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Viewpoint
After 26 years
World Social Forum at a crossroads
03/2003
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World Social Forum at a crossroads
By Ann Kathrin Schneider
The World Social Forum took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the third time at the end of January. More people than ever took part in this year's event, which also drew more public attention around the world than ever before. But at the same time this success also contains a problem. The World Social Forum is being dominated more and more by the show, while the hard graft on political and economic alternatives is taking a back seat.
This year's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, January 23-27, topped all events of the anti-globalisation movement to date. A total of 100,000 participants, almost twice as many as last year, spent five days celebrating themselves, their idols and ideas and mutually reaffirming their opposition to American "imperialism". But when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez invoked the rebirth of the Latin American Left by pointing out the election victories in Brazil and Ecuador, Fidel Castro's hold on power in Cuba, and not least his own politics, he unintentionally drew attention to a central problem of the Forum. One may celebrate it as the renaissance of the Left or as a sign of a strengthening anti-globalisation movement – but the bigger the World Social Forum becomes and the greater the attention it arouses outside the movement, the more superficial it threatens to become and thus more vulnerable to misuse by populists who jump on the bandwagon.
Porto Alegre 2003 with its mass events and focus on big names and polarising statements had more a manifestative character than a creative one. The speech by Lula, huge demonstrations against a pan-American free trade agreement, and addresses by stars of the scene such as Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy to an audience of 15,000 characterised this year's World Social Forum. Compared to these colourful and loud big events, the quiet, unspectacular form of conceptual political work faded into the background.
But also this year in Porto Alegre, much hard work certainly went into political and economic alternatives behind the scenes. For instance, debt relief initiatives from around the world met and discussed how a more extensive relief programme could be implemented and pressure on creditors stepped up. There were also talks on practical possibilities of stemming tax evasion and on strategies in the fight against the structural adjustment policy of the international finance institutions. Women from all over the world met to discuss how the gender approach could be integrated in the anti-globalisation movement. Much more radical approaches were also discussed, such as alternative forms of economic and daily life. And the developing countries were called upon to break entirely with the IMF.
Porto Alegre was a meeting place at which individuals came together and could feel solidarity and strength in their common opposition to war, foreign rule and the dominance of the market. The emotional mass demonstrations did much to contribute to this feeling, and in that respect they also have an important function. And it turned out to be a step in the right direction that the World Social Forum next year will take place in Hyderabad, India – and will probably be somewhat smaller again.
Ann Kathrin Schneider is Project Adviser for International Finance Institutions at the German NGO World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED).
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