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gtiandwsf searching world social forum mentions in GTN discussions
Searching for occurences of world social forum and wsf in GTN discussions
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Stocktake on first 2 pages of Widening Circle
Sorry I've been silent on this thread for some time, too much travel.
But Stephen's mail below prompted me to put in a quick word. I've said
this in 2-3 emails on earlier threads, and said it also in the GCM
meeting at theWorld social forum... amongst the most powerful agents
for global change are and will be indigenous peoples, small farmer
movements, fisher movements, etc. See for instance the following from a
press release by one of the Canadian indigenous peoples:ashish
6 occurences of "world social forum
First I must apologise for being incommunicado for the past month with the exception of my brief report back on the Tunis trip to thetheWorld social forum..Unfortunately I have had a nasty flu the past 3 weeks that has laid me low. ashish
Another learning was the importance of a systematic process in moving towards the emergence or catalysis of such a movement. The Tunis meeting was the culmination of two previous meetings in 2013 and 2014 in Johannesburg. I felt the Tunis meeting didn't really build on the previous meetings and move things forward in any significant way. The funding for this project finishes in December and its unclear if future funding will emerge.(richard)
Dear Friends
Initial thoughts on a way forward for your feedback
(Richard, perhaps you can also indicate how some of these issues may come into discussions at the TunistheWorld social forum.., where I hope to join you all?) ashish.
How Do We Get There? The Problem of Action
In his article, Paul brings up the issue of the problem of action to reach a planetary civilization. I find this debate encouraging as it serves as an opportunity to reflect on personal activism and my work at Ibase, in the 1990s UN big conferences cycle, in the 20th century, and in thetheWorld social forum.., mainly from 2001 to 2012.candido 2017
But this debate isn’t just starting now. We have had, since 1989, a flourishing of many different episodes, from Occupy Wall Street to thetheWorld social forum...roberto 2017
Among the ways forward in terms of constructing or at least enabling a new movement of movements (and I agree with the criticisms of the WSF though maybe from a different perspective) is the notion of 'translation' between different movements mentioned below and also the notion that a chain of equivalences can be built across movements seeking a common democratic denominator. This is not quite the same as looking for a 'common enemy' that leaves us on the defensive insofar as we need to imagine and do the foresight for a world beyond anti-social, anti-nature, anti-democratic, anti-equality world we live under.
They are born from different experiences. Sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos coined the concept of “translation” in the context of thetheWorld social forum... How can you translate the feminist movement into the indigenous movement? They have different priorities: the feminist movement’s goal is to end patriarchy; the indigenous movement’s focus is securing the respect of their space, identity.
At thetheWorld social forum..in Porto Alegre, two kinds of movements emerged. On one hand, there were those who found their legitimacy in fighting the system, as they did in Seattle during the WTO protests. The others where those coming on themes created in the UN space, like human rights, environment, development, etc., and they got their legitimacy from the UN, who recognized and legitimated their activism. The two sides took two years to coalesce, and tensions between the social movements and the NGOs never really ended.( roberto 2017)
But the sense of community of those two decades went exactly in our direction. Then the crisis of 2007 came, first in US and then in 2009 in Europe, and since them we have had one decade of fear as a common mobilizer. But in a different direction. Especially after the interventions in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, in which Europe sent bombs and they sent back refugees, the fear about the future has resurrected nationalism, populism, and xenophobia, which were only fringes before.
Now, these are two opposite directions of communality. And this, in my view, is the space for GTN.
This means, first, to go beyond the academy and link up especially with new actors. I agree that after nearly thirty years, the idea of social movements has lost its shine. The WSF is in a deep existential crisis. But why? Because the keepers of the Talmud (those who did not want to change a comma of the original chart of principles) made every effort to separate WSF from any political engagement for fear of contamination. So it became a kind of spiritual exercise, like you do in a church. You meet, you meditate, you make spiritual exercise, and you go back better and with deeper engagement, after having met many people like you…
In my view, Paul , the real challenge is not how, when, and where. It is why.
Why would people now make a network? In my view, today the keyword is identity( roberto 2017)
Feminism and Revolution: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
3. The analysis of the need for the construction of organizations or political platforms for action and political intervention on a global scale
Our fundamental strategic objective is thus defined, but it is not at all easy to achieve. And it is not, precisely, for all the reasons that Heikki Patomaki outlines in his essay. Especially because the awareness of global citizenship is still too weak. And the organizational expressions of such global citizenship are too erratic, too un-systemic, and too few.
The World Economic Forum in Davos has far outlasted thetheWorld social forum... The global social movements of the first decade of this century are practically extinct. The extraordinary and abundant work of many militants from many NGOs, from many organizations of the so-called civil society, especially around the processes of international organizations, is both laudable and too ineffective. From Copenhagen to Katowice, I have been able to follow the process of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The "Constituencies" of the "Major Groups" defined in Rio 92 have been transformed into "intermediate" bureaucracies that manage the limited passages for observers accesses at the negotiating meetings of States Parties. I could not identify any sentence from the approved texts that originated as a proposal from these organizations of civil society. Not because it is not possible (as was shown elsewhere in a not too distant past), but because there is currently a self-inhibition of these organizations in relation to this possibility. This means, in my opinion, that we are still unable to identify and mobilize the world citizens at the appropriate territorial level and / or on the correct political scale at which we should wor(josep)
In his 2006 essay, Samir Amin asks: Who will challenge the new imperialist order, and how? After criticizing those who “wish to maintain the WSF in a state of maximal impotence”, he takes a look back at the First, Second, and Third Internationals (he mentions in passing the Fourth, or Trotskyist, International), and concludes that it is time to move towards a Fifth International. I agree.( valentine 2019)
I was part of the first steps of thetheWorld social forum..and tried to help structure it to be better able to push forward strong proposals. However, as I stated at the very beginning of this century, there is a wide gap between an anti-system coalition and a pro-alternative alliance. This is why I remain faithful and confident in the process we developed in the nineties via the Alliance for a Responsible and United World, which culminated with the World Citizens Assembly in 2001: a steady and pluralistic process of dialogue among the stakeholders at the world level, structured in order to confront the analysis and elaborate sound perspectives such as the ones which came out of the Assembly, with the Agenda for the 21st century. At that time, the Alliance and the Assembly could be but a prototype of what should be done to help foster a global community. Many think now that it was too much in advance. Over the following decades, more people have become conscious of the need for such a process. GTN is one of the expressions of this growing consciousness. The time has probably come to launch such an alliance with a stronger constituency. It would in any case benefit from our decades-long experience as in the 21st century, we also explored new ways of dialog between the European and the Chinese society with the China Europa Forum (www.china-europa-forum.net).( pierre2019)
Is there, then, a future for thetheWorld social forum..? Logistically, the outlook is not good. Right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of authoritarian strongmen around the world, has announced that he will forbid any support for the Forum, putting its future at grave risk. Holding a forum of such size requires significant financial support, and a government at least willing to grant visas to participants from across the globe. The vibrant Brazilian civil society groups of 2001 are now struggling for survival.
Indeed, right-wing governments around the world attack global civil society as a competitor or an enemy. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been pushing to eliminate the tax status of nonprofits. Like Salvini in Italy, Trump in the US, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, and Shinzo Abe in Japan, among others, are unwilling to hear the voice of civil society. Their escalating assault on civil society might spell the formal end of thetheWorld social forum.., although theWSF’s refusal to evolve with the times left the organization vulnerable to such assaults.
In the words oftheWorld social forum..(and other) activists, “another world is possible,” and “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for!”
A meta-movement is needed that also brings together with resistance/protest, the building and visioning of radical alternatives across the whole range of human endeavour and with the rest of nature firmly at the core.
Some activists and researchers have just launched the Global Tapestry of Alternatives as one such humble attempt, meant to provide a platform for alternative initiatives across the world to know about and learn from each other, build collaborations across sectors and geographies, and slowly build towards becoming a critical mass that is not restricted to any one sphere of activity, but encompasses the political, the economic, the social, the cultural (including spiritual), and the ecological. Over
https://greattransition.org/forum-search?childforums=1&query=WSF&searchdate=all
Since the word and the concept (at least in Mexico) are linked to political manipulative control, I would personally prefer to talk about (and head towards) a global coordination between networks, and networks of networks. Around the world there are such differences between organization strategies, between political cultures, between histories, that it is difficult to imagine one structured global organization. Maybe it would be more feasible to increase international linkages between grassroots and citizen movements around the world, and increase capacities in transnational social movements to coordinate views and strategies. The world social fora (WSF) could be more than venues and become a permanent linkage mechanism. A mechanism for (relatively) rapid decision-making could be created without having a few political leaders concentrating a lot of power. This risk should be avoided! (Lessons learnt from experiences in Mexico…)
Gerardo Alatorre
In his 2006 essay, Samir Amin asks: Who will challenge the new imperialist order, and how? After criticizing those who “wish to maintain the WSF in a state of maximal impotence”, he takes a look back at the First, Second, and Third Internationals (he mentions in passing the Fourth, or Trotskyist, International), and concludes that it is time to move towards a Fifth International. I agree. (valentine)
Heikki clearly points to the problems facing our world, and to the problems and weakness of efforts like theWSFHe also points to the problems of our faulty thinking and the lack of a compelling meta-narrative that could unite humans. He offers "Big History" as a potential meta-narrative, which I think is a good scientific story. ( @manuel)
And, there are several matters I would like to explore with him:
Given the many features of today’s landscape, including the testiness, if not outright verbal violence, now associated with political parties, what is the core of the case for creating a global political party? What grounds do you have for your apparent confidence that the likely outcome of such an initiative at this time will not be a further escalation of divisiveness, emotional violence, and the corrupt use of power?
Hardly an inspiring example of an alternative political formation. (@alex)
@Gina
That is a task that GTI (that I do not really know) might be able to drive assuming it does not have the reach or support to create a new World Social Forum.(@ronaldo)
This means, first, to go beyond the academy and link up especially with new actors. I agree that after nearly thirty years, the idea of social movements has lost its shine. TheWSFis in a deep existential crisis. But why? Because the keepers of the Talmud (those who did not want to change a comma of the original chart of principles) made every effort to separatetheWSF from any political engagement for fear of contamination. So it became a kind of spiritual exercise, like you do in a church. You meet, you meditate, you make spiritual exercise, and you go back better and with deeper engagement, after having met many people like you…
A couple of more quick comments:
(1) while i agree with you that the internet can be an enabler of global democracy, there needs to be a movement to save the internet itself from the global state and corporate powers that today control it ... at the Tunis World Social Forum there was a move for an Internet Social Forum, I am not sure what the contours and current status are (there is a parallel discussion going on this in onetheWSFlist) but it will mean an independent infrastructure and system that is under democratic control;
(2) while I also agree on trying to get some momentum from the Pope's statement, lets make sure we are sensitive to the complexities of promoting one religious leader (I'm sure you are, esp. in your idea of rallying other religious leaders around it, but I'm just stating it explicitly!).