The International Council of the WSF organised a strategy debate, examining the global political context, the processes, and the future of the WSF during its meeting from March 31 to April 3 in Abuja, Nigeria. > continue

At a moment when many are questioning the future of the Forum, the time has come to discuss the issue and we welcome the International Council’s decision to open the debate. We would hereby like to make our contribution based on our own experience within the WSF. > continue

We are going to start the debate on the future of the WSF seven years after from the first event in Porto Alegre. During these years, committed movements and the International Council have always discussed and debated, sometimes in a harsh way, but always without producing permanent breaking (...) > continue

We welcome this opportunity to address the issue of the World Social Forum as a strategy to build this other world we are aiming for. We want to contribute to this debate with a feminist analysis of the present geopolitics as well as an analysis of the present moment the movements and organizations are in and how the WSF has contributed and could continue to contribute to effect change. > continue

The following definite opinion of Walden Bello, couched as questions, at the end of his article would appear to be at the heart of the present debate about the future of WSF: “Is the WSF still the most appropriate vehicle for the new stage in the struggle of the global justice and peace (...) > continue

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 24 (IPS) - Joao Pedro Stédile thinks that the World Social Forum (WSF) should remain a debating arena for civil society, because with all its breadth and variety, to attempt to agree on resolutions is “an illusion.”

The Brazilian landless movement activist is also in favour of holding the WSF every three years, instead of annually, he said in an interview with IPS correspondent Mario Osava.

A member of the group that founded the WSF in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in 2001, Stédile is regarded as one of the main theorists of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), and he belongs to the local chapter of Vía Campesina, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The 54-year-old economist is a national coordinator for the MST, and a staunch defender of food sovereignty and the right of farmers to produce their own seeds. Conversely, he is a radical opponent of genetically modified crops and of monoculture forestry, especially of eucalyptus.

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Document prepared by the IC Strategy Commission, which has the mandate of stimulating and organising the debate on strategies to be carried out during the WSF IC meeting in April 2008 > continue

Enough has been said about the crisis of the left, and part of what has been said has worked as self-fulfilling prophecy. The mortal fatigue of history is the mortal fatigue of the women and men that make it in their daily lives. The fatigue increases when the habit of thinking that history is with us, when it is put in question, inclines us to think that history is irremediably against us. History does not know any better than we do where it is headed, nor does it use women and men to fulfil its ends. Which is to say that we cannot trust history more than we trust ourselves. To be sure, trusting ourselves is not a subjective act, decontextualized from the world. For the past few decades, the political and cultural hegemony of neo-liberalism gave rise to a conception of the world that shows it as being either too well made to allow for the introduction of any consequent novelty, or too fragmentary to allow for whatever we do to have consequences capable of making up for the risks taken in trying to change the status quo. > continue

The meeting in Bouznika, which is taking place January 25th, 26th and 27th 2008, is part of the global mobilization of social movements. Thus the themes that will be discussed are not specific to Morocco as they will have North African, African and global dimensions. Although they cover local issues and are on the basis of local experiences, they derive from the requirements of a common struggle and dialogue between social movements of the Maghreb, Africa and the world. > continue

The European Social Forum (ESF) is by far the largest European space for organisations, movements, networks and individuals engaged in building a more sustainable, democratic and equitable society. Tens of thousands of activists and a broad range of organisations come together to share experiences, debate ideas – and not the least to formulate proposals and to build new alliances for mobilisation and effective action. ESF is about changing Europe – not merely to contemplate the situation of today. Among the participants are trade unions, migration networks, environmental organisations, feminist organisations, the global justice movement, peace networks, human rights organisations, academics, youth organisations – and many more. > continue