This is what democracy looks like

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/globalization/wef/portoalegre2.html
This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Dispatch
        By Kenny Bruno
Special to Corporate Watch
    January 28, 2001

"Um outro mundo e possivel."-- Another world is possible.

Porto Alegre, Brazil -- That's the slogan of the World Social Forum
underway here. Or, as they said in Seattle, "This is what democracy looks
like."

While thousands chanted that slogan in Seattle, Washington D.C., Chiang
Mai, Melbourne and Prague, they were being tear gassed, preemptively
arrested, harassed and generally denied their rights by an enormous show
of state force on behalf of undemocratic international institutions.

In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: During a march of
thousands against neo-liberalism I counted 10 police officers. When 200
Brazilian anarchists broke off from the march to throw white paint on a
McDonald's, about six police stood by.

The next day, an ex-cop explained it this way, "We police were instructed
to form partnerships with the social movements." By comparison Davos,
Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is meeting this week, has
become a fortress.

Porto Alegre is an appropriate setting for the World Social Forum, while
authorities have shut down the roads to Davos, deported activists, and
banned marches. In Porto Alegre, the Governor of the State of Rio Grande
do Sul, gave the opening speech. In fact, his government was a major
funder of the Forum.

In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: Hundreds of young
people are camping nearby -- apparently without ever sleeping -- virtually
without police presence.

This is what democracy looks like: Participatory budgeting. For 12 years,
Porto Alegre@s budget has been decided made by hundreds of well-organized
community and worker groups.

This is what democracy looks like: There is no corporate sponsorship of
the World Social Forum. No ads telling us how sustainable Shell is, or how
clean Dow is, or how concerned for the poor Philip Morris is. No Nike
swooshes. Just a few banners for the national bank of Brazil, saying "It's
better because it's ours." The most ubiquitous logo around is that of the
Workers' Party, on flags everywhere.

In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: Lots of meetings and
lots of talking. The humid rooms, over-packed with people, listening for
the umpteenth hour to plans to stop new free trade agreements and models
for local economic democracy.

This is what democracy looks like: There are lots of unionized workers
present. The state of Rio Grande do Sul has twice as many union members as
the national average.

This is what democracy looks like: The entire state of Rio Grande do Sul
has been declared GMO-free, although some Roundup Ready soy has been
smuggled in from Argentina, according to one knowledgeable government
official from Brasilia. Two days ago activists traveled with French
farmer/activist Jose Bove four hours out of Porto Alegre to tear up a few
illegal acres of Monsanto's Roundup Ready Franken-soy.

The World Social Forum is the first significant post-Seattle gathering
where the goal is not to disrupt the meetings of undemocratic
institutions, in what has become a series of traveling protests. Rather it
is a space for activists to think, talk and imagine another world -- a
more just, democratic world.

The anti-corporate globalization movement has come to "an important stage
in the counter-offensive that began in Seattle," says Walden Bello,
Executive Director of Thailand-based Focus on the Global South.

Naturally, the rhetoric of democracy in Porto Alegre cannot be transferred
everywhere, especially not to the U.S. In the opening ceremony, during
introductions of the 120 countries represented by delegates, Cuba received
the loudest ovation, while the U.S. and Israel got a smattering of boos.
There is occasionally a flavor of old-style leftism that sounds irrelevant
to most U.S. ears.

And, as one should expect in a gathering as large and diverse as this one,
there are significant differences of opinion on policy and strategy. For
example, some participants are working to incorporate social and
environmental clauses into the WTO, others insist there must be no new
round of the WTO.

Nevertheless, the overall feeling here is of fresh air coming into the
debate over globalization, especially compared with the stale rhetoric in
Davos. From Porto Alegre, the concept that a gathering of the rich and
powerful is the answer for the poor and dispossessed, that the World
Economic Forum has somehow transformed itself into a global poverty
program, seems too absurd to bother debunking.

Yet neither is the Social Forum a poverty program. And that is one of most
refreshing aspects of the gathering. It is not about money. It's not about
growth, "sustainable" or otherwise. It's not even really about development
-- a concept that has perhaps been hopelessly perverted by institutions
like the World Economic Forum and the World Bank. Still, economic issues
are prominent in the discussions here.

Rather the Forum is about democracy. Not the democracy that comes from
more money and therefore more choices of things to buy, but rather the
democracy of participation in local and society-wide economic decisions.
This is the democracy that corporate globalization gazes so harshly on.

Even the most ardent supporters of the current form of globalization
acknowledge that it is a web of powerful and unaccountable forces. They
say the best we can do as individuals and as nations, is to prepare
ourselves to flourish in this lightening-fast, hyper-competitive world,
grabbing what we can for ourselves -- mobility, wealth, markets,
computers.

The folks here would not be interested in this individualistic and
competitive vision of society, even if the powerful institutions
controlling globalization were to reduce the inequities and provide a
safety net for those left out.

There are many challenges for the World Social Forum. Midway through the
gathering, participants had not decided where, when and if there will be
another one (it seems likely). Nor had they settled on producing a
statement or manifesto (it seems unlikely). Activists must stay alert to
the cooptation of our language and ideas by the World Economic Forum, by
the WTO and World Bank. We must improve the democratic process within the
Social Forum -- to include more students, more non-Brazilians, more
indigenous people, and others. We must make sure to keep the momentum that
started with the explosion in Seattle.

Seattle was the pivotal moment in the first plank of this complex movement
-- protest and resistance. Porto Alegre will, I believe, come to be seen
as an important step in moving forward the second part - innovation and
alternatives.

It is important that many protestors have gone to Davos to continue to
expose the injustice of the World Economic Forum. But I'm glad I came to
Porto Alegre. As Walden Bello, a veteran of Davos meetings, says, "Davos
is the past. Porto Alegre is the future."

And the present is a collective dream of the thousands gathered here: Um
outro mundo e possivel.

Kenny Bruno is a Corporate Watch Research Associate.

======================

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