World Social Forum: Peace, Health and Little Violence

Clarinha Glock

While the 15,230 delegates representing 4,909 organisations from 131 countries debated alternatives for globalisation and urged an end to wars as they gathered at the conferences and seminars of the II WSF, a multitude of anonymous people worked behind the scenes. Their task: to ensure peace at an event that officially drew 51,300 participants to Porto Alegre (though estimates put the number higher due to the influx of people in the last days of the Forum).

There were 11,600 people registered at the Intercontinental Youth Camp, but others came as visitors to join those in the 4,500 tents, leading organisers to estimate the total at closer to 16,000.

On the 15-hectare campus of the PUC, where most of the WSF meetings took place, 45 people were involved in general services, such as moving the support equipment, chairs and tables. Another 130 worked in clean-up and janitorial tasks, an effort that yielded 800 bags of garbage per day. The restrooms at the PUC Event Centre, always impeccably clean, were testimony to the great number of people participating in the WSF: 3,200 rolls of toilet paper were used on each day of the event, according to the team co-ordinated by the university prefecture's Rogério Bianchini Dias.

Some unusual situations arose during the WSF, says police inspector Marcelo Carbone, of the Civil Police Special Operations Unit, which had an office set up at Building 16. The families of two French women contacted the French Consulate asking for help in locating them because several days had passed without any news of their whereabouts. It took one day and a great deal of work for the inspector to track down the two, who were - fortunately - just fine and enjoying themselves at the conferences and workshops.

Carbone, who is also a paramedic, took one person suffering a heart attack to the PUC's Sao Lucas Hospital, across the Arroio Dilúvio from campus. Luckily, the quick medical attention prevented the worst. The police post had work to do, with 10 or 11 cases a day, though most involved lost documents, including passports, though there were also reports of theft.

The first-aid post also kept busy at its location at Building 16. From Feb 1 to midday Feb 5, some 270 sought medical attention. Eight people with suspected cases of dengue were sent to the Sao Lucas Hospital for testing. Another suspected dengue case was registered at the Youth Camp. Cuts, sprains, headaches, blood pressure problems and food poisoning meant there little idle time for medical technician Priscilla Fittipaldi, at her PUC station throughout the WSF.

Although most of the demonstrations that took place during the WSF were peaceful, memories of the event also include some strange and sad scenes - but which did not shake the general calm of the six-day gathering.

The tragic side involved the attempted armed robbery of a safe at one of the banks set up in PUC's building 40 on Feb 3. In the exchange of gunfire, one of the robbers died. The next day, radical protesters invaded and vandalised the VIP lounge - a protest that most WSF participants considered incomprehensible.

At a workshop on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent, France's minister of Youth and Sports, Marie-George Buffet, who is also a leader of the French Communist Party, received a pie in the face from a group of young French activists.

And a group of 'punks' tried twice to disrupt Porto Alegre. The first incident occurred during the opening WSF march, when they detoured from the main route and blocked the street for several minutes. Then, on the evening of Feb 4, the police arrested a masked group they identified as 'punks' on Siquiera Campos Avenue. The detainees were found with Molotov cocktails, knives and stones.

'These illegal acts were of limited offensive potential,' said Col. Ilson Pinto de Oliveira, with the Capital Police Force and in charge of security during the WSF. The number of officers deployed included 850 more than the 450 normally on duty. The population may not have realised it, but an organised 'sacrifice' was made to ensure their general welfare: some agents had their vacations suspended for five days and their overtime extended.

The Federal Police were deployed in some instances to ensure the safety of some of the renowned personalities at the WSF, said Rubem Albino Fockink, superintendent of the force in Rio Grande do Sul. At the request of Porto Alegre mayor Tarso Genro, federal agents were present during the Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion held just prior to the WSF. Beyond the 25 to 30 police who alternated shifts, another 30 were on call to take action if needed at any other events of the WSF.

The largest security contingent was deployed for Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón, though Fockink did not reveal the exact number. The mayors of Rome and of Paris also received special protection.

The federal police superintendent said that the number of agents at Porto Alegre's Salgado Filho International Airport was doubled for the duration of the WSF to watch over international flights, 'but fortunately everything was very calm.'