Almost five months ago, at the NESCO industrial grounds, a hundred thousand restless souls, across ten thousand supposed social barriers, made their emotion and collective good-will into a kaleidoscope of embryonic social evolution, and revolution, and hope. I recently went back again...

 
Personal Retrospects from the World Social Forum

by Darren Shore

Almost five months ago, at the NESCO industrial grounds, a hundred thousand restless souls, across ten thousand supposed social barriers, made their emotion and collective good-will into a kaleidoscope of embryonic social evolution, and revolution, and hope. I recently went back again – to see if any memories might be rekindled by the huge hangars and dusty lanes where that impressive experience took place.

At the gate, the guard told me that industrial production at the grounds had ceased over five years ago. NESCO stands for National Engineering Standard Company, and he said it used to produce iron parts. Apparently, only one small workshop amidst all the monstrous buildings makes anything there anymore. The huge hangars where noise and activity once reigned have become an exhibition hall. And some of us think industry is forever.

I walked in, past the gate, onto the great expansive field of earth and browning grass, where thousands had stood and cheered. Just yesterday, it seemed, that place had teemed with the noise of lively drums, and living dreams. Now, you could hear the bugs fly. I looked up the long, dusty lanes, amidst the huge and forlorn steel structures, and could feel the many voices of great ethics from their halls. I could still see the heated faces of the Dalits in their rhythmic splendor, pounding out three thousand years of anger on the streets. I walked ahead, and the dust hung, and swirled over wisps of itself in the midst of the Mumbai summer sun, waiting for an excuse to avoid its endless coating of my shoes. It reminded me of the swirling, overpowering, contagious mayhem of rebelliousness and consciousness that had held the daunting Goliaths of imperialism and global greed at bay. I thought - I think - it may yet do more than hold them.

Once back to my friends' Mumbai home, lying on a bed, I knew the nostalgia would fade. I closed my eyes and tried to pinpoint the feeling, so as to make it last; that 'what-it-was' you just had to experience – to give it a shape I could describe. I tried to imagine how I could resurrect and frame the sense of swimming in a sea of people whose intentions you trust – whose will to pursue their quest – our quest – for the greater good is undeniable, and unchallengeable.

It occurred to me that the World Social Forum was – is – like a dream in the first place; those four days of unabashed expression of what we know we need to hear: A dream in which, liberated from the pessimism and frustration of day-to-day drudgery, banality and toil, you leave the past, and the details of natural human misunderstandings there in the corner of your bedroom, and walk out into the moonlight rejuvenated and reinvigorated, with a greater sense of purpose. Then, on the dusty lanes and fields - on the battlefields of your own consciousness, you see ten thousand Davids put those imperial, global Goliaths on the run. These real people before you, united to mythical nobility, swoon together with you - innumerable, multicolored handmaidens and henchmen of justice. And, like the dust in the streets, their courage hangs, and swirls over one another, and you in their midst, in beautiful vicious circles that only make each swooning source of inspiration more palpable, more motivated, more alive.

Satisfied with the image – 'back to the dust', I wondered how others I had met four months ago remembered, and wanted to remember, the swirling inspiration in my mind; where the ripples in retrospect of the colossal event had left those I'd found in its midst. I wanted to know what they'd walked away with; what memories they took away to add to their collection, and to help themselves grow. How had that swimming sea of good intention, and that hanging swirling dust of courage, and that contagious mayhem of rebelliousness and consciousness left impressions on their lives?

Damayanti

Damayanti Bhattacharya is a friend I made in Mumbai while volunteering at the WSF. She helped organize the Forum in India from its infancy, and ran the alternative media center throughout the event. I asked her to describe what she'd taken from the experience of organizing and living through the whole process.

"I think I've taken three things," she said. "The first would be that for somebody like me, who's been working in the so-called non-profit sector for the last seven or eight years, you reach a point where you tend to become very focused on the specific issues you're concerned about. You lose sight of the larger picture for your cause, your issue, and become somewhat of a single-issue person, whether it's child sexual abuse, or violence against women, or whatever. But over the last nine months, I've had to deal with various concerns. And so I gained the consciousness of how things are inter-connected.

"At the Forum, when you looked around, there were people from all corners of the world. Likewise, there were [multiple] issues being discussed - and with equal intensity, and at the same place. You start seeing that there is a connection amongst all these issues, and a bigger picture starts to emerge. I think that there's a need for people like me to revisit that from time to time – that holistic bigger picture - that unity of ideas that shows you a light at the end of the tunnel, because the fact is that you cannot search for solutions in isolation: Your single issue – whether it's gender, or it's the environment... is inextricably interconnected with everything else. It's only when you start to link the issues together that you have some means of reaching towards a solution. And I think that the WSF is – in that sense – a unique effort in that direction."

"The second thing [I took from the experience] is more in terms of ideology. For people of my generation, who lived through the collapse of communism and the 'left bloc', who now live in our post-modern world, I think that there is a crisis of ideology. You feel that there's a collapse of reason, or meaning, and that individual self-advancement has become the priority. In this circumstance, where do you look for an ideological motivation for whatever you're doing? It's a vacuum that I've grappled with because I don't fit in to the traditional left myself. And yet, on the other hand, there is no ideological home [for me], so to speak. This is something you continually have to deal with at a very deep, fundamental level - the question of 'Where do you place yourself in the scheme of things?'

"On the 3rd or 4th day of the WSF, I was speaking to [my husband], and we realized that the people outside the Forum, on the streets, don't believe that change is possible, whereas everybody inside believes that change is possible. Those inside [are there] because they believe that change is possible. None of the people in the Forum were passive by-standers. They made the effort to get there, even though there is no tangible output that you can take away, save for the very fact that you're participating. So in that sense, I have that self-discovery that this is what unites all of us together – that we all believe that change is possible. And that is, in itself, an ideological starting point. I don't know what is going to happen in the future – where this ideological embryo is going to go, but it motivates me enough.

"The third thing [I gained] is more at a practical level: I gained in terms of experience in dealing with something of this scale, which I had never done before. I had to think of things starting from 'How do I make 4,500 media persons happy in one place?' to 'How do I keep 700 computers running when there's a crisis about reports of a rape [at the Taj Mahal hotel]? while simultaneously figuring out the cheapest way to produce WSF material. And there was no way I could just dictate how things would be done because, fortunately, our policy was that everything had to be done by consensus. That was perhaps the most difficult part. I had to work with a lot of other people, and different kinds of people."

Clash of personalities?

"We did not necessarily see eye-to-eye all the time. And some people, just in their nature, were dissimilar to me. I was the youngest person on the IOC (India Organizing Committee of the Forum), and until very recently a student. Most of the people on the IOC had been in politics or political movements for many years. I didn't have that kind of political background, but I had definite opinions about things. In India, age is respected. To be heard and respected for my opinions, and to earn that respect is not easy to start with. So making my voice and convictions heard very strongly at IOC meetings was not always easy. But now, having been through that, I think I'm a lot more confident and vocal when expressing things I feel very strongly about. At this point, I think I can stand up and speak in pretty much any forum in the world. That's something I've learned through participating in this process."

I asked her to draw an analogy of her experience; to give me an image that might sum up what she'd learned, like my hanging, swirling sand, or the ten thousand Davids with Goliath on the run.

"I think it would be a complete kaleidoscope. It would have many different kinds of colors. It would be very impressionistic. It would have lot of movement, but no concrete shapes as yet. I think that's what the movement itself is like right now. There is a lot of energy. And I think a lot of hope has been generated."

Falguni

I met Falguni Vora for a brief moment outside a seminar hall, under the blazing sun. She is, like me, a student with limited involvement in the activist world. That day, she was wearing a bright green sarwar (an outfit of top and loose pants, with the classical silk scarf flowing in the breeze), and I decided to get her number in the hopes of seeing her wonderful smile again. I got my chance, and asked her to trace the ripples the Forum had left spreading within herself.

"The Forum was a good experience for me in the sense that it helped me broaden my horizon, especially because I don't come from a social science background. I didn't know much about the effects of globalization – how it has affected the world in a bad way, how third world countries suffer in the long-run. [The WSF] helped me to become sensitive to more issues like that."

"I also came away with a greater sensitivity towards people, and towards new issues. For example, I attended a seminar about how agent orange affected people in Vietnam. I actually saw those people who had been affected by agent orange, sitting there in front of me, and talking. I had just seen pictures earlier. But when I saw them there — when I saw them talking, it really moved me. It was just so much more than those pictures could say."

What about memories that stand out for you, and stay with you, and may continue to affect you?

"There was this place near the open-air theater where people were reading poems. And a group of women started coming up to speak, one after the other, reciting poems. Just like that. Some of the poems were about women in India. Now I actually know, since I am an Indian woman and I've been through the whole thing [what they were talking about]. I face it every day of my life. I can see how much gender differentiation takes place this country. And when I saw women standing right there – people reciting those poems, I actually felt as though women in this country are getting empowered. I was just really happy.

"The poems were about many different things; about women, poverty, what a poor woman does through her day – just waiting for her husband, or cooking so they have food, and the kind of thoughts that go through her mind... Seeing that women are actually having the courage to stand up in front of people and saying 'This is what I'm going through,' that was really touching. It felt as though there was something unanimous about the whole thing.

Were there any men listening too?

"There were many men in the crowd. And they were really encouraging the women, and clapping, and cheering them. It was nice. It was definitely a very warm and enthusiastic atmosphere."

I asked if there was anything else she had come away with, and she told me she'd come away feeling disappointed at not having been able to learn more. She thought that both the way the schedule of events, and the events themselves were organized, had been a factor, along with her having expected to be able to learn more than was reasonable.

"Because [the WSF] was so vast, I think you really had to have a purpose for going in order for it to have benefited you, You had to be able to take [the schedule of seminars and conferences], go home, plan what you wanted to attend, and find your goals amidst the overwhelming number of events. But when I did that, half the seminars I planned to go to ended up being cancelled. And everything was always delayed – including the seminar where I met you. So it was a really hap-hazard experience. Very under-organized. So I wasn't able to make best use of my day there. And in that sense, there was really very little that I gained. So I came away feeling a little disappointed because of how things had been badly coordinated.

"I had come to the WSF to try to absorb knowledge about many different things. I should have known that in four days time, I wouldn't have been able to learn as much as I wanted to. I should have just decided on 2 or 3 issues that I really wanted to focus on, pursued them, and made the most of it."

"I also felt a bit disappointed with the many speeches I saw, because [their content] overlapped a great deal, and was very theoretical. For example, there was this seminar I went to on globalization, in one of the big halls. The speakers were excellent, but they deviated from the topic too much, and there was a lot of repetition. [They] would end up stating things that everyone had already heard. It looked as if they hadn't spoken [to one another] before the presentation. And they kept repeating theory. I'd thought they would come up with different experiences – being from different countries. But it didn't happen like that. I guess it just wasn't personal enough."

What about seminars that went well?

"I attended one seminar on fair trade. I think the woman who was presenting had come down from Delhi. She was really good. Joseph Stiglitz was very good, as was Prabhat Patnaik – one of the major economists in India."

Why were they good?

"Because the speakers knew what they were talking about. They believed in what they were talking about. There was a kind of conviction in what they were saying — definitely passion. And most importantly, they tried to connect with the audience, and speak beyond just theory. They were interactive, and able to answer most of the queries that people in the audience had. I think that [interactivity] is what made the small events worthwhile, and the large events not worthwhile."

I asked her, as I had asked Damayanti, to give me an analogy for the Forum if she had to look back and frame it.

"It would be a scene from the streets, with all these colorful banners crossing the sky, and a huge group of people just walking together. A fair, or a demonstration – I'm not exactly sure. Maybe for me, the WSF was more like a carnival than a conference. Maybe that's why that image from the streets of the Forum is the first thing that comes to my mind."

Rukmini

I hadn't met Rukmini Data at the WSF in January. But I'd been doing interviews then for a project about alternative media, and someone had referred me to her. She works for an low-cost, non-commercial magazine in Mumbai called Humanscape. I met her in her office there; home to Humanscapes' two full-time staff members, under the fan of course, as it was easily 40 degrees. Like the others, I asked her how she's a different person, having been through the WSF.

"For one, I think the value of alternative media, and the effort that I'm putting into creating this kind of alternative forum, has really been enhanced in my mind. Very often, when you're working with a magazine like this, there can be moments of frustration because you don't see quick numbers. You don't see quick results. It's very often that one gets the feeling of 'What's the big difference? [Humanscape has] been around for 10 years. I don't think anybody's really changed because of our effort.' We're trying to influence people. We're trying to change the current of public opinion. And because it's a magazine in English, it's got a limited readership [in an Indian market]. So [effecting change] is a very gradual process. I think that the Forum gave me a feel for the change taking place in the current of public opinion. It gave me confidence that Humanscape does have a space in the whole process [of influencing people]. It gave me the confidence that there is a space - a need for us. One needs to carry on. I'm not saying these moments of frustration will never come back, but it does help me to recall the World Social Forum at such times. Having that presence in the back of my mind is something I can fall back on."

Were you in a stressful period before the Forum, feeling constantly frustrated?

"It's not like a continuous feeling of frustration. But there are moments. For instance, before this [job], and also alongside Humanscape, I worked in the field with rural and tribal development organizations in Rajasthan (a province of north-west India) - in Udaipur. We worked with over 500 village groups. What's happening there now is that village cohesion is disappearing. So we're trying to create a fund, which would be a kind of common property resource, in the absence of natural common property resources - a fund around which people could come together. It's a very, very, very difficult, slow, gradual process. So there are points. There are highs and lows. The fact that it takes so much time, and that the results are so difficult to see, brings in these moments of frustration."

And did participating in the Forum help you see your work differently?

"It helped me value what I'm doing because I was able to see and feel the tangible results. Like with Humanscape, the magazine is going out to 10,000 readers, but you're never sure if it's really reaching anybody. You're not sure if it's really making a difference to anybody. So in that sense [the WSF] was a very tangible kind of experience for me... I think 'tangible presence' are key words. That's what I took back. That looking-at-it first-hand."

Did you learn anything from the WSF about how you could be working differently?

"One thing that I felt after the Forum was this need to reach out to a global audience. I realized there is this large potential for Humanscape and its' ideas to reach out to a global audience. And this is why we are working on strengthening our web-presence. We realized that at the WSF, even more than our print magazines, our CDs of the last five years' magazines sold like hot-cakes. And everybody was enquiring about the web portal. I know our hits on the site have increased tremendously after the WSF – within two weeks after it had ended. So the consciousness of the potential of the global audience to whom we can relate: that has increased a lot. That has really been enhanced in our minds.

"Also, if you remember at the WSF, there was a lot of bashing of mainstream ideas, and media, and politics. It really made me realize that what I need to work on is creating an alternative. There's no point just going on bashing like that. I spoke at a seminar on media and globalization, and four or five speakers before me spoke about how the media is really being bastardized – Murdochization, etc., etc... After that, one realizes that's enough. Stop talking about how things have gone wrong, and let's start talking about how things can go right."

Did you gain this new motivation to put a positive spin on your activities because there was so much bashing like that at the Forum, or because you were surrounded by so much other positive activity?

"I think it's a bit of both, because you look at the amount of bashing, and you say 'O.K. let's do something,' and you also look at something inspiring like a lone person protesting. I saw one protester from Korea protesting against deportation. So I think it's a bit of both."

Did you come away with anything else - more on a personal level?

"I think that at the WSF you had a large number of people who believe that a difference can be made. I was motivated because the number of people who believe in working towards making a difference is amazing. And also looking at the extreme, difficult situations in which people are working to make a difference. That definitely has a positive influence on you.

"And at the Forum you're meeting a lot of people. You even meet people from school and college. And you're so happy to see that they're all involved in the development sector. Many of them, you thought they'd end up as the corporate kinds. But they've come into the development sector in various ways."

After we'd parted, I went back through the swirling dust and heat, and lay on the bed again. I wondered what these three people would tell me a year from now about what the Forum did for them, as the ripples of that experience continue to expand and touch more of their thoughts and deeds - as its' dust continues to unfold over their shoes. Doubtless, it will be as different as the sounds from those lively drums, and no less a part of their living dreams - the same dreams of another, possible world that brought me to the Forum, and will bring millions after me. I also realized that I hadn't actually gotten the quote for this article that I'd wanted from Rukmini, as I'd gotten the others; there had been no allusion to dust and carnivals and so on. I was left as the icing to the story, with her story as it is. And why not? I figure, in the end, I could ask all of those millions what they got out of the World Social Forum; for a million analogies to frame those kaleidoscopes and carnivals and stories as they were, and are. and that hanging dust of courage. The only thing that they'd all say is that you had to be there.

This article has been written for the Center for Media Alternatives of Quebec (Indymedia) and the Concordia Student Union website. It is CopyLeft, and so may be reproduced without the authors' permission.