Transcripts
"Paving the Way for World Solidarity: the 2nd World Social Forum in Porto Allegre"
by Matti Kohonen
The 2nd World Social Forum took place in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre from 31 January to the 5 February 2002. The conference was truly international as it gathered 51,300 registered participants including 15,250 delegates and 4909 organisations from 131 countries. During the week the official website averaged 500,000 hits a day. The issues were divided into four thematic areas: production of wealth and social reproduction, access to wealth and sustainability, civil society and the public arena, political power and ethics in the new society.
The First thematic area production of wealth and social reproduction dealt mainly with systemic issues of globalisation such as international trade, external debt, trans-national corporations and financial capital controls. In the conference on trans-national corporations a key proposal was the separation of corporations from the state at all levels from local, national and global. Parallel to systemic issues, each thematic area involved the proposal of working alternatives.
Social and solidarity-based economics puts humanity at the centre of social and economic development. It is a participating citizens' economy, which serves pluralist goals. Participation is a key element and this participation is exercised in local or community networks. Examples include: marketing agricultural products by village barns and grain banks, fair trade between the North and the South, solidarity-based savings and loans and collective environmental protection by reforestation associations. A key word is promoting an economy 'with a market', rather than a 'market' economy. I believe that the solidarity economy is creating a new economic paradigm. Nothing develops without a context and a history. Current consumer culture and legal obstacles as well as a history of paternalist and finance driven economics don't, however, provide the best conditions for the growth of the solidarity economy.
The second thematic area was called access to wealth and sustainability, topics ranged from sustainable economics and water rights to issues cof food sovereignty and indigenous people. Via Campesina defended the right to food sovereignty and indigenous people were present from both Americas: Amazonian forests and Canadian tundra. Both food sovereignty and indigenous rights are closely linked to the sustainable economy debate. Vandana Shiva coined a term called earth democracy, which she uses to describe the movement against neo-liberal globalisation. The term connects democracy and ecology, which implies better solidarity with other inhabitants of the planet and the ecosystem, placing people's needs before those of the market. Wolfgang Sachs described how globalisation expands and accelerates the use of resources fostering a new colonisation of Mother Nature. He presented proposals for tackling these issues, such as dematerialising the economy and innovative environmental taxation, which would replace employment taxes .
The diversity of the Forum starts to emerge as we look at the third thematic area: civil society and the public arena. Topics include the democratisation of means of communication and media, cultural identity, and global civil society movements. Globalised media in the North and South creates pressures for other areas of society to act at the same speed. Media politics becomes reactionary, media justice becomes instant and dramatic, democratic decision-making is reduced to instant opinion polls. Education is needed to assess media information to create media literacy. Privatised media cannot provide the socially beneficial independence of media and a democratic assessment of news.
Participatory and accessible media structures were promoted along with regulations for the private media landscape. Social and solidarity-based economics could provide such alternative media structures with the help of civil society groups.
The term civil society is somewhat complicated. Civil society could be understood as meaning anything that isn't part of an organised state bureaucracy. The place that the for-profit sector of civil society has within the formal decision making structures is incomparable to the power
of the not for profit sector. NGOs could push for further representation in decision-making processes, or continue to interact and peacefully confront states and business in the public arena to push ahead alternative policies and structures as well as developing independent initiatives.
Political power and ethics in new society was the fourth thematic area and it included: international organisation of power in world architecture, participatory democracy, globalisation and militarism, human rights - economic, social and cultural rights. Walden Bello proposed a process of de-globalisation where he believes that the main principle of economics must be local and regional instead of global. He turns the priorities of the global economy around and states that global must come last not first when thinking about the organisation of the economy and society. Susan George said that she is for a more solidarity and democratic globalisation, being pro-solidarity and pro-democracy. The proposals are numerous but somewhat problematic. For example, how can we escape from the inability of current globalisation to tolerate and benefit from the diversity of cultures and ecosystems?
Porto Alegre has come to symbolise the efforts and hope to build a more democratic, sustainable and just world. For many the gathering was an exercise of unity between different groups and organisations aiming for similar goals. Most importantly those who have experienced the Forum will spread the message and the ideas as they return back home to their own local realities.
Matti Kohonen
Student, The London School of Economics
For Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique
London & Porto Alegre, 2002
© Friends Of Le Monde Diplomatique
