The Hindu : THE WSF PHENOMENON

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

Opinion

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THE WSF PHENOMENON

ON MOST COUNTS the 2004 meeting of the World Social Forum in Mumbai has been a resounding success. The fourth annual meeting drew 80,000 participants and it had representatives from around the world, even if the overwhelming majority came from the host country. The WSF was witness to hundreds of seminars and panel discussions on a variety of issues related to globalisation. The meeting brought together members of some of the most active political and social movements in the world and many leading thinkers in politics, economics and culture — all united by a belief that "another world is possible". There was also some involvement of government representatives such as in discussions on WTO issues where senior officials from Brazil and India interacted with activists and independent thinkers. The forum has come to be described as a "carnival of ideas". This was reflected in Mumbai as well, where intellectual discussions took place alongside drama, film and music events, not to mention many street demonstrations, over six days.

In just three years, the WSF, a platform for discussing alternatives to globalisation, has acquired a profile that matches that of the much older World Economic Forum, the yearly meeting of government policy-makers and corporate chiefs usually held in Davos, Switzerland. In terms of creating an awareness of alternatives, if not in terms of having a concrete impact on national policies, the WSF has been a success story. With the forum moving outside Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the first time, the shortcoming of drawing little participation from Asia was addressed at Mumbai. The WSF provides the space for members of a variety of political, social, economic and cultural organisations to discuss and exchange ideas. It has also become a rallying point for groups hoping to formulate alternative agendas. The open and loosely networked organisation of the forum is its strength. The only disqualification for participation is a belief in violence as an instrument for political and economic change. The WSF began as a meeting place to develop critiques of economic globalisation. However, its conference agenda has been broadened and deepened and now covers a range of socio-political and cultural issues. At Mumbai, the issues discussed included the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Kashmir question, caste in India, and challenges and opportunities in the realm of the media and knowledge, including the free software movement.

The open agenda of the programme encourages truly diverse, some would say inchoate, discussion, and the involvement of some fringe elements. But this is a small price the forum has to pay to maintain inclusiveness in participation. One criticism from within the anti-globalisation movement is that the forum is but a vast talking shop from which no concrete programme has emerged thus far. Yet this complaint ignores the very phenomenon that gives the WSF its strength: providing movements and organisations from around the world a geographic and even temporary political "space" where they can share experiences, toss around and fertilise new ideas. How successful this process will be depends on how the participants subsequently build on their WSF experiences. The other criticism, from the so-called mainstream, is that all the discussion about opposing globalisation is nothing but tilting at windmills. This too is an unfair criticism. In a world where global capital exercises such a dominant role in national economies and societies, there are few opportunities available to debate alternatives or air dissent. That the forum is internationally perceived to provide a major opportunity to do this year after year, drawing in new participants, is heartening from a democratic standpoint.

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