By IPS Correspondents
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jan 29 2005 (IPS)

Portuguese author José Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature, condemned the ”disproportionate” protests at the World Social Forum against the president of the host country, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

But he advised the Brazilian leader against taking ”paternalistic” attitudes.

Saramago took part in a conference Saturday titled ”Quixote Today: Politics and Utopia” as part of the fifth World Social Forum, the giant civil society gathering under way in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre through Jan. 31, which has drawn around 120,000 participants.

Joining him in the panel discussion were Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, editor of the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique, Ignacio Ramonet, and Brazilian presidential secretary Luiz Dulci.

Spaniard Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former head of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), and Roberto Savio, the Italian/Argentine secretary-general of Media Watch Global and president emeritus of Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) also participated in the conference.

”Lula’s victory awakened great expectations not only in Brazil and not only in Latin America, but around the world, expectations that were largely based on the promises made,” said Saramago later, during a press conference.

Saramago criticised the ”radical” demonstrations held, which he said were ”disproportionate in relation to the cause.”

Supporters of Brazil’s far-left political parties have been protesting in Porto Alegre against the Lula administration’s proposed trade union reforms and the president’s decision to attend the World Economic Forum, a meeting of heads of state, business executives and big investors being held simultaneously with the WSF, but across the Atlantic in the luxury Swiss mountain resort of Davos.

Lula participated in a conference parallel to the Forum on Thursday, just hours before departing for Davos, and was jeered by a group of demonstrators.

Saramago didn’t limit his criticism to the protesters, however, but saved some for the Brazilian leader himself.

”I saw in the press the demonstrations (against Lula) and that he said that those taking part in the protest were the sons and daughters of the PT (the governing Workers Party) who would someday return home. I would say to President Lula that paternalism is an attitude that is not appropriate for anyone, and even less for a high-ranking politician,” said the Nobel laureate.

Some 5,000 people attended Saturday’s conference where Lula’s right-hand man Dulci was also heckled by a small group in the audience. He was accused of being an ”opportunist” because he had listed the government’s efforts in his presentation.

Galeano, renowned author of the trilogy ”Memories of Fire”, pointed out that the Lula administration ”faces the same challenge as other Latin American governments that are seeking change, and which have generated expectations of change among the younger generations.”

These governments ”have a great responsibility, because opinion polls reveal that the situation among today’s youth is pathetic…There is a very high proportion of young people who don’t have faith in democracy, and it’s not their fault: it is a logical reaction” to years of frustration, he said.

”The left, which is in power or at the gates of power in many countries, faces that immense responsibility at this time,” Galeano added.

During the conference, Saramago proposed revising the existing conceptions of ”left” and ”democracy”, and received loud applause on more than one occasion from the attentive crowd, consisting mostly of young people.

”Where is the left? Is it here? Yes, of course it’s here! But there are many who refer to it…as if they were taking the name of the lord in vain,” he said.

”Everything is debated in the world, except democracy. Democracy sits there as if it were a saint on an altar, one from which we can no longer expect miracles,” Saramago said at another point in the discussion.

For his part, Le Monde Diplomatique’s Ramonet stressed the need for the WSF to move beyond debate to concrete actions, and announced the ”Porto Alegre Manifesto”.

The manifesto calls for a series of ”planetary solidarity taxes” to fight hunger and poverty, which would by paid by rich countries and those who hold the ”biggest fortunes in the world,” Ramonet told IPS.

The text also urges cancelling the foreign debt of the poorest countries, rolling back tax havens, and ensuring universal access to potable water.

”The objective of the World Social Forum should not be to meet once a year to criticise globalisation. What we want is to change the world,” he said.

Saramago concurred with Ramonet that the time has come to shift to concrete actions, although he differed from most of his fellow panellists on their support for the concept of utopia.

”If it were possible to achieve what they refer to here as utopia, that would be wonderful, that would be useful, and we wouldn’t be calling it utopia. We’d call it development, work, determination… nothing more. We wouldn’t call it utopia,” he said.

”The only thing we have for sure is tomorrow. And if the Forum launches concrete proposals, there indeed we would have the basis for a ‘now’, and we wouldn’t be talking about utopias,” said the Nobel laureate.

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