Source:
Americas Program
Far from the unanimous rejection in the period when right wing political parties governed most countries in South America, social movements have managed to unite in the defence of common resources and against extractive industries. However, when the time comes to evaluate left-wing governments policies the differences appear.
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"The great strength of the World Social Forum lies in its novel character. It is an initiative of the emerging planetary civil society that aims to value the practices of civic struggle and participation in different societies, and to give a global dimension to the proposals that are born of them". Cándido Grzybowski
The first and fundamental result of the Forum is the event itself. The World Social Forum (WSF) was created to provide an open platform to discuss strategies of resistance to the globalization model proposed at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos (1). Firmly committed to the belief that “Another World Is Possible” the WSF is an open space for discussing alternatives, exchanging experiences and strengthening alliances among civil society organizations, peoples and movements.. (2)
Following the first global meeting held in 2001 in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, the Forum was turned into an ongoing global process and adopted a Charter of Principles (3), as its main document. The first three editions of the Forum were carried out in Porto Alegre; in 2004, the WSF moved to Mumbai, India, returning in 2005 to Porto Alegre, while in 2006 a Polycentric forum took place in three different places: Caracas (Venezuela), Karachi (Pakistan) and Bamako (Mali). In 2007, it was held in Kenya with the aim of evaluating what has happened with actions proposed by social movements in previous forums, in order to find out whether they are already underway and make their results visible. General political issues as well as discussions on the WSF’s future and the methodology of annual events are discussed at its International Council (CI). On January 22, 2008 was promoted a decentralized World Social Forum Global Day of Mobilization and Action. Millions of people all over the world marched, spoke, celebrated, and dialogued in villages, rural zones, and urban centers. They mobilized on the date of the 26th of January to coincide the Global Day of Mobilization and Action with the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland to confront this gathering of the elites. The World Social Forum 2009 took place from January 27 to February 1 in the Brazilian city of Belém, the capital of Pará state and the northeastern gateway to the Amazon jungle region. The global economic crisis and its effects, as well as environmental and climate issues was high on the agenda at this Forum. The WSF 2010 will be held in several cities of the world linked with a global mobilisation day. It is just known Dakar will be the city where celebrate the WSF 2011.
Within the WSF process, different international Regional and Thematic Social Forums are carried out, being activities that have strengthened social entities, increasingly giving more space so that issues to be debated are handled by organizations and movements themselves .
According to Grzybowski (4), "It is impossible to understand the Social Forum without linking it to the growing wave of public protests against globalization, as it happened in recent years in Seattle, Washington, Prague and Nice. The people behind the Forum are those who become actors in struggles, movements, associations and organizations, however small or large, local or national, regional or global. It is this global convergence of diverse networks and movements that creates and sustains the World Social Forum".
Forum : space or movement?
However, such a massive process is not without tensions. These are expressed broadly among those who believe that the most important thing is to keep it as an open space for reflection and debate, avoiding the risks of politicization, or among those who believe that it should be turned into a movement with increased organic character, that would produce a final document to make certain position official. In this sense, in the 2005 Forum, several intellectuals release a 12-point document (Porto Alegre Manifesto). According to its drafters, the twelve proposals included in the Manifesto aim to “give sense to another possible world. If applied, they would allow citizens to at last seize back control of their future”.
Whitaker expreses a different view: "For me, there is no doubt that it is fundamental to ensure at all costs the continuity of the Forum as a space and to not yield to the temptation of transforming it now or even later, into a movement. If we maintain it as a space, it will not prevent nor hinder the formation and the development of movements —to the contrary it will ensure and enable this process. But if we opt for transforming it into a movement, it will inescapably fail to be a space, and all the potentialities inherent to spaces will then be lost". (...)
"The great challenge for the continuity of the Forum process therefore, and for it to fulfil its vocation of being an incubator for more and more movements and initiatives, is to multiply such spaces across the world that are genuinely open and free, without focussing attention only on specific proposals. We must hope that nobody, however inadvertently, contributes to ‘closing down’ the Forum to such a point that it disappears as an open space". (5).
In this special report we provide information about the WSF process as well as analysis and in-depth views on the nature and scope of this global event.
In 2010, the World Social Forum will celebrate the 10 years of its process. To mark this date, the WSF International Council decided in its last meeting, held in May in Rabat, Morocco, that in the following year the WSF will hold multiple activities throughout the world year-round. To give the WSF process during 2010 a common identity, the IC suggested using the global crisis theme – understood not just as an economic crisis, but also as an environmental, food, energy, civilization and humanitarian crisis – but at the same time respecting the local organization autonomy in the definition of themes to be discussed during each event. August 2009.
The first book on the WSF to be published in English from the South. An anthology of essays on the theory and practice of the WSF, edited by Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar and Peter Waterman; published by The Viveka Foundation.
The World Social Forum is widely celebrated as an 'open space' that has no clearly defined political programme of its own (other than its Charter of Principles) but rather provides a relatively free and undirected space for all those interested in exchanging ideas and experience about the state of the world, or in developing their own programmes, to do so. Over the past some years however, there have been several initiatives that have either directly proposed or otherwise implied that the WSF (and more broadly also, the emerging global justice movements) needs to have a clear political programme. The Reader 'A Political Programme for the World Social Forum?: Democracy, Substance and Debate in the Bamako Appeal and the Global Justice Movements', brings together some of the more important documents about the WSF process and the history of social movements, including the Bamako Appeal itself. January 2007 (pdf version).
Can the World Social Forum help us to conceptualise and actualise a new politics? Can this new politics be free from violence? Can the experience and knowledge of great movements such as the movement for the environment, and the women’s movement, contribute to the creation of a new politics? How can such a politics be sustained? In countering the ‘old’ politics as represented by the power of nations and States, and more recently of global capital, people’s groups and movements have attempted to create alternatives of their own, and to forge a new politics. Can these processes be seen as
other forms of globalisation –as what has come to be known as ‘alter globalisation’? The essays in this book offer the reader different and complex ways of understanding the processes that have helped to shape the World Social Forum and the new politics that seems to be emerging, and what all this represents, for life, society, and politics more generally. January 2005.
The WEF activities will be carried out over 4 days, from the 28th to the 31st of October, 2010, and will simultaneously take place in Ramallah, Haifa, Gaza, Jerusalem and Beirut. "Expanded activities" will also be taking place all over the world during the WEF, as part of its program.
The World Forum for Alternatives is an international network aiming at supporting the international convergence of social movements and other actors of the Civil Society from below. It build spaces of reflexion and coordination, puting at the disposal of social movements and ONG, tools of information and analysis about globalization of resistances and contribuiting to the difusion of the informations about the existing international struggles.
The World Health Social Forum is an integrated site into The World Social Forum, this one is orientated by a plurality of principles, diversity and unit, there is not convectional character no governmental o party lines. It aims to dialogue with the civil society witch is committed on fighting for health human rights, to go against to a neo-liberal sense and practice that defines it as a product in the field of services, turning it into a profitable product.
The World Education Forum is a space for dialogue among all who, in this globalized world, implement education projects of popular trend, which defies neoliberalism, be it in the public, governmental or not, community or research spheres.
The World Social Forum 2009 took place from January 27 to February 1 in the Brazilian city of Belém, the capital of Pará state and the northeastern gateway to the Amazon jungle region. The global economic crisis and its effects, as well as environmental and climate issues were high on the agenda at this forum that gathered civil society and social movements around the world.
For 2008, a Global Call for Action promoted by many international networks was launched inside the WSF asking social movements and civil society worldwide to mobilize together in the week culminating on January 26, 2008.
The Belém declaration is different. It includes a fundamental diagnosis of the crisis of the capitalist system and a clear position as to how to move out of it. In this interview, Éric Toussaint reflects on the last World Social Forum. March 2009.
Declaration of the Assembly of Movements fighting to overcome debt domination. The Assembly of Movements working on the Debt issue took place on February 1 within the context of the alliances day at the WSF 2009 held in Belem. It involved the participation of several organisations and networks. February 2009.
"By understanding the Forum not as a solution in itself, but rather as a tool to build an "other world" that so many years ago was said to be possible, the crux of this new debate had to center on providing a moderately-structured response to the current financial collapse and the various wars taking place". February 2009.
For many, Davos this year was "where the pent-up dismay and anger over what Wall Street wrought boiled to the surface" despite efforts to contain it. The stars were those who saw the crisis early and warned about it. Figures like Taleb and Nouriel Roubini who says the worst is still to come. February 2009.
According to Adamovsky, the current emancipatory movements can be said to be in two opposite situations (somewhat schematically). The first one is that in which they suceed in mobilizing a great deal of social energy in favor of a political project, but which they do in a way that makes them fall into the traps of “heteronomous politics”. By “heteronomous”, I refer to the political mechanisms by means of which all that social energy ends up being channeled in a way that benefits the interests of the ruling class or, at least, minimizes the radical potential of that popular mobilization. The second situation is that of those movements and collectives that reject any contact with the state and with heteronomous politics in general (parties, lobbies, elections, etc.), only to find themselves reduced to small identity-groups with few chances of making a real impact in terms of radical change. March 2006.
The author's reflections are developed on these issues: Absorbing the Deluge of Local and Global Criticism; Internal Sluggishness at Accountability and Report Back; Deconstructing the Myth of The Monolithic “Organizers”; The Participation of Kenyan Social Movements in WSF 2007; The Opaque Tendering and Recruitment Process; Celtel & The Corporate Branding of WSF 2007; A Word About Home Stays and Solidarity Accommodation; Logistical Snafus and Programming Nightmares; Dealing With Constructive Criticism and Resolving Conflicts; The Roles of SODNET, Kenya Social Forum & WSF 2007 Organizing Committee; The Way Forward. March 19, 2007.
At the World Social Forum "we have tried new formulas," like holding meetings in different regions, but "we cannot repeat the same things every year," said French activist Henri Rouillé d'Orfeuil, who believes the responses generated by the upcoming edition of the global meeting should effectively address the current global crisis. January 19, 2009
Chico Whitaker answers CACIM's call for World Social Forum evaluation. "We can evaluate the WSF as CACIM proposes with two different attitudes: wishing WSF disappears (“folding up its tent”) or wishing its continuity. If we are not convinced of its utility, and consider it a waste of time –some see it now even as an obstacle to gain efficacy in the struggle to overcome neoliberalism- we have only to identify what we can profit of this already eight years of experience, and enter directly in a new stage of struggle. But if we see the WSF process as something helpful, we must on the contrary identify its virtues and strengths -as well as its weakness- and think how to reinforce it". By Chico Whitaker, January the 9th, 2008.
A note towards a debate on the WSF's Global Day of Action in January 2008 and on the future of the Forum. By Jai Sen, on behalf of CACIM, November 2007.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has issued a statement that publicly endorses the World Social Forum’s Day of Action, 2008. Although the ITUC and its forerunners have increasingly attended events of the WSF at both global and lower levels, attendance has not previously been marked by such an appeal. The event now being promoted intended to take place locally but worldwide, substitutes for the customary five-day event concentrated in specific Third World cities. December 2007, pdf format.
The emergence of global civil society can be interpreted as a response by citizens to rapidly changing conditions of governance and community in an increasingly interconnected world, or — in a word — to globalization. Globalization has spread wealth, opportunity and new possibilities across the globe. However, it has also unraveledmany of the social and cultural contracts that states and citizens have painstakingly built over the past centuries to advance social goals and protect groups from the abuse of their rights—through rules, standards and regulations that decide how the costs and benefits of change are distributed within and between societies. PDF format.
Framed differently, the WSF pried open the space necessary to imagine and organize alternatives; now that the space exists and that this world is impossible, the challenge for the WSF is to establish a new function for itself. February 2009.
A World Social Forum (WSF) revitalised by a global crisis that has awakened new interest in the proposition that "another world is possible" - now perceived as either less utopian or more urgently needed - will take place from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 in Belém, in northern Brazil.
This was the first World Social Forum (WSF) since the profound financial/industrial crisis of capitalism, late-2008, the consequent labour layoffs, and the desperate and extreme state measures to restore capitalism – largely by throwing obscene amounts of money at the financial institutions that were the immediate cause of the crisis. March 2009.
The 2009 World Social Forum was organised by the WSF at Belém in Brazil because it is in Amazonia, which is under ecological threat, and because it is one of the world’s last great locations of nature in all her abundance. Equally however, Amazonia is also symbolic at a world level of the existence and struggles of indigenous peoples – who have been colonised and exploited by settler societies for centuries and today remain under intense threat across the planet. A report on the seminar titled ‘The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the WSF in Belém: The Significance for the World Social Forum of the Participation of the Indigenous Peoples of the World’, held in Belém, Brazil, on January 2009. Organised by CACIM (India) and NFFPFW - National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (India). Report prepared for CACIM by Anil Varghese, New Delhi, India - May 22, 2009.
This Forum was characterized by the strong presence of Brazilian human rights groups, community organizations, and trade unions, and the emphasis on crucial current issues related to the struggle for indigenous rights in the Americas, the war on Gaza, and of course the actual and potential social impacts of the economic crisis. February 2009.
The World Social Forum (WSF) held in Belem is a very significant one. It’s the first WSF held after the outburst of the 2008 economic crisis. This crisis made evident the total failure of neo-liberalism and the destructive character of global capitalism. Besides, Brazilian Amazon is a privileged place to highlight the link between social and ecological crisis. February 2009.
The International Council of the World Social Forum (WSF) decided in its meeting in Parma in October 2006 that the next coordinated worldwide WSF event after the Nairobi's in January 2007 will take place in 2009. There will, at least in principle, also be more room for preparing regional, national, local and thematic social forums in 2008. As regards the WSF decision-making mechanisms, the Parma decision gives new hope for the possibilities to reach consensual positions through a learning process. Previous attempts to decide on the periodicity of the forums had resulted in a stalemate, contributing to the frustrations of many key participants of the WSF process. November 2006.
A bibliography on the World Social Forum and the global solidarity and justice movement. By Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, with Madhuresh Kumar, December 2003, pdf format.
Far from the unanimous rejection in the period when right wing political parties governed most countries in South America, social movements have managed to unite in the defence of common resources and against extractive industries. However, when the time comes to evaluate left-wing governments policies the differences appear.
From October the 9th until the 12th it will be held in Canada the second edition of the Quebec Social Forum. More than six people are expected to participate in the several programmed activities. Some of the event's cross-cutting themes address resistance and the creation of alternatives to capitalist, patriarchal, racist and homophobic forms of oppression, and of a “Reinventing the Quebec of tomorrow”. August 2009.
European Social Forums were held in several cities almost every year after the first one that took place in Florence in 2002. Paris was host to the Forum in 2003; London in 2004, Athens in 2006 and Malmö in 2008. The next Forum will take place in Istambul in 2010.
The US Social Forum (USSF) offers an open space and a process for creating movement convergence and coordination across our many struggles, sectors, regions, and rich diversity.
Attending the U.S. Social Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia June 27-July 1 was an adventure. The first social forum for the United States, it was also one of the first in a series of regional events aimed at decentralizing the mega World Social Forum that started in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Short on preparation and organization but long on enthusiasm, the event stirred the interest of activists all over the world. Many wondered what kind of grassroots energy could be mustered to seriously confront the many threats posed by Bush administration policies—including unilateral force, preventive strikes, climate change denial, homophobia, and rollback of women's rights. July 2007.
