World Social Forum

THE WORLD SOCIAL Forum (WSF) provides an opportunity for different civil groups that oppose neoliberalism and globalization to strengthen their struggles and to formulate alternatives to the contemporary world economic order.

According to its Charter of Principles, the World Social Forum is an open meeting space “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.”

The WSF met for the first time in 2001 in Porto Alegre, an industrial town in southern Brazil, and since then the WSF meeting has become an annual event attracting grassroots, social, and civil society organizations from all over the world in search of an alternative to the neoliberal economic order, following the dictum “Another World Is Possible.” Typically, the WSF meets annually at the same time as the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the leaders of the industrial world discreetly discuss their political and economic agendas for the year.

The WSF meetings draw large crowds (around 155,000 registered participants from 151 countries in 2005) representing nongovernmental organizations, labor organizations, youth organizations, academic institutions, government leaders, and presidents (for example in 2005, Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez, presidents of Brazil and Venezuela, respectively) and are organized by the WSF Secretariat. The following nine organizations form the Secretariat: ABONG (Brazilian [Page 1196]Association of Non-Governmental Organizations), ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens), CBJB (Brazilian Committee on Justice and Peace), CIVES (Brazilian Association of Entrepreneurs for Citizenship), CUT (Central United Workers), IBASE (Brazilian Institute of Socio-Economic Analysis), CJG (Global Justice Center), MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement), and since 2004, IOC, the Indian Organizing Committee, which organized the 2004 WSF in Mumbai, India.

The Secretariat, in coordination with the International Council, proposes the structure and the topics to be discussed at the annual WSF meetings. Themes cover a wide range, among them poverty, hunger, solidarity economy, Tobin's tax on international financial transactions, debt relief, foreign trade, environmental sustainability, a call for action against neoliberalism, debt relief, disarmament, Free-Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and human rights.

At the 2005 meeting, Brazilian President da Silva announced the launching of the so-called Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), a grassroots movement that targets global poverty and demands that industrial countries eliminate their farm subsidies, cancel the foreign debt of the poorest developing countries, and pledge 0.7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product for foreign aid. Since the WSF meetings are open deliberative forums, they hardly conclude with any concrete results. At the 2005 meeting, a document titled “Consensus of Porto Alegre” circulated unsuccessfully for approval by the 155,000 participants, reports J. Smith. Several regional and thematic social forums are part of the World Social Forum and are supported by the WSF International Council.

The aim of these complementary meetings is to spread the ideals of the WSF to a wide geographic area. Regional Social Forums have been held in Europe (European Social Forums in 2002 in Italy, in 2003 in France, in 2004 in London, and in 2005 in Spain as the Mediterranean Social Forum), in South America (in 2004 in Venezuela and Ecuador), and in 2003 in Asia and Africa. Another regional social forum is slated for the Caribbean in July 2006. Thematic social forums on democracy, human rights, war, and drug trafficking were held in Colombia in 2003, and in Palestine and Argentina in 2002, according to the World Social Forum website.

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