Volume:2; Issue: 7; Part: 2; 29 March 2004: New Delhi, India
Content (part 2)
Knowing WSF: Important WSF Declarations/Resolutions
- The WSF
- Background
- Regional and Thematic Social Forums
- WSF Charter of Principles
- Rules for the operation of the WSF International Council
- WSF in India
- India General Council
- Venue and dates WSF 2004
- Mobilisation for the forums
- Broad themes of WSF 2004
- IC Document on the Porto Alegre meeting
- IC document on the Dakar meeting
- Resolutions taken in Porto Alegre meeting
- WSF 2004: Call of the social movements
- Proposals adopted at the WSF IC meeting
The two first editions of the World Social Forum were held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on the same dates as the World Economic Forum was meeting in Davos. By proposing to strengthen an international coalition of the widest range of social movements and organizations, on the principle of respect for differences, autonomy of ideas and forms of endeavour, the WSF ceased to be a single locus of convergence for the struggle against neo-liberal globalization and sought to become a world process.
In pursuit of these aims, in addition to the annual World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre, Regional and Thematic Social Forums are organising. These events are designed to explore specific issues considered priorities in the present world situation by the WSF International Council – the WSF policy decision-making body. All the Forums must always adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles.
The first WSF in 2001 saw the participation of about 20,000 people (of which 4,702 were registered delegates) representing over 500 national and international organisations from more than 100 countries. The success and enthusiasm generated by WSF 2001 contributed to making the WSF an annual event. The second WSF held in January and February 2002 was an even larger event. It saw the participation of around 12,000 registered delegates and a total of some 55,000 people from 123 countries. WSF 2003 saw the participation of more than 27,000 delegates and a total of some 100,000 people from more than 130 countries.
In addition to WSF, there have been regional and thematic forums during 2002-2003. Following WSF 2001 the International Council (IC) Forum was formed so as to enhance and expand the diversity of the WSF process. The IC is a group of international networks from different regions of the world. It is constituted by several organizations working on issues including economic justice, human rights, environmental issues, labour, youth and women’s rights. The IC contributes to the WSF methodology, outreach, communication strategies as well as the local and regional organising process.
They are termed “regional” as they happen in a macro-regional sphere. They follow a methodology and political criteria stipulated by the WSF´s Letter of Principles, whose purpose (as well as that of the Regional Forums), is to approximate itself to the reality of the social movements and entities in the diverse regions of the world. During the period of the WSF 2003, the European, Asian, and Pan-Amazonian Social Forums shall be taking place simultaneously.
The Thematic Social Forums objectify to attend to demands of more thorough investigations of debates to specific issues, considered priorities in the global conjuncture by the International Council of WSF. For the year of 2002, we plan to accomplish a Thematic Social Forum in Argentina, which shall discuss the effects of neo-liberal politics on developing countries.
1. 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 that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.
2. The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localised in time and place. From now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that “another world is possible”, it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be reduced to the events supporting
3. The World Social Forum is a world process. All the meetings that are held as part of this process have an international dimension.
4. The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of globalisation commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations’ interests, with the complicity of national governments. They are designed to ensure that globalisation in solidarity will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights, and those of all citizens — men and women — of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.
5. The World Social Forum brings together and interlinks only organisations and movements of civil society from all the countries in the world, but intends neither to be a body representing world civil society.
6. The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No one, therefore, will be authorised, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants. The participants in the Forum shall not be called on to take decisions as a body, whether by vote or acclamation, on declarations or proposals for action that would commit all, or the majority, of them and that propose to be taken as establishing positions of the Forum as a body. It thus does not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the participants in its meetings, nor does it intend to constitute the only option for interrelation and action by the organisations and movements that participate in it.
7. Nonetheless, organisations or groups of organisations that participate in the Forums meetings must be assured the right, during such meetings, to deliberate on declarations or actions they may decide on, whether singly or in coordination with other participants. The World Social Forum undertakes to circulate such decisions widely by the means at its disposal, without directing, hierarchising, censuring or restricting them, but as deliberations of the organisations or groups of organisations that made the decisions.
8. The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralised fashion, interrelates organisations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to build another world.
9. The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organisations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organisations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity.
10. The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. It upholds respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.
11. As a forum for debate, the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of that reflection, on the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on means and actions to resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalisation with its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally and within countries.
12. As a framework for the exchange of experiences, the World Social Forum encourages understanding and mutual recognition among its participant organisations and movements, and places special value on the exchange among them, particularly on all that society is building to centre economic activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and respecting nature, in the present and for future generations.
13. As a context for interrelations, the World Social Forum seeks to strengthen and create new national and international links among organisations and movements of society, that — in both public and private life — will increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance to the process of dehumanisation the world is undergoing and to the violence used by the State, and reinforce the humanising measures being taken by the action of these movements and organisations.
14. The World Social Forum is a process that encourages its participant organisations and movements to situate their actions, from the local level to the national level and seeking active participation in international contexts, as issues of planetary citizenship, and to introduce onto the global agenda the change-inducing practices that they are experimenting in building a new world in solidarity.
Approved and adopted in São Paulo, on April 9, 2001, by the organisations that make up the World Social Forum Organisating Committee, approved with modifications by the World Social Forum International Council on June 10, 2001.
1. The WSF process expansion at the world level has advanced greatly in the past year, opening new opportunities and creating new challenges, which require changes in the linkages and planning of activities in the WSF process. Given this new framework, it is necessary to guarantee that the IC operates well so that it can fulfill its responsibility in this process as an open space.
2. In order to carry out its tasks in a more efficient way, as set out in the guidelines adopted in the Porto Alegre IC meeting, held on January 21-22, 2003, the IC will work organised in the following six Commissions:
a) STRATEGIES: In-depth analysis of the strategies, initiatives and actions used by agents of neoliberalism at the same time analysing the initiatives of the opponents of neoliberal domination (i.e. the anti or alternative globalisation movement), to facilitate the debate of strategies of resistance and the construction of “another possible world.”
b) CONTENT: Collection of materials (report backs and information from various forums), analysis and organisation by theme and dissemination to WSF participants (via internet, email, publications, and organisation of seminars) of the analysis, alternative proposals and initiatives for a better world and strategies of resistance to neoliberalism that have come out of forums (geographic – global, regional, local – and thematic) that have already taken place. At the same time, increase collaboration and relationships between participants and initiatives in the WSF process around those proposals, enabling an evaluation of appropriateness of new thematic forums to delve more deeply into specific questions/issues.
c) METHODOLOGY: Organisation and consolidation of a methodology for the forums, based in the Charter of Principles, which uses the experience of the forums that have already occurred as a starting point, assures the open character of the WSF and respects plurality and diversity as the principal strength of the process.
d) EXPANSION: Support the development of regional, national and local forums based on this methodology, as well as geographic expansion focusing on world regions where civil society is still not familiar enough with the WSF to take the initiative of organising forums or participating in the forums in their region. Additionally, this will help to insure that this expansion is reflected in the composition of IC.
e) COMMUNICATION: Creation of communication system for information/dissemination about the WSF process both in terms of communication to actors outside of the IC as well as within the IC itself, identifying ways for the IC and its Commissions to develop an effective long distance work.
f) FINANCES: Creation of a solidarity based international system for funding of the WSF process activities.
3. To implement these tasks, IC members present at its Miami meeting divided into the six Commissions listed above, with each Commission in charge of its respective function.
4. Each Commission will establish its own work methodology regarding decisions on how to develop its activities and work calendar/timeline. The Commissions will present a first report back on their activities during the next IC meeting. These reports should also be distributed to all IC members before the meeting itself. The IC monitors and evaluates the activities of the Commissions.
5. During the IC meeting to be held in June 2004, the Commissions will present to all IC members for debate their work to date. Presentation materials should be distributed to IC members before the June 2004 meeting. The discussions coming out of this IC meeting will help with the continuity of the Commissions, clarifying specific themes, potentially creating new Commissions if necessary and defining other issues for the WSF 2005.
6. The Commissions will include among its priorities to follow and support the WSF 2004 in Mumbai.
7. The acceptance of new members into the IC will be contingent on:
a) Agreement with the WSF Charter of Principles and apply it to day-to-day operations.
b) The need for increased balance regarding gender, race, age, and geography (i.e. the participation in the IC of organisations from all continents and regions) as well as the need to diversify the IC in terms of both the type of organisation as well as the focus and scope of the work of groups participating in the IC.
c) Active participation and contribution of the organisation in one or more of the IC Commissions and/or in the organising committees of the regional or thematic social forums.
d) Organising committees of global, regional or thematic forums, recognised by the IC as part of the international WSF process, may participate in the IC through one delegate and one alternate during the 12 months prior to and subsequent to the event they are organising.
8. The procedure regarding new membership in the IC will be:
a) Applications must be presented in writing to the WSF Secretariat, with the endorsement of at least two IC members. The WSF Secretariat will inform all IC members about applications at least one month before the IC meeting;
b) Candidates must have existed, in principle, at least for two years;
c) Candidates must present in writing a document stating their agreement with the WSF Charter of Principles;
d) Assessment of the active involvement and contribution of the organisation in at least one or more of IC Commissions, or in organising committees of the regional or thematic social forums;
e) Applications must be approved by the IC on the basis of an evaluation by a working group designated by the IC in its previous meeting;
f) Organisations that have already requested membership to the IC will be evaluated according to the same criteria.
9. An organisation can apply to be a collaborative member of an IC Commission. Application to be collaborative organisation will be presented to and decided by the Commission in which the applicant is seeking to participate. Being a collaborative organisation in an IC Commission does not automatically imply IC membership.
10. Applications to participate as observers in the IC meetings will be assessed by the same working group that evaluates membership applications.
11. Regarding the relationship between the IC and WSF Secretariat, the first principle is that the IC will take political decisions about the WSF process during its meetings.
12. The WSF Secretariat is a technical body to facilitate the WSF process, formed by the Brazilian Organising Committee together with the Organising Committee of the place where the WSF is held. They will decide together the division of functions and tasks amongst them. By the time this document is revised, in June 2004, the IC will also discuss the continuation of the process of internationalising the WSF Secretariat.
13. The WSF Secretariat functions, as agreed to in the January, 2003 Porto Alegre IC meeting, are:
a) To stimulate and support the Regional and Thematic Forums;
b) To facilitate the organisation of the IC meetings;
c) To ensure the IC communication process;
d) To ensure the organisation of the historical record of the WSF process;
e) To support the fundraising efforts for the WSF process.
14. From now, the facilitation of IC Commission meetings must be incorporated also as a function of the WSF Secretariat, which must work closely with the IC Commissions, supporting their work and receiving from them their contributions to the WSF process and to the organisation of the Forums and IC meetings.
15. The WSF Secretariat will present in each IC meeting a report on its activities, as well as a financial report after every WSF. Both reports must be sent to all IC members at least 15 days before the IC meeting.
16. The WSF newsletter will regularly inform IC members about the activities of the WSF process.
17. Free communication between and among IC members is guaranteed. To promote this communication, a permanently updated list of all IC members contact information should be available to all IC members. The WSF Secretariat will also ensure that a closed Internet discussion listserve is maintained in good working order for use by all IC members through which the maximum level of transparency will be sought vis-à-vis information about activities developed in the WSF process.
18. In its June 2003 meeting in Miami, the IC began discussion of the proposal for internal rules prepared by the IC Internal Rules Working Group and decided to continue discussion on this proposal as well as the present rules through the IC Internet listserve. The IC will continue discussing this issue in its next meeting, in order to advance in the process of the organisation and clarification of how the IC functions. A special working group was formed in the Miami IC meeting to facilitate and organise this discussion.
19. All the points of this document will be subject to evaluation and modification in one year.
Note: other definitions adopted subsequently during the meeting, concerning the application of these rules:
20. The IC decided that, until its next meeting in Mumbai (January, 2004), the functions of the working group on evaluation of new memberships applications, mentioned in the item 8.e, and invitation of observers, item 10, will be carried out by the Expansion Commission [item 2.d].
21. The IC defined that the discussion on the internal rules (referred in the item 18) only will be taken over after the WSF in Mumbai. The new working group is formed by: CBJP Brasil (Chico), IPC (Savio), Red Global de Economia Solidaria (Carola), NIGD-IOC (Vijay) and CUT-Brasil (Gustavo).
22. The next IC meeting will take place in Mumbai, India. It will have two parts: one day before the WSF it will be a meeting for socialising information on the event among IC members; after the WSF closing, the IC will meet again to deal with the agenda of pending debates (WSF 2004 evaluation, report on the work of the IC commissions etc.) According to what was defined in the point 14, the WSF Secretariat will organise the agenda of the next IC meeting in dialogue with the Commissions.
In fact, hosting of the WSF global meet in Mumbai in January 2004 has been a great opportunity and challenge to people’s movements and to all civil and political organisations across the world especially those of the peoples of Asia and Africa. It was for all those opposed to imperialist and neo-liberal globalisation, war and sectarian violence, and has a commitment to democratic values, plurality, dignity and peace.
WSF 2004 was also a symbol of unity and democratic space for people to assert their rights for peace and a world free of violence, bigotry and hatred. The WSF India process not only focused on imperialist globalisation but also on the issues of religious and sectarian violence, casteism and patriarchy. It made space for all sections of society to come together and articulate their struggles and visions, individually and collectively, against the threat of neo-liberal, capitalist globalisation on one hand and uphold the secular, plural and gender sensitive framework on the other. The event brought various mass organisations, new social movements and NGOs on one platform, for the first time in recent Indian history. The WSF process was also deepened at the grassroots by initiating social forums in states, districts and towns of India. The WSF 2004 advanced the debate on concerns Indian and yet simultaneously maintain an international perspective.
In India the WSF Charter has been extended to include social and political realities, as they exist in the country today. The process in India makes space available for all sections of society, but most importantly, it makes space for all those in society that remain less visible, marginalised, unrecognised, and oppressed. This entails the opening of a dialogue within and between the broad spectrum of political parties and groups, social movements and other organisations.
The WSF-India process aims to be widespread and inclusive by allowing for a space for workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, dalits, women, hawkers, all minorities, immigrants, students, academicians, artisans, artists, the media as well as parliamentarians, sympathetic bureaucrats and other concerned sections from within and outside the state.
India General Council
The India General Council is the decision making body of the WSF India process. The membership to the IGC is open to all social movements and organisations that are committed to the WSF Charter of Principles. At the moment there are approximately 135 members in the IGC.
The India Working Committee is responsible for formulating policy guidelines that form the basis for the functioning of the WSF India process. The IWC currently consists of 67 organisations nominated from the IGC and is indicative of the diverse social, political and economic gamut. The IWC comprises of 14 national trade unions and workers’ organisations, 8 national women’s organisations, 6 national farmers’ networks, and 4 national platforms each of dalits, adivasis, 4 student and youth bodies, as well as 27 social movements, other organisations and NGOs.
* The India Organising Committee is the executive body of the WSF 2004 and is responsible for organising the event. The IOC consists of 45 individuals, each being a member of one of the eight working groups
* The Mumbai Organising Committee consists of organizations based in Mumbai that are represented in each of the functional groups.
WSF India worked closely with the International Secretariat and International Council for international mobilisation. The India Organising Committee hosted a meeting of mass organisations and other movements from Asian countries in Mumbai in June 2003. Many ideas on expanding the decision making process to include issues of mobilisation and the sharing of responsibilities, were discussed.
Programme and methodology
The Opening and Closing plenary of WSF 2004 were the events on the initial and final days of the WSF. During the four intervening days there were plenary sessions, debates, dialogues, round table discussions, seminars and workshops, and panel discussions. The public meetings and testimonials were held every evening. Various cultural events, including the arts and the performing arts, and Youth Forum ran concurrently. The main focus, and thematic axes for WSF 2004 were — Imperialist Globalisation, Patriarchy, Casteism, Racism and Social Exclusions, Religious sectarianism, Identity Politics, Fundamentalism, Militarism and Peace.
Cultural events
A functional group on Culture is co-coordinating the various cultural events was organised on each day of the WSF. These events will be designed to capture the flavour of cultural responses to the onslaught of neo-liberal globalisation and the politics of exclusion and sectarian violence. They will include various expressions of art and various forms of performing arts. Groups from all over the World will be encouraged to participate.
Communications
A website and communication system was put in place to deal with correspondence, listserves, newsletters, registration, and campaign and publicity material. The Communication and Media Group managed media and press relations and worked with the International Secretariat for international communications and publicity.
Stalls
Stalls were made available for exhibitions or for sale of books, posters, souvenirs, food, music, etc.
* US Militarist Agenda and Resistances
* Against global and permanent war
* Identities and Peoples Right to Determination
* Growing militarisation of society; impact on women
* Imperialist war and control of resources
* Role of United Nations and war
* Aggression on Iraq and consequences
* Palestine: a continuing war
Building culture of peace
* Genocides and crimes against humanity
* Global disarmament and nuclear weapons
* International law and war
* Peace, well being and regional cooperation
* Self determination and nationalities
* State terrorism: Civil and Political Rights
Media, Information, Knowledge and Culture
*Against merchandising information, culture and media
* Media concentration and loss of pluralism
* Media and the commodification of women
* Sponsorship and Censorship
* Alternate media
* War and media – manipulation of images and “embedded” journalism
*Art and social transformation
* Culture of dissent
* Role of culture: youth and the marginalised
* Privatising science and knowledge
* Community’s loss of knowledge through patenting
* Genetic Engineering, Patenting life forms
* Access to knowledge for the third world
* Information Technology: Opportunities and Challenges
* Media as an instrument of exclusion and a space for democratic struggle (social audit of old and new media, changing content and form, state-owned media vs. public broadcasting)
Democracy, Ecological and Economic Security
Debt, finance and trade
* Critical examination of the IMF, WB, WTO – Institutions of Capitalist Globalisation
* Scope of selective de-linking with respect to national development
* Breaking the power of financial markets
* Politics of Aid
* Illegitimacy and Burden of Debt
* Bilateral and regional trade, investment processes and its impacts
* NAFTA and other bilateral treaties
* Fair trade
* Participatory economics
* Solidarity Economics
* Agreement in Agriculture (AOA) and Food Sovereignty
Land, Water and Food Sovereignty
* Land and agriculture
* Privatising basic services: energy, water, transport and telecommunications
* Livelihoods and Natural resources – access, entitlements, etc.
* Climate change – Kyoto Protocol
* Bio-safety and GM foods
* Governance, accountability and peoples resources
* Dumping of hazardous wastes
* Biodiversity
* Peasantry and village economy under globalisation
* Urban development and displacement of the poor
* Feminisation of Poverty and immigration
* Innovative models of sustainable livelihoods
* Forests, Land, Air, Water: Democratic control of common goods
* Regulation and de-regulation: removing democratic controls
* Corporate Accountability
Labour and World of Work in Production and Social Reproduction
* Creating and distributing wealth differently: monetary, budgetary and fiscal policies in favour of employment
* Work and the logic of profit
* Closing of industries, relocation of production and the trade union movement
* Trade union movement and the informal and small scale sector
* Migrant labour and protectionism
* New technologies of product automation: impact on women and men workers
* End of work and other theories
* Abolishing the wage system: liberating workers or liberation from work
* Valuation of social reproduction and housework
* The trade union movement within the construction of the global social movement
Social sectors — food, health, education — and social security
* Impact of service sector liberalisation/GATS
* Entitlements, social security and the “safety net”: ensuring universal access
* Social Security, pensions and medical welfare
* The marginalized and their access to social security and the safety net
* Privatisation of and Merchandising health and education
* Child Rights
* Politics and agenda of population control and use of reproductive technologies
* Food Security of communities and households and public distribution
* Employment, Job Security, Pension Schemes, VRS
* Reproduction, Health and Sexual Rights
* Exclusions, Discrimination, Dignity, Rights and Equality
Nation, State, citizenship, law and justice
* State, Civil Society and the disadvantaged (Dalits, indigenous peoples, religious/ethnic/linguistic minorities) Changing institutional and legal frameworks for labour and peasant rights in the context of globalisation
* Loss of economic sovereignty under globalisation
* Privatisation, Liberalisation and impact on the disadvantaged
* Rise of the right, legitimisation of majoritarianism and intolerance of minorities
* Race, migration and citizenship
* Effect of globalisation on legal and institutional frameworks of decision making
* Militarising the state and erosion of civil liberties/human rights
* Disability and discrimination
* Trafficking in women and children
* Refugees, displaced persons, IDP, cross-border migration, racism and human rights
* Alternative visions, practical experiments and struggles for inclusive, plural and radical democracy
* Autonomy, separation, reconciliation
Caste, race and other forms of descent/work based exclusions
* Caste, race and other work/descent based discrimination: exclusions in the market and in governance
* Community/group specific (dalits, indigenous peoples, tribals and ethnic religious, national and other minorities): analyses of the new and emerging forms of exclusions
* Gender related exclusions and ‘double’ exclusion of women from marginalised communities
* Attack on affirmative action in education and work
* New voices in social movements
Religion, culture and identities
* Communalism — Religious sectarianism and exclusions — and religiosity
* Globalisation, homogeneity and pluralism
* Cultural imperialism and shaping subordinate identities
* Globalisation and cultural resistance
* Fundamentalism and Sexual Identities
* Reinforcement of stereotypes
Patriarchy, Gender and Sexuality
* Patriarchy and capitalism
* Law and women: the global scenario
* Personal, constitutional law and human rights
* Women and men: from equality within the law to equality in reality
* Against the sexual division of labour
* Liberty of women within society
* Forms of resurgent patriarchy
* Right to sexual orientation: from claims for rights to the assertion identities.
The meeting emphasized the idea that the WSF is much more than an isolated event. Rather it is consolidating as an ongoing process and as a movement that is spreading worldwide and obtaining growing support on every continent. The composition of the International Council in itself shows that social forces from all over the planet are increasingly making an enduring commitment to the WSF.
The International Council believes that holding an annual centralized WSF event is crucial to assisting the wide range of forces that oppose neoliberal globalization to come together and organize. Furthermore, the event itself has a large and very public impact which is energizing the movement. Lastly, the International Council decided that as the WSF takes on a worldwide character and acquires more support, there must be more mobilization in the regions to encourage more participation from all the continents.
In view of this situation, the International Council took the following decisions?
1) Continental or regional World Social Forum events will be held in the second half of this year, in different parts of the world.
2) The III World Social Forum will once again be held in Porto Alegre and on the same dates as the World Economic Forum.
3) The International Council of the WSF will play a decisive role in preparing and organizing the work of the Regional and Continental Forums and the centralized World Social Forum. This will be the main theme of the Council meeting to be held from April 28 to 30, 2002.
English text by volunteer translator Thomas Nerney
The International Council of the World Social Forum, meeting in Dakar from October 30 to November 1, 2001, mobilized an important number of African organizations and social movements which are thus becoming ever more actively involved in international movements against neoliberal globalization. This mobilization will lead to the organization of the first Africa Social Forum, in Bamako in January 2002. The proposals that will emerge from this meeting, as well as from other preparatory meetings being held in different parts of the world, will contribute enormously to the success of the World Social Forum being organized in Porto Alegre from January 31 to February 5, 2002.
This report has three parts: a synthesis of discussions on the international situation; a listing of the main decisions taken; and, in annex, projects proposed by one or more organizational members of the council.
1. Synthesis Of Discussions On The International Situation
The following text does not attempt to be all-inclusive. It simply relays some of the major discussions, without necessarily mentioning all of the viewpoints expressed. It was reiterated that, as with the WSF itself, the International Council does not speak with a single voice. As the Charter of Principles adopted in San Paolo in June 2001 reminds us, the Forum constitutes a space for dialogue and ideas that respects the diversity of those that participate in it.
The first World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, in January 2001, produce evidence of the blockages and ravages of neoliberal globalization. A space for developing and proposing alternatives on a planetary level, the WSF reinforced the desire for “another world” in many parts of the globe, as well as in Africa. It became a reference and pressure point for social struggles, and placed directors, media, governments and multilateral institutions in the service of finance markets and transnational corporations on the defensive. Unable to disavow the disastrous results of their policies, these forces have been unable to react except by attempting to criminalize social movements that oppose neoliberal fundamentalism. Since September 11 they have gone a step farther by attempting to use to their profit the emotions brought on by the criminal attacks in New York and Washington, which all of the members of the World Social Forum have unanimously condemned.
In attempting to fight against a terrorism whose deep roots they refuse to analyze and which instrumentalizes poverty, the U.S. and British governments, supported by most European governments as well as by a coalition of diverse interests, are engaged in a war whose first victim is the Afghani people.
The events of September 11 provide a useful excuse to shift focus from popular demands and to impose those of neoliberal globalization. As such, while many international conferences were cancelled, that of the World Trade Organization, scheduled for November 9 to 13 in Qatar, is maintained in spite of its proximity to the area of conflict. By enrolling the WTO in this military coalition, the commodification of the world is accelerated, and new constraints are being imposed on countries in the South, notably in the areas of investment and intellectual property rights. At the same time, governments are taking steps to curtail liberties, while corporations, citing the consequences of September 11, lay off thousands of works - even thought the beginning of the U.S. recession, and its contagious effects on the rest of the world, began almost a year ago.
The dictates of the market and of neoliberal fundamentalism and fanaticism must be rejected as firmly as one rejects dictatorial or authoritarian regimes and religious fundamentalism and fanaticism. It is only by building a more just world, free from all forms of racism, based on solidarity, respectful of womens rights, more conscious of the environment, as well as by providing just solutions to ongoing struggles and especially that of Palestine, that the conditions which give rise to terrorism will be eradicated, and in which the impulse for war can be substituted by the impulse for peace. What should prevail is not commercial and financial imperatives or the rule of the strong, but the shared values of humanity, all rights for all human beings. If globalization it is, let it be that of human rights.
In this vein, it is noteworthy that specific demands made by organizations and social movements such as those represented on the Council - in particular the abolition of tax havens, the struggle against financial speculation, the abolition of the external debt of Southern countries, government regulation of the economy and the right to affordable medicines - are currently invoked and even partially implemented by what had been until just a few weeks ago their most dedicated enemies: the leaders of the United States! Even if only in light of specific circumstances and in support of large American corporations, the “beacon” of global neoliberalism publicly demonstrates the scandalous nature of the costs it intends to impose on the rest of the planet, through the intermediaries of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. It thereby provides involuntary legitimacy to specific demands which emerged at the first World Social Forum, and encourages their deeper exploration during the second World Social Forum being organized in Porto Alegre from January 31 to February 5, 2002.
The members of the International Council of the WSF, meeting in Dakar from October 30 to November 1, 2001, renew their call to all members of the social movement, to all trade unions, to elected leaders in different countries, as well as to all representatives of major philosophical and spiritual currents, to make of Porto Alegre a time to bring together of alternative proposals to neoliberalism, as well as a springboard for struggles and a symbol of hope for all of humanity.
Orientations adopted by the International Council of the World Social Forum on its meeting on January 21st and 22nd 2003 in Porto Alegre.
The International Council of the World Social Forum adopts the following orientations to give continuity to the process of the World Social Forum after the 2003 edition of its main annual event in Porto Alegre:
1. to foster the continuity of the fundamental richness of the events in this process, which is its ample, open and plural character that works with the diversity of resistances, organisations and proposals; to that end, ensure total respect to its Charter of Principles and take the WSF as an incremental process of collective learning and growth;
2. to deepen the process of experimentation of horizontal organisational practices and systems based on co-responsibility;
3. to stimulate the multiplication of regional, national and even local events, as well as theme events, that intercommunicate horizontally and that will not be articulated as preparatory for one another but as meetings with their own political value;
4. when holding the forums, to organise discussions and the search for alternatives giving equal weight to the activities scheduled by the organisers and to the seminars and workshops proposed and organised by the participants themselves, as well as to stimulate the international character of these forums;
5. to hold the 2004 global event of the World Social Forum process in India and the 2005 global event of the World Social Forum process in Porto Alegre;
6. to turn the date of the global event of the World Social Forum process independent of the date of the World Economic Forum in Davos but keeping it always in the same month of the year; to create a “Global Day for marching against Neo-liberalism and War and for Another Possible World” in one of the days in which the Davos’ Forum is taking place;
7. to hold meetings of the Forum’s International Council (IC) in June 2003, January 2004 and June 2004 for working sessions of a longer duration and organised in work groups and floor meetings. The IC’s tasks are to evaluate, given a systematic analysis of the world situation — having a dialogue with the entities and organisations mobilised in the world against neo-liberalism, systemising the WSF process’ memory and taking support from ad hoc workgroups — the continuity of the process, to ensure the respect for its Charter of Principles when holding Regional and Theme Forums, to identify themes for the IC’s work, for the world events and for the theme Forums to be stimulated, as well as to identify regions of the world in which the process needs to expand, acting in alliance with movements and organisations from these regions;
8. enlarge the composition of the IC, integrating all the international and regional networks, movements and organisations that adhere to the Charter of Principles of the WSF and that ask for their integration, as well as representatives of the organising committees of the regional and theme forums;
9. to give continuity to the present functions of the IC’s Secretariat, progressively internationalising it, with the following functions:
• to stimulate and support regional and theme forums;
• to facilitate the holding of IC and its workgroups meetings;
• to ensure the process of communication in the WSF;
• to ensure the systematisation of the WSF process’ memory;
• to support fund raising efforts for the WSF process.
(Mumbai, India, January 2004) * We the social movements united in Assembly in the city of Mumbai, India, share the struggles of the people of India and all Asians. We reiterate our opposition to the neo-liberal system, which generates economic, social and environmental crises and produces war. Our mobilisation against war and deep social and economic injustices has served to reveal the true face of neo-liberalism.
* We are united here to organise the resistance against capitalism and to find alternatives. Our resistance began in Chiapas, Seattle and Genoa, and led to a massive world-wide mobilisation against the war in Iraq on 15th February 2003 which condemned the strategy of global, on-going war implemented by the United States government and its Allies. It is this resistance that led to the victory over the WTO in Cancun.
* The occupation of Iraq showed the whole world the existing links between militarism and the economic domination of the multinational corporations. Moreover, it also justified the reasons for our mobilisation.
* As social movements and mass organisations, we reaffirm our commitment to fight neo-liberal globalisation, imperialism, war, racism, the caste system, cultural imperialism, poverty, patriarchy, and all forms of discrimination - economic social, political, ethnic, gender, sexual – including that of sexual orientation and gender identity. We are also against all kinds of discrimination to persons with different capacities and fatal illnesses such as AIDS.
* We struggle for social justice, access to natural resources – land, water and seeds- human and citizens’ rights, participative democracy, the rights of workers of both genders as guaranteed in international treaties, women’s rights, and also the people’s right to self-determination. We are partisans of peace, international cooperation and we promote sustainable societies that are able to guarantee access to public services and basic goods. At the same time, we reject social and patriarchal violence against women.
* We call for a mass mobilisation on 8th March, International Women’s Day.
* We fight all forms of terrorism, including state terrorism. At the same time we are opposed to the use of terrorism, which criminalises popular movements and restricts civil activists. The so-called law against terrorism restricts civil rights and democratic freedom all over the world.
* We vindicate the struggle of peasants, workers, popular urban movements and all people under threat of losing their homes, jobs, land or their rights.
* We also vindicate the struggle to reverse privatisation in order to protect common, public goods, as is happening with pensions and Social Security in Europe. The victory of the massive mobilisation of the Bolivian people in defense of their natural resources, democracy and sovereignty testifies to the strength and potential of our movements. Simultaneously, peasants across the globe are struggling against multinationals and neo-liberal corporate agricultural policies, demanding sovereignty over food and democratic land reform.
* We call for unity with all peasants on 17th April, International Day of Peasants Struggles.
* We identify with the struggle of the mass movements and popular organisations in India, and together with them, we condemn the political and ideological forces, which promote violence, sectarianism, exclusion and nationalism based on religion and ethnicity. We condemn the threats, arrests, torture and assassinations of social activists who organised communities in order to struggle for global justice. We also denounce discrimination based on caste, class, religion, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. We condemn the perpetuation of violence and oppression against women through cultural, religious and traditional discriminatory practices.
* We support the efforts of mass movements and popular organisations in India and Asia, which promote the struggle for justice, equality and human rights, especially that of the Dalits, Adivasis, and the most oppressed and repressed sectors of society. The neo-liberal policy of the Indian government aggravated the marginalisation and social oppression, which the Dalits have suffered historically.
* For all these reasons we support the struggle of all the marginalised throughout the world, and urge everyone worldwide to join the call of the Dalits for a day of mobilisation for social inclusion.
* As an escape from its crisis of legitimacy, global capitalism is using force and war in order to maintain an anti-popular order. We demand that the governments put a stop to militarism, war, and military spending, and demand the closure of US military bases because they are a risk and threat to humanity and life on earth. We have to follow the example of the people of Puerto Rico who forced the US to close its base in Vieques. The opposition to global warfare remains our main object of mobilisation around the world.
* We call on all citizens of the world to mobilise simultaneously on 20th March in an international day of protest against war and the occupation of Iraq imposed by the United States, Great Britain and the Allied Forces.
* In each country, the anti-war movements are developing their own consensus and tactics in order to guarantee as wide a participation and mobilisation as possible. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all occupying troops and support the right of the Iraqi to self- determination and sovereignty, as well as their right to reparation for all the damages caused by the embargo and war.
* The struggle against terrorism not only acts as a pretext for continuing the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is also being used to threaten and attack the global community. At the same time, the US is maintaining a criminal embargo against Cuba, and destabilising Venezuela.
* We call upon all people to give maximum support this year to the mobilisation for the Palestinian people, especially on 30th March, Palestinian Land Day, against the building of the wall of apartheid.
* We denounce imperialist forces that are generating religious, ethnic, racial and tribal conflicts in order to further their own interests, increasing the suffering of the people and multiplying the hate and violence between them. More than 80 per cent of the ongoing conflicts in the world are internal and especially affect African and Asian communities.
* We denounce the unsustainable situation of debt in poor countries of the world, and the coercive use by governments, multinational corporations and international financial institutions. We strongly demand the total and unconditional cancellation and rejection of the illegitimate debts of the Third World. As a preliminary condition for the satisfaction of the fundamental economic, social, cultural and political rights, we also demand the restitution of the longstanding plunder of the Third World. We especially support the struggle of the African peoples and their social movements.
* Once again we raise our voices against the G8 Summit and the meetings of the IMF and World Bank, who bear the greatest responsibility for the plunder of entire communities.
* We reject the imposition of regional and bilateral free-trade agreements such as FTAA, NAFTA, CAFTA, AGOA, NEPAD, Euro-Med, AFTA and ASEAN.
* We are millions of persons united in the struggle against our common enemy: the WTO. The indigenous people are struggling against patents on all kinds of life forms and the theft of biodiversity, water, land. We are united in fighting the privatisation of public services and common goods.
* We call upon everybody to mobilise for the right to water as a source of life that cannot be privatised. We are endeavouring to recover control over public, common goods and natural resources, previously privatised and given to transnational enterprises and the private sector.
* In the victory at Cancun, the death of Lee symbolised the suffering of millions of peasants and poor people all over the world that are excluded by the “free market”. His immolation is a symbol for our struggle against the WTO. This proves our determination to oppose any attempt to revive the WTO.
* WTO out of agriculture, food, health, water, education, natural resources and common goods!
* With this determination in mind, we call upon all the social movement and mass organisations of the world to join the mobilisation in Hong Kong or in any other place where the WTO ministerial will be held. Let us join our efforts to struggle against privatisation, in defense of common goods, environment, agriculture, water, health, public services and education.
* In order to achieve our objectives, we reiterate our strong desire to reinforce the network of social movements and our capacity for struggle.
1. The six IC Commissions will keep working to develop their working plans, considering the following IC decisions.
2. The six Commissions will be maintained; at the same time, the IC encourages them to interlink and dialogue whenever necessary.
3. Like previous WSFs and according to the Charter of Principles, WSF 2005 will be a space open to activities self-organised by the participant organisations, according to priorities they themselves set – within the logistic limitations. It is strongly recommended that the closing date for event registration should be as early as possible.
However, in Porto Alegre 2005, our process is to take a new step towards a working methodology and WSF format that, before and during the WSF, encourage dialogue, identification of convergence in themes and strategies, interlinking and formulation of action plans, while respecting diversity and the multiplicity of aims and strategies, divergences, pluralism, diversity of opinions and all values enshrined in our Charter of Principles.
All IC members’ proposals in this regard should be sent to the Methodology and Thematic and Content Commissions as input to their work.
This is the general direction in which the Methodology and Thematic and Content Commissions should head when developing their proposals, for the next IC meeting, on how to move the process forward and what format the WSF should have in Porto Alegre.
4. For the next IC meeting, the Finance Commission is to produce a document that moves ahead in establishing our fund raising criteria.
The IC is also responsible for the deficit regarding organisation of WSF 2004, in India; proposals on how to cover it will be discussed by the Finance Commission and with the Secretariat (Brazil and India) on the basis of a detailed report on expenditure at Mumbai.
The Finance Commission is also to discuss a strategy for financing the process in the long term.
6. The IC approves the setting up of a Solidarity Fund to enable delegations of excluded groups and individuals in general with low income, fighting patriarchism and other forms of oppression, to take part both in the IC and in WSF events. The format, rules and form of administration of this Fund are to be defined at the next meeting, on the basis of a draft by the Expansion Commission in collaboration with the Finance Commission.
7. The Expansion Commission is also to:
7.1. submit to the IC broader / more detailed draft criteria for the admission of new members (expansion through the IC).
7.2. forward to the IC discussion list, before the end of February, all documentation relating to membership applications (received between Barcelona and Miami) to be considered at the next IC meeting.
7.3. to develop a policy on expanding the WSF as a process and through its events.
7.4. in collaboration with the Methodology Commission, to develop a proposal for interlinking the Thematic, Regional and World Social Forums.
8. The Strategy Commission is to present a working plan to the IC at its next meeting. At the next IC meeting, one of the sessions will be devoted to debating strategy; the agenda and methodology are to be decided by the Strategy Commission.
9. The Communication Commission is to present a plan for the next IC meeting following the arrangement systematised in Mumbai.
10. IC confirms that next WSF will be held in Porto Alegre in 2005 on the same dates as the World Economic Forum at Davos.
11. The next IC meeting will focus on dealing with the themes mentioned above. It will be strictly a working meeting. On these criteria and in order to reduce costs, it will be held in Italy, from April 5 to 7, 2004.
To surmount the problem that this venue is a disadvantage to the South in terms of travel costs, the possibility will be considered of calculating expenses on the basis that the sum of the travel costs of all confirmed participants will be divided by the total number of participants, each of whom will then pay this average value. It means that European delegates, besides paying their own fares would contribute an extra amount and delegates from the South will receive a reimbursement of part of their travel costs (whether or not this methodology is viable depends on each organisation’s administrative requirements) …
12. The IC meeting held a preliminary discussion on the frequency, rotating hosting and venue for the WSF after Porto Alegre 2005. The Methodology and Expansion Commissions are to present documents on these subjects for discussion at the next IC meeting.
13. On the accusation of rape in the South Africa delegation during WSF in Mumbai:
13.1. Women’s organisations are to draft a note to be posted on the WSF site;
13.2. World March of Women is to write a policy proposal on how to prevent and deal with cases of violence against women in WSF events or processes, which will be discussed by women’s organisations and then will be a subject for discussion at the next IC meeting.
14. IC will guarantee support for the Intercontinental Youth Camp and work to really integrate the Camp into the WSF 2005 process and event. The WSF Secretariat will discuss a plan to put this proposal into practice with the camp organising commission.
15. Considering the closing ceremonies of the last WSFs, the IC will evaluate them carefully (their function, format and goals).