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Day 2 - Free Free Palestine! Last night I joined a Palestine solidarity demo through the Macka area of Istanbul. We set off as the sun began to set and noisily marched our way through the winding streets of boutique shops and restaurants chanting 'Free Palestine' slogans in Turkish, Italian, Spanish and English. In typical social forum style we even got a round of Bella Ciao from the Italian groups! The demo was called by the Turkish boycott committee and was a fitting first demonstration of the forum as Palestine is a key theme and features in many seminars and workshops. War on Want will have a presence at two of the seminars on Friday. One will be looking at the growth of the BDS movement and the other at Europe's complicity in the ongoing Occupation. We will be talking about the massive BDS victories we have scored in the UK over the last year but also about how our partners on the ground in Palestine have been targeted because of BDS activity and the importance of solidarity with groups such as Stop the Wall. Can't wait to hear news from around Europe on how we can better link up and make the BDS movement even bigger and stronger! Yasmin
Day 1 - Thursday 1 July We arrived last night and are joining thousands of activists from all over Europe who are meeting to discuss, debate and strategise over how we can work collectively to make another world possible. The overarching theme of this year's forum is the economic crisis and how we resist the threat of massive cuts in public spending across Europe. There are also meetings on thematic issues such as militarism, climate justice, feminism, anti-fascism and human rights, to name but a few. We are hoping the forum will be just at scorching as the Istanbul weather and will bringing you daily updates from the meetings and activities War on Want is involved in. This afternoon we will be joining a workshop on how social movements in Europe can best show solidarity with Iraqis trying to rebuild their country after decades of dictatorship and a devastating war. Then later this evening we will be joining a demonstration for justice for Palestine, organised by the Turkish boycott, divestment and sanctions committee. Given the anger over the Israeli military killing nine Turkish human rights activists trying to delivering aid to Gaza at the end of May, I'm sure its going to be a big one. Yasmin |