FLORENCE, Nov 7: Some 23,000 anti-globalization activists began debate here on Thursday on ways to unite the diverse strands of their movement at a packed opening session of the European Social Forum.

“We are at the beginning of a cycle of great radicalization and mobilizing, a little like the Sixties,” said Christophe Aguiton, head of international issues for the French anti-capitalist group ATTAC.

“The issue is to figure out how to link this new political generation to different social movements, unions and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) which have been around for many years,” he added. “That is the goal of this social forum.”

The five-day forum has come under heavy criticism from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right government and conservatives amid fears that a mass anti-war protest scheduled for Saturday could turn violent.

In a letter published in the Corriere della Sera newspaper this week, veteran journalist Oriana Fallaci attacked the anti-globalization movement as “people who respect Saddam Hussein, love Osama bin Laden, (and) bow before the military and theocratic regimes of Islam.”

“Close the shops. Close the restaurants, bars and markets,” Fallaci told Florence residents.

Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani has said the Renaissance capital is no place for loud and potentially violent protests at the forum, attended by thousands of younger activists.

Italian authorities are worried about a repeat of the clashes during the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa last year when a demonstrator was killed and hundreds were injured.

The right-wing daily Il Giornale said holding the forum in Florence was akin to allowing “an elephant into a china shop”.

The anti-globalization movement, which includes a vast range of groups from environmentalists and pacifists to anarchists, argues that governments and international institutions like the International Monetary Fund put the interests of big companies ahead of those of ordinary people.

Global opposition to a US-led strike on Iraq, said Chris Nineham, an organizer with the British coalition Stop the War, requires a “coalition of forces uniting unionists, anti-capitalists, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), the left, peace movements and the Muslim community”.

Some 6,000 security forces were on hand for the event, which began Wednesday night with a peaceful concert on a central square and was due to end Sunday.

As a prelude to the forum, thousands of pacifists also demonstrated Wednesday at a US military base outside the nearby city of Pisa.

Forum participants, mostly from Europe, are due to attend 18 conferences, 140 seminars and 250 workshops and performances over the next three days.

Wary of the Saturday protest that is expected to draw 200,000 people, Florentine businesses pulled down their shutters Thursday.

McDonald’s restaurants, which have been a choice target for anti-globalization protesters, even pulled down their signs and boarded up their windows.

“Residents have started leaving the city and it will be much worse on Saturday,” said a local baker.

“It won’t be easy on Saturday,” she added. “What are we supposed to do with our children with schools closed?”

“I’m going to have to stay at home and lose three days’ salary,” complained Luca Livoti, 26, who works in a shoe shop.

Security forces have been specifically assigned to 500 “sensitive” sites, including monuments and museums in the famed Tuscan city.

But museum officials on Thursday reported no irregularities.—AFP