Synthesis of
the World Social Forum International Council Meeting
held in Bangkok on 13-15 August 20G2.
The World Social Forum (WSF) is an open space created by and
for social movements and other civil society organizations, opposed
to neoliberal globalization. The WSF, is a process that provides
opportunities for critical reflection and construction of truly
democratic and radical alternatives.
Even though the WSF is above all a process, its most visible
expressions have been the two massive events organized in Porto
Alegre, Brazil with tens of thousands of participants from all
over the world. In the first one, held in January 2001, the criticism
of global capitalism was of fundamental importance. In the second,
held in February 2002, the emphasis shifted towards formulating
alternatives.
In the program of the next global WSF event in Porto Alegre on
23-28 January 2003, strategies of social transformation will play
a prominent role. The Bangkok meeting of the WSF International
Council has debated and constructed a tentative structure for
the program, which will be further developed and open to suggestions
from movements and organizations around the world.
Apart from being the focus of the next main event, the questions
of strategy have also become increasingly important in the general
WSF process. The most important strategic question for the future
of the WSF is its geographical expansion and its deepening to
reach out to all marginalized people and communities. This can
be considered one part of the search for peoples' globalization,
as opposed to neoliberal globalization. Rising fundamentalism,
militarism and communalism, and their accentuation by neoliberalism,
have become increasingly important concerns for the WSF process.
The expansion and deepening of the WSF is happening in various
dimensions. This Bangkok meeting of the WSF International Council
- gathering for the first time in Asia - has been one step in
the process. More importantly, the organizing of various regional,
national and thematic social forums in different parts of the
world is making the WSF a truly global process.
For the WSF the incorporation and contribution of Asian social
movements and other social actors is highly important. The organization
of the first Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad, India, on 2-7 January
2003, will bring in and reinforce the Asian dimension of the WSF
process.
The other important forums constructed within the WSF process
include the thematic forum on neoliberalism, organized in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, next week, and the regional European Social
Forum against Neoliberalism, War and Racism, that will be held
on 7-10 November 2002 in Florence, Italy. Other regional and thematic
forums, including one for peace and against war and occupation
in Palestine, are being planned.
Of the current issues discussed during this Bangkok meeting of
the WSF International Council, one that merits further elaboration
deals with the questions of war and peace.
The next meeting of the WSF International Council will take place
immediately after the European Social Forum, on November 11-13
in Florence, Italy.
The WSF International Council invites all movements and civil
society organizations seeking democratic alternatives to capitalist
power to take part in the WSF process. We want to provide a space
for critical articulation between democratic struggles engaging
the indigenous women, workers and other excluded groups.
In our fight for a genuinely democratic world, we are opposed
to violence and fundamentalism. We are particularly concerned
about the ongoing imperialist violence and the preparations for
another war on Iraq. For another world to be possible, we must
renew our efforts to construct a culture of international peace,
solidarity and social inclusion.
The WSF International Council, Bangkok, 15 August 2002
