Call to Other Babels Projects

As you might be aware already, an idea emerged in early 2005 to organize a Babels International Meeting that would be dedicated to the issue of languages and the role of Babels volunteers as political partners within the social forums.

This 3-day meeting will be held on May 6-7-8, 2006 in Paris, France.

It will be an opportunity for Babelit@s to collectively review the purpose of our action as it fits into the social forum processes, to share our experience as activists and direct players in these forums, and to further explore the language and cultural issues –and that of the related technical means– as opportunities to create political spaces, putting into practice certain experimental approaches as an integral part of alterglobalist action.

While the International Meeting should bring together some 200 participants, among whom representatives of organizations and individuals participating in the forums, it should also support a broad debate before, during and after the event, from which the network should come out stronger and energized. While the network intends to play an active role in creating political spaces by means of languages, the need to consider diverse technical solutions depending on the circumstances of each forum is a basic requirement. This reflects the willingness of the network to engage, within the forums, in a comprehensive experiential approach of alterglobalist practices.

For the moment the project group is made up of some 15 people from 3 continents, but we need to expand the process. We know how busy you are with the organization of the Caracas/Karachi/Mali forum and we are not calling on you to become directly involved, except of course if you wish to be.

We would like to raise your awareness of this current project, so that you can follow its progress on the forum (where a special section has been created that will be updated on a regular basis with monthly reports/updates) and contribute your input as a function of your time and possibility.

To recap, from now to May 2006:

– You can participate in developing the program and format of the International Meeting, that intend to address a number of challenges that are critical to the future of the network

– You can widely circulate information about this meeting in your scope, and facilitate such processes as the involvement of Babelit@s but also of other volunteers who are involved in forums in other different fields but who relate in one way or another with interpreting and translation.

– A simple and brilliant idea has been suggested by Anastasia from Babels Geece: to organize a Babels party during the Forum, to help raise funds for the International Meeting

We are also contemplating sending one or more participants from this « Project Group » to each forum in Caracas/Karachi/Mali in January in order to consolidate the links between the International Meeting and Babels’ presence in the forums.