politics | On the 2011 World Social Forum "Another world is Possible" (Reply)

The World Social Forum which bills itself as ...

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1) What is the World Social Forum?

The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. This definition is in its Charter of Principles, the WSF’s guiding document.MORE

...took place in Dakar, Senegal in February this year.

THE BEGINNING

DAKAR 6-11 Feb 2011 Senegal hosts 2011 World Social Forum

The World Social Forum returns to Africa in 2011. In 2011, unusually, the dates won't coincide exactly with the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, but it is still intended as a counterweight to the Swiss event. A global entity, the WSF, which started in Brazil 11 years ago and has its critics, brings together anti-globalization, anti-capitalist and social justice movements. The WSF usually attracts left-leaning heads of state. One publication speculates that no African leaders will attend in 2011.

The WSF has been criticized, even by participants, as being too large, incoherent, and more of a carnival, than a space for serious engagement in ideas, strategizing and mobilizing. There are too many forums, and too little time between them for action, the critics say. Unity of action is always a challenge because of the sometimes huge philosophical differences between constituent WSF movements. Some oppose capitalism in general. Others only oppose free market policies, which they define as predatory. There are movements within the WSF that believe in progress as it is envisioned in the West, and others that oppose it.

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I have been remiss in linking to articles about it, but then, one notices that the mainstream media does its best to avoid covering it. Which is somewhat eyebrow-raising, don't you think, since the no. of people who attended this year is estimated at between 40-50,000?

The urge to win the battle of ideas

It is curious that ten years ago journalists from around the world flocked to Porto Alegre to cover the WSF debates, which were given broad coverage in print and on television.
It could be argued that this was simply a result of the novelty of the forum and its flood of activists proclaiming, “another world is possible” while the rest of the world careened blindly towards disaster.

One might think that, since history proved the WSF right, the media might have grown curious about the prescient arguments and predictions of the Forum. But the opposite happened: in recent years, particularly since the global depression struck in 2008, the presence of media at the forum has dropped continuously.MORE

Here is some media coverage of the event:

AS IT HAPPENED

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM A Time of More Complex Global Crises

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 4, 2011 (IPS) - Neoliberalism and the attendant financial globalisation were a common enemy that unified and mobilised activists of the most diverse tendencies who founded, ten years ago in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the World Social Forum (WSF) as a space to meet, reflect and debate, under the slogan "Another World Is Possible".

But in its 11th year, the WSF is meeting Feb. 6-11 in Dakar, Senegal, at a time when neoliberal, free-market policies stand out less in a world threatened by collapse from a combination of crises: financial, climate change, food and water.

U.S. imperialism, another favourite target of the activists, has seen its economic clout wane while another superpower, China, emerges with its own colonial practices, although without militarism or the export of its belief system and way of life -- for now.MORE

Another World Is Possible – It’s Called Ecosocialism

Kanya D’Almeida interviews U.S. scholar and organiser JOEL KOVEL

NEW YORK, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS TerraViva) – As the powerful collective energy continues to surge through Dakar, veterans of the World Social Forum (WSF) are taking a moment to examine the history, trajectory and future of the alternative global movement.

Widely considered the father of the fast-growing Ecosocialist movement, Joel Kovel has played a leading role in the WSF since 2003, following the movement from Mumbai to Nairobi to Belem.

Co-author of the Ecosocialist manifesto, which details an alternative route to humanity’s current path of environmental destruction, Kovel told IPS that we have to name this “other world” and position it firmly against the threat of global capital. Excerpts from the interview follow.MORE

Mixed Reviews on Space for Gender

DAKAR, Feb 10 (TerraViva) – The road to the large green tent is dusty and rather confusing, but once you get there you are immersed in a babel of women’s voices. The tent, hidden away in the wind and dust, some distance from the main World Social Forum events, has become the unofficial women’s tent at the WSF.It took a few days to establish itself, but it has become the place to go to hear women’s voices. Physical space has been a contentious issue following the cancellation of many of the venues, and gender activists led by the World March of Women felt the need to claim a site where women could speak freely without having to negotiate discursive space.

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Under its green fabric, a colorful and vibrant debate has been bubbling, covering the plight of women in the conflict-struck region of Casamance in the south of Senegal, gender-based violence, the difficulties in organising young women around issues of sexuality, HIV/AIDS and other challenges they face in patriarchal societies – and the perceived marginalisation of women’s issues at the World Social Forum itself.

Whilst some applauded the tent’s spirit, others worried that it stood as a symbol of women’s issues being marginalised in the wider context of the Forum.MORE

‘Move On to the Sovereignty of the People’

DAKAR, Feb 11 (TerraViva) – The final two days of the World Social Forum are devoted to working out shared positions on a range of issues. Academics taking part in a parallel forum organised by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, have been discussing the nature of social movements, liberation and how to achieve “the sovereignty of the people”.

Noted Gambian sociologist Halifa Sallah spoke to Ebrima Sillah. Excerpts of the interview follow.MORE

WSF: Political Support Needs Financial Backing

Rousbeh Legatis interviews NORAH MATOVU-WINYI, Executive Director, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11, 2011 (IPS/TerraViva) – “The agenda for women’s rights and empowerment in each country must be supported by the political leadership,” says Norah Matovu-Winyi, Executive Director, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).

FEMNET is a membership based Network, mandated to facilitate the sharing of information, experiences, ideas and strategies among African women’s NGOs in order to strengthen women’s capacity to participate effectively in the development process.

In future World Social Forums “there is need to support more women to participate in the dialogues,” Matovu-Winyi said. Women learn a lot from each other and in many instances discover that their struggles are the same despite coming from different continents.MORE

Dakar to Dhaka

New Delhi, Feb 5, 2011 (IPS) - Is it more important to build links with African civil society groups or concentrate on existing networks in the South Asian region? That is the dilemma before Indian delegates heading for the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, and some who have opted out.

"Both are important," Amit Sen Gupta of the Delhi Science Forum (DSF) told IPS. "Today, more than ever before, a world reeling from the impact of multiple crises needs alternatives at the global, national and local levels."

Those attending the 6-11 Feb. event in Dakar, like Sen Gupta and his fellow activist, D. Reghunandan, have an eye on a meeting there on 10 Feb. aiming to prepare for the South Asia Social Forum scheduled for Nov. 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. MORE

MORE IPS ARTICLES HERE in languages such as English, Swahili, Portugese, Spanish and French.

WSF Dakar meet discussed land grab issue

Among the several issues deliberated upon at the six-day summit, land grabbing was a key one. Land rights activists attending the meet, which included a large number of farmers, drew attention to the horrors of the global land-grab currently underway.

Pradeep Priyadarshi, a land rights activist and one of the two Biharis who participated at the meet, said: "This year the forum discussed at length issues related to land grabbing, housing rights, agrarian reform, people centered democracy and women's rights."

Priyadarshi, who also spoke at some of the sessions, said the deliberation's outcome centred on how to stop infringement of natural resources comprising land, forest and water by different government and corporate bodies denying basic rights to the indigenous people.
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ANALYZING THE AFTERMATH

Reflections on the World Social Forum in Dakar, 2011

Does the World Social Forum, an initiative born of the alter-globalization movement and proclaiming to be a dynamic, non-governmental and non-partisan forum engaged in working towards a more democratic and fair world, actually achieve much in concrete terms? In the last decade of social forums, have real alternatives been articulated and acted upon and do we have a set of solutions to the continued destruction and expropriation of life brought about by neoliberal globalization? Did this forum in Dakar provide strategies to continue the fight against capitalism, epitomized by its rival conference, the World Economic Forum? Was this forum of any importance to civil society in Senegal?

I asked myself these questions while rushing between one workshop and the next to record interviews with the diverse people who had come to the forum to talk, debate and strategize. The simple task of getting to the right workshop proved difficult and at times exhausting since the university management had allegedly changed and had withdrawn support for the forum 3 days before it started, allowing classes to continue as usual and leaving the organizers the formidable task of re-organizing much of the logistics. Students were unsure of how to continue studying with thousands of foreigners wandering around the campus and congregating in tents in the main square. The shortage of rooms meant some workshops were unable to meet at all and participants and journalists were frequently disoriented trying to find the right place to go. President Abdoulaye Wade made clear his lack of support for the forum at its opening.

What was most shocking to me as I reported on events during the week was that a microcosm of a much larger political conflict was taking place in a space that had brought together the most progressive thinkers and activists engaged in struggles for justice. MORE

WSF 2011: Searching For Direction In People's Movements

This year's WSF organized in Senegal was significant for two reasons. First, it was organized on African soil. Second, the people's movements and activist groups who assembled in Dakar sought to understand how they could strengthen themselves for their struggle to change the political contours of the world. The organization of the event may have been found wanting in many ways but it nevertheless provided the ideal opportunity to examine the critical Middle East and African question in contrast to Democracy and Social Change enigma. MORE

World Social Forum 2011 I'd like to register my annoyance that the writer of this article thinks that one experience in Senegal entitles him to generalize about the entire Africa continent and its affiliated islands. I am also wondering a bit about his claim that none of the sessions there dealt with colonialism. But I think there are some interesting insights that he has to share.

Representatives from Sudan and Congo who had come to attend the WSF organised in the African nation of Senegal from February 6 to 11, 2011 related how it took people two years to walk across the Sahara, the world's largest desert, when they decided to migrate from their homeland in search of a better life. They had to then sail across the Atlantic Ocean in tiny boats to reach European shores. Many died on the way. Many others were caught while slipping across the borders into European countries. The inhuman face of international diplomacy can be seen in the way they were transported and dumped back into the desert from where they had sought to escape. European countries like France, Italy and Spain are now paying around Rs. 10,000 million every year to African and Middle East countries to ensure that they make the necessary arrangements to prevent people from crossing European borders. The developed countries see the influx of migrants as having a deleterious impact on their resources while damaging their image in the eyes of the world, Over a million people from Kenya, Namibia, Congo, Algeria and other African countries are forced to migrate every year to escape their pitiable living conditions but they are not permitted to enter these European countries.

The face of colonial development and progress stands exposed. The colonizing powers first create scarcity conditions and then enslave the people of the country they target. They know that it is necessary to control culture, education, resources and language in order to enslave a society or a country. This process is still under way in the African continent today. But the ways in which colonization is taking place are changing. MORE

The World Social Forum Audio Slide Show

The World Social Forum and the Battle for COP17

However while this renewed confidence in popular resistance struck a militant chord, the sharp edge of debates on climate change revealed serious limits to World Social Forum politics and the difficulties ahead for a genuine climate change solution at COP17 in Durban, South Africa. This came through as hard lessons were drawn from the recent Copenhagen and Cancun climate negotiations. Progressive civil society was divided at Cancun. NGO technocrats, donor driven agendas, big egos, celebrity intellectuals and hard lined social movement agendas prevented a common voice and united agenda to prevail outside the negotiations in the streets.

However, as the week unfolded it was the Climate Justice current that took the initiative to be self critical and address the weaknesses of progressive civil society. This was laudable and the ‘Basis of Unity’ document it tried to shape in the closing hours of the WSF is a step in the right direction, but is extremely constrained by crucial weakness of the WSF [Ed.: see declaration adopted by the Assembly of Social Movements]. First, the national and regional forums of the WSF are uneven but generally weak or nonexistent. The follow through required to keep focus and momentum on the ‘Basis of Unity’ document is going to be difficult to sustain. Second, the WSF has not evolved to a point where it can coordinate in a democratic manner a platform of actions at transnational and national levels. It is a great space to philosophize about actions to change the world, globalize critique, share experiences and form links but it lacks a strategic edge.MORE