Protests | Globalization Home

 

World Social Forum '06 in Venezuela

There is a storm of historic proportions headed for the United States and its coming from South America.

Here are some good links for more information on this topic:

http://www.worldsocialforumlive.org/
http://www.fsmmali.org/?lang=en http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/eventos/24.html

World Social Forum Highlights:

• Connect and strategize with movements, communities, and leaders from across the hemisphere to build ties of solidarity with your own community at home.
  
  
• Learn about the successful models being created in Latin America to counter corporate globalization- hear from representatives of cooperatives, indigenous movements, farmers, women's movements, workers' movements, and more.
  
  
• Attend conferences, roundtables, testimonials, and workshops hosted by human rights organizations and activists.
  
  
• March together with tens of thousands from all over the world against empire, war, neoliberalism, and privatization- and for the creation of Another World.
  
  
• Travel to Venezuela's educational and health care social programs (the "missions") in urban areas and dialogue with participants and community leaders.
  
  
• Learn about the oil industry --Venezuela's key source of national income -- and Venezuela's role in economic regionalization, meeting with high-level representatives.
  
  
• Dialogue with religious leaders, opposition groups, labor leaders, women's organizations, human rights groups and Bolivarian circles.
  
  
• Find out about new programs for women under the new constitution, and perspectives of indigenous peoples and people of African descent in Venezuela.
  
  
• Discuss land reform with farmers in agricultural cooperatives who are developing according to their own needs, not the needs of the IMF and World Bank.

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year's social forum is being held in three countries, Venezuela, Mali, and in Pakistan. Some 2,000 events - including seminars, speeches and concerts - were held across Caracas, Venezuela in January 2006. Well-known speakers included Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and former French first lady Danielle Mitterrand.

The World Social Forum was first held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides with the market-friendly World Economic Forum of political and business leaders, which begins Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Nestor Petrola traveled to Venezuela by bus from Argentina, said Latin American leaders should look to Chavez as an example to follow.

"He has done more regarding land reform and stopping the privatization of basic services than the others, and that's why he's still in power," Petrola said.

Chavez, since being elected President of Venezuela in 1999, has funneled millions of dollars from booming oil profits into programs for the poor, pushed through a new constitution granting new rights to indigenous peoples and established hundreds of state-run cooperatives.

Thousands of activists marched through Venezuela's capital demanding an end to the war in Iraq and shouting slogans against U.S. imperialism at the opening of the World Social Forum backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Throngs of spirited protesters danced to drum beats as they waved banners and chanted "No to war! Peace is possible!" Roughly 80,000 people signed up to attend the forum, including tens of thousands from outside Venezuela, organizers said.

Venezuela is fast becoming a leader in regional integration in the hemisphere, particularly in the promotion of viable alternatives to corporate globalization and the "free trade" model. The proposed Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) would prioritize endogenous development, bilateral trade, and regional cooperation as a way to strengthen national economies. Venezuela is also working to create the first Latin American news channel, TeleSur, to offer an alternative to foreign corporate media, and the establishment of PetroAmérica— the first fully integrated, Latin American oil company.

These ambitious programs have distinguished Venezuela as one of the most progressive democracies in the world. Nonetheless, the Bush Administration -- which endorsed the coup d'etat against Venezuelan democracy in 2002 - continues in its efforts to discredit the government's legitimacy both at home and abroad.

TOP