World Social Forum
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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
alternative 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.
The WSF has prompted the organising 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 will take place in Atlanta in June of
2007. Most, though not all, social forums adhere to the
WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the World Social Forum.
In
2006 the WSF was held in different cities around the world, including
Caracas,
Venezuela and
Bamako,
Mali (both in January); and
Karachi,
Pakistan (
March). In 2007 it will be held in
Nairobi,
Kenya.
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
Brazilian Worker's Party (PT). The town was experimenting with an innovative model for the 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 InĂ¡cio 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]. One famous speaker was famed American linguistic author
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. The other 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.
The seventh World Social Forum will take place in
Nairobi,
Kenya in January 2007.
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This mural in Seattle's Chinatown echoes the slogan of the World Social Forum: 'Another world is possible'. |
The WSF has been criticised, 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 criticsm 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 globalisation movements, namely that the globalisation 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 globalisation is simply an ideological myth, hence their embrace of the slogan, 'Another World is Possible'.
Right-wing opponents of the current global order have criticised 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. [
2]
* Jose Correa Leite (2005),
The World Social Forum: Strategies of Resistance, Haymarket Books [
3]
*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.
*
World Economic Forum*
European Social Forum*
Midwest Social Forum*
Southern Africa Social Forum*
Boston Social Forum*
Southeast Social Forum*
US Social Forum*
Official homepage*
Charter of Principles * Hilary Wainwright, "
Report on the Methodology of the WSF and its Possible Relevance for the 2006 ESF", TNI Website, 23 February 2005
*
History of the G8 - UK government site
*
Dutch Social Forum 2006 with lots of media*
US Social Forum websitePast forums
*
World Social Forum 2003*
World Social Forum, India 2004*
Boston Social Forum 2004* Polycentric WSF 2006 â€"
Bamako, Mali and
Caracas, Venezuela*
World Social Forum, Karachi 2006*
World Social Forum Karachi : A left critique*
Southeast Social Forum 2006*
Midwest Social Forum 2006Future forums
*
Southwest Ontario Regional Social Forum 2006*
Maine Social Forum 2006*
WSF in Nairobi, 20-25 January, 2007*
United States Social Forum 2007*
Los Angeles Social Forum 2007
