[WSF-Discuss] Transitions - and Challenges ?

Fri Oct 17 05:16:14 UCT 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

Friends

I don’t know if you are all aware of this, but there is an  
significant meeting taking place in Caracas at the moment (October  
13-18), called by the World Forum for Alternatives (led by Samir Amin  
and François Houtart); titled Transitions to socialism : Political,  
economic, social, and cultural.

I have recently posted 1-2 things coming out of that meeting, reports  
by one of the participants Patrick Bond.

Here, below, and for your information, is the programme for the  
meeting; for your information (and with due apologies for any crudity  
of translation).

Also, for those who can work in Spanish, is another longer document,  
that presents the programme of the event and the organisational  
discussions, available in PDF at http://www.forumdesalternatives.org/ 
FR/viewpage.php?page_id=7&banner_id=5; prepared by Samir Amin,  
President of the WFA; Francois Houtart, Executive Secretary of the  
WFA; and Bernard Founou and Remy Herrera, from the Secretariat of the  
WFA.

The meeting is of course significant in of itself, in terms of the  
emerging role of Venezuela in Latin America, the South, and the world  
more generally, and also of the current crisis in Bolivia and the  
other major developments in Latin America, such as the new  
Constitution in Ecuador and so on.  (For a good coverage of what is  
happening at these levels, you can do worse than consulting the WFA  
site, http://www.forumdesalternatives.org/EN/inicio.php in English or  
the one above in the original Spanish, with options in different  
languages.)

But the meeting is also significant because at the European Social  
Forum that took place in Malmö, Sweden, recently, the word was around  
that the Samir Amin and/or WFA was / is planning to call a major  
meeting in Caracas to carry forward the Bamako Appeal process; and –  
crucially – whereas they had originally planned to call this meeting  
at the very same time as the World Social Forum coming up in Belem,  
Brazil, in January-February 2009, they “reconsidered” and decided to  
instead call the meeting ahead of the WSF, perhaps in November 2008.   
Whether the current meeting is that meeting, or there is yet another  
meeting planned – again in Caracas -, is not clear as yet.

I do not know whether you are familiar with the Bamako Appeal or the  
Bamako Appeal process, but in case you are not, this was a call  
issued by a group of political intellectuals in 2006 for a major new  
programme of mobilisation and resistance against neoliberalism.  For  
details, you can again do worse than consulting a reader that some of  
us put on this in 2007, titled A Political Programme for the World  
Social Forum ?  Democracy, Substance, and Debate in the Bamako Appeal  
and the Global Justice Movements - A Reader; available at  
www.cacim.net and www.nu.ac.za/ccs.

As is evident from the title of the Reader itself, you can understand  
how some of us read the politics of the Bamako Appeal – and, in many  
ways more crucially, of the Bamako Appeal process : As a direct  
challenge to the idea of an open WSF, and indeed also to the idea of  
an open, diverse, global movement for social justice.  (As Samir Amin  
said at Malmö, he sees what others see as the diversity of the global  
movement as fragmentation – and we need to struggle to get over this,  
and “unite”.)

The meeting about which there was word floating in Malmö therefore  
assumes considerable significance.  And not least because, to our  
information, the WFA and Samir Amin’s work more generally receives  
generous support from Hugo Chavez / aka the Venezuelan government;  
and so the current Caracas meeting, and the proposed meeting on the  
Bamako Appeal, have to be read not only as an initiative – and a very  
significant initiative – by a particular intellectual and political  
tendency and formation that is / seems to be challenging the idea of  
the World Social Forum and the global social justice movement as they  
exist - but also in conjunction with the leadership that Hugo Chavez  
wants to give to Latin America and the South.  There would appear to  
be at least some merging of state and non-state forces taking place,  
in this direction, with each positioning itself to take advantage of  
the other.  (Read Patrick Bond’s transcript – recently posted - of  
Hugo Chavez’ speech on one evening in Caracas, for a flavour of this.)

Views and comments welcome.  And does anyone have more information  
about the proposed November meeting ?

             JS

Transitions to socialism : Political, economic, social, and cultural

Programme

Expanded Council of the World Forum of Alternatives
Caracas, Venezuela, October 13-18 2008

(Translated on Google from the programme available in French on  
http://www.forumdesalternatives.org/FR/viewpage.php? 
page_id=7&banner_id=5; JS for CACIM, 171008; with due apologies for  
errors)

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES FROM 13 TO 18 OCTOBER 2008

TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM: POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

Dear friend,

Here is the programme for Caracas: Transitions to socialism:  
political, economic, social and cultural

1. The first four group meetings the first day, and the four groups  
the following days
2. The subgroups (3 per group) will be defined later
3. The international seminar is aimed at Venezuelan public. Each  
evening 2 or 3 Members of our meeting will speak
4. The information program on Venezuela is for those of us who want  
to learn
5. Translations will be held in English, French and Spanish
6. The groups are:
1 - Unity of labour fronts
2 - The agrarian question
3 - Democracy, equality, human rights, gender
4 - Cultural pluralism, religion, ethics, ethnicity, language through  
communication
5 - World Economic Order
6 - International World Order
7 - Regionalisation and integration
8 - Economic transition, social and political

Monday October 13
9 am - 12 h 30: Cultural Activities
Whole: Presentation In Defence of Humanity and the World Forum  
Alternatives (Samir Amin), speaking in place of (?) a Venezuelan  
authority
14 am - 16 pm: The first 4 groups: Presentation and methodology of work
16 h - 17 h 30: The subgroups
18 am - 20 pm: International Seminar: Latin America in transition

Tuesday October 14
9 am - 12 h 30: The subgroups
14 am - 16 pm: subgroups
16 h - 17 h 30: Groups
18 am - 20 pm: Venezuela: Socio-political aspects
18 am - 20 pm: International Seminar: China and East Asia

Wednesday October 15
9 am - 11 pm: Plenary: Group 1 to 4
11 am - 12 h 30: Group Discussions
14 am - 16 pm: The last 4 groups
16 h - 17 h 30: The subgroups
18 am - 20 pm: Venezuela: Socio-economic aspects
18 am - 20 pm: International Seminar: India and Southeast Asia

Thursday October 16
9 am - 12 h 30: The subgroups
14 am - 16 pm: Subgroups
16 h - 17 h 30: Groups
18 am - 20 pm: Venezuela: Socio-cultural aspects
18 am - 20 pm: International Seminar: Subsaharan Africa

Friday October 17
9 am - 11 pm: Plenary: Group 5 to 8
11 am - 12: 30 pm: Discussion groups after having heard the other  
reports
14 am - 18 pm: Plenary: summary report, declaration, structure of  
FMA, a speech by a Venezuelan authority
18 am - 20 pm: International Seminar: The Arab World

Saturday October 18
10 am and 17 pm: Social, political and cultural visits

_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________

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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