| Jan 15 2008 |
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| Everybody Leaves the Forum Happier, Wiser and Stronger |
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Miren Gutiérrez
ROME
Roberto Savio is probably among the best informed insiders at the World
Social Forum (WSF). He has been on its international committee since it
was created in 2001, and since 2003 he has been coordinator of the
'media, culture and counter-hegemony' thematic area.
The World Social Forum (WSF) is an anti-globalisation movement, using
the term 'globalisation' in a doctrinal sense, not a literal one. But
the WSF is a global phenomenon...
The WSF is not a movement against globalisation; it is a movement
against the kind of globalisation which is based only on the values of
market and profit. That is a globalisation spawned by the Washington
Consensus, the call for a New International Order made in the late
eighties by the International Financial Institutions and the U.S.
Treasury Department.
It also coincided with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and an
unprecedented return to unilateralism in international relations, based
on hegemony, military might, and the idea that the interests of the
U.S. were automatically the interests of humankind, as President
(George) Bush declared several times. The result of this kind of
globalisation was to marginalise the United Nations, international law,
and the call for social justice, sustainable development and other
values which are enshrined in the constitutions of practically all
countries.
Those who identify themselves with the WSF want another globalisation,
where social justice, participation, democracy and people are also
values. It is significant that when we started in 2001, we were
considered a fringe movement; even by then President of Brazil. Now,
seven years later, nobody defends any longer the Washington Consensus.
The damages it did worldwide have prompted the IFIs to do some
significant corrections, and even the Bush administration is having
several changes of route.
And the next U.S. president, whoever he or she is, will subscribe to
the Kyoto Agreement. And I find significant that this Pope, who can
hardly be accused of radicalism, has spoken in his speech for the
Epiphany about the dangers of this globalisation.
The WSF tends to meet in January, when its 'rival', the World Economic
Forum convenes in Davos (Switzerland). The date was chosen to try to
overshadow the WEF. How far do you think the WSF has imposed issues on
the WEF agenda?
The coincidence with the date of the WEF was not to overshadow it. At
Davos a few thousand very powerful people meet, and nobody can
overshadow that concentration of power. We just want to express our
deep disagreement about the legitimacy of decisions taken in a venue
where people gather because of their power, not because they have been
delegated by anyone. And make clear that there are hundreds of
thousands of people, without that kind of power, but who are the real
citizens, who want a different world.
If you just go through the various agendas of the WEF, you can clearly
see how after the establishment of the WSF, the WEF has brought into
its agenda social themes, the environment, sustainability in economic
growth, which were simply not there before. Also, several NGOs have
been invited, but basically for cosmetic reasons. Nothing has changed
really in their interpretation of the world.
The first WSF was a discovery: it made it possible for people from
around the world to gather together and express their non-mainstream
views. What is left from that first, fresh gathering?
From the first WSF, what has been left is that the people who go to
a Forum come out strengthened in their views and values, meet tens and
tens of thousands of people who believe that a different world is
possible, and go back to their activities, advocacies and social
campaigns with the feeling that they are not a loc |
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terraviva radio |
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q&a |
 'Militarism and Paranoia will strike WSF'
"In future many activists will be prevented from travelling to other countries by being denied entry visas, because a new kind of criminalisation of social protest is under way," says Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. |
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 Taking stands is vital for the WSF
The WSF as an "open space" idea can either be implemented in a liberal direction or in a committed, progressive direction, says Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. |
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 Davos has lost its arrogance
The WSF didn’t produce the progressive wave in Latin America by itself; nevertheless, it would be difficult to imagine it without (the presence of) the WSF, says Cândido Grzybowski, director of iBase (Brazil) and member of the WSF's International Committee. |
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 We Now Need Accomplishments
"We will need legs of a marathon runner to lay the foundation of true democracy", says Anuradha Mittal, social activist and Head of the Oakland Institute in California. |
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news from the WSF |
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IPS World Service |
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TerraViva on PDF
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voices |
 Native Peoples and the World Social Forum
For the indigenous peoples, the Forum provide a platform for the traditional knowledge and diverse characteristics of each region, as people raise their voices in support of justice and rights, writes T. Marcos Terena (Brazil),member of the Xané indigenous group and president of the ITC Inter-tribal Committee |
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 Labour Still has to Catch Up with the WSF
Whilst new union strategies, new labour movements, and even new spaces for a new kind of international labour struggle are developing, labour does not yet have the impact on the WSF that is necessary, writes Peter Waterman, a longtime commentator on labour and social movement internationalism. |
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 A vibrating US Social Forum
Over 15 planned actions are currently confirmed across the United States. The seeds of many of these actions have grown in the soil that was fertilized in Atlanta last June, when the first-ever US Social Forum was held, writes journalist Norman Stockwell from Madison, Wisconsin |
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 The Forum at the Crossroads
By Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines |
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