Babels is an international network of interpreters and translators, born in September 2002 out of the needs of the European Social Forum (ESF) in Florence. Babels has organised the interpretation for the ESF – Florence 2002, Paris 2003, and London 2004, as well as the World Social Forum Mumbai 2004, and Porto Alegre 2005.
Babels website:
                         http://www.babels.org

Babels at 2006 ESF
                                        http://www.fse-esf.org

The ESF is a space for multilingual dialogue, an exchange and comparison of opinions, as well as discussion of a plethora of social, political, cultural, and environmental issues such as peace, human rights, immigration, fair trade, sustainable development, women rights, etc.
Interpreting is necessary at the ESF to produce mutual understanding and effective cultural dialogue. The ESF in Athens will follow the spirit of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, and thousands of participants will gather in order to discuss alternatives to the existing system.

Aims of Babels:

• To offer an opportunity for everyone to express themselves in the language of their choice.
• To contribute in discussions of the importance of language in the mechanisms of cultural domination, and in the exchange of opinions between different social and civil movements.
• To be an equal political partner of the Social Forum, and to have influence in the choice of languages and texts to be translated. To be an international network of interpreters and translators who wish to employ their qualifications and professional experience to aid social and civil movements that correspond to the charter of social forums. Babels will enable the exchange of experience and the coordination of actions at the international level.
• Babels is a team of interpreters and translators who volunteer to give voice to alternatives but the transport, accommodation and organisation costs are covered

Interpreting at the European Social Forum (ESF):

If you are a professional interpreter (whatever your level of experience), or you are not an interpreter but are fluent in at least one foreign language and would like to contribute to the success of the social forums, then you could become a member of Babels.
The ESF is dedicated to increasing the participation in the forum of people from Eastern and Central Europe, and we are particularly interested in interpreters with correspondent language combinations.

We also welcome sign language interpreters in order to make the ESF even more accessible

For more information on Babels network, visit our website: http://www.babels.org/forum

You can register online, or contact the Babels team at www.babels.org