Winding up a four-day European Social Forum that drew some 50,000 participants and more than 200 organizations, according to organizers, the marchers blew whistles, sang and played music under the banner of "For a Europe of rights in a war-free world".

The purpose of the ESF was to focus public debate, particularly on the future of Europe as the European Union prepares to expand from 15 to 25 members next May.

Squarely under the lens was the proposed EU constitution, the draft text drawn up under former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing which aims to increase efficiency in the EU when it admits the 10 new members, mostly former Soviet bloc countries.

The activists see the text as enshrining market principles at the expense of social values and human rights.

The draft itself is not without debate within the EU: Germany and France, the two biggest economies, want it to be adopted without change, before the expansion, while smaller states such as Poland and Spain fear it will unfairly boost larger members' domination of the bloc.

Italy -- which currently holds the rotating EU presidency -- hopes for an agreement by the next EU summit in mid-December.

But for ESF activists, the constitution issue presented a pressing context for hundreds of seminars, round-table discussions and workshops.

Some 55 plenary conferences, 250 seminars and hundreds of workshops were held, with topics including the global economy, war, sexual equality, genetically modified (GM) foods, racism and cultural diversity.

The list of participating non-governmental organizations (NGOs), associations and unions included Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Oxfam, as well as the radical farmers union represented by France's most famous activist, Jose Bove.

Above all, the ESF provided a pluralist, fluid venue for social debate. The appearance of controversial European Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan at a round-table Saturday morning on religious discrimination was a case in point.

The ESF organizers insisted Ramadan be allowed to participate, despite protests that he had published anti-Semitic remarks.

Ramadan, grandson of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan el-Banna, received the session's longest applause after denying he was anti-Semitic and declaring that all forms of religious discrimination must be eliminated. "It is everyone's business," he said.

Police estimated 40,000 marchers demonstrated Saturday, the final day of the ESF which opened Wednesday in Paris and its suburbs. Organizers put the number at 100,000.

Aleida Guevara March, the daughter of Cuba's revolutionary hero Che Guevara, walked the parade route with the Cuban delegation.

"The forum allowed us to pierce a bit the first world's indifference to the suffering of the countries in the third world," she told AFP.

Marchers carried rainbow flags proclaiming "Peace", while many carried signs referring to the Middle East, such as "USA outside the law!" and "Blue helmets (UN peacekeepers) for Palestine!"

On Sunday a group of social movements was set up to propose a calendar of mobilization initiatives on Europe and the draft EU constitution.

On the balance sheet, however, the ESF wound up with a deficit of 100,000 euros (117,650 dollars), said Bernard Pinaud of the Center for Research and Information on Development, a member of the organizing committee.

Organizers said the next ESF would be held in London in the autumn of 2004.

TERRA.WIRE