World Social Forum

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Noam Chomsky at the World Social Forum in 2003. Photo by Marcello Casal Jr/ABr.
Noam Chomsky at the World Social Forum in 2003. Photo by Marcello Casal Jr/ABr.

The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalization (using the term globalization in a doctrinal sense not a literal one) or alter-globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This is not a coincidence. The date was chosen because of the logistical difficulty of organizing a mass protest in Davos and to try to overshadow the coverage of the World Economic Forum in the news media.

Contents

History

Originated by Oded Grajew, the first WSF was held from 25 January to 30 January 2001 in Porto Alegre, organized by many groups involved in the alternative globalization movement, including the French Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC). The WSF was sponsored, in part, by the Porto Alegre government, led by the Brazilian Worker's Party (PT). The town was experimenting with an innovative model for local government which combined the traditional representative institutions with the participation of open assemblies of the people. 12,000 people attended from around the world. At the time, Brasil was also in a moment of transformation that later would lead to the electoral victory of the PT candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The second WSF, also held in Porto Alegre from 31 January to 5 February 2002, had over 12,000 official delegates representing people from 123 countries, 60,000 attendees, 652 workshops, and 27 talks.

The third WSF was again held in Porto Alegre, in January 2003. There were many parallel workshops, including, for example the Life After Capitalism workshop, which proposed focussed discussion on non-communist, non-capitalist, participative possibilities for different aspects of social, political, economic, communication structures [1]. Among the speakers was famed American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky.

The fourth WSF was held in Mumbai, India, from 16 January to 21 January 2004. The attendance was expected to be 75,000 and it shot over by thousands. The cultural diversity was one notable aspect of the forum. A notable decision that was taken was the stand on Free Software. One of the key speakers at the WSF 2004 was Joseph Stiglitz.

The fifth World Social Forum for 2005 was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil between 26 January and 31 January. There were 155,000 registered participants at the Forum, with most coming from Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Uruguay, and France. A number of participants in the forum released the Porto Alegre Manifesto.

The sixth World Social Forum was "polycentric", held in January 2006 in Caracas (Venezuela) and Bamako (Mali), and in March 2006, in Karachi (Pakistan). The Forum in Pakistan was delayed to March because of the Kashmir earthquake that had recently occurred in the area.[2]

The seventh World Social Forum was held in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2007. There were 66,000 registered attendees, and 1,400 participating organizations from 110 countries, making it the most globally representative WSF so far.[1] It was criticized as being 'an NGO fair'[3]and movements of the poor in Kenya and South Africa mounted vigorous protests against some of the NGOs that attended and, in their view, dominated the forum in the name of the African poor.

The eighth World Social Forum in 2008 was not organized at a particular place, but globally, which means by thousands of autonomous local organizations, on or around January 26. They are also known as the Global Call for Action.[2]

The ninth World Social Forum is expected to take place in the Brazilian city of Belém, located in the Amazon rainforest, between January 27 and February 1, 2009.[4]

Regional Social Forums

The WSF has prompted the organizing of many regional social forums, including the European Social Forum, the Asian Social Forum, the Mediterranean Social Forum, and many local and national social forum, such as the Italian Social Forum, Liverpool Social Forum and the Boston Social Forum. The first-ever US Social Forum took place in Atlanta in June of 2007.[5] Regional forums have taken place in the SW ([6]), NW, NE, Midwest, and SE ([7]) regions of the United States.

Most, though not all, social forums adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the World Social Forum.

Criticisms

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This mural in Seattle's Chinatown echoes the slogan of the World Social Forum: 'Another world is possible'.
This mural in Seattle's Chinatown echoes the slogan of the World Social Forum: 'Another world is possible'.

The WSF has, especially in recent years, been strongly criticised for replacing popular movements of the poor with NGOs. Movements of the poor in poorer parts of the world, like Africa, have argued that they are almost completely excluded from the forum and in countries like Kenya and South Africa they have protested against donor funded NGOs that, they argue, determine and dominate African representation at the forum. It has also been argued that NGOs sometimes compete with popular grassroots movements for access to the forum and for influence there. [3]In South Africa the NGOs that have been vigorously opposed for substituting themselves for popular organisations at the forum [4] have a strongly Trotskyist orientation. This tends to result in a top down politics that often contrasts directly with the bottom up democratic approach of grassroots movements.

The WSF has also been criticized, particularly by socialist and communist left parties, for producing few practical ideas, concentrating instead on general and vague criticisms of neoliberalism and imperialism. On the other hand some, particularly anarchists, have criticised the WSF for attempting to act as a central decision making location for dissident groups, as the Communist Internationals once did. Most WSF participants would counter that the WSF is not a decision-making body, but rather a space for public deliberation. A far more prevalent criticism runs in the opposite direction: that the group has no established procedure for adopting consensus statements or advocacies.

The WSF is also subject to the same criticisms as the anti/alternative globalization movements, namely that the globalization and capitalism they oppose are inevitable, or that globalisation and capitalism are the most effective means of addressing global poverty. WSF participants have responded that the idea of the 'inevitability' of globalization is simply an ideological myth, hence their embrace of the slogan, 'Another World is Possible'.

Right-wing opponents of the current global order have criticized the supposed pluralism of the WSF, as it only includes movements on the left (from social democrats to anarchists).

Some activities by activists attending the WSF have also been criticised, such as in the WSF 2001, where activists invaded and destroyed a plantation of experimental transgenics of the Monsanto enterprise.[5]

Despite these criticisms, the United Nations presence at the WSF through UNESCO shows the institutional credibiliy achieved by the forum, seen as a "prime opportunity for dialogue and a laboratory of ideas for the renewal of public policies" through "critical reflection on the future of societies we want to create and for elaborating proposals in search of solidarity, justice, peace and human rights" UNESCO and the World Social Forum page.

Further reading

  • Jose Correa Leite (2005), The World Social Forum: Strategies of Resistance, Haymarket Books [8]
  • Jackie Smith. (2004). The World Social Forum and the challenges of global democracy. Global Networks. 4(4):413-421.
  • T. Teivainen. (2002). The World Social Forum and global democratisation: learning from Porto Alegre. Third World Quarterly. 23(4):621-632.
  • William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah (2003). Another World is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum
  • Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2005). O Fórum Social Mundial: manual de uso, Cortez Editora.

Notes

  1. ^ Frank Joyce. article on Alternet, accessed 2007-02-16
  2. ^ Jan. 26, 2008 - Act together for another world! | WSF2008
  3. ^ Article by David Ntseng on NGOs and grassroots movements at the forum
  4. ^ Letter from the Anti-Eviction Campaign to the SMI - an NGO project that has sought to usurp the leadership of popular movements
  5. ^ Folha Online - Brasil - José Bové, militante francês antiglobalização, chega a Porto Alegre - 28/01/2002

See also

External links

Past forums

Future forums

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