• poa20 input4.8

last modified May 15, 2020 by facilitfsm


12 may

 (ref: http://openfsm.net/projects/dibco1/dibco1-2020-discusionfsm-input20-en)

Friends,

Since rumours have been spread about the conspiracy of four members of the IC, we humbly now publish our 'confessions'. Up to you to judge :-)


Our “confession”

 

It was a shock, I have to admit. Zaril had discovered our plot and claimed he had evidence of our conspiracy. We rapidly consulted each other on what to do next, Boa de Sousa Pantoz, Oscar Marcalez, Leo Bapriel and myself. Would it not be best to avoid all further rumours and probable lies or half-truths to just admit what had actually happened and why we did it? It seemed easier, instead of waiting for possible leaks that might fall short of the truth.

So here is our story.

Some of us were at the meeting of the International Council in Porto Alegre. We were not so happy with the results. Some words on change were said, but they did not sound very convincing. Chipo was sitting on his chair, pretending to sleep, but all the time listening carefully and reacting when needed. ‘Needed’ means, in this case, as soon as something was said that might violate his own and personal consensus. The World Social Forum was only there to celebrate the diversity of so-called civil society, to talk in an open space for all, without any commitment to organize, without objective or strategy, let alone represent the rest of the world. The cherished ‘process’ started at the decision phase of a WSF and stopped at the WSF itself. It should never go from one forum to another, there should never be conclusions of any kind or lessons learned from the past. Hiphop was as important as the war in Iraq. Diversity meant we could talk and dissent with one another, as long as we stayed within this harmless framework. Those who did not were simply excluded.

We were the dissenters! We wanted a revolution! A civil society revolution against the institutionalised NGOs and movements! We wanted to organise! The WSF should become ours!

So we contacted our funders at the Chinese and Russian Embassy to explain the situation. They both immediately agreed to fund three trips to Mexico City, to book a hotel room for the three non-Mexicans, rent a meeting room, fill it with at least 200 people in order to have the necessary applause for each speaker.

It looked real! We were able to present our plans, not totally of course, since there might have been minor objections, but we presented it as if we just wanted to discuss, within the forum, some small changes in the charter of principles of the WSF. In reality, we wanted to replace it entirely with some kind of constitution.

We really wanted to take over the WSF and mainstream the different lines of thinking into one strong position. In our eyes, it is obvious this needs some kind of politbureau with the four of us deciding on everything and leaving some crumbles of diversity to all the others. In coordination, obviously, with party headquarters in Moscow and Beijing. So we could finally build a strong centralized movement with a clear and apparently responsible hierarchy. Since the four of us are not so young anymore, it would be our final victory, the achievement of everything we had been fighting for all our lives. Among our small group, we had decided to call this initiative the ‘Mexico Four’. Some wanted to call it 4T for ‘Transformation’, since we really wanted to transform not only the WSF but the entire world. However, some others were afraid of mixing up with common daily politics that would oblige us to also look at these earthly nittywitty daily bothering things like economy or social policies. We were for the higher important stuff, like geopolitics, war and peace. We were serious!

All worked well. We had a very good ‘debate’, even if now and then some words were said that made us shiver. Someone who declared that anticapitalism necessarily had to mean we should talk to the air and to the trees. Someone who promoted his own brand of herbal tea against COVID. Someone who said industry was coterminous with capitalism and had to disappear. Or the one claiming we had to talk with rightwing politicians, since they might help to overthrow leftwing governments that did not follow our instructions. We all know it is sometimes easier to agree with the right than with the sectarian left. However, we easily discarded all these arguments. And the people we had programmed to bring their complaints about the current process for the preparation of the Mexico WSF were there and spoke very convincingly about the dictatorial way of working of Piero and Rosita.

In short, everything went smoothly.

We did notice the presence of Miguel Palencia however and we knew we had to be very very careful since he is said to be a traitor and/or a double agent. We now think he is the one who told other members of the IC what we were up to. He might have taken a look at our papers during the break. Or maybe he himself has contacts with our Russian and Chinese comrades, who knows? We also know one has to be very careful with this kind of accusations, since one easily commits a character assassination that might be very harmful.

At any rate, for us, the evening was a success and we had a drink afterwards to celebrate our future of world leaders of the new 5th International, so dearly cherished by Hugo Chavez and Samir Amin. We would make their dreams come true!

If it was Miguel who betrayed us, he played a very clever game, contacting someone from outside the IC but always wanting to intervene. And so it happened.

We now confess it was indeed all a conspiracy. We humbly withdraw from the process, unless we get your pardon. But, ‘los Cuatro Unidos, jamás serán vencidos’! Take care! We are watching you.

To be honest, we enjoyed it!

Françoise Maestro