World Social Forum: Another World Is Possible

USW’s Patrick Young, left, at the World Social Forum in Brazil.

Patrick Young from the United Steelworkers (USW) reports back from the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil. Young was part of a delegation of U.S. union activists who participated in this year’s forum from Jan. 27-Feb. 1. 

The World Social Forum, launched in 2001 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, allows grassroots activists to debate and develop proposals to make the global economy work for everyone. 

We arrived at this year’s World Social Forum in Brazil in a time of crisis.  Following decades of unfair trade, privatization and deregulation, the world’s financial markets have collapsed. People around the world are being forced from their homes by foreclosures; major global banking institutions have gone bankrupt; and unemployment rates are skyrocketing as hundreds of thousands of workers are being laid off.

This growing crisis provided a daunting backdrop to this year’s World Social Forum.  It is clear that the world has changed since Jan. 25, 2001, when the first World Social Forum convened in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Eight years ago, activists from around the world came together looking for solutions to global problems under the banner “Another World Is Possible.” Held at the same time as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the World Social Forum was the first-ever global meeting for social movements, activists, labor unions and civil society groups. 

Now, in the midst of this crisis, the principles of cowboy capitalism that have historically dominated major global financial institutions and forums like the Economic Forum in Davos have been soundly discredited. This year, the ranks of those looking for alternatives at the World Social Forum have expanded beyond community and civil society groups to Nobel Prize-winning economists and the presidents of five countries.  And although the mood is optimistic and hopeful, it is clear that in this time of crisis the stakes have never been higher. 

The forum kicked off Jan. 27 with its signature march through the streets of the host city, Belem. Nearly 100,000 people braved torrential downpours to come together to say that Another World Is Possible. 

For the next six days, we joined the forum’s 100,000 participants at workshops, panels and assemblies at Belem’s two major universities. There were more than 1,500 workshops on topics ranging from global warming to indigenous rights and labor union strategies to energy policy. 

On Jan. 28, three of us from the U.S. labor delegation spoke on a panel about young people in the labor movement organized by the Brazilian chemical workers union, the CNQ/CUT. We also participated in discussions on trade union networks at multinational corporations, international financial institutions, and trade union strategies in the midst of the economic crisis. 

Talk of the crisis crept into just about every discussion.  Unionists and activists from the global south were very curious about the real impact of this crisis on working people in the United States. It sometimes seemed as if they were asking if the American economy could really collapse the way it has. 

At the same time, we had an opportunity to learn more about the effects of this collapse around the world.  In these times, it is clear that pay cuts, layoffs and plant shutdowns are not unique to the United States. Unionists we met with from Brazil to Western Europe say they are struggling to find ways to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs and reduce the impact of the crisis on working people. 

And while in the United States we are working hard to fight for an economic renewal program that will stop the crisis and rebuild the American economy, this forum reminds us of the global nature of the crisis and the real need for global solutions—particularly reforms to trade policies and the workings of international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 

One of the highlights of the forum came Jan. 29. The presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay came together on the same stage to address some 10,000 people in a four-hour forum. The message was clear—the current global financial system has failed the world’s people and needs to be reworked. 

Although there seems to be a strong global consensus that the current financial and economic frameworks are failing, at the forum there was far from a consensus on which economic policy positions should be implemented to solve these problems. Proposals ranged from technical reforms to financial policies to completely reworking global systems of privatization and free trade.

But the point here in Belem was not to come up with a single solution or policy prescription. The goal was to create a space for individuals and organizations to share ideas and build relationships for future collaboration and mutual aid. 

In Belem, we affirmed once again that another world is not only possible—it is absolutely necessary. Now, energized by this incredible exercise in collaboration and global solidarity, we return home to embark on the hard work of building that other world.

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