Notes from the World Social Forum
Submitted by Max Sussman / Michigan IMC corre:1200 events, 100,000 participants. Singing, dancing, drumming, and expressions of cultures from around the world. Greens, leftists, anarchists, communists, socialists, reformists, and revolutionaries. Representatives of social movements from all continents. And the issues are too many to list. This was the 4th World Social Forum, the largest gathering of 'civil society' to date in the world.
When I arrived at the WSF grounds three days before it was scheduled to start, it was hard to imagine that it would be ready in time to handle the masses of people that would soon flood in from around the world. Disorganization seemed to be the theme. I came early to help with Indymedia, a global independent media network. Expecting to be welcomed with open arms by the WSF organizing committee, we were unpleasantly surprised at how we were treated. For an event whose slogan is 'another world is possible,' it seemed to be hard at work replicating the one that already exists. The organizers were remarkably authoritarian and uncommunicative, making it difficult to know where our room was or how to ensure that we would get the computers we had reserved months earlier.
According to some attendees of this and past World Social Forums, which have all been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, this was a continuation of problems encountered in the past. Many participants and attendees noticed the sharp divide between paid laborers and organizers. Manual labor done to prepare the grounds in Mumbai was done mostly by workers as opposed to volunteers - a contrast between Mumbai and Porto Alegre. While this provided an important benefit to the Mumbai economy, it drastically altered the dynamic of the WSF.
Instead of being a collective space, envisioned and created by many, all of whom were invested in the process and result of the event, it was a hierarchically organized event, little different in form and structure from a corporate conference.
Although the WSF has clearly chosen spectacle over participation and authority over collective decision-making, it remains a vital part of a still-emerging global movement. People from all over the world met and exchanged stories of struggles, sharing their experiences and building the ties needed to sustain international organizing.
One example of this is the fight against water privatization. Around the world, privately owned companies are taking control over this vital resource out of the commons and turning it into a commodity. At the WSF, and at the People’s World Water Forum, held the previous week in Delhi, the fight to retain common control over water was represented by people from around the world, including activists from Michigan representing the Sweetwater Alliance.
Water was a crucial issue throughout the WSF and remains so throughout India. In the state of Kerala, Coca-Cola (a close friend of Nestle, which owns Ice Mountain) faces heavy criticism for its plant in the village of Plachimada. The Plachimada factory guzzles enough water every day for 20,000 people, while generations-old irrigation wells run dry. It's been described as a "David and Goliath battle," and inspiringly, it looks like the battle is now going the way of the underdog. In 2003 Kerala's license to operate was revoked, although this decision has since been reversed. The struggle to keep water rights in the commons, nevertheless, continues in Kerala, in Michigan, and around the world.
Overall, at the WSF, Indian politics dominated the agenda in the halls and in the streets, most notably the anti-caste movement and the issues of fundamentalist communalism.
---
Hinduism, the largest religion in India, is internally stratified into four groups of people, called castes. These four castes are said to have come from the god Brahma's mouth (Brahmin), arms (Kshatriyas), thighs (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras).
The lowest of all these are the untouchables, or Dalits. A sharp division exists between Dalits and the rest of Hindu society. They are considered impure by higher castes; if a Dalit even touches a member of a higher caste they, traditionally, must undergo a ritual purification. The Dalits clean up excrement and work the least desirable jobs, while often forbidden from entering Hindu temples to pray. Much of this has changed in the last hundred years; especially in urban areas the differences between Dalits and members of other castes have become marginal, but Dalits are still among the most oppressed and long-suffering groups in India.
The situation for Dalits began to turn around in the early 20th century. Gandhi renamed the untouchables Harijans, meaning 'children of God.' While this was viewed as a step up from "untouchable," many viewed this term as a glorification of their suffering rather than a genuine move towards liberation from it. The first leader of the untouchables himself an untouchable was Dr. BR Ambedkar. He reappropriated the term Dalits, which literally means oppressed, beaten-down, or downtrodden. Under Ambedkar's leadership, Dalits began to agitate for their basic rights, eventually winning many important legislative victories.
At the WSF, Dalits from around the country gathered to make their presence known and to spread word around the world of their struggle.
---
Two years ago in the Indian state of Gujarat, a violent traincar explosion, in which a large number of Hindus burned alive as a result of the alleged attack, sparked a brutal anti-Muslim retaliatory riots. Author Arundhati Roy chronicled the Hindu response; "two thousand Muslims were butchered in a State-sponsored pogrom. Muslim women were specially targeted. They were stripped, and gang-raped, before being burned alive. Arsonists burned and looted shops, homes, textile mills, and mosques. More than a hundred and fifty thousand Muslims have been driven from their homes."
The carnage in Gujarat two years ago was only the latest manifestation of a highly organized movement called Communalism, in which extreme right-wing Hindus in various organizations have been pursuing racist, nationalist policies for years. They seek to create a Hindu Rashtra, or a Hindu state, regardless of the fact that Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and other religions all inhabit the country. Compare them if you like to Christian fundamentalists of the United States, only more outspoken and public with their goals. The current governing party of India, the BJP, is a staunch supporter of communal Hindu organizations that sponsored and organized the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat and a strong ally of the Bush Administration.
While there is no unified anti-fascist front in India, there were many groups present at the WSF making their opposition to communalism known. One member of the Student Action Committee of Mumbai is trying to mobilize students against the BJP and the RSS, their "non-partisan" counterpart. One of their members, M. Singh, stated their groups commitment in "oppos[ing] fascism," and that "fascism and capitalism are two sides of the same coin."
---
And of course with any event as old and institutionalized as the WSF, there was the obligatory counter-conference, in this case organized by the Maoist sect of the Communist Party of India. It held, in fact, right across the street, attracting several thousand participants. Arundhati Roy, who also spoke at the opening of the WSF, gave several talks at the “Mumbai Resistance.”
The MR folks leveled some legitimate criticisms at the WSF: its mostly watered down liberalism, its focus on discussion and debate as opposed to action, and its incorporation into the mainstream. But their dogmatism, rhetoric, authoritarianism, and overstated self-importance were problems all their own.
---
The most refreshing and educational part of the WSF for me were the street performances. The street that ran through center of the grounds was packed from sunrise to sunset with processions of dancers and drummers. These jubilant expressions of resistance from around the world reminded me that change will not come from speakers inside conference rooms alone, but rather when we take what we've learned and use it to build real alternatives to the systems that are so destructive to the people and the planet.
::this article will be published in the upcoming issue of Moment Magazine::
[ IMC-India || past Michigan IMC coverage of WSF 2004: 21 Jan 2004 | 19 Jan 2004 | 16 Jan 2004 ]
