Ten years of World Social ForumAnother world in the makingFrancine Mestrumwww.globalsocialjustice.comIt should always be repeated: no one can have a final and total positionon the World Social Forum. Since hundreds of seminars are organized,one can only speak about the impressions one has following theseminars one attended. This is also the case for the latest event inPorto Alegre, ten years after the first World Social Forum was organizedthere. The Brazilians clearly consider it ‘their’ forum and it was verywell organized with both organized and self-organized seminars, in thecity of Porto Alegre and in some surrounding towns.The formula of the organized events certainly had success. Anassessment was made of ten years of WSF and an analysis was made of the political, economic and social situation of the world to-day.Before the events in Porto Alegre, the social movements gathered inSao Paulo, and after Porto Alegre, a thematic social forum took place inSalvador de Bahia. It is interesting to note that both events wereorganized by those who are rather critical on the WSF-process, but allwere present in Porto Alegre as well, since the WSF is clearly becominga ‘strong brand’ that no one wants to miss.The events in Porto Alegre were the beginning of an important year of transition with more than thirty events all over the world that will leadup to the WSF 2011 in Dakar, Senegal. And it bodes well for the future.A new optimism was clearly visible, mobilization was strong, peoplelooked happy…

Capitalism is unsustainable

This does not mean that no criticism can be made. In the openingsession where an assessment was made of the WSF, the floor was givento six Brazilian men, and to three non-Brazilian women. This clearlyshows that the new political culture, that can only come about if peoplechange, if every individual changes itself, as Candido Grzybowski onceagain repeated, has not come about yet.Chico Whitacker reminded us of the goals of the WSF. The initialobjective was to create a new political player, against the WorldEconomic Forum of Davos. The major characteristic was a respect for

diversity, not trying to create a unified political vision, allowing fordivergent political messages within a framework of anti-neoliberalismand against a destructive capitalist globalization. It is an open spacewith a broad cultural perspective aimed at forging worldwide alliancesand networks. It is meant to overcome the fragmentation of civilsociety. Joao Stedile of MST pointed to what he considers to be the failures of the WSF process: the lack of unitarian ideas, of massive internationalinitiatives and actions, and the lack of a real anti-imperialist space. Letus open our eyes, he stressed, the international structures are againstus and the only institution today that is not in crisis is the military. It isthe crisis within our own movements, within the left that stops us fromcreating a counter-hegemony.The Uruguayan feminist Lilian Celeberti gave an impressive speech andstressed that social and political struggles are in themselves creatingfreedom. The space of diversity is a permanent struggle as well and hasto be created permanently. We have to construct hope, since hope isnot just awaiting around the corner. Our societies remain sexist, racistand individualist. Together with men, we need to develop the concept of care, for our societies and for our planet. What brings us together inPorto Alegre is our yearning for a new world and a new political culture.The climate conference in Copenhagen of December 2009 with its socialmobilizations clearly had its influence on the events in Porto Alegre. Thealterglobalist movements and the environmentalists have met and tryto word their alternatives in a concrete and tangible way. ‘Anotherworld is possible’ becomes ‘another world is necessary’, and even‘capitalism is unsustainable’. This very simple slogan is very strong andone wonders why no one had ever thought of it before. But it meansthat our struggles cannot be about integrating more people into anexisting system, but about radically changing the system.The new world that is being built will be radically democratic,representative, participative and local. Democracy has to bedemocratized. It will become a revolutionary strategy for dailystruggles.We will need other ways to think and say the world, from anintercultural perspective. Indigenous people in Latin America do notspeak of ‘socialism of the 21

century’, but they demand respect fortheir rights, their dignity and ‘buen vivir’, the good life. And apparently,they mean the same as what white people are asking for. It means thatthe alterglobalist movement is speaking many languages with manytongues to build a plurality of futures.According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Portuguese social scientist,five or six major changes are needed. The first thing is that we should

not wait for one major revolution, but that we have to defend ourfreedom day after day. Our divergences are less important that thehuge gap that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’ with paramilitary power andpreparing for a rightwing revolution.Our second task is to defend and strengthen our democratic system.Thirdly, we have to fight for the decolonization of our minds.Fourthly, we have to fight for real equality between all, men andwomen, cultures, black, white and indigenous people. We need tobecome the subjects instead of the objects of our human rights.Fifthly, we need to realize that no one can say what exactly a ‘socialismof the 21

century’ means, but the most important thing is that we tryto build a better world.Finally, we need to reach a better balance between humankind andnature.Three concepts can guide our actions, according to Sousa Santos:decommodification, democratization and decolonization.

A civilisational crisis

All participants in Porto Alegre now realize that the crisis is much morethan a financial and economic one. Capitalism has failed and for the firsttime in the history of mankind, we see that it is now destroying theplanet and threatening the survival of its inhabitants.Solving the crisis will mean to abandon capitalism. Some call it post-capitalism, others call it socialism or even communism, while othersdream of rebuilding local communities. But no one wants to impose aunified model on others.However, before we can start to build something new, Edgardo Lander,social scientist from Venezuela, thinks we have to eliminate two majorbarriers.The first thing is one of the major achievements of capitalism, thepersonal liberation thanks to material consumption. This kind of ‘individualism’ requires a cultural revolution in order to reverse it. Itdoes not mean we have to abandon individual rights, but a belief in afalse autonomy. We have to re-build the links between men and women,their communities and nature.The second point is the fact that capitalism is not compatible with thepreservation of life. The planet cannot survive with limitless growth. Asstated by the new Constitution of Ecuador, the objective of all economicactivities has to be life and the reproduction of life. It automatically