World Social Forum 2009

[MarxSchmarx]

Did anyone attend the world social forum 2009? If so, how did it go? What were some things that need changing? How can we go about improving it?

[cyu]

Personally I think it's a bit too mired in reformism for my taste, but certainly better than the "mainstream" alternatives that get most of the air time in capitalist-owned media.

Surprisingly, there's a rather positive report on it from Al Jazeera of all places:

Excerpts from http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/20092113347246126.html

I think that people are now looking to the World Social Forum more than ever for the kinds of alternatives that we need, to be able to restructure the world now that neo-liberalism has failed, now that capitalism is in severe crisis, now that the whole system has lost its legitimacy.

We have always held that democracy was very central. That economic democracy, that participatory democracy, enterprises, at the level of economic decision making, people should be able to intervene and make decision on what kind of industries should be developed.

I think we have been in a struggle with Davos for the last 9 years. And I think this represents a triumph of the World Social Forum over Davos. And I think these are two very different kinds of forums.

I think that Davos is exhausted, it is dead, and the World Social Forum and related forums represent the areas where we should really be looking for alternatives at this point in time.

And I think any peoples in government and other sectors are going to look at the kinds of things being discussed at the WSF, because the formulas from Davos no longer work.

[MarxSchmarx]

Huh, I guess Al Jazeera is serious about expanding the scope of their reporting abroad.

What annoyed me about the article was that it was, yeah, I agree reformist. Or at least Bello's statements were.

It's not just about buzzwords like "economic democracy" and "alternatives to capitalism". I think such terms are ultimately reformist, because they are so vague they fail to do little more than express disgust at the ruling order. Although they are a step in the right direction, I think to be relevant people like Bello need to articulate a clear plan, just like the fools in Davos are. Otherwise, they're just critiquing the other side, which we don't really need a mass meeting to do.