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<td>New post at "Global Labor Strategies"</td>
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<td>Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:26:50 -0500</td>
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<td>Global Labor Strategies <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:info@laborstrategies.org"><info@laborstrategies.org></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th>
<td>p.waterman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:p.waterman@inter.nl.net"><p.waterman@inter.nl.net></a></td>
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<h2 class="date-header">New post at "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=25767558&f=43983">Global Labor
Strategies</a>"<!-- _!fbztxtlnk!_ http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=25767558&f=43983&u=5847420--> <br>
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<h3><a moz-do-not-send="true" name="0"></a><a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="external link"
href="http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=38212987&f=43983&u=5847420">Is
Another World Possible?<!-- _!fbztxtlnk!_ http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=38212987&f=43983&u=5847420--> </a></h3>
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<p><em>[This article originally appeared in The Nation, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/costello_smith">available
here</a>.]</em></p>
<p><cite></cite>The recently concluded <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/"
target="_blank">World Social Forum</a> is a good gauge for assessing
the state of the world's alternative social, economic and political
movements. Organized in 2001 as a counterpoint to the World Economic
Forum, the annual meeting of global and corporate elites held in Davos,
Switzerland, the WSF brings social movement organizations and activists
from around the world together around the idea that "another world is
possible." If Davos represents a failed globalization from above, the
WSF represents an emerging globalization from below. It's a massive
affair--this year more than 100,000 people gathered here for the
five-day event. Part political convention, part carnival, part
countercultural happening, the WSF serves as the center of gravity for
the global justice movement that emerged in the late 1990s to contest
corporate globalization. </p>
<p>The question on the minds of many was how to respond to what
some call the "crisis of crises"--the economic, climate, political and
cultural catastrophes that have engulfed the planet--and whether social
movements can provide a unifying alternative vision for a better world.
Economist Walden Bello of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://focusweb.org/"
target="_blank">Focus on the Global South</a> summed it up: "There is
a sense of urgency and seriousness combining both pragmatism and
principle. There is much less rhetoric. Things are taking place very
fast outstripping what many predicted. There is a clear collapse of
neo-liberalism. We have been triumphant over Davos.... Now we need
alternatives and must get down to the hard work of creating them." </p>
<p style="margin-top: 34px;"><strong>Why Belém?</strong> </p>
<p>Even before the economic crisis broke, Belém was chosen as
this year's site to highlight environmental threats. Located sixty
miles from the Atlantic on Guajara Bay in the Amazon estuary, Belém is
no stranger to environmental conflicts or to impact of globalization.
Originally built as an outpost of the Portuguese empire, it served for
centuries as a gateway to Amazonia and shipping point for the region's
natural resources. Today it is a port of call for container ships
picking up aluminum, iron ore, lumber and other riches of the
rainforest. </p>
<p>According to climate change activist Oscar Reyes of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.carbontradewatch.org/"
target="_blank">Carbon Watch</a>, the selection Belém was appropriate:
"The deforestation issue is connected into the global negotiations and
essential to dealing with climate change. The threat to the Amazon--an
area that contains half the remaining rainforest in the world--is not
primarily from small-scale deforestation, it's pulp mills, mining,
cattle, soy, and agrifuels. You can make sense of that in Belém where
these are real and live issues." </p>
<p>Hard economic times and the remoteness of the location skewed
the turnout this year--the vast majority of the participants were from
Brazil and Latin America--but there were still healthy contingents from
every continent. While most of the 5,808 participating organizations
were from Latin America, about 1,600 were drawn from the rest of the
world, including 491 from Europe, 489 from Africa, 334 from Asia and
155 from North America. In addition to the rank-and-file participants,
the presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay also
made appearances. </p>
<p>The WSF also chose to highlight the Amazon's indigenous
people. Their attendance was not a folkloric touch: in marches and
other events, indigenous participants demanded that their concerns be
addressed and that their struggle for cultural survival be part of the
global justice movement. From their perspective, the "other world" the
WSF envisions must include space for those who have made a different
pact with modernity. </p>
<p>This forum carried on its tradition of logistical chaos. The
2,310 "self-organized seminars" and other events were spread out over
two university campuses along the banks of the river about a mile and a
half apart and a few miles from the center of the city. Some
participants complained of spending more time ferrying back and forth
between campuses in taxis, buses and on a flotilla of old riverboats
than they did in meetings. </p>
<p>The global economic meltdown made the Belém forum different
from previous ones. The WSF and the global justice movement were formed
in the expansive phase of globalization; now they must adapt to global
economic contraction and impending environmental disaster. This year's
participants know that they were right about the failure of
corporate-led globalization, but they also know that just saying no is
no longer adequate. The prospects of a global wave of
beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluations and destructive trade
policies in response to the crisis and the revival of virulent
nationalism loomed over the discussions. Many wondered if what was once
dubbed the "anti-globalization movement" could produce a global
response based on global solidarity. </p>
<p><strong>Impacts of the Global Crisis</strong> </p>
<p>There was general agreement that the economic meltdown is
spilling over national borders, but it is unfolding at a different pace
and in varied ways across the world. </p>
<p>Gautam Mody ,of India's New Trade Union Initiative, told <em>The
Nation</em> that "given the sheer number of irregular workers, most on
contract, in India the crisis is as yet invisible...but millions of
these workers have been pushed off the shop floor." These layoffs go
largely unrecorded and workers receive no benefits. And Kjeld Jacobsen,
of the Social Observatory in Sao Paulo, said that despite obvious signs
that the crisis will rival that of the 1930s, "it's still hard to
convince some workers of the severity of the coming crisis because it
is just beginning." </p>
<p>In continental Europe, the crisis is still dubbed the
"financial crisis," an indication that it is not yet being felt in the
so-called "real economy" of everyday life. Bruno Ciccaglione, an
Italian trade unionist, told us that "in the US the crisis helped to
delegitimize the political class and particularly the Bush
administration. But in Europe many of the governments that were very
weak before the crisis--like Sarkozy in France, Brown in the UK and to
some extent Berlusconi in Italy--came out stronger as a result of their
economic packages and solutions, so the delegitimization of the
political class for the moment has not occurred. But it will as the
crisis moves into the real economy." The current strikes in France in
response to large-scale layoffs are an indication that things are
changing fast in Europe, he added. </p>
<p>There is also widespread worry in Europe over a possible
right-wing backlash. Norwegian political activist Asbjorn Wahl
explained why: "We have strong right-wing parties in many European
countries, including my own country where they get almost 35 percent of
the vote--and about that much of the working-class vote. If we don't
come up with good alternatives that address people's needs, we may see
that grow. It's a race between the right and the left, and at the
moment, and for the last ten years, the right is gaining more. We have
a history of the right taking over during in a crisis in Europe." </p>
<p>A recurrent theme in many of the discussions was that elites
could use the crisis to reinvent capitalism in new and insidious ways.
And many from developing countries raised concerns that the emerging
crises piled onto to the longstanding crises of global poverty,
migration and access to basic human needs like healthcare and clean
water could have a devastating impact. </p>
<p style="margin-top: 34px;"><strong>Networks of Networks</strong>
</p>
<p>The World Social Forum has played an essential role in the
"post-Seattle" world (a reference to the 1999 confrontation between
anti-globalization activists and the World Trade Association) by
serving as a center of gravity for a movement comprised of a diverse
array of organizations, each with its own issues, agendas, programs and
constituencies and with a global geographic spread. The WSF has been an
incubator for the creation of many successful advocacy networks focused
on specific issues related to labor, trade, finance, migration, the
environment, human rights, poverty and alternative economic
organizations. But there has been limited interaction among these
networks. The networks remained "trapped in their own silos," in the
words of one forum speaker. </p>
<p>That changed this year. A major push for "cross-network
convergence"--creating networks of networks--dominated much of the
discussion, and could mark a new stage in the global justice movement's
development. French activist Ameile Cannone, of the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.s2bnetwork.org/"
target="_blank">Seattle to Brussels Network</a>, described it this
way: "The context is different; we face a global crisis, people have
decided to put that at the center of their activities. It's a real
opportunity to work across networks, a great first step to start
working on climate, labor and development issues I don't think it would
have been possible before and for us this is really a good step." </p>
<p>There is a great deal of work to be done. For instance, the
discussion in Belém among labor organizations demonstrated that they
have still not found ways to integrate action on climate
change--something that will change the way their members live and
work--into their daily strategies and practices. Indeed, the climate
issue rarely came up in debates about labor's future, but when pressed
most acknowledged it as a critical trade union issue. </p>
<p>It was also clear that environmental activists need to develop
a better understanding of the effects of climate change mitigation on
employment if they are to build lasting alliances with unions. Only a
few trade unionists attended the climate change network meetings and
only a few climate change activists attended the labor gatherings. But
those exchanges are likely to increase as a result of actions taken in
Belém </p>
<p style="margin-top: 34px;"><strong>G-20 and Copenhagen</strong>
</p>
<p>Amid the usual anti-capitalist boilerplate, the closing
statement of the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/programme/alliance-day/results-of-assemblies/declaration-of-the-assembly-of-social-movements/"
target="_blank">Bel& eacute;m Forum</a>, says: "The challenge for
the social movements is to achieve a convergence of global
mobilization. It is also to strengthen our ability to act by supporting
the convergence of all movements striving to withstand oppression and
exploitation." </p>
<p>Two upcoming events will test this new commitment to
"convergence:" the G-20 Economic Summit, to be held in London at the
end of March, and the climate treaty talks, to be held Copenhagen in
December. There is a general sense that these events offer a crucial
opportunity for popular movements to mobilize and make their voices
heard. </p>
<p>As for the future of the World Social Forum, it remains a
flawed but essential institution of global civil society. Critics
believe it has become too big and unruly--a carnival rather than a
political gathering. It is not a setting for serious policy debates.
And there has always been tension between those who would push the
forum to be more of a social actor and those that want the forum to
remain an "open space" for building relationships and sharing ideas. On
her way home, Haeyoung Yoon, of the New York-based <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.caaav.org/"
target="_blank">CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities</a> as well as the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/43983/5847420/http://www.ggjalliance.org/"
target="_blank">Grassroots Global Justice Network</a>, reflected on
this tension: "The Social Forum has to be different. It should be an
open space, but a partisan open space." Finding that balance in a time
of crisis will be difficult. </p>
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