Wednesday, February 21, 2007

 

  
Another World Is Possible!
First-Hand Accounts from Kenya
and the World Social Forum 2007

 12:30 - 2:00 p.m.

Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice

 

A presentation by Anne Hoiberg, Women’s Equity Council of the United Nations Association of San Diego, and Lilia Velásquez, immigration attorney and adjunct professor at California Western School of Law. 

The World Social Forum was launched in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, as the response of people’s social movements to the annual meeting of global elites in Davos, Switzerland.  In the intervening six years this annual meeting has grown in size, at one point nearly reaching a sprawling 100,000 participants; shifted from its Brazilian “home” to meetings in Mumbai, India and now Nairobi, Kenya; and weathered a host of trials, from criticism to indifference.  Where does the World Social Forum stand today?   While no single presentation can do justice to the expansive range of topics undertaken by the forum, two participants recently arrived from Kenya will share with us their experiences, with particular attention to: women’s role in the WSF; the pressing need to “reclaim” the United Nations; and the search for socially just alternatives to the current order.

Anne Hoiberg is the director of the Women’s Equity Council of the United Nations Association of San Diego; president of the La Jolla Pen Women, and president and CEO of the International Museum of Human Rights at San Diego. Lilia Velásquez is an attorney in private practice and a professor of law at California Western School of Law; she is a certified specialist in immigration and nationality law, and frequently defends women victims of trafficking and other human rights abuses.

What exactly is the World Social Forum?

“Another World Is Possible!” is the slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF), an annual event launched in January 2001 in part to coincide with, and challenge, the World Economic Forum—a gathering of economic and policymaking elites taking place each January for the past 37 years in Davos, Switzerland. The WSF was started in Brazil by a coalition of Brazilian trade unions, charities, and socially-conscious political and environmental groups. As the slogan implies, the forum is made up of participants—chiefly from civil society—seeking alternatives to economic globalization. This entails coordinating international campaigns, collecting information, devising strategies, and educating each other on regionally-specific movements. A key shared belief among WSF participants is that fair and equitable economic and environmental policies are indispensable in order to create not only another world, but a more just world—one more responsive to the needs of the majority, and in particular those of impoverished people.

Since its inception in 2001, the WSF continued annually in Porto Alegre, Brazil—a city known for its efficient and ecologically-sensitive design—until its fourth meeting which took place in 2004 in Mumbai, India. In 2005, the WSF was brought back to Porto Alegre, and this was followed in 2006 by a polycentric forum taking place simultaneously in Caracas, Venezuela; Bamako, Mali; and Karachi, Pakistan. The most recent WSF was held in Nairobi, Kenya, with 110 countries represented—the most globally representative meeting since the Forum began in 2001.

After the first WSF, a charter of principles was established to outline its standards and expectations and ensure that it would continue on an annual basis. The first principle of the charter states that “the World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.” (1)

It is probably fair to say that the broad and inclusive nature of the WSF, no less than its frequently confrontational stance in regard to governments and corporations, have each subjected it to criticisms from across the political spectrum—on grounds both of process and of content. Groups and movements on the left have charged that the WSF was becoming too beholden to foundations and too often led by established nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as distinct from grassroots-based social movements. From the other end of the spectrum, the Forum’s critiques of globalization have been considered unrealistic at best or pernicious at worst—when indeed the Forum has managed to receive much attention in the mainstream news at all. In addition, the question of whether to convert into a political actor, adopting resolutions and action plans, or to remain a loose and broad coalition of activists, has bedeviled the forum almost from the beginning. In the words of one civil society leader who has participated in both the World Social Forum and the World Economic Forum:

“[T]he World Social Forum is still a relatively new actor on the world stage. Its organizational style is diffuse, but at particular moments it can reach a consensus that has mobilizing power, such as the 2003 demonstrations against the war in Iraq. It is here to stay, and it plays a role in democratization. And it is searching for the best ways and means to empower participants and get their voices heard. . . . Of course, no one going to the WSF agrees with every sentiment expressed but such is the beauty of the space you do not need to. But even for those perspectives one disagrees with, you learn from the exposure that is rarely found in any other convening space of civil society.” (2)

This document does not necessarily represent the views of the
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego.

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1. World Social Forum Charter of Principles, www.portoalegre2002.org.

2. Kumi Naidoo, “From Nairobi to Davos: Reflections on the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum,” www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral54.htm.