Berichte
WSF International Council meeting, January 26, 2007
Teivo: for the first time, the plenary session of the International Council will be recorded and placed on the official WSF website. Need for transparency
Long delay to set up translation (somewhat ironic, since that emerged as one main complaints of the forum’s shortcomings).
Morning session: Evaluation of WSF 2007 in Nairobi
Njoki
Njoroge (OC): like blind men and elephant, we all have different
perspectives on what happened in Nairobi. Important for WSF to come to
Africa, because it will change Africa and Africa will change WSF. I
believe that has happened. But what kind of change? It has been an
important experience. Problems? Of course. OC takes responsibility
for problems. Translation, signage, security, traffic–we apologize for
all those problems. But you must realize that in Kenya we deal with
those problems every single day. When you come here, you have to deal
with that. Wish we could have done better. Need to learn from
successes, mistakes, and challenges. It is not a perfect space, but
one of struggle and a dynamic one. We have seen that in last week.
The experience has been everything we expected it to be and more. I
want to thank volunteers who worked long and hard to make the WSF in
Nairobi possible.
Edward Oyugi (OC): too early to analyze
event. We need to sit back before evaluating event. In any case,
Nairobi 2007 was a success because it happened. You don’t have the
experience of organizing a WSF until you really organize it. For the
OC, it was a learning experience all the way. I want to thank everyone
for their help, because without this we would not have even gotten half
way. A lot of international support and encouragement. Also a lot of
unsolicited advice, some of it very destructive but we also took it as
part of the learning experience. Issue of finances was a real
challenge. Minimum we needed $5M USD, but try as we might we did not
meet target. Look for other options. We came down to $3.6M USD as
budget, but we did not come up with that. Only got .5M USD–missed
minimum needed by $1.1M USD. If we do not get financial support, we
will end up with a $550,000 USD deficit. We tried to innovate. Big
challenge to mobilize support. Set up a solidarity fund for social
movements to participate. Only one organization did contribute. Tried
to assure participation of most marginalized groups. For example,
mobilized 4,000 slum dwellers but could not paid 500 KSH. Arranged for
some to come in free. Problem of romanticizing poverty. People who
have been dehumanized. We need to organize them, rather than glorify
them. Problem of water. One company agreed to distribute 5000 litres
for free. (I’m not understanding–the water was then sold??) Took a
lot to conscienticize people as to what the forum is. Many Kenyans
began to ask themselves what the WSF is. (He said something more
important, but I didn’t catch it.)
Taoufik Ben Abdallah (OC): We
had more than 40 forums in process. Challenges, because social
movement in Africa is still fragmented and dominated. Political
aspects. Bring people in touch with each other. Allocated a big part
of resources for that. Also tried to mobilize key activists before the
forum. We tried to support different processes: trade, debt, women,
youth, etc. were here and presented their actions. In terms of
resources, we only realized 67% of needed, but only got 69% of that and
are still waiting for 30% to come in yet. Costs of culture,
transportation, etc. But we’ve never had such broad participation from
Africa in a SF. We should wait to analyze broader impact. Potential
to build and go forward with African unity. Most important meeting in
history of Africa, and people who were here were some of the most
important leaders. Major achievement. Thank friends for supporting
process.
Moema Miranda (Brazil WSF): largest IC meeting ever
(many observers–but poor acoustics and a lot of background noises means
that I miss some of what people said)
Many people want to speak:
logistical problems, particularly with translation. Without translation, can’t achieve objective of open space.
In
Karachi, we had massive participation with a single cop and we did not
have problems with theft. We did not allow a single multi-national
corporation. Need to mobilize social movements to take care of these
issues.
Majority not happy with outcome of SF. Stadium not good venue. Very high registration prices, and food prices.
The
complaints are a challenge to all of us to solve these problems.
Thanks to Africa OC because you have changed our movements in Italy.
We
met the challenge of having a successful forum in Nairobi–very high
levels of discussions. Better to have one centralized cite, rather
than dispersed throughout city. Need charter to address issues of
sponsorship, fees, funding.
All of the problems we’re hearing
about are inevitable and inherent in social movements. It’s not what
movements can do for us, but what we can do for the forum.
Much
harder to construct than destroy. This was a success, and we are
leaving very satisified with the solidification of the process we have
seen here. Some problems repeat themselves in every forum, and we need
to solve them–like with translation, financial problems. We need to
bring our own resources. We need to take advantage of the help of
experts. Can’t forget that we are meeting in area that is meeting some
of the world’s greatest problems: Darfur, Somalia, etc.
Nairobi is not only historic event for Africa, but also for Europe–esp. given its history of colonialism.
Should
not be surprise that we cannot not change world in 7 yrs. WSF is an
island that takes place within the context of a capitalist reality, and
we have to understand and recognize that. Shouldn’t diminish important
Christian contributions to forum, esp. those with a preferential option
for the forum.
Forum doesn’t need huge infrastructure, but we
need spaces to institute changes. Need spaces for open, creative
methodology. More experimentation.
Lack of debate among
ourselves about process, where forum is going. We have to be sure that
feminist analysis is part of everything that we are doing. We can’t
marginalize that–it puts us back. Question presence of churches.
Anti-abortion groups are not welcome at the WSF.
Kenyan woman
complains about high registration fee. When fees were reduced,
information was not distributed well. Registration process was too
cubersome. Too difficult to travel to Kasarani. We are told that it
was moved here because it would be safer. But how is it possible to
enclose people during the day, and then release delegates into city at
nite. Cost to register events was too high. Although venue was
selected for security, there were a lot of theft even with a lot of
presence of police. Price of food and water was untenable. WSF
presented option to make money to vendors–3-4x normal price. Not open
to competition. Only those who paid for stall could sell food. WSF
needs to do more to take care of those who cannot take care of
themselves. Also need better explanation of what WSF is. We apologize
for any convenience we caused, but we just wanted to be included.
Translation: translators paid $100/day, but equipment failed
completely. Saw first translation radio on last day at general
assembly, and that is not good enough.
Man who coordinated
Caritas tent says that the participation of the churches and “moral
community” has been unprecedented. We had more than 4000 churches
mobilized. We brought in Archbishop Desmund Tutu, and other churches
to talk about human rights and culture. This was the most successful
social forum for the ecumenical community. We thank OC for
collaboration. We have published 2 books, one by Chico Whitaker and
Edward Oyugi, and we are going to distribute free to some of you.
IFAT
member: spaces for solidarity economy and fair trade, and for first
time opened up spaces for Africans. Pickpockets: also happens in
space, global phenomenon. Don’t just pin this on Africa. We are not
outreaching sufficiently.
We need to pay for space, water, coffee. Please contribute to solidarity fund. Also, want concrete proposals written down.
Lunch, which cost 450 KSH, leading people to comment on irony of exorbitant cost.
Afternoon session (I came in late, so I’m missing some comments, but comments become increasingly redundant)
It
was unethical to charge press to enter forum. Also a shame that there
were so many plastic water bottles–environmental impact.
Not
African Social Forum, but a SF in Africa. Many debates in which Europe
& Africa finally came together. Centralized workshops in slums
were important. Added an important dimension.
Need a code of conduct for organizers of WSFs.
Low
point of this forum was the extent of commercialization. Reversal of
advances we’ve made. Forum has been running deficits since Mumbai; we
almost scraped by there but dramatically increased since then. Need to
look at how we raise and spend money. This marks the end of the first
phase. Time to take hard look at charter.
Have one member of IC responsible for implementation of charter or code of conduct.
Africa
OC (Edward Oyugi?) responds to criticisms of comercialization. 99% of
food groups were non-corporate. Water: org told us that they would
provide free water, so delayed plans until last minute. When it didn’t
come thru, at last minute looked for ordinary Kenyans to sell it.
Afraid that if you drank from tap water you’d end up in hospital.
Maybe that is what you wanted. In terms of fees, original plans was
for close to 200 Euros for northerners, and 1100 KSH for africans. So,
brought down from there (50KSH/day). And worked with groups to let
people come in for free. Opened gates, and some IC members had the
audacity to go and mobilize people to storm gates that were already
open. Secretariat went out of the way to set up tent that was then
taken over. Women who spoke earlier was speaking in name of movement
that does not exist. If I go to France or Brazil and look for poor
black people to protest against IC, you’ll be first to complain. We’ve
accepted that mistakes were done. If we let people in for free, more
of you would have gone home w/o wallets. Register as participants, not
as delegates. What does it mean to pay to enter to participate?
Integration of poor people into this process has been a challenge for
everyone. This is a political and organizational challenge for
everyone. We offered 4K & brought in 3K for free from slums. We
did say we would support those who came in as groups. People are
complaining about things decided in IC. Venue was not organizer’s
choice. When IC met 4 months ago choice was Nairobi. Members of IC
interrogated possibilities of holding forum in Nairobi, and they
decided to move here. Some mistakes are result of over consolation.
Deep-seated challenges we face. Don’t hide behind paternalizing
attitude. It’s not fair.
Break, and then complaint about woman
being depicted as not representing her social movement. Woman
responds: Peoples Parliament is movement of the people, it does not
allow people to determine who will represent. Not in order simply
because people cannot respond to issues. But these are the same old
tactics (of excluding voices).
Question of how IC should respond
to crises. IC will collect all suggestions and incorporate them.
Tomorrow evening will present those, and take next step.
Next discussion point: 2008 forums
WSF
no longer event, but process and includes local & regional events.
Question of how to organize events, just one day or multiple days?
Call to everyone to make something visible. You can do what you want.
How to do global visible day of action?
Looking for concrete
proposals. Question of meeting opposite Davos. If we don’t occupy
that space, someone else will do it. Important to make
interconnections.
Is this something we need to do just to
survive, like muslims do something every day to survive? Or do we do
this to reach common goals? Do we look where process is going?
Antonio:
not issue of survival, but need to take step ahead. If we unify, we
could take great step ahead. Possibility to join movements.
Are
we changing organizing strategy of WSF? We need to be transparent in
how we do this? One day or several weeks? Slogan: another world is
possible.
Moema: proposals are going to be put on website. Will list many different options and activities.
Forum has its own identity, and we don’t just need to act in same week as Davos.
Chico:
forum is process, and as such it can have different forums. WSF is
only one; polycentric is another. Next year will be
different–different forms and contexts. Symbolic importance of meeting
at same time as Davos–to show alternatives, and will help attract media
attention. Have diverse actions. Need to prepare during 2007 for
these events. Use wsfprocess.net for this.
Chrisophe: argument
for different date, cuz is end of Jan is not that convenient for us.
Will make it easier to select different date in 2009 (did I understand
that right? I’m getting tired...)
If we want to succeed, we need to enlarge process. Need symbolic date.
Need clearer and simpler message than 'polycentric' because that was not very clear.
(I needed to leave before the end to catch my plane–issues not resolved, but others can fill us in.)
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