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caroltheart...@aol.com wrote: > Forum and its various incarnations have had the backing of > bourgeois governments, such as Brazil’s, the office of France’s > President Jacques Chirac, as well as the Ford Foundation and > the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. These are not people interested > in rocking the boat, but in making sure the waters remain calm > enough to keep the vessel afloat. The turn by those who want to > fight the existing system has to be toward the socialist > program and the great challenge of assembling and educating a > revolutionary movement with deep roots in the global working > class. This is not a project to be undertaken lightly, but > outside of that perspective there is no way to address the > social disaster and danger of world war produced by the present > system. > Well, all this is true but I don't think there are any principles involved. Going to the World Social Forum is not quite the same thing as crossing a picket line or voting for war credits. Here's some commentary by Samir Amin on the WSF's that is useful: The WSF is not an organisation with a common political platform for devising strategies. But it is also not a forum that is open to everybody. It has a charter to which participating organisations must adhere. They must make it clear that they are opposed to neo-liberalism, not necessarily to capitalism. They must also be opposed to militarisation of globalisation - not necessarily imperialism, which means much more. I think that it is a duty of all people, who think they should articulate an alternative, to participate, and not to boycott... I saw some people calling for a boycott of the ASF. They are wrong and sectarian. There might be a number of NGOs [non-governmental organisations], about which I personally have doubts. Some may be corrupt and may also be manipulated by imperialism. Okay, but that is life. We must realise that such organisations do not represent a major force. The major forces are the popular organisations such as the trade unions, peasant organisations, organisations of professionals, feminist movements, ecological movements and many other social groups. We have to respect diversity of concepts and views. Different points of view also need to be articulated at different levels - at the national level, but also at the global level, because globalisation is a reality. Imperialism has been a reality for a long time (laughs). full: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2002/stories/20030131008201200.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
