cultures to participate in creating a better world.” With more than 1,500 performances, including more than 400 concerts featuring Sting, Phil Collins, Bob Dylan and 45 political and social conferences, the Forum promises to be the biggest exhibition in Europe this summer. But the resignation of key organisers and the refusal of many grassroots organisations to participate in the €3000 million project raises serious questions about the authenticity of the Forum’s three core themes of “Diversity, Peace and Sustainable Development”. Critics see nothing but hypocrisy and lies behind the hype, claiming the Forum is nothing but a cynical PR stunt – a peace conference sponsored by war mongers which in reality is a smokescreen for the handover of public land to corporations that will have little benefit for Barcelona’s citizens. The fundamental question being asked is, who’s world does it seek to improve – the people of the world or the multinationals funding it? Resistance to the event started brewing as early as September 2001 when the main organiser pulled out. After examining the Forum’s plans, Josep Caminal, Director of the Liceu Theatre, withdrew citing “personal reasons”. After working on a Forum advisory commission, Josep Ramoneda, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Culture, finished his short-term association blasting in El Mundo newspaper: “It is not a cultural project that will generate dynamic resources for Barcelona´s cultural fabric...my only hope now is that the project doesn’t become ridiculous.” Their departures were then followed by several grassroots organisations. The Barcelona Neighbourhood Association withdrew claiming the Forum ignored both the social concerns of citizens and the real reasons for Caminal’s departure scorning, “The modest themes of the Forum are contradicted by the astronomical budget of €3000 million.” The School of Culture and Peace then followed after claiming the Forum had agreed to fund the attendance of two representatives, only to turn round later and demand they pay half the costs. Perhaps the most severe criticism came from The Spanish Anthroplogical Association who released a statement declaring its concerns that the Forum would use a veil of multicultarlism through an Orwellian abuse of language to promote itself, fearing it would become, “A grandiose empty spectacle serving only the interests of its promoters.” Anthrapolagist Manuel Delgado went on to bitterly condemn the Forum stating, “"The event will be an apotheosis of 'cultures! ' as a theme for political demogogy and mediatic trivialization, a novelty in which cultural diversity will be reduced to pure parody for mass consumition and institutional good concience. A circus, in which human diversity will be exhibited as a grand and wonderful show of lights and colors." It is perhaps the contradiction between the supposed three core themes of the Forum - Cultural Diversity, Sustainable Development and Peace – and the activities of the sponsors funding it that has caused the most controversy though. Amongst the biggest financers of the event are Telefonica, Corte Ingles, La Caixa, Endesa Electric, Damn Beer, Randstad and Indra. The controversial war-sponsoring activities of some of these companies (refer to Table 1 below) are clearly in conflict with the themes of the Forum – critics say its akin to Bush, Blair and Aznar claiming they are spreading peace and democracy through death and destruction whilst making cynical business deals and plans for occupation under the table. Forum spokesman Oleguer Sarsanedas’ unconvincing response to this is that: “Only companies that want to be associated with the principles and values of the Forum are attending.” Critics point out that this surely goes without saying – it is a practice more commonly known! as Public Relations as the sponsors will enjoy five months of publicty with a potential audience of millions and that an elementary moral principle is to judge the companies on what they do (refer to table 1) rather than what they say. One critic scorned, “If companies involved in weapons manufacturing were geniunely more concerned with peace than profit, they wouldn’t be around for long.” The likely political depth of the Forum has also been questioned due to the potentially compromising powerful interests organising the event. In February, when one million Barcelona citizens protested in the streets against the war in Iraq, the organisers refused to declare The Forum against the war. The involvement of the Spanish government as an organiser, even with a Socialist president, means it is similarly unlikely that crucial political issues will be on the agenda such as the occupation of Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, the former Yugoslavia and the Basque Country to name but a few – critics claim this is ludicrous considering it is an event supposed to be seriously discussing world peace and cultural diversity. The Forum claims this will not be the case but less than a month before the start of the event, there is no sign of these themes on the schedule. In addition to all this controversy, many residents in the North coast area of Barcelona (where most of the Forum has been built) claim that the event is a veiled extension of the city council´s “urban renewal” programme called “District22@”. Part of the Forum’s self-confessed aim is to “re-develop” the old industrial area of Besos as part of the council’s dreams of turning the North coast area into a high-tech “city of knowledge” - a taste of which already exists in the sterile (and partly vacant due to exhorbitant rents) Manhattan-esque Diagonal Mar area. The plans mean the expropiation of thousands of residents’ homes and the construction of skyscrapers, shopping centres and executive flats. Incredibly, of the €3000 million Forum budget, only €341.8 million will go the actual contents of the event – the rest will go towards these property developing initiatives by Forum sponsors such as General Electric, La Caixa, Procivesa and Servihabitat who have already bought the land that has been seized. The Forum’s defence is that a third of the €3000 million is public money which will go towards public projects such as a water purifier for the Besós river and the installations left behind by the Forum will be accessible to the public. However, even these have been criticized by Greenpeace who have called for a halt to further construction claiming it is damaging the coastline. The organisation pointed out that the artificial beach – a legacy of the last big event to take place (the 1992 Olympic Games) – currently collects about 200 tonnes of residue each year. In a summary justification of the event, Sarsanedas says: “Perhaps many international events exist, but none that tries to debate and to confront the necessities of co-existance and rapidly advancing globalisation.” However, this conveniently ignores the non-state or corporate funded social forums that have taken place around the world including the one in India this summer. Indeed, even the name “Forum” has been criticised as being hijacked from the ones that took place in Florence and Porto Alegre that were arranged mainly through the Internet and yet still attended by thousands of social activists from around the world. It is telling that reknowned intellectuals that attended these forums - notably Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein - will not be at the Barcelona Forum despite the €1000 speaking stipend. However, the Forum has confirmed that American dissident and Nobel Literature Prize winner Susan Sontag, journalist Susan George and Le Monde Diplomatique editor Igancio Ramonet will definitely attend, [This is incorrect. Susan Sontag has expressely denied this.] with The God of Small Things author and activist Arhunditi Roy still pending. In addition, hundreds of NGO´s will be attending and a glance at the event website reveals many potentially constructive things going on. However, if the opening day numbers are anything to go by, the exhibition is already doomed to failure. The most optimistic estimate was that only 16,000 visitors attended - if this continues, the Forum will have attracted a mere 256,000 people after 141 days - 50% of their minimum forecast. The Forum will undoubtably be a spectacular exhibition on a scale not seen since the 1992 Expo in Seville (which was also dogged by similar controversy) but whatever its results, its consequences for local citizens will remain long after the last poster has been taken down and ! the bulldozers have moved in. More information: Forum parody page - www.fotut2004.org, Official Forum Website www.barcelona2004.org – tickets range from €17,90 (daily) to €168 (season pass) depending on time when purchased.
This article was originally published by Zmag.org and can be read here. NOTE: Text does not appear underlined/bold in the original article; the [note] is also ours.
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