World Social Forum
Encyclopedia
The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil
, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization
. Some consider the World Social Forum to be a physical manifestation of global civil society
, as it brings together non governmental organizations, advocacy campaigns as well as formal and informal social movements seeking international solidarity
. The World Social Forum prefers to define itself as "an opened space – plural, diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan – that stimulates the decentralized debate, reflection, proposals building, experiences exchange and alliances among movements and organizations engaged in concrete actions towards a more solidarity, democratic and fair world....a permanent space and process to build alternatives to neoliberalism
." It is held by members of the alter-globalization
movement (also referred to as the global justice movement
) who come together to coordinate global campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their particular issues. The World Social Forum is explicit about not being a representative of all of those who attend and thus does not publish any formal statements on behalf of participants. It tends to meet in January at the same time as its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum's
Annual Meeting in Davos
, Switzerland
. This date is consciously picked to promote their alternative answers to world economic problems in opposition to the World Economic Forum
.
1) 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 neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism
, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth.
2) The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localised in time and place. From now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that "Another World Is Possible", it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be reduced to the events supporting it.
3) The World Social Forum is a world process. All the meetings that are held as part of this process have an international dimension.
4) The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of globalization
commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations' interests, with the complicity of national governments. They are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity
will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights
, and those of all citizens - men and women - of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.
5) The World Social Forum brings together and interlinks only organizations and movements of civil society from all the countries in the world, but intends neither to be a body representing world civil society
.
6) The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No one, therefore, will be authorized, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants. The participants in the Forum shall not be called on to take decisions as a body, whether by vote or acclamation, on declarations or proposals for action that would commit all, or the majority, of them and that propose to be taken as establishing positions of the Forum as a body. It thus does not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the participants in its meetings, nor does it intend to constitute the only option for interrelation and action by the organizations and movements that participate in it.
7) Nonetheless, organizations or groups of organizations that participate in the Forum's meetings must be assured the right, during such meetings, to deliberate on declarations or actions they may decide on, whether singly or in coordination with other participants. The World Social Forum undertakes to circulate such decisions widely by the means at its disposal, without directing, hierarchizing, censuring or restricting them, but as deliberations of the organizations or groups of organizations that made the decisions.
8) The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to build another world.
9) The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organizations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organizations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity.
10) The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. It upholds respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.
11) As a forum for debate the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of that reflection, on the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on means and actions to resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalization with its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally and within countries.
12) As a framework for the exchange of experiences, the World Social Forum encourages understanding and mutual recognition amongst its participant organizations and movements, and places special value on the exchange among them, particularly on all that society is building to center economic activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and respecting nature, in the present and for future generations.
13) As a context for interrelations, the World Social Forum seeks to strengthen and create new national and international links among organizations and movements of society, that, in both public and private life, will increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance to the process of dehumanization the world is undergoing and to the violence used by the State, and reinforce the humanizing measures being taken by the action of these movements and organizations.
14) The World Social Forum is a process that encourages its participant organizations and movements to situate their actions, from the local level to the national level and seeking active participation in international contexts, as issues of planetary citizenship, and to introduce onto the global agenda the change-inducing practices that they are experimenting in building a new world in solidarity.
and neoliberalism
.
It has also been suggested that the beginnings of the World Social Forum originated in the Battle for Seattle November 1999, where anti-globalization
activists protested a meeting of the World Trade Organization
's latest trade negotiations.
One of the originators of the World Social Forum, Oded Grajew, of the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility, said in an interview with InMotion Magazine in 2004, "Then I had the idea. Why not create the World Social Forum, as we have the World Economic Forum, speaking about the people in the world? Why not have the World Social Forum -- the social is more important than the economic -- to have a space to show that we can have an alternative? We have choice. This is not the only way you can see the world, globalization. We have another way to see it. And, at the same time, force people to look, to make a choice. What is your choice? What is your vision of the world?"
Another one of the founders of the WSF, Cándido Grzybowski has said of the annual meetings, "The numerous recent crises are expressions of the contradictions and limitations of the form of global capitalism that has been imposed on humanity and the earth. The assertion that "another world is possible" is now an absolute necessity."
Since 2001, the United Nations
has had a presence at the WSF through UNESCO
, showing the institutional credibility achieved by the forum, seen by UNESCO as a "prime opportunity for dialogue and a laboratory of ideas for the renewal of public policies" through "critical reflection on the future of societies we want to create and for elaborating proposals in search of solidarity, justice, peace and human rights".
, Brazil
, organized by many groups including the French Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC). The WSF was sponsored, in part, by the Porto Alegre government, led by the Brazilian Worker's Party
(PT). The town was experimenting with an innovative model
for local government
which combined the traditional representative institutions
with the participation of open assemblies
of the people. 12,000 people attended from around the world. At the time, Brazil was also in a moment of transformation that later would lead to the electoral victory of the PT candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
. This first meeting was focused on gathering anti-globalization activists from all over the world to talk and organize amongst one another, while subsequent meetings have been more focused on specific ways to counter neoliberalism
.
from 31 January to 5 February 2002, had over 12,000 official delegates representing people from 123 countries, 60,000 attendees, 652 workshops, and 27 talks. Among the 500 American delegates several were selected to be members of the forum's "international council", made up of a rather large number of organizations. Among those represented were Ralph Nader's Public Citizen
organization (Medea Benjamin
and Linda Chavez-Thompson
), the Brazilian NGO Ibase (Cândido Grzybowski and Moema Miranda), the Brazilian association of entrepreneurs for citizenship CIVES (Oded Grajew, founder of the WSF), the Brazilian Commission on Justice and Peace (Francisco Whitaker), ATTAC
(Christophe Aguiton), CRID France (Gustave Massiah), Focus on the Global South Thailand (Nicola Bullard), and the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World (Gustavo Marín
). Members of the AFL-CIO
and the SEIU
were also very active. The Ford Foundation
funded $500,000 for the next meeting.
, non-capitalist
, participative possibilities for different aspects of social, political, economic, communication structures. Among the speakers was American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky
. Some credit this meeting of World Social Forum for the connections that made the global day of action on February 15, 2003 so successful. The global day of action
was an international protest attended by an estimated 12 million people in 700 cities across 60 countries protesting the Bush Administration
's plans to invade and occupy Iraq. At the time, the New York Times called international public opinion, a superpower to counter the United States
.
, India, from 16 January to 21 January 2004. It was the first meeting of the World Social Forum held outside Brazil
and its success has encouraged the WSF to expand in scope across the global South. Some credit it with inspiring the Asian Social Forum
held in November of that year. The attendance was expected to be 75,000 and it shot over by thousands. The cultural diversity was one notable aspect of the forum. A notable decision that was taken was the stand on free software
. One of the key speakers at the WSF 2004 was Joseph Stiglitz. In contrast to earlier meetings, which had focused more on Euro-centric political intellectualism, the 2004 meeting included marches, as well as colorful and lively demonstrations. Indian activists were also very active in using this time to educate others about the issues of caste
, class
and religious conflict in India, with particular focus on the plight of the Dalit
, sometimes referred to as the 'untouchables' in Indian society.
The 2004 meeting also saw the convening of the General Assembly of the Global Anti-War Movement, an idea that originated from the Asian Social Forum
in November of 2003, and broadly coalesced in response to the invasion of Iraq by the United States
in 2003. The Assembly had few activists from the United States
, but overwhelmingly tried to articulate that they opposed the policy, and not the country itself. The former director-general of UNESCO
, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, said at the Forum, "We must state it clearly. We must say to President Bush that we do not agree with the way he controls the world. We must tell him that he has to govern with his mind, not with might."
, Argentina
, the United States
, Uruguay
, and France
. A number of participants in the forum released the Porto Alegre Manifesto
. Since Article 6 of the World Social Forum's Charter of Principles bars the event from attempting to represent all participants through formal statements, the Porto Alegre Manifesto
was released on behalf of 19 activists. This 'Group of 19' includes Aminata Traoré
, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
, Eduardo Galeano
, José Saramago
, François Houtart
, Boaventura de Sousa Santos
, Armand Mattelart
, Roberto Savio, Riccardo Petrella, Ignacio Ramonet
, Bernard Cassen
, Samir Amin
, Atilio Boron, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Tariq Ali
, Frei Betto
, Emir Sader, Walden Bello
, and Immanuel Wallerstein
.
(Venezuela
) and Bamako
(Mali
), and in March 2006, in Karachi
(Pakistan
). The Forum in Pakistan was delayed to March because of the Kashmir earthquake that had recently occurred in the area.
, Kenya
in January 2007. There were 66,000 registered attendees, and 1,400 participating organizations from 110 countries, making it the most globally representative WSF so far. It was criticized as being 'an NGO fair' and movements of the poor in Kenya and South Africa
mounted vigorous protests against some of the NGOs that attended and, in their view, dominated the forum in the name of the African poor.
, located in the Amazon rainforest, between January 27 and February 1, 2009. About 1,900 indigenous people, representing 190 ethnic groups attended the event, to raise the issue of stateless peoples, and the plights that they face. The Escarré International Centre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations helped to organize the tent for the Collective Rights of Stateless Peoples, who are marginalized in an international system that recognizes only states as political units. Various stateless ethnic groups represented were the Basques, Kurds, Palestinians, Roma, Tibetans, Mapuche
, Saharawi and Australian Aborigines
.
, the flagship space for the WSF, events and speakers were held from January 25-29, entitled "FSM 10 Years: Greater Porto Alegre". The big event held in Porto Alegre
was the International Seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world", which featured over 70 intellectuals from around the world. One of the notable regional forums was the US Social Forum
held in Detroit, Michigan
and attended by about 18,000 people.
, Senegal
with 75,000 participants from 132 countries organizing around 1,200 activities. Among the speakers was Canadian social activist and author Naomi Klein
and Bolivian President Evo Morales
, who firmly said in his talk, “We are going to go to the UN to declare that water is a basic public need that must not be managed by private interests, but should be for all people, including people of rural areas.” The Forum was at first plagued with logistical problems, as a number of events had to be canceled at the last minute because of a lack of space, and a student strike against the policies of President Abdoulaye Wade in Diop University interrupted some scheduled plenaries. As one student put it to the WSF crowd, "We are the youth of the country, we do not have the resources to enter. This is a public university. You are the international community. You have means to pressure. Until there is a solution we will continue to strike.” This meeting ended on a very happy note, however, as news of the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
kept pouring in, and in particular the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak
of Egypt
.
s, including the Americas Social Forum, European Social Forum
, the Asian Social Forum
, the Mediterranean Social Forum
and the Southern Africa Social Forum
. There are also many local and national social forums, such as the Italian Social Forum, India Social Forum, Liverpool Social Forum
and the Boston Social Forum
. The first-ever United States Social Forum took place in Atlanta in June 2007. In 2010 Detroit, Michigan
, hosted the United States Social Forum during June 22–26.
Regional forums have taken place in the Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, Midwest
and Southeast
regions of the United States. The Canadian Social Forum is taking place in June 2010.
Most, though not all, social forums adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the World Social Forum. The goal of these forums is to decentralize and allow far more people to engage in the open forum atmosphere of the World Social Forum without needing very much money for travel expenses. All of the various social forums in this mold include international attendees and are in no way specifically focused on the problems of a single region of country.
On January 26, 2001 a number of activists with Brazil's Movimento dos Sem-Terra (MST) reacted in protest to the growing role of Monsanto
in global agribusiness
, which was considered by the group to be unethically using their seed patents to harm the rights of rural peoples, tore up an experimental plot of transgenic crops in Nao me Toque, 300 km from Porto Algere, where the World Social Forum was taking place at the time. Three days later, Jose Bove, a French citizen, was arrested by Brazilian authorities as the World Social Forum ended on January 29, 2001. Connections between the Movimento dos Sem-Terra and the World Social Forum are not well known.
and South Africa
they have protested against donor funded NGOs that, they argue, determine and dominate African representation at the forum. It has also been argued that NGOs sometimes compete with popular grassroots movements for access to the forum and for influence there.
The 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya in particular was criticized as a "NGO fair" because of how many NGO's attended, crowding out less formal groups of activists. Also, it has been alleged that at the Forum not all the attendees were properly represented, with the bigger and wealthier NGO's having far more space to talk and lead the events, while others were marginalized.
There was also criticism of the way that CelTel
had exclusive rights at the event, and a virtual monopoly of a local hotel offering food at rates that the average Kenyan could not afford.
News reports
Past forums
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization
Counter-hegemonic globalization
Counter-hegemonic globalization is a form of globalization that operates from a bottom-up process that stresses the empowerment of the local. The project of counter-hegemonic globalization is a reaction to alternative forms of globalization, specifically the neoliberal form...
. Some consider the World Social Forum to be a physical manifestation of global civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
, as it brings together non governmental organizations, advocacy campaigns as well as formal and informal social movements seeking international solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
. The World Social Forum prefers to define itself as "an opened space – plural, diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan – that stimulates the decentralized debate, reflection, proposals building, experiences exchange and alliances among movements and organizations engaged in concrete actions towards a more solidarity, democratic and fair world....a permanent space and process to build alternatives to neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
." It is held by members of the alter-globalization
Alter-globalization
Alter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
movement (also referred to as the global justice movement
Global Justice Movement
The Global Justice Movement is a network or constellation of globalized social movements opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.-Movement of movements:...
) who come together to coordinate global campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their particular issues. The World Social Forum is explicit about not being a representative of all of those who attend and thus does not publish any formal statements on behalf of participants. It tends to meet in January at the same time as its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum's
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
Annual Meeting in Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. This date is consciously picked to promote their alternative answers to world economic problems in opposition to the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
.
Charter of Principles
This Charter was approved and adopted in São Paulo, Brazil on April 9, 2001, by the organizations that make up the World Social Forum Organizing Committee, and approved with modifications by the World Social Forum International Council on June 10, 2001.1) 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 neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth.
2) The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localised in time and place. From now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that "Another World Is Possible", it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be reduced to the events supporting it.
3) The World Social Forum is a world process. All the meetings that are held as part of this process have an international dimension.
4) The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations' interests, with the complicity of national governments. They are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, and those of all citizens - men and women - of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.
5) The World Social Forum brings together and interlinks only organizations and movements of civil society from all the countries in the world, but intends neither to be a body representing world civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
.
6) The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No one, therefore, will be authorized, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants. The participants in the Forum shall not be called on to take decisions as a body, whether by vote or acclamation, on declarations or proposals for action that would commit all, or the majority, of them and that propose to be taken as establishing positions of the Forum as a body. It thus does not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the participants in its meetings, nor does it intend to constitute the only option for interrelation and action by the organizations and movements that participate in it.
7) Nonetheless, organizations or groups of organizations that participate in the Forum's meetings must be assured the right, during such meetings, to deliberate on declarations or actions they may decide on, whether singly or in coordination with other participants. The World Social Forum undertakes to circulate such decisions widely by the means at its disposal, without directing, hierarchizing, censuring or restricting them, but as deliberations of the organizations or groups of organizations that made the decisions.
8) The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to build another world.
9) The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organizations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organizations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity.
10) The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. It upholds respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.
11) As a forum for debate the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of that reflection, on the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on means and actions to resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalization with its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally and within countries.
12) As a framework for the exchange of experiences, the World Social Forum encourages understanding and mutual recognition amongst its participant organizations and movements, and places special value on the exchange among them, particularly on all that society is building to center economic activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and respecting nature, in the present and for future generations.
13) As a context for interrelations, the World Social Forum seeks to strengthen and create new national and international links among organizations and movements of society, that, in both public and private life, will increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance to the process of dehumanization the world is undergoing and to the violence used by the State, and reinforce the humanizing measures being taken by the action of these movements and organizations.
14) The World Social Forum is a process that encourages its participant organizations and movements to situate their actions, from the local level to the national level and seeking active participation in international contexts, as issues of planetary citizenship, and to introduce onto the global agenda the change-inducing practices that they are experimenting in building a new world in solidarity.
History
The World Social Forum first met in 2001, but it had its roots in Latin American activism, namely the encuentro, a meeting which emphasizes dialogue and exchange of ideas among activists. Some of the founders of the WSF, were part of the First International Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism in 1996, and decided to expand the idea and make it a global forum for activists of all stripes opposing hegemonic globalizationGlobalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
.
It has also been suggested that the beginnings of the World Social Forum originated in the Battle for Seattle November 1999, where anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
activists protested a meeting of the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
's latest trade negotiations.
Another one of the founders of the WSF, Cándido Grzybowski has said of the annual meetings, "The numerous recent crises are expressions of the contradictions and limitations of the form of global capitalism that has been imposed on humanity and the earth. The assertion that "another world is possible" is now an absolute necessity."
Since 2001, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
has had a presence at the WSF through UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, showing the institutional credibility achieved by the forum, seen by UNESCO as a "prime opportunity for dialogue and a laboratory of ideas for the renewal of public policies" through "critical reflection on the future of societies we want to create and for elaborating proposals in search of solidarity, justice, peace and human rights".
2001 World Social Forum
The first World Social Forum was held from 25 January to 30 January 2001 in Porto AlegrePorto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, organized by many groups including the French Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC). The WSF was sponsored, in part, by the Porto Alegre government, led by the Brazilian Worker's Party
Workers' Party (Brazil)
The Workers' Party is a democratic socialist political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003...
(PT). The town was experimenting with an innovative model
Participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget...
for local government
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
which combined the traditional representative institutions
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
with the participation of open assemblies
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
of the people. 12,000 people attended from around the world. At the time, Brazil was also in a moment of transformation that later would lead to the electoral victory of the PT candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
. This first meeting was focused on gathering anti-globalization activists from all over the world to talk and organize amongst one another, while subsequent meetings have been more focused on specific ways to counter neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
.
2002 World Social Forum
The second WSF, also held in Porto AlegrePorto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
from 31 January to 5 February 2002, had over 12,000 official delegates representing people from 123 countries, 60,000 attendees, 652 workshops, and 27 talks. Among the 500 American delegates several were selected to be members of the forum's "international council", made up of a rather large number of organizations. Among those represented were Ralph Nader's Public Citizen
Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Public Citizen was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, headed for 26 years by Joan Claybrook, and is now headed by Robert Weissman.-Lobbying Efforts:Public Citizen...
organization (Medea Benjamin
Medea Benjamin
Medea Benjamin is an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink and, along with her husband, activist and author Kevin Danaher, fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange...
and Linda Chavez-Thompson
Linda Chavez-Thompson
Linda Chavez-Thompson is a second-generation Mexican American and union leader. She was elected the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and served until September 21, 2007. She is also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and a member of the board of trustees of United Way...
), the Brazilian NGO Ibase (Cândido Grzybowski and Moema Miranda), the Brazilian association of entrepreneurs for citizenship CIVES (Oded Grajew, founder of the WSF), the Brazilian Commission on Justice and Peace (Francisco Whitaker), ATTAC
Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour l'Aide aux Citoyens
The Association pour la taxation des transactions financières et pour l'action citoyenne is an activist organization originally created for promoting the establishment of a tax on foreign exchange transactions.-Background:Originally a single-issue movement demanding the...
(Christophe Aguiton), CRID France (Gustave Massiah), Focus on the Global South Thailand (Nicola Bullard), and the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World (Gustavo Marín
Gustavo Marín
Gustavo Marín, a Chilean-French economist and sociologist, is noted in particular for his key role in the creation and development of the longstanding international network, the . Since 2007, he has been Director of the world-governance think tank, the ....
). Members of the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
and the SEIU
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
were also very active. The Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
funded $500,000 for the next meeting.
2003 World Social Forum
The third WSF was again held in Porto Alegre, in January 2003. There were many parallel workshops, including, for example the Life After Capitalism workshop, which proposed focused discussion on non-communistCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, non-capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, participative possibilities for different aspects of social, political, economic, communication structures. Among the speakers was American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
. Some credit this meeting of World Social Forum for the connections that made the global day of action on February 15, 2003 so successful. The global day of action
Protests against the Iraq War
Beginning in 2002, and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world...
was an international protest attended by an estimated 12 million people in 700 cities across 60 countries protesting the Bush Administration
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's plans to invade and occupy Iraq. At the time, the New York Times called international public opinion, a superpower to counter the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
2004 World Social Forum
The fourth WSF was held in MumbaiMumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India, from 16 January to 21 January 2004. It was the first meeting of the World Social Forum held outside Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and its success has encouraged the WSF to expand in scope across the global South. Some credit it with inspiring the Asian Social Forum
Asian Social Forum
The Asian Social Forum was a left-wing conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement...
held in November of that year. The attendance was expected to be 75,000 and it shot over by thousands. The cultural diversity was one notable aspect of the forum. A notable decision that was taken was the stand on free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
. One of the key speakers at the WSF 2004 was Joseph Stiglitz. In contrast to earlier meetings, which had focused more on Euro-centric political intellectualism, the 2004 meeting included marches, as well as colorful and lively demonstrations. Indian activists were also very active in using this time to educate others about the issues of caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
, class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and religious conflict in India, with particular focus on the plight of the Dalit
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...
, sometimes referred to as the 'untouchables' in Indian society.
The 2004 meeting also saw the convening of the General Assembly of the Global Anti-War Movement, an idea that originated from the Asian Social Forum
Asian Social Forum
The Asian Social Forum was a left-wing conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement...
in November of 2003, and broadly coalesced in response to the invasion of Iraq by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2003. The Assembly had few activists from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but overwhelmingly tried to articulate that they opposed the policy, and not the country itself. The former director-general of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, said at the Forum, "We must state it clearly. We must say to President Bush that we do not agree with the way he controls the world. We must tell him that he has to govern with his mind, not with might."
2005 World Social Forum
The fifth World Social Forum 2005 was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil between 26 January and 31 January. There were 155,000 registered participants at the Forum, with most coming from BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. A number of participants in the forum released the Porto Alegre Manifesto
Porto Alegre Manifesto
The Porto Alegre Manifesto is a proposal for social change produced at the 2005 World Social Forum. It outlines "twelve... proposals, which [its authors] believe, together, give sense and direction to the construction of another, different world." The authors argue that "if they would be...
. Since Article 6 of the World Social Forum's Charter of Principles bars the event from attempting to represent all participants through formal statements, the Porto Alegre Manifesto
Porto Alegre Manifesto
The Porto Alegre Manifesto is a proposal for social change produced at the 2005 World Social Forum. It outlines "twelve... proposals, which [its authors] believe, together, give sense and direction to the construction of another, different world." The authors argue that "if they would be...
was released on behalf of 19 activists. This 'Group of 19' includes Aminata Traoré
Aminata Traoré
Aminata Dramane Traoré is a Malian author, politician, and political activist. She served as the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Mali from 1997 to 2000 and is a former coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme...
, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is an Argentine sculptor, architect and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.-Biography:Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires to a Spanish fisherman who emigrated to Argentina...
, Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego and Las venas abiertas de América Latina which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and...
, José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
, François Houtart
François Houtart
François Houtart is a Belgian marxist sociologist and Catholic priest.He studied philosophy and theology at the seminary of Mechelen and became a priest in 1949. He earned a masters degree in political and social sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven . He earned a degree at the...
, Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra. De Sousa Santos has taught in various universities including Yale, Wisconsin-Madison Law School and University of Warwick...
, Armand Mattelart
Armand Mattelart
Armand Mattelart is a Belgian sociologist and well known as a Leftist French scholar. His work deals with media, culture and communication, specially in their historical and international dimensions....
, Roberto Savio, Riccardo Petrella, Ignacio Ramonet
Ignacio Ramonet
Ignacio Ramonet is a Spanish journalist and writer.He was the editor-in-chief of Le Monde diplomatique from 1991 until March 2008....
, Bernard Cassen
Bernard Cassen
Bernard Cassen is a founder of ATTAC and director general of Le Monde diplomatique newspaper, from 1973 to January 2008.-References:**...
, Samir Amin
Samir Amin
Samir Amin is an Egyptian economist. He currently lives in Dakar, Senegal.- Biography :Samir Amin was born in Cairo, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother . He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said; there he attended a French High School, leaving in 1947 with a Baccalauréat...
, Atilio Boron, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
, Frei Betto
Frei Betto
Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo, O.P., better known as Frei Betto is a Brazilian writer, political activist, liberation theologist and Dominican friar. He was imprisoned for four years by the military dictatorship for smuggling people out of Brazil...
, Emir Sader, Walden Bello
Walden Bello
Walden Bello is a Filipino author, academic, and political analyst. He is a professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines Diliman, as well as executive director of Focus on the Global South...
, and Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a US sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst...
.
2006 World Social Forum
The sixth World Social Forum was "polycentric", held in January 2006 in CaracasCaracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
(Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) and Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
(Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
), and in March 2006, in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
(Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
). The Forum in Pakistan was delayed to March because of the Kashmir earthquake that had recently occurred in the area.
2007 World Social Forum
The seventh World Social Forum was held in NairobiNairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
in January 2007. There were 66,000 registered attendees, and 1,400 participating organizations from 110 countries, making it the most globally representative WSF so far. It was criticized as being 'an NGO fair' and movements of the poor in Kenya and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
mounted vigorous protests against some of the NGOs that attended and, in their view, dominated the forum in the name of the African poor.
2008 World Social Forum
The eighth World Social Forum in 2008 was not organized at a particular place, but globally, which means by thousands of autonomous local organizations, on or around January 26. They are also known as the Global Call for Action.2009 World Social Forum
The ninth World Social Forum took place in the Brazilian city of BelémBelém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, located in the Amazon rainforest, between January 27 and February 1, 2009. About 1,900 indigenous people, representing 190 ethnic groups attended the event, to raise the issue of stateless peoples, and the plights that they face. The Escarré International Centre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations helped to organize the tent for the Collective Rights of Stateless Peoples, who are marginalized in an international system that recognizes only states as political units. Various stateless ethnic groups represented were the Basques, Kurds, Palestinians, Roma, Tibetans, Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...
, Saharawi and Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
.
2010 World Social Forum
The tenth edition of the World Social Forum was another decentralized affair, with about 35 national, regional and local forums taking place across the world. In Porto AlegrePorto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, the flagship space for the WSF, events and speakers were held from January 25-29, entitled "FSM 10 Years: Greater Porto Alegre". The big event held in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
was the International Seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world", which featured over 70 intellectuals from around the world. One of the notable regional forums was the US Social Forum
US Social Forum
The United States Social Forum is a gathering of social justice activists in the United States which grew out of the World Social Forum process, bringing together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the United States...
held in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
and attended by about 18,000 people.
2011 World Social Forum
In 2011 the World Social Forum took place in DakarDakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
with 75,000 participants from 132 countries organizing around 1,200 activities. Among the speakers was Canadian social activist and author Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
and Bolivian President Evo Morales
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...
, who firmly said in his talk, “We are going to go to the UN to declare that water is a basic public need that must not be managed by private interests, but should be for all people, including people of rural areas.” The Forum was at first plagued with logistical problems, as a number of events had to be canceled at the last minute because of a lack of space, and a student strike against the policies of President Abdoulaye Wade in Diop University interrupted some scheduled plenaries. As one student put it to the WSF crowd, "We are the youth of the country, we do not have the resources to enter. This is a public university. You are the international community. You have means to pressure. Until there is a solution we will continue to strike.” This meeting ended on a very happy note, however, as news of the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
kept pouring in, and in particular the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Regional Social Forums
The WSF has prompted the organizing of many regional social forumSocial forum
A Social Forum is an open meeting place for civil society organizations and individuals opposed to neoliberalism and the domination of the world by capital and imperialism. The first Social Forum was the World Social Forum held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre. It was designed as a counter forum to...
s, including the Americas Social Forum, European Social Forum
European Social Forum
The European Social Forum is a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement . In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries...
, the Asian Social Forum
Asian Social Forum
The Asian Social Forum was a left-wing conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement...
, the Mediterranean Social Forum
Mediterranean Social Forum
The Mediterranean Social Forum is the first interregional Social Forum, created between movements from Europe, Maghreb and Mediterranean Middle East...
and the Southern Africa Social Forum
Southern Africa Social Forum
The Southern African Social Forum is a Social Forum conference held in a different Southern Africa county each year.It is organised in the spirit of the World Social Forum but is not organized by the WSF Secretariat or the International Council...
. There are also many local and national social forums, such as the Italian Social Forum, India Social Forum, Liverpool Social Forum
Liverpool Social Forum
The Liverpool Social Forum is a fortnightly meeting held in Liverpool, England. It is influenced by the alter-globalisation principles of the European Social Forum , and a number of Liverpudlians attended the 2004 ESF in London....
and the Boston Social Forum
Boston Social Forum
The Boston Social Forum was the first North American social forum to use the methodology of the World Social Forum process and adhere closely to its Charter of Principles...
. The first-ever United States Social Forum took place in Atlanta in June 2007. In 2010 Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, hosted the United States Social Forum during June 22–26.
Regional forums have taken place in the Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, Midwest
Midwest Social Forum
The Midwest Social Forum is an annual gathering that creates a space for grassroots organizations, community activists, educators, students, and others committed to social justice to come together to exchange experiences and information, strengthen alliances and networks, and devise strategies for...
and Southeast
Southeast Social Forum
The Southeast Social Forum was a gathering of about 550 people that took place in Durham, North Carolina, from June 16 to June 18, 2006, at North Carolina Central University. The attendees were people of all ages, and were mostly members of organizations from around the Southeastern United States...
regions of the United States. The Canadian Social Forum is taking place in June 2010.
Most, though not all, social forums adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the World Social Forum. The goal of these forums is to decentralize and allow far more people to engage in the open forum atmosphere of the World Social Forum without needing very much money for travel expenses. All of the various social forums in this mold include international attendees and are in no way specifically focused on the problems of a single region of country.
Criticisms
2001 Monsanto Incident
Some activities by activists attending the WSF have also been criticised, such as at the WSF 2001, where activists invaded and destroyed an experimental genetically modified plantation of the Monsanto Company.On January 26, 2001 a number of activists with Brazil's Movimento dos Sem-Terra (MST) reacted in protest to the growing role of Monsanto
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company is a US-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed in the "Roundup" brand of herbicides, and in other brands...
in global agribusiness
Agribusiness
In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term for the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales....
, which was considered by the group to be unethically using their seed patents to harm the rights of rural peoples, tore up an experimental plot of transgenic crops in Nao me Toque, 300 km from Porto Algere, where the World Social Forum was taking place at the time. Three days later, Jose Bove, a French citizen, was arrested by Brazilian authorities as the World Social Forum ended on January 29, 2001. Connections between the Movimento dos Sem-Terra and the World Social Forum are not well known.
Role of NGOs
The WSF has, especially in recent years, been strongly criticised for replacing popular movements of the poor with NGOs (non-governmental organization). Movements of the poor in poorer parts of the world, like Africa, have argued that they are almost completely excluded from the forum and in countries like KenyaKenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
they have protested against donor funded NGOs that, they argue, determine and dominate African representation at the forum. It has also been argued that NGOs sometimes compete with popular grassroots movements for access to the forum and for influence there.
The 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya in particular was criticized as a "NGO fair" because of how many NGO's attended, crowding out less formal groups of activists. Also, it has been alleged that at the Forum not all the attendees were properly represented, with the bigger and wealthier NGO's having far more space to talk and lead the events, while others were marginalized.
There was also criticism of the way that CelTel
Celtel
Celtel was a telecommunications company that operated in several African countries. It was founded by Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim.-History:Originally known as "MSI Cellular Investments", the company began operating in 1998...
had exclusive rights at the event, and a virtual monopoly of a local hotel offering food at rates that the average Kenyan could not afford.
Race
According to Jai Sen the forum "remains largely led by aging males, mostly white or honorary white, from middle and upper class and caste sections from settler societies around the world". The World Social Forum is one of the most diverse events held on earth, but the few people that organize the event are often European or Brazilian intellectuals.Further reading
- Richard Falk, (2009), 'Achieving Human Rights', Routledge.
- Mark Butler (2007), "[re]connecting the World Social Forum"
- Jose Correa Leite (2005), The World Social Forum: Strategies of Resistance, Haymarket Books
- Jackie Smith. (2004). The World Social Forum and the challenges of global democracy. Global Networks. 4(4):413-421.
- T. Teivainen. (2002). The World Social Forum and global democratisation: learning from Porto Alegre. Third World Quarterly. 23(4):621-632.
- William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah (2003). Another World is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum
- Boaventura de Sousa SantosBoaventura de Sousa SantosBoaventura de Sousa Santos is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra. De Sousa Santos has taught in various universities including Yale, Wisconsin-Madison Law School and University of Warwick...
(2005). O Fórum Social Mundial: manual de uso, Cortez Editora. - Jai Sen, Anita AnandAnita Anand-Early life:Anand was born in London, England to Pakistani Hindu parents from the North West Frontier, bordering on Afghanistan.-Education:Anand was educated at Bancroft's School, a co-educational independent school in the town of Woodford Green, in the suburb of Woodford in North East London,...
, Arturo Escobar & Peter Waterman (eds). 2004. The World Social Forum: Challenging Empires. New Delhi: The Viveka Foundation.
External links
Official- Official homepage
- Charter of Principles
News reports
Past forums
- WSF 2009
- WSF 2008
- wsf-2007
- WSF in Nairobi, 20-25 January 2007
- World Social Forum 2009 Belém, Brazil - from January 27 until February 1, 2009