One of the chief examples of political interaction using the World Social Forum process to grow in strength is the World Network of Social Movements.
Since the first edition of the Forum, in 2001, and every year since then, organizations from the five continents have availed themselves of these encounters to assemble in mass, to define strategies, tactics, and common actions.
On January 31, the final day of the Forum in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, these movements launched the Fourth Porto Alegre Declaration.
The chief result of this interaction is a summons for a campaign calling for the “immediate and unconditional” cancellation of the foreign debt of the countries of the South, starting with the nations affected by the tsunamis in Asia.
Other targets on the movements’ agenda are free trade, the World Trade Organization, the American occupation of Iraq, and the process of militarization of the planet.
Human dignity is cited as one of the goals. The first big global action is scheduled for March 19 and will be against the American invasion of Iraq.
“The assembly reflected a great plurality of networks and movements. There were many proposals for interactions and campaigns, demonstrating the force of these organizations,” commented Luciano Muhnbauer, of the Italian Coordination of Social Movements.
According to Muhnbauer, there is no way to specify the number of organizations involved in the network of Social Movements, but “it is surely greater than a thousand.”
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brazil
