Based on the values and principles of the social forum(s) one is encouraged with their emphasis on participation, popular initiatives and democratic, people centred social and economic processes that fulfil Shivji’s assertion for “popular livelihoods, popular participation and popular power” (Shivji 2004). In challenging anti-democratic forces and extending participation to people the possibility of social emancipation becomes obvious and the chains of nationalist authoritarianism and global apartheid can be broken.