Report Back from Porto Alegre, Rode Hoed, Amsterdam, 17 February 2002

Report Back from Porto Alegre, Rode Hoed, Amsterdam, 17 February 2002

Together with XminusY, TNI organises an evening for all Dutch-based activists who are interested in the outcome of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. What actually happened at the second World Social Forum? What are the implications for the global movement? At the same moment in New York thousands protested against the World Economic Forum, the original instigator of the WSF.

During the first part of the evening, participants of the WSF will share their experiences and views. Afterwards, there is room for discussion: What is the significance of such a big jamboree? Is there a widening gap with the streetprotesters and the WSF-participants?

Speakers include: Dot Keet (South Africa), Miguel Teubal (Argentina), and Fiona Dove, director of the Transnational Institute. Jo van der Spek and Kees Stad will moderate the discussion.

Report by Marie-Eve Lamy (XminusY)

The Amsterdam evaluation session on the second World Social Forum, hosted by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and XminusY on February 17th, was a great a success. The second floor of the Rode Hoed was filled with activists of diverse background and origins eager to hear about what had happened at the World Social Forum (WSF) and to share their views on the meanings of the event.

The three speakers, who were all deeply involved in the organisation of the WSF, were first asked by journalist Jo van der Spek to talk about their expectations of the WSF regarding their particular concerns and the actual outcomes. All three are connected to the Transnational Institute.

Dot Keet is a political economist from South Africa, representing the Africa Trade Network, an organisation critical on trade and which is focussing on its effects on development. Beside bringing together a strong convergence of different groups from Africa at this year"s Social Forum, her organisation wanted to assure a better representation for all Africans and not only for the ones representing NGOs. The debt cancellation being their main concern, they are also putting pressure on their government to repudiate the dept and to recognize it is truly one from the North to the South. Should the next WSF be in Africa? Dot Keet doesn't think so and gives three reasons why the choice of Porto Alegre is so judicious. First, its progressive government and the alternative it represents (participatory budget), which creates some kind of a general awareness in the population. Also, the people of Porto Alegre are more interested in being part of such an event, which somehow simplifies its organisation. Furthermore, the WSF is also connected to local struggles and a strong local movement (landless peasants).

Miguel Teubal is an economist and a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and is a member of the Via Campesina (VC) coalition. Participating in the Land and Food forum was another occasion for farmers and activists from Argentina and Brazil to get together and exchange information about their struggle against the proliferation of transgenic crops. Since there is no real opposition to transgenic seeds in Argentina these meetings are very important for the Argentines VC members. He feels the discussions in the forum were less plural and more "political" than at the last year"s edition, probably because they were more dominated by the Movement of the landless peasants (MST). It was also a chance for Argentines from different communities to share their experience of what is actually happening in Argentina and what will come out of it. For Miguel Teubal, the uprising we are witnessing is a spontaneous, non-violent and massive movement of civilians, but it would be a mistake to think of it as "revolutionary".

For Fiona Dove, director of TNI, the fact that the International Committee of the WSF is very open and decentralized, can only increase the representation of the South. As an example, there were many more Asian organisations participating in the 2002 edition than last year. But even if it somehow remained unbalanced, she says there was a real sense of a common agenda. All the major social sectors were present (trade unions, women, peasants, youth, etc.) and the issues were very diverse. Beside the ones mentioned earlier, the most predominant questions were the FTAA, the privatization of common goods (water and energy), the legitimacy crisis facing the international institutions, the transnational corporations regulations, the new war on terrorism and the increasing criminalisation of indigenous movements in Latin America, and the Enron scandal.

Paul de Klerck is from Friends of the Earth Netherlands, who are starting a corporate accountability campaign. He was in New York to protest the against the World Economic Forum (WEF) but also to participate in the Rio+10 Preparatory Forum in prevision for the upcoming United Nations (UN) Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (South Africa) in September. There were two major demonstrations planned during the week-end, each with a different focus: one against the war in Afghanistan and one around globalisation issues, which he found much more colorful and diverse. Despite the huge police security, they succeeded in bringing together between 10.000 and 15.000 people, while several smaller actions also took place throughout the WEF meeting. For Paul de Klerck, the positive outcome of the UN meeting was that they could stress the need for corporate accountability, which was somehow largely accepted. The deceptions came from the UN's more than favorable attitude towards the WTO's agenda. He said you couldn't really see any signs of the WSF in New York, except at the counter forum "ThePublic Eye On Davos", where the issues discussed were similar to those of the forum in Brazil.

The second part of the evening was dedicated to discussion and debate between the audience and the speakers. Dot Keet admitted that holding an annual coming together with as many as 60.000 people has its limits. She stressed the necessity for the people to hold their own regional Social Forum in their community. But she believes events such as the WSF are also essential to make it clear for the ones in power that we are still organising and will not be silenced, specially in the actual context of the war on terrorism.

On the more strategic issues, Fiona Dove was quite disappointed by the weakness of the European identity at the WSF, particularly by the lack of content. It looked like most of the European meeting revolved around who would be hosting the next Europe Social Forum in November (it was decided in Italy), while there is not many reactions regarding the growing threat of the European Union (EU). But for Kees Stad, from XminusY, the situation is not as dark as Fiona Dove sees it. Weren't there major protests against globalisation in Europe (Davos, Prague, Genoa and so on) and didn't they get a larger participation each time? The last EU Summit in Brussels (December) brought together a total of 110 000 protestors. We should ask ourselves instead why there is not more changes being generated by these massive movements. Someone from the audience also mentioned that the problem is the lack of a common objective. Dot Keet objected that there is actually a strong platform, which is to oppose corporate driven neoliberal globalisation. The WTO doesn't only affect the South but the whole world and right now, its policies are more driven by the EU than by the US. So why not make our common objective to prevent another negotiation round of the WTO? She believes the role of the European countries is one of awareness raising and popular education in their own societies regarding the struggles in the South. A man who was also in Porto Alegre talked about the differences he saw between North and South participants. He noticed the representatives from the North were generally NGO's, researchers and young activists, while the ones from the South were
"ordinary" people from the trade unions, the peasants or the women's movement. For him, one can't have a strong movement as long as one doesn't reach the ordinary people.

The issues of global-local and North-South perspectives lead to an interesting debate. Of course Northern countries must take action on Third World"s struggles, but some spoke about the necessity to work on our "own" issues, like the increasingly restrictive immigration policies towards citizens of outside the EU. Others also questioned the lack of solidarity with the Eastern Europe countries who are also facing the consequences the WTO and the IMF policies, and stressed the need to go beyond this country based agenda.

What form should this movement take? Should it seek to become more global, coordinated and unified or should it remains as open and as decentralised as possible? For Fiona Dove, we will eventually have to discuss the effectiveness of our political instruments. Of course we actually have an impact on the world order but we are still relatively weak. Miguel Teubal sees it as an issue of democracy and representation and the possibility of direct democracy: how do we change the world without taking power? Dot Keet agrees that we have to go beyond symbolism and in the end, it all comes to a question of power. As she puts it, we don't have a blueprint for the type of society we want – and we don't want one! . To be effective, she believes we must organize ourselves around issues and sectors instead of geographically. We must accept that we can't do everything on every issue and trust each other's knowledge and experience. She is convinced that the idea of one big integrated movement is wrong and that diversity is essential.

Background

Between January 31st and February 2002, and estimated 60 000 people participated in the second annual World Social Forum (WSF), in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The first WSF was held in 2001, under the slogan "Another World is possible", in response of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. For twenty years the owners of the world have been meeting in this small and luxurious ski-resort. But this year"s WEF decided to hold their little getting together in New York city, apparently to show their solidarity with the victims of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. But considering the clashes between police and protestors at the last year WEF meeting, the Swiss government probably didn't want to assume the cost of massive police protection.

The next World Social Forum will be held in Porto Alegre once again, and the International Committee has agreed to hold the WSF 2004 in India.