A WOW! e-Brief

Work of Women program @ World Neighbors

February 2007

Introduction

 

Overview of the

World Social Forum

In Nairobi, Kenya, observers estimate that between 20,000 and 60,000 people recently converged for the seventh annual World Social Forum. They came from every corner of the world—from Asia and the Pacific, from the Americas, from Europe and especially, this time, from Africa. World Neighbors staff from East and West Africa were also there to network with activists, academics, progressive politicians and representatives of other organizations and institutions. The five-day gathering, which ended on January 25, was host to more than 1,500 events, including panels, workshops, symposia, processions, music, theater and film.

  Photo by Anthony Barnett/OpenDemocracy.net

Each year, the World Social Forum convenes at or near the same time as the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland. The timing is purposeful, and represents both an act of protest and an assertion of a people-centered vision of the future. Since 1971, the World Economic Forum has been an invitation-only meeting place for the global elite in politics and industry, including corporate CEOs, politicians (including several heads of state), science and military leaders, and academics. Since its inception, many people have been concerned that the World Economic Forum is simply a lobbying event where the corporations that make up the World Economic Forum’s membership can negotiate deals and firm up relationships with political and military leaders from around the world.

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For many, the World Economic Forum is a symbol of exclusion, a yearly tally of who is in power and who is not, of those who act and those who are acted upon. In the eyes of most participants at the World Social Forum, the current model of globalization was born of this exclusion and is a juggernaut that has ruined many lives around the world. This model prioritizes monetary profit over human and ecological well-being, and is seen to be largely driven by uncomfortably close relationships between multinational corporations and governments.

The result is that discussions about global climate change, for example, largely hinge on the potential for increasing or decreasing profits. For the billion or more marginalized people in the world who are largely outside of or excluded from the market system, this calculus doesn’t make much sense. What is the value of profit if it only resides in the hands of the few? How will corporate profits in the United States or Europe smooth out the erratic and increasingly rare rainfall on which rural Kenyan farmers depend for basic subsistence? Appropriately, the theme for this year’s World Social Forum was “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives – Another World Is Possible.”

Photograph by Marc Becker

It was from this recognition of exclusion and its negative effects that the World Social Forum was conceived in 2001 by a committee of Brazilian non-profit organizations. That year, 20,000 people attended the forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and a charter of principles was created that outlined the intent of the World Social Forum. To quote the charter, “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.” The charter goes on to describe the World Social Forum as a platform from which the diverse panorama of people-centered alternatives can be discussed and showcased. Above all, people come together to discuss the dangers of, and the alternatives to, a world in which those with money and power can make decisions that benefit themselves and harm others, without the involvement of the vast majority of the earth’s population.

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Where were the women in this forum? They were there by the thousands, as individuals and as organizational representatives. They were planners and presenters. By many accounts, the Nairobi forum was a significant step forward in terms of better representation of women as presenters and of greater inclusion of gender and issues of importance to women. Meeting January 17-19, just prior to the initiation of the World Social Forum, the third International Feminist Dialogues met to discuss democracy from many perspectives, as well as to strategize female participation in the forum for maximum impact.

Attendees of the World Social Forum come together to express that another world is possible, one that respects universal human rights for all peoples, establishes a healthy relationship between humans and the environment, and abolishes the structures that breed violence in all of its forms—economic, militaristic, ethnic, nationalistic, racial and gender, among others. Such a forum is inherently challenging, with a large breadth of sometimes competing visions of the future. Those affiliated with more institutionalized organizations are often criticized by grassroots people’s movements for their center-leaning approaches, while grassroots groups face criticism for their unwillingness to compromise or collaborate. However, most attendees respond that these conflicts are what the World Social Forum is all about: coming together to exchange ideas, to better understand our opportunities and challenges, to discover common ground, and to negotiate differences. The tens of thousands of participants at this year’s forum perhaps did better than the original charter intended: they showed that there is more than one path to equity and justice, and that there is not just one choice for a better world, but many.

This overview was prepared by Shannon Underhill, World Neighbors grants development coordinator.

 

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