This is what
Democracy looks like
"Um outro mundo é possível."
January 28, 2001. Porto Alegré, Brazil.
Another world is possible: That's the
slogan of the World Social Forum underway
here. Or, as they said in Seattle, "This is
what democracy looks like."
While thousands chanted that slogan in
Seattle, Washington D.C., Chiang Mai,
Melbourne and Prague, they were being tear
gassed, pre-emptively arrested, harassed
and generally denied their rights by an
enormous show of state force on behalf of
undemocratic international
institutions.
In Porto Alegré, this is what democracy
looks like: During a march of thousands
against neoliberalism, I counted ten police
officers. When 200 Brazilian anarchists
broke off from the march to throw white
paint on a McDonald's, about six police
stood by.
The next day, an ex-cop explained it
this way: "We police were instructed to
form partnerships with the social
movements." By comparison Davos,
Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum
is meeting this week, has become a
fortress.
Porto Alegré is an appropriate setting
for the World Social Forum, while
authorities have shut down the roads to
Davos, deported activists, and banned
marches. In Porto Alegré, the Governor of
the State of Rio Grande do Sul gave the
opening speech. In fact, his government was
a major funder of the Forum.
In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy
looks like: Hundreds of young people are
camping nearby virtually without police
presence.
This is what democracy looks like:
Participatory budgeting. For 12 years,
Porto Alegré´s budget has been decided by
hundreds of well-organized community and
worker groups.
This is what democracy looks like: There
is no corporate sponsorship of the World
Social Forum. No ads telling us how
sustainable Shell is, or how clean Dow is,
or how concerned for the poor Philip Morris
is. No Nike swooshes. Just a few banners
for the national bank of Brazil, saying
"It's better because it's ours." The most
ubiquitous logo around is that of the
Workers' Party, on flags everywhere.
In Porto Alegré, this is what democracy
looks like: Lots of meetings and lots of
talking. The humid rooms, over-packed with
people, listening for the umpteenth hour to
plans to stop new free trade agreements and
models for local economic democracy.
This is what democracy looks like: There
are lots of unionized workers present. Rio
Grande do Sul has twice as many union
members as the national average.
This is what democracy looks like: The
entire state of Rio Grande do Sul has been
declared GMO-free, although some Roundup
Ready soy has been smuggled in from
Argentina, according to one knowledgeable
government official from Brasilia. Two days
ago activists travelled with French
farmer/activist José Bové four hours out of
Porto Alegré to tear up a few illegal acres
of Monsanto's Roundup Ready
Franken-soy.
The World Social Forum is the first
significant post-Seattle gathering where
the goal is not to disrupt the meetings of
undemocratic institutions, in what has
become a series of travelling protests.
Rather it is a space for activists to
think, talk and imagine another world -- a
more just, democratic world.
The anti-corporate globalization
movement has come to "an important stage in
the counter-offensive that began in
Seattle," says Walden Bello, Executive
Director of Thailand-based Focus on the
Global South.
Naturally, the rhetoric of democracy in
Porto Alegré cannot be transferred
everywhere, especially not to the U.S. In
the opening ceremony, during the
introductions of the 120 countries
represented by delegates, Cuba received the
loudest ovation, while the U.S. and Israel
got a smattering of boos. There is
occasionally a flavour of old-style leftism
that sounds irrelevant to most U.S.
ears.
And, as one should expect in a gathering
as large and diverse as this one, there are
significant differences of opinion on
policy and strategy. For example, some
participants are working to incorporate
social and environmental clauses into the
WTO, while others insist there must be no
new round of the WTO.
Nevertheless, the overall feeling here
is of fresh air coming into the debate over
globalization, especially compared with the
stale rhetoric in Davos. From Porto Alegré,
the concept that a gathering of the rich
and powerful is the answer for the poor and
dispossessed, that the World Economic Forum
has somehow transformed itself into a
global poverty program, seems too absurd to
bother debunking.
Yet neither is the Social Forum a
poverty programme. And that is one of the
most refreshing aspects of the gathering.
It is not about money. It's not about
growth, "sustainable" or otherwise. It's
not even really about development -- a
concept that has perhaps been hopelessly
perverted by institutions like the World
Economic Forum and the World Bank. Still,
economic issues are prominent in the
discussions here.
Rather the Forum is about democracy. Not
the democracy that comes from more money
and therefore more choices of things to
buy, but rather the democracy of
participation in local and society-wide
economic decisions. This is the democracy
that corporate globalization gazes so
harshly on.
Even the most ardent supporters of the
current form of globalization acknowledge
that it is a web of powerful and
unaccountable forces. They say the best we
can do as individuals and as nations is to
prepare ourselves to flourish in this
lightening-fast, hyper-competitive world,
grabbing what we can for ourselves --
mobility, wealth, markets, computers.
The folks here would not be interested
in this individualistic and competitive
vision of society, even if the powerful
institutions controlling globalization were
to reduce the inequities and provide a
safety net for those left out.
There are many challenges for the World
Social Forum. Activists must stay alert to
the cooptation of our language and ideas by
the World Economic Forum, by the WTO and
World Bank. We must improve the democratic
process within the Social Forum – to
include more students, more non-Brazilians,
more indigenous people, and others. We must
make sure to keep the momentum that started
with the explosion in Seattle.
Seattle was the pivotal moment in the
first plank of this complex movement --
protest and resistance. Porto Alegré will,
I believe, come to be seen as an important
step in moving forward the second part -
innovation and alternatives.
It is important that many protestors
have gone to Davos to continue to expose
the injustice of the World Economic Forum.
But I'm glad I came to Porto Alegré. As
Walden Bello, a veteran of Davos meetings,
says, "Davos is the past. Porto Alegré is
the future."
And the present is a collective dream of
the thousands gathered here: Um outro mundo
é possível.
Kenny Bruno,
Corporate Watch,
United States.
