Issue number 2 * 24 December 2003
Contents:
• About the Newsletter
• WSF Update
• Report
• Notes
• Introduction of Organisations
• Resources on the WSF
• Forthcoming
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Editors:
Suresh Nautiyal s_nautiyal@vsnl.net
Ritu Priya ritupriya@vsnl.com
Marko Ulvila marko.ulvila@kaapeli.fi
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Contributors:
Marko Ulvila: marko.ulvila@kaapeli.fi
Shivani Bhardwaj: wecan@bol.net.in
Chandraprakash Jha: cpjha@yahoo.com
Suresh Nautiyal: s_nautiyal@vsnl.net
Ashok Bharti: nacdor@vsnl.net
Ramakant Patel/ Rakesh Kumar Dubey:
cgbgvs@rediffmail.com
Vijay Pratap: vijaypratap@vsnl.net
Rajesh K Jha: jrajesh@hub.nic.in
Dr. Ritu Priya: ritupriya@vsnl.com
Kishan Kaljayee/Khurshid Imam:
khurs@bol.mtnl.net.in
Bijulal M.V/ Fr. Yesumarian: biju@unv.ernet.in
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We express our thanks for your interest in the inaugural issue of Towards Mumbai last month.
– Editors
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The WSF process is a growing phenomenon and global interest in it is fast picking up. By the time the registration of participants closed on 15 December, more than 50.000 people had signed up for the event from more than 80 countries. The number will still go up as the organisers will be flexible especially with Indian mass organisations whose presence is very desirable.
The speakers for the WSF-organised conferences and panels have been finalised. The opening session would include former prime minister of India, V.P.Singh, and recent Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi. The WSF events will host several internationally known personalities such as Arundhati Roy, Joseph Stiglitz, Nawal el Sawadi, Samir Amin, Medha Patkar, Jose Bove, Mary Robinsson, Juan Somavia, Vandana Shiva and Yash Tandon. The events are expected to give space for many a people.
Because of large enrolment of self-organised events, it has been decided to run them in two shifts – 150 of them at one time. This way, practically all associations/organisations will be able to organise the events they have registered. Since most of the self-organised events seem to be in English and no translation facilities in sight for the smaller workshops and seminars, there may be an oversupply of English events and a shortage of events in Indian languages. In four large halls (capacity 4.000 to 8.000 people), the conferences and panels will take place. About a third of these events will be organised by the WSF, rest are self-organised. These have also been decided. The halls will have translation facilities for a number of languages.
Even though Mumbai is a large metropolitan city where 100.000 visitors will hardly increase the population, some congestion can be expected at the accommodation facilities (from hotels to open-skies sleeping) and traffic around the venue. Participants should anticipate spending some time in the traffic even when staying relatively close. It would not be a bad idea to combine a physical exercise (like morning walk) with the aim of reaching the venues. All who come to the WSF should ideally come with a flexible mind and with a primary intention to learn from each other, and from India. As the Indian Organising Committee had less than one year’s time to prepare for the event, tight objectives and high efficiency expectation may cause some degree of frustration. Therefore, it is advisable to come to the WSF Mumbai with an open mentality and adaptable attitude.
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A meeting to update on the preparation of child rights organisations for the WSF-4 was held on 15 December 2003 in Delhi. It was decided to make the child rights visible at WSF. CR4WSF has already secured a panel space at the WSF main event. This will be a joint panel with Global Movement for Children convening committee on “Children’s rights in a globalising world”. The panelists recommended by the CR4WSF and other NGOs at Mumbai were agreed. The panelists who have been invited are Marta Santos Pias from Innocenti Research, Italy, Thomas Hammarberg, ex-member of the UN Committee for Child Rights from Sweden and Savitri Goonasekere, Senior Professor at Law, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Additionally, we could consider approaching Momia Herauda, Chair of the content commission of WSF. CR4WSF will need to interact with the participants to carry forward the child rights agenda into the forthcoming WSF process after the January 2004 event.
The WSF secretariat-India has decided to designate January 20th as the WSF child rights day. This is a great opportunity for child rights organisations to put up as many public events and open activities that provide a chance for interaction with others.
We now need to schedule our events along with our other commitments on the 20th of January. For example, CR4WSF members could facilitate the children by providing a space to them for reviewing if WSF were child friendly and how they would like the upcoming WSF events to include children further. Several NGO’s are already planning cultural events, which we could join. For example, Butterflies and Delhi Child Rights Club are getting child participants who will put up street theatre and provide testimonies. Not all children can travel to Mumbai for WSF but SACCS and CEF will organise consultation with children in different regions through the Global March Network. IYC has designated 19th of December as a day when the youth camp will have an interaction with the child rights groups and child rights representatives. Since the WSF youth camp at Matunga is an hour’s drive from WSF Goregaon venue, CR4WSF secretariat will facilitate this by organising a bus ride for those who want to participate.
A rainbow poster and logo for CR4WSF were developed by many NGO’s thinking together. We all can use the rainbow as a symbol of hope and cheer. The participating NGOs may bring in their own rainbow placards and banners to represent their participation at the CR4WSF collective events.
Contact: Women’s Coalition: wecan@bol.net.in
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“MR-2004 is not an anti-WSF programme”
TWO PARALLEL WORLD MEETS: BOTH AGAINST WAR AND GLOBALISATION
By Chandraprakash Jha
Come January 2004 and Mumbai will play host to two international meets coincidentally to discuss the same issues –imperialism, war, globalisation and allied subjects. Nearly 100 organisations from India and abroad have jointly convened an international conference called, ‘Mumbai Resistance-2004’, to be held in the city between January 17-20. This event is taking place simultaneously with the ‘WSF-4’ at Goregaon in the mega city through January 16-21.
The objectives of both meetings, however, are the same – to discuss strategies to build a more just, people-centred world order. About 75.000 people from across the world are likely to participate in the six-day WSF meet. The event includes several public meetings and as many as 800 seminars and debates focusing on imperialist globalisation, militarism and peace, communalism, religious fanaticism and sectarian violence racism, casteism, discrimination and other topics.‘MR’, on the other hand, will consist of a two-day seminar, a day of cultural resistance and a massive anti-imperialist protest march on January 20, which will culminate at the US Consulate. The main theme of this rally will be the US occupation of Iraq. Details of the perspective and the broad outlines of the ‘MR’ programme were finalised at a two-day All-India meeting held recently in the mega city. Over 100 delegates representing about 50 of the participating organisations attended it.
The constituents of the event include grassroots people’s organisations at the international, India, state and local levels such as the ‘Bharat Jan Andolan’,’Yuva Bharat’, ‘All India People’s Resistance Forum’, ‘Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha’, ‘Bharatiya Kisan Union’, ‘Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha’, ‘Vidrohi Sans kritik Chalwal’, ‘Muslim Youth of India’, ‘International League of People’s Struggles’, ‘World People’s Resistance Movement’ and others. They have formed a reception committee headed by Advocate Girishbhai Patel of Ahmedabad. The members of the committee include Justice (Retd) V Krishna Iyer, Habib Tanvir, Yashwant Manohar, Prof Manoranjan Mohanty, Gursharan Singh, and Gautam Navalakha.
‘MR-2004’, according to its organisers, Built around the slogan, ‘’another world is possible’’, it seeks to provide a space for discussing alternatives, exchanging experiences, for strengthening alliances and building coalitions between mass organisations, social movements and NGOs. The first three editions of the WSF were held between 2001 and 2003 in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, and were timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Over the last three years, the WSF has become a symbol of the gathering strength of forces fighting against globalisation and war. ‘WSF 2003’, with over 100.000 participants, became a rallying point for the protests against the invasion of Iraq. The majority of the activities at the WSF meet in Mumbai will be in the open space. Alternative modes of cultural expression are also a part of the WSF process. WSF-4 will include participation of leading artists, musicians, singers, painters, poets, writers and filmmakers that will capture the flavour of cultural responses to the onslaught of globalisation, the politics of exclusion, and sectarian violence and war. The themes for ‘WSF-4’ have a global perspective while ensuring that the questions are addressed from grassroots concerns. Moving out of Latin America for the first time, the WSF will have a greater participation from Africa and Asia.
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THE SOCIAL FORUM MEET IN DELHI
By Suresh Nautiyal
As a precursor to the WSF-4, one-day event was organised by the Delhi Social Forum on 8 December 2003 at the Constitution Club. Also, the idea was to widen the base of WSF in Delhi and to integrate its local issues in the wider perspective.
The programme began with the plenary session, which saw several important speakers like Prof. Namwar Singh, SP Shukla, Prof. Gopal Guru, Vijay Pratap, Anil Mishra, Prakash Louis, Mukul Sharma, Prabir Purkayastha, and Kamal Mitra Chenoy. The post-lunch session saw four workshops that discussed the issues hotly being debated in the context of the WSF. They included: (i) Delhi, Deprivation and the World of Labour; (ii) Dalit and Dignity Forum; (iii) Child Rights and Globalisation; and (iv) Media, Culture and Globalisation.
Contact: Anil Mishra (011-22753885, 9818220556). Email: mishraanil_2002@yahoo.com
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THE WSF DALIT SECTOR PROGRAMME
By Ashok Bharti
National Conference of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) organised a meeting on December 14-15 2003 at Rajendra Bhawan, New Delhi, to finalise the Dalit Sector programme for the WSF-4. Also, the purpose of the meeting was to finalise the concept notes, speakers at the conference, cultural events, etc.
To finalise Dalit mobilisation in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and to deepen the spirit of the WSF Dignity Forum Process among the Dalits and the poor masses, NACDOR and its partners in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana organised a dignity rally on 6th December at village Faral, Tahsil Pundri, District Kaithal in Haryana, about 40 kms from Karnal. The rally aimed at mobilising Dalits, poor and disadvantaged to come out against the policies of neo-liberalisation, which undermine the dignity of the marginalised.
Contact: Ashok Bharti. Mobile: 9810918008, email: nacdor@vsnl.net
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THE CHHATTISGARH WSF PROCESS
By Ramakant Patel/Rakesh Kumar Dubey
WSF Chhattisgarh state conference – held in the state capital, Raipur, on 14 December – brought into focus the new policies of liberalisation, capitalism and globalisation. The conference was organised by several organisations like BGVS Raipur, Action Aid, Nadi Ghati Sangharsh Morcha, All India Bank Employees Association, Mayaram Surjan Foundation, Chhattisgarh Mahila Jagriti Sangathan, Ekta Parishad, AITUC, IPTA, CASA, Dalit Study Circle, World Social Dignity, AISF/AIYF, INSAF, PWA, NAWO, Youth Social Forum, and several individuals.
Lalit Surjan, state coordinator for the WSF, said that the WSF process has given an opportunity to the movement groups to fight for the democratic values and against the new liberalisation policies, globalisation, communalism, war, etc. In fact, he described the WSF process as a symbol of peace, violence free world and the democratic values. It was decided that the state organisations would also organise photo exhibition, cultural programmes, Chhattisgarhi film shows, lectures and art exposition (kala jatha), etc., at WSF-4. Those who were interested to take part in the WSF-4, were advised to contact Lalit Surjan / Lakhan Singh.
Contact : Email: cgbgvs@rediffmail.com
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Zambia host to the first ever Southern
Africa Social Forum held at the Mulungushi
Conference Centre during 9-11 November 2003
THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN SOCIAL FORUM
From the Southern Africa Social Forum Press Statement (11 November 2003)
“We have been meeting as anti-globalisation activists, social movements, NGOs and unions opposed to neo-liberalism and corporate-led globalisation. We have drawn our inspiration from the growing international anti-globalisation movement as symbolised in the form of WSF, and from its African counterpart, the African Social Forum. Our gathering included women and men, youth and the more elderly, from Angola, the DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean delegation demonstrated its commitment by traveling in large numbers by road. The Tanzanian and Malawian delegates also traveled by road. There were also participants from countries beyond Southern Africa. Participants from Kenya and Britain delivered messages of solidarity.
* We unanimously agreed that the globalisation process, dominated by the giant transnational corporations from the North, was impacting negatively on the people in our region. We rejected the role played by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and WTO in imposing the agenda of the governments and corporations of the North.
* We noted the ways in which many of our governments have supported this agenda. We rejected Nepad as an expression of support by certain leaders of our continent for the world’s elite at the expense of the majority in the Southern African region and the continent as a whole.
* We noted with serious concern the role of the South African government and the expansion of South African corporations throughout the region at the expense of local economies. We rejected this new form of colonialism and sub-imperialism. Over the last three days, we have deliberated on many themes, including: gender, HIV/AIDS, debt, trade, governance, education, culture, labour, malaria, media and ICTs, land and environment, agriculture and food security, youth and peace and security. Some of the areas of agreement arising out of these deliberations included:
* We reject HIPC and the PRSPs as nothing other than the continuation of structural adjustment. The debt owed to the World Bank, IMF and other Northern creditors must be unconditionally cancelled
* Privatisation has put social services out of reach of the majority and must be vigorously opposed
* We must go beyond the demands for debt cancellation, an end to structural adjustment conditionalities and a reversal of privatisation. Apartheid, debt, SAPs and privatisation have caused immense damage in the region, and those responsible, including those banks and companies that supported apartheid, as well as the World Bank and IMF that have imposed their disastrous economic policies, must make reparations for the damage caused
* On HIV/AIDS, the governments in the region must have comprehensive policies to address the issues of stigmatisation, discrimination, prevention, treatment and care.
* In particular, we say: Treat the People Now!
* We must abolish inequality with regard to gender, and governments must introduce clear policies towards gender equality
* We insist on the right to free education
* We demand youth participation at all levels of society in the region
* We must put a stop to gun-running and the mercenary business
* There must be significant redistribution of land to the poor and, in particular, to women. The poor and women must be involved in decision-making in this regard
* We must develop our sub-regional resource base to ensure the agricultural capacity to achieve food security, including developing our human resources, protecting our natural resources, developing infrastructure and ensuring access to finance.
“During the forum, a delegation from the debt, trade and labour theme joined other civil society leaders in meeting the IMF mission in Zambia. They let the mission know that the IMF was not welcome in Zambia and Southern Africa. It was told in no uncertain terms: Pack Up and Go! “We are saying enough is enough! We have committed ourselves to build the social forum from the grassroots up. We will take on the task of building strong social movements to challenge the global system and the way it manifests in the region. This gathering of the social forum is an initial step in that process.”
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UNDERSTANDING THE WSF PROCESS
By Vijay Pratap
The World Social Forum process has to be understood in the right perspective. What the idea is all about? What is the ideology that works behind it? What is it if not a collective organisation or a front? How is it evolving as a symbol of a fight against neo-imperialism and one-way globalisation? How is it that the process is contributing towards strengthening of the pro-people movements despite the presence of reservations and disagreements? What is it contributing ultimately towards? How is it that so many forces of struggle and organisations fighting for the oppressed and excluded are getting attracted towards a concept that was conceptualised by eight organisation in a far-away place in Brazil and borrowed from there? These are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) that call for some deep thinking and ample explaining.
Despite crises at several levels, the activists devote themselves to the building of organisations of their ideological choice and take part in the struggles. While they do it, a deep sense of commitment and conviction remains in atten dance even if the organisations or the movements tend to disintegrate or dive into inertia. Such an understanding about radical change inculcates a feeling in them to work towards a common agenda, a common goal. This is the spirit of the WSF process. We try to bring all such democratic forces together when we think that no single organi sation or ideology can do much. These people include all subscribing to the ideologies such as Ambedkarism, Lohiaism, Socialism, Sarvodaya, Marxism-Leninism, Marxism, and so on, so forth.
The answer to such questions is that the WSF is a meeting point, a forum for coming together at a single place with all humility and self-confidence, a place where we can assemble with our deep-rooted belief that there is an ample possibility of frankly talking to each other on the issues of common concern despite differences on ideological, political and other levels. Poverty, starvation, health and illiteracy related issues are our common concerns that attract attenti on unequivocally. This does not mean that we tend to forget the ideologies, programmes, agenda or distinctiveness of our own organisations if we strive together to achieve the collectively agreed goals. Those organisations that have this level of self-confidence and self-esteem are welcome in the WSF process.
Let me make it clearer that the WSF is a process, an open forum for open ideas on collectively agreed issues. One common denominator is opposition to neo-imperialism and one-way globalisation propounded by the multilateral agencies and multinational companies under the patronage of institutions such as World Bank (WB) and World Trade Organisation (WTO). WSF is neither an organisation nor a front. Ideologically, it is an open space for all of them who believe in another world, those who stand for a radical change, those who are open to talk to others despite difference s, and those who have the desire to listen to others’ viewpoints.
The WSF does not allow in persons or organisations subscribing to the ideology of revolution through the medium/ vehicle of organised violence. Also, we are not here to make it an alliance like we do here in India or elsewhere. The WSF remains an open forum for all those who have faith in another world, a better world. Progressive people of all hues are most welcome to be a part of it. Also, those democratic people and organisations are welcome that do not believe in accusing each other or maintain double standards.
It is not at all possible to make WSF an organisation or a front. The basic spirit of it lies in its uniqueness of being a forum where all participatory organisations have the freedom to play supportive, supplementary or complementary roles without challenging each other or indulging in competition with other organisations. A collective thinking is, how ever, obligatory towards working for a common goal. It is clearly written in the Charter of Principles of the WSF that government ministers, World Bank and similar organisations and political parties cannot take part in the WSF process. However, people associated with such institutions can take part in individual capacities. Also members of the student , mass organisations or other such political bodies are welcome.
There have been some efforts by the proponents of radical change to make the process a collective or front of the like-minded forces, but it is quite clear that the WSF process is not a front. Regrettable is it that such an impression has been created. When several thousand people in Europe jammed streets in their respective countries on 15 February 2003 opposing war against Iraq, the same kind of impression was created in the minds of people, though the credit for such a large mobilisation deservedly went to the WSF process. The unity among the countries like India, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, and China on the controversial WTO issues is being seen under the same impressi on and in the same light. Giving it an impression of a front, does not sound good. It is in fact suicidal. The longer we keep it as an open forum the better we would do to it. This will allow the different organisations to come at one place for a longer period.
The day we try to convert it into a front, its creative possibilities will end prematurely. The process of new organisa tions’ coming into its fold will also cease. The attempt to make or project it as a front smacks of something else. Please let it remain what it is today.
The WSF process should have the self-esteem to announce that another world is possible. Such a confidence has built up itself on the consistent work accomplished by the process of the WSF. This is the result of the awareness against the one-way globalisation attempts. Today, several hundred people around the world are armed with the smouldering issues borne of one-way globalisation forces. The governments like ours are under tremendous press ure from them. These issues have gained importance as several governments are preparing to face elections in next one or two years. Such pressures also prevented the governments from succumbing to the dictates of the WTO – during Cancun or post-Doha. Actually, the WSF process has also contributed in shaping India and some twenty plus other countries into a combative mould against the monopolistic authority of a few countries in the WTO regime.
The WSF should also not be used for party politics. This will create a problem as people subscribing to different political ideologies are in it. If we start pulling each other’s leg, the whole debate will get diluted and diverted. Something else will become our agenda. How can we attract new and smaller groups towards the WSF process if we make a battlefield for settling scores?
There are people and organisations, which are for the movementisation of the WSF process, as according to them the world cannot be changed through such open spaces or processes. But would not it be better if we do not disturb its existing character and let it move the way it wants to. As long as it is an open space, it will be a forum for more and more forces to come in tandem. Moreover, we do not depend on the WSF process for all issues that have been haunting us over the years and which we have been fighting against for decades. The process is distinct in the sens e that it allows space for bringing in change inside as well as outside of the organisations and their ideologies.
In this context, I just want to raise a few points: How the religious conservatism is different from the ideological conservatism and what is the difference between religious and political dogma? Is there a point in having blind faith in our ideologies like we have blind faith in our religious superstitions?
Doubts and Debate on the Role of Funding Agencies: With the WSF process catching up globally, doubts about the whole process are also gaining grounds, leading to an unending debate on the issue: How the whole process is being funded. Some resistance groups are particularly vocal about it, though relevant or required information can be obtained from the WSF secretariat in India or elsewhere –either by sending an email or logging on to its website.
Accounts of the WSF India committee are ready, though I have no fair idea about their auditing being done. Anybody can approach the WSF India’s office in Delhi and know the details of the expenses during the ASF Hyderabad. Besides, for all the expenses incurred during the WSF meets, the accounts are open and transparent. I also am of the opinion that everything must be clear and transparent. People like me have been doing the WSF work for last two years but have not got any financial help from the WSF office. For the participation in such programmes, people receive funds from their own organisations.
There are doubts about the sources of funding. Reservations expressed that the process has been funded by the big global agencies. I am not a part of the finance committee of the WSF India but let me make it very clear that most of the events or programmes are organised with the self-organised resources by the participant organisations. More than 80 percent organisations depend on their own resources be they trade union or farmers’ bodies or students’ federations. The finance committee of the WSF India makes estimates about its own expenses and discusses the matter with the WSF India council and suggests the self-mobilised ways to bear the expenses. International council is also there to play a supervisory role and take appropriate actions if need be.
When some funding agencies come forth to provide funds for the WSF related events, they make it sure whether the beneficiary organisations are able to manage a major part of the total expenses. Only after this exercise, they provide the limited funds.
The issue related to the Ford Foundation’s role has come out quite often. In this context, I would like to mention that the WSF secretariat in Brazil did accept funds from the Ford Foundation (FF) and other such organisations. When the WSF was born, the FF provided large funds with flexible terms. However, doubts were raised during the Hyderabad WSF process. Several movement groups and mass organisations pointed out that they did not know about the funding agencies and their activities, hence funds must not be accepted from them. In this light, a decision was taken to accept funds only from those organisations, which carried an anti-imperialistic image with transparent objectives like opposing globalisation. Therefore, it was decided not to request FF for funds. The decision was implemented in letter and spirit and till the end. Despite this, some organisations charged that the FF money was involved in the ASF Hyderabad process. Now, the WSF India finance committee has taken a clear-cut decision that no funds would be requested from the FF.
There are some ideological questions, however. It has to be understood whether the donor agencies really stand by the side of the WSF process. Like their motives, we need to understand our own. In this context, I have a point to make. Making such demands or raising such voices as above for the sake of populism is not going to help or serve any purpose. My contention is that opposing funds from the organisations like the FF was not based on adequate information. Do we know what and how these agencies function with what motives? Can we tell how the money coming from the FF or any other foundation with similar objectives is different? How the distortions/irregularities, that are consequent, are going to be different? The point is that irregularities are likely even if we get funds from the best of agencies in which we may have faith like the Action Aid or the government agencies. There is an argument that if we can accept funds from the Action Aid, why not from the FF? I do not find faults with the decision not to take money from the FF but the way some of our friends created a hostile atmosphere was a result of over enthusiasm.
India committee of the WSF has not taken any direct or indirect money from the FF, though there was a proposal that the FF money should go to the Brazilian committee. I believe that the Brazilian committee is in favour of an international secretariat with some delegated powers for the smooth functioning of the organisation.
I have not much idea about the functioning of these funding agencies but my association with the WSF activities has allowed me to develop an understanding that these agencies are capable of influencing or affecting the recipient organisations’ decisions/programmes. It is to be examined how they influence our organisations, people and movements that are basically committed to bring in a radical change.
The above debate apart, if our organisations, which do not take funds, start taking funds to take part in the WSF in any way, their objectives will automatically get diluted or restricted. This will lead to another set of contradictions. It would be better that they do not compromise.
Post-WSF Debate: We may also have a post-WSF debate or discussion on the issues related to the politics of funding in the context of the objectives of international solidarity, the question of funding the movements, the issue of taking care of the volunteers and activists, etc. The point is that we must have a frank and honest discussion on the subject. The very debate is right now being used unfairly as a whip against each other. Let the WSF-Mumbai pass and then we will have an honest discussion on the subject. Every Indian state must have a frank discussion on this topic after the Mumbai WSF process.
This debate should also include the questions that have the responsibility of taking care of the volunteers and activists. Whose job is it to keep them honest? I believe that society should take the responsibility of those activists who have devoted their services on a full time basis to evolve leadership at the various levels and in different fields. Also, care of those is necessary who have been furthering the movements and mass mobilisation efforts. Have we ever thought how the funds have to be mobilised for these activists? Cannot we discuss these issues honestly without being a liability on the funding agencies in the name of taking part in the WSF process?
Transparency: And if we are taking funds, we must do that without a veil of secrecy. The behaviour has to be unques tionable and transparent. As regards, the WSF process in India, there is no collective understanding on the issue. It is an international event and therefore the international and national funding organisations feel committed to provide funds for it. There is no dearth of those willing to accept funds either.
It is interesting to ask as to why several European governments are involved in the WSF process and why money is coming from the European organisations. As regards the European NGOs, ordinary middle class people there support most of them. A survey conducted by the Action Aid revealed that about 80 percent of their funds originated from the ordinary people who looked forward for a progressive change in the world order and those who were supportive to the upliftment of the deprived sections.
Other source is the money provided by the European governments, which comes from the taxpayers’ pockets. Our government does a similar act by supporting the institutions like the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) or the University Grants Commission (UGC) in order to strengthen autonomy and democracy. These are autonomous bodies that are run on the government support. Similarly, the taxpayers money is the staple diet of the progressive NGOs of Europe, however it is true that they have succeeded in making their system more democratic and transpare nt. There even those people get unemployment allowance from the government whose agenda is to oppose the system and the establishment. So, that way the opponents of the system also depend on that very system. Taxpayers’ money is also routed to the political parties and their organisations. Most of the Nordic countries and Germany have such systems.
By articulating this, I do not mean that this money has no impact. It has. The fact is that whatever we eat, it has a copious manifestation in our personality. For example, if an organisation like Bachpan Bachao receives funds for liberating the child bonded labour; it may in fact work towards the closure of our carpet factory somewhere and allowing a foreign carpet factory expand its business, though this is done unintentionally. I do not mean to suggest that the organisations like Bachpan Bachao or the Bandhua Mukti Morcha are acting as agents of the foreign agencies but their work is influenced by the terms defined by the funding agencies.
The point is that there is discrimination in approach and in the whole perspective. For example, the US agencies/ trade unions are quite worried about the violation of the labour laws in the countries like India but they have scant regard for our concerns. They are not bothered about how we are discriminated in the WTO regime or the internation al trade laws like the one-way globalisation. The US worker does not know about this discrimination, neither he nor she is concerned. The least the worker is worried about is taking to the streets on the issue of discrimination. There fore, my humble submission is that whatever money in whatever form comes from there, it has an inbuilt programme to influence our decision-making process and work. So, if our organisations do not get money from foreign agencies, they will be able to maintain their own ingenuity, creativity, originality and the very indigenous essence.
Participation: Some 200 workshops are expected everyday during the WSF Mumbai process except on the inaugural and the concluding days. These will be organised by the various organisations of the dalits, farmers, students, adivasis, women, minorities, trade unions, and the organisations engaged in the areas like ecology, environment –all aiming at making the world a better place to live in. You have to participate in it on your own and share your ideas, ideologies and programmes with others, no matter under a tree or in a room.
This time, no money is being charged for registering the events, though it is expected that the participating organisations would definitely make contributions. If any organisation does not do that, does not matter. This will not be a hurdle in registration of their events. Friends in Bihar should form state WSF committees on the national pattern to mobilise people and funds. All such committees may be represented in a larger general council of the state. All democratic and progressive organisations or groups functioning at any level or in any region of the world and among any community or in any sector can become a part of the WSF process provided they have the faith in its objectives, ideology and Charter of Principles.
Now, the question relates to the participation in the WSF Mumbai process in January 2004. The question is why people should go to Mumbai to take part in the WSF meet there, as it is not possible for all to visit the venue of the event. In this context, it is necessary to make it clear that it is like those visiting places of worship for recharging their body, mind and soul. The religious people do it for recharging their religious energies, similarly we need to visit the WSF event to recharge our energies and empower our ideologies so that we can channelise them further for a better world, another world.
The forum provides space for all to express themselves in their own ways. It is a place for improving so many things at so many levels. It is a place where we can improve others or ourselves. There are all types of people trying to make points and trying to make others listen to them. It is a chaupal, like an open elevated place in a village where everybody has the right to make a point. And, taking part in the WSF process in India itself would be an important intervention at a time when the forces of fundamentalism or the regimes like the WTO are trying to undermine the values based on democracy, justice and equality, at all levels.
The participant organisations themselves have to take care of their expenses during the WSF process in Mumbai. But it is true that attempts are always there by the resource-rich organisations to bear the expenses of the fund- starved organisations so that the process turns out to be really meaningful. Such examples were shown during the ASF Hyderabad by several organisations with larger resource base. Now, some of the civil society groups are there to extend such help.
One more thing, the participating organisations have to arrange their own speakers in their workshops, etc. The organisations are free to invite speakers of their choice. It has also to be looked at seriously as to how we can conserve our energies and how can we channelise them collectively for meeting our commonly defined goals. One thing is clear that the WSF process has immense possibilities towards our common goals.
Excerpts from the speech of Vijay Pratap at the WSF-Bihar meeting on 16 September 2003 at Patna, Bihar, India. The original Hindi speech rendered into English by Suresh Nautiyal.
By Kishan Kaljayee/ Khurshid Imam
The Bihar unit of WSF has been bringing out a Newsletter devoted to the WSF process. The aim is also to disseminate information regarding the WSF activities as well as about the efforts to strengthen it in several parts of the globe. The first issue contains the WSF Charter of Principles and obviously its three yearlong history.
Regarding the WSF process in the Bihar state of India, the Newsletter has pointed out that after the first meeting of the WSF Bihar on August 14, 2003 in Patna, the process of strengthening was continuing. Bihar WSF committee has already come into shape. This was accomplished in a meeting on 16 September 2003 under the chairmanship of Father Manthara.
For a larger and broader participation in the event, 13 forums have been constituted in the state. They are on the issues relevant: media, students and the youth, financial, traditional techniques and the knowledge systems, writers, poets, painters and playwrights, etc. dalits, minorities, farm labourers, migrants, farmers, human rights, child labour.
The state level forum has also speeded up its activities to motivate people at the district levels. Several districts have been covered under the campaign. Several like-minded organisations are being roped in to strengthen the process.
Contact: Tel: +91-11-88888_2262027, Email: wsfpatna@rediffmail.com
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By Rajesh K Jha
The role of media in the process of globalisation is two-way. While on the one hand, it is the outcome of the overall process of globalisation where rapid changes have taken place in the information and communication technologies, on the other it is the backbone of the globalisation process itself. The process of globalisation is premised on the almost seamless flow of international capital in the search for quick profit through the network of communication. The technologies that govern communication and media have converged to make the distinction between media and communication largely blurred. One can, in fact, look at media both as the facilitator of the globalisation process as well as its outcome and expression. It is well understood that media plays a crucial role in preparing the society for accepting the globalising forces by creating an ideological environment. The role of media in mind control and manipulation is crucial for the success of the project of globalisation. Ultimately, the forces of globalisation have understood that ‘ seizing power may require guns and military and political machinations, but ultimately staying in power, is about conquering the hearts and minds of people’. Therefore, control and ownership of media becomes a key factor for the success of globalisation. Some of the key points of the complex relationship between media, globalisation and culture can be outlined as follows:
The impact of the growing concentration and monopoly in the media: In the US, Europe and the developed western countries, the growing concentration of a few large media houses has been well documented. A number of activist groups and alternative media organisations have been pointing out and arguing about the damaging impact the concentration and monopoly in the media on democracy, diversity of opinion and the voice of the marginalised. Similar trends are visible in other developing countries. One can see the embryonic form of this development in India too where media houses like Sahara, TV Today, Times of India group are getting into print, radio, TV, cable etc., and monopolising the public space. This is just the beginning but one can see the emergence of a few large media houses controlling the public mind to an extent that might threaten the diversity and plurality which is the cornerstone of a democratic society. At the moment there does not seem to be any debate on this but there is an unmistakable trend towards media concentration all over.
In the present context too, the mainstream media does not provide any voice to the marginalised sections that look for change. The forces of social change and transformation are finding it hard to get a space in the media. Media is overtly becoming profit oriented and denying its own role as an institution that is expected to articulate the voice of the people. More and More (yeh dil mange more), it is the advertisers and marketing wing of the media that is dictatin g the editorial content too. This suits the forces of globalisation that would like to give as little space as possible to voice of dissent and change.
Alternative Media: It is often the case that alternative media which is seen in the form of small and medium publications, journals etc., are not capable of sustaining themselves against the huge capital base of the mainstream media. In the face of price-cutting by big newspapers the smaller alternative publications find it almost impossible to survive.
Despite price-cutting, the big media is profitable because it is sustained by huge revenue generated by the advertising, which is now taking up larger and larger space in the newspapers and magazines. Situation is worse as far as the electronic media is concerned. Television is almost blanking out the voice of dissent and protest except occasionally as ‘human interest stories’ that are neither followed up properly nor put in the right perspective. The reporting of such events as strike and protest, even firing and killing of the workers does not get a place in the news as the ‘footage’ is not available. Whatever little finds place is episodic and lacks coherence, vision and sympathy to the cause of change.
The only media where a little significant space is possible for the alternative view is the Internet. However, there too it is threatened. Prominent websites financed by big money are able to catch disproportionately large number of ‘clicks’ or visits by the internet surfers because they are cross advertising on other websites, have better animation, design etc. Moreover, the Internet is, by its very nature a restricted medium that can be accessed by the highly literate, technologically comfortable people. This is still a very small number.
Big Media: The growing dominance of big media houses mostly controlled by the industrial houses that have a great stake in promoting globalisation has significant implication. In India, for example, media houses like Eenadu, Sahara, Benett-Coleman, etc., have significant commercial interests in many sectors. It is understandable that their media cum industrial houses would not like their newspapers, TV channels etc., to strengthen the forces of resistance and change. The media houses promoted by the industrial houses will lack autonomy when it comes to crucial policy issues impacting upon the economy and society. The control over the media houses may not be exerted directly, but more subtly. The huge salaries offered to the editors of big newspapers and TV channels also binds them into a kind of ‘golden chain’ where taking a strong position is fraught with a heavy price of losing the plum position. The staffing and structuring of the media organisation may also be done in a manner that people with fire are denied jobs within the media organisation. All these factors strongly promote an environment, which are status- uoist, anti-change and pro-globalisation.
Culture, Diversity and Plurality: All over the world, the question of homogenisation of culture, wiping away the diversity and plurality of ways of living, thinking, enjoyment as an outcome of the media-monopoly of large ompanies has been discussed. We have to look at the homogenising influence of a globalised media and the ways to counter it. The debate on ‘cultural imperialism’ has brought out a host of questions relating to the impact of media in perpetuating stereotypes, imposing cultural value systems, instilling the native society with a sense of inferiority etc. Although, the linear conception of the cultural imperialism model is no longer considered valid, it is still accepted that the western, US-led cultural hegemony is a reality. It is leading to a creation of ‘hierarchy of cultural supremacy’ for which media is responsible. It has rightly been pointed out that ‘Global media is to corporate capitalism what missionaries were to the colonial enterprise – it creates the sensibility, the cultural posturing and the values base necessary for a full scale expansion and capture of markets.’ The cultural aspect of globalisation carried on by the media, therefore, requires a much closer examination if we want to understand globalisation and wish to offer resistance to it.
Very closely connected with the issue of media is the field of software. The overly dominant position of Microsoft and the proprietary software in the world is bleeding the developing countries. The proprietary software promoted by Bill Gates’ Microsoft is extremely restrictive and exploitative. A very strong and viable alternative exists in the form of ‘ open source software’, which is completely free, sharable-distributable, and has all the features (and even more) than the proprietary software controlled by Microsoft and other companies. The developing countries and even UN are getting trapped into promotion of the proprietary software leading to huge expenditure in purchasing operating systems and programmes which are available free from the open source movement.
Adopting the alternative of open source such as Linux etc. can be a significant step in countering the global hegemony and dominance of companies like Microsoft, which are, in a way, the backbone of the globalising forces.
Another related area is the question of copyright: On many platforms, the big publishing houses, music and film companies have been pushing hard, often successfully, for making the copyright laws stringent and extremely restrictive. The benefit of these restrictive laws accrues to the industry and very little is passed on to the actual creators – music composer, performer, writer etc. Alternative models of ‘copyleft’ etc., try to strike a balance between the individual interest and public good. There should be an attempt to develop models, which actually benefit the artists, performers, authors etc. The copyright regime evolving in the world is anti-progress and driven only by the profit motive. An effective intervention in the policy-making fora on the issues of copyright can be consider ed as a significant step.
We have to look very carefully at the provisions relating to the trade in cultural goods, media ownership etc., in WTO. There is bound to be a growing pressure to treat media and other cultural goods as any other ‘commodity’, allow its free movement across borders and thereby let the multinational media houses have a free-run in the developing countries. Some countries like France have tried to put-up resistance. This area needs a careful look in future.
On a positive note, we have to find out ways and means so that voice of the marginalised and weak is heard in the media.
How do we promote the alternative media: A few possibilities that have recently opened are in the field of radio. If it is possible to set up small community radio stations, it can articulate the voice of the marginalised and weak. A few experiments in South (Deccan Development Society-Hyderabad), and Jharkhand (Daltonganj) have been partly successful in the community radio sector. However, we should be prepared for strong resistance from government, which is not likely to listen to such voices if the pitch is raised too high. Starting an independent and alternative TV channel is too ambitious. But one can always try to enter through the backdoor. Forging alliances with TV Channels, feeding them with stories of struggle and resistance, looking for individuals sympathetic to the cause can, though limited in scope, make some change.
Alternative publications: Similarly, we can think of promoting alternative publications. The important thing is to find the resources, both intellectual and capital to sustain them. In the beginning one can, perhaps, concentrate on the areas where mass-movements and struggles are going on. Providing support-training people in the use of camera, sound-recording, writing skills etc., can be taken up to strengthen the activists, workers for effective use of media against the forces of globalisation.
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Concept Note for a Workshop at the WSF-2004
Dr Ritu Priya
There is ferment in health service systems across the world. Challenges of high costs on one hand, and health sector reforms with declining public expenditures and health systems’ capacity are reopening old and new paths for health services development. At the same time, the negative impact of economic policy changes on health status has generated a growing recognition of the need for effective health systems. Several innovations and ‘models’ have been generated for health services development over the 1990s out of the needs of people on one hand and by the demand generating ‘health industry’ and its financial interests on the other. The challenge is to evolve and strengthen pro-people approaches in policies relevant to the present context and to build pressure to ensure their implementation .
AIDS is one public health crisis affecting almost the whole world, but with greatly varying degrees of severity. The efforts to control it have probably been the fastest and strongest public health response in recent years. Therefore it is bound to influence the public health discourse and future health services development. The force of the HIV epidemic in Africa has thrown up lessons for public health policy analysis, which would be invaluable for other countries, not yet fully caught in the economic globalisation trap. The epidemic has followed a different course in different societies in diverse contexts and evoked diverse responses. The diversity provides lessons that need to be shared.
The international official discourse has drawn and propagated lessons from experiences of African countries such as Uganda, South Africa, and Thailand. It seems important to us that the experiences be examined from within the perspective of these countries and lessons drawn from this analysis be shared across the countries of the south directly rather than mediated by analysis by the north. Some issues have brought this need to the fore, eg. the international discourse creates an image placing the ‘blame’ of high HIV prevalence in Sub-Saharan African countries only on its internal social dynamics and an inability of these countries to handle the problem due to lack of political will and the lack of capability of their poor and illiterate people to change ‘risky behaviours’ or to ‘adhere’ to anti-retroviral treatment.
However what the HIV epidemic in these countries also provides is lessons on how such conditions have come about, including their exploitation by the neo-colonial processes, adoption of the north-led models of development, and the impact of globalisation. How have these affected women’s lives and gender relationships in various segments of the population? Is the break down of public health systems over the 1980s that had been built up by the 1970s in many of the African countries one of the significant factors in limiting the capacity of the system to respond to the epidemic?
Answers to such questions can provide lessons for many Asian countries still at the threshold of completely globalising their economies and of experiencing the AIDS epidemic. At the same time Africa offers positive examples of community level action borne out of the crisis. Of course, it needs to be remembered that, since the African experience is epidemiologically so distinct from other parts of the world, the lessons have to be specifically contextualised and can only provide ideas to be explored for other situations.
Brazil provides a different set of lessons as it is a large country, which remains at an intermediate level of epidemic (like much of Asia). It has been a forerunner in providing universal access to anti-retroviral therapy through a public programme. How it has been done, the strengthens and limitations of the programme, the pre-requisites for its successful implementation and the impact of such a programme on the public health system as a whole, are all issues worth exploring and learning from.
India, socio-economically closer to the African countries rather than Brazil (which has about three times the per capita GDP of India), is still a low to intermediate level country in terms of the AIDS epidemic. The diversity within the country and various experiments at providing treatment, care and support to HIV + persons could give different insights in a comparative international frame.
Examining all these from a people-centred and ‘societal’ perspective rather than merely a disease-control and ‘programmatic’, one could recast the discourse and help re-examine what has become ‘accepted wisdom’ on AIDS. It may bring us to re-examine the homilies and ‘best practices’ being offered by the international AIDS establishment. The prevailing notion of ‘well being’ itself may need to be re-examined in the light of the consequences of the contemporary development approach.
The World Social Forum provides a good opportunity to share experiences and interact with people engaging with these issues in diverse contexts. We propose to organize a workshop at the WSF where we bring together people working on HIV and health with a critical analysis of the ‘globalising agendas’ and their international financial interests but without denying the seriousness of the problem or the need for responding to it through people-centred public health. The discussion would focus on:
1. Capacities of health systems, including the impact of changing policy perspectives historically. 2. Community level action in responding to health crises and chronic disease care needs. 3. ‘Normalizing’ HIV and AIDS. 4. Causes of prevailing prevalence levels of HIV.
Dr. Ritu Priya has prepared the concept note on behalf of Swasthya Panchayat-Lokayan, ActionAid-India, and Coalition for Environment & Development (Finland).
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NIGD is a think-tank that aims at promoting global democratisation by producing and developing emancipatory knowledge for democratic movements, organisations, and states. NIGD’s work is based on globalisation as coming together of humanity must be based on cross-cultural dialogue concerning both philosophical fundamentals and concrete reforms proposals. NIGD projects are usually joint endeavours with a number of partners from the global south. It operates from Helsinki, Finland, and Nottingham, UK, in Europe and Lima, Peru. NIGD was founded in Helsinki in 1997, according to the Finnish law on public associations. It emerged from the Finnish follow-up process (1995-1997) to the UN Secretary-General’s annual reports on democratisation. Since 1998, NIGD has received annual funding from the Nottingham Trent University, UK, which has also been the site for many of NIGD’s activities. In addition, NIGD’s activities have been funded projectwise.
NIGD conducts research, publishes Discussion and Working Papers and organises workshops, seminars, and conferences. Consultancy work is also among NIGD’s activities. NIGD has been involved in transnational campaigns, for instance for a currency transactions tax and, more generally, for global democratisation. NIGD aims at strengtheni ng global civil society and is also a founding member of the International Council of the World Social Forum.
NIGD has organised workshops and seminars at all three WSF events-(2001, 2002 and 2003). In 2001, the topic was global democracy and in 2002 the workshop was more specifically related to the framework of the project on evaluating global democracy initiatives, within the frame of the North-South Dialogues-process. This work was continued at WSFIII. In 2003, NIGD’s Strategy for Global Democratisation was finalised.
NIGD programme at the WSF in Mumbai 16-21 January 2004: NIGD takes part in the WSF and has proposed to coordinate several self-organised activities: You can contact for further information: http://www.nigd.org or e-mail nigd@nigd.u-net.com
National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) is a network of over two hundred people’s movements in India with a clear ideology against corporate globalisation, religious fundamentalism discrimination of any kind and struggling for people’s right over natural resources, for true internationalism and for a just and egalitarian society. NAPM is a coming together, a process of like-minded groups and movements who while retaining their autonomous identities, are working together to bring the struggle for a people-oriented development model to the centre-stage of politics and public life. NAPM brings together struggles of various marginalized sectors into an inter-sectorial alliance, which asserts the primacy of natural resources ownership to communities, who live and sustain by those resources. The bringing together of these traditional communities also brings with it a new politics of natural resource ownership and control. It is understood that such an alliance, emerging with a definite ideological commonality and common trategy, can give rise to a strong social, political force and a national people’s movement.
The Organisation has both short term and long-term goals. While it plans to turn around the development paradigm in the long run for an equitable, gender just and participatory development, in the short term it aims to bring justice to those groups affected by the present socio – political system and ensure more voice and visibility to their struggles in various national and international foras. It uses mass mobilization along with advocacy lobbying and networking with like minded groups to achieve these ends. NAPM in its organizational form tries to integrate not only sections of marginalized communities but also their supporters with individual membership. It attempts to link between the struggling rural masses, urban civil society, laborers students and intelligentsia. With in its structure, it aims at a democratic functioning and also consensus-based decision making. Sharing of resources, and access to relevant overnmental and non governmental resources has been one of the prime feature of this network with organizations with more experience and resources helping newer struggles to break new paths.
National Alliance of Peoples Movements at the WSF: The devastative impacts of the free flowing global capital all over the world, expropriating the world’s resources is, by now, well realised and recorded too. As a result of the policies, those in the subsistence economy living on the natural resources, along with the organized sections, ncluding those managing the public services and production - distribution processes in the various countries are facing eviction from their livelihood and natural resources. The worst affected being the world’s poor. There is no aspect of life and no section of a country’s population that can go unaffected by the upheaval caused by the capital and market- based paradigm and the corporatised polity. In India, the dalits (socially disadvantaged in the casteist society), adivasi s (tribals), women and the labour class have waged battles against this neo-imperialism. They have been challenging the corrupt, criminal politics and the State that is subservient to the hegemonic oppression of so-called ‘global’ agencies: may it be the World Bank or the WTO.
They also have to simultaneously fight the ethnic forces, the politics not just dividing but leading people into caste and religion-based massacres. This has been communalising every sector and aspect of life, thriving on the social disintegration, economic deprivation and identity crisis resulting out of the politico-economic onslaught faced by the increasing number of people in this largest democracy not worth the name. Such struggle thus has necessarily been on multiple fronts, from the local environs-human and Nature, at the same time redefining the ‘national’, and challenging the ‘global’ powers. Various mass based people’s organisation, the people’s movements are carrying the torch perseveringly with an alternative vision as also alternative strategies.
The NAPM, as most of you know, is such an attempt towards building a people’s political force, outside the electoral politics that can counter the forces of destruction, inequality and exploitation and realize the values of equity, justice, peace and nonviolence. With Gandhian, Marxist and Ambedkarian perspectives brought together, the people’s movements in India have been shaping up a new praxis on the basis of their struggles and constructive work on alternatives. This New Ideology strives for the radical changes in the production processes, technologies along with social-individual consumption patterns. Further, for it, the economic growth, democratic values and sustainability are equivalent and inevitable components of development. The NAPM has tried to follow an ideological framework that strengthens the people’s struggles for life and livelihood, by the agriculturists including agricultural labourers, adivasis - the indigenous populations, Dalits, fisher people, toiling women or the industrial workers and others, and people’s development and the people’s politics. It’s in this context that NAPM has participated at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre as also the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad. Knowing fully the critique of these efforts by such forums by some fellow organisations, NAPM tried to gain and widen the space for people’s movements and raised the issues regarding transparency to accountability, including involvement of certain corporate funding agencies in the WSF processes.
Being in the process and the structure (committees) to the extent possible for mass-based movements, with our own pace and limited resources with unlimited challenges, we could seek answers and evolve consensus on the issues raised. The committees and various groups at work responded. We could demand from within and get allotted, space for people’s movements. While there are still certain doubts to resistance with respect to WSF-India, on the part of some expressed through articles and actions, there is no doubt in our mind that such international unity and solidarity among widest possible range of organizations that form a part of civil society, is the minimum basic necessary to be able to stand up and question the world level violent attack of the capitalists-communal-criminal nexus. It’s towards this end, that we have been a part of the unique phenomenon that is World Social Forum, which has created a hope for the widest possible human alliance for a just, pluralist, secular, peaceful alternative world and humanity. (The political consciousness it expresses can go a long way.)
NAPM plans to organise, with other collaborating organisations, conference, panel/s, seminar/s and also mobilize people in the regions where movements work and in Mumbai. While some of our allies are a part of the India Organising Committee, others have preferred to participate at the India working council level. The National Coordinato r of NAPM is a member of the International Council although in her capacity as a founder activist of Narmada Bachao Andolan and convener of the Strategy Commission (a subgroup created at Miami). Not all those in the movement c ould do justice to the responsibility as committee members due to being engrossed in struggles but have faith in the others carrying out various roles with some of our representatives. All the efforts at various levels, we believe would be complimentary. Two of our allies, fisher people and agricultural labourers have decided to mobilise mass-strength in order to project the plight and struggle of their communities, in the context of the anti-people policies denying them right to live, on the January 19, on one of the days when WSF-India would be on. All these efforts, we sincerely hope will further the process of building a world level movement for solidarity and cooperation. NAPM appreciates the concern expressed by some of common-thinking networks and organizations in India and abroad as regards the future of WSF and the role of NGOs and movements. We sincerely hope that those will get due space and time for deliberations within the WSF and NAPM would be able to contribute to the same. NAPM has registered itself, as a member of the India Working Council, and will hold a number of panels, seminars, cultural event and other items.
Contact: Mukta Srivastava mvks@tatanova.com or Medha Patkar medha@narmada.org
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Ekta Parishad and the National Committee on Land Rights have plans to host a rural festival on land rights in Mumbai, India, from 18 to 20 January 2004 in a separate location close to the WSF events ground. The purpose of this Land Mela (programme) is to bring together local leaders, activists, indigenous people and people’s organisations working on land rights in different countries. It also aims at working out strategies to collectively struggle for land and agricultural rights.
The first mela (assembly) of its kind is also an attempt to bring ‘the city dwellers to the village instead of the villagers to the city’. The villagers will create the ambience of a village at the WSF event as several thousand villagers and hundreds of rural leaders are coming to Mumbai from all over India. It is also meant to bring our international friends together to share their experiences, problems, and positive stories. The celebration will include a welcome ceremony, food, music, plays, and speeches. They will host international friends and share their experiences, problems and good stories through music, plays, speeches, interactions as well as trough welcome ceremonies and eating together. An estimated 2000 people from India will come to share their experiences about their struggles with national and international friends.
Contact: http://www.ekta-parishad.org, landreforms@ekta-parishad.org
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By Bijulal M.V./ Fr. Yesumarian
Human Rights Documentation of the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, will host a workshop on Livelihood Struggles of the Marginalised in South Asia at the WSF-4. The underlying stress for gathering of the socially concerned was the collective search for options to resist neo-liberal policies that have dealt negative impacts to the poor in the developing countries across the world.
Major chunk of people in South Asian countries are forced to a fast expanding oppressive marginality, reinstated through a series of activities to which the State offers no restraint. The history of state functioning in these countries has explained an inherent preference to the influential minority at the cost of the common people. The process has gone even bad with the introduction of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) agenda as the guideline for the development practices justified in terms of ‘Public Need’ and ‘National Interest’. The livelihoods options for many a poor section are affected severely in the process and the crisis is spreading to more people while few sections like the indigenous people, unorganised workers, etc., find it too hard to negotiate the fallouts.
The livelihoods crises of particular occupational groups and people facing threats from development projects or industrialisation have been frequently available from all parts of the Sub-continent. In few cases, people have been effectively forcing their right to livelihoods through organised protests. These movements as repositories of ideas for a broad-based initiative for democratic resistance to arbitrary decisions that deny the right to live with dignity. The workshop will focus on discussing them as an exercise in furthering the cause as well as disseminating the spirit. The following core areas are identified in this context:
(i) Indigenous people for struggles for Land, food and rights over forests,
(ii) struggles of people threatened with displacement,
(iii) struggles of the labourer against anti- labour legislations and practices.
Contact: Bijulal M.V and Fr. Yesumarian (workshop Coordinators). Email: biju@unv.ernet.in. Human Rights Documentation, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, 10, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003 (INDIA). Phone: 24622379/ 24625015, Fax: +91-11-24690660. Website: http://www.isidelhi.org, Email: hru@unv.ernet.in
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Conferences with a space for 8.000 people include:
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