Globalizing Hope: Another World is Still Possible

Dispatch
By Joshua Karliner
CorpWatch
February 6, 2002 []

PORTO ALEGRE -- The only way to really describe the World Social Forum
(WSF), that just ended here in Brazil, is a global political "carnaval."
Not that there was much of the glitter and hedonism associated with that
most famous Brazilian street party which begins later this week. Rather,
inside the conference halls and out, this astounding event--part-political
convention, part-art and music festival, part-intellectual gathering of
social movements, was in a state of nearly perpetual celebratory protest
for five days and five nights.

In the friendly territory of the socialist-run Porto Alegre government, one
demonstration followed another. Protests spilled into the streets for
women's rights, Indigenous rights, Palestinian rights and for land reform.
Protestors marched against fundamentalism of all sorts, against hunger and
genetically modified agriculture, the IMF, the Free Trade Area of the
Americas and much more. The vibe was almost always near-euphoric with horns
blaring, hands clapping, feet dancing, flags waving and chants singing out
regularly in at least four languages.

Sharp Contrast to World Economic Forum

The World Social Forum began last year to provide a counter vision and
voice to the World Economic Forum a staid corporate and government
gathering designed to informally facilitate corporate globalization. And
while "Davos" -- along with the protestors against it -- grabbed the lion's
share of the corporate-media headlines by switching its venue to New York
City this year, Porto Alegre was a cauldron of ideas, creativity and
debates all under the slogan "Another World is Possible."

Candido Gryzbowski, director of the Brazilian Institute of Social and
Economic Analysis, one of the event's main organizers, went so far as to
assert that Porto Alegre had left the World Economic Forum in the dust. "We
don't need them. Our message, our concerns are more comprehensive," he
noted. "We want to create alternatives, not just to neo-liberalism, but
also to various types of fundamentalism and un-democratic governments."

Certainly, the World Economic Forum 3,000 person event in New York's
Waldorf Astoria was a significant gathering of powerful world players. But
the sheer magnitude of the Porto Alegre event far surpassed Davos this
year, becoming so large as to be difficult to comprehend, even for its most
avid participants.

The program of conferences, workshops and seminars, along with films, music
and artistic events ran more than 70 tabloid pages in each language. While
last year 15,000 people showed up, this year, all told more than 51,000
people from 131 countries officially participated in the World Social
Forum. In the virtual realm, the WSF website found itself hosting another
half million visitors a day. Overall, the event was extremely well
organized, with barely any noticeable glitches or conflicts.

Tens of Thousands in the Streets -- Peacefully

In contrast with the streets of New York City -- or for that matter
Seattle, Prague or Genoa -- police presence in Porto Alegre was once again
nearly non-existent as huge marches peacefully wound through the street.
The opening ceremony saw more than 40,000 people demonstrating. The
anti-FTAA protest, held on the final day, gathered about 10,000. The
beautiful and inspiring closing ceremony, held in a giant hall at the main
venue -- the beautifully appointed Catholic University -- was packed with a
diverse group of 6,000 people; it was simulcast to thousands more at two
other venues.

This being a left-political gathering in the heart of Latin America, Che
Guevara was everywhere. And this being the beginning of the 21st century,
his most-marketable non-trademarked image was for sale in nearly half of
the hundreds of vendors' stalls. There were Che books, Che t-shirts, Che
CDs, Che baseball caps, Che posters, Che flags, and even little-mini
bottles of Che cacaca -- the local cane alcohol drink. By contrast, despite
the anti-US government sentiment of most of the meeting, images of Osama
bin Laden were nowhere to be found, neither in the vendors' stalls nor the
meeting halls. Anti-fundamentalism and pluralism were the themes of the day.

There was also a plethora of music every day in a makeshift amphitheater,
all night concerts, and stirring speeches by the stars of the
anti-corporate globalization movement Walden Bello, Martin Khor and Naomi
Klein, by venerated leftists like Noam Chomsky and Brazil's Luiz Ignacio
"Lula" da Silva, as well as by Nobel Peace Prize winners Rigoberta Menchu
and Adolfo Perez Esquivel.
Both the "war on terror" and Israeli-Palestinian conflict figured
prominently in a multi-day session entitled "A World Without Wars is
Possible." The Argentine economic debacle was hotly debated in many a
venue, and the scandalous demise of the Enron corporation was high on the
agenda. There was a World Youth Congress. A forum of local government
leaders from around the world. And there were planning sessions for
upcoming international events such as the Johannesburg Earth Summit.

Focus on Alternatives

By most accounts, the World Social Forum evolved in sophistication and
approach from a year ago. This was most evident in the growing focus on
alternatives. Strategy sessions addressed not only how to combat the WTO,
the World Bank and giant corporations, but also on how to build alternative
economic, political and cultural structures. The main conference on
corporate power, in which CorpWatch participated, focused on a series of
proposals to "separate the corporation and the state." The argument went
that just as we need to separate church and state to avoid a religious
fundamentalist nation and build democracy, it is also necessary to separate
the corporation and the state to avoid market-fundamentalist governance.
From there sprang a fruitful discussion.

This approach fit well with one of the most interesting and innovative
movements to make its voice heard in Porto Alegre. "La Boca Fundamental"
(Fundamental Mouth) movement held a series of creative demonstrations and
workshops under the slogan, "your mouth is fundamental to fight
fundamentalism of all types." Guacira Cesar de Olivera explained to
CorpWatch that "everyone has their own, Single Truth -- be it the Taliban,
the IMF or the Catholic Church -- and we believe that women suffer most
from all types of fundamentalism." These fundamentalisms, she argues, share
the basic characteristics of exclusion and domination. The Fundamental
Mouth movement took over the inside of the main conference hall one
afternoon, urging everyone, women and men to use their mouths to speak out
against fundamentalism.

Coming Soon to a Venue Near You

Overall, it's impossible to quantify or even articulate the "results" from
Porto Alegre. The mainstream Brazilian media even criticized the absence of
a final declaration. But to reduce the diversity of cultures, the plurality
of ideas and opinions, the cacophony of alternative visions to a simple
declaration would have been counterintuitive to the World Social Forum's
"big tent" vision.
Instead, the international organizing committee for the event decided to
hold a series of regional World Social Forums over the next year. This
increasingly decentralized process will culminate in the 3rd World Social
Forum, to be held once again in Porto Alegre this time next year. "An
important part of the World Social Forum process," says Atila Roque, an
event organizer and CorpWatch adviser in Brazil, "is developing new ways to
organize internationally and regionally -- we are at the beginning stages
of figuring it out."

And despite the lack of "concrete" results, most here agreed that the World
Social Forum is of
immense value. Its importance of the ongoing nature was perhaps best summed
up by a delegate from India, who told the closing ceremony's jubilant and
massive crowd that it has become an symbolic landmark for those working for
social change everywhere. "As we move into the 21st century," he told the
cheering throng, "Porto Alegre will be etched into the collective
historical memory of all those working for a different world."

Joshua Karliner is Executive Director of CorpWatch and author of the
Corporate Planet (Sierra Club Books). www.corpwatch.org [2]

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