POSITIONS SINCE 20 YEARS
Hello, welcome all and all this round table of the "World Social Forum present and future we would like" only to thank Claudio and his group who have hosted this round table here at the Vlady center, and of course thank the presence of all of you, @ 1 for a debate that we consider to be opportune, not only for the current times, but for the different positions that have been manifesting in almost 20 years at the World Social Forum
It is therefore a good occasion, since in Mexico we are working to make a general World Social Forum, not thematic, not national, but general, we wait in January 2021, and here we follow three backgrounds in 2008/2009 and 2010, where we were in the Zocalo of Mexico City and the Autonomous University of Mexico City, places and spaces for debates for at least 10 thematic axes then there is already some history, not only to attend the forums by individuals, but to bring already to the country this process
@ 2 An article by Boaventura de Sousa said that there are strong problems and weak solutions, well here we are throwing a case making a very brief presentation of the panelists
Each of them will make an exhibition of about 15 and 20 minutes and then we will enter into an interaction of questions and answers.
Francine, we can say that his work on Social Development poverty and inequality appears in his curriculum and he has also worked on European organization and policies, has published a good number of books and research translated into French into English. She is Belgian of nationality, is a member of the Tricontinental Center and in this condition has participated in the International Council meeting of the forum several social justice and labor networks.
Leo Gabriel is an Austrian national who entered the social forum director of documentaries director of the Institute of Intercultural Cooperation Institute in Vienna, I will add that he has been very close he is very close and familiar with the problems of Mexico.
From Master Boaventura, practically everyone here has an idea of who he is, what work he has developed, and simply being today, reviewing some of his curriculum, a list of 30 books plus a number of articles and conferences, which by the way can be seen in Internet There is a good amount of conferences. He is a doctor in sociology of law from Yale University Professor of Sociology at the University of Coimbra and the Center for Social Studies of documentation April 25 at this university, and is a Distinguished Professor of the Institute for Wisconsin human studies. There are some others, but with this we trust that you have read and know the work of the teacher, and it is enough for us to get into the subject we will try to adjust to the 20 minutes we give the word to Francine
Applause
722 FRANCINE
Good afternoon, I will not talk 20 minutes, 10 minutes Maybe
I just returned from an international council that was in Porto Alegre last week, and I have to say that I am always very optimistic, I am very optimistic, despite all the problems we have. I will not go into the details about the past, about the conflicts we had, it is not important at this time, what is important is the future
The future that is necessary, the future for the forum is necessary.
TWO THEMATIC AXES
For me, I come from Europe, but it seems to me that the problems in the whole world are identical, and we have two great challenges.
One is clear, climate change and two neo-fascism in Europe as in Latin American countries in Asia in Africa.
@ 3 And for me these would have to be the two thematic axes of the World Social Forum that we are going
It is going to have.
RESOURCES AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
We decided that last week: it will have a forum at the end of January 2020
Now, what are the conditions to have such a forum: one is resources It is very simple to organize a great meeting resources are needed. And two important support from the international community, from all international movements.
That is, the problem is not in Mexico, and I see tonight, if this afternoon, with all those who are here in Vlady, the problem will not come from here, the problem will be to mobilize internationals, then the problem is ours
It is we who are going to have to work to get to all that.
A PURPOSE TO BUILD A GLOBAL POLITICAL SUBJECT
So maybe some word about how I see what we have to do
forum should be or do
@ 4 What I said last week, and what we have been repeating for years: for a Forum to be useful, they need a very clear objective: what do we want to have, what do we want to do?
And when we have the goal, we can formulate a strategy, but we can't talk about a strategy, if we don't know what we want to get, what we want to accomplish.
The objective could be to build a global political subject
@ 5 In recent months throughout the world, from Hong Kong, to Baghdad, Santiago, Chile, through Paris, throughout the world, young people are on the streets to protest to claim social justice and nothing happens.
They have no contacts, each one works in their country, each one works in their city, and there is no articulation between the different levels.
For me, the most important challenge is to work on these articulations, of course, working at the level of your city is very important, working at the local level is very important, but there are no national solutions: capitalism is global, and the problems are identical in all countries.
So, it is necessary to find solutions to articulate these different levels
THE FORUM MUST BE POLITICAL GENERATIONS
And this is what, I think, we should try what to do: begin to realize this accumulation
One of the very important problems in the forum, - and I am very happy to see that, here, we are all four on the same side, right? - Is that the forum has to be political!
That may seem very obvious, but it is not for everyone in the forum.
@ 6 Some in the forum think that the forum cannot and should not be political.
@ 7Our task, it seems to me, is to do everything that is possible to have a political message, for all those who are in the forums, and what is very important, because those of us who are here are from the first generation of the forum, Ya we have the second generation and we have to move on to the third generation
They who are in the streets, they are the ones who should be in the forums, in excess it seems very obvious
So that's what I think is more important than what I have to say at first
HIP HOP AND FASCISM
For example, a small example for what it means to be political.
To say that there are 2 challenges, what are climate change and fascism? Of course there are other problems, which are not the only problems. @ 8 but for some, it is an open space we are open space, we are horizontal, and all problems are at the same level.
In other words, hip hop is on the same level as fascism, and if one says no, literally, no hip-hop can be important to fight against fascism, they answer "but you are violating the Charter of Principles"
We have to rank and articulate the problems, and the different levels, this seems very important to me and I am very happy to be here with Leo and Boa to discuss these problems
Thank you
Oscar well now we pass the word to Leo
1617 LEO
Good evening, colleagues, colleagues, colleagues. I had thought that everything Francine said was fundamental, now from an analysis of the situation that is taking place in the world.
SITUATION IN THE WORLD
We know that from Santiago de Chile, Quito, La Paz, Barcelona, Paris are with the streets multiple personalities of multiple people who claim different forms and different objectives against their respective governments, which all together are, somehow can be labeled as, governments neoliberals
That is right for me to understand with the fact that neoliberalism, - what perhaps, as the word “Neo” says, has begun with liberalism, so harmless the word, a form of liberalism in its form of self-presentation, but so is the brand image, - that neoliberalism, has become involved with the extreme right wing, throwing human rights on the ground, really forming a block.
Leaders are emerging, who had previously made the effort to hide, that we are in a struggle of the poor and rich, are presented as such, as millionaires, part of the oligarchies and the extreme right tries to hide behind a semblance of criticism social, what makes their efforts much more dangerous.
What to do? what is the strategy to counteract those forces, which not only trample on human rights, but no longer recognize the former democracy as a point of reference, even if it is formal.
What to do in a world in which racism, electoral fraud, police release, organized crime have become the normal instruments of contemporary Boards.
1945
The World Social Forum has collected many of the initiatives that went against the basic precepts of neoliberalism, but not thinking that it could somehow change the system, from within the political structures, linked to the fact that each one has its own court of articulation, his group doing things, extremely valuable, but that together reduces the strength to confront an enemy of this magnitude.
Today, the situation, particularly in Latin America, has changed. The leftist parties, which had assumed the fundamental responsibility, many of them in the last 15 or 20 years, face a shattered order. At this moment there is nothing to discuss because they collapsed, it also has a lot to do with this overview of the world.
But in the end, that's right, and we also have to learn from these mistakes and failures. But it would be a mistake to speak of a vacuum, as I said at the beginning, the number and fighting power of civil society movements throughout the world has grown tremendously.
It has also increased skepticism towards political parties of all trends especially among the younger generation.
A climatic movement the Fridays for future hit the spot with a slogan that emerged in one of the mobilizations of the World Social Forum on purpose in Cancun Mexico in 2012 when the famous slogan was heard "we must change the system not the weather."
Faced with this unprecedented alliance between the financial capital and fascist politicians who once chained royal wars and civil wars in different parts of the world, not only in the Middle East, or in Africa Ukraina, Hong Kong, Chile, Venezuela. The tension has grown about to explode.
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How the different political media and cultures can be interconnected and combined, so that they are able to act together to face the increasingly centralized power structure of the world.
It is precisely in Mexico that the great motto of the indigenous peoples of “unity in diversity” comes to mind, I believe that we in the World Social Forum, with all these movements, have made the test and win that we are capable of a great diversity in terms of our criticisms, our approaches, our actions.
But what is the unity that could bring us all together?
@ 9 The International Council has been discussing, for quite some time, if the WSF could not form a kind of, - it is difficult to give it a word, but I would call it, - a kind of “active communication center” between the different movements around the world.
ASSEMBLY TAKING THE RENDERS
From some heated debates that also took place here in Mexico, I became more and more convinced that the form, not to say the format, how to advance in this process, even in the preparation of the forum itself, could be a form quite classic: the assemblies
@ 10 Resistance assemblies of indigenous peoples, trade union assemblies, there is a practice and tradition of assemblies that could be well used, to take, say, the reins of the process of organizing the World Social Forum, where, @ 11 With the social movements represented by many other countries and corners of the earth, a World Resistance Assembly could be joined
INTEGRATE AND MALLOW THE CLIMATE CHANGE REDEEMER
This is an idea to discuss, but there is another point that is more content. I think that today nobody is going to doubt that, for one reason or another, the theme that has involved the entire planet is the theme of the planet. Let us say the environment, fight against climate change, the survival of the earth, on which there is a fairly broad consensus, I would say of an overwhelming majority of the world's population today.
@ 11 But there are dangers that also on this issue, is something that is a topic next to others, as if nothing would have to do with each other, I think the task of a future Social Forum, as planned here In Mexico, it is not that each one of those who are defending peace in the world, the solidarity economy, the precepts are presented for their thing, but how to gather these different aspects to integrate and amalgamate.
For example, it was necessary to make clear and transparent that climate protection is closely linked to the end of Buen Vivir, that the solidarity economy demands, and that social justice can only be strengthened if the horrendously high funds available to it they are currently spent on armamentism in wars, which would no longer be necessary if the right to self-determination of all peoples of the world is truly guaranteed throughout the world, and that the destruction and theft of land can only be avoided if They take the exploitation of non-renewable resources.
To achieve all these objectives, we have a long way to go, we will only travel on the horizon, when we realize that we have already traveled a considerable part of this road, it is not about changing the road, but about sharing our political experience
Then we will discover that all these decades that we have spent together fighting have not been in vain, but have been at the service of a vision of the future that we now have to put into practice, thank you very much
Applause
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Oscar: we pass the word Boaventura de Sousa
BOVENTURE
Good evening everyone, it is a great joy to return to the UACM and present, be at the table with Oscar with Francine and Leo, and I am particularly happy that there is finally a plan to make the next Social Forum in 2021.
IT'S THE FORUM YOU NEED FROM MEXICO
@ 12 One might think that it is Mexico that needs the World Social Forum, and I think it is the Social Forum that needs Mexico
Why, in this context, talk a little about the past, of course as I am a part, as Francin and Leo have said, that we belong in some way, with our differences, in the International Council, @ 13 to those who want to give a little more than political teeth to the World Social Forum that was depoliticized over time
@ 14 I think the Social Forum is a ruin, and that ruin must be transformed into seed, again I am optimistic about this, but we must see what happened. What happened to the forum, a bit with the forum today, is almost the same as it happened in 21st Century Socialism
Some of you remember this debate about 21st Century Socialism? It's a very curious thing, which never convinced me enough to discuss that issue. It is because for me it was first necessary to discuss the mistakes of Socialism of the 20th Century, but nobody wants to discuss it, there are also many interests and there was no discussion.
DISCUSS THE PAST
@ 15 Then we also have to discuss the past of the World Social Forum a bit, because we are here with this impulse, this enthusiasm, for Mexico to help the World Social Forum become a political force again.
@ 16 You have to start from an idea, that we, in the 1st World Social Forum 2001, had a direct meeting on television, by electronic communication, with the Davos Economic Forum, and I remind myself that some of our representatives, and the representative From Davos, we are almost in a balance, the Economic Forum in Social Forum.
From then until now the Economic Forum has followed its path, and the World Social Forum was losing a bit of the forces it had then.
CONSENSUS AND DEPOLITIZATION
Why did he lose strength? @ 17 Then we must see that, fundamentally, this idea of a total consensus within the organization has led to what Francine has said: we are not really political.
LARGE NGOs
It does not mean that there is no policy in the forum, @ 17B there is politics, but, to give an example, first large international NGOs that had an excessive importance in the organization of the World Social Forum, and there were same political parties, and therefore, Your agendas are the agendas. A large international NGO organization, they bring the organizations of Africa that are their subsidiaries , they are their clients say,
@ 18 And that's why the insurgents, the most radical, the people who most need the forum are never in the Forum. To a large extent that is a contradiction
ANTI -CAPITALISM
@ 19 For several, and even for me, the Social Forum would have to be anti-capitalist, as the World Economic Forum is procapitalist, but a large part of the large NGOs and some influential members in the Forum, is not capitalism is neoliberalism, or either we are here fighting against liberalism, but not against capitalism.
@ 20 Then there were indeed some major problems of political articulation immediately, and of building the common within the World Social Forum
RENEW THE YOUNG FORUM
On the other hand, it is really a great difficulty to renew the World Social Forum.
This table somehow represents the need that we have to renew the generation that I speak of nobody's generation to my own right? (laughs)
So we are here in need of a renewal of generations that happened? That the young people were abandoned the World Social Forum, because they saw nothing relevant in their lives. @ 21 Because whenever there was a political problem, it was not discussed
AS MUCH AS ADVICE
I remember myself and Francine Leo, from a dramatic moment of the International Council, where we wanted the Council, as such, to approve a statement against the coup against President Dilma. We failed to do so as an International Council. People individually I could sign of course, but not the Council.
@ 22 When a World Social Forum cannot make a statement in favor of a president, perhaps the most honest President of this continent, which was prevented by the most corrupt politicians on the continent, then it is a fallacy to think, and young people have seen that
REPOLITIZE THE FORUM AS MOVEMENTS TABUS
Then it is necessary to look at how we can re-politicize the World Social Forum for the new challenges and this has to be the World Social Forum has to be more of the movements than of the NGOs @ 23 to be able to work on topics that are taboo.
ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
@ 24 For example, we at the World Social Forum cannot really discuss a state called Israel that is destroying Palestine, because there are groups that are totally opposed to considering that issue, saying that Israel ...
Of course I have always been an advocate of the struggle obviously against anti-Semitism in Europe, always in my country. But now, if I speak anything against Israel, I am anti-Semitic. And now they are looking for a final solution with the Palestinians, ending the Palestinians.
@ 25 Then it will be that a World Social Forum cannot manifest on these things?
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THE FORUM IS NOT FOR EVERYONE
@ 26 Then we can't do all the Social Forum, it can't be all the people
There are people who, perhaps, cannot be there, because they agree that society will continue to be capitalist, that society will continue to be patriarchal, and that society will continue to be colonialist.
Perhaps with a human face, perhaps more domesticated, but as Leo said, financial capital and Francine, with neo fascism, capitalism is showing its teeth at this time and what are the characteristics are these:
It is that capitalism could have a human face when it was afraid of its enemies Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism is not afraid, and that is why today we have what we speak today, with the students of the UNAM for the tomorrow, this unequal distribution of fear and hope in the world.
FEAR AND HOPE
Much of the people of the world are afraid, and have no hope. He is afraid of war, of violence, of hunger, of losing employment, of not finding employment, of the employer, of drought, of the new flood, and he does not have much hope that things can improve in the future,
And there is a small minority that seems to have total hope. They may be afraid of some panic, but they are not afraid of their enemies, because they have the idea that they completely disarmed them, since the Berlin Wall fell, then there are no enemies to they.
GIVE HOPE
@ 27 Then we cannot give hope to the oppressed who are only afraid, without causing a little fear to the oppressors who only have hope. That's political
TOPICS
Then the World Social Forum of Mexico, I hope, is a forum where this topic is a topic, where anti-capitalist, anti-colonial political issues, because it is important to say that the concentration of land, the destruction of the planet are connected with capitalism and colonialism, with racism because, despite so many victories of the feminist movement, violence against women and feminicides increases every year, because after so many anti-racist movements and so on they follow a genocide of young blacks in the periphery or of young indigenous people in the Cauca in Colombia.
Why capitalism is not sustained without colonialism and patriarchy, without considering that there are people who are subhuman.
FORUM AND DEHUMANIZATION OF THE OTHER
@ 28 The World Social Forum has to go looking for subhumans, it has to give them the word not the word because they have it, but allow a space for them that are truly subhuman.
Women, in much of the world, indigenous and Afro peoples of a slightly blacker color whatever they are, who are victims of racism.
As we say, racialized bodies or sexualized bodies are bodies that do not have the fullness of humanity.
@ 29 So, the main task of a World Social Forum is to restore humanity to humanity is that we can all finally be human
We are, since the 17th century so that a few can be totally human, a large majority is subhuman
You imagine the 15,000 Africans who have drowned in the Mediterranean, if it were a people like us, there would be no political collapse in Europe? How is it possible that we let 15,000 of our citizens die, but there are ships that can save them, but they don't save them.
Why that? Because these people are not people: they are their humans. Mateo Salvini has said that the ships they bring from migrants and refugees are cattle boats is cattle: they are not people.
Then the World Social Forum has to address the issue of dehumanization of the other
and what do you have if characteristics like Francine said of the ecological question.
And we invented nothing: the World Economic Forum for the first time the 5 threats of Davos last week are all ecological. So they are aware that there is a problem here, that there is no need to continue with developmentalist policies, alternatives to development must be followed.
How are we going to do this in Mexico now.
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POLITICAL AND CIVILIZATION PROCESS
Now the World Social Forum is going to be worldwide, because it is not from Mexico, not.
But at the same time, the Mexican problem will be very very present in the World Social Forum; And in my opinion it is good to pass.
It's good because? I think that our main problem is this: Since the eighties, we have brutally separated political processes from civilization processes
Civilization processes are the processes of the future, of the alternative of the great questions of the world, of social justice, of a society worthy of all, of ecology and so on.
In the 80s, with the idea was that there was no alternative, the political processes separated from the civilization processes.
SMALL VALUES POLICY AND POLICY
And that is why the political processes are going to start to be small thought processes, and that is why the politicians of our time are small, they are mediocre. There are exceptions, of course, that's why in Mexico for some reason, I think it's an exception, right now AMLO, but it's an exception that confirms the rule. Politicians think small, they are corrupt, weak, why? because the political processes think small, the great civilization issues are outside, the alternatives ..
The Social Forum Mexico has to bring civilization process back, and when it brings the civilization process, this thing that is obvious to you, the problem is obvious, is that, how we separate political processes from civilization processes, we have these conditions of this moment in the world: there are values and politics, but politics have no values, and values have no politics.
Politics has no values and values are in private life in community life but it is not in politics.
Then there is politics without values and values without politics, we have to get back together
and this can only be with civilization process.
MEXICO KEY OF CONTRADICTIONS
And here we are going to face problems that we should discuss
I think that for Mexico, and I have more than 1 minutes, this seems fundamental to me
I come to Mexico a lot, obviously that each country is a condensation of world contradictions. The World Social Forum, of course, is going to be worldwide, and that is why it is not going to be from Mexico, but Mexico somehow represents today a very strong knot of contradiction, very strong within the world system.
What is between a model with the institutions that has brought us from capitalist, colonialist, and patriarchal modernity, is a model of the State, the model of monocultural public policies, say monolithic, and the autonomy of communities, what in Mexico have been represented many times, not only by the Zapatistas, of course, but by other groups of indigenous peoples, who have other ways of living their lives, but they are also organized with the value of community life, from the base.
That is why this country is perhaps the country where there is more autonomy than urinators say.
No country has a theoretical autonomy like Gustavo Esteban; you want it here, and it is not by chance.
So I think that we are going to face these contradictions in the Forum of Mexico. Can we refound the state? On Friday we will have a great debate at UNAM in Jon Milá's group on this issue, are we able to learn with the progressive governments of the first decade in this continent, or are we going to repeat the mistakes?
And if we repeat the mistakes, is it because we are mediocre, stupid, or because there is no alternative?
Then the World Social Forum to focus on the civilization process, to say that there is an alternative, and our optimism, as Francine, I always say that I am a tragic optimist, that is, I do not refuse to think that there is no alternative, but I am very aware of the difficulties.
ONE YEAR
I see that you have a year ahead, there are many people here from the groups that have been working to create and build the World Social Forum, there is not much time and you know when there is little time, @ 30 there are some organizations that are going to try to control the World Social Forum,
SOCIOLOGY OF ABSENCES
@ 31 And the World Social Forum must follow a principle: who finances does not put conditions on who will come, and what we will discuss, because if we are going to seek funding, but with conditions, we will produce, and my students that some here you know, what I call the "sociology of absences", that is, we are going to raise many absences; issues that we should discuss, but that we cannot discuss. @ 32
I remember very well that in Nairobi, at the World Social Forum, we can hardly discuss abortion, why large parts of groups and organizations had been financed to come to the south by Catholic organizations, it was as a condition of financing that abortion was not discussed , that is absence.
@ 32 Then I am full of hope, but we will have hope if we put a little fear on the powerful. Thank you
Applause
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OSCAR QUESTIONS ABOUT CHANGING THE LETTER OF PRINCIPLES
Here we have three and three quite ustential exhibitions about the present of the forum, and some glimpses of the future, and I would like to take advantage of the word before they ask your questions, take advantage of the circumstance that I have the microphone to ask the panelists a question,
@ 33 Those of us who have been to the Salvador Bahía meetings, and then here in Mexico with the Migration thematic forum, where we have had meetings of the International Council, have asked, even in writing, what is reviewed by the facilitator group of Mexico, the Letter of Principles
@ 34 Why there are those who consider that it is necessary to conform to what the letter says, without considering that every rule and every principle has to be interpreted so there are some interpretations that have a little to the right and others to the left.
STATEMENT
@ 35 We must keep if unity in diversity, but how to guide the forum to not only a meeting and an exchange of groups, but to go more to the formulation of a timely statement to promote, more action than pure exchange of information
@ 36 That is the kind of problem we have then, how to define a new Objective and how to really update after almost 20 years what this forum is.
CHECK FSM LETTER? LETTER FROM MEXICO?
@ 37 It was already said here to put social movements on or before organizations
Well then, it would be one of my questions: what do we do to review, if there is a need or not to review, this Letter of Principles?
@ 38 We have even spoken here of a possible letter from Mexico that gives a lift, and that really drives a new stage of the forum.
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Oscar: well let's hear now two two or three questions ;; Several questions we can already give a microphone. Please identify yourself
FELIX
Felix of the Latin American Foundation to support popular economic knowledge and the center for national strategic studies.
I have this question from this consideration, undoubtedly that the Social Forum has had very interesting contributions, and that must be preserved and vitalized, but who participated in several of them, we were left with two very large concerns, which were already mentioned about We are going to ask that.
INTERCOMMUNICATION
@ 39 One that the various commitments of analysis and proposals, as it was done in parallel, and it was not well known that progress was made in the other spaces: feminism, ecology, solidarity economy, and there was no mechanism or methodology , not only to have informed, but articulated and builds strategic thinking from this, this has been a very large deficiency.
AFTER THE EVENT
@ 40 And the other, that at the end of the forum, nothing relevant happened, some here in the case of Mexico make a memory, but what it would be to prepare the next event, in most cases.
A THEME
@ 40B Then I believe and ask you only the restlessness of what can be of others, if we could not that one of the Themes will sit on what "how we achieve precisely the articulation of collective knowledge construction" on the various spaces of claim and desires, which give rise to organizations.
POWER
@ 41 One and the other, as we build power, we really need to have power, and we are not going to do it, nor can we do it with the same terms that capitalism does, but there is already evidence in the case of solidarity economy is driving a lot about Organizing ourselves as consumers at least in the basic basket. That missing link what is the consumption, if we take it from you will see in our hands in much of life, it is already very powerful.
And the other is to build a strategic thought, this can not be expropriated by anyone, but it has to be collective
@ 41B So my proposal is what possibility there would be if we focused the effort among others, but on these two concerns, how we calculate and how we build more elements of power in this forum. thanks
MIGUEL LACK OF FORUM CULTURE
If I see that there is a lack of culture, because a full World Social Forum has not really been done in Mexico, how is this going to be, we do not know in Mexico @ 42, and the World Social Forum is self-organized, and while learning to self-organize There are a lot of disagreements.
@ 42B This idea of "unity in diversity" is a very pretty phrase, but I discovered years ago that the invention Lenin to create the Soviet Union, then the anarchists discovered that within this phrase, a lot of authoritarianism was put. The phrase unity in diversity does not help much, and in this sense, we must recognize that if we are going to find in this World Social Forum different currents,
I very much agree with what the representatives of the International Council have said in some way here. It seems to me in general, I already agree, @ 42C and although I know the other part of the International Council and those who think that, yes you can dream many things that we could do, and when we are going to reality, and when we see the reality of organizing, when the question of "who brings the microphone" "who connects the computer" "who makes the call" comes then They scream a lot disappear. They just want to come to give great speeches, but for that, you have to scrub with the small details of the organization, and in this sense, you have to avoid the drama, s and the dramas of trying to impose and centralize doing things
30 minutes of various interventions see transcription here http://openfsm.net/projects/pfsm20/pfsm20-insumo89-act-5feb20- others
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OSCAR Come on, the comments will have the word Francine
FRANCINE
(WHAT DOES IN DAVOS)
@ 43 Thank you for all these very interesting contributions. I would like to start with a little reflection. You know what the task of the Davos Economic Forum is; what they are doing; what they are doing in Davos, what all these people do; is to build a speech; a narrative They are building a consensus, and of course there are many differences between them, but they agree on the capitalist line, the universal line. About that there is no divergence and little by little every year, for 5 days, they are discussing conversing reflecting, and little by little, they are building that discourse, this consensus.
The World Bank does the same, with its great reports, every year a little more, and so a consensus is built on everyone, they agree,
@ 44 It is what we should do, of course there are many many differences between us, this is not the problem, we have to know these differences, yes, but we have to build a line, a thing we have in common, a thing about which we all agree with the differences and divergences that exist, this seems very important to me,
(LETTER DOES NOT SERVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEFT AND RIGHT)
And I say it because right now, we have a new problem, it seems to me and it's a bit Oscar's question about the Letter of Principle
@ 45 I think that this Letter of Principles is no longer useful, but it is not so important, it is not so important.
@ 46 What happened in recent months, what happened in Bolivia I go specifically: in Bolivia there was a coup, and now Carlos Mesa, the Camacho, admit it, but at the time of the coup, there was a part of the left what he said "there is no hit". For me, that was a violation of the Charter of Principles, because this letter says the first article "we are in the forum and the forum is against neoliberalism and so on", but they accepted the coup. I mentioned it twice last week in the International Council; No one answered; nobody reacted; They don't want to know.
@ 47 Then there is a part of people, some within the International Council who no longer know the difference between left and right, and that is a very serious problem, and that is why I say, the forum if it is a space, is a space of spaces, it is a space for all progressives, all on the left, not for the right, and we have to know that.
@ 48 and it is in this context that we have to build one thing we have in common, with all our differences again
(PATH OF THE FACILITATING COMMITTEE)
@ 48 And one more very practical thing with all the questions that there were, there is a facilitator committee in Mexico, I greatly admire the work that was done on this committee, it was not easy, because there was never a decision by the International Council, and all the The work they did was a little hoping that the Council would agree. But a lot of work was done, without knowing if it will be useful, if it is going to be accepted, in that context, I have a lot of respect for the work that was done and we have to look for
(INTERCOMMUNICATION)
The last thing I want to say: we have to find a solution for - I don't know if I can say the communication - because what happens now within a forum, there are many groups that all come with their problems, have their seminars, workshops, their meetings, but they don't know each other: there are no contacts between the different groups, and this is something we have to solve. @ 49 We could do it with maybe Convergence Assembly at the beginning of the forum, so that everyone knows where we are going to talk, with a connection group, I don't know with a communication group, I don't know, but it is a point that we would have to discuss within the Facilitating Committee , to know how to better articulate the different, the different problems within the Forum, so that they are not lost. It is a space for everyone, they have to know each other, and everyone has to know what others do and that we have to solve.
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LEO
ABOUT DIALOGUE
I am going to start with a problem that has been advanced which is more difficult, perhaps the partner who spoke last asked a question that could give us the guideline: he said, "How do we achieve a reciprocity of dialogue?" I think this is an apprenticeship, that we have to educate ourselves, orque from the moment that it is about the project that transcends our own culture, even that there is I don't know how many languages, wanting the comb that I have to be right is very relative. . @ 50 Noting that even within the conflicts that have occurred, a cultural environment is very much reflected. Knowing Mexico since the 1970s, it reminds me of many things, which is for example different from the Brazilian culture. Brazilian culture avoids conflicts, clashes in general, with its exceptions, perhaps, we would investigate the independence of Brazil in history. We compare it with the Mexican. We also see, how is it,
That is to say, it is not about going for people, of saying I am your friend, or I am your adversary, your criticism as a person, but it would be a dialogue, that in part of reason to the other, if one feels that way, in part contradicts it, that's how I always say, I can't say that Putin is 100% good or 100% bad, if I see what he is doing in Syria with all this, he is an imperialist, if I see his position in Ukraine is different.
@ 51 In everything to clarify and not take advantage of the principle of consensus, and this would be very bad to block decisions There are situations and they have existed thus here also, in these circuits, where almost everyone agreed, and one has said "I am against , for that reason there is no consensus ", and with that everything has already been broken, an articulation, in creating a culture of interculturality in communication would be very important.
(...)
HOW TO BUILD POWER
Second point that has been touched: that seems fundamental to me, that someone has asked how we build power. Power not for being President of the Republic or something similar, but @ 52 power from our unit what is formed through this difficult dialogue. This has to be externalized and can only be externalized by trying actions.
Before coming here, I received a call for an international day of anti-imperialist struggle from May 25 to 31, 2020. Obviously there is an ideological foundation, there are extremely large and important organizations, such as the Via Campesina, such as the International Assembly of Peoples, the continental day with democracy, and could be more, but @ 53 to participate in this, to the title even if it is a trial, to form power, to form a block that has the ability to really go against the absolutism of the powerful, we have to argue, we have to get together, nationally and in alliance with others,
@ 54 That's where I think the question of the letter is also. I don't think the letter should not be dismissed, it was a base, by the way, that it was not the founding document of the World Social Forum, but was written after the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. This letter would have to be very, very lively, very provisional, and at the same time trying to give the wheel of seeing that collect the different opinions, and perhaps, at a given moment, it is presented with something more definitive, until next time.
I think we would need that this communication has been spoken of the criticism with reason of the parallel forum, said Felix, it is to ignore this problem, if from the beginning, we intercommunicated themes: peace at the same table with the fight against climate change , the social system with ecology, etc. etc. @ 55 I believe that forcing the blocks that have been formed to intercommunicate and as facilitators of a dialogue organizers of Mexico make more public tables and not only self-organized. This is my proposal thanks
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BOVENTURE
Thank you very much to all and all, this debate is very rich, I am sure there are many other concerns, there that have not been possible to express itself, but it seems to me that the atmosphere is good for the debate to continue.
@ 55B I will try to be quite constructive and pragmatic in the things that can be done, because we are one year from the organization of the forum, and for me the World Social Forum of Mexico is crucial.
@ 56 If the Social Forum of Mexico fails, it is the funeral of the World Social Forum. What I am saying is strong, but we cannot endure a failure of Mexico, with all the creativity of this society, so for that we must not make mistakes please (13910 ML), and we will have to be careful how to organize, this it's like being taking care of a child, taking care of a house, which is very important for this forum to succeed
Two or three ideas that seem important to me
(FIRST PROPOSAL: DO NOT FOLLOW CONSENSUS RULE IN FACILITATOR COMMITTEE)
@ 57 First is that: you Mexicans and Mexicans consider from now on as the owners and the owners of the World Social Forum of Mexico. You are the owners of this forum, you are responsible for doing it.
@ 58 The owners are an owner of a common good. What to take care of, is not a private owner with a privatist logic.
@ 59 and that is why a lot ”of” selfishness (?) Of organizations should be removed carefully, if with a lot of conversation, but they should not follow the consensus rule.
@ 60 The consensus… Who works .. some indigenous colleagues are here, I have worked many years with indigenous people, I am very much in favor of consensus. But you know how a consensus is built: it is hours, days, sharing lives for a long time, so that consensus makes sense.
Now, going to a meeting where we are two three hours, and then saying "there is consensus" is false; It is a fraud, it is a way to boycott meetings, to boycott decisions;
@ 61 We must go with commitment that we all have, with majority solutions.
Sometimes we lose, sometimes we win, but we will have to be, and we don't get into this idea of veto right.
That is, if they disagree with me, there is no consensus, and I'm leaving
@ 62 Because this is what happened with the World Social Forum, and it cannot continue: people vote in a very simple way, because we do not remit, we want the consensus of everything, even in the council of the International Council there is an idea: ” in the forum is consensus ”.
People vote with their feet: they don't come next, and that's how we lost a lot of people: Why go? let's talk, then nothing is decided, nothing happens later, then you have to have the idea that we are going in an organizational way,
@ 63 of course it is necessary if we are here for this reason in articulation with the International Council, but please, the International Council does not have ethical conditions to have much power at this time, because it does not have any representativeness
The International Council, and I am part of it, is a highly deficient institution in its representativeness.
Then one of two things:
@ 64 And some have proposed that the forum be terminated, and the international council
I am defending that, with documents to the International Council, which were minorities, but who knows in the future,
@ 65 is that there is a process of building the representativeness of an International Council.
For example, I have proposed that each local committee that organizes a World Social Forum immediately has 20-30% of the places in the International Council, for this and the following, so we can renew the International Council
@ 66 But there are people who want to perpetuate, and want to control what there is, to control it, it seems that there are not many things (laughs) what is ridiculous besides not? so then it’s an egotrip somehow,
I think it's not that he forgets the international council, it's that they fight for a better international council and here the second proposal
(SECOND PROPOSAL CONSIDER CONSTITUENT OF THE FORUM AND CHANGE THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL)
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@ 67 I would have the audacity to suggest to the Facilitating Committee of Mexico what I think does not need anyone's authorization for that, that this World Social Forum of Mexico has constitutional power, is constituent, that is, it can propose changes in the Charter of Principles, The International Council may propose changes, it may propose the creation of other councils, assemblies of which I speak Leo, that is, it may propose otherwise
@ 68 I have the audacity to have the Social Forum in my hands to save it
@ 69 As I have always said: the World Social Forum needs more from Mexico than Mexico from the World Social Forum (applause)
(THIRD PROPOSAL MORE REPRESENTATION OF ORIGINATING PEOPLES)
Then there is a third idea and it is important
This facilitator committee has a big responsibility, and it has to be as inclusive as possible
@ 70 It does not occur to me that in the Facilitating Committee we do not have native peoples with a strong presence,
It is not a person similar to native peoples, not because they are representative for quality, not quantity. They are representative because colonialism has not managed to exterminate them all and that is why the smaller they are, the more representative
They are so important in Mexico it is so important in the world today in Canada in Mexico New Zealand in Brazil in Ecuador, they have to be quite active in this council.
(FOURTH PROPOSAL ON POSSIBLE PARALLEL FORUM)
Fourth, also pragmatic, to be inclusive and it is important that they be, I will be very careful, but I want to tell you that the current conditions of Mexico, the conflicts and the polarization that I notice the conflicts that are there in society,
@ 71 if you are not careful, a parallel World Social Forum will be held at some time.
And it would not be the first time: in a Mumbai in 2004, we had two, and I am happy to be among the few people who were invited to both (laughs)
It was just crossing the road, on the other side were the social movements that had been considered excluded by the 5 Indian communist parties that had helped us form the World Social Forum in Mumbai.
So avoid because there are forces here, very strong autonomist groups in Mexico that are going to organize an alternative World Social Forum, and they are going to steal people, they are going to take a lot of people then watch out for that.
(FIFTH PROPOSAL INCLUSION OF LEFT)
@ 72 Fifth place: inclusion in inclusion criteria, is exactly what Francina has said: maximum inclusion from a left perspective, now we have to define what the left is.
And on the other hand, we must think that for many people, the left may be left but does not want to be named as such. Try to speak in a rural, indigenous, peasant community that left: they do not know, they are not interested, and some things are said and they say the same thing they have told me many times about socialism: it is a white trap, it is another white trap
Because the official left of Mexico has been racist (applause), it has been sexist, so it is no surprise for that, to be on the left, I reformulate, agreeing with Francine, in the fight
We must be very careful with the agendas of organizations, because there will be a lot of infiltration. I think that right now a soft coup is being prepared against AMLO, I want to tell you, this is the seriousness of what I see
If you are going to see a World Social Forum, there is a lot of infiltration, there will be provocateurs that will be around, I do not know what is happening in the UNAM, but I want to tell you that I do not like anything to see many hooded people occupy faculties
I have seen in Colombia, when we threw the hoods of civic unemployment, they were paid police. watch out! The left has no monopoly of the street, the extreme right knows very well how to handle the street.
Then the world social will be a great manifestation, but be careful, do not be naive, do not be naive in the sense that you are going to discuss with us, I have seen that the polarization within the Facilitating Committee is already great, there are people who They feel marginalized, maybe with reasons.
But be careful, avoid that these divergences are the divergences that allow the infiltration to enter the organizations
@ 73 Always seek a certain consensus after discussion where possible
(SIXTH MORE PLENARY PROPOSAL AND FINAL DECLARATIONS)
Finally @ 74 do not make the mistakes that some "basism" in the World Social Forum, and Leo has said a little that, to my understanding, cleared much of the visibility of the World Social Forum, what is this: when we started the World Social Forum , there were plenary sessions with a lot of people, 20,000 people, and people, of course they would have to be invited, many times white men etc and obviously you have to avoid that, or we couldn't do that anymore, but it's an idea of a community
@ 75 there were people who were spokesmen say, of various concerns but all heard and created a certain narrative consensus
We move on to the idea that we should minimize plenary sessions, fragment the maximum, go for self-management, and more parallel sessions: wealth and standards of discussion and zero communication between them . @ 76; So there are communicative ghettos in the World Social Forum, that has to be avoided.
I think we should return to plenary sessions that fill the Zocalo. They can be global without being local, it has to be transescalar in this sense
So, I think that with this we can have the ability to move forward.
@ 77 One thing that struck me a lot was the partner who said "the Social Forum ends nothing happened": it is the greatest frustration
In 2003, within the World Social Forum, we created a thing called the Popular University of social movements. We have organized dozens and dozens of workshops @ 78. We conclude that we would always have to end with a public act, and with a certain political declaration for the country, and this idea of a strong, forceful public declaration has helped change policies of the places where we were.
@ 78B It was with this that, in Fortaleza recently, we decided, with a public declaration of denunciation of the so-called “zones of sacrifices” that are megaprojects, where people are being slaughtered with punishment, with expulsion, that this project will be completed in a In this case, in another case that environmental rules are going to be put in place to protect people and obviously pay for the damages that until now, as indigenous people as Afro-descendants, were people who were subgent in what we call the “sacrificial zone”
"
We have to be in this forum attentive to the proliferation of areas of sacrifice, perhaps also in Mexico and not only in Mexico.
@ 79 So, it seems to me that there is huge potential for this forum. If this forum manages to be a new beginning. It is not a break, it is to start over, because the world has also changed a lot since 2001
So, if we do this, I am sure that we will have great success here, and you can count on all the availability of the people, I do not say of all, but of people of the Council, at least what they are here, I am sure.
This document (which Mauricio gave) that I am going to pass in the International Council so that they look at it, analyze it, and I commit myself to respond in writing, I am sure that Leo will be and Francine too; we had been together in many struggles
Then, dare! Advance why the conditions are good, better Mexico at this time: or a country that was always far from the progressive wave of the first decade, we must not make the same mistakes of others, as the other debate I do not know how we are going to do in Mexico, but in any case, it is a favorable place to discuss the civilization process.
And I am going to tell you in this continent, there is no other country where it can be done now, seize the opportunity, because in 2022 24 26, it may be too late.
Thanks a lot
Applause
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OSCAR
Well, for reasons of time, we will have to leave here and the meeting and the comments tell me how we wait for those who have been attentive to the calls, to continue advancing in the facilitator group, @ 80 although there is a difference as stated here, We will look for ways to move forward in the organization.
There are compelling reasons to take advantage of the opportunity that is made in Mexico, we have continued trying to do the best possible way of handling
So, on the 15th there is a network meeting, and where and at what time, and we look forward to your presence, we thank everyone for their presence, and the panelists for their presentations thanks
Applause