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WSF India Process and Event 2003



WSF – A Brief Background
The World Social Forum developed as a response of the growing international movement to neo-liberal economic policies being pursued in most countries and capitalist led globalisation. For decades, international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been making decisions that affect the lives of people all over the world, without being subject to any sort of democratic control. People in Third World countries, as well as the poor and excluded sectors of industrialised countries suffer the devastating effects of economic globalisation and the dictatorship of international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the governments that serve their interests.
The World Social Forum was conceived as an international forum against neo-liberal policies and capitalist led globalisation build around the slogan: “Another World Is Possible”. It seeks to provide a space for discussing alternatives, for exchanging experiences and for strengthening alliances between social movements, unions of the working people and NGOs. The first WSF was held in January, 2001, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was timed to coincide with the holding of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Every year since 1971, an exclusive club of chief executives of the world's largest and most influential trans-national corporations meets with academics and political leaders in the Swiss resort town of Davos, to chart the global economic agenda. The WSF was thus seen also seen as a counterweight to the options proposed by the World Economic Forum.
The first WSF in 2001 saw the participation of approx. 20,000 people (of whom 4,702 were registered delegates) representing over 500 national and international organisations from more than 100 countries. Seeing the success and enthusiasm generated, it was decided that the WSF would become an annual event. The second WSF held in Jan./Feb. 2002 was an even larger event. It saw the participation of 15,000 registered delegates and a total of some 55,000 people from 131 countries.
The decision to hold the Forum in Brazil was also significant. While on one hand Brazil is one the countries that has been greatly affected by neo-liberal policies, on the other hand, different sectors of Brazilian society are resisting these policies, in rural and urban areas, in shantytowns, factories, political parties, churches, schools, etc. The richness of Brazilian grassroots organisations represented a source of inspiration for the development of the World Social Forum. Porto Alegre itself is situated in the southernmost province of Brazil, and the pro-left government of the province and the city’s mayor supported the Forum in many ways. The WSF was locally hosted and organised by a Brazilian committee consisting of:
ABONG – Non Governmental Organisations Brazilian Association;
ATTAC – Citizens Support by Financial Transactions Tributation Action;
CBJP – Justice & Peace Brazilian Committee;
CIVES –Brazilian Entrepreneurs Association for the Citizenship;
CUT – Central United Workers;
IBASE – Brazilian Institute of Socio Economical Analysis;
CJG -- Global Justice Centre;
MST -- Landless Rural Workers Movement.
The Brazilian Committee is assisted by an International Committee.
The World Social Forum is not an organisation, not a united front platform, but “…an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society centred on the human person”. (From the WSF Charter of Principles).
Neither does the WSF does have a common political manifesto on which all those who participate have to agree. The basis of the World Social Forum is anti-imperialism, anti neo-liberalism, and the conviction that ‘another world is possible’. The basic idea is the creation of a space for everyone to come together with a respect for that space. The WSF process includes different trends. There are those, for example, who say that a reform of the WTO and the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and IMF) is possible, and there are those who believe that reforming them is impossible and that a more basic and systemic change is necessary. There are those who propose dialogue, and others who believe only in confrontation.
WSF in India
The International Committee of the World Social Forum and the Brazil Organising Committee have decided that from this year (2002) onwards, the annual global WSF meeting will be accompanied by regional, continental, and/or thematic Forums across the globe. While the main WSF event will be held in 2003 January in Porto Alegre again, there is a proposal that the 2004 event shall be held outside Brazil. Though a final decision is yet to be taken on this, there is a possibility of holding the event in India in 2004.
In line with the WSF International Committee’s call, the WSF in India is proposing to hold a national level conference in December 2002, as a prelude to the next World Social Forum global meeting in January 2003 in Porto Alegre. The scope of this event can also be enlarged so that it does not remain an Indian event, but becomes a South Asian or an Asian Regional event that is held in India. Moreover, if the WSF International Council so decides, then the global World Social Forum meeting of January 2004 may also be held in India.
These proposals to build a WSF process in India, is a great opportunity and challenge to people’s movements, and other organisations in the country that have been campaigning against neo-liberal economic policies and capitalist led globalisation.
Organisational Structure
With a view to organising the WSF India event (which may extend to a South or an Asian event) consultations have been held that involve a large number of organisations and groups. These consultations culminated in a meeting in Bhopal on April 19-21, where a broad structure to facilitate the WSF India process was constituted. It included the formation of a 23 member India Working Committee (IWC) that represents a large number of organisations. The IWC will be further enlarged (to possibly 50-60 members) as more organisations are involved. As a first step towards this end, regional Consultations are being planned across the country in May. The venue for the December 2002 event in India is expected to be decided by the time the IWC holds its second meeting on 25th May. The Secretariat for the IWC is functioning from Delhi.
The WSF India Event A Brief Overview
The organisation of the theme Conference and allied Seminars and workshops will involve working out of the themes, preparing the detailed programme, contacting speakers, contacting other organisations, and ensuring that background papers, etc., are written. It shall also involve planning of logistics, viz. Invitations to resource persons and delegates. In case the December event is a South East Asian event, co-ordination will be necessary with the International Committee of the India Working Committee (IWC) for the WSF India process. It is expected that participants shall bear their own cost of travel and accommodation, and money will have to be mobilised for the resource persons only. The host organisation of the WSF event in January 2003 will make available the venue its logistics, and the facilities of the venue. All other logistics and resources will have to be planned and mobilised by organisations taking responsibility of a particular theme. In turn the organisation which takes the responsibility for a theme can assign responsibilities for organising different elements that are covered by the theme, viz., specific workshops, seminars, etc. Such responsibilities assigned will include responsibility to mobilise resources too. The process has to be inclusive and proposals of any partner organisations to organise specific workshops/ seminars would have to be within the broad outlook of the WSF process.
Initiating the Process in India
The World Social Forum is conceived as an open meeting place by groups and movements that are opposed to neo-liberalism and imperialism. In India many groups have expressed the need to innovate on the present structure of the WSF process, while retaining its essence. It is being proposed that the Indian event, drawing upon experiences in the country regarding the mounting of large campaigns that touch as large a section of the people as possible, would not limit itself to the planning of a large event. Rather the event itself would be seen as the culmination of a process that reaches out and involves large numbers from diverse sections.
The way the Indian event is conceived, the process of organising events and activities across the country is seen to be as important as the final event itself. These events and activities are not to be seen as merely an exercise to mobilise for the final event, but as important contributions to the output of the WSF process. These processes, in the spirit of the WSF, would be open, inclusive and flexible and designed to build capabilities of local groups and movements and also seeking to leverage on the individual strengths of such groups and movements. Moreover the process should be designed to seek and draw out peoples’ perceptions regarding the impact of neo-liberal economic policies and imperialism on their daily lives. The language of dissent and resistance towards these will have to be informed by local idioms and forms.