Sept. 1,
2020
Next January the World Social Forum will turn 20 years old. Its
appearance in 2001, summoning the various social movements, activists and
intellectuals to confront the prevailing neoliberalism, was a worldwide
event. From this beginning, there were many mass meetings in different
countries, around the axes of horizontal debates and articulation between
organizations. One of the rules was that the WSF could not make statements
or call for actions on its own behalf. The world has changed a lot since
then and some of its militants believe that it is urgent and essential to be
able to build joint actions as a global political subject, in the face of the
economic, social and environmental crises that threaten the future of the
planet.
Change the World Social Forum in order to change the world – from ‘open space’
to ‘action space’
The World Social Forum will be twenty years old in 2021! A facilitating group
is now examining the possibility of organizing a new forum in Mexico
City. It is clear that this will depend on the development
of the Covid-19 crisis.
We all know the world has changed a lot since 2001, the first WSF in Porto
Alegre. At that time the founders of the forum succeeded in writing a ‘Charter
of Principles’ in order to fix the rules of the game and to prevent the forum
from becoming a conflictive space instead creating a space of conviviality and
convergence. Far from helping us, the rules for the ‘open space’ have recently
been dogmatically interpreted and the forum was unable at any crucial moment of
current history (with the exception of a single circumstance) to express itself
as a global political subject.
There have been various initiatives in the past to avoid this impasse and to
speak with a political voice from, and in the name of, the Forum. Think of the
huge demonstration on February 15, 2003, against the war in Iraq, initiated at
the Forum. Several ‘historical’ participants of the WSF signed the ‘Manifesto
of Porto Alegre’ – an attempt to break the paralysing consensus – and
have now signed another appeal to change from the ‘open space’ to ‘a space for
action’, not in order to make a global political programme but rather to
interact with the outside world. Frei Betto, Atilio Borón, Bernard Cassen,
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Federico Mayor, Riccardo Petrella, Ignacio Ramonet, Emir
Sader, Boaventura Santos, Roberto Savio and Aminata Traoré signed this first
message.
This initiative is not about imposing a political position on a collective that
always has been, and will be, very diverse. However, at this moment the world
is in danger of ecological collapse, with a severe crisis of emerging fascism,
dominant financial capitalism, racism and patriarchy. All this at a time when
young people, women and other oppressed people are once again in the streets to
demand justice and sustainable ecological policies. The Forum cannot be absent.
It is a moral and political duty to stop the self-reflection and to talk to the
world and to act in it.
That is why the signatories of this message want to change the WSF to change
the world. We think it is urgent to democratize the Forum, its structures and
its governance. Logic and history impose a change that has to be the result of
an open and participatory discussion. It is crucial to introduce governance
that allows us to go from an open space to a space of action. We therefore
propose that the International Council integrates the new social forces that
are mobilizing all over the world; that we try to make a more representative
body which can take a look at our Charter of Principles so as to adapt it to the
21st century; that we give a place to the regional and thematic forums; that we
organise international days of action; that we can discuss the road to follow
to make the WSF a global political subject. This will not be an easy road and
will require the openness and willingness of all of us in order to create an
efficient body able to speak to the world. There are many possibilities to
strengthen the governance and to democratize the WSF. We very much hope they
will come out so they can be democratically discussed.
We would like to invite you to participate in this collective reflection. It is
an urgent task that can contribute to shape the ‘other world’ we so urgently
want and need.
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentina),
Alberto Acosta. (Ecuador), Aminata Traoré (Mali) , Armando de Negri (Brazil),
Assétou Founé Samaké (Mali), Atilio Boron (Argentina) Aziz Rhali (Morocco),
Berenice Celeita (Colombia), Bernard Cassen (France), Bernard Duterme.
(Belgium), Boaventura de Sousa Santos. (Portugal), Candido Gribowszki
(Brazil), Cecilia Capanna (Italia) Claudia Yadira (Mexico), Dalia Acosta (Cuba)
Demba Moussa Dembele (Senegal) Elizabeth Mpofus (Zimbabwe) Emir Sader (Brazil),
Federico Mayor (Spain), Flavio Lotti (Italy), Francine Mestrum
(Belgium) Frei Betto. (Brazil) , Guadalupe Ponce (Mexico), Hazel
Henderson (USA), Hélène Tremblay (Canada), Ignacio Peón (Mexico), Ignacio
Ramonet (Spain-France), Jason Nardi. (Italy) John Bellamy (USA), Leo
Gabriel. (Austria), Luis Lópezllera. (Mexico), Madhuresh Kumar (India) Manou
Angahi, (Ivory Coast), Mario Dujisin (Chile-Portugal), Medha Patkar
(India) Mireille Fanon Mendès. (France), Mohau Pheko (South Africa), Ms. Roma.
All India Union of Forest Working People (India), Norma Fernández. (Argentina),
Nzira Deus (Mozambique), Oscar Gonzalez. (Mexico), Raquel Martínez López Gómez
(Spain), Reiner Braun (Germany), Riccardo Petrella. (Italy- Belgium), Roberto
Savio. (Italy-Argentina), Saida Garrach. (Tunisia), Susan George. (France),
Taoufik Ben Abdellah. ENDA (Tunisia), Vandana Shiva. (India), Wim Dierckxsens
(Costa Rica)
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If you agree, please sign this appeal.
https://foranewworldsocialforum.org
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