|
CounterPunch
January
24, 2003
Porto Alegre
Diary I
Why Are We Here?
What Do We Want?
by JENNIFER C. BERKSHIRE
Porto Alegre,
Brazil. In Davos, Switzerland, they're
gearing up for the year's biggest apres ski hour: the World Economic
Forum. While Swiss officials unloaded the corporate cocktail
party on the Americans last year--they insisted that the stopover
in New York was intended as a gesture of solidarity after September
11--the event has been kicked back to the Alps in 2003.
Meanwhile, weighty deliberations await
the 1,000 odd WEF delegates when they arrive in the Swiss resort
town later this week. While the rest of the world watches and
listens for word of material breaches, moneyed movers and shakers
will mull menu choices at Alpine eateries--tafelspitz anyone?
Also on the agenda, a selection of lectures seemingly better
suited to a California spa vacation than a hegemonic retreat.
Highlights this year include sessions entitled "Love: A
Matter of Trust," "Can't We All Just Get Along?"
and "Humour in the Workplace." Conference planners
also display an unusual preoccupation with aging; a reflection,
perhaps, of the advancing years of WEF founder Klaus Schwab.
While residents in countries rather south of Davos battle infant
mortality and falling life expectancy rates, attendees can hear
about the latest robotics technology ("Will people start
replacing worn body parts with robotic parts?" muses the
official program) and reflect upon "Why do we age and why
do we hate it?"
On the other side of the Atlantic in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, sight of the 3rd World Social Forum, the
questions to be addressed are rather more fundamental. To begin
with there is the logistical nightmare of the gathering itself.
While Davos is confined to a relative handful of well-heeled
delegates--and a smattering of handpicked NGO representatives--the
Brazil gathering has exploded in growth since the first WSF was
held in 2001. Just how many people are coming to Porto Alegre?
"We think it will be 100,000, but we don't know for sure,"
said a member of the Brazilian organizing committee. "For
certain there will be a lot," he said, wearing the dazed
and frazzled expression shared by anyone with an official connection
to the event.
Already the city is teeming with delegates--those
seasoned members of the globalization circuit armed with trademark
black canvas attache cases; their youthful colleagues sporting
Che t-shirts. 30,000 young people--many from elsewhere in Latin
America, others from as far away as Japan--are expected to set
up tent in the sprawling youth camp on the outskirts of the city.
Then there is the larger question of
the Forum itself. Why exactly are we here? What is it that we're
demanding? And of whom? While organizers view the predicted size
of the event as a sign of success, dramatic growth has also produced
a gathering--and a movement--that is increasingly unwieldy. While
delegates to Davos share a single economic agenda (and even the
NGO reps attending this year's Open Forum know better than to
pick up any bricks), there is no such unity among attendees at
the World Social Forum. Reform or revolution? Not a question
one asks in mixed company here.
As Porto Alegre prepares for a human
deluge, members of the somewhat murkily assembled International
Council--the body that ostensibly runs the Forum and other related
gatherings--have been meeting behind closed doors. Among the
contentious topics: should next year's forum take place in India,
should the International Council come out against war in Iraq,
and what, in fact, is the Council authorized to decide?
While the closed-door sessions brim with
international--of the Third and Fourth variety--intrigue, outside
it seems to make little difference what Council members determine;
the sense of movement is already undeniable. Should the official
body condemn Lula, Brazil's newly elected president, for his
decision to travel directly from Porto Alegre to Davos? The youth
camp is already planning a protest. Is the International Council
opposed to war? Some 70,000 Forum participants are expected to
march against the war later this week.
But the most heated debate has been over
the question of whether the Forum should leave Porto Alegre next
year. A plan to hold the next global meeting in India has yet
to be agreed upon, and determination by the Brazilians who currently
dominate the decision making structure is strong and mounting.
At a welcoming session attended by Porto Alegre's Trotskyite
mayor and a representative from the state of Rio Grande Do Sul,
Brazilian officials urged Council delegates to keep the event
in Porto Alegre--and seemed to regard plans to move the Forum
as ill-fated. "If it were up to me, the World Social Forum
would never leave," said the mayor. "But we will still
be here in 2005 when you return."
While the Forum has proved to be a cash
cow for the city, not everyone in Porto Alegre will be sad to
see it go--if it does; closed-door deliberations continue with
no end in sight. Late one evening, a large group of US delegates
happened into a restaurant in a decidedly middle-class suburb
of Porto Alegre. As we shuffled in, dreary from jet lag and clad
in movement swag, a woman of obvious means was heard to sniff
in our direction. "Foro," she said derisively to her
dining companions, signaling the waiter for more meat.
Next: Building
the Party: Brazilian Style
Jennifer Berkshire can be reached at: jenniferberkshire@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Linda Heard
Flying
High: US Pilots Pop "Go Pills", Then Go Kill
Ann Gwynne
Nablus
Under Lockdown
The Black Commentator
Condoleezza
Rice: Devil's Handmaiden
N.D. Jayaprakash
India's Nuclear War Plans
Aviad Albert
Ambushed in the Hebron Hills
Kelly Nolan
The Price of Despair: "Prison Suicides Save Money"
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax--Deductible Donation Today Online!
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
January 18
/ 19, 2003
William Hughes
Rockin'
DC
100,000 Plus for Peace
Wayne Madsen
Deceptions
& Illusions
How the Press Downplayed the Protests
Alexander Cockburn
American Journal
Paranoid? North Korea?
Kevin Gray
Born
Again
Can MLK's Legacy Be Reclaimed from Its Abusers?
Edward Said
An Unacceptable Helplessness
Saul Landau
Mt.
Whitney Towers Above Death Valley
Eric Ruder
Death Row Shut Down
How Victory Was Won
Anthony Gancarski
Is
the Vatican Part of the Axis of Evil?
Ray Hanania
Likud and Hamas: the Ties that Bind
Walt Brasch
Bush Dances with the Supremes
Carol Norris
Rumsfeld's Paradigm Shift
No Evidence is Evidence
Adam Engel
The Armageddon Jamboree
Anis Shivani
Is It Time to Move to Canada?
Krieger, Smith
Carson
Poets' Basement
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|