Quoting Gandhi – who averred that the world could be changed without violence, through transformations beginning in each person and then spreading throughout all –the Fourth World Social Forum concluded in Mumbai (India). From January 16 through 21, the WSF gathered some 100 thousand participants from 140 countries.

Scores of issues were addressed: peace, free trade, agriculture, communication and many others – all crucial to formulating alternatives to neoliberal globalization. Such alternatives are the Forum’s central aim. However, if one had to summarize the event in a single word, it would be: Diversity – the issue predominating in actions and speeches.

In Mumbai, people spoke dozens of languages; many-colored, creative cultural expressions were exchanged: similar problems were addressed from various angles and ways of constructing discourses; but the precedent set in this stage of the WSF’s history was the visible participation of a diverse range of ethnic and social groups. Their presence attested to the fact that the world is indeed resisting the homogenization inherent in the globalization process.

Alongside diversity in numbers was diversity in thought – both undoubtedly the foundations of the alternatives being discussed. Producing our own, diverse thinking, along with strengthening autonomy, will be the solid foundation for building that other world that is possible. This was stressed in the panel and debate on “Diverse alternatives for global changes”, organized by various women’s networks.

For this reason, as Brazilian artist and politician Gilberto Gil put it, the challenge from now on is to make “diversity and plurality into the practice that is applied to everything”: to thought, to creation and action, to projecting that other world of equality, without discrimination and with economic and social justice. This utopia drives not only the Forum itself, but also the process involving millions of initiatives and proposals, the world over.

Justice as the core of the economy

Another World is Possible and Necessary – this was part of the unanimous discourse of numerous events on economics, especially on free trade. Participants expressed their determination to continue working to reverse WTO rulings and similar regional agreements.

For example, an analysis of the Cancún fiasco evinced the importance of citizens’ struggle and leadership in formulating integration proposals that, in the words of the message sent by Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Nelson Mandela, will eliminate all injustices mainly affecting countries of the South and discriminated groups.

Economic justice was also a cross-cutting theme in analyses of a broad range of issues, from agriculture(where free trade is the main threat hanging over small farmers’ lives) to communication (the backbone of globalization).

International financial institutions – especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund – were identified as the most monumental seedbed of inequalities, among countries and among people. Their policies were once again found to be the main causes responsible for the critical situations affecting poor countries. Among alternatives, it will be urgent to reorient those institutions, to place them at the service of peoples rather than capital. This will include non-payment of the foreign debt: “We owe nothing, we pay nothing” was read and heard everywhere.

Another focus was the squandering of resources on arms and military bases, geared to dominate, invade and wage war, which constitutes the greatest affront to peoples’ dignity. Recurring calls were raised to reinvest these resources in education, health and eradicating hunger, among other purposes. George Bush’s arrogance in crystallizing US imperialistic drives, with simplistic arguments using terrorism as a pretext to spread terror, was pointed out as the worst anachronism of this new age. Therefore, it is time to demand accountability for these invasions that claim to be war.

All participants condemned the invasions of Irak and Afghanistan, the oppression of peoples as in Palestine, multiplication of military bases and so-called security policies, infringing individual and collective rights under that pretext. No one believes that war solves any conflicts – rather, it makes them worse and sets humankind back, returning to colonial situations and intensifying existing imbalances of power.

The Future of the Forum

"The World Social Forum is the true UN, because here are the peoples, speaking with their own voice. This is the authentic convergence of sectors and nations, to talk about their aspirations and what is important for humankind”, said Ecuadorian leader, Blanca Chancoso, in the closing address of the Forum. She also emphasized that, while this world gathering is indispensable to think about our collective future, the process in the different countries and regions, where proposals are generated and solidarity is built from the bottom up, is even more essential.

The Forum in Mumbai uncapped a new style of participation and convergence, where the visibility of different forms of expression set the tone for shared struggles. The WSF combined the production of ideas and proposals with ongoing marches, expressing with different cultural manifestations and symbols that “Another world is possible, urgent and necessary”.

*Taken from http://alainet.org