[Seattle-editorial] FP: related article for WSF

[Sheri Herndon]

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Date: 1/13/04 3:13 PM
Received: 1/13/04 8:43 AM -0000
From: N.Bullard at focusweb.org (n.bullard at focusweb.org)
To: n.bullard at focusweb.org (Mumbai media)

13 January 2004 

MEDIA ADVISORY  
4th WORLD SOCIAL FORUM  
16-21 January, Mumbai India 

Tens of thousands in Mumbai for World Social Forum 

The Fourth World Social Forum begins this Friday in the Indian city   of Mumbai. Organisers are expecting thousands of international   delegates, and tens of thousands of Indian participants. (See AFP   report below.) 

This is the first time the WSF is being held in Asia. 

At a time of global insecurity and conflict, the World Social Forum   brings together activists from every corner of the world who are   working every day for peace, justice, social protection, political   freedom, workers rights and ecological sustainability. 

The slogan of the WSF is "Another world is possible." This year   the debates will focus on practical strategies for making that "other   world" a reality. 

The burning debates will be on the US occupation of Iraq, the   proliferation of US military bases and the nuclear threat in Asia, the   future of the WTO, religious and ethnic conflicts, poverty and debt,   Palestine and Israel, the right to food, water, land and jobs. 

Focus on the Global South will be present at the WSF, including   our executive director Walden Bello who recently received the Right   Livelihood Award, known as the "Alternative Nobel".  

We are available to provide information and interviews to the press   in English, French, Spanish, Tagalog, Visayan, Thai, Hindi, Marathi   and Tamil.  

We are also in contact with hundreds of other well-informed   activists and intellectuals from across Asia and internationally and   we are very happy to put you in contact with them. 


CONTACT IN MUMBAI:  

Nicola Bullard 	 
(+91) 98 92 93 04 08 (from 14 January) 

Hotel Parle International 
B.N. Agarwal Commercial Complex 
Vile Parle (East) Mumbai - 400 057 India 
+91 22 26102122 
+91 22 26162476 

Email: 
n.bullard at focusweb.org 

For more information about the WSF see www.wsfindia.org 


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BOMBAY, 4 January (AFP): Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and   Joseph Stiglitz will join tens of thousands of activists next week in   Bombay for six days of brainstorming on the direction of the anti-  globalisation movement, organisers said.   

The January 16-21 World Social Forum (WSF) will feature   hundreds of strategy sessions on how to fight everything from the   world economic system to the US occupation of Iraq to the   centuries-old caste system.   

Some 75,000 people and 2,400 non-governmental groups have   registered to attend, WSF organiser Gautam Mody said.   

The anti-globalisation extravaganza was held in 2001, 2002 and   2003 in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, but the activists hoped to   move the movement into Asia with its gaping inequality and more   than half the world population.   

More than half of the registered WSF participants are from Asia,   particularly India, Mody said. The movement has been long   dominated by Europeans and Latin Americans.   

Among the prominent personalities due at the WSF will be Shirin   Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel   Peace Prize, and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning former chief   economist of the World Bank turned outspoken critic of   international financial institutions.   

Also set to attend is Jose Bove, the French sheep farmer and   radical unionist who has become one of the most visible faces of   the anti-globalisation movement.   

Political figures at the WSF will include Yossi Beilin and Yasser   Abed Rabbo, former Israeli and Palestinian ministers who together   drafted the unofficial Middle East peace plan known as Geneva   Initiative   

Mody, however, said there was no confirmation yet from former   South African president Nelson Mandela, who organisers earlier   hoped would close the WSF with a mass gathering on a Bombay   beach.   

In Bombay, anti-globalisation activists will find a city of 18 million   that is home to glittering office blocks and some of Asia's biggest   slums.   

The metropolis' top powerbrokers include glitzy Bollywood movie   stars in tune with the latest global fads and Hindu fundamentalists   who each Valentine's Day smash up shops that sell greeting cards   for the "Christian holiday."   

The anti-globalisation movement got a shot in the arm in   September when World Trade Organisation negotiations in the   Mexican resort of Cancun deadlocked in acrimony between   developing and developed countries.   

Mody said the fate of the Cancun talks showed it was "just an   often repeated falsehoold that there is consensus on globalisation."     

The last WSF in Brazil turned into a rallying ground against the   impending war in Iraq, with activists holding massive street protests   against US plans for invasion.   

An anti-US tone is likely again to colour the WSF where   discussions are scheduled on US policy in Iraq and elsewhere in   the world, including a debate entitled "Debt, free trade and   militarisation: the imperialist strategy in the Americas and the   resistance."   

On the sidelines of the WSF will be a smaller but more militant   forum, Resistance 2004, due to be attended by far-left groups from   around Asia and Europe.   

The organising statement of the Resistance 2004 said its seminars   and street rallies would have a "clear and ambiguous anti-  imperialist focus ... unlike the amorphous 'another world is   possible' of the WSF."   

India has since independence seen itself as an activist among   developing nations and had taken a prominent role at the Cancun   trade talks.   

But India is also seeing an increasing presence of multinational   firms as it liberalises an economy that was strictly protectionist   until a decade ago.   

Among prominent people scheduled to attend are:   

-- Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, recipient of the 2003   Nobel Peace Prize   

-- Former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and former   Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, authors of the   unofficial Middle East peace plan known as the Geneva Initiative   

-- Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the   2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, a former chief economist and   senior vice president of the World Bank who has been an   outspoken critic of world financial institutions   

-- Jose Bove, the French sheep farmer and radical unionist who   shot to prominence after helping destroy a partially built   McDonald's in 1999 in a protest against US trade sanctions   

-- Ahmed Ben Bella, the first president of Algeria after   independence from France   

-- Arundhati Roy, Indian novelist who won the 1997 Booker Prize for   "The God of Small Things," and an activist critical of US foreign   policy   

-- Former Indian president K.R. Narayanan   

-- Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jehangir   

-- Finnish Green activist Satu Hassi   

- AFP 

  




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