[WSF-Discuss] Fwd: Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum : (1) The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum
Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
Sun Nov 23 04:27:00 UCT 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Greetings, friends on WSFDiscuss
Here’s an important comment from Lee Cormie on our
proposal from CACIM this last Tuesday, as below, for a meeting at the
Belem Forum on ‘The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem
Forum : The Significance of the Forum for the Indigenous Peoples of
the World’ and for debate on this issue before Belem.
For those of you who don’t know him / of him, Lee has been involved
with movements and related educational processes in North America
since the 70s and is now at the Faculty of Theology in St. Michael’s
College and the Toronto School of Theology, both in Toronto, Ontario,
in Canada. He has attended most of the world meetings of the World
Social Forum, and also several of the fora in the Americas. He has
also contributed a great essay to the book that Peter Waterman and I
are just finalising (Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the
Global Justice Movement, and Beyond), titled ‘Globalization, Empire,
and Idol : Faith Communities in the Struggles for Another Possible
World’.
JS
fwd
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lee Cormie <lee.cormie at utoronto.ca>
Date: November 22 2008 6:58:36 PM GMT+05:30
To: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>
Subject: Re: URGENT : Planning for the WSF in Belem : Request for
your comments, suggestions, and collaboration
As always, interpretation of any text/initiative depends on one’s
context and experience. In that spirit, I would like to offer some
comments on the proposal to host a debate on the significance of WSF
IX for indigenous peoples; and I look forward to the expanding
dialogue on the many important issues involved.
1) I like very much and support the idea of promoting dialogue and
debate on this new move in global WSF organizing to highlight the
specific place, peoples, causes, movements where the WSF is being
hosted. Of course, each forum has been profoundly stamped by its
locale. But this fact has not been explicitly reflected in
organizing previous forums, or in many debates about the WSF, as if
the WSF were “global” without being rooted concretely in specific
spaces. So, in my perspective, the “methodology” of WSF IX
represents a major step forward in recognizing the irreducible
significance of the local, and in seeking more explicitly to use the
WSF to enhance local organizing too. And this explicit emphasis
should contribute to a more differentiated approach to “the WSF,” as
significantly locally-flavoured in each instance, and “globally”
comprising expanding/multiplying networks of locally-coloured WSFs,
in contrast to the view of a single WSF that is transported around
the world and seemingly unchanged in the process (which seems to be
implied in the view of those advocating the WSF as a single
“movement” rather than “space”).
2) While I strongly support this new methodological step, I do
wonder how the decision was made, what the debates about it were, the
key voices, etc. Clarifications would help to make WSF processes
more transparent.
3) While indigenous voices and issues have not been prominent in many
WSF processes, including the Porto Alegre forums, they have been
significant, even central in others. Adavasis were highly visible in
large numbers in Mumbai (though I have seen no commentary on the
significance of this for their movements or for the WSF). Tribal
groups were very evident in Nairobi (though, again, I have seen no
commentary on this). So, perhaps we should say that indigenous
peoples and their discourses have been absent in some global WSF
events, and marginalized in others and in the debates about the WSF.
On the other hand, indigenous movements and their concerns
comprised one of the central axes of the first Americas Social Forum
in Ecuador (July 2004), in the US Social Forum (June 2007), and in
the 3rd Americas Social Forum in Guatemala (October 2008).
Finally, in Guatemala networks of indigenous movements from
Guatemala and from the Andes jointly hosted a dialogue on their hopes
for WSF IX, with an indigenous member of the Belém planning committee
reporting on initiatives to date. It’s clear that they have great
hopes for WSF IX for their own movements. In the process, it seems
to me, they are becoming--or have already become--significant actors
in WSF processes; and they are helping to change the WSF, as already
evident in the planning process to date. From my perspective, these
are very significant and positive developments in WSF processes.
4) Any “debate” about indigenous communities, movements,
spiritualities, causes must centrally feature indigenous voices.
This requirement is central to the spirit of the WSF. (And one
proposed forum process, the Northwest Social Forum comprising
movements in the Northwest US and Western Canada was suspended when
indigenous participants withdrew, citing an organizing schedule,
process and culture which marginalized them and their communities.)
And if it is not possible to recruit significant indigenous
participation, then the “debate” should be postponed, or radically re-
framed.
5) In any case, the primary focus and responsibility of us “others”
should be to address the implications of indigenous perspectives,
spiritualities, politics on us, on our own perspectives, frameworks,
organizing styles, movements, coalitions--on how “they” are
challenging/inspiring “us,” and the ongoing development of our
political visions, frameworks, and priorities. More than most
movements, (many) indigenous leaders see a broad “civilizational
crisis” unfolding--and recent developments, from peak oil and other
obvious “limits to growth,” to climate change, and global financial
meltdown--certainly reinforce this perception. This promises to be a
very interesting dialogue for all of us!
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>
> Date: November 18 2008 1:08:54 PM GMT+05:30
> To: Post WSFDiscuss <WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net>
> Cc: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>
> Subject: [WSF-Discuss] Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the
> Belem Forum : (1) The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the
> Belem Forum
>
> Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum : (1) The
> Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum
>
> Tuesday, November 18, 2008
>
>
> Dear friends on WSFDiscuss, greetings !
>
> We from CACIM are planning to organise – hopefully,
> together with others – the following event at the Belem Forum :
>
> v The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum :
> The Significance of the Forum for the Indigenous Peoples of the World
>
>
> 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, we are both attaching and pasting on below a 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 the List, or send us your comments in
> TRACKED CHANGES on the attached version. Thanks !
>
>
>
> 3. Make suggestions for key speakers for the event,
> WITH FULL DETAILS : Names, 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 100-150 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.
> We have already raised some funds but need to augment this,
> especially for this one, because aside from our own expenses, we
> would ideally like to mobilise funds that can enable indigenous
> women and men from South Asia - who otherwise might not be to go to
> Belem – to be there.
>
>
> 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
>
>
> v Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World
> Social Forum
>
>
> v Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global
> Justice Movement, and Beyond
>
>
> 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
> The Politics and Potentials of the Belem Forum - Proposal d2
> js161108 TC 1811 for comments.doc
>
>
> Draft proposal – comments invited
>
> The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum : The
> Significance of the Forum for the Indigenous Peoples of the World
>
> A Proposal for a Workshop at the World Social Forum at Belem
>
> Proposed by : CACIM – and others to be defined through discussion
>
>
> Second draft, for discussion, Jai Sen, for CACIM, November 16 2008
> – COMMENTS INVITED !
>
>
> The terms under which the WSF’s International Council accepted the
> holding of the WSF in Belem, and in Amazonia, in June 2007 included
> several significant social and ecological objectives. (See ‘Amazon
> region's candidature to host the World Social Forum 2009’, dated
> May 29 2007; available @ http://alternatives-international.net/
> article901.html; also @ http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-
> read_article.php?articleId=635&highlight=amazon%20region%27s%
> 20candidature.)
>
>
> These include the plea that :
>
> The Amazon region is the planet's last forest frontier. Besides, it
> has the planet's most valuable freshwater resources, biodiversity
> and great social diversity, which is represented by its traditional
> populations and indigenous peoples. The threats upon this human
> patrimony do not involve only climate changes. They are also
> accelerated by current development policies that point towards the
> growth of predatory activities such as single-crop farming and
> cattle-breeding, exploration of mineral commodities and
> installation of infrastructures that open up space to these
> predatory processes, which are proved to have very little positive
> effect on the Amazonian society as a whole. Therefore, hosting the
> World Social Forum has a great symbolic value to the region and
> will reinforce various efforts that aim at giving visibility to the
> importance of protecting natural resources and respecting the
> diversity of lifestyles, which are being threatened by the growth
> of neoliberal globalization process in this region, one of great
> strategic importance to the planet.
>
>
> There is no question that Amazonia is important at the world level
> as a symbol of the planet’s environment and of its diversity and
> fragility. Equally however, Amazonia is also symbolic at a world
> level of the existence and struggles of indigenous peoples – who
> have been and are under threat across the planet.[1] Given the
> very special significance that the World Social Forum has come to
> have in terms of the articulation at a world level of non-state
> voices – and therefore, in principle, that such a meeting could
> have for indigenous peoples -, but given also the complex and
> contentious relationship of power between civil and incivil worlds
> that exists in all societies in the world,[2] and given moreover
> the history of deep controversy around the organising of the Forum
> at Nairobi in 2007,[3] we believe and propose that it is extremely
> important to empathetically but critically look at, interrogate,
> and debate the Belem Forum as a concept and as practice; and from
> ahead and during the Belem Forum, not after.
>
>
>
> Among other reasons, while the broader ecological objectives of
> organising the Forum in Belem are certainly of the greatest
> importance, given the other symbolism of the Belem Forum it is also
> vital to understand the manner in which these are intersecting with
> the struggles of indigenous peoples in Amazonia, in Brazil, in the
> Americas, and all over the world.
>
>
>
> We therefore propose a process of debate before the Forum (ie
> during December 2008 - January 2009) and then a major Workshop
> during the Forum.
>
>
>
> Context
>
> The history of Brazil since the 15th century has in part involved a
> massive extermination of the indigenous peoples of the territory
> that came to be called Brazil; through the colonisation of the
> territory by the Portuguese and the Spanish and then the subsequent
> takeover and integration of the territory by those who came to form
> the ruling classes of the new country. Though different in detail,
> this is also largely true of the indigenous peoples of most
> countries of Latin America. Although the indigenous peoples of
> these territories have in all cases fought back, it has been the
> other peoples – the settlers - who have in all cases taken over;
> with Bolivia being the first case where the indigenous population
> of the territory have taken back the power.
>
>
> In many ways, although there were indigenous peoples once
> inhabiting most of the territory now known as Brazil, the struggle
> over Amazonia has been the symbol of these struggles in Brazil. On
> the one hand, the basin of the Amazon and its tributaries have been
> the cradle of hundreds of tribes since time immemorial; on the
> other, the basin occupies about half the country’s vast total area,
> in one sense right across the heart of the country, and it is also
> the home of allegedly vast deposits of minerals. There could be
> scarcely be a more contentious issue.
>
>
> As a consequence, over the past half century, on the one hand there
> has been a massive attempt to take over and colonise Amazonia -
> through the construction of a Trans-Amazonian Highway, through the
> construction of other roads such as BR-364 and the bringing in by
> the government of hundreds of thousands of non-indigenous settlers
> through land colonisation projects such as Polonoroeste; and
> through the populating of the little populated north-western parts
> of the country, ostensibly to defend the country against invasion,
> through the Calhe Norte project.
>
>
>
> On the other hand, since the early 1970s, and despite an experience
> of massive violence inflicted on them by these incursions, the
> indigenous peoples of Amazonia and Brazil have - with the support
> of the-then liberationist church and of sections of national and
> international civil society such as anthropologists – not only
> struggled locally but also gradually come together to form
> associations through which they could collectively defend and
> assert their rights. (The historical enormity of this process of
> convergence also needs to be appreciated; till the mid 1960s, most
> of the these tribes were completely isolated – not only from
> dominant society, till then largely located in south-east Brazil,
> but also from each other.) And more recently, they have also come
> together with other indigenous peoples in Latin America, and from
> some parts of the world, to form diaphanous and still-fragile
> regional and global associations. An important part of this has
> been campaign and advocacy at the UN level, which has gone so far
> as to lead to the declaration by the UN of 1993 as the
> International Year of the World’s Indigenous People.[4]
>
>
> Along with this, and in the context of the World Social Forum being
> a world process, it is important to mention that much of this
> impetus has come from and around the lives and struggles of the
> indigenous peoples of Latin America, and to a degree Australia and
> New Zealand, rather than the indigenous peoples of North America,
> Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, or
> even Europe. Among other things, there are radically different
> conceptualisations among the indigenous peoples of the world of
> issues such as indigeneity and of relations to settler societies.
> So it is not as if these are universally settled questions.
>
>
>
> The period since then has seen momentous developments in the
> struggles of indigenous peoples of the world. In January 1994 –
> immediately after the UN’s ‘International Year of the World’s
> Indigenous People’ – came the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico, led by
> the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. (There are many who say that
> this rebellion was the inspiration for the WSF and for the global
> justice movement of which it is a part.) In the decade since then,
> the prime ministers of government after government of settler
> countries – New Zealand, Australia, and Canada – have apologised to
> the indigenous peoples of those territories for the crimes
> historically committed against them by the (white) settler
> populations. And in 2003, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, led
> by Evo Morales and his Movimiento al Socialismo (‘Movement Towards
> Socialism’), were democratically elected to power.
>
>
> Even if this is a crude sketch, and even if there is much more that
> could be said in this area even in introduction, it is in this
> broad context that the World Social Forum to be held in Belem needs
> to be seen. The WSF has grown spectacularly over the past seven
> years, and is seen by some including by some of its organisers and
> ideologues in different parts of the world, as today being the most
> important space in the world today for non-state, ‘civil’ actors to
> convene, converge, and articulate their voices. But, and as above,
> the Belem Forum has specially been convened in order to put forward
> the voices and claims of indigenous peoples – explicitly the
> indigenous peoples of Amazonia, but implicitly, given the embrace
> and scope of the World Social Forum, the indigenous peoples of the
> world.
>
>
>
> This is so even though until the 3rd WSF held in Porto Alegre in
> 2005, the indigenous peoples of Brazil – let alone of the world –
> had virtually no place in the Forum; it was till then exclusively a
> Forum for dominant civil society, for the settlers of the country
> and for their equivalents around the world. The organisers of the
> WSF have made major efforts to change this situation since then,
> but this is the history and reality of the Forum in Brazil. And it
> is also a reality that the WSF has, by the Charter of Principles it
> has itself formulated, ruled out the possibility of even the
> Zapatistas attending – because the Charter prohibits
> “military” (armed) groups from attending. On the other hand, it
> could be said that although not an exact parallel, the Belem Forum
> has the potential to be, for the indigenous peoples of the world,
> what the 2003 Durban Conference on Race and Xenophobia was for
> people of colour (and certainly for, among others, Dalits in India).
>
>
>
> All this is aside from the other intertwined objectives and claims
> for the Belem Forum, to defend Amazon as an ecological entity. But
> keeping the above in mind, this too has a complex basis. The
> historical reality of Amazonia is that it is not, as is imagined by
> many outsiders, populated only by indigenous peoples; to the
> contrary, since the second half of the 19th century it has a
> history of being settled by outsiders – through colonisation by
> rubber barons, who left the region with a large population of
> sereingueiros (rubber tappers), and then spontaneously by miners,
> loggers, and other adventurers; and so it now, a century and more
> later, has a very significant population of non-indigenous peoples
> – the sections referred to in the candidacy proposal as
> “traditional populations” - whose claim to Amazonia is also strong
> and legitimate. Since the 1980s, these different populations of
> Amazonia have come together in many ways, but expectably, given the
> differences in their histories and their relations to the world
> around them, there are also differences in how they see Amazonia.
>
>
>
> Our understanding is that in this complex context, it is extremely
> important to empathetically but critically look at, interrogate,
> and debate the Belem Forum as concept and as practice so that it
> does not, eve if unintentionally, become a process of a complex
> subordination, but rather what it is intended to be, an
> emancipatory, liberating event.
>
>
>
> We propose to contribute to it being this by (a) reaching these
> ideas and this proposal out to organisations of indigenous peoples
> and traditional populations in the Amazonian region, as well as to
> organisations of indigenous peoples in other parts of Brazil, the
> Americas, and the world, and asking for their collaboration; (b)
> debating these issues as much as possible ahead of the Belem Forum,
> on listserves; (c), organising a major Workshop on this theme at
> the Belem Forum; and (d) preparing a film and a report on the
> Workshop that can both carry the debate forward and also contribute
> to a critical appreciation of the Belem Forum.
>
>
>
> In proposing this event and process, we acknowledge that we are
> aware of the work of Working Group on the Participation of
> Indigenous Peoples in the WSF,[5] of the steps being taken to hold
> consultations with indigenous peoples and traditional populations
> throughout Amazonia during the current months and ahead of the
> Belem Forum, and of the Solidarity Fund being established from
> within the WSF to enable the participation of indigenous peoples
> (albeit, presumably because of resource restrictions, from Amazonia
> alone) to participate in the Belem Forum. We strongly appreciate
> and welcome all these steps, but nevertheless feel – and perhaps
> all the more because all this is being done - that there is a need
> to engage fully with the complexity of the reality. Indeed, we
> feel that the debate and Workshop we are proposing are strongly
> complementary to these other activities.
>
>
>
> We have of course already started identifying
> individuals and organisations who we would like to invite to the
> Workshop as Resource Persons (see attached SubAnnexure). As it
> happens, one of our members has done fairly extensive research on
> the history of movements and campaigns in one part of Amazonia
> (Rondônia and Acre) and through that, of movements in Amazonia, and
> in the course of that work, came to know several key people in this
> field in Amazonia and in Brazil in general, and in Europe, North
> America, Japan, and elsewhere – activists, academics, writers and
> filmmakers, policy makers, legislators, and others; several / some
> of whom may, we hope, be already planning to take part in the WSF
> in Belem. In addition, we at CACIM are also in touch with similar
> people in India, in the course of our current work. We therefore
> propose to draw on this capital for enrichening the Workshop –
> though the resources required for attending will of course be an
> important constraint.
>
>
> [to be completed; comments invited]
>
>
> Objectives (DRAFT – TO BE DISCUSSED AND FINALISED !) :
>
> Especially given the history of controversy around the organising
> of the Forum at Nairobi,[6] we propose the following as the
> objectives of the Workshop :
>
> 1. To critically support the meaning of the WSF being
> held in Belem, in terms of the socially and ecologically
> significant objectives that were defined by the promoters and
> proposers of the 2009 WSF in Amazonia and specifically at Belem
> (see ‘Amazon region's candidature to host the World Social Forum
> 2009’, dated Tuesday 29 May 2007; available @ http://alternatives-
> international.net/article901.html sb010708; also available @ http://
> www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?
> articleId=635&highlight=amazon%20region%27s%20candidature)
>
> 2. To critically examine the actual experience and
> practice of organising the WSF at Belem, in terms of the original
> objectives set for it; and –
>
> 3. Insofar as Amazonia is, in addition to being
> symbolic of the planet’s environment and its diversity and
> fragility, is also symbolic at a world level of the existence and
> struggles of indigenous peoples, to also, and in particular,
> critically examine the politics, potentials, and meanings of the
> WSF as it is being organised at Belem for the indigenous peoples of
> the world.
>
> Notes
> [1] Although the candidacy proposal cited mentions indigenous
> peoples, it does so as being only one of the two main population
> groups in Amazonia (the other one being “traditional
> populations”). See later in this document for a discussion of the
> significance of this.
>
> [2] For a discussion of the concept of incivility, see Jai Sen,
> November 2007 – ‘The power of civility’, in Mikael Löfgren & Håkan
> Thörn, eds, 2007 – ‘Global Civil Society – More Or Less
> Democracy?’, special issue of Development Dialogue, no 49, pp
> 51-68; available for download on www.dhf.uu.se.
>
> [3] See : Onyango Oloo (National Coordinator, Kenya Social Forum),
> March 2007 – ‘Critical Reflections on WSF Nairobi 2007’. Debate SA
> discussion list <debate at lists.kabissa.org> WSF-Nairobi autopsy by
> Oyango Oloo. Date: 29 March 2007 1:52:31 PM GMT+05:45. Available
> at http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?
> articleId=392; Wangui Mbatia and Hassan Indusa, February 2007 –
> ‘The World Social Forum 2007 : A Kenyan Perspective’, on Red Pepper
> Online @ http://www.redpepper.org.uk/. Prepared on behalf of the
> People’s Parliament, Nairobi, Kenya; and : Gina Vargas
> (Articulación Feminista Marcosur), April 2007 – ‘A look at
> Nairobi’s World Social Forum’, forthcoming as chapter in Jai Sen
> and Peter Waterman, eds, forthcoming, 2009 – Facing History : The
> World Social Forum and Beyond [title under finalisation], Volume 2
> in the Challenging Empires series. New Delhi : OpenWord Books.
>
> [4] It is an interesting footnote that although the concept of a
> plural indigenous peoples had by then already been accepted by the
> UN system, when the UN came to declare this year, it resorted – or
> was forced by its member governments to resort – to referring to
> them in the singular, ‘indigenous people’, implying that all
> indigenous peoples of the world constitute a single monocultural
> bloc, different in a singular way from ‘others’.
>
> [5] Anon, nd, c.2008 – ‘Working Group Meeting on the Participation
> of Indigenous Peoples in the WSF 2009’. Accessed mk 101108 @
> http://openfsm.net/projects/wg-indigenas/indigenous-peoples-
> copenhagen.
>
> [6] See above, for references.
>
>
______________________________
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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