Here's a column on the WSF. I remember previous
discussions about the WSF [1], which got derailed
by discussions on publicity hogs like Arundhati
Roy. I share the columnist's confusion about what
exactly the movement stands *for* - it seems like
they are *against* a large laundry list of
things, but what are they *for* [2]? Ingrid (and others), want to comment?
Udhay
[1] See, for example, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/9922
[2] For a much more entertaining anti-"ism" rant,
see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/6011
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/16104.html
Anti-Bush, anti-Manmohan, anti-... jamboree time again
Vrinda Gopinath
Posted online: Monday, November 06, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email
From homogenisation to retail to shrinking space
for debate, India chapter of WSF ready with meet agenda
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5: Like the smell of
revolution first thing in the morning? The India
Social Forum 2006, the India chapter of the World
Social Forum (WSF), alternative to its gigantic
capitalist rival, the World Economic Forum held
annually at Davos, is set to stir its
anti-globalisation, -imperialism, -Bushism,
-consumerism, -militarism, -hegemonism,
-homogenisation, -racism, -sexism,-Cokeism
hyperbole, to offer its version of an alter-globalised world.
The five-day carnivalesque spectacle starting
November 9 in Delhi (the WSF has often been
described as the Carnival of the Oppressed)
expects over 50,000 people from all over the
country and Asia and Africa, and will have over
500 conferences, seminars, public meetings and
assemblies of people, marches, rallies, films,
songs, dances, global and indigenous food, and plays.
Says Ayesha Kidwai, academician, activist, and
chief co-ordinator of ISF: It will be the third
event in Delhi, after Mumbai and Hyderabad, and
the ISF will welcome once again representatives
of diverse political, social, cultural, peoples
movements, to come together to interact, network,
exchange ideas, for another world, not
corporate-dominated or industry-led. The ISF is
not an organisation but a forum for public
deliberation. We are under threat from homogenisation.
Participants include Aruna Roy, Subhasini Ali, V
P Singh,who will speak on displacement, right to
information and womens rights, Medha Patkar on
politics of environment and development, Jean
Dreze, Aijaz Ahmed, Chiko Whitaker on the impact
of neoliberal globalisation on livelihood and
survival, Imtiaz Ahmed on minority rights, Swami
Agnivesh on children ( a new entry) and
pro-active social spirituality, Vivan Sundaram,
Gita Hariharan, Ratan Thiyam on cultural
resistance to globalisation, Girish Karnad on
media and democracy, Dr Vandana Shiva on WTO and
its ills, apart from hundreds of other
specialists, social scientists, academicians, and activists.
Says Dr Vandana Shiva of Navdanya, which promotes
indigenous organic food, I am participating here
because there is a disconnect between the people
and NGOs who claim to represent them, and it is
time to reconnect to the real world of peoples
concerns and issues. There is not a single body,
government or NGO, which is preoccupied with the
pressing issue of today, the changing face of
retail, whether it is the traders who have been
booted out of the streets in Delhi, or the land
grab in Punjab. The NGOs live in their world and talk to themselves only.
Gita Hariharan says she would like to talk about
shrinking spaces for cultural debate because of
increasing parochialism and exclusivism.
The WSF first took off in 2001, in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, organised by several groups involved in
alternative globalization movements, and its mass
protests have stomped the streets of Seattle to
Davos, Mumbai, Karachi, Caracas, and other global
economic conclave hotspots. Past speakers have
included humanist heavies like Noam Chomsky,
Arundhati Roy, Danielle Mitterand (widow of the
late French President), Argentine Nobel Prize
winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Joseph Stiglitz,
the Nobel prize winning economist sacked as head
of the World Bank for criticising International
Monetary Fund policies, who spoke in Mumbai
alongside anti-capitalist economists like Samir
Amin from Egypt and Prabhat Patnaik from Delhi.
Brazils President, Lula da Silva, was a regular
too. Mukul Sharma, co-ordinator of ISF is
ecstatic about the new thrust on Asia-Africa
solidarity, tribal displacement, youth and
children, conflict in North-East and Dalit
empowerment. A new kind of space is emerging for
public discourse, says Sharma, it will be a
forum to integrate cultural expressions too.
Cultural resistance to the manic, marauding
American imperialist designs will be expressed
through poetry, dance, plays and songs.
The event will be launched with Raghu Dixits
musical extravaganza, called Indo-World Folk
Rock, a fusion of sounds from India and the
world, Dalit rap from Dalit music maestro CJ
Kuttapan of Kerala, Naga Folk Blues by Rewben
Mashangva, rock bands like ThemClones, sufiyana,
Dogri and Punjab folksies like Meeta Pandit et al.
The WSF has been knocked for being grandiose,
simplistic and vague, with few realistic and
practical ideas, and that it is merely anti-right
wing and anti-capitalism. Kidwai scoffs at any
query about results from past Indian meets
saying, It is difficult to measure success from
gains or losses because these are groups and
organizations that advocate change. I would
instead ask if the movements have intensified, if
new spaces have emerged, networks established.
Kidwai is equally reluctant to blame the present
government for its lack of pro-poor policies.
This is a political movement, mobilization is
our purpose and joy, it is not a knee-jerk
reaction to one government or another, she says.
The WSF has also been viewed with suspicion by
Left parties, and at its meet in Mumbai, in 2004,
the extreme Left held its own event called Mumbai
Resistance 2004 just across the road. This group
advocated armed resistance to global capitalism
and accused NGOs of being a tool of big
capitalists in preventing a true revolution.
But the WSF must be cheered for bringing in
radical chic from Buy Nothing Days in the US
and Canada, where rebels refuse to buy anything
for 24 hours to show up the wasteful consumption
habits of the First World, culture jamming
activities like Whirl-Mart, where you continually
whirl through supermarts and hyper stores with
empty trolleys, tactical frivolity protests which
is plain whimsy, like wearing pink or silver, or
dancing and singing, or mooning, where you bare your behind.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
