Minutes Of second meeting of the Iran Social Forum- Preparation Group

Saturday November 15/2003- Right after the momentous demonstration in Paris, the Iran Social Forum held its second meeting. Agenda, date and place of the meeting had been publicly announced 2 weeks before the meeting.

Number of Iranian social, cultural and political activists and supporters of the anti globalization has attended the meeting.

Several discussions took place as follow:

A-                            At the beginning the chairperson, Mr. Hossain Akhavan, welcomed the attendants and read the agenda.

As per the agenda the Iran Social Forum- the preparation group reported their activities that had taken place From August 2^nd, 2003 to November 15,2003.

Mr. Akhavan read the activity list and announced that all the expenses of the Iran social forum- the reparation group, has been paid by the members of the group.

After that Ms. Naheed Jafarpour and Mr. Mehrdad Gaderi talked about the other activities of the group as follow:

1-                             Day to day updating of the group’s web site, and e-mailing hundreds of informative material to Iranians all over the world regarding the articles that have been published on the web site.

2-                             Taking an active part in the organizing body of anti war demonstration and active participation in the Paris demonstration against the occupation of Iraq.

3-                             Participating in the celebration of the  “humanity” ( the publication of the France communist party), in Paris where the group massively distributed the minutes of its  first meeting.

4-                             Participation in the meetings of the Europe’s preparation group, where the Iran social forum- preparation group had the opportunity to bring forward some suggestions to their European counterparts.

5-                              Meeting the German brunch of the Iran social forum- preparation group in Köln West Germany.

6-                             Planning and registration of the Iran social forum- preparation group to attend the Worlds Social forum’s meeting in Mumbai- India in January 2004.

7-                             Attending the feminists Conference in the Europe’s social forum on November 12,2003, and participation in the women’s demonstration.

8-                             Speech of Mr. Mehdi Samee on behalf of the Iran social forum- preparation group, titled “ Kurds Issues” which have been successfully delivered in the Europe’s Social forum.

9-                             Participation in the conference about “ Palestine- Israel issues”, In the Europe’s Social forum.

10-                         Mr. Issaa Safa interviewed several political and anti globalization activists, and some of the most important documents of the movement had been translated by Ms. Naheed Jafarpour, and Ms. Zinat Mirhashemi interviewed several members of preparation group.

11-                         A booklet of Iran social forum’s documents and the logo of the forum has been published and distributed among the Europe’s Social Forum activists. At the same time the preparation group held several interviews with several Persian radio stations and some of the Persian Medias.

12-                         The Iran Social Forum- preparation group built a stand and talked to several activists during European Social forum.

13-                         We also made solid connections with anti globalization forces inside Iran.

B-                            The second part of the meeting discussions were mostly about the globalization and Iran’s issues, and also the roots of the Iran social forum, its directions and the strategies.

Mr. Issaa Safa was the chairperson of this part of the meeting.

The discussions in this part were very exciting. Some of the participants explained that the Iran social forum-preparation group should have been more active to introduce itself and should have various programs to attract more Iranians.

Some other participants believed that due to Iran’s special circumstances and it’s ruling regime and considering the religious dictatorship and crisis that it is having with whole issue of globalisation.

As the centre of our activities we must emphasis on the fundamentalism and make people of the world aware of the democratic demands of Iranians.

Others expressed that considering the time limit of the Iran Social forum- preparation group, since its start at 100 days ago has been wonderful.

One of the members of the preparation group explained that according to the constitution and strategies approved at our first meeting dated August 02/2003, and similar to the other social forums as well as the World’s Social Forum we declared that we are not a Party, Group,  a Front , or an Organization.

The forum is social movement that would participate in all the social changes aiming to create a better world.

This forum is against the neo-liberalism, Imperialism, War and interference, Dictatorship and Totalitarianism, Reactionary systems, Religious and Ideological Governments, and different form of Monarchy.

The chairperson also declared that the preparation group will publish various view points on globalization on its web site and keep them open for discussion.

C: The discussions of the third part of meeting were mostly about reorganization and expansion of the preparation group. Ms. Zinat Mirhashemi was the chair person on this part of the meeting.

She declared that based on the Porltoalgre’s charter, and decisions made on August02/2003, we would welcome everyone’s co-operation and participation.

Some of the participants stated that due to the dictatorship conditions of the Iranian society we can not expect fast growth of the Iran Social Forum inside Iran.

The chair person on behalf of the preparation group responded that “we are calling on workers, employees, women, youth, teachers, Artists, Human Rights and political activists,  to help in building Iran Social forum.

At the end of this part 13 persons announced their interest in working with the Iran Social forum- Preparation group.

The names are as follow:

 Hossain Akhavan Tohidi, Adel Allah Moradi, Naheed Jafar pour, Behzad Hormati, Feridon Ramazani, Bijan Zibaee, Mehdee Samei, Issa Safa, Mojtaba Taleghani, Mehrdad Ghaderi, Mehdi Morad Pour, Karim Mahmoodi, Zinat Mirhashemi.

D: The following are some of the programs that the preparation group intends to work on:

In addition to daily work on the web site and translation of the documents of the movement and connection with Iranians, the group intends to work on two important projects.

First project is preparation to attend the world social forum in India, and the second is cooperation with the European social forum to send a group of activists to the Middle East.

The preparation group is calling on all Iranians and requesting all anti globalization activists to help us and make these project successful.

The following are the executives of the Iran social forum- preparation group:

-                                                         Zinat Mir Hashemi : website coordinator

-                                                         Naheed Jafar pour:  Tarnslation and publication

-                                                         Issa Safa, Mojtaba Taleghani: International Relations

-                                                         Feridon Ramazani: Art and Music working group

-                                                         Adel Allah Moradi: Women working group

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Iran Social Forum-Preparation group

Website: http://www.iransocialforum.org

e-mail: sfiran@wanadoo.fr

e-mail: iran_social_forum@yahoo.com