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The post on the status of WSF body by Jai, explaining certain things...
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Subject: </th>
<td>Re: [DEBATE] : (Fwd) Cosatu crits WSF for Morocco venue</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th>
<td>Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:48:16 +0530</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>Jai Sen <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jai.sen@cacim.net"><jai.sen@cacim.net></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Reply-To: </th>
<td>debate: SA discussion list <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:debate@debate.kabissa.org"><debate@debate.kabissa.org></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th>
<td>debate: SA discussion list <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:debate@debate.kabissa.org"><debate@debate.kabissa.org></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">CC: </th>
<td>Peter Waterman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:p.waterman@inter.nl.net"><p.waterman@inter.nl.net></a>, Gina Vargas
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ginavargas@telefonica.net.pe"><ginavargas@telefonica.net.pe></a>, "nigd >> Network Institute
for GD" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:nigd@nigd.u-net.com"><nigd@nigd.u-net.com></a>, Teivo Teivainen
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:teivo@nigd.org"><teivo@nigd.org></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">References: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:49C48D1D.40708@mail.ngo.za"><49C48D1D.40708@mail.ngo.za></a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:b40c71810903210109v2e19cc2cm5d6e833bb95cbfc3@mail.gmail.com"><b40c71810903210109v2e19cc2cm5d6e833bb95cbfc3@mail.gmail.com></a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:b40c71810903220215u60a837efr5207809e51842c7a@mail.gmail.com"><b40c71810903220215u60a837efr5207809e51842c7a@mail.gmail.com></a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:49C61E94.7000703@inter.nl.net"><49C61E94.7000703@inter.nl.net></a></td>
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<pre>Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Peter, Dominic, and other friends on Debate
Some information on just one of Peter’s responses :
4. I am not aware of any legal status of the WSF anywhere.
‘The WSF’ is an amorphous entity, and ‘people’ anywhere
are more or less free to decide whether they (a) want to set up a
local / national / regional (and, I think, continental) Social Forum;
(b) whether or not they want to give it a “legal status” – which I
think everywhere means to register it with the state; and (c) if so,
then what form of legal and organisational status they want to give it.
To my knowledge, there are no rules, agreed or not, that govern this
situation, but the WSF’s International Council did decide, after the
fiasco that took place at the WSF in Nairobi in 2007, to draw up a
set of ‘organising principles’ that would complement its ‘Charter of
Principles’ and a commission / working group appointed to draft it –
and that should, as I understood the mandate given to the commission,
have covered this ground. According to its prime author, Vinod Raina
of Jubilee South Asia and the All India People’s Science Network, was
approved by the IC in September 2008 and is posted at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://">http://</a>
wsfprocess.net/mem. I haven’t been able to find it there as yet,
but have written to ask him once more where it can be found.
I don’t know about the situation anywhere else – as yet, at least; I
am putting out a call on WSFDiscuss to get some more information –
but in India, those who came together to organise first the / a so-
called ‘Asian Social Forum’ (in Hyderabad in January 2003) and then
the World Social Forum in Mumbai in January 2004 (i) decided to give
it a legal status, largely because they agreed on the idea of
receiving funds from abroad (what in India are referred to as
“foreign funds”), and Indian law requires that any civil organisation
receiving such funds first register themselves with the state; and
(ii) decided to do as a Trust named ‘WSF India Trust’.
Those running the WSF process in India set themselves up first as the
“Settler” to the Trust and then as its Trustees.
But this registered organisation is distinct from the ‘WSF India
Working Committee’ that actually runs and organises the WSF in India
and that sends representatives to the WSF’s International Council,
and which is an unregistered organisation and process; and where, in
an interesting arrangement, the WSF IWC has a Finance Committee that
apparently makes all the budgetary and financial decisions – and
whose members are, according to my colleague Madhuresh Kumar who is a
member of the IWC, not necessarily the members of the WSF India
Trust. In other words, in practice the WSF India Trust and its
members receive the funds for the WSF in India but allow the Finance
Committee of the WSF India Working Committee to make all decisions in
this regard, apparently without conditions.
Coming therefore to another of Dominic’s questions, regarding whether
or not the WSF has office bearers, this means that in the case of the
WSF in India, the Trustees are the office bearers to the organisation
that receives funds used by the WSF in India but not automatically,
by virtue of this position, also of the WSF India Working Committee;
which has no office bearers.
Jai
On Mar 22 09, at 4:48 PM, peter waterman wrote:
> All good questions, D, which I will try to answer.
>
> Alternatively, you could put them to the companyeros from NIGD in
> Helsinki, to whom I am forwarding this (NIGD being a collective
> member of the IC). I am also forwarding to Teivo T, who has,
> additional to attending IC meetings, written a book about the WSF.
>
> Let me give you an opinion on these matters, or my impression, as
> someone in the large outer circle of the WSF (I have been at one IC
> meeting, have attended numerous WSF events, have written
> extensively about labour and the WSF, and co-edited a couple of
> compilations about and around the WSF).
>
> 1. Lines of accountability and responsibility are vague and
> variable. Thus COSATU is a member of the IC, but I do not know
> whether its representative reports back to COSATU or South African
> civil society more generally. The IC was self-created back around
> 2001, mostly on the initiative of Brazilians, including the CUT
> union confederation, and certain West European individuals/
> networks. It has expanded itself since then. It includes some
> active and some inactive members. It has created a number of sub-
> committees, and these either function well or are problematic. The
> same is true for individual sub-committee members who take on
> responsibilities. There have been complaints from beyond this inner
> circle about the functioning of the IC. At the Belem WSF, Jan-Feb
> this year, I think two prominent activist-intellectual supporters,
> Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Walden Bello, called for a
> transformation of this ad hoc IC, for - actually - something with
> more accountability and responsibility.
>
> 2. Formally, there is no leader and the leadership rests with the
> IC. However, no one speaks 'for the WSF' and IC members may have -
> for example - quite different relations with the state or inter-
> state bodies outside the IC. In practice there are maybe 10-20
> prominent activists, known and respected internationally because of
> their organisational qualities and/or writings. My impression is
> that the core activists have been Brazilians, with a background in
> struggles against the military regime, members of or sympathetic to
> the now-governing PT (Workers' Party). Some come from major
> organisations, like the CUT, others from such NGOs as IBASE.
>
> 3. I don't think anyone would recognise or call themselves an
> 'office bearer' of the WSF or IC. But there are numerous people who
> carry out tasks, and numerous sub-committees (or networks) that
> address themselves to, for example, expansion of the WSF or
> communication (a continuing problem within and for the IC). There
> are also regional structures by continent, and there is an
> Organisation Committee for each 'edition' of the WSF, largely
> consisting of nationals of the country concerned.
>
> 4. I am not aware of any legal status of the WSF anywhere.
>
> 5. Well the IC and OC do decide on the programme and functioning of
> each WSF 'edition'. Increasingly, and under pressure from
> participants and commentators, they have tended to provide a
> framework within which 'self-organised' activities predominate.
> There is no official WSF or IC publication. Until Belem, I believe,
> there has been a daily forum newspaper in several languages, 'Terra
> Viva', but this service was provided by the Rome-based IPS news
> agency. I believe that, in Belem, it produced only one, fat, issue.
>
> 6. The WSF has experimented with various websites over the years.
> There is always one for registration and the consequent planning/
> programming of the WSF event in question. There are, further,
> numerous websites that relate to the WSF but that are independent
> of the IC. I believe the Communications Committee is still
> struggling with this problem.
>
> 7. There is always a large media presence - from the dominant and
> alternative media - and increasing media facilities, at the WSF. I
> assume that there is someone in charge of any such facility. I am
> not aware of there being a permanent liaison office. And there is
> no official spokesperson. The WSF IC is, shy of any such authority
> being vested in one person.
>
> 8. Most WSF funding comes from the Oxfams and other such friendly -
> mostly development-oriented - foundations. At one time the Ford
> Foundation was a prominent funder. Funding is no secret and there
> was a report on the funding problem around 2005, available online.
> Other funding has come, for example, from the Government of Brazil,
> from state-owned corporations, and I assume that much funding or
> support in-kind was provided this year by the State of Para. There
> is also an accounting procedure, I believe, after each event. And
> debits have been announced, to my recollection, after both the
> Nairobi WSF 2007 and the Malmo ESF 2008. I myself await, however, a
> serious political-economic study/report on the WSF (most such
> reports - and they are legion - are political/institutional/
> cultural in nature).
>
> 9. If it is the case that a decision has been taken on siting the
> next WSF in Morocco, this must have been done by an IC of which
> COSATU has been a prominent member and, I believe, a regular
> participant. So the question of whether the IC or COSATU (or some
> sub-committee) screwed up here remains, for me, to be established.
> Whether, again, the decision (if taken) is an 'affront to the whole
> continent of Africa' remains likewise problematic. Certainly it has
> not been imposed from outside the continent. The desire to hold the
> next WSF in Africa has, I believe, been urged on the IC by its
> African members and, I assume, its regional sub-committee. So, once
> again, the question should be addressed here also. I actually agree
> with COSATU that Morocco should be ruled out. Even if it can be
> claimed that the Moroccan partners of the WSF are not the state but
> civil society, it would seem unlikely that the state would allow
> open solidarity actions there with the people of Western Sahara. As
> for your last question: no one within the WSF or its outer circle
> of support wants to split the WSF. Someone or maybe some parties
> have screwed up big time. (I think they also screwed up in holding
> the last WSF in Nairobi. Here a whole series of contradictions came
> to a head. But it is not easy to find a suitable site in Africa
> right now).
>
> 10. (Not an answer but a statement). The whole structure,
> procedures, contents and history of the WSF is open to continual
> question and challenge. This is, in fact, invited, and welcomed.
> Indeed it is considered normal and necessary. Born under the sign
> of the new social movements and socially-committed NGOs, the
> achievements and survival of the WSF is something of a miracle. It
> has been a miracle of organisation and improvisation, operating
> with a considerable horizontality, participation, innovation and
> inspiration. The innovation, compared with the Communist-organised,
> state-controlled, World Youth Festivals (still frozen into Cold War
> discourse), or those of the Catholic Church, demonstrates today
> significant outlines of that other world called for in the
> brilliant slogan, 'Another World is Possible'. This slogan implies
> also, of course, that 'Another World Social Forum' or 'Another Type
> of World Social Forum' is also possible. Me, I think the WSF idea
> has to sharpen its anti-capitalist profile (it could decline into
> an instrument of global neo-Keynesianism), to go more local and to
> go more cyberspatial.
>
> Hoping that better-qualified others will better respond to your
> questions,
>
> Peter W.
>
> PS. I have a forthcoming report, concentrating on labour at Belem,
> but which deals with some of the more general questions surrounding
> the WSF. Maybe next week. It will be posted on or linked to the
> Debate site (it has footnotes!).
>
> Dominic Tweedie wrote:
>> Please, comrades, answer some questions about the World Social Forum
>> (WSF), and help me respond to these kinds of questions.
>>
>> What are the lines of accountability and responsibility in the WSF?
>>
>> Who are the leaders? Who are the equivalent people to "office-
>> bearers"
>> in the ANC, COSATU or the SACP?
>>
>> Does it have any legal corporate existence in any country or
>> countires?
>>
>> Is executive power confined to the arrangement of meetings? Or are
>> there publications? What publications are there?
>>
>> Does the WSF have a web site?
>>
>> Does the WSF have a media liaison officer or a spokesperson? If
>> so, who is it?
>>
>> Assuming the WSF gets money from donors, who are they? How much money
>> does each one give? Through what entities it is held and spent?
>>
>> Morocco's current status is that it is expelled from the AU. Meeting
>> in Morocco is an affront to the entire continent of Africa. Anybody
>> who takes part is compromised. Those who as a consequence do not go
>> will not have a voice. If somebody had wished to contrive a
>> cold-war-style split in this body, this would have been an obvious
>> way
>> to do it. Who wants to split the WSF and why?
>>
>> With thanks and best wishes,
>>
>> Domza, VC
>> _______________________________________________
>> DEBATE mailing list
>> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:DEBATE@debate.kabissa.org">DEBATE@debate.kabissa.org</a>
>> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate">http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate</a>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
>
>
>
> * 'Needed: A Global Labour Charter Movement', ESF Malmo Update:
> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.netzwerkit.de/projekte/waterman/gc">http://www.netzwerkit.de/projekte/waterman/gc</a>
>
> * 'Challenging Empires: The World Social Forum. (2nd Edition, 488
> pp). Ordering: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.blackrosebooks.net/wsf.htm">http://www.blackrosebooks.net/wsf.htm</a>
> * 'Back in the (Ex-) USSR': <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://zope2.netzwerkit.de/">http://zope2.netzwerkit.de/</a>
> RusRepLatest.pdf
>
> * 'Recovering Internationalism; Creating New Global Solidarity',
> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6439.html">http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6439.html</a>
> * 'Prague 1968: "Workers of the World, Forgive Me!"', <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://">http://</a>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.tni.org/archives/waterman/prague1968.pdf">www.tni.org/archives/waterman/prague1968.pdf</a>
> * 'A Union Internationalism for the 21stC', <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://">http://</a>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.plutobooks.com/cgi-local/nplutobrows.pl?chkisbn=9780745327563">www.plutobooks.com/cgi-local/nplutobrows.pl?chkisbn=9780745327563</a>
> * 'International Labour Studies in the UK’, in "Work Organisation
> Labour and Globalisation", Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 180-200. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://">http://</a>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.analyticapublications.co.uk/">www.analyticapublications.co.uk/</a>
>
> _______________________________________________
> DEBATE mailing list
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