From May 5th to 9th, the International Council of the World Social Forum came together in Mexico City in a meeting to prepare the next edition of the World Social Forum in February next year in Dakar, Senegal. At the beginning of the meeting this year’s initiatives were evaluated. A remarkable list of events was
From May 5th to 9th, the International Council of the World Social Forum came together in Mexico City in a meeting to prepare the next edition of the World Social Forum in February next year in Dakar, Senegal.
At the beginning of the meeting this year’s initiatives were evaluated. A remarkable list of events was presented: the seminar on the occasion of 10 Years of Porto Alegre in the context of the Social Forum of the Greater Porto Alegre area; the Social Forum of the Maghreb and Machrek in Morocco; the Social Forum on Education in Palestine; the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum in Belém; the Pan-American Social Forum in Panama, the Thematic World Social Forum in Mexico City as well as the upcoming European Social Forum and the US-American Social Forum – just to mention the most important events. The full schedule is not only remarkable in itself but shows how the character of the social forums is undergoing a change. Initiated by a handful of intellectuals and activists, the WSF started as a counter-event to the World Economic Forum in Davos ten years ago.
Today, tens of thousands of people have to be counted among its protagonists. The World Social Forum has developed from a single major event into a global process with numerous ‘stations’ in all continents. For that, a special de-centralised information infrastructure, websites, a news service for local radio stations, a virtual media centre and a global newsletter were set up. For further information, please consult the WSF website at: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/index.php?cd_language=2
As mentioned before, the focus of the debates was the preparation of both content and logistics of the World Social Forum in Dakar (from February 6th to 11th, 2011).
According to the concepts of the African preparation committee, the time structure of the World Social Forum will be as follows:
Day 1: Day of Africa and the African Diaspora (co-organised with the IC)
Day 2: Self-organised Activities by Participants
Day 3: Self-organised Activities with the Purpose of Developing Strategic Consequences
Day 4: Day of Concluding Gatherings
According to the ideas of the organisation committee, the following thematic dimensions shall form the framework of the Social Forum:
- the capitalist crisis, the crisis of civilisation and alternatives;
- the situation of the African continent, its struggles and its cultures; the African Diaspora and emigration;
- the development of a new universality, the South-South-co-operations, the role of women for a new universality, the rights of living beings and of the earth;
- the perspectives of the Social Forum as the medium of a new political culture of struggle.
On the basis of the debate in the International Council, a seminar in summer is to formulate the provisional axes of debate for the Social Forum. The debate will be summed up at the next meeting of the International Council which is to take place in Dakar in October.
In the end, the International Council determined a new liaison group consisting of 13 people to coordinate the work of its commissions and public relations (for the members of the liaison group see the WSF-website).
The members of the International Council signed the following declaration of solidarity with the people of Greece.