Anti-globalisation army marches on Florence Â

Six thousand police are camped in the Tuscan city of Florence in readiness for possible violence when up to 200,000 anti-globalisation protesters pour into the city tomorrow for a huge demonstration. A similar event protesting a meeting of leaders of the G8 nations in Genoa ended in disaster last July when clashes between police and demonstrators left one protester dead and the city wreathed in the smoke of burning vehicles.

Italy's central government came close to forcing the cancellation of this week's four-day event, the European Social Forum (ESF), but were persuaded that going ahead as planned was "the lesser of two evils" as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi put it. The Tuscan city is an open-air museum of the Renaissance. "All other cities can be rebuilt," said Achille Serra, the Prefect of Florence, "but not this one."

Already some 20,000 anti-globalisation activists have arrived in the city from all over the world for a festival of debate, action and protest which culminates in tomorrow's mass demonstration.

But supporters of the event, the European offshoot of the World Social Forum which will be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, next year, argue that the risk is minimal. The city mayor, Leonardo Domenici, has thrown down a welcome mat. Yesterday. around the Fortezza da Basso, the 16th century complex in the heart of the city where the Forum's activities are concentrated, the police were discreetly sequestered in side streets.

Guy Taylor, a member of Globalise Resistance, a British "non-violent direct action group" present at the event, said: "There's a huge turnout and a fantastic atmosphere – it's a very young event. There are 1,500 from the UK; we're trying to spread the experience of the anti-war movement."

Opinion divides sharply as to whether, post-September 11, the anti-globalisation movement is growing, stagnating, or simply growing too diffuse. "If you're talking about rage against capitalism, then the anti-globalisation movement is not going to disappear," said Philippe Legrain, author of Open World: The Truth About Globalisation. "But if you're talking about the movement in its current form... I'm not sure it can last." In Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Florence-based historian Professor Paul Ginsborg argued : "There are many signs that the neo-liberal vision is losing the battle of ideas ... in its place are growing, month by month, ideas for an alternative strategy ... putting the accent on restoring the balance between North and the South, searching for more participatory democracy, paying constant attention to environmental questions; looking for global government, not American domination."

In a sideshow to the Forum, one of Italy's best-known journalists, Oriana Fallaci, launched a ferocious attack on the event, calling the participants allies of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and urging fellow Florentines to close their shops and schools and hang "Closed in Mourning" signs. So far, however, the Florentines do not seem inclined to take her advice.

"We walk around with our European Social Forum badges on and people smile at us," said Guy Taylor, "even the police."