International
The phenomenon of Porto Alegre
By C. Rammanohar Reddy
PORTO ALEGRE
FEB. 5.
The World Social Forum, the "alternative Davos,'' which ended here today, turned out to be a phenomenon exceeding the most optimistic expectations of the organisers and the delegates.
In only its second year, the WSF attracted 15,200 delegates from 4,900 NGOs, trade unions and social movements in 119 countries. "We knew we would have a better response than the 5,000 delegates who came to the first forum last year, but we did not expect such enthusiasm,'' said a member of the Brazilian organising committee who, like everyone else, was surprised by the response to the forum. The tens of thousands of students, political workers, artists, street performers and curious residents of Porto Alegre who visited the venue gave the forum a carnival atmosphere, which few international conferences would be able to match.
The substantive work of the forum took place at the 28 conferences, 100 seminars and 800 workshops that discussed an array of social, political and economic issues and displayed successful experiments from around the world that gave teeth to the conference slogan, "Another World is Possible.'' The loosely organised structure of the WSF gave participating organisations the freedom to formulate the national and global topics they wanted to discuss in the workshops. A Parliamentarians' Forum and an international Youth Camp were two of many parallel events held around the city. The organisers said today that altogether 51,000 people participated in one form or the other in the WSF.
"Porto Alegre has shown that doubts expressed about the future of the global peoples movement after September 11 were misplaced. The movement is not just alive, it is growing,'' said a Brazilian delegate, Roberto Oliviera. In keeping with its carnival mood, the WSF ended in a music-filled ceremony which had about 4,000 people collecting in a cavernous hall and cheering speakers from around the world who said that the WSF was now both an institution and a movement. The third WSF will be held, also in Porto Alegre, in February 2003.
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