See You Later, Porto Alegre!

By Adalberto Marcondes

The great Tower of Babel of the WSF says "goodbye" to Porto Alegre, but it is really just "see you soon", since in 2004 the global social movements will be meeting again in India. This was the great Forum of hope, especially due to the bridge built by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva between the hot tropical debates in Porto Alegre and the cold surrounding the halls in Davos, Switzerland. "We must tear down the walls that separate those who have everything from those who have nothing," Lula told those up atop the Davos magic mountain as they paid homage to the gods of the Market.

In the past week, more than 100,000 people, mostly young, debated, shared their problems, pointed out solutions and consolidated in their minds and hearts the idea that another, completely different world, is possible.

The presence in Porto Alegre of almost 4,000 journalists from around the world attracted Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who continues his search for a global spotlight from which he can try to explain the confusion and chaos that have hit his country. Even without being formally invited to the WSF, Chávez managed to talk to journalists, but only outside the official Forum venues.

Porto Alegre has raised its voice to the world, sending a message against war, injustice, and social inequalities. Portugal's former president Mario Soares has pleaded for support for the UN as the only way to preserve peace. It is unacceptable, he says, that the United States has abandoned the multilateralism that was built during the last decades in favour of retrograde, imperialistic actions. But one must not mistake the American people for the government that rules the country, he adds.

This year, despite the apparent anarchy, the WSF organisers managed to open space for all social movements. The hundreds of classrooms at PUC, Gigantinho, the port warehouses, and many other spaces in the city of Porto Alegre were set aside for talk against hunger, war, gender discrimination, and in favour of minorities and justice, as well as for protests and demonstrations of all kinds. The same message echoed everywhere: The world must hear us!

And that is what happened, according to Claudio Grzybowski, one of the WSF organisers, and coordinator of Ibase. "Our greatest victory this year is that the world has heard us out," he said. "The Forum is an arena for proposals from the whole of civil society, and a lot of what has been discussed in 2002 is part of Lula's government plan," says Grzybowski. Another organizer, Ignácio Ramonet, believes the results of this Forum will materialize during the coming months, when everything that has been discussed will be organized in documents and proposals that will be sent to governments, NGOs, political parties, unions, and other social bodies. But he sees the main message of the Forum to the world is: No war!

The WSF managed to subvert the global debate agenda. It was created as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but this year it clearly made that Forum of the powerful look southwards. According to U.S. linguist and international expert Noam Chomsky, Davos is discussing the crisis of confidence afflicting its own model, whereas Porto Alegre shows an impressive liveliness.

The WSF has also shown that the South is thinking about itself, about its own models. Throughout the demonstrations, the message became increasingly clearer that corruption, inequality and injustice, which are so commonplace south of the Equator, will not be tolerated by civil society. The debates have ended, but now everyone has their homework to do.