The World Social Forum was an audacious gamble: bringing together hundreds of representatives of movements opposed to neoliberal globalization from all over the planet

It was an audacious gamble: bringing together hundreds of representatives of movements opposed to neoliberal globalization from all over the planet in a big city in southern Brazil.

Eric Toussaint *

The aim was to map out alternative paths and agree on a timetable of priority mobilizations at the very time when those who aim to push the world still further towards commodification and the domination of capital were meeting in Davos. In short, to oppose to the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos a World Social Forum (WSF) which affirms that another world is possible.

The gamble paid off from all points of view: a high participation of representatives from a very wide scale of movements opposed to neoliberal globalization; manifest convergence between the different platforms; a high quality of debate; adoption of three complementary declarations from the social movements, the parliamentary representatives and the local government representatives. Finally, widespread media coverage on a planetary level to the extent that the WEF at Davos and the WSF at Porto Alegre were systematically presented as symbolizing two basic choices facing humanity.

The World Social Forum is the culmination of more than a year’s careful preparation by a Brazilian organizing committee composed of social movements (the MST movement of the landless, the CUT trade union federation, and so on) and non governmental organizations. This committee worked systematically in liaison with movements from other continents like ATTAC, Focus on global South, the CADTM, Jubilé Sud, as well as the French journal Le Monde diplomatique.

The initiative was supported by the state government of Rio Grande do Sul (10 million inhabitants) and the city council of its capital, Porto Alegre (1.3 million inhabitants), both of them led by the Workers’ Party (PT).

On January 25, 2001, the Forum opened with nearly 4,000 participants. Radical speeches (like that of the governor, former trade union leader Olivo Dutra) and high quality cultural production - presenting the indigenous and African roots of today’s struggles in terms of the extraordinary struggle of Black slaves for emancipation – set the tone for a 5 day race against time.

After the opening, the participants of the FSM met in the city centre for a big demonstration of around 10,000 people on the theme “March for life, another world is possible