[WSF-Discuss] Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (3) : Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice Movement, and Beyond

Thu Nov 20 10:55:50 UCT 2008

Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (3) : Facing  
the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice Movement, and  
Beyond

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Dear friends on WSFDiscuss, greetings – once again !

             Further to our similar postings yesterday and the day  
before, we from CACIM are planning to also organise – again,  
hopefully together with others – the following event at the Belem  
Forum :

Facing the Future :

The World Social Forum, the Global Justice Movement, and Beyond.

Once again, this posting is 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 and the day before, 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.              Please 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 have already posted similar letter for the first two (as  
noted below) and are going to be also posting similar letters for the  
fourth one tomorrow, with each one 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 (posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008)

v     Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World  
Social Forum  (Wednesday, November 19, 2008)

v     Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice  
Movement, and Beyond  (this message)

v     A Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ?  
(coming tomorrow).

We look forward very much to hearing back from you !  And also to the  
chance of 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
Facing the Future - The WSF, GJM, Beyond - Disc Note d1 js1411,  
201108 for comments TC.doc
________________________________________________________________________ 
_____________________________________________________________

DISCUSSION DRAFT – COMMENTS INVITED !

Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice  
Movement, and Beyond

A Discussion Note towards a Workshop at the WSF at Belem, Brazil, in  
January 2009

CACIM, November 14 2008 – prepared by Jai Sen for CACIM, first draft

Among those who participate in it, and among some observers and  
commentators, the World Social Forum is celebrated as an extremely  
significant contribution to what some refer to as the ‘global social  
justice movement’ and, indeed, to world politics. In turn, what is  
referred to as the ‘global social justice movement’ – and that  
is portrayed by some to be globalisation from below – is also seen  
as an important contribution to the struggle against neoliberalism  
and to the achievement of global justice.

Others however argue that both the WSF and the GJM are already dying;  
and/or that they lack the anger, the vision, and the organisation to  
be able to achieve what they say they are about.  Perhaps of equal  
relevance is the reality that what is called the ‘global social  
justice movement’ is not the only show in town; for there are other  
movements – other social and political currents, and stirrings –  
beyond the WSF and the GJM that are also, in their own ways and  
visions, but separately, struggling for global justice, such as the  
global Islamic movement or the struggles of indigenous peoples in  
different parts of the world.

And beyond this, the global justice movement – and also the other  
movements taking place – must also seen within a longer and larger  
history of transformative struggle that has been taking place over  
the past half century, and specifically since the mid 1960s, since  
when huge changes have taken place in the world of movement.

All of this is confronted by the major new emerging realities in the  
world – the current collapse of the global financial system, which  
itself is bringing into question even for its proponents the entire  
neoliberal project, and beyond that the global climate and ecological  
crisis, which – and triggered by the same causes - threatens to be a  
collapse far larger than the financial system.

The WSF, and the GJM, must face the winds of this history, this  
present, and this future; these futures.

Some, even much, of this ground is the content of a new book being  
currently edited by Peter Waterman and Jai Sen, due out in early  
2009. This book, which will be the second volume in the Challenging  
Empires series, continues in the tradition of the first volume, World  
Social Forum : Challenging Empires :[1] As a critical anthology of  
essays on the theory and practice of the World Social Forum and now  
also the global justice movement, including discussing them at this  
juncture in history and looking ahead to the future.  This time  
however, the collection decisively moves ahead and locates the WSF  
and the ‘GJM’ with respect to much wider currents of movement in  
the world today – of other worlds in the making.

We, hopefully with others, therefore propose to take the opportunity  
of the WSF at Belem, in January 2009, to organise a major Seminar in  
this area, including by inviting to the session all the contributors  
to the original book and the forthcoming book.

In part, the discussions that take place in Belem will also follow  
the discussions that have taken place at related meetings organised  
by CACIM in the recent past :

A major Symposium organised in New Delhi, India, on August 29 & 30,  
2008 on the theme Struggles for Social Justice in India Today : How  
Relevant is the World Social Forum ? (for the Theme Note, Symposium  
Programme, List of Participants, and a Summary Note on what happened,  
see http://cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=CACIMEvents); and –
A Seminar / Roundtable discussion at the European Social Forum on How  
Relevant is the WSF to Struggles for Social Justice in the World  
Today ?, co-organised with Fronesis, a Swedish journal (http:// 
fronesis.nu/english/) on September 19 2008 (for a report, see http:// 
cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Malmo).

We are also inviting to the Belem session all those who were speakers  
or resource people at these two events.

Comments welcome !

_____________
CACIM
www.cacim.net, info at cacim.net
A3 Defence Colony, New Delhi, India
Ph +91-11-4155 1521

[1] Available @ http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1557.html  
and @ http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php? 
page=WSFChallengingEmpires2004.  A second edition of this book has  
now come out in 2008, published by Black Rose Books (http:// 
www.blackrosebooks.net/wsf.htm).

______________________________

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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