Babels

Babels is an international network of volunteer interpreters and translators that was born out of the European Social Forum (ESF) process and whose main objective is to cover the interpreting needs of the various Social Forums. It is a horizontal, non-hierarchical network, with no permanent structures of any kind.

Babels originated in the process of preparation for the 2002 ESF, a left-wing conference of the anti-globalization movement held in Florence. A small network of 'communication activists' associated with ATTAC France proposed that the conference use only volunteers to interpret the various languages of the speakers for the audience. There was some debate about the quality of volunteer translators but the cost of professionals helped sway the argument. A last-minute call went out for volunteers to which 600 people responded and which finally resulted in around 350 volunteer interpreters and translators for the Forum. The group had no official space to work from and little funds so had to squat a medieval tower.