March 25, 2006

Every once in a while we need to be shaken from our non-stop routine of studies, hanging out at the mall, get together parties and focus on issues that affect the people around us. One such forum that gives a much-needed jolt is the World Social Forum. An ijtema of sorts, this year World Social Forum is coming to Karachi to highlight various issues. We at Young World discuss its origins, its aims and its relevance to the youth.

What is the World Social Forum?

World Social Forum (WSF) was founded in Porto Alegre, the largest city in southern Brazil, in 2001, by the Brazilian trade unions, NGOs, environmental and political groups. WSF view itself as the answer to the World Economic Forum that is held annually in Davos, a town in eastern Switzerland.

With a distinctly different viewpoint of the world, WSF intentionally runs its events and activities parallel to the World Economic Forum.

Its aims

• WSF is against globalization and wants big companies and governments to concentrate more on people and developing countries.

• It wants fairer, healthier and cleaner trade opportunities for poorer countries for them to advance themselves.

• It also desires the huge debts accumulated by poor countries to be cancelled.

• It aims to fight poverty, environmental degradation and illness.

The first WSF was held from January 25 to 30, 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil and was organized by members of the alternative globalization movement.

WSF was partly sponsored by the local Porto Alegre government. Approximately 12,000 people from around the world attended it.

The second WSF was also organized at Porto Alegre from January 31 to February 5, 2002. As compared to the previous year, this was a much bigger event in terms of attendance and activities. There were 12,000 official delegates from 123 countries, 60,000 attendees, 652 workshops and 27 talks. Noam Chomsky, the world famous American writer, author and activist also participated in this meeting.

Porto Alegre was the third WSF meeting ground, January 2003. Many workshops were held that focused on different alternatives of social, economic, political and communication organizations.

Mumbai, India played host to the fourth WSF from January 16 to 21, 2004. Thousands of people with different cultural backgrounds swarmed Mumbai and a very important decision was taken on free software. (Software that can be used, copied, modified, studied and re-distributed without restriction). Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and author, was one of the key speakers in WSF 2004.

Porto Alegre again played host to WSF in 2005. It was held from January 26 to January 31 with a participation of 155,000 registered participants.

Where is it usually held?

As it is obvious from its history WSF is usually held at Porto Alegre, Brazil. This year the organizers decided to hold ‘polycentric’ meetings or meetings at different centres. Two of these have already been held. One was in Bamako, Mali (January19-23) and the other was in Caracas, Venezuela (January 24-29). And the next meeting is being in Karachi, Pakistan (March 23-28).

The plan is to meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil every alternate year and in between organize the meetings in different countries of the world.

Will anyone famous be there?

Oh definitely, these famous and influential personalities are the main highlights of WSF. This time expected to attend are some big names like Tariq Ali, Arundhati Roy, The Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Tariq Ali: Pakistani born Tariq Ali is a journalist, novelist, historian, documentary filmmaker, broadcaster and a dissenter.

Arundhati Roy: Indian born Arundhati Roy is an activist and the author of The God of Small Things winner of the prestigious Booker Prize.

The Dalai Lama: The Dalai Lama is the exiled spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Bishop Desmond Tutu: Bishop Desmond Tutu is a South-African priest and activist who rose to fame during the 1980s for his opposition against apartheid. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

The atmosphere

If the previous WSF events are any indicator then the atmosphere is very electric, huge, bright, loud, colourful, chaotic and musical.

Held in and around giant tents, stadiums, and auditoriums the events include independent music festivals that include local traditional singers and performances. To add to the noise is also a theatre festival.

Main issues

Over 400 seminars will be held during the six-day gathering of social activists, intellectuals, and thinkers from across the world who will highlight issues like globalization, militarization, denial of rights, terrorism, colonization, fundamentalism, extremism, corporate farming and many other critical issues.

• Sexual harassment at the workplace: NGOs will discuss and highlight sexual harassment issues and measures of prevention.

• An assembly of HIV positive people: HIV positive people shall come forward and talk about the stigmas and taboos they are facing in their daily lives and how they are living with the disease.

•Primary education in mother tongue: Speakers are going to talk about benefits of implementing primary education in the mother tongue.

• Rights of small farmers: Activists and farmers are going to create awareness on rights of small local farmers.

• State of education under globalization: A dialogue will be held on the impact of education under globalization.

• Discussion on human trafficking issues: Critical human trafficking issues such as smuggling of women and children, illegal cross-border migration will be addressed.

• Health state issues of jute mill workers in Asia: At WSF labour leaders and speakers are going to raise awareness for healthier lifestyles for jute mill workers.

• Disability issues: The talks will be dedicated to discussion of problems and issues faced by disabled people.

• Environmental issues: Biodiversity, global warming, climate change and a host of other environmental issues will be thrashed out.

• Minority rights: Awareness will be raised on rights of minorities.

• Fundamental human rights and civic problems of fishermen: In this forum, spokespersons from the fishermen community are going to create awareness on the basic human rights and civic issues of fishermen.

• Bonded labour: Speakers and activists are going to urge their governments to implement the laws on bonded labour.

• Workers rights in textile industry: Textile workers will promote and raise consciousness of their rights at WSF.

• Role of NGOs in third world countries: The significance of NGOs and their impact in third world countries will be emphasized.

• Karo Kari (Honour killings): Speakers and activists will call for more to be done on the evils like Karo Kari at the forum.

Relevance for youth

Youth camps are set up in conjunction with WSF. These camps ensure a platform where the young generation can participate in dialogues and activities that concern them the most. This year, too, a youth camp is being set up where events, discussions, rallies and workshops will be taking place. In these activities, the youngsters will share their experiences and insights. Topics that are relevant for the youth are: armed child and youth welfare, photographic exhibition of street kids, Indo-Pak peace youth concert, youth against soft drinks and many other relevant topics.

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