[Onthebarricades] On the Barricades - PREVIOUSLY on the barricades...

[Andy Robinson]

Slideshow of pics from J20 (anti-inauguration protests)

http://www.stratecomm.net/~fritz/gallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=j20

 

More on Davos protests

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/129542/1/.html

 

 

OREAD
THE OTHER CRISIS IN SUDAN
Sudanese police killed between 20 and 30 people and injured 40 on Saturday when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Abd Allah Musa Abd Allah, secretary-general, Beja Congress in Red Sea state said, "Clashes took place between demonstrators and police, lasting for almost all Friday night.".  Abd Allah said he was present in the morning when 300 to 400 members of the Beja ethnic group gathered for a march to demand the Khartoum government start negotiations with the Beja on sharing power and the country's resources. "There was a special police unit that appeared and just opened fire at them before they even moved. They fired at their heads and bodies, not even in the air," he said.  Three children were among those killed, he added.  A hospital source said all of the wounds were from bullets. A witness, Khalil Usman Khalil said on Saturday, "Work at Port Sudan was partially stopped, and almost completely this morning, after renewal of violence, so police resorted to disperse demonstrators."  Mohamed al-Din, hospitalized with a sever stomach wound, said he had  been shot as armed forces stormed his house on Saturday. "They came into my house. They shot everywhere. Four of my family members were injured," he said, barely able to whisper. 

Three days ago members of eastern tribes, mostly the Beja, presented  a list of demands to the Red Sea state governor, including wealth  and power sharing. They warned they would take unspecified action if the demands were not met within 72 hours. "This time was up today  and they started a march toward the governor's office," a hospital  source said Friday, adding the police stopped the march before it  got very far. The source said seven soldiers were injured by stones, but only civilians suffered gunshot wounds. The protests sparked a security clampdown across eastern Sudan, with arrests of Beja activists also reported in the region's other main  towns of Kassala and Jebeit, officials of the opposition Beja Congress said. "Everywhere you go and look, you see groups of police and army troops giving you the impression that they are going to shoot at you," witness Abdullah Bakash said from Port Sudan.   On Sunday, tensions ran high as hundreds of mourners turned out for  the funerals of those killed in what Beja leaders described as a "deliberate, premeditated" attack against their community by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum. 

In the capital, Beja Congress leaders held a press conference Sunday to set out their demands.  Party Secretary General Amna Dhirar called for the dissolution of the state government in Port Sudan charging that "it has failed to protect the people". She accused the security forces of heavy-handed action in the city, and demanded immediate talks with her party's leadership-in-exile in neighboring Eritrea. "They behaved as snipers, shooting in the head and inside houses," Dirar said. "They have harassed the women. It was a massacre for exterminating the Beja people." Abd Allah said it was the worst violence against citizens in Port Sudan he had seen. "I'd heard about the genocide in
Darfur but now I've seen it with my own eyes here," he said.  The Beja Congress, like other Sudanese opposition groups, accuses the Khartoum government of neglecting the remote regions of the country in favor of the center, which is the powerbase of the traditional political elite. Much of the tension in the Beja populated region is fed by the same factors that led to the long running war in southern Sudan: a central government
that has exploited local resources, imposed its religious and cultural beliefs on historically diverse populations and consistently pitted  local tribes and ethnic groups against each other for short term tactical gain.

The 2.2 million Beja of eastern Sudan have been neglected by central governments for decades, leaving them vulnerable to malnutrition, famine and disease. The political wing of the Beja Congress was formed in the 1960s to voice grievances against marginalization of the region, but, frustrated by a lack of progress, began an armed struggle by the 1990s. The Beja Congress is a sub-group of the insurgent National Democratic Alliance.  The non-Arab Beja tribes complain they are being marginalized and  that their region is left to poverty and neglect. Beja frustration reached new heights in the 1990s when Khartoum aggressively promoted its version of Islam in the region, launching army attacks on Beja mosques and religious schools. The Beja Congress
effectively controls a swathe of eastern Sudan centered around Garoura and Hamshkoraib.

 

 

World Social Forum 2005 
CWI member quoted in British newspaper, 'The Independent'
The Independent, a London-based newspaper, ran a story on the opening day of the World Social Forum, in which Andre Ferrari, a leading member of Socialismo Revolucionario, the Brazilian section of the CWI, is quoted. This shows how the question of Lula and his governments adoption of neo-liberal policies after coming to power is provoking interest internationally.Andre Ferrari is a member of the Executive Committee of the new party P-Sol ('Party for Socialism and Liberty') which was set up as a new party for workers and youth.

Once Lula was a hero of the left - now they heckle him off stage 
Daniel Howden, The Independent, 28 January 2005 
Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was heckled on the stage at the World Social Forum yesterday by the same international activists who hailed him as a saviour when he swept to office two years ago. The left-wing firebrand sat stony-faced on stage as he was booed before delivering the keynote address at the annual alternative gathering timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum at the luxury Swiss ski resort of Davos. 

As Mr Da Silva entered the sports stadium in the poverty-stricken Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, there were furious calls of "Lula! Come back to reality" ringing in his ears. 

>From environmentalists to human rights advocates, urban workers and rural poor, left-wing activists are angry with their fallen hero for what they believe is his failure to push for social reforms at home or abroad. 

The charismatic leader of Latin America's biggest country has found himself caught between the two forums, and his decision to purchase a new presidential Airbus - which whisked him off to Davos last night - has further stoked the accusations that he betrayed the beliefs which swept him to his landslide election win. 

"Of course people can change during their lives but imagine having a plane like that and heading from Porto Alegre to Davos," said Andre Ferrari, a member of a socialist party formed last year by Brazilians who broke away from Mr Da Silva's Workers Party. 

Some activists said his moves seemed more in line with the conventional wisdom at the event in Davos, which the social forum was founded to counter. Ertha Buys, a member of a Brazilian group lobbying for cheap housing for the poor, said: "There's some frustration out there because Lula is the first leftist president for Brazil, and so far he's only given profits to banks and we haven't gotten anything." 

The Porto Alegre event has drawn more than 100,000 activists campaigning for different causes at the six-day protest, ranging from debt relief for developing countries to distribution of idle land for impoverished farmers. 

Once on stage, Mr Da Silva mounted a spirited defence of his first two years in office, saying Brazil is creating millions of jobs through a stabilised economy and becoming a strong political voice for the elimination of poverty from South America to Africa. His critics point out that average real wages in Brazil have dropped 6.1 per cent since he took office in January 2003 and the President has created only 2 per cent of the 250,000 jobs for young people that he promised by 2006. 

Many activists at the forum compared unfettered capitalism and the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the tsunami that struck Indian Ocean shores last month, saying the deaths caused in poor countries by First World greed were countless. "Poverty is a man-made tsunami," said John Samuel, from India, a founding member of Global Call to Action Against Poverty launched yesterday at the forum. "The biggest tyranny in the world is the tyranny of an empty stomach."

 

 

3.c The World Social Forum Sprouts Wings - Amit Sen
Gupta

( this article was originally written for the February
issue of Peoples 
Democracy) 

As we walked through the venue for the World Social
Forum in Porto 
Alegre at the banks of the Guaiba river, on 23rd
January, it all seemed so 
familiar. The WSF was back in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
where it had begun 
in 2001 and had gained strength in 2002 and 2003,
after the interlude 
in Mumbai in 2004. But Porto Alegre 2005 could well
have been Mumbai 
2004. The same surging crowds - over 100,00 in number,
the same cacophony 
of myriad voices, the same beating of drums, the same
confusion, and 
the same determination on the faces of people who had
come to celebrate 
protest and resistance. And the same determination
with which people 
debated in over 2000 events, spread over four days,
and organised in the 
sprawling venue of makeshift tents over about 4 kms.
of a green verge 
skirting the river.

The first message from the WSF this year was:
resistance and protests 
that confront imperialist globalisation today have
assumed truly global 
proportions. Two years ago in the WSF in 2003, the
mention of India or 
Mumbai was likely to be greeted with questioning
looks. No more so - 
after the Mumbai WSF, both are firmly on the map of
the WSF. As will be 
Africa which shall hold the Forum in 2007, as will be
numerous other 
places in the globe as the WSF takes wings and flies
to different corners.

We are Not Alone

The abiding memory that everybody who was in Porto
Alegre brought back 
was a sense of solidarity, the feeling that "we are
not alone". A 
feeling that the gross injustice that we face across
the globe is being 
confronted by pockets of resistance all over the
world. Pockets of 
resistance that are also starting to link up, to
strategise together, to form 
an united surge of resistance. We saw all this
happening in Mumbai, and 
those who were at Porto Alegre came back with the
confidence that the 
movement to "globalise resistance" is alive and
growing, and that 
"Another World" is indeed possible.

Bush still rules at the White House, Iraq continues to
be bombarded by 
a savage imperial monster, the WTO continues to use
trade as a weapon 
of mass destruction, Debt continues to cripple almost
the entire 
continent of Africa, neoliberal economic policies
continue to kill in 
thousands across Asia and Latin America. But the WSF
is about shared concerns, 
about hope, and about belief that the tide must turn.
The WSF is also 
about differences - differences in what must change,
and how it must 
change. But it is also about a conviction that we must
join together in 
spite of differences.

Diversity of Opinions

The differences were there for all to see. Not just in
the different 
languages that people spoke, in the many different
ways they expressed 
themselves, the different ways in which they dressed,
but also in the 
political articulation of the way forward. Possibly
nothing captured this 
as well as the massive 100,000 strong opening march of
the WSF on 
January 23rd. In 2003, the opening rally was akin to a
victory celebration 
for thr then recently installed Lula Government in
Brazil. Posters of 
Lula and flags of the PT (the Partido dos
Trabalhadores or Workers Party 
which Lula represents) dominated the march in 2003 and
vied for 
attention with the sea of Che Guevara posters and
green Palestinian scarves. 
In 2005 Che still dominated the march, the Palestinian
scarves were as 
prominent, but the posters of Lula were few and far
between. Instead 
there were far louder voices questioning the policies
of the Lula 
Government, some claiming that the Government was
pursuing the same neoliberal 
policies of the previous Government. The PT was there
in force with 
t-shirts that had "100% Lula" stamped on them,
declaiming their support 
for the Government. The PCDoB (the Brazilian Communist
Party) had a huge 
contingent that marched behind a massive truck from
where slogans were 
raised that underlined their critical support for the
Lula Government. 
The CUT (the central federation of trade unions in
Brazil) also had a 
huge presence, with a prominent participation by large
numbers of youth 
-- both men and women. Between this huge political
mobilisation of 
different hues marched those who espoused a large
variety of causes - 
ant-war and anti-Bush protestors, ant-WTO activists,
environmentalists, for 
cancellation of global debt, for a sovereign
Palestinian state, a 
Dignity rally lead by the landless peasants movement
(MST) in Brazil with a 
large Indian participation from dalit groups, and so
may others. With 
them marched artists who performed dances, skits and
mimes throughout 
the route, some walking on ten feet high stilts. But
not just these - one 
could also hear a few chants of Hare Krishna from
saffron robed men and 
women and also a handful of saffron clad Ananda Marg
activists.

The opening march in a way depicted the diversity of
the Forum, and 
possibly also brought out the dilemma that may in the
Forum face. While 
all those who are at the Forum (or most at least!)
acknowledge the need 
to come together to face the Imperial power of
globalisation led by the 
US, the WSF "open space" continues to be a space that
is bitterly 
contested at the level of ideas. The major actors in
the WSF include the 
left of various shades (communists, social democrats,
fourth 
internationalists), religious groups (many ascribing
to the "liberation theology" 
positions and genuinely opposed to imperialism) and
NGOs. There are 
obvious differences within all these groups regarding
the characterisation 
of globalisation, and the tactics and overall
strategic understanding 
regarding it. So, while what knits the Forum together
is an opposition to 
neoliberal or imperialist globalisation (there are
differences among 
Forum participants even about the term globalisation),
there is no 
consensus on how it is to be opposed.

Challenge of the "Open Space"

This diversity in opinion and approach is both a
strength of the Forum, 
as well as its principal weakness. The Forum derives
strength from this 
diversity as it provides the opportunity for a very
large number of 
movements and organisations to come together, each
feeling that their 
views have a place in the open space of the Forum. At
the same time the 
diverse trends and opinions leads, often, to a sense
of frustration that 
the Forum is not able to hammer together a consensus
regarding both a 
strategic understanding and tactics to be applied.
This has led to a 
tendency to attempt to "force" the Forum to take
unified positions. An 
example of this was the declaration of a "Porto
Alegre" consensus by a few 
prominent individuals this time at the WSF. While the
contents of the 
"consensus" suggested was fairly bland and not
objectionable, what was 
problematic was the fact that this went against the
grain of the way the 
WSF as an "open space" functions.

The WSF was conceived as a Forum that was not designed
to lead or take 
decisions on behalf of movements, but rather to
provide enabling 
conditions for movements to come togerther, exchange
experinces and opinions, 
and forge alliances. The WSF space cannot and should
not dictate to 
movements, nor should it force movements to take
unified positions unless 
they are willing to do so. But the impatience to move
forward is 
sometimes being translated into trying to make the WSF
a body that takes 
decisions and positions on behalf of movements. This
is a major challenge 
today for the WSF: how to accelerate the space for
movements to forge 
common actions and strategies, while at the same time
keeping the space 
friendly for everyone opposed to neoliberal
globalisation to join in. 
Given the complex political entitities that form part
of the Forum, an 
attempt by any force within (however well meaning) to
hegemonise the 
Forum at the level of ideas, might well sow the seeds
of the Forum's 
ultimate collapse.

The challenge for the Forum, thus, is not of how
certain kinds of ideas 
may dominate, but to ensure that the Forum is truly
representative of 
the upsurge of global opinion against imperialist
globalisation. Today, 
large mass and political movements are handicapped in
their ability to 
participate in the Forum, because of lack of
resources. as a result the 
Forum tends to be dominated by large funded NGOs,
largely from the 
North. While many of such NGOs have and are playing a
major role in 
opposing globalisation, there is an inherent asymmetry
in the participation in 
the Forums. It is critically important, if the Forum
is to become truly 
representative of global mass movements, that the WSF
process is able 
to draw in a much larger participation from such
movements. This is 
happening to an extent and the proactive manner in
which mobilisation for 
the Forum was done for the WSF 2004 in Mumbai - where
a conscious effort 
was made to ensure representation of mass and
political movements -- 
has contributed to this. But a lot has still to be
done in this regarded, 
and if if the WSF process is to be "directed" in any
manner it should 
be to ensure that such movements are able to come into
the process in 
large numbers and also that they represent adequately
all geographical 
regions of the globe. If the Forum becomes really
representative, then it 
would really be up to the movements to use the space
provided by the 
Forum to work out shared visions and actions. Clearly,
the WSF is not 
going to be the forum to take forward such actions,
that is something that 
the movements themselves would have to decide.

Good Bye Porto Alegre?

The 2005 Forum, while formulating the programme, had
articulated in 
clearer terms the direction provided by WSF 2004 in
trying to ensure that 
shared concerns and themes are not discussed in
dispersed events. The 
attempt from the event registration process itself was
to try to ensure 
that events are largely organised by combining the
efforts of different 
organisations. This is a process that has to be
accelerated, and the 
methodology used in 2005 to be evaluated to improve
upon it further. The 
WSF 2005 had also departed from earlier practice by
not having any 
events directly organised by the WSF - i.e. all events
at the WSF 2005 were 
organised by individual participating organisations.
The response to 
this innovation was mixed this year, and many felt
that the absence of 
some large "unifying" events with broad political
messages led to the 
diffusion of the political sharpness that the Forum
was able to provide. 
This is again an issue that will have to be evaluated
by the 
International Council of the WSF. In fact, in the
absence of such unifying events, 
the only two large events this year were those
addressed by President 
Lula of Brazil and President Chavez of Venezuala.
While these were not 
formally part of the WSF programme, they drew huge
crowds from WSF 
participants. 

The International Council decided in its meeting just
before the Forum 
in Porto Alegre that in 2006 there would not be a
single Forum, but 
attempt would be to organise dispersed Forums in
different continents. In 
2007 the Forum travels to Africa, the venue for which
is being 
discussed within the African Social Forum process.
Mumbai had shown that the 
WSF can be made to be a success in a setting vastly
different from Porto 
Alegre, and the WSF is now poised to sprout wings and
fly to different 
corners of the globe.

As we prepared to leave Porto Alegre, the question on
the lips of 
everybody who lives in the city was : is this the last
Forum in Porto 
Alegre? We do not know the answer today. But everyone
who has been in Porto 
Alegre for the Forum, this year or in earlier years,
will hope that 
maybe the Forum will come back again one day to this
city which embraced us 
all with such love and affection. Good bye to Porto
Alegre for ever? 
Perhaps the WSF is not ready for that yet!

 

 

 

>>VICTORY IN BOLIVIA: MASS STRIKES DRIVE OUT MULTINATIONAL
fifthinternational.org, Porto Alegre

In a major blow against privatisation and neoliberal policies in 
Latin America, the largest water services corporation in the world, 
Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, is leaving Bolivia. It has been driven out 
after a determined struggle by the people of El Alto, a city near the 
capital La Paz. 

The Federation of Neighbourhood Committees (Fejuve) of El Alto 
organised an indefinite general strike in January to kick the company 
out of the city. The strike was backed by the local trade union 
federation, the COR, as well as the peasants organisations and was a 
huge success. For three days the whole population was mobilised and 
the roads to La Paz were blockaded.

The multinational had led a consortium which was granted the contract 
to provide water and sewage utilities in the area. But the company in 
Bolivia, Suez-Aguas de Illimani, refused to invest in providing 
running water for over 200,000 of the inhabitants of El Alto and 
instead imposed a price increase for connection to the main water and 
sewage system. 
The company demanded the Bolivian state and international donors to 
find them funds and credit to expand the water services in the city. 
The population of El Alto responded saying that any donations and 
credit should go to a national public (state-owned) company and not 
to a multinational corporation making huge profits. The population 
demanded that water be a public service and not a private business.

Faced with this situation and with the magnitude of the strike the 
Government issued a Supreme Decree for the termination of the 
contract with Suez-Aguas de Illimani not only in El Alto, but in La 
Paz as well. since the systems are joined.

In the coming months the old municipal company will take charge until 
a new community company is constituted with the participation of the 
local population and under the control of the Fejuve. 

El Alto – the vanguard of the Bolivian struggle
This latest battle of people of El Alto, the alteños as they are 
known, is not their first and it will not be their last. In the 'gas 
war' against the privatisation of natural gas resources the alteños 
were in the forefront of the struggle, a struggle that eventually led 
to the resignation of the then president Sanchez de Lozada. It was 
during that struggle that the Fejuve was set up, coordinating the 
actions of the residents of the city with meetings of the 
representatives of neighbourhood committees and local trade unions.

The mainly Aymara population of El Alto has continued to lead the 
fight against the new president Carlos Mesa who has maintained the 
policy of privatising Bolivia's natural resources and refused to 
bring to justice the politicians, police and army officers 
responsible for the deaths of scores of anti-privatisation protestors 
in October 2003.

As the alteños like
 to say, El Alto is a city always on its feet and never on its knees.
It is a poor city. Most of its residents survive on less that $2 a 
day. More than half the city's population do not have access to 
decent water and sewage facilities.  But it is a city of hope; one 
where the people stand together in solidarity to fight for an end to 
poverty and injustice and for a better life.

Last September the Fejuve issued a list of demands agreed to after a 
long discussion in the neighbourhood meetings and workplaces. The 
Fejuve presented this as a letter to the nation, the "Pliego 
Nacional".

In this letter the alteños demanded the nationalization and 
industrialization of Bolivia's natural gas, the recovery of state 
enterprises that have been privatised, the expropriation of various 
politicians' properties, the repeal of Supreme Decree 21060 (which in 
1985 essentially established neoliberalism in Bolivia), as well as 
better healthcare, employment and education. 

But the government of Carlos Mesa refused to listen to their demands. 
So the Fejuve went back to the workers of the city to discuss what 
actions to take. They spent weeks debating what to do next.

On 15th November the alteños returned to the streets. A 24 hour 
general strike was organised. It was the biggest mobilisation since 
October 2003. The alteños gave the government 48 hours to respond to 
their demands. Now the alteños had added the demand to expel the 
transnational corporation Aguas de Illimani from Bolivia.

Fearful of a repeat of the events of October 2003 various state and 
governmental officials made contact with the Fejuve to begin 
negotiating the demands, point by point. Even ministers and vice 
ministers were forced to go to El Alto to begin the negotiations. 
During the negotiations Fejuve President Abel Mamani made very clear 
the attitude of the alteños to the private water company, 'We didn't 
come here to discuss what to do to improve the service or lower our 
bills. We're going to start with the root of the problem: Aguas de 
Illimani simply must leave.'

The Fejuve representatives demanded all documents related to the 
company be handed over to them to scrutinise. The government 
representatives felt they had no choice but to concede to their 
demands. But they did not implement them. They had merely agreed to 
them to buy time, hoping it would defuse the situation in El Alto. 
After government inspections and investigations were carried out, it 
was claimed the company was meeting its responsibilities. Fejuve 
broke off negotiations with the government, and announced an 
indefinite general civic strike beginning Monday, 29th November 2004.

The now desperate Mesa administration offered to review their 
contract with Suez, hoping some breach of contract by the company 
could be found. This way the entire process could end with the 
company's "legal" exit. The people of El Alto agreed to rejoin the 
dialogue, unwavering in their demand that the company leave, but 
giving the government until 20th December to comply.

The company refused to co-operate threatening a resort to 
international law. Suez President Gérard Mestrallet is a personal 
friend of French President Jacques Chirac. A meeting between the 
Fejuve leaders and officials from the French embassy in Bolivia ended 
with threats of international lawsuits, and with a phone call from 
Chirac to Mesa enquiring about the "security of French investments" 
in the country.
By now the workers and poor of El Alto had had enough of manoeuvres 
and compromises. They declared an end to the period of dialogue with 
the government and began organising for the indefinite general civic 
strike from Monday 10th January. For three days the El Alto was 
paralysed and the capital, La Paz, blockaded.

On the morning of Tuesday, 11th January, the Bolivian government 
offered to terminate the contract with Suez. In the Ceja area of El 
Alto, near the border with La Paz, an emergency meeting was held of 
the more than 600 neighbourhood committee presidents. They had to 
decide if this was enough to end the strike, or if it was a trick and 
they needed to take more militant action. The meeting decided to 
press home their advantage.

After an anxious meeting at Fejuve's headquarters, the city's nine 
districts agreed that night to demand the president issue a supreme 
decree ending the contract, and gave him twenty-four hours to do so. 
If not, they would march down into La Paz and occupy all of Aguas de 
Illimani's installations by force. The meeting had not been over for 
twenty minutes when the government called: the decree would be ready 
at 8 o'clock Wednesday morning.

Yet even when this response came from the government it was 
inadequate, because nowhere did the decree mention expelling the 
company as soon as possible. Once again, the alteños discussed how to 
proceed. The government's statement, they decided, would have to 
say "immediately," or it would be worthless. The government sent out 
the decree, now official, that ordered "all immediate action" be 
taken to terminate the contract.

After three and a half days of strikes and blockades, the people met 
all around the city to discuss whether or not to accept Supreme 
Decree 27973. This time they decided it would be enough. The march on 
the Thursday became a victory parade and 20,000 alteños marched into 
the heart of La Paz to celebrate.

One woman leader of the Fejuve reflected on the events, "El Alto is 
on its feet and now we're going to get rid of Electropaz [the 
electric company owned by the Spanish Iberdrola corporation], and to 
win every one of our demands."
=============================================================

>>>FIFTH WORLD SOCIAL FORUM MEETS IN BRAZIL
By Luke Cooper, Porto Alegre

Revolutionary greetings from the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) in 
Porto Alegre, Brazil. As we write it's 5 o'clock on the evening of 
the third day of the forum with three more days still to go. Its 
Summer time here in Brazil and throughout the forum we've been 
enjoying 30 degree heat and clear blue skies. 

This year's forum has been broken down into nine "self organised 
spaces" ranging from the resistance to war, debt and free trade to 
reclaiming media and communications from big business. The large 
plenaries have been abolished in favour of this decentralisation.
 
At the centre of the event is the huge Youth Camp that has taken over 
Porto Alegre's central park. Far from being the ghetto that the 
frightened European Social Forum SF organisers warned such a space 
would become, young people spill out from it into the main forum 
itself. Perhaps as many as 70 per cent of the participants are young 
people.

The event opened with a huge march of around 150,000 activists coming 
together around the slogan, "Another world is possible". It is hard 
to describe without slipping into the usual clichés - incredibly 
diverse, colourful, vibrant, loud. Huge samba bands shamed their 
European cousins in terms of their size and sound. It was impossible 
not to feel part of a "festival of resistance" to neoliberal capital 
as the demo weaved around the narrow side streets before spilling 
onto the docks.

When the unity stopped, the discussion and debate began.

The following morning Lula, the president of Brazil, addressed 20,000 
participants in aptly named "Gigantinio" (little giant) stadium. Two 
years ago, the League for the Fifth International’s delegates 
reported that each word he spoke was greeted with cheers from his 
hysterical supporters. This time the mood was sombre and quietened. 
His presidency has been marked by attacks on Brazil's landless 
peasant movement and public sector pensions.

Outside, around 3,000 protested against his presence. They were made 
up of the Landless Workers' Movement the P-SOL (the recent split from 
Lula's party), and the United Socialist Workers Party.

The World Assembly of the Social Movements met on the first day. For 
a global body with potentially so much power to rally the masses to 
opposition against neoliberalism and co-ordinate an international 
struggle, it was disappointing meeting. There was no discussion on 
the way forward. Indeed, there was no discussion from the floor at 
all! There are other meetings scheduled so we wait to see if a bold 
call to action will be made.
 
Today the P-SOL had a "national meeting" - around 1,000 people 
attended. The tendency is made up of a number of intenrnational 
organisations – the Fourth International, the CWI and the IST. 
Leaders of various socialist groups addressed the conference. Alex 
Callinicos of the SWP was perhaps the least inspiring. No talk of 
socialism or class struggle for Alex - he told the conference "We are 
building something similar in Britain, a new party we call Respect."

Tomorrow is the much anticipated arrival of Venezuelan president, 
Hugo Chavez. Many sessions have dealt with his "Bolivarian 
Revolution". His reforms in Venezuela include introducing healthcare 
into slums. They have made him a hero to the impoverished workers of 
Latin America. We expect his reception tomorrow to resemble the 
cheers that greeted Lula two years ago.
 
So, what can we make of the WSF? We must always be wary when 
bureaucrats preach libertarian "decentralisation". Self-organised 
spaces can empower oppressed groups. They can aid networking. 
However, they can lead to a lack of political focus. The abolition of 
the plenaries has cemented the leadership and control of Lula and 
Chavez.
 
Yet there is a radical and international movement here, that is 
desperate for answers in the here and now, but wants radical 
solutions that can achieve the "other world" so often talked about. 
Chavez and Lula will soon be caught between the wishes of this 
movement and the wishes of the ruling classes.
The activists here that have warned against trusting these leaders 
and fighting instead to build revolutionary parties have been warmly 
greeted. For our part we have raised the call for a Fifth 
International and been answered with applause.

 

>SPECIAL REPORT: CLASS TENSIONS AT WORLD SOCIAL FORUM 
Luke Cooper and Dave Stockton report from Porto Alegre, Brazil
The fifth World Social Forum (WSF) returned to the Brazilian city of 
Porto Alegre. From 25 to 31 January it brought together 155,000 
people for six days of discussion, debate and demonstrations on the 
fight against war, racism and neoliberalism. Though it was the 
biggest yet, its division into “self-organised spaces” meant that it 
was totally unfocused when it came to formulating any concrete 
strategy for achieving “another world”.

This defocusing was a deliberate ploy by the organising committee, 
dominated by the Brazilian Workers Party (PT). It aimed to stifle 
criticism of their president, Lula, who is busy carrying out 
neoliberal “reforms”. But this in turn produced cracks in the right 
wing dominance of the movement, with most of the Attac France leaders 
joining more radical figures to produce an attempted “consensus“ of 
policies for the movement as whole.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez stole the show, with his mass rally 
far outshining that of Brazil’s Lula, who once again jetted straight 
off to Davos to hobnob with the World Economic Forum billionaires. 
The Assembly of Social Movements issued calls to action on a series 
of important issues including a global day of action against the 
occupation of Iraq on 19th March.

The forum centred on the port area. Nine thematic zones, labelled A 
to I, stretched along the riverfront for several miles.

A vast Youth Camp, occupying a large wooded park, had 35,000 young 
people camping throughout the week and holding a whole series of 
meetings, impromptu demonstrations, concerts and parties.

Young people participated massively in all the areas of the 
“official” forum. Indeed, there was no distinction between the two 
and no checking of tickets.

The forum’s opening demonstration brought 200,000 people onto the 
streets. On the demo were large contingents of the Brazilian trade 
union confederation (CUT) and the Landless Workers Movement (MST). 
Quite a few activists throughout the demo could be seen wearing “100% 
Lula” t-shirts, displaying their support for the Brazilian president 
who is now in his third year of office. Other contingents chanted 
slogans mocking Lula for caving in to the policies of the IMF, 
breaking promises on land reform, and attacking public sector 
workers’ rights.

But this was not simply a Latin American Social Forum. Trade unions 
and social movements from across the globe could be found on the 
demo, giving it a genuine international flavour. European trade 
unionists marched behind Indian Dalits. South East Asian peasant 
organisations marched behind the World March of Women. It was 
certainly a moving sight to see such a truly international 
mobilisation against neoliberal capitalism, imperialism and war.

As before, the “self-organised” spaces provided a good opportunity 
for networking between grassroots activists from social movements, 
political parties and trade unions. But the breaking up into eleven 
themes and the long walk between them meant that it was tempting to 
stay in at most two or three adjacent zones.

The large plenaries, the only meetings in which the entire movement 
could come together, had been abolished. Of course, they were always 
dominated by the “big names” of the NGOs, radical academics and 
journalists, and the thinly disguised representative of big reformist 
parties. But they did, to some extent, debate competing strategies on 
the way forward. This debate is what is crucial.

But politics abhors a vacuum. Into it stepped two Presidents – Luiz 
Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) of Brazil and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela – 
despite the hypocritical ban on political parties. The League for the 
Fifth International has resolutely denounced this humbug since the 
Principles of Porto Alegre were adopted by a small cabal after the 
first World Social Forum in 2001.

Chávez star was in the ascendant in 2005. Lula, the star of the 2003 
WSF, was in steep decline.

Cheers fade for Lula
On the first morning of the event, Lula spoke to a meeting of 12,000 
in the Gigantinho stadium on the “Global Call to Action against 
Poverty” (GCAP), a campaign aimed at pressurising the G8 governments 
to fulfil promises they have repeatedly made and broken since the 
year 2000 to “eradicate poverty”.

Lula, like Gordon Brown, has signed up to this attempt to use world 
public opinion to pressure the G8 into making yet another promise - 
which will be broken just as the promises extracted by the Jubilee 
2000 campaign were broken. In any case, who will send in the bailiffs 
to the imperialist private banks, the Federal Reserve or the Bank of 
England? 

Nevertheless NGOs and the churches will probably “mobilise millions” 
of young and caring people worldwide. This cannot be ignored by the 
anticapitalist movement, which must give a lead and demand more than 
empty promises. We must demand the immediate and unconditional 
cancellation of the debts of the global South – to private banks, as 
well as to the imperialist states. Unconditional, because no clauses 
mandating privatisation, opening of markets, nor even control and 
supervision by the NGOs must be included. Immediate, because no 
“negotiations” (i.e. arm twisting for trade concessions) should be 
allowed.

Outside the same stadium where Lula was mouthing platitudes about 
ending poverty, around 3,000 activists, organised by public sector 
trade unions and leftwing parties like P-Sol and PSTU, showed their 
militant opposition to his neoliberal reforms that have hit students 
and workers alike.

Hugo Chávez steals the show
In sharp contrast to Lula’s performance, at the end of the forum 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez addressed 17,000 wildly cheering 
activists packed into the same stadium. Chávez’ audience was probably 
divided 50-50 between pro- and anti-Lula supporters. But all of them 
cheered Chávez.

The reason: he has used his country’s oil wealth to push through 
healthcare and literacy programmes, making him a hero right across 
Latin America and enraging the United States. Lula, on the other 
hand, has attacked sections of workers so he can continue paying the 
country’s huge debt to the World Bank.

During his 90 minute speech, Chávez savaged the United States, its 
war in Iraq, its exploitation of the global south and its repeated 
interventions in Latin American countries, including Venezuela.
 
He intervened directly in the debate about where the WSF should be 
going:
“It is time to take a step and this fifth WSF could be the beginning 
of a new phase, and the next five years should be accompanied by a 
world social agenda. To that agenda we must add a strategy of power.”

He added to enthusiastic applause, “It is difficult to work within 
this capitalism system - we need socialism.” 

He also confirmed that Venezuela would host the next Hemispheric 
Social Forum in 2006, which was greeted with a roar of approval. 
Chávez called for a “new International” during his recent visit to 
Spain. Who knows, he may even be contemplating some sort of 
refounding of the 1964 Tricontinental Conference of his hero Che 
Guevara, whose name he invoked more than once in his speeches in 
Porto Alegre.
    

Cracks in the WSF “leadership”
Since its foundation in 2001, the World Social Forum had been 
dominated by the most openly reformist sections of the movement, 
having been established by Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) in alliance 
with Attac and a worldwide coalition of radical NGOs. They have 
consistently sought to sideline the more openly “anticapitalist” 
elements within the movement.

In Porto Alegre in 2005, this alliance publicly cracked apart under 
the strain of Lula’s neoliberal record in government. Chico Whitaker, 
the PT’s main ideologue in the social forum movement, advocates the 
WSF remaining only an “open space” and argues strongly against its 
development into a movement that could organise struggle against 
capitalism and war.

Nineteen academics and journalists produced what they called the 
Porto Alegre Consensus: a programmatic declaration they believed 
everyone at the social forum could agree on.

The first 19 signatories to the Manifesto include Nobel prize winning 
novelist José Saramago; long time development theorists like Eduardo 
Galeano, Samir Amin and Immanuel Wallerstein; key writers from Le 
Monde Diplomatique like François Houtart, Ignacio Ramonet, and 
Bernard Cassen; and anti-war and anti-capitalist writers/activists 
like Tariq Ali and Walden Bello.

That Bello and Ali are impatient with the paralysis of the WSF is no 
surprise, but when Cassen abandons the defence of empty “space” we 
can see that something is wrong. In all probability it was their 
influence that kept the document so anodyne - but they obviously fear 
being discredited by the Lula presidency and leaving the field open 
to the more radical elements, like Chávez or the militants of the 
Assembly of the Social Movements.

The declaration - as might be expected - includes a series of mild 
reforms, such as cancelling the state debt of the countries of the 
South, adopting the Tobin Tax, food sovereignty, fair trade, etc.

Not a word about how these reforms can be realised. No strategy for 
power, to use Chavez’ own words. But the most staggering omission is 
the failure to even mention the Iraq occupation, the US threats 
against Iran, Venezuela, North Korea or Cuba. Even more remarkable: 
no mention of the Palestinian struggle.


A call to action
The World Assembly of the Social Movements met on the last morning in 
Porto Alegre and issued a call for an international anti-war day of 
action on 19th March.

After sharp criticism of the WSF from delegates of the Iraqi National 
Resistance, the Assembly came closer to explicit support for the anti-
imperialist struggle against the Anglo-American occupation. It also 
demanded the evacuation of illegal settlements on Palestinian land 
and the pulling down of the Apartheid Wall.

The Assembly supported the anti-G8 mobilisations in Scotland in July, 
but under the more radical slogan of an immediate and unconditional 
cancellation and repudiation of the entire debt of the global south. 
It likewise supported a number of key campaigns by women and 
indigenous peoples. Unfortunately the text of the Call was only read 
out and the translation of it has yet to appear. Future issues of the 
FifthInternational.Org Global Newswire will record and analyse its 
calls to action.

The World Social Forum was thus marked by increasing polarisation and 
division – even if this was probably far from clear to many of its 
participants, because of the lack of a mass debate over these 
differences.
 
The spectre of the WSF giving birth to an anti-imperialist 
International, with agreed policies and co-ordinated action, was 
invoked by Chavez and others. Bernard Cassen, Walden Bello and Co, 
cautiously hint at recreating reformist or third world nationalist 
“internationals”. The old Stalinist parties are linking up too. The 
fragments of the Fourth International were well represented in the 
Assembly of Social Movements.  
 
There is a revolutionary alternative to all attempts to revive these 
dead Internationals. It is to transform the new mass internationalism 
and anti-imperialism into a new world party of socialist revolution. 
In Porto Alegre we made the call for a Fifth International wherever 
we had the opportunity and we found that it met with a warm response 
from rank and file activists and provoked serious discussion.

(from Fifth International Global)

 

 

TAK BAI VCD CRACKDOWN CONTINUES

 

Police seize 1,000 VCDs of Tak Bai protest
By Manop Thip-osod
[From: Bangkok Post 06 February 2005]

Phra Khanong police yesterday seized about 1,000 video compact discs
containing recordings of the crackdown on protesters in front of Tak
Bai police station in Narathiwat on Oct 26 last year.

The VCDs were found at the Niran Residence Condominium in Soi Onnuch,
which alerted police.

Pol Maj-Gen Kosin Hinthao, Metropolitan Police Division 4 commander,
said security guards reported that two men asked for permission to
drop a VCD in front of every room. The guards allowed them to do so,
not knowing the VCDs were about the Tak Bai incident, in which six
demonstrators died at the protest site, 78 others died in trucks while
being taken to a military camp in Pattani, and another one person died
after arriving at the camp.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/060205_News/06Feb2005_news11.php

 

Carlo Mejia free at last!

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=9752
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