The World Social Forum: Why It Was Worth It

World Social Forum, January 25, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

On the second day of the World Social Forum (WSF), the lead editorial in the main Nairobi newspaper attacked the gathering.  It spoke of the exuberant noise and music and drumming as no atmosphere for serious development of alternative globalization strategies.  It accused it of being a tool of the global foundations promoting an agenda of political correctness that distracts civil society from serious work for social change.

It was simply wrong – and nasty – in its attack on the issues of gender, race, and class that ran all through the marketplace of ideas that the WSF is.  It is probably a good sign that the established order takes the WSF seriously enough to attack it like that.  But it also misses the point.

The main important thing I experienced happening at the WSF through the workshops, marches and cultural exchanges was the building of solidarity and hope among people who need to know that they are not alone in their serious and at times desperate life struggles.  It was the affirmation of the justice and importance of those struggles.  It was the linking of people’s struggles around the world.  It was esteem building.  It was legitimizing.  As the children chanted, leading our march: ‘We are somebody’ and we don’t have to stand for this.  Another kind of world, a world of justice for everyone, is possible if we struggle together for it. 

If nothing else occurred here, that would be enough to make the WSF inestimably valuable.

But much more went on.  Stories of successes were shared across cultures and new ideas sparked.  Transnational partners were found who could work together to confront the transnational injustices of corporate actors.

Personally, I am coming away with three new realizations and some exciting organizational developments.  The first new awareness is of the passionate resistance growing to micro-credit financing.  The critique is not only that it is too little to make any macro difference.  That is true – look at Bangladesh after 35 years of micro-credit financing.  It has been a palliative measure within the dominant economic system.  But the opposition to it here at the WSF went on to detail how in many cases it has reproduced the debt crisis at the personal level.  If individuals have not been able to repay the loans, the peer pressure has too often led them to borrow money elsewhere at exorbitant rates to repay or has driven them to despair and suicide.

The second new awareness for me was of the central role of extractive industries in forcing the migration of peoples, exporting profits and creating poverty by driving people from their lands, destroying the ecology of the areas involved, and sparking armed conflict.  Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are obvious examples.  The TNCs profiting from unjust contracts made with corrupt governments are principally European, American and Chinese.

The third realization is the immense role of China in the future of Africa.  Africans at the WSF describe China as the “new crocodile” coming to exploit Africa’s resources to satisfy its immense appetite for energy.

The organizational developments emerged as the result of a gathering of Jesuits and their colleagues (an “Ignatian Family Encounter”) from around the world.  Following a 3-day seminar on the global economic development agenda that looked at issues of trade, debt and global governance, we worked to give shape to further international collaboration.  A group of 20-25 people from Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia identified five different clusters of issues that people were working on back home and that we felt could be helped by international collaboration through the International Jesuit Network for Development (IJND).

The key insight behind this approach is that everyone involved has plenty of work to do – too much to take on additional projects.  But all involved are doing work that could be enhanced and strengthened by some simple international collaboration.

The five areas we identified are: 1) Migration and Development, 2) Governance, especially capacity-building for local communities to hold their governments accountable, 3) Debt and Trade, 4) Extractive Industries, and 5) Conflict and Peace-making.  Small working groups formed around each issue cluster and identified the ways that they would be helped by sharing resources, promoting transnational research, devising joint advocacy strategies, etc.

A contact person was identified in each group who will see that follow-up activities are animated.  Listservs will be established for each group to make communication easy, and each working group will have its own space on the IJND website www.ijnd.org to collect and share materials, identify best practices, strategize, etc.  They will be operative before mid-February.  If you are working on any of these areas, you may wish to join the relevant working groups.  Just let us know.

Posted by Jim Hug, SJ - President, Center of Concern

Comments

[Antony]

Dear Jim,

Greetings!

I was attending the various events at WSF, Nairobi, Kenya. And I do share your insights and realizations.

Warm regards,

antony

[Patrice Gazire]

Thanks Jim for this news!
We Prepared for the WFS months ago an I
hope you will attend the national social
Forum in DRCongo .
Best Regards, Patrice.

[Joan]

Dear Jim,
I really appreciated your comments. I have been following the WSF from the IJND and Jesuit News sites. Keep up the great work.
Joan