• comment from sfex on post seminar ic letter

last modified August 12, 2010 by facilitfsm

return to daket space

 

>> Please Find in italics and starting with >> several notes aiming at concretely commenting some aspects of this letter from the perspective of Sfex initiative (social forum extended) sfex space) sustained in communication commission  See earlier contributions to dakar wsf2011 expanded vision here

daket-face-a-face.jpg   daket-forum-local-aix.jpg  20090308-audition-et-la-mare-062.jpg  mexico2010-166.JPG

 

EN: Letter to the members of WSF International Council (August 9th)

Dear friends,

We were 75 participants at the Preparatory Seminar for the next World Social Forum edition, to be held in Dakar, Senegal, coming from 19 African countries and 7 countries in other continents, including 13 members of the International Council.

The Seminar, which took place on June 27-29 2010 was just finished.

We worked intensely on the political architecture of this Forum, its methodology, mobilization, communication and necessary resources for its realization.

We came back with the feeling of being involved in a strong dynamics, one that leads us to a World Social Forum that will mark the history of the process of building another World.

Soon, you will receive the report of this Seminar, with a detailed presentation of our discussions and decisions taken, including how the program of the Forum will be made and the procedures for proposing self-organized activities.

This collective letter we send you has a precise goal: to invite you to take part, since now, in the necessary effort along the next six months so this WSF can be a success.

This way we invite you to:

  • get involved in the mobilization effort so as many organizations as possible attend the WSF, sending delegates to Dakar, guaranteeing this way the widest possible representation to struggles, social categories and regions of the world.
  • get involved in the task that is going to be one of the novelties of this WSF edition: stimulate the creation of groups – in as many countries as possible, and that represents as many social categories and struggles – willing to take part remotely in the WSF, virtually, via radio broadcasting or by any remote means of communication, with the WSF’s participants in Dakar. Effectively, what we call “Dakar expanded”, will have a prominent position, notably due to the importance of the African Diasporas across the world.

1>> To Participate in WSF remotely means for these groups to have “distance encounters” with groups in Dakar and/or “distance participation” in activities held in Dakar, and also, and more importantly to organize “local activities” where those groups live and act, which can gather a wide participation

>>Thanks to the coupled distance encounter and distance participation, those local activities will appear “included ” into the worldwide hope breeding dynamics of WSF, even though the participation in the distance encounter and distance participation will be smaller than the participation in the local activity. This is a way to expand the forum locally   ( see types and examples of expanded activities here)

2>> The process of organizing for participation through WSF2011 extended is the same as for physical participation in Dakar : “groups” I-e one or more organizations, endorsing the charter of principles of WSF, get together, and decide to organize an “ extended wsf2011 activity” ( local face to face, distance encounter with a group in Dakar, distance participation in a Dakar activity ) and registers this activity in the wsf2011 website (which welcomes extended and Dakar activities in a common registration interface /protocol, as is done by Palestine event site).

3 >> In each country, or region of a country, some mailing list or internet space fostering “extended participation to wsf 2011” can be set up, as a contribution done in a self organized way along WSF values and practices : horizontality and diversity, in order to facilitates interrelation between those “groups” so they are mutually informed of who is making what for wsf2011 extended participation and can assess among them some articulations – agglutinations between some “expanded activities”

>>As an example a space for mutual information about participation in WEF-p has been started in Mexico. Thus, through this type of internet participation space the wsf2011 forum self organized articulation process can be effective also at country or region level  see here

  • commit with the current efforts towards raising the necessary funds for the forum’s organization, especially:
    • contacting partners of the WSF process that will be contacted by the Resources Commission of the Organizing Committee and the IC, in order to show them the importance of their support.
    • fund raising directly with other organizations.
    • asking organizations that will attend Dakar, as well as the “Dakar expanded” participants to contribute in all possible ways and even symbolically to help covering the Forum’s costs, as a token of our co-responsibility.

4 >> The financial cost of extended participation may be lower than that of sending a delegate to Dakar, but organizing locally to participate in “wsf2011 extended” does involves energy and costs, and also the aim of wsf2011/dakar extended is to foster participation of local organizations with no or less financial income, who could not be present in Dakar anyway.

>>For these reasons it is relevant to have a expanded participation fee policy distinct from direct participation fee policy may be a voluntary fee protocol for extended participation in wsf2011 through local activities, distance encounter and distance participation.

    • checking the possibility of sending a member of your organization (or a volunteer selected by you) to be sent to Dakar to work with the organizers from January on (or even before) to help organizing and preparing the Forum.
  • Taking into consideration the commitment made by many of us to support and participate in the World Education Forum in Palestine – to be held on October 28-31 2010 -,

5 >> Education forum in Palestine WEF-P next October appears as a first occasion of a “widely extended” forum, so each IC organization willing to participate actively in this forum can learn about what is extended participation on occasion of this event.– two and a half months from now Mobilization is starting : a nation wide space for mutual information about participation in WEF-p has been started in Mexico ( illustration of point 3 see here), and it could be relevant to replicate this in other countries – in this space organisation having delegates or contacts in Palestine and other having not , or less, can cooperate  (see expanded and interlink aspects in wef space) 

  • also come to Dakar on November 08-10 for the International Council Meeting, which will give a final boost to this effort following these specific objectives:
    • to evaluate the mobilization we will already have reached and what will yet to be done.
    • to evaluate the communication effort we will have established with all those involved, across the globe, with the struggle for another world; with all those who hope a beacon for hope will be lit again, with all those who know that another world isn’t only possible, but extremely necessary and urgent.

We kindly ask you to answer this letter, after having discussed it with your organizations, and tell us:

  • if you will be able to attend the IC meeting in November (8-10)
  • what specific contribution could you provide regarding the mobilization effort so we can have as many participants as possible in Dakar, or via “Dakar expanded”.

6 >> A first way to develop wsf2011 / Dakar extended mobilization would be that each organization physically coming to Dakar arranges to “extend” its own Dakar delegation

>>This means cense which local “home group” is “behind” each delegate who will come to Dakar on behalf of your organization – and stimulate both the local group and delegate to set up local activities, coupled with distance encounter with Dakar groups, or with distance participation in Dakar activities, both facilitated in situ by the delegate, from Dakar.

>>Facilitate distance encounters: gather people to come in some Dakar extended room in order to have an encounter with his/her “home group”, (this has been the main Belem expanded situation )

>>Facilitate distance participation: stimulate organizers of activity in Dakar the delegate is involved in, to extend their activity through IVM instantaneous video and messaging or IRT instantaneous radio and telephone ( when in connexion with a community radio).

>>This way the Dakar activity can be “distance participation friendly” for his/her “home group” and others, and the delegate can be, through instantaneous messaging or telephone, a “contact person” for distance participation of his/her “home group” –

>>In the context of Dakar extended, the delegate can thus become a “binding person”, with concrete tasks to be done in Dakar for the benefit of his/her “home group”

>> a second stage of mobilization is to propose expanded participation to all local branches of your organization or network who do not have delegates in dakar , and fostering cooperation with other branches that have or other local likeminded organization that have , or fostering partners finding through wsf2011 website with help of Dakar expanded team
 

  • - what contributions could you provide regarding the effort of fund raising (giving us, if possible, some figures).
  • - whether it will be possible to send a member of your organization to help the organizers of the Forum in Dakar.

7 >> Working Presence in Dakar OC working groups before the forum is of course very useful, and a local core group for Dakar extended is needed. ( voir check list sproposee )Nevertheless, because of the “internet based” nature of expanded participation, it can be also quite effective to have persons actively contributing, as support or facilitators, in the “Dakar extended dynamics” from where they live, when they can, without going to Dakar long before the forum event, nor being full time mobilized. ( also a Belem expanded experience)

>>A regular daily contribution of one or two hours on internet in the months before Dakar to facilitate processes described in notes 3 5 6 above can be quite helpful

>>Dakar and Palestine expanded teams can be careful about effectivelyincluding” such distance contributors, through everyday communication, and not to make a distinction between team members, based on the sole fact that a person is physically present in Dakar and Ramallah in the months before the event

8 >> Sfex initiative in Communication commission is a space where accumulated experience about “extended forum” is available, and will be used for information and support to Palestine extended and Dakar extended teams – sfex space)

We sign this letter with great enthusiasm, confident in the success of the next World Social Forum in Dakar in February 2011