• forum connect session5 preparation

last modified June 25, 2021 by facilitfsm



Preparation FC5 

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Aaman a facilitator for South asia social forum 2011

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Farooq  -  a facilitator for Karachi social forum  2006  

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Meena - a facilitator for Hyderabad social forum 2016 and mumbai social forum 2004 ( preliminary version from a meeting held 22may)

 I am going to speak in a brief way, regarding what has happened in Mumbai, I think it could be very useful for the discussion of the forum for the futureI agree that the unity of Asia is important. I do not think that what happened in Bombay can influence the activities of the forum in the future.


In India, the Social Forum was very important as a framework, it was difficult, it was very contentious, but at the same time it was fascinating, because it brought together all the sectors, the political extremes, within a single space, without having a very complex strategy.

 It was possible that they could oppose in a globalized way against sectarianism, casteism, racism, patriarchy. This was the general idea, the understanding that we had to bring people together. This was one of the points.


The event had 4000 delegated participants, it was a 5-day forum. It had the participation of many important resistance movements, such as people from the rural real area, women, intellectual religious groups, and as well as thinkers, writers, and many from the transversal system.


Keep in mind that India is a subcontinent of many peoples, languages, languages, so for this reason, it was a very diverse event. We had the participation of a large number of women, as well as people from vulnerable, marginalized sectors. It was more like a resistance party, and I say that, because that was a very important part of the nature of the forum.


This forum took 2 years, a process that took 2 years. Many of us spent practically all of our whole time trying to build the process, and it was a new experience for us, something that affected us in a profound way, as well as the movements with which we worked, in terms of the way we used the participation for the forum.


This event was ignored by the media, because at that time, the hite the others were simply admired by the story of their successes, the news in India, and our event was something marginal, parallel and the media thought that all those who were Against globalization they were like crazy, for this reason the Media were not interested in our cause, but in our process, during the event, the way in which our movements achieved their results was a success, and it still is.


This became a slogan that we had the phrase “a new world is possible” was very effective, and that because it was a simple phrase, but the groups identified with this phrase that caused an important effect on the mobilization, and this the movement of preparing, doing all that, led us to a state, at a level, at each stage in each state.


Keep in mind that we have three billion people, we had a big impact like that? Buneo had meetings with the political spectrum of the sectors, and they discussed how they would participate in the Forum, and this was enough, as a process of understanding and dialogue. That to participate from the cities at the national level, with the different movements of the country. This familiarity between different political groups helped us in the long run.


We do not organize other forums, but many were tired after this work they did, and therefore no one volunteered to do it again. That is why he fell asleep for a long time. But everything has changed. There is much more interest at the moment. Therefore, the methodology is important: how we did this. Besides having the organizing committees, we had maybe 300,400 organizations that were part of it. They had their own dates. It is important to have the different organizations from the north, from the south, from different parts of the country, and in this way it was possible to mobilize the entire country.


 At least 10 of the organizations that came to participate actively and registered. We had a large number of participants, perhaps one of the largest numbers we had.


Many did not register 100,000 which represented great diversity, and perhaps 15 people from each organization, because unfortunately, people did not have the money to travel long distances. For this reason, many who could not come supported others by contributing money so that their representatives could participate, to cover long distances, and mainly the organizers were present. Many people use various sources to get money to participate.

We had a working committee that was made up of people who dedicated 40% of their own time and their commitment to participate. Otherwise they could not participate

Others participate actively and others signed up to participate.


Each meeting was like a battlefield, and each organization was making sure that they had their space, others were opposing, political movements, this was the way we were able to progress, in a way, even though each meeting was exhaustive, exhausting.


 But I think you are in the same story, similar to this one, the same experience that we had.

I want to talk about the role of the Executive Council and it is important to have this role. It is an important part of the process and its diversity. The Committee supported us but did not take the lead in the process, and that helped us to develop our own way of developing our forum. These were very important.


All work was done in the form of committees. We had 16 committees that have to do with logistics, mobilization, communication with the media and that I have lost another, basically the same thing that happened in other forums because we followed the methodology suggested by the Executive Council, and this committee had maybe 15 or 20 members per committee. Therefore, all the organizations observed what the Committee was doing, to make sure their opinion was included, their point of view was taken into account, and this type of inter-organization was important. Let's get the job done, mainly by mobilizing organizations across the country. This was not an easy challenge and it had a great strength in our forum


I'm not going to go into details, but what I want to say; That the most important thing of all was possible to do, because we had political inclusion, and it is important to have a consensus, and for us, it was very important from the beginning, that was a fact. For this reason, the principle of consensus, on the contrary, the forum cannot be held, because we have different pillars throughout the process, and nobody wants to dissociate all that.


Therefore, we agree that we have to have younger people, they have to be ahead, that is a consensus, that we can have a new process that is being implemented, we are talking with everyone, we have our appointments that will be made soon, and we Older previous generation we are as the Advisory Committee, and we are supporting them. They represent all sectors; all political groups, in terms of gender; castes, and they managed to have a balance and are moving forward.


And this has an impact with the mobilization. That helped us in the history here in Asia, and the question is "what was the inspiration?" The answer “is that‘ we have a forum in Mexico ”because otherwise there is no hope, having something here that will give continuity in Mexico, for us it would be as if we were present here.


That is why we want to support you in the event in Mexico, we would like to be with you in a solidarity way. If you want to take advantage of our experience in some way about our committee system, which we were successful, we can gladly share documents with you and even mobilize, here in India in Asia throughout the continent. Thank you


 

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Uddhab - a facilitator for Nepal social forum 2018

You are welcome to select a few of those questions below, (or others) and share views by written, as a preliminary input before your presentation on FC5


SESSION  QUESTIONS  " connecting our WSF facilitating  experiences"

What is the WSF to you?

WSF is a forum which teaches me the ideas to make a just society in the given hierarchical order based on caste, creed, class, gender, ethnicity, race, etc.  


What do you like about the WSF? 

The openness of open space for those who have relatively a different opinion.

 

What would you change about the WSF? 

 

What are frequent confusions about WSF? 

There are a few comrades who often see a dark side of WSF and argue that we could not succeed. But I think the Pandemic (covid-19) PROVED that the agenda WSF popularised in 20 years was absolutely right. We said, no growth fundamentalism, de-growth can also work; no extensive extractivism, consider sustainability; not always infrastructure in the name of development, consider ecology. 

Covid-19’s message was in similar line; you can keep your infrastructure with you but I won’t let you to use even elevator, I don’t let you to use transport i.e. railways, aeroplane, bus, car, etc.; I don’t want to use you steel, metal and many more things you (the capitalists) were symbolizing as a ‘tool of development’ to help for the prosperity and happiness of humanity. 


What are the frequent critiques about WSF?

 

Where is the WSF going? 

It should strengthen its confidence to convince others arguing that the agenda was absolutely right. 


What is your vision for the WSF? 

It is time for us to suggest to our opponents (the Capitalist world) to review the mistakes the Capitalists made in the past, before planning for something new to combat with Covid-19 and similar pandemic in the future.


What is the potential of WSF? 

What would you answer to people asking “ what can we, participants, do in WSF space?” or “How does the WSF process operate, who decides what ?”

What are the dynamics of the WSF? Can you share your views on :

How can WSF process balance coherence and decentralization? 

What is the meaning of “facilitation” in the WSF process?

How can WSF reach a bigger scale? 

What do you think are the main issues for WSF promoters?

What are your suggestions for next sessions/methodology of the FORUMCONNECT series