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Another World Is Possible
A Report on the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, January 22-28, 2003
by Jerry Kloby
Since the early 1980s, the global corporate elite has been holding its
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They pay $20,000 each to
listen to the leading experts on regional economic conditions, and plot
strategies for investing and reaping profits (1). Also since the early
1980s, Third World debt has been expanding dramatically and in direct
proportion to the increased power and influence of the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
During the 1990s, international campaigns to reduce the debt grew in
prominence, with Jubilee 2000 and “Fifty Years Is Enough" playing
important roles in bringing the world's attention to the destructive
policies of global financial institutions. In 1995, the World Trade
Organization came into being, and a proposed Multilateral Agreement on
Investments (MAI) was exposed a couple of years later. Both were
anti-democratic, pro-corporate trade mechanisms that threatened to push
wage, environmental, and other concerns about globalization further into
the background. The MAI was sacked, thanks to the efforts of many who
exposed it as a tool for corporate pillaging. And the WTO came under
massive popular assault in Seattle at the end of 1999, when tens of
thousands of demonstrators disrupted the city and prevented many delegates
from attending its Third Ministerial Meeting. These events provided the
impetus for creating a World Social Forum. It had become imperative that
the world's social movement activists get together and share knowledge and
strategies on a more consistent basis.
Thus the World Social Forum was born. Held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in
each of the last three years, simultaneous with the World Economic Forum
in Davos, the WSF is a gathering to share ideas, to embolden the spirit,
and to send a message to the global corporate elite and the rest of the
world that another world is possible. One of the initial proponents of the
World Social Forum was the French group ATTAC -- originally the
Association for a Tobin Tax for the Aid of Citizens, and now the
Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of
Citizens (proponents of a tax on speculative capital movements). Early
advocates felt the Forum should be held in a less developed country, and
Porto Alegre became a logical host because of its location in a nation
that was actively delinking from neoliberal economic policy, and because
of its democratic participatory budget practice. While the WSF has its
share of big names, many people of lesser means go to great efforts to
attend. In my own case, numerous friends and neighbors in my hometown of
Montclair, New Jersey, made financial contributions to help “socialize”
the cost of my trip.
The WSF has grown tremendously over the past three years. The 2003 Forum
had about 100,000 participants from 156 countries, and there were nearly
1,300 panel discussions and workshops. A strong anti-war sentiment
permeated Forum activities but other issues commanded great interest,
especially environmental sustainability, genetically modified crops and
foods, and fair trade.
The stars were there: Brazilian President Lula da Silva, U.S. foreign
policy critic Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Eduardo Galeano, Walden Bello,
Arundhati Roy, Danny Glover, and many others, but one of the most moving
testimonials was given by Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser. Schmeiser is on
the front line of a battle between farmer’s rights and corporate
predators. In 1998, Schmeiser was sued by the Monsanto Corporation for
patent rights violations, allegedly for using Monsanto’s genetically
modified canola (rapeseed) without legally purchasing them. Schmeiser has
been a farmer and seed saver for nearly fifty years and he claims that
whatever Roundup Ready canola was on his farm is a result of
“contamination” – wind blown seeds from other farms taking root on his
soil. Monsanto says how the seeds got there doesn’t matter, it’s their
property and the corporate giant has been seeking $400,000 in damages for
patent infringement. Scores of North American farmers have paid
out-of-court settlements to Monsanto but Schmeiser refuses to cave in. His
struggle has received worldwide attention and he was given India's Mahatma
Gandhi Award at the People's Global Seed Conference in 2000 for his
contribution to the betterment of mankind through nonviolent struggle (2).
Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado attracted one of the largest
audiences at the Forum. With approximately 2,000 people overflowing
through the doorways of the largest auditorium in the main building of
Porto Alegre's Catholic University, he projected vivid images of those who
have paid a high price for corporate globalization -- the poor of Latin
America, Africa, and Asia, especially displaced agrarian families. Salgado
spoke without equivocation: “The man in the countryside is paid a negative
price for
his work. He subsidizes those who buy his products, paying with his
dignity, his education, and his health” (3). Another highlight of the WSF
was Lula da Silva addressing tens of thousands, promising to champion the
cause of the poor at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. The
Brazilian president also spoke out against the impending war on Iraq. One
Forum speaker later pointed out that Lula had received several million
more votes than George Bush, but unfortunately Bush's global influence and
power is much greater.
Large events were held every night in Gigantihno, the large indoor arena
on the western edge of the city. Eduardo Galleano spoke passionately about
the need for peace and pointed to the unfortunate fact that war or peace
will be decided by the nations who are the world's largest arms merchants.
In Gigantihno, on the final evening of the WSF, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati
Roy denounced US policy toward Iraq and called for stopping the march
toward war being orchestrated by the Bush administration. Both speakers
pointed out the important role that organizations at the WSF could play in
creating a better world -- one that opposes empire and is not based on
violence and exploitation.
 The last event of the WSF was a march by tens of thousands through Porto
Alegre, comprised of contingents from all over the world but with a
decidedly Brazilian flavor. The main themes were opposition to the war on
Iraq and to the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Many in Brazil's leftist
parties are calling for Lula to hold a plebiscite in which people would be
able to vote on whether or not Brazil should approve the controversial
trade agreement.
Not unexpectedly, there were logistical problems with the forum. The
printed schedule of events was poorly organized, workshops were often
canceled or relocated without notice, and speakers failed to show,
sometimes being booked for simultaneous events. It is a difficult event to
run, and it taxed the resources of the local host—the PT (Workers Party).
The PT lost the election last year in Rio Grande do Sul (the home state of
Porto Alegre), many local PT activists are now working in the Lula
administration in distant Brasilia, and the number of participants in the
forum has grown dramatically. All of these combine to make it a difficult
event to manage. Compounding these problems is the possibility that the
growing importance of the WSF will make it more of a focus for partisan
political groups trying to advance their own agenda (4).
The the city of Porto Alegre was a warm and wonderful host, but next
year’s Forum is being planned for India. I had an opportunity to ask
Arundhati Roy her opinion about New Delhi as a host for the WSF. She
thought it was a very bad idea because it is a city of petty bureaucrats
and politicians, and it does not have the progressive social atmosphere of
cities like Porto Alegre. Also, she was critical of the Indian Communist
Party and concerned that it might try to control events in Delhi, and that
India’s regressive government could use the Forum to improve its image.
The government is fascist in much of its deeds, but often pays lip service
to democracy and anti-neoliberalism. Hosting the World Social Forum could
be convenient window dressing for the Indian government.
The idea of periodically moving the location of the World Social Forum
resonates favorably with many global justice activists, but finding a
location with the resources and political will to organize it, may
threaten the viability of future Forums. In the meantime, the fifth WSF is
expected to be back in Porto Alegre in 2005. While it will continue to be
an event worth attending in a city worth seeing, regional
forums--coordinated to have a maximum global impact--may be more practical
and productive venues for sharing strategies to build a better world -- a
world in which human rights, environmental sustainability, fair trade,
gender rights, democracy, equitable development, and peace, overcome
corporate power and profit making.
# # # # #
Jerry Kloby is the Coordinator of the Institute for Community Studies and
author of Inequality, Power, and Development: Issues in Political
Sociology (more info:
here).
(1). Francisco Whitaker, "World Social Forum: Origins and Aims," June 22,
2002.
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=2_1&cd_language=2
(2). See
http://www.percyschmeiser.com/ for more information.
(3). TerraViva (A daily publication of the World Social Forum): http://www.ipsnews.net/fsm2003/index.shtml
(4). For a discussion of the democratizing the WSF see Naomi Klein, "The
Hijacking of the WSF,"
http://www.nologo.org/
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