DEVELOPMENT: World Social Forum a Boost for Peace Movement

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 20 (IPS) - Peace has gathered strength among the slogans of the World Social Forum, which gets under way Thursday, reflecting the global turning point that activists say has arrived as a result of the United States' combative reaction to the Sep 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

One example is the additional thematic area -- ”Democratic world order, fighting militarisation and promoting peace” -- of the agenda of this third edition of the World Social Forum (WSF), which runs Jan 23-28 in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

In the two prior years of the Forum, both also held in Porto Alegre, there were just four thematic pillars encompassing the hundreds of events that drew intellectuals and representatives of non-governmental groups, social movements and leftist parties from around the world seeking to prove that ”another world is possible.”

Some of the questions to be taken up by the six panel discussions scheduled for this year's peace theme will be: how to confront U.S. hegemony, the ”empire” and unilateralism; how to coordinate anti-militarisation movements; and what are possible peaceful solutions for certain international conflicts.

Amy Goodman, of Pacifica Radio and an activist in the U.S. peace movement, Indian admiral L. Ramdas, of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, and Alfio Nicotra, of the Italian Anti-War Movement will be among the panellists appearing.

Peace has always been a central issue of the WSF because it is ”indispensable for a sustainable and just world,” but now ”it has gained prominence because of the existing climate of terror and war,” Cándido Grzybowski, member of the Porto Alegre Forum organising committee, said in a conversation with IPS.

The inaugural march of the WSF III, which is expected to draw 100,000 participants, will be an anti-war demonstration, said Grzybowski, who is also director of the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis.

He noted that the world peace movement has been reactivated, evident in protests around the globe on the weekend.

In addition to the panels on world peace, a seminar is scheduled called ”How to confront the empire”, with a presentation by U.S. intellectual Noam Chomsky, as well as the seminar, ”Against militarisation”, and a roundtable of ”dialogue and controversy” titled ”In opposition to the 21st century wars, how do we build peace among peoples?”

The World Education Forum, which began Sunday evening in Porto Alegre, has also adopted the pacifist stance.

The coordinator of this parallel forum, Eliezer Pacheco, launched the meeting with the slogan ”No to war!” He said in his opening speech that now is a time of hope, due to the Jan 1 inauguration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the leftist Workers Party (PT).

But it is also a time of fear, said Pacheco, ”because of the bellicose and aggressive policies” of the United States.

Former president of Portugal, Mario Soares, and Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Souza Santos will present in Porto Alegre a ”Manifesto for peace and against war”, signed by personalities from all ideological currents.

The document from Portugal condemns ”the propaganda of war” and the measures of repression and censorship that threaten the rights and freedoms of the people under the pretext of a war against terrorism.

The signatories of the manifesto range from the historic leader of Portugal's political right, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, to the country's Nobel Literature laureate José Saramago.

In the text, concern is evident about an imminent attack of the United States against Iraq, about the support of some European leaders for Washington's hawkish position, and the possibility that Portugal might send troops to take part in the war.

Current tensions, based on the threat of a far-reaching military operations against Iraq without the mandate of the United Nations Security Council, underscore the theme of one of the 37 WSF panels, titled ”World Order: sovereignty and the role of governments and the United Nations”.

Called into question are international institutions and their lack of power when it comes to conflict, say organisers.

Another focus will be to propose alternatives so that financial and trade institutions contribute towards a more balanced development worldwide.

But there are seemingly endless issues that will be discussed by the expected 100,000 participants in this third WSF, with 29.704 delegates registered representing 4.962 organisations from 121 countries.

The largest foreign delegation will be that of the United States, with nearly 1,000 people, twice the size of the U.S. delegation at last year's Forum. A large portion are activists in that country's peace movement.

Economic development, environmental sustainability, foreign debt, human rights, respect for diversity, migration, hunger, access to freshwater, democratisation of communications, new social movements and cultural resistance are just some of the discussions that could be drowned out by the sheer number of debates -- but also by the anti-war issue. (END/2003)