This piece was made in June 2002 by Zemos98’s News Service. In it we are given a summary of the Social Forum which took place in Seville that year under the motto “Another world is possible”, which was organised to coincide in date and place with the European Union Summit. The video develops in a diary format, presenting in chronological sequence images of the everyday activities of the Forum. We are witness to round-table debates and street demonstrations. The participants are individuals who believe that human concerns must be above the economic and financial emphasis of the ongoing European process. Over the images we hear the voice-over of some of the participants, who belong to alternative social movements. They  give us their opinions about the Forum, and about its impact on the population, and tell us of the problems they have faced with the police, and of their strong desire to fight with ideas, as opposed to violence, in order to attain another world.

June 2002. Seville becomes a city besieged, both physically and psychologically. The most sensitive areas of the city, where the European leaders are accommodated and where the work sessions are to take place, are completely fenced in. More than 9000 police officers arrive with all their paraphernalia: vehicles, horses and all sorts of technological devices for the control and repression of crowds. The strategy of fear is starting to catch on: it is useful for those in power, but... who should we fear? The leaders’ resolutions or the antiglobalisation demonstrators?
Day 1: Camp at Parque de Alamillo. The participants in the Forum, of various origins, have set up camp in the biggest park in Seville. In a harmonious atmosphere, they prepare for the numerous activities that await them in the next few days, they paint banners, choose their battle cries, etc. Day 2: (Peaceful) student demonstration in the Jardines del Valle. Day 3: De-centralised activities in the university campus. The camera enters the lecture rooms in which numerous round-table discussions on different subjects take place: alternative options to the economic policies of the EU, solidarity with the Saharan people, agroecology, feminisms, etc. Over the images we hear the voice-over of some of the participants and audience members, who give us their thoughts on the development of the Forum. Day 3: Counter-summit demonstration: Santa Justa - La Barqueta. Multitudinous mobilisation under an unbearable heat of 40ºC, which nevertheless does not weaken the participants’ spirit, “(...) in favour of a fair and free social, economic, political and cultural coming together of different peoples and countries of the world, within the democratic values we defend and which we hope will grow stronger in the whole world in the XXI Century (...)”, according to the text extracted from the Manifesto Another World is possible, Another Europe is possible.
We are part of the demonstration until its end. The camera is always respectful, it neither intimidates nor tramples on people. The rhythm of the images is sometimes broken: a frame is frozen, as if the filmmaker wanted to offer us a bit of time in order to reflect. Or maybe he just wants to break the rhythm.

The video ends with images of the police and the sound of sirens, over which the blunt phrase “The television screen is the retina of the law’s eye” is constantly heard in the background. This phrase has been taken out of the tune “no+war”, part of the project Scrub Channel Konlum by the voluble.net collective.

The news service ZEMOS98 reported, with the immediacy of a 56kb modem, texts, videos and audio pieces to the internet. This experience generated and encouraged the creation of indymedia estrecho. The material recorded on June 2002 is still available today at www.zemos98.org/forosevilla

Another world is possible!