World Social Forum 2004 - Pittsburgh Reports Back
In what one observer termed "a festival of the oppressed," 100,000 people from
more than 130 countries gathered in Mumbai for one week in January to stage
demonstrations, vigils, and guerilla theater, recite poetry, and attend a series
of workshops, panel discussions, and seminars offered on the issues of
imperialist globalization, excessive militarism, and other human rights threats.
The Fourth Annual World Social Forum took place under the banner "Another World
is Possible," January 16th to 21st in the Indian city,
timed to coincide with the meetings of the World Economic Forum. The
WSF came into being in 2001 for the purpose of addressing cultural and economic
conflicts arising from an increasingly aggressive globalization of world
economies, led by the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, among others. Held in recent years in Porto
Alegre, Brazil, this year's location was a reflection of the organizing
committee's choice to reach out to the South and Central Asian populations,
amongst whom poverty rates are some of the worst in the world. In India
alone, 86% of the more than one billion people subsist on the equivalent of US$2
a day, or less. Besides addressing concerns of general global import, WSF 2004
had a special focus on the problems of patriarchy, fundamentalism, and racism,
being held in a country where Casteism, though technically outlawed by the
Indian Parliament, is an atrocious discrimination in reality very much alive,
referred to by Corey Washington, creator of the site untouchables.org, as the
"apartheid of the 21st century."
Local initiative, the Pittsburgh Social Forum, held a debriefing of its
delegation to the WSF, a part of 1200 Americans to attend the annual event, in
the Lower Lounge of the William Pitt Union Tuesday, February 17. Speakers
included Paul LeBlanc, representing the Green Party of Allegheny County, Willie
Manteris of Pastors for Peace, Deborah Uttenreither, representing the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom, and Dennis Brutus, poet, activist,
and Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Each speaker stressed that their respective organizations were only a fraction
of over 2000 represented at the conference, and that it is of the utmost
importance that these member bodies cooperate across religious, political, and
national boundaries to promote unified human rights agendas in a coordinated
effort worldwide.
"We're up against global entities and multinational corporations," reminded Mr.
LeBlanc, "and we will be outflanked, unless we join with these types of
struggles in other countries and make the resistance a global effort."
LeBlanc pointed out that approximately 1% of the world's population is in
possession of nearly 40% of the world's wealth, and over 80% of us - over 5
trillion people - divvy up only 20% of that wealth. This disparity can
most readily be seen in the abject poverty of India's citizens. "It's a
culture shock that's hard to get over," admitted LeBlanc. "Some people
just lay down and die. Some people go on fighting, everyday. The WSF
represents them."
Mr. Manteris suggested the overwhelming success of interfaith efforts amongst
people "united for a common cause," and stressed that economic development
should not and can not be defined in absence of quantitative factors for human
development, and the health of the individual. Alternative currencies, for
instance assigning a relative monetary value to water, might help to ameliorate
the "odious debt" incurred by national governments in the name of their peoples,
often to the benefit of private corporate gain.
Ms. Uttenreither, an artist and costume designer herself, showed slides
depicting the pieces created in a number of art workshops, which helped
participants to make sense of a scene of general "tumult and cacophony."
She also stressed the continuing importance of the women's rights movement at
large, and marching with organizations such as NAWO in a country where, as in
much of the rest of the world, degradation of women is deeply ingrained into the
culture. "We must think of ourselves as fighting a war; we must be
consistent, ruthless, and steel-tempered."
"What we're talking about is trying to change the world," summed up Brutus.
Describing protest actions in Crete and roughly 750 additional U.S. military
installations in foreign countries worldwide, he called especially for
Pittsburghers' support in the global demonstration against militarism and U.S.
occupation in the Middle East, scheduled for March 20. Brutus cited
several positive high-profile developments for the movement, such as Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, visiting at King's College in London, calling for Bush and Blair
to apologize for what he named an "unjust and immoral war."
"When the U.S. goes to war, it goes to war in the name of every citizen and
taxpayer," Brutus emphasized, noting the US$87 billion and counting cost of
occupation in Iraq, and the thousands of civilian and military deaths which have
resulted. "We have a degree of complicity in those killings."
"I'd like to see this be the biggest protest in Pittsburgh's history," enthused
Brutus. "It can be done."
For more information about the WSF, please visit WSFIndia.org.
- Matt Novak
(L to R): Dennis Brutus, Cecelia Green, Willie Manteris and
Deborah Uttenreither.
(Photo by Matt Novak)