Civil Society, Development & Aid, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, World Social Forum

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Raucous Return to Porto Alegre

Raúl Pierri

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jan 27 2005 (IPS) - Traffic ground to a halt and bus passengers asked each other what was going on. The sound of drums broke through the routine noises of the afternoon, prompting office workers to look out their windows upon a sea of flags waving in rhythm. Then it was obvious: the World Social Forum had returned to its birthplace.

The beat of the drums filled downtown Porto Alegre. The southern Brazilian city is already familiar with what this is all about. Once again, thousands of activists, students and trade unionists from all parts of the world were marching down the street chanting slogans of all stripes.

After making a departure last year, moving to Mumbai, India, the WSF returned to the place it began.

The “March for Peace” marked the launch Wednesday of the fifth annual WSF, the massive gathering of international civil society which this year is estimated to have drawn 120,000 people for discussion, debate and fun through Monday, Jan. 31.

The countless placards bobbing through the crowd expressed the hopes and the protests of the marchers. Under a blazing sun, they condemned the Free Trade Area of the Americas, neoliberal economic policies, the war in Iraq and the U.S. administration of George W. Bush.

It all looked and sounded familiar. And in the middle of the commotion, a Nobel Peace laureate: “I hope that this year there is a qualitative leap in comparison to the previous Forums, and progress in defining strategies for putting ideas into practice. The diagnosis has been made. Now we need to design the actions,” said Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who was awarded the 1980 Nobel for his human rights efforts under Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

“We need to make proposals to deal with specific challenges, like the foreign debt or the reform of global organisations like the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, which are perverse and do not represent the people,” he said in a conversation with IPS.

The fifth WSF aims to set precedents in just about every way imaginable. The programme contains some 2,000 events proposed by 5,700 organisations, and divided amongst 11 thematic lines. A truly multicultural, multilingual event, volunteer translators are providing interpreting services in 16 languages, including Quechua, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesian and Wolof from Africa.

More than 2,800 volunteers are helping with the many events, plus the 100 concerts, 41 plays, 13 dance exhibitions and 85 art expositions that are taking place in what has been dubbed the “World Social Territory”.

This territory covers 150,000 square metres of venues constructed from bio-recycled materials, an area equivalent to 18 football stadiums, stretching over four kilometres along the banks of the Guaíba River.

Since its first edition in 2001, the World Social Forum has been held in Porto Alegre, with the exception of last year, when it took place in Mumbai. The effort to take this mega-event to other parts of the developing South will be repeated in 2007, when a sub-Saharan African country will play host.

For 2006, there will be another departure, with simultaneous regional forums staged in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, instead of one central location.

Amidst the songs and slogans of Wednesday’s march, Pérez Esquivel underscored the need to make headway in the “coordination of strategies” to “truly defend the excluded,” and not be left with mere words.

“Are we just going to keep complaining?” he wondered as he observed a gathering of protesters in downtown Porto Alegre.

Just hours earlier, a smiling Luiz Dulzi, government minister speaking on behalf of Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had addressed a Porto Alegre press conference, vindicating the role of the WSF as the principal space for civil society debate on the top issues of concern to the world.

“Collective reflection is essential for social transformation. There is no transformation without reflection. All exchange of ideas or public debate is important in and of itself. But the WSF also brings together a great deal of practical and innovative experiences,” he said.

However, Nobel laureate Pérez Esquivel is looking for more concrete action. He, for one, is promoting a campaign to demand the annulment of foreign debt for countries of the developing South.

Under the gaze of the police along their route, the marchers headed to the Pôr-do-Sol for the WSF’s inaugural concert, with performances by Brazilian musician and minister of culture Gilberto Gil, and Spanish-French rock star Manu Chau, among others.

The day’s march also took some critical shots at the leader of the WSF host country, President Lula, of the leftist Workers Party, who will make a stop in Porto Alegre before heading to the “other” international meet, the World Economic Forum of heads of state and corporate executives, under way in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos.

“What treason, what a sad thing. This former metal worker working for the elite,” chanted members of the PSTU (Socialist Party Unified Workers), carrying a giant puppet of the Brazilian head of state wearing a banner that said, “Lula is a traitor”.

Some of the president’s supporters became upset and booed the slogan. “I don’t agree with them. This is not what the World Social Forum is for. They are taking advantage of the demonstration,” João Ribeiro told IPS as he proudly raised his flag of the governing Workers Party.