[WSF-Discuss] Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (2) : Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World Social Forum
Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
Wed Nov 19 08:35:42 UCT 2008
Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (2) :
Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World Social
Forum
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dear friends on WSFDiscuss, greetings – once again
Further to our posting yesterday, we from CACIM are
planning to also organise – again, hopefully together with others –
the following event at the Belem Forum :
v Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World
Social Forum.
This posting is again both to give you advance notice of this event –
and to invite you to join us there then ! – but also to invite you to
help us plan for it.
Specifically, and just as yesterday, we are both attaching and
pasting on below a brief write-up that we have prepared for the
event, and we would be very happy if you would :
1. Let us know whether you are coming to Belem, and if
so, whether you would like to take part in this event. (Apologies to
those with whom we have already been in preliminary touch about our
events at Belem and from whom we have already heard in this regard.
But now that we have finalised our four events, please do write in
again and let us know ! Thanks.)
2. Comment on the draft outline for the event. Please
either respond here, on this list, or send us your comments in
TRACKED CHANGES on the attached version. Thanks !
3. Make suggestions for key speakers for the event, with
the following details :
Name :
Name of organisation or institution or movement, if any :
Full contact details (email id, country and preferably city / town /
village location, and phone contacts) :
Languages spoken :
and also :
A 50-100 word blurb on each person so that we know a little WHY you
think the person is relevant to the event.
4. Suggest appropriate organisations who might like to
co-organise the events with us (again, FULL DETAILS, please, as
above, with reasons as to why these organisations).
5. Suggest possible sources of funds for this event –
and in general, the set of four events we are proposing to organise
at Belem.
Finally : PLEASE DO REPLY ALL, so that my colleagues also remain in
the loop. Thanks !
One more point : Just so that there is no confusion, please do note
that we are proposing to organise four events in Belem, in all; as
follows. We are going to be also posting similar letters for each,
inviting you to help us with them :
v The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum : The
Significance of the Forum for the Indigenous Peoples of the World (as
per the message posted yesterday (Tuesday, November 18, 2008)
v Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World
Social Forum (this message)
v Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice
Movement, and Beyond (coming tomorrow)
v A Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ? .
We look forward very much to hearing back from you ! And perhaps
also to meeting you there in Belem, and to your taking part in one or
more of these events.
With warm greetings
for CACIM
Jai Sen
att
Critically engaging with the principles underlying the WSF -
Discussion Note d3 js151108 TC 191108 for comments.doc
Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World Social
Forum
A discussion note towards a Workshop at the WSF at Belem, Brazil, in
January 2009
CACIM, November 15 2008 – third draft[i] COMMENTS WELCOME !
The WSF (World Social Forum)’s Charter of Principles[ii]
has come to be quite widely celebrated as an unusual and very
creative constitutional document that promotes horizontality,
diversity, non-linearity, autonomy, and multi-polarity. In many
ways, it is one of the strongest expressions of the core principle of
the Forum, of being an open-ended open space.[iii] Although perhaps
noone has actually said this, some have come close to suggesting that
it is a remarkable and perhaps even historic document, making
manifest many of these quite new organisational principles of
emerging movements across the world.
On the other hand, both the concept and the practice of
the Forum have also come to be quite widely contested since its
formation in 2001, and where most recently there has been a prominent
suggestion that it is perhaps time for it to pack up,[iv] and an
extensive debate that followed. This proposal was also preceded by a
low intensity but extensive debate about – and struggle over - the
future of the Forum, and in particular that it needs to be given a
more articulated political programme.[v] And this is also aside from
an even longer debate about the exclusions of fellow-travellers from
the WSF that the Charter has brought about, such as of the Zapatistas
– who many believe were an inspiration for the global justice
movement in general and for the WSF in particular.[vi]
Aside from (and notwithstanding) the controversies,
there is much evidence however to suggest that the organisers of the
Forum have also struggled over these past seven years since its
formation to interpret and make manifest the Forum as envisioned in
its Charter, not only in the evolution of the design and the
globalisation of the Forum but also in the form and content of the
series of rules and procedures they have progressively formulated
over these years, and also perhaps of the organisational and policy
decisions and resolutions that they – primarily in the form of the
WSF’s International Council – have taken.[vii]
One of the responses of the organisers of the Forum to the intense
criticisms that it faced following the Nairobi Forum in January 2007
was, for instance, to suggest that what the Forum does indeed need is
more clearly defined organising principles for the Forum –
significantly, a set of principles aside from (but complementing)
those articulated in its Charter of Principles. It has accordingly
taken steps to constitute a commission on this, which has been
working over the past year and has published a certain number of
documents in this direction, and with which we have already taken
some steps to critically engage.[viii]
The objective of this project within our larger project
of critically engaging with the Forum (see http://cacim.net/twiki/
tiki-index.php?page=WSF) is to engage with the WSF’s Charter and also
of all the rules, procedures, statements of principles, and practices
that it has formulated and practised over these years.
The idea is to bring together all the documents that have been
generated by the WSF’s IC and by all its various commissions and
committees – thereby addressing one objective of our larger project,
to chronicle the Forum; to make these systematically and publicly
available (as has been our practice right from the beginning; see
OpenSpaceForum - www.openspaceforum.net); to study all the documents
to, in particular – in this project -, see the degree of
manifestation, consistency, and/or contradiction with the Forum’s
Charter; and to use all of this to promote debate about all this,
within the body of the Forum, on the specialised listserve that we
run (WSFDiscuss), and given the significance of the WSF as a world
experiment – also, as far as we can, in wider social and political
circles.
In particular, we plan to organise a Workshop on this subject at the
upcoming world meeting of the WSF in Belem, Brazil, in January 2009;
either independently or in collaboration with one or more of the
several organisations in different parts of the world with whom we
work on such matters; and/or other taking similar initiatives there.
We have already taken the initiative of registering an event of this
title, but where the details of the event registered – the title, the
names of the organisers, and the introductory blurb - can all be
modified until November 30 2008.
We hope to mobilise the participation and leadership in this project
of members of the EIOS (Explorations in/of Open Space) Collective
that formed at the WSF in Porto Alegre in 2005 (of young scholar-
activists from several parts of the world; see http://
www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=EIOSCollective); of
all those who volunteered to be part of the CEOS (Critical Engagement
with Open Space) process at the Nairobi Forum in 2007; of the several
institutions with whom we have collaborated over the past some years
(such as the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-
Natal in Durban, South Africa;[ix] the Programa de Estudios sobre
Democracia y Transformación Global at the Universidad Nacional Mayor
de San Marcos in Lima, Peru; Fronesis, in Malmö, Sweden, http://
fronesis.nu/english/[x]); of organisations such as ARCI (Italy), who
have taken similar or related initiatives, at and about the Forum;
and of the several other individuals in many parts of the world who
have expressed in this subject over these years, including several
members of the WSF’s International Council.
We would be very glad to hear from others who are
interested in and/or already working in this area, and/or to be
informed of documents and/or websites that we could and should
consult in this work; and, of course, to receive copies – in hard
copy or soft – of any and all relevant documents.
Comments very welcome !
_____________
CACIM
www.cacim.net, info at cacim.net
A3 Defence Colony, New Delhi, India
Ph +91-11-4155 1521
Notes
[i] This note, prepared by Jai Sen for CACIM, supersedes a first and
second draft, dated May 10 2008 and November 6 2008. For details on
CACIM, see www.cacim.net.
[ii] World Social Forum Organising Committee and World Social Forum
International Council, June 2001 – ‘World Social Forum Charter of
Principles’; dt June 10 2001. Revised and approved version of
original April 2001 Charter. Available at http://
www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=4&cd_language=2. The
process of formation of the Charter is also of some interest,
including some controversies and confusions that existed at the early
stages. See : Jai Sen, December 2003d – ‘A Tale of Two Charters
(Or : ‘Another Charter Is (Im)Possible !’). 8 pp. Available at
http://www.choike.org/documentos/Two_Charters.pdf; and : Jai Sen,
December 2003c – ‘Two Charters of Principles : A Comparison’.
Comparison of Original April 2001 WSF Charter of Principles with
Revised Charter of Principles issued in June 2001, as found on the
WSF website in October 2003. December 19 2003, 7 pp. Available at
http://www.choike.org/documentos/Two_charters_compared.pdf.
[iii] See, for instance : Teivo Teivainen, forthcoming [2006] -
‘Whose Civil Society ? The Charter of Principles and Boundaries of an
Open Space’, Chapter 5 in his Democracy in Movement : The World
Social Forum as a Process of Political Learning. Unfinished draft,
18 March 2006, for book to be published in late 2006 by Routledge,
London; but even more : Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 2004b – ‘The
World Social Forum and the Future : The Future of the World Social
Forum’, in Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter Waterman,
eds, 2004 – World Social Forum : Challenging Empires (New Delhi :
Viveka). Available at http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/
1557.html. Based on latter part of paper presented at the XXIV
International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association,
Dallas, USA, March 27-29 2003. First draft, 35 pp. Can be consulted
at and cited from http://www.ces.fe.uc.pt/bss/fsm.php=A9 Boaventura
de Sousa Santos.
[iv] Walden Bello, May 2007 – ‘World Social Forum at the Crossroads’,
Foreign Policy in Focus, May 4 2007. Source : Transnational
Institute @ http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=16771.
[v] Jai Sen and Madhuresh Kumar, compilers, with Patrick Bond and
Peter Waterman, January 2007 – A Political Programme for the World
Social Forum ? Democracy, Substance, and Debate in the Bamako Appeal
and the Global Justice Movements - A Reader. Published by CACIM
(Critical Action : Centre in Movement), New Delhi, India, and
University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society (CCS), Durban,
South Africa. Soft copy available @ www.cacim.net and www.nu.ac.za/
ccs; and : ATTAC Germany, nd, c.2008 – ‘The debate on the future of
the World Social Forum - from Bamako to Bélem’. Reader for the
European Attac Summer University (2008) Workshop with Francine
Mestrum (Member of the WSF’s IC) and with Peter Strotmann and Marie-
D. Vernhes (Sand im Getriebe). Compilers : Peter Strotmann and Marie-
Dominique Vernhes, ATTAC Germany, editors of Sand im Getriebe.
[vi] For one discussion, see : Jai Sen, 2004 – ‘A Tale of Two
Charters’, in Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter
Waterman, eds, 2004 – World Social Forum : Challenging Empires, New
Delhi : Viveka, pp 72-75. Available at http://www.choike.org/
nuevo_eng/informes/1557.html and at http://www.openspaceforum.net/
twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WSFChallengingEmpires2004.
[vii] For a discussion of how ‘the Forum’ has been drawing lessons
from its experience and repeatedly reinventing itself, see : Jai Sen,
January 2007 (February 2006) - ‘The World Social Forum as an emergent
learning process’, in Futures vol 39 (2007), pp 505-522. Available
through subscription @ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.
2006.10.006. Unedited original available @ http://
www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=34.
[viii] One of the first documents in this area was : Vinod Raina,
October 2007 – ‘Guiding Principles for Holding WSF Events’, draft 1,
26.10.2007; @ http://openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?
articleId=501. As is our practice, we at CACIM attempted to
critically engage with the proposals contained in this first
document : Jai Sen, November 2007a – ‘Some Hard Questions, 2 : A
Source Of Considerable Worry; Some Suggestions For The Forum’. As
posted on WSFDiscuss on November 1 2007 10:44:45 PM GMT+05:30.
Available @ http://openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?
articleId=502.
[ix] With whom we collaborated during 2006-7 in the organisation of
two ajor events at the WSF in Nairobi, in January 2007 (see http://
cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=CACIMEvents) and in the
preparation and publication of a major Reader; see note 4 above.
[x] With whom we collaborated in the organisation of two events at
the European Social Forum at Malmö, Sweden, in September 2008 (see
http://cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=CACIMEvents).
______________________________
Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
www.cacim.net
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 4155 0963 - PLEASE NOTE NEW SECOND NUMBER !
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