Con Saludos,
Andrej
> ====
>
> Porto Alegre
> By Tariq Ali
>
> The World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, in the deep South of Brazil was
more
> than a symbolic counter to Davos. The aim behind it was serious: to unite
> the Seattle generation with the Old Left and to think seriously about
> alternatives to neo-liberalism. It is an example from the American
continent
> for the rest of the world. It was North American students and trades
> unionists who came out on the streets of Seattle against capitalism. It is
> the South American left that is now demonstrating what can be achieved in
> practice.
>
> In that sense the polar contrast between cold, isolated Davos, beseiged by
> demonstraters and protected by the Swiss army on the one hand and the
> tropical warmth and openness of Porto Allegre highlighted the gulf
between
> the two events. The province of Rio Grande Sul and the town is run by the
> left-wing of PT, (the Brazilian Workers Party) and a participatory
> democracy is at work. The local state is active. The mayor of Porto
Alegre,
> a self-confessed devotee of Antonio Gramsci, is confident that the PT's
> project has hegemonised a bulk of the population in the South. And not
just
> the South. In the recent mayoral elections in Brazil's largest city, Sao
> Paulo (pop:14 million), Marta Sulpicy, a leading PT intellectual defeated
> the Right and took the city against all predictions.
>
> It invests in schools and hospitals and infrastructural projects. This
> industrial port, the sixth largest city in Brazil with a population of one
> and a half million, demonstrates that a resistance to globalisation,
> however modest, is possible. The budgets are limited by the centrral
> government, but the PT local government involves the local population at
> every level in determining how the money is spent. It was an ideal setting
> for such a conference, which has greatly annoyed Brazil's President,
> Fernando Henrique Cardoso( one-time leftist and contributor to the New
Left
> Review, but now a great admirer of Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and the 'third
> way`), whose own neo-liberal solutions are currently under attack from all
> sides. Cardoso denounced the PT for using tax-payers money to fund the
Porto
> Allegre bash, but the tax-payers I met seemed very happy that their town
was
> the centre of world attention. The local Chamber of Commerce denounced
> Cardoso for his remarks, claiming that the out-of-season guests were
> benefiting the local economy. What worries Cardoso is that the example
might
> spread in Brazil itself , thus propelling the PT to power nationally.
>
> This conference and its location represents a nightmare gathering for The
> pro-globalisation pundits in the US press, typified by Daniel Yergin or
> Thomas Friedman of the NEW YORK TIMES , who spend their lives promoting
the
> message that the new economy is 'cool` and that any state intervention is
> totalitarian. This message which has infected European social democracy
like
> a spreading cancer is what was being challenged at this conference. There
> are delegates from 122 countries attending a dozen plenary sessions and
> nearly 400 workshops to discuss alternatives in more detail. The
importance
> of Cuba to Latin America was demonstrated at the opening session when the
> conference applauded wildly the presence of delegates from the tiny
island,
> whose existence still remains important to the left in Latin America.
Ghosts
> from the past mingle easily with the large number of young people. There
> were loud cheers when 84-year old veteran Ahmed Ben Bella, the leader of
the
> FLN in Algeria and a former President, announced that Che Guevara was
the
> most amazing person he had ever met and a fine figure of a man. Much to
our
> amusement this was mistranslated as a: " . and Che had a beautiful body`.
>
> There are 40 Mayors of Latin American cities who have come here. Ken
> Livingstone was invited, but failed to even respond to the invitation.
> Mariano Arana, the Mayor of Montevideo, described the steady growth of
> misery in his own city. He was here to find ways of regulating and
> controlling the brutality of the free market.
>
> The strongest European presence was from France, the country hated the
most
> by US free-marketeers. Two ministers from the French Cabinet, dozens of
MPs
> and Euro-MPs and behind them the remarkable organising skills of Le Monde
> Diplomatique as seen in the organisation Attack.
>
> The tension between the Cardoso government in the Centre and the PT
> government in Rio Grande Sul reached breaking point on the last night of
the
> World SocialForum. The Federal police arrested the French farmer Jose Bove
> on the orders of the Minister of Interioir in Brasilia and served him with
> an expulsion notice. Bove had joined the Landless Peasants Movement which
> was occupying a Monsanto field trying out genetically modiefied crops. The
> local government had declared it illegal to plant gm crops in its
province,
> but Monsanto obtained permission from the Federal governmment. Bove's
> arrest and expulsion was a spectacular own goal by Cardoso. It enraged
much
> of the media and gave incredible publicity to the Forum. It also helped
to
> defuse the tension with the Forum between the two currents: the social
> movements and the politicians. Many activists from the social movements
had
> been annoyed by the opening session which was dominated by PT leader Lula
> and formere French Cabinet Minister Chevenement.
>
> The closing session restored the precarious balance. Jose Bove and the
> social movements dominated it with everyone chanting: WE ARE ALL JOSE
BOVE.
> Bove was in a cheerful mood, when I spoke to him the morning after. He
was
> planning to leave the country that day in any case, but had decided to
defy
> the expulsion order.
>
> What was missing at the conference was the presence of Russians, Eastern
> Europeans, Chinese...... these are the citizens who are suffering the
> effects of 'shock-therapy' and capitalism. The figures on public
education,
> health, employment in all these countries show a sensational decline since
> 1990. Perhaps they will be there next year when the World Social Forum
> challenges Davos once again.
>
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