World Social Forum 2009: a report for a new Hull Magazine

We'd arrived a week early with high expectations of the Forum. We'd travelled over 4000km to get there from Colombia; 5 days by bus & 5 more by Amazonian river boat sleeping amongst a tangled web of hammocks. 100,000 people were expected to descend upon the city of Belem, which lies at the confluence of the mighty river Amazon and the Atlantic ocean, to speak of their struggles and campaigns and discuss strategies to achieve a better world. 'Um outro mundo e possivel' (another world is possible) has been the forums' tag line since its birth in 2001, in southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. The forum rose in part as a direct challenge to The World Economic Forum which takes place in Davos, Switzerland every January, where top business leaders, politicians and economists get together to discuss how best to maintain the Capitalist status quo. The Porto Alegre declaration of 2001 states that the forum is "an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies".

Things kicked off with a huge demonstration through the streets of Belem, starting at the port where the visiting Greenpeace vessel 'Arctic Sunrise' was docked. It was every bit as colourful and lively as you'd expect a Latin American demonstration to be, and when the inevitable deluge of wet season rain arrived it did nothing to dampen spirits. In fact it only served to whip the crowds into a heightened frenzy as people cheered, danced, and chanted to the sounds of samba drums whilst being soaked to the bone with lashings of cool rain.

The workshops commenced the following day with over 4,300 on offer over the duration of the week, with titles as diverse as the organizations presenting them. Would it be the 'Palestinian Grassroots anti-apartheid wall campaign: Root causes & prospects for common struggle', or the 'India Resource Centre: International Campaign against Coca Cola'? How about 'Indigenous Environmental Network: Indigenous peoples energy & climate justice' or the 'International network for the abolition of foreign military bases'. The list was endless, and it soon became apparent that it would be impossible to attend all of interest.



A strong theme this year was the importance of the Amazon basin as a source of Biodiversity and as a vital carbon sink. As a result of the 'call for indigenous peoples participation', over 3000 indigenous people were present, many from tribes based in the Amazon basin. Members of Tribes such as the Jawari wandered around painted from head to toe with traditional tribal markings, complete with colourful feathered head dress, spears and bows & arrows. Indigenous people from around the world were also represented, coming as from as far as Canada to talk about the Tar sands operations which are wrecking havoc in Northern Alberta, and from Nigeria to speak against the oil companies that are displacing and brutalizing communities across the Niger delta. Hearing these stories first hand from the people who daily face the reality of predatory corporations operating in their lands was extremely poignant. Never before have I heard such an array of stories and accounts which have painted such a vivid overall picture of the extent to which the Neo-liberal stage of Capitalism is responsible for the planetary crisis we are facing. However, it was heartening and inspiring to hear of the range of resistance world wide; the globalization of struggle.

Unfortunately however, there appears to be much room for improvement in the organization of the gathering. Things were chaotic from the beginning, when no one could give us details about accommodation, or how / who to pay for registration. The Forum was spread between The Universidad Fedral Rural da Amazonia (UFRA) and and the Universidad Fedral Do Para (UFPA). It was difficult to board the buses going inbetween the two, due to the number of people attempting to squeeze their way on. A simple shuttle bus system would have lightened the pressure from the normal bus service.
The programme of workshops had been drastically altered without amendments being made and apparently this was known even before the programmes had been distributed. We only worked this out late in the week, after many a frustrating hour finding our way to the poorly signed workshop locations only to find nothing there. We would be told one thing by one volunteer, only to be told the opposite by another, resulting in countless wild goose chases.
When attending gatherings such as this one tries to shake off the expectation of the religious punctuality championed by top-down organization, but there are limits. A few big boards detailing amendments, or volunteers with knowledge of the re-jigged workshops would have saved a lot of wasted energy.
For a forum with a strong theme on Amazonian deforestation due to soya monocultures grown for cattle feed, there was little in the way of vegetarian or vegan food. It was impossible to buy any on the UFPA campus, and most of the veggie options at UFRA were overpriced. Yet, ironically, it was all to easy to buy a can of Coca Cola. The only water available was sold in tiny overpriced plastic bottles, and all food and drink was served in disposable plastic and polystyrene cups and plates which overflowed from bins and littered the ground. Despite both the Fedral and State governments ploughing huge sums of money into the Forum, it appeared that responsible waste management had been forgotten, with no recycling facilities to be seen.

At times, looking around at the hoards of confused people walking through the scattered plastic debris in search for non-existent workshops, it was hard to imagine "another world is possible". It's a sad irony that ethical responsibilities such as these could be neglected at such a symbolic level; a gathering that is meant to epitomize this 'movement of movements'. It goes without saying that good environmental & ethical practice should be sown into the very fabric of the World Social Forum - as Ghandi once said, we should be the change we wish to see in the world.
One can only hope that these problems have been duly noted and added to the 'things to improve' list.

Overall, despite these contradictions, the Forum was a positive experience and I left feeling inspired, with a notebook full of new contacts and ideas. The Forum's strength is definitely in the sheer diversity of it's participants & the potential for bridges to be built between them, and for the strengthening of alliances united in their resistance. For me this is what the forum is about; sharing experience, inspiration, solidarity, strengthening alliances and forming strategies. I spoke enthusiastically of the Camp For Climate Action throughout the week, and people listened eagerly and expressedd interest in forming Climate Camps in their regions; as a result we may see a new camp pop up to challenge the Canadian tar sand operations. This demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of having a space created in which ideas are shared and movements furthered. Another reassuring thing was to see the sheer number of young people present. Whoever said today's youth are apathetic?

Global Capitalism is in crisis, it's indefatigable greed seeding the beginning of its own demise. And here, in Brazil, gathered the nuclei of a peoples movement, a movement with perhaps the energy, ideas and determination required to replace the current flawed system and institutions. Indeed another world is possible and it has surely never been more necessary than now.