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A Report from the 2002 World Social Forum
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Contents
In January of 2002, Global Economic Justice: Latin America staff Rusa Jeremic traveled to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. What follows is her descriptive report on events at Porto Alegre, with a focus on the Debt Tribunal, a crucial part of KAIROS' continuing work on the debt issue, and our most significant contribution to the Forum.
Overall the World Social Forum was spectacular, bringing together more than 50,000 people from over 110 different countries. The interaction and participation from all parts of the world truly gave us the sense of living in a "global village". Perspectives and lived experiences from all over the world were shared. Whatever the level of conversation --whether it was sharing a meal together, participating in a workshop of 30 people, attending a seminar of a few hundred or marching with tens of thousands - the discussion was always global.
On the other hand, there were almost too many people, with too many competing activities to be able to connect on some issues. There were a number of parallel events with their own schedules of activities including: the Children's Forum, the Youth Camp, the Parliamentarians Conference, a Human Rights Forum, etc. Within the World Social Forum there were over 700 workshops and over a 100 seminars. All in all, there were far too many interesting events to choose from, but it was a wonderful flurry of activity during a condensed, intense period of time.
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Debt |
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"The more we pay, the more we owe, the less we have." |
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The
International Peoples' Tribunal on Debt was an amazing event.
Co-sponsored by KAIROS and our partner Jubilee South, among others,
it lasted two days and kept the audience captivated throughout.
The Tribunal was held in an open-air auditorium strung with Jubilee
banners from all over the world. In front of the stage wonderful
"baskets of plenty" full of goods were displayed, making
a powerful symbol of the world that we envision. The Tribunal proceedings
were interspersed with song, dance, and popular theatre from Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. Given the number of events within the
World Social Forum, I was impressed by the number of people - particularly
Brasilians - who were present for the entire Tribunal.
The main components of the Tribunal included a panel of judges,
a jury, prosecutors, and a "friend of the court" defense.
The Presidium of Judges was led by South African Judge Dumisa Ntsebeza
and included Philippine parliamentarian Loretta Rosales and Argentine
Mother of the Disappeared Nora Cortiñas.
The Jury included Nobel Peace Prize Winner Adolfo Perez Esquival (Argentina), Kone Sanogo Pete (Ivory Coast), Ivonne Yanz (Ecuador), Shelley Emalyn Rao (Fiji), and many others.
The accusation was presented by Dr. Alejandro Teitlebaum, who took the time to make a poignant and persuasive case as to what types of debt can be understood to be illegitimate and why illegitimate debts, once understood as such, should be deemed immoral, unjust, and therefore unpayable.
After the accusation was read, the Tribunal heard from over 20 witnesses on four different types of accusations outlined by Dr. Teitlebaum: 1) the illegitimacy of debt based on the impact of debt service, 2) the illegitimacy of debt based on the impact of projects and policies financed by debt, 3) the illegitimacy of debt based on the nature of contracting parties, processes, terms and usage and 4) the illegitimacy of debt based on the use of the debt to impose conditionalities and the use of debt relief as leverage for more conditionalities.
Testimony from Zimbabwe spoke of how independence was thwarted in 1980 by the forced inheritance of colonial debt, while testimony from Uganda focused on the impact of debt on women. The Tribunal heard about the disastrous effects of mega-projects funded by Export Credit Agencies in India, and the ecological debt owed to Nicaragua for the imposed agro-export economic model and the irreparable damage caused by the US-funded "Contra" war.
"Moreover, the debt has been paid back many times over," stated W. Korkeatkachorn of Thailand, "By the decline in the natural resource base and social disparity suffered by ordinary people." Philippine and Argentine testimony spoke of the odious debts contracted by dictatorships and the need to recognize these debts as illegitimate.
The case that was presented to the court exposed external debt to be illegitimate and the accused -- the IMF, World Bank, IFIs, Northern and Southern governments and multinational corporations -- to be culpable. After hearing all of the testimony presented late into the night of the second day, the Jury presented a Verdict. The Verdict concludes that the External Debt of the countries of the South is illegitimate, unjust, and ethically, legally and politically unsustainable and that the accused are authors, co-authors, accomplices and concealers of a multitude of crimes. The Jury requested that the Tribunal dictate a sentence condemning those accused.
Currently the accused are being notified of the Verdict. They, the - IMF, World Bank, IFIs, transnational corporations, southern and northern governments - are being invited to respond by April. On the occasion of the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington, the Tribunal plans to reconvene and launch a Global Campaign for the Cancellation of Illegitimate Debt.
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Trade |
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There was much discussion of trade issues framed in the context of resistance to agreements like FTAA and WTO in conjunction with discussing alternative visions, analysis, and policies. Resistance to the FTAA ended up being a major focal point because the event was being held in South America.
HSA Council Meetings
There were several Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) meetings. The
HSA is the broad-based umbrella of coalitions across the Americas
working on resisting FTAA together. Prior to the WSF, a meeting
primarily of the cross-border networks who also belong to the HSA
(known as COMPA) was held with some participation of other HSA members.
At that meeting the idea of the Consulta Popular or Popular Consultation
was discussed and further developed.
Later, there was a HSA Council meeting where further discussion on both the organization of the Council and the Consulta Popular happened. The good news is that many more groups and grassroots movements in countries across the Americas are becoming interested in joining and participating in HSA events. Some that were acclaimed as members in Porto Alegre include: Jubilee South, Ecuador, Cuba, and the Latin American Students Association. New members and old were encouraged to join the various Committees, including the Campaign Committee, Education Committee, and the Finance Committee.
HSA Women's Committee
There was a brief meeting just prior to the Coordinating Committee
Meeting. Some time was spent discussing our strategy for the Anti-FTAA
march. We also discussed the first ever strategizing meeting of
the Women's Committee which will be held in July in the Dominican
Republic. The meeting will focus on strategizing around a gender-specific
contribution to the Consulta Popular and the ways in which women,
as those most affected by globalization and free trade policies,
will have their voices heard.
Though we have been saying this for several years, I really did notice a distinct difference in how "nationally" focused organizations are now operating in comparison to ten or even 5 years ago. It is clear that these organizations are thinking globally and are making international linkages and partnerships as appropriate. In that regard, I feel that KAIROS as an organization that brings national and international issues under one banner really responds to reality of the globalization of today. We are in a unique position to analyze the different ways in which we do and we could take on trade work.
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Gender |
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Overall, there were serious attempts to ensure gender and race equity at the WSF. In addition there was a significant number of workshops and seminars on gender-specific issues that held interest as reflected in the high attendance rates.
There was a wonderful campaign in which cardboard lips where handed
out that stated, "tu boca fundamental contra los fundamentalismos."
or "Your voice, fundamental against fundamentalism". The
objective of this global campaign is to multiply voices in firm
opposition to discriminatory social practices, discourses and representations
which subject people to oppression or leave them in vulnerable positions.
They really did a great job in disseminating their information -
you could see t-shirts, flyers, and lips everywhere. In addition,
during the Opening Ceremony there was a grounded hot-air balloon
that was illuminated occasionally to reveal the campaign slogan.
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Conclusions |
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Overall, the event was impressive. There were two marches that gathered tens of thousands of people and took hours to complete because of their sheer size. In the marches and in all of the events the extent of Brasilian participation was vast. The organizers really tried to make most events accessible to everyone regardless of whether they were able to pay the price of registration or not. Overall, the event was impressive. There were two marches that gathered tens of thousands of people and took hours to complete because of their sheer size. In the marches and in all of the events the extent of Brasilian participation was vast. The organizers really tried to make most events accessible to everyone regardless of whether they were able to pay the price of registration or not.
The World Social Forum was an important event, as much for the sideline conversations and networking as for the official happenings. There was a real attempt to keep the discussion at the level of alternatives in the broad sense, such as Walden Bello's concept of "deglobalization" -- an alternative that would focus on a dynamic interaction between the local and global with a reorientation on local markets, income and land redistribution and a social solidarity that would bring the economy back into control of the social. Another example was Susan George's call for a Global Marshall Plan. Alongside these debates there were many, many discussions of very specific ways in which we might achieve our alternative vision. Ideas discussed ranged from economies of solidarity, to fair trade practices, to cancellation of illegitimate debt to sustainable environmental policies. In many of the forums debates about respecting diversity versus a centralized/unified movement continued.
We are not anti-globalization, we are part of a Global Movement
for Global Justice.