A few hours before the World Social Forum's inaugural march, meetings were held of the different social forums which have already taken place or are being planned all around the world. The meetings were organized by region.
In the Forum of the Americas, the organizing committees from the different countries and regions presented their reports. Members of the Uruguayan delegation assessed the Uruguayan version of the Forum, which took place in Montevideo from 15-17 November last year.
The delegations from Canada and the United States of America focused their interventions on organizational issues relating to the proposed first Forum of the North, which will bring together civil society from those two countries and Mexico. The location of the Forum has yet to be agreed on: two possibilities are Vancouver (where it would have the backing of the local government) and the border zone between Mexico and the USA.
With respect to the thematic areas to be covered at the Forum of the North, the Canadians stressed the need for NGOs to organize against capitalism. The Americans, for their part, proposed two main themes: the struggle against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the defence of organization by minorities. The enthusiasm and energy of the NGOs from these countries, represented by a large number of participants, promise a successful Forum of the North.
Next to speak were participants from the World Assembly of Peasant Farmers, which is taking place simultaneously in Porto Alegre. They presented a report on the Assembly, denouncing the situation of peasant farmers and the concentration of land in the hands of a select few. They also presented a proposal for a new model of agricultural production and demanded that agriculture be withdrawn from the orbit of the World Trade Organization. Members of the Popular Assembly Pro a Social Forum in Chile added their voices of protest against the FTAA.
The account given by the delegates of the second Pan-Amazonian Social Forum left listeners amazed. From Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname more than ten thousand people -many of them indigenous- had travelled for several days across the Amazon region by boat to the Forum in Belen. The slogan of the Forum was "All America against the FTAA". They also defended the construction of a popular sovereignty, by using natural resources for the well-being of the people. The second edition of the Pan-Amazonian Forum ended with a declaration against the possible war against Iraq and against the militarization of the continent; they also expressed their solidarity with the Palestinians and with the Venezuelan revolution.
Finally, the organizers of the Argentinean Social Forum gave their report. The Forum had centred on the Argentinean economic and social crisis. More than 600 organizations had attended 300 workshops. It had also been the stage for the first assembly against the FTAA.
