Day One at the World Social Forum in India

From: Jessica Pupovac
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 2:39 AM

Day One at the World Social Forum
by J Pupovac

India, a country that has for centuries inspired the imagination of the
world, provided the meeting ground for the fourth World Social Forum, which
kicked-off today in Mumbai. Over one-hundred and twenty thousand delegates
of the "world's second superpower" converged today at this historic
international gathering of those who believe that the current rules of
economic globalization are creating a future of war, inequality and
environmental degradation and that “a better world is possible.”

The World Economic Forum, a meeting of business leaders and politicians
which took place last week, ostensibly addressed issues of inequality and
poverty. However, it failed to address the glaring fact that despite decades
of top-down development driven by neo-liberal theories and institutions such
as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade
Organization, 54 countries are now poorer than they were in 1990.

The World Social Forum, on the other hand, is an open meeting space for
“democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of
experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements
of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the
world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building
a planetary society centred on the human person”. (From the WSF Charter of
Principles).

US militarization, particularly as it relates to the war in Iraq and the
Israel Palestinian conflict, was a predominant topic of discussion at the
forum's opening, along with the need to oust George W Bush during the coming
election year.

The historically large attendance at the WSF today heralds a burgeoning
global movement against corporate globalization and US military dominance, a
movement that first caught the attention of the world last February when
over ten million people marched to stop the attack on Iraq. That movement
gained momentum and rejuvenation during the recent collapse of the WTO
Ministerial in Cancun, which, according to British Parliament member Jeremy
Cobin, “was a result of world public opinion being mobilized.”

The World Social Forum will last six days and will include hundreds of
panels, debates and meetings as networks are built, information is exchanged
and the movement expands even further. Activists have poured in from Korea,
Tibet, Burma, Brazil, Ghana, France, South Africa, Italy and the world over.
Talks will be translated into English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean and
five different Indian languages. Palestinian leader Mustafa Borghouti
reminded us all today that “The world cannot change on its own. It can only
change with the power of struggle, it can only change with global resistance
and it can only change if we all unite together." And that is exactly what
is happening here today.

Stay tuned as Indymedia India continues to bring you coverage of this
historic event.