Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(ILO, 2004). These themes of sustainable development among others
are covered in more detail in Chapter 2.5.
The World Social Forum Challenge
Seen by some as the successor to the Non-Aligned Movement (intro-
duced earlier), the World Social Forum (WSF) was conceived as an
international forum against neoliberal policies, international financial
institutions and corporate globalization, built around the slogan:
'Another World Is Possible'. The Forum sought 'a space' where alterna-
tives to neoliberal capitalist development could be discussed, people's
experiences exchanged, and alliances forged between social move-
ments, unions of the working people, and 'civil society' NGOs and IGOs.
The first WSF held in January 2001 in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil
was timed to coincide with the holding of the World Economic Forum
(WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. It deliberately positioned itself as a coun-
terweight to the 'global solutions' proposed by the World Economic
Forum, which is an annual meeting of chief executives of the world's
most influential transnational corporations and IFIs with client aca-
demics and political leaders (Fisher and Ponniah, 2003).
After two successful forums in Porto Alegre, WSF organizers then
decided that from 2003 onwards, the annual global meeting would be
accompanied by regional, continental, and/or thematic Forums across
the globe. At the 2004 meeting in Mumbai, India there were, however,
internal disagreements about how the WSF should continue its mission.
Divergent views emerged in Mumbai with the West's global dominance
being challenged by the Eastern hemisphere's rapidly emerging global
economic successes. Henceforth, there would be hemisphere agendas
instead of undifferentiated global programmes seeking social justice.
The Mumbai WSF also achieved one of its purposes, however, with
the WEF being 'pressured' to embrace issues of inequality and poverty
alleviation, as is evident in its 2004
Global Governance Initiative
(WEF,
2004). The World Economic Forum would still be held in closely
guarded, secure locations like Doha, Qatar to avoid disruption and
pressure from activist opposition; but the WEF's privileged global elites
would now have to pay more than lip service to global problems of pov-
erty alleviation, disease eradication, and related social crises afflicting
the world's poor majority.
99
