Mumbai World Social Forum

If you are interested in Palestine/Israel, you might want to hear Mustafa Berghouti, one of the most dynamic Palestinian politicians who is remarkably unburdened by the legacy of the PLO leadership. You might want to listen to the words of wisdom of our own former President K.R. Narayanan.

Or would you care to hear Asma Jehangir, the human rights defender from Pakistan? Not to be missed are some of the world's greatest social activists like Medha Patkar and writers like Arundhati Roy.

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You can meet all these people in Mumbai this coming Friday, at the World Social Forum (WSF). This will be a gigantic event, only slightly smaller in magnitude than the Kumbh Mela.

To be held in suburban Goregaon between January 16 and 21, the WSF will host nearly 80,000 participants from more than 150 countries, including citizens and scholars, environmentalists and trade unionists, feminists and creative jurors, Adivasi and Dalit rights campaigners, musicians and theatre-people, film-makers and painters.

The World Social Forum was conceived as an international forum against neo-liberal policies and capitalist-led globalisation built around the slogan: "Another World Is Possible". It is the citizen's answer to the World Economic Forum, based in Davos, Switzerland, set up in 1971 by the world's 1,000 biggest and most influential corporations.

The first WSF was held in January 2001, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was timed to coincide with the WEF's meeting and was seen as a "counterweight" to the Right-wing policies it proposed.

Since then, the WSF has acquired an independent identity. Participation in it has increased five-fold from the original 20,000 people. Last January, one lakh people attended the WSF in Porto Alegre.

The WSF is a festival of ideas, debates, conferences, seminars, workshops, music, theatre and film.

2004 is the first time the WSF is being held outside Brazil. It will be huge. Over 52,000 participants have already registered.

What explains WSF's tremendous attraction, especially for young people? For decades, corporations and hegemonic states have ruled the world, making it a worse place. In the name of the "free market" and liberalisation, terrible policies have been thrust upon the world's peoples, robbing them of rights, resources and democratic instruments.

Whole nations have been bankrupted through ugly programmes framed by the World Bank and the IMF. The World Trade Organisation has made matters worse.

At the same time, hegemonic powers like the United States have unilaterally launched wars in "pre-emptive" defence of self-interests -- in defiance of world public opinion. The US has bypassed and undermined the multilateral world order.

Besides misery, this imperialist hegemony has produced "blowback" in the form of religion-driven terrorism and other forms of extremism. This has made the world unsafe for all.

The decision to hold the Forum first in Brazil was significant. Brazil has been greatly affected by neo-liberal policies. But different sectors of Brazilian society resist these policies, in villages, bustees, factories, political parties and schools. Brazilian grassroots organisations greatly inspired the WSF's development.

Porto Alegre itself is a province ruled by a government led by the Workers' Party. Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva is now Brazil's President.

The WSF's premise is that world is more skewed than it was 20 or 50 years ago. In 1950, average North-South income disparities were 30:1. By 1980, they had doubled. Now they are about 85:1. But the majority of Northerners haven't prospered. They have suffered stagnation or a fall in incomes and economic security.

Millions of citizens feel "Another World is Possible". The WSF provides their grassroots organisations, NGOs, political parties, trade unions a unique opportunity to interact.

The WSF is not an organisation but "an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas... free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action". Its participants are civil society movements "opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and imperialism" ...[and] committed to "building a society centred on the human person".

These movements are working to demonstrate that the path to sustainable development and justice lies in people-centred and self-reliant progress.

The Mumbai WSF will primarily focus on special concerns for our part of the world: Imperialist Globalisation, Patriarchy, Militarism, Peace, Communalism, Casteism and Racism.

The six-day event will have 2 huge plenaries, 5 panel discussions and round-tables, 4 public meetings and 4 conferences (each attended by 15-20,000 people); and 200 spaces for seminars and workshops. The emphasis will be on participation and dialogue, with question-and-answer sessions, etc.

The organisers have cleared conferences, workshops, etc. on 1,600 subjects. They are trying to compress them into 1,200 sessions! The speakers will reflect diversity: with an emphasis on representation of women and the underprivileged.

Importantly, the agenda will feature cultural events such as theatre, music, living display of crafts, folk dances, poetry recitations, and films. Witnesses will present 6 to 8 testimonials every day.

WSF-Mumbai has been in preparation for two years. An Indian precursor to it was the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad last January, attended by 16,000 people. The immediate run-up has involved a number of state-, city- and district-level conferences.

WSF is a huge, energetic, people-centred answer to the cynics who never tire of repeating that there's no alternative to capitalist globalisation: better put up with it; even better, join it. The message ring out from Mumbai: "Another World is Possible"!

We must fight for it.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.