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Globalization is not the only viable economic ideal available to humanity. The
possibility of a world social & economic order that is markedly different from
what currently prevails i.e. establishment of a global civil society is the
vision & common purpose of World Social Forum.
Over 1,00,000 activists from as may as 130 countries representing Anarchists &
free thinkers, Socialists, Gandhians & anti-imperialists, Human Rights Advocates
& social workers, Economists & Social Rights Activists assembled in Mumbai from
16-21 Jan, 2004 to voice their global dissent against US inspired Globalization
& Privatization & Corporatisation.
Begin in Porto Alegre in Brazil in Jan 2004; the march to truly broaden
participation in the WSF by staging it in Mumbai also subtly transformed the
message of gathering. Once focused on the inequities if the global economic &
trade regimes, the WSF today has taken up a much broader canvas of issues. This
has been partly an outcome of the realization that the battle against
globalization can not be waged without energizing social forces across a broad
range. This involves the bonding of the campaign against globalization with
myriad others. Women's struggle against patriarchy & the unending battle against
forms of social exclusion based on descent, ethnicity & race were specifically
brought on the WSF agenda in Mumbai. More than the right to equality, the WSF
enshrines the right to differences. And it commits itself to redressing any
situation in which difference is a basis for social inequality.
In the 4 years since it came into existence, the WSF has developed a large &
growing family of converts. Characterized variously as a platform, a movement &
a space - WSF has played the role of uniting diverse concerns into a singularly
forceful assertion of the need for alternatives to today's dominant political &
economic paradigms.
The Mumbai gathering was called upon to address several correlated issues. Right
from the GLOBALIZATION to the CORPORATE ACCOUINTABILITY, from HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATION to IRAQ OCCUPATION, from PALESTINIAN SITUATION to WOMEN'S STRUGGLE
against patriarchy was there on the table of WSF. There were many more issues,
like RACISM, HOUSING and ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS faced by the world, also given
voice. It is the part of the design of the forum that it provides a platform for
many of the social groups in their host country. It provides an opportunity for
social activists from around the world to get together, to learn from each
other, to mobilize on key global issues.
CORRELATION AMONG DIFFERENT ISSUES
Globalization has brought benefits to some, but very large no. of people seem to
be excluded. Free trade tends not to be very fair for large no. of people in the
developing world. So globalization is having very serious implications. Some of
it is good, but large part of it needs to be addressed, because it is pushing
back the Human Rights agenda. Human Rights is probably a tool to address poverty
because it does empower people & brings in the notion pf accountability. The
notion of growth without Human Rights is very similar to the notion you get
greater security by setting back human rights, which is the American agenda now
around the world.
CONCLUSION
The basic concept of the WSF has been to be a broad camp of multiple kinds of
movements, none of which dominates the situation, but talk to each other &
collaborate to the degree they can. In the 4 years of its existence, the WSF has
served as a platform for the articulation of a breadth taking range of views.
The variety of themes that were articulated in Mumbai matched the diversity of
participation. A no. of threads were laid suggesting theoretical approaches &
practical solutions to concrete problems- but not tied together in coherent, all
embracing strategy. This is a part of design of the WSF which is not meant to
set unalterable courses of action for many social movements that participate,
but to engender & energize movements in hundreds.The Mumbai meet has energized a
potentially fruitful linkage between the apex forum and the multitude of mass
movements that constitute it. These are early days for WSF, what one has to do
is see how WSF informs people better & brings forward people who can engage with
government & the media. But above all, we should see how the WSF can mobilize
people on general themes like war, poverty & justice in world trade.
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