World Social Forum

The World Social Forum quickly became the largest political gathering in human history and continues to offer a direct challenge to the extreme inequities of corporate-led globalisation. It has expanded its presence and continues to be an exciting experiment in global and participatory democracy. The book's contributors have participated in World Social Forums around the globe. Recounting dozens of dramatic firsthand experiences, they draw on their knowledge of global politics to introduce the process, its foundations and relevance to ongoing transnational efforts toward democracy. This second edition of Global Democracy shows how the Forums have developed since their inception in 2001 and how they are now connected with other global movements including Occupy, the Arab Spring and beyond.

The Annual World Social Forum has become a key part of the international global justice movement, attracting activists from around the world. Here Leite lays out the origins, development and challenges of this international movement for social, political and economic justice.

Experimenting with politics that can cope with uncertainty.

Many believe that there are no alternatives to globalization as we know it--with its world of giant corporations in the driving seat, dominating a "free" market in reality shaped in accordance with their dictates, and elevating economics over all other human considerations and values. But there are alternatives. And the global justice movement is giving voice to them. In this remarkable collection, the compilers have brought together some of the most important themes and voices which these rapidly growing, diverse citizens' movements have expressed at the World Social Forum which gathers each year in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

This book explores how the World Social Forum has developed in response to the current period of profound crisis and transition in the history of Western capitalist modernity. Based on ten years of field work on three continents, this book examines social movements as knowledge producers and its arguments are grounded in sustained empirical attention to what movements are doing and saying on the terrain of the WSF over time and from place to place.

In 2001 the first World Social Forum was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The meeting was viewed by many at the time as a new manifestation of the global Left, a people's opposition to the World Economic Forum that stood as the first real front to global capitalism since the collapse of the Soviet Union. While many activists and intellectuals on the left have since become deeply critical of the Forum, newer movements, such as Occupy, the Arab Spring and the indignados, have built upon its successes and innovations. Another World is Possible is the original collection of essays and demands from the heart of the 'movement of movements'. Based on the work of the first two annual meetings of the WSF, this classic collection not only set out the initial aims of the movements that came together, it also paved the way for the theoretical study of new social movements, their multiple and participatory character. Today, as many crises affect all our lives, it is time to revisit the original demands of a global solidarity movement, united in its determination to fight against the concentration of wealth, the proliferation of poverty and inequalities, and the destruction of our earth, and to reconstitute a global left.

Established in response to the World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum aims to create an alternative to the neoliberalist model. The goal is to take into account social concerns while addressing four broad thematic areas: 'the production of wealth and social reproduction, access to wealth and sustainability; empowering civil society and the public realm; and political power and ethics in the new society.' Site contains documents pertaining to past and future forums--conference agendas, presentations at workshops and seminars, media response, accomplishments and continuing action items. Also posts a Charter of Principles, information on related international organizations and events, and full-text of papers and reports on related social and economic topics. Site in English. Also in Portuguese, Spanish, and French.

Leading sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos makes an impassioned case for the politicisation of the World Social Forum, arguing that its full potential as a force for social, economic and political change can be achieved only by taking a stand against neo-liberal globalization, war, famine and corruption. However, since its inception in Porto Alegre in 2001, the World Social Forum has refused to adopt political positions on world events, preferring instead to provide a platform that facilitates cooperation between diverse social movements. Through a detailed analysis of the WSF's history and organization, he demonstrates that it has always been an inherently political organization, and argues that if the WSF is able to realise its potential as an institution for a new form of politics, it will become a global power to be reckoned with in the 21st century.