original in portuguese

WSF : the challenges of post- mobilization( in brazil)  alterglobalism ( translated from PT)

The social activists who accompany since the beginning the processes of the World Social Forum ( WSF ) know that the model started in Porto Alegre in 2001 is exhausted . The world was different , governments and social movements were different . The WSF was born in opposition to the World Economic Forum in Davos  which was the University of neoliberal thinking , of the minimal state , of the crisis of the projects with a social or environmental  dimension. Today , Davos is not reference or paradigm for anything . Even the " experts" that still attend that event manage to reflect and self criticize  their own ideas . So there's no need to maintain a forum  to counter Davos . The neoliberal agenda  has exhausted itself , or rather ran out because it was the lure that WSF denounced .

On the other hand, the crisis of the neoliberal economic model deepens around the world. Europe is shrouded in an unprecedented crisis which expands the violations of social and labor rights of Europeans themselves and violations of human rights of non-European residents in that continent . Fascism and homophobia  are growing up in societies that understood themselves as advanced and modern . The European model of the third way , a social democratic way that does not condemn capitalistic model but had a look at the social , is in deep crisis. In part the crisis of the model has as origin the fact that it was only possible to a state of social welfare in Europe inasmuch inequalities with other continents  were maintained. Barbarism pops up in those societies as each day passes . We do not see a light at the end of the tunnel in the short term , see the massacre happened in Egypt this week .

The other powers - the U.S. , Japan and China - deal with taking care of their internal problems and try to maintain control over foreign markets . Nothing indicates that there will be a refreshment in military control processes promoted by the U.S. over various territories around the world. Rather, it is thought that the eagle's talons are turning to Latin America with eyes focused on the Amazon and the Guarani Aquifer . The first being the largest rainforest and the second the largest reservoir of fresh water on the planet . Hard times are glimpsed there.

The issue is that with the national crises of  countries from Europe and Africa and the internal context of the U.S. and China , the alterglobal connections also suffer a major crisis and , within it , the very process of the World Social Forum . Although editions of 2009 in Belém do Pará , 2011 in Dakar and in 2013 in Tunis have been excellent from the point of view of participation of old and new social movements , the process of international  connection facing the new dimensions of the crisis of civilization is wheelspinning and we do not see in a short time an effective  resumption .

The agendas that mobilize social movements worldwide are of national or even regional character . Many of  them of thematic character . no new agendas  appeared and not even other ways to tackle the economic social and environmental crisis

 Most social movements are taking care of their own tasks and agendas without greater capacity to connect with international agendas . The very process of North-South international cooperation  so important to strengthen autonomous subjects in each country is waning , almost completely closing . This crisis  of alterglobalization reaches the WSF , and more particularly the international council litself which  could not solve in Tunis the dilemma of to be or not to be.

Brazil, in turn , entered the calendar of international mobilizations from the new phenomena of June. Although there is still not the possibility of a more accurate understanding of what this means , the unquestionable reality is that the previous frame of movements  semi - co-opted by the social policies of the government is no longer an absolute truth .

There are several new players in the country and social movements that do not share with the character and speed of the changes implemented by the Federal Government . This puts new ingredients in the discussion of national and international agendas and presses for a new inflection of the role and character of the processes linked to the WSF , including the Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre .

Scheduled for 23 to January 26, 2014 , the completion of this year's  edition of FSTemático2014 plays a key role in reconnecting movements and organizations of the WSF with these new subjects and actors , many of them born within the events of the WSF itself , as is the case of MPL  ( free pass movement) and Off-Axis  ( for a do eixo). It's up to us the ability to recreate the Social Forum processes to include new actors and new forms of struggle and social expression that are enriching our everyday democracy.

Just not to go unnoticed , there is a theme that processes of WSF must face which is the issue of political parties and democratic governments . It is not about discussing  the co-optation of civil society or the partyfication of social movements . The point is that even for who advocates a society without parties , such a measure will need to be approved by some  democratic body . Thus , the agendas claiming the radicalization of democracy with the motto “real democracy now” need to dialogue with the representatives of the political parties of the left so that the proposals of these agendas  be incorporated into political processes underway .

The absence of this dialogue leads to weakening of the agendas , as is the case which we now live in Brazil with regard to political reform. It is necessary to move forward in the consolidation of democracy and  for this it is urgent that an hegemony  be consolidated in favor of direct participation of citizens in the management of things related to  the common good .

Mauri Cruz is environmental lawyer specializing in human rights, professor of postgraduate ABONG regional director and member of the Organizing Committee FSTemático2014

 see the reaction of Chico to this text: contribution 2