[artinfo] Call to forums and networks for a pre-meeting on October 24-26 in

[Örsan Şenalp]

*Open Letter to Gezi Forums and networks on the idea of organizing the 3rd
Agora99 in Istanbul in 2015*

Starting in 2011, the world witnessed a wave of truly transnational and
global grass-roots uprisings. In Tunisia, Egypt, Iceland, Greece, Spain,
Israel, Chile, the UK, the US, Turkey, Brazil and in many other places
people took to the streets to protest against injustice and inequality and
for democracy. Struggles that had been ongoing for years gained new
visibility and new movements and struggles formed.

These uprisings spread from on place to another ignited by distinct local
issues. However, self-organisation, connectivity and horizontality have
become characteristics of all of these uprisings: They practice new forms
of democratic decision making and do not have leaders. They organize
through assemblies, working groups, and convergence spaces and allow mass
participation grounded in social networks and online meetings.

Also, transnational and translocal ties that connect groups, movements and
individuals on regional, national and international levels have allowed to
spread and continue these uprisings, creating networks of dignity across
the world. Larger assemblies allowed for self-reflexion and exchange. One
of them has been Agora99.

What is Agora99?

The idea of Agora99 emerged in the transnational general assembly held at
the end of the first Blockupy action in May 2012, in Frankfurt. An open
working group was created to coordinate and organise the efforts to set up
a transnational and transversal space for the autumn of the same year.

The first Agora 99 took place in November 2012 in Madrid, Spain. As an open
meeting, made up of transversal assemblies and thematic workshops, Agora99
allowed collectives, networks and individual activists who had joined 15M,
Occupy, Blockupy and other grassroots uprisings to come together, meet face
to face, exchange, support each others actions and consider the relevance
of the 15M uprising in the European context.

The second Agora99 was organised in November 2013 in Rome. It was similarly
organized in occupied factories and self-organised social spaces. There we
met and updated each other about the ongoing struggles at all levels, with
the energy received from the Gezi protests in May???June 2013. The Rome
Agora99 was participated by comrades from Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania,
Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, the UK and other parts of Europe. Uprisings in
Brazil, Bosnia and Bulgary brought fresh air to Rome. Turkish comrades
delivered a message from Gezi forums.

In Madrid and Rome, the Agora99 was organized along three thematic axes of
struggles: Debt, Rights and Democracy. In this way, many diverse struggles
could be brought together ??? struggles for the commons, for the right to
housing and the right to the city, against precarious labour and neoliberal
urbanism as well as struggles against war and militarization and for the
right to citizenship and free migration, and many more. Alongside with the
thematic workshops we reflected upon technopolitics to find and develop
practicies of organisation capable of linking together the local and global
struggles with new technologies.

We organize through open local and international meetings, but mostly
through the email list transcollab at lists.so36.net(in English) and regular
online voice chats (using the Skype-like Mumble software). In the
organizing process itself, we thus also tried to invent a democratic space
for all that would go beyond the traditional organizational forms and
cannot be controlled by a few.

Agora99 thus is neither ???just another academic conference??? nor a meeting of
delegates of various political organizations. Instead, the aim is to bring
activists across countries and across thematic topics together in order to
share strategies and experiences, contacts and ideas, tools and tactics.

Towards a new Agora99

Recently the idea of holding the third Agora99 in Istanbul was suggested.
The idea was widely welcomed by the people who collaborated in the
organisation of previous Agora99 events: Istanbul is located in a space and
a time where struggles are active and intense. Agora99 is an open process
that should go beyond the limits and boundaries of Europe. A meeting in
Istanbul could give us this opportunity and spread connections.

However attractive the idea of creating the next Agora space in Istanbul
is, we are well aware of the practical and political difficulties as well
as the massive ground work and local as well as transnational collaboration
required. Therefore we are calling on you to evaluate the possibility of
organising this together, bearing in mind that strong local participation
is needed. On the other hand, we know that we are capable of achieving
bigger aims through participation, distribution of tasks and swarm-wise
collaboration. Also, teams that participated in the previous Agoras would
help out with the organisation process.

We wrote this text in order to share this initial idea with you comrades
who live, fight in and know the city of Istanbul: Is the idea to create and
organise this meeting interesting for social movements around Turkey and
beyond? Could local and international forums, assemblies, collectives
collaborate in mutual recognition and comradeship to make it happen? What
are the topics and political issues that we need to discuss together? Which
struggles demand to be exchanged and spread in a transnational context of
movements?

Can we bring the chapullers of the world together around a large open agora
for the 99% holding forums and exchanging ideas?

We need to decide together!

That???s why we propose to hold a pre-organisation meeting in Istanbul on the
25th of October, 2014, to share views and opinions about this process and
decide if we can do this bet together.

We are whole-heartedly looking forward to walk with you on the
international road to dignity!

In comradeship and solidarity

Please let us know, if you want to participate at:transcollab at lists.so36.net
.

Agora 99 website: http://99agora.net

Information and reports on previous Agora99 meetings:

???Steps towards considering, participating and rebooting democracy???
(report from the Madrid Agora99):

https://www.diagonalperiodico.net/blogs/diagonal-english/steps-towards-considering-participating-and-rebooting-democracy.html

???Democracy and technopolitics in the European space???
(reflections after the Rome Agora99 by the hosting node):
http://www.dinamopress.it/multilanguages/democracy-and-technopolitics-in-the-european-space

???Message to Agora99 Rome from M????tereklerimiz???:
http://99agora.net/materials/message-to-agora99-from-mustereklerimiz

Other links

Live streamings: http://99agora.net/on-line/
Consensus on debt axis: http://bit.ly/SyAiwR [EN]
Photogallery by Doriz Guti??rrez: http://bit.ly/TvdZGZ

Occupied social centres hosting Agora99

(Map: http://99agora.net/maps-mapas )

La escalera karakola: http://www.sindominio.net/karakola/ [SP]
Traficantes de sue??os: http://www.traficantes.net/ [SP]
La Morada: http://csoalamorada.wordpress.com/ [SP]
Eko: http://eslaeko.net/ [SP]
Patio Maravillas: http://patiomaravillas.net/ [SP]
Ecologistas en acci??n: http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/rubrique7.html
  [SP]

Articles

An account of Agora99: http://occupylondon.org.uk/24521/,
Madrid: Dreams Becoming Reality http://bit.ly/TzbmpV [EN]
Barcelona debates Blockupy??s next steps: Agora 99 : NL#27, 2
http://bit.ly/OIPdCi [EN]

Twitter account: @99_agora
Hashtags: #Agora99 #A99Assembly #A99Debt #A99Rights #A99Democracy