World Social Forum 2005: An Irish Eyewitness Report

international | rights, freedoms and repression | feature

Friday February 11, 2005 18:05

by Rory Hearne - Irish Anti War Movement / SWP

hearner at yahoo dot co dot uk

The Movement Deepens - Mere Gestures on Poverty from Bush, Blair and Lula Will Not Suffice

The fifth World Social Forum (WSF) which took place last week in Porto Alegre, Brazil was a vital event for all those who are concerned with the state of the World. The WSF showed clearly that five years on from the Seattle protests, the ‘alter-globalisation’ movement continues to grow in strength and importance. 120,000 registered for the forum, almost 200,000 took part in the opening march and 352 proposals and calls for action came out of the more than 2000 panels and workshops that took place.

The fifth WSF was an inspirational event. In this piece I write about three important issues that capture that inspiration and also address the question of where do the movements go from here? They are firstly, the important diversity and strength of the movement shown in the opening demonstration, the call that came from the final assembly for global action on March 19th against the occupation of Iraq and finally, the debate over the future direction and strategy of the WSF movement.

Diversity and Strength of the Movement- Lets Keep it Growing

The opening demonstration was a clear manifestation of the important diversity and strength of the movement. Almost 200,000 people took part in the march. It was a sea of colour and noise, united in chanting ‘um otro mundo e possivel’ (another world is possible!). There were gay and lesbian groups, trade unions and workers such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the World Trade Union Forum with its banner ‘workers unite in solidarity for a fair world’. Also there, were Christian peace groups, indigenous peoples from Latin America and Asia (most visible were the Dalits from India), NGOs like Action Aid, student groups, anti-war movements, African movements against the debt and women’s organisations. The popular support amongst Brazilians for the forum was visible from the banners they hung from their windows and bridges and, beautifully, an old couple who leaned out of their apartment window banging pots and pans in solidarity with the marchers below.

It is vital that everyone continues to build this movement as diverse and united as possible so that we can continue and strengthen the global offensive against neo-liberalism. There will be many opportunities in the near future to do this here in Ireland and abroad. Examples include the mobilisations on March 19th, the mobilisation against Bush and the G8 Summit in Scotland in July (see http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk) and opposing the EU Constitutional referendum. Internationally, the movement will also be mobilising for the Summit of the American Governments in November in Argentina and against the meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong in December.

March 19th- Global Day of Action-Troops Out Now-No More Wars

Secondly, the final assembly of the social movements which involved campaigners and activists from all five continents made a call for the “people in every country to mobilise for a global day of action against war on March 19th demanding troops out of Iraq now and no more wars”(see http://www.focusweb.org for details of the call). Over 30 countries are already committed to participating, including Iraq, Palestine, Argentina, Brazil, India, US (400 cities), Italy, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Poland, Venezuela and many more.

A similar call was made in January 2003 for global action on February 15th 2003 which resulted in a historic day where over 40 million marched against war. Medea Benjamin, (Global Exchange and United for Peace and Justice) from the USA said at the assembly, “a country like the US that sends its young people particularly the poor and immigrants to fight a war based on lies is decaying from within. A country spending €270 million a day on a war in Iraq when we are closing our schools and hospitals at home is decaying from within. We are working together to have the empire decay from within and from resistance outside. On March 19th the organisation I represent United for Peace and Justice with over 1000 organisations as part of it – will get 1 million people on the streets in over 500 US cities to protest against the occupation of Iraq, Palestine and empire.”

Here in Ireland the Irish Anti-War Movement is encouraging everyone to march in Dublin and Belfast on March 19th against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine and for and end to US military landing at Shannon airport (see www.irishantiwar.org).

Which way now for the Movement

Finally, there was a clear difference of perspectives over the future direction of the movement. Some organisers of the WSF such as Bernard Cassan (Campaign for the Tobin Tax, France) and prominent NGOs want the movement to focus on pressurising government leaders like Bush, Blair and Lula (President of Brazil) into signing the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). They want to avoid the movement focussing on the war and uniting the struggles together, whether in opposition to Lula’s reforms or to capitalism itself. They organised the forum according to the principle of horizontal self-organised zones. This meant that the venues were some distance apart geographically and each one discussed only one individual theme over the entire week. This limited the possibilities of campaigners against poverty, the environment and indigenous movements uniting with, for example anti-war and anti-capitalists into common struggles and critiques. There were only two large rallies where such unity of purpose could have been forged. Both, however, were the very tightly organised and controlled rallies of the political leaders Lula and Chavez. Interestingly WSF principles state that political parties and representatives are not supposed to be given official representation at the forum. Chris Nineham and Alex Callincos from the UK wrote about this after the fifth WSF;

“The famous 'Porto Alegre Charter' - the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum - bans 'party representations' from participating and forbids social forums to take decisions. The prominence of the parties of the radical left at the European Social Forums in Florence and London was strongly criticized for violating the Charter. How then to justify the fact that, on the day the WSF proper began, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed what was notionally a seminar, but was really a mass rally of the ruling Workers Party (PT), within the WSF? Lula is not only leader of the PT, but President of the Republic of Brazil. His participation in the Forum doesn’t seem very 'horizontal'. In our view it was a mistake to impose a ban on parties, since political organizations are inextricably intermingled with social movements and articulate different strategies and visions that are a legitimate contribution to the debates that take place in the social forums. In fact, the Porto Alegre Charter has always been circumvented, but the Lula rally has made the resulting hypocrisy absolutely flagrant. It would surely be more honest to amend or scrap this tattered ban”.

Indeed some of the leading intellectuals and organisers of the WSF broke the consensus, horizontal, open space model of the WSF and issued a statement on democracy, debt and the Tobin tax that appeared to be on behalf of the forum.

A Deepening Radicalisation Cannot be Avoided

However, this attempt to channel the movement towards simply pressurising heads of government did not dampen the increasing radicalisation at the base of the movement. Considerable work by anti-war activists from the UK, Greece, the Philippines and the USA meant that the main call from the assembly of the social movements was the call for the global day of action on March 19th against the US occupation of Iraq. When one talked to many participants at the forum and observed the opening demonstration and the meeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, it was clear that those at the base of the movement felt that gestures from government leaders will not be enough to end poverty. They said that in order to end poverty, it is necessary for the masses of people and workers to struggle themselves, rather than relying on heads of state, to end war, neo-liberalism and ultimately replace capitalism. They talked about their disillusionment with Lula’s unfulfilled promises of action on poverty and hunger and asked how could Bush and Blair, responsible for the murder of over 100,000 innocent people in Iraq be serious about ending poverty?

This sentiment was visible throughout the forum, among the 200,000 people took part in the opening demonstration and the 25,000 who filled the youth camp. It was visible in the contributions from the MST (the landless peasants and workers movement of Brazil), in the spontaneous demonstrations against the war and the occupation of Palestine; in the meetings where thousands, young and old, sat and stood in 40 degree heat to debate and discuss poverty, power and revolution and, in the tens of thousands who queued for hours to hear Brazilian President Lula, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speak.

Lula and Chavez –Two Different Worlds

Thousands of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) faithful were bussed in to the Gigantinho Stadium before he spoke. The gates were closed when the stadium was only three-quarters full but thousands more still queued outside. Chants of ‘ole, ole, ole, ole, Lula, Lula’ rang around the stadium but were not unanimously supported and 200 or so activists booed Lula’s entire speech. Lula was defensive and he condescendingly turned to those booing and said ‘you are immature, and will grow up and then we will be waiting for you to come back to us” There is growing disillusionment with Lula’s PT government. It has broken promises made before its election just over two years ago, signing an agreement with the IMF, attacking pension rights and backing the employers in a bitter strike of bank workers. A number of deputies expelled from the PT have formed a new party: P-SOL, that was very visible throughout the WSF. Despite all this it was obvious that Lula still commands huge respect and support from the workers and poor of Brazil.

Chavez, Chavez

However, it was at the meeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the grass roots anti-capitalist sentiment was most visible. 20,000 people, predominantly young packed the stadium (which should put lie to those who describe all young people today as ‘apathetic youth’). Their radical and anti-imperialist chants rang around the stadium before he arrived. They sang; ‘ole, ole, ole, ole, Chavez, Chavez’; and in reference to Lula’s recent education and workers legislation reforms: “1,2,3,4,5..1000..Stop the reforms or we will shut down Brazil”. A large section of the audience chanted, “Lula nao, Chavez si” (Lula no, Chavez yes), to booing from some other sections, showing that you can criticise his reforms but not Lula himself.

A Break with Neo-Liberal Capitalism

They demanded not mere reforms but a break with neo-liberal capitalism. The 20,000 voices joined in unison singing the Internationale. Hugo Chavez’s speech was much more left-wing than Lula’s, even though he said that each country in Latin America had to proceed according to its own conditions. He also showed a worrying attitude towards some other regimes, saying: ‘there is a good president in Russia, Mr. Putin’, and when he uncritically praised China's fast economic growth.

This aside, Chavez is undoubtedly the Latin American leader most in touch with the new movements of resistance against neo-liberalism and imperialism in Latin America.. He said in his speech “We must reclaim socialism as a thesis, a project and a path, but a new type of socialism, a humanist one which puts humans, and not machines or the state ahead of everything. That’s the debate we must promote around the world.”

His aim is to use a block of poorer governments as a lever against US power. He wants to build up unions and civil society to support his reforms in Venezuela. These reforms have, however, been very ‘top-down’ in their approach. While Chavez’ anti-imperialist stance and social reforms should be supported, the growth of independent movements of the poor and workers is necessary so that when Chavez or other leaders bow to neo-liberal pressure or when US imperialism intervenes, there is an organised force of workers to resist and build a new world from the bottom up.

Conclusion

The World Social Forum continues to be an inspiration for all those struggling against neo-liberalism and imperialism around the world. It is a vital space for the movements to come together and show our strength, forge common actions, learn from practical experiences and discuss strategy and the politics of hope and resistance. We must therefore continue to build and support social forums around the world like the WSF and ESF.

There are clearly divergent views over the future strategy for the movement. These are vital debates that need to be discussed openly.

Our common enemies imperialism and neo-liberalism have lost all legitimacy. They have the lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the worlds population. The World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are failures. But they are far from defeated. We should support and build the common actions like the G8 mobilisation in Scotland called by the Global Call for Action against Poverty. But we should not simply ask the global leaders to wear white ribbons and make nicely worded statements on poverty. Many of those who organised the WSF clearly want our movement to focus its energy on such calls that quite explicitly support social liberal governments like Lula and Blair. But these leaders have shown through their actions in Iraq or through the Lula government sending troops to Haiti that any kind words uttered are only a diversion from the reality.

These leaders are liars, mass murderers and serve only the interests of the rich and powerful. Those at the base of the movements see this clearly and are clamouring for much more than words. As a representative from the MST (movement of workers and peasants without land) said to me: “We are in opposition to the current government of president Lula because they are implementing anti-worker policies, they have not met their promises from before the elections. Our struggle by workers and peasants is a fight not just against the Brazilian economic system but against capitalism which is the source of our problems.”

By Rory Hearne

Delegate from the Irish Anti War Movement to the recent World Social Forum. He is also deputy president of USI (Union of Students in Ireland) and member of the Socialist Workers Party. Views expressed are his own. A documentary of the Forum is being made and I will be available to introduce it at public events etc.

Contact: hearner@yahoo.co.uk