NWSF signed this call for solidarity with Palestine. We invite all to sign as well.

Es: https://bit.ly/2ReF6Sr

Fr: https://bit.ly/3feoyBZ

Pt: https://bit.ly/3eIBAc8

The undersigned organizations, members of the International Council of the World Social Forum, of its thematic forums and of the WSF 2021-22 process towards Mexico, call upon all the forces of civil society, parties and governments committed to the defense of human rights, the sovereignty of peoples and democracy to raise their voices to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of justice and international law. We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to the siege and violence cruelly and unequally promoted by the Israeli military forces against the original people of Palestine.

Join the debate on income security, public services and social commons!

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gGHqQNeBRDi_q74ACRXPHQ

Joint the interesting opening session with Jeremy Corbyn and Vandana Shiva.

Please register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gGHqQNeBRDi_q74ACRXPHQ

por Roberto Savio

En el último Foro Social Mundial, celebrado virtualmente en noviembre del año pasado, participaron poco más de 10.000 personas. De estos, más de la mitad eran de Brasil, otro 41% de América Latina, y el 9% restante de otros países del mundo. Y esto en un momento en que no había que viajar para participar. En la historia del FSM, se parte del primero Foro, en Porto Alegre en el 2001, con casi 40.000 participantes, para llegar a cien mil en el segundo, y mantenerse en cifras parecidas en los Foros Temáticos, Regionales y Sociales, que se han organizado en América Latina, África y Asia desde entonces.

Otro claro desgaste ha sido la calidad de los participantes. Los numerosos intelectuales, académicos y protagonistas de los acontecimientos internacionales, progresivamente se han ido retirando del FSM. Basta mirar les tres grandes últimas movilizaciones: el movimiento para parar la tragedia climática; el movimiento para la dignidad de la mujer; y el movimiento en contra del racismo, las cuales se han desarrollado sin ningún protagonismo del FSM. Igualmente, el FSM ha desaparecido de los medios de comunicación.

Es imposible negar que el FSM se encuentra en una crisis existencial, de gran calado, y que ha llegado el momento de abrir un debate sobre las causas de esta situación, y proponer soluciones.

by Roberto Savio

At the last World Social Forum, held virtually in November last year, just over 10,000 people participated. Of these, more than half were from Brazil, another 41% from Latin America, and the remaining 9% from other countries around the world. And this at a time when you didn’t have to travel to participate. In the history of the WSF, the first Forum in Porto Alegre in 2001, with almost 40,000 participants, reached 100,000 in the second, and maintained similar numbers in the Thematic, Regional and Social Forums that have been organised in Latin America, Africa and Asia since then.

Another clear erosion has been the quality of the participants. The many intellectuals, academics and protagonists of international events have gradually withdrawn from the WSF. Just look at the last three major mobilisations: the movement to stop the climate tragedy; the movement for women’s dignity; and the movement against racism, all of which took place without any involvement of the WSF. The WSF has also disappeared from the media.

It is impossible to deny that the WSF is in a deep, existential crisis and that the time has come to open a debate on the causes of this situation and to propose solutions.

ENG/POR/ESP

Cândido Grzybowski

In order to transform the WSF from open space into a political actor, without neglecting the problems and difficulties of change in its own internal governance, I think that the biggest issue is the Forum’s articulation and alignment with the emergencies that face the great majorities of the world population, the resistances and the insurgencies they organize against exploitation, domination and barbarism provoked by capitalism in their daily lives and in their territories of life. In order to become a planetary actor, one that feeds an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal imaginary, the WSF needs to constantly develop powerful strategic knowledge. This implies being capable of making radical diagnoses and proposals for transformative hope, inspired by and articulated with people’s lives, sufferings and thoughts  under the multiple forms of exploitation, destruction and domination of capitalism, within the plurality of citizens’ territories that constitute today’s world, in the here and now.

The group ‘For a New World Social Forum’ has adopted this Declaration for disarmament! We call on all of you to do the same. Give your support through the ‘comment’ section. Thanks.

Esp/Eng/Fra

LLAMAMIENTO AL

DESARME UNIVERSAL POR LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL Y MEDIOAMBIENTAL

(English see below)

El mundo que emergió de la Segunda Guerra Mundial tenía una gran parte del Sur en estadio de colonias. Basta mirar a la creación de las Naciones Unidas que, hay que recordar, es un término acuñado por el presidente Roosevelt, al convocar en enero de 1942 una conferencia de 26 naciones, para reafirmar el compromiso de luchar en contra del Eje Alemania, Italia, Japón hasta al final.

Articulo muy interesante, con lecciones importantes para el mundo de hoy, de Roberto Savio, participante en la Conferencia de Bandung de 1955

Inglès:

 FROM THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT TO ACTIVE NON-ALIGNMENT: HISTORY AND LESSONS

This paper is not going to be academic or conceptual, like the other contributions in this book, but a long article. I thought that my best contribution would be to give a testimony I have lived through of the triple process of decolonisation, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77, in which I actively participated. I believe that I am one of the few survivors left from the Bandung Conference (1955) and that communicating my experience of the process of the creation and development of the Third World, its vision and values, may be the most useful thing I can do.

Hoy la izquierda está colgada de las cuerdas y poco a poco, sin que se note, se va cerrando la puerta del reformismo. Los movimientos sociales son muy débiles por su falta de coordinación.

Leer el artículo por Francine Mestrum

The crisis caused by the coronavirus is an opportunity to think about the future. This article is about ‘the left’ or ‘progressive forces’ in a very broad sense with implications for political parties and social movements.  Will they be able to take this opportunity to propose their alternatives? Will it be lost once again, as happened in 1989 and 2008?  And most of all, what is left of the left? Think of the very difficult discussions caused by the coup in Bolivia, ignored by parts of the radical left, or the electoral success of an indigenous candidate in Ecuador. Are there good reasons, then, to think there is no left or right anymore? What about Eurocentrism? Post-colonialism? Post-development? De-Growth? What should and can one do?

What I want to show in this article is how the justified criticism of neo-liberal policies and development practice has led to numerous ‘alternatives’ that in fact strengthen these policies or at least leave them untouched. In other words, I want to denounce the current dominant thinking of many progressive movements. For however understandable many reactions may be, throwing away the child of development with the bathwater of modernity is not what is needed. Moreover, these developments also show the emptiness of much current left-wing thinking. I will therefore end with some thoughts on the new progressive élan that we all dream of.

Read the article by Francine Mestrum