At World Social Forum: Unity and Dissent Within Global Movements

[marmar]

At World Social Forum: Unity and Dissent Within Global Movements

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 13:21
By Jordan Flaherty, Truthout | Report


An estimated 50,000 people from 5,000 organizations in 127 countries spanning five continents participated in the World Social Forum in Tunisia over the past week. By choosing to come together in Tunis, this year's forum evoked the spirit of the 2011 revolt that inspired uprisings around the world. But the annual convergence also raised questions about the trajectory of these movements, as well as the continued relevance of the World Social Forum process.

The WSF, which started in Brazil and has featured appearances by Hugo Chavez and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the past years, has been credited with helping to build and consolidate a broad left in South America and establish connections and shared strategy between movements around the world. However, the WSF has always been divided. There are frequent protests against the forum from within - notably in 2007 in Nairobi, when protestors took over a food stand that they said symbolized a corporate sellout by the forum and a lack of accessibility to locals without means - as well as struggles by leadership over its direction.

The contradictions and conflicts of the Arab Spring were on full display. While one group held a session on strategies for overthrowing the Syrian government, there was a rally nearby in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Elsewhere in the forum, arguments broke out over whether Libya was better off without Muammar Gaddafi.

While many spoke of Islamic political movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood as regressive forces, others saw political Islam as part of an anti-imperialist front. Reflecting the importance of these debates, hundreds lined up to hear remarks by Tariq Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies and major figure in the debate on the role of Islam in the West. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15464-world-social-forum-highlights-both-unity-and-dissent-within-global-movements

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1. du rec. nt

[socialist_n_TN]

2. Pretty interesting. I didn't even know about this meeting.......

There's a lot of talk about a broad anti-capitalist united front going on today and this seems to be a stab in that direction. HOWEVER, I believe that it needs to be plainly spoken that any international gathering MUST BE UNITED IN ANTI-CAPITALISM at the very least. IOW, NO representative of the capitalists. I know that Worker's Power probably wouldn't be able to work with a group of this sort. We could work in specific ways with reformists, but they must be anti-capitalist.