[WSF-Discuss] Invitation to help CACIM plan events at Belem

Fri Nov 21 21:20:04 UCT 2008

dear jai and all,

thanks again for all the wonderful work and apologis for late reply (been on the road a bit too much, now in singapore, soon in melbourne and manila... and yes, hope to make it to bharat asap... ah, any suggestions on interesting people or movements to meet either in singapore, kuala lumpur, melbourne or manila would be great).

so, to your questions

- yes, i will be in belem and willing to take part in your events. and this particular seminar looks fascinating. 

- for speakers, it is important that it will not be simply the wsf elite (including ourselves), though in cacim events on the process there have often been a wider variety of speakers than in events organized by some others...  for example, perhaps obviously, it would be good to include indigenous movements, feminists, libertarian socialists and climate justice activists, but the list should be much longer... 

- i can talk with people in nigd (www.nigd.org) to see how we could do things together. one of the related things nigd is planning is something on the impact of the forum. i think it is a good moment to have a serious debate on what the concrete (general and particular) mechanisms through which the wsf process has had (and could have) an impact on struggles and transormations.

- question; under what "objective" (thematic axis) cacim events have been proposed for the belem program? i ask this also because i am sort of facilitating one of the objectives, the one on democracy (though there has been a problem with the web site so the facilitation has been a bit slow thus far)....

in case you know anyone in melbourne, there will be this event on the wsf and global political agency on thursday:

http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=chcxz8pqfyknz

hugs,

teivo

-- 
Teivo Teivainen
Head of Department, Professor of World Politics
Department of Political Science
Unioninkatu 37
POB 54, 00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
*phone:     FI +358 919124858 Call
*cell:      FI +358 503505120 Call
* e-mail: teivo.teivainen at helsinki.fi 

________________________________
From: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>
To: Post WSFDiscuss <WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net>
Cc: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:55:50 PM
Subject: [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

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 eventswith 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 eventsin 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 Empiresseries, 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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