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World Social Forum: Origin and Aims
By Francisco Whitaker (English translation
by Peter Lenny)
Early in 1998, the proposal for a Multilateral Agreement on Investments
(MAI) was made public. It was to be signed by the worlds wealthiest
countries, then to be "proposed" to - in practice, imposed
on - the rest of the countries in the world. The agreement had been
discussed in secret in the OECD, the intention being for it to become
a kind of World Constitution for Capital, which would give capital
all the rights and almost no duties - especially in Third World
countries where the "investments" would be made. The French
newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique published a first exposé
prepared in the United States by the "Public Citizens"
movement led by Ralph Nader, in an article by Lori Wallach, a lawyer
with the movement. The outcry at the absurdities contained in the
agreement led to the emergence of a social movement in protest,
causing France to withdraw from the negotiations in late 1998 and
finally preventing the agreement from being signed.
One of the organizations to spur this mobilization was ATTAC -
at first 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 - that was starting to take shape in France
at the time, also following a proposal in this direction by Le Monde
Diplomatique. Today the association has some 20,000 of supporters
all over France and has produced ATTACs in other countries round
the world, including Brazil. The association is working to put into
effect Economics Nobel laureate James Tobin's proposal for a tax
on speculative capital movements as a way of controlling their present
absolute freedom to circulate worldwide, with the consequences we
all know so well.
From the interactions these events helped to trigger everywhere
among those who refuse to accept the scenario of a world wholly
controlled by the interests of capital, a number of different forms
of opposition to this type of globalization began to organize. Those
that gained most fame by virtue of their media repercussion were
the protests in Seattle against the WTO, in Washington against the
IMF and the World Bank and, more recently, those in Prague, which
led the government representatives gathered there to cut short their
meeting one day ahead of schedule.
Now, for a good twenty years, the owners of the world had been
meeting in a Forum they called the World Economic Forum, which they
held in Davos, a small, luxury ski resort in Switzerland. Once a
year - in addition to the regional meetings that it has also begun
to organize - this group (that today is a major corporation) currently
gathers together all those able to pay 20,000 dollars to hear and
talk to the leading thinkers at the service of capital, as well
as to hear even guest critics of globalization, invited along to
lend legitimacy to the Forum. Davos - which attracts correspondents
from all the worlds major newspapers, including systematically our
friend Clovis Rossi - is where the theory of world domination by
capital, within the parameters of neo-liberalism, is constructed
and steadily put into practice.
Well, in the light of all that was going on, a few Brazilians
decided that it would be possible to launch a new stage of resistance
to this school of thought which today prevails all over the world.
Over and beyond the demonstrations and mass protests... it seemed
possible to move on and to offer specific proposals, to seek concrete
responses to the challenges of building "another world",
one where the economy would serve people, and not the other way
round. Economists and other academics opposed to neo-liberalism
were already holding what they called Anti-Davos meetings in Europe.
Now though, the intention was to go further than that. The idea
was, with the participation of all the organizations that were already
networking in the mass protests, to arrange another kind of meeting
on a world scale - the World Social Forum - directed to social concerns.
So as to give a symbolic dimension to the start of this new period,
the meeting would take place on the same days as the powerful of
the world were to meet in Davos.
Exactly who had this great idea? Our friend Oded Grajew. I don't
know if he discussed it with anyone else beforehand, but he put
it to me when we met in France in February this year. Together,
we decided to take it to Bernard Cassen, director of Le Monde Diplomatique,
who is also president of ATTAC in France, to see how well the idea
would be received outside of Brazil.
Cassen was enthusiastic and made the proposal to hold the Forum
in Brazil. He felt it had to be in the "Third World" -
because that would also have a symbolic effect - and Brazil was
among the countries in a better position to host a Forum like this.
His too was the idea of hosting it in Porto Alegre, capital of a
state that is steadily becoming known all over the world for its
democratic experiences and efforts against neo-liberalism. Cassen
then threw out a counter-challenge: if we were able to organize
the Forum, we would have the support not only of his newspaper,
but also of the organizations around the world that are positioning
themselves against domination by capital. Once back in Brazil, we
started to find out what organizations were willing to accept this
challenge and take on this huge task. On February 28, there was
a meeting in Sao Paulo of delegates from 8 organizations that today
have signed a "Cooperation Agreement" to hold the World
Social Forum, the first edition of which will be held in Porto Alegre
from January 25 to 30, 2001: Brazilian Association of Non-Governmental
Organizations (ABONG); Association for the Taxation of financial
Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC); Brazilian Justice
& Peace Commission (CBJP); Brazilian Business Association for
Citizenship (CIVES); Central Trade Union Federation (CUT); Brazilian
Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IBASE); Centre for Global
Justice (CJG); Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).
In March these organizations sent a delegation to Porto Alegre
to consult Olivio Dutra and Raul Pont on the state and municipal
governments willingness to host the Forum, on the understanding
that the event would be promoted not by these governments, but by
the civil society organizations that embraced the proposal. Once
the governor and mayor had given their consent, work was begun as
quickly as possible to organize and actually realize this new world
meeting. This included inviting other civil society organizations
to set up a Brazilian Committee in Support of the Forum. At Cassens
suggestion, a delegation from the organizations travelled in late
June to Geneva where a large part of the organizations linking up
around the world in demonstrations against neo-liberalism would
be meeting in an alternative "summit" parallel to the
UNs "Copenhagen + 5" Summit. Room was made for us to present
our proposal, which was very well received. Miguel Rossetto, Deputy
Governor of Rio Grande do Sul State, also travelled to Geneva to
confirm that the state would host the Forum. On that very occasion,
an International Committee was set up in support of the Forum.
Since then, we have been working against the clock to ensure attendance
by participants from all over the world, with quotas set for each
continent and each type of activity. The programme drawn up provides
for two kinds of dynamics: morning panels - 4 running simultaneously
on all four days, with four participants each chosen from among
leading names in the fight against the One Truth; and, in the early
afternoon, workshops coordinated by the participants themselves
to exchange experiences and for discussions, and in the late afternoon,
meetings for networking. Also planned are sessions for testimonies
from people involved in different kinds of struggle, and an extensive
parallel programme in Porto Alegre city for all those unable to
participate directly in the Forum, which is open only to people
appointed and registered by social organizations.
The Forum is not deliberative in nature and time will not be wasted
in discussing the commas in a final document. It will be the beginning
of a process of thinking together at the world level on the four
thematic areas dealt with in the morning panels: production of wealth
and social reproduction; access to wealth and sustainability; empowering
civil society and the public realm; and political power and ethics
in the new society. For each of these thematic areas, questions
were formulated to which we have to find answers and, for each question,
there is a series of issues we have to consider. The intention is,
by thinking together also on a "globalized" basis, to
make room - in greater depth each year - for the search for alternatives
to the dominant model. In fact, World Social Forum 2001 will be
only the first step, but an entirely new step, which is increasingly
finding an echo the whole world over. Our hope is that this echo
really will secure the beginning of a new period in the struggle
against human submission to the interests of capital.
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