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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Dear All, i put together a quick report of the IC that you might be interested in, please feel free to circulate it among those who might be interested (appended and attached)<br>
</span></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Ciao</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">giuseppe<br>
</span></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><br><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><br>
</span></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><b><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">International
Council of the World Social Forum </span></b></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><b><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Montreal
meeting 6<sup>th</sup><sup> </sup>to 8<sup>th</sup> October, 2010</span></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Giuseppe
Caruso</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
first day of the International Council (IC) meeting focused on
crucial issues of democratic import. How to evaluate the work of the
Liaison Group (LG) and how to set in place a process to replace, as
originally agreed, some of its members. Such task was set originally
as a concrete assurance to those who were concerned with the possible
(or indeed inevitable) concentration of power in such group. Today
these preoccupations were renewed and the members received clear
reassurances on the commitment of the LG and its members to the
values of the IC. The next crucial issues was how to replace some of
the members to generate the renewal desired and to allow an influx of
new energies and experiences. A proposal encountered the favour of
the members: a Working Group would be set in place that would
establish the Terms of Reference of such new process. This working
group will be constituted by 2 current LG members and three new IC
members. The group will report before the end of the meeting on the
outcome of its preliminary work. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
afternoon session focused on the conjuncture. In break out groups for
anglophones, francophones and portunholophones (due to translator's
constraints) some 20 to 30 members per group discussed the current
development of the global crises. After an hour of work the groups
returned to the plenary session were they reported back and a joint
debate followed. As in Rabat, at the previous IC meeting, the members
broadly converged on an assessment that defined the crisis as an
accumulation of interrelated crises that showed its structural and
systemic nature. The general crisis of capitalism shows its
multifaceted aspects as a crisis of values, civilisation, finance,
economy, culture and most importantly environment. On this latest
point the convergence seemed general that this crisis deserves the
utmost attention and indeed incisive action. If capitalist crises are
recurrent and their effects are forgotten too soon indeed, the
environmental devastation caused by the current lifestyle of a
minority of the planet's inhabitants is generating irreversible
consequences which may soon enough compromise the same ability of
humankind (and not only) to survive. A loud cry was raised by the IC
members to stop considering the environment only a sectoral struggle
engaged by the environmental activists and movements and indeed
consider it our common struggle for survival as humans. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">But
something new was to be clearly perceived in the mood of the
conversation, something indeed in stark contrast with the mood in the
previous meeting. If in Rabat the general mood was hopeful and
charged with expectation for the opportunity that the crisis offered
to the world activists to highlight the failures of capitalism and
propose a way ahead to building another world, in Montreal many
articulated analysis inspired by a more somber mood. The perception
was that the window of opportunity that had presented itself from
September 2008 is quickly closing and the activists might have lost
their chance to generate a substantial momentum for change.
Capitalism once more is bouncing back and the main 'talk in town' is
that of recovery and of the end of the crisis. A comparison was drawn
between the atmosphere of the G20 meeting in London and the recent
almost self-celebratory for the brilliant response provided to the
crisis by the world leaders of the G20 in Pittsburgh. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Why
did the activists of the world movements and of the WSF IC lose the
opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the
global crisis? No words were spared on the analysis of the possible
reasons but a degree of convergence was rather soon generated. The
global crisis is consequence of and has in turn consolidated a
systemic crisis of the global left. In the first instance the global
left has allowed capitalism to go unchallenged while implementing the
policies that generated the conditions for the current crisis and
after the crisis exploded was not able to incisively lead the way for
change. This crisis is so deep and structural that it has involved
the same WSF, inducing its IC members to questioning its role and its
current nature and possibilities to influence change. A common voice
responded to this painful cry that this analysis only depicts one
aspect of the crisis of alternatives. The WSF indeed has produced,
generated, incubated thousands of alternatives, it is indeed been a
constant generator of viable alternatives, but the movements that
were supposed to implement those alternatives have failed in their
ultimate task to promote that change. If a crisis exited it was not
to be considered a crisis of the WSF but a crisis of the movements
that converge in its space. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">What
has the forum and it's IC not done or done wrong to contribute as
some said to the crisis by not opposing neoliberalism in as a strong
way as it could have? The all time favourite debate in the WSF was
articulated once more around this crucial question with some members
suggesting that the main responsibility of the WSF is to be flexible
and able to respond to the needs of the movements which in the
current conjuncture is one of leadership. The WSF needs to evolve
from its open space identity, in which no representation and no
direct involvement in social change process is sought for, towards
becoming a more assertive actor in the global dynamics of resistance
to capitalism and for change. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
morning session of the second day was dedicated to list the events
that will constitute the 2010 year of activities around the world.
Among them the celebration for the 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the
WSF in Porto Alegre at the end of January, a social movement
challenge launched recently in Quito to the Global City Forum
organised by UN Habitat in Rio de Janeiro in March, the Unites States
SF in June in Detroit, followed shortly after by the ESF in Istanbul,
the Forum de las Americas in Asuncion, Paraguay in August, the Iraqi
Social Forum in November just to mention a few. Due to the extension
of the list and the possibility that this list is later updated with
dozen more events, it was debated to what extent the WSF can
associate itself with all the events who claim to be a social forum.
What, it was wondered, can the IC do to ensure that those events take
place in coherence with the spirit of the WSF rather than getting
unduly legitimation by the WSF endorsement? It was agreed after a
brief conversation that a strict adherence to the Charter of
Principles will be necessary and the practice of the open space
philosophy. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Following,
the conversation moved towards another crucial issue of the agenda,
earlier introduced in Rabat and now further developed. What can the
IC do to ensure some degree of continuity or indeed unity among all
the events that will bear the WSF torch around the world in 2010.
Indeed the metaphor of the Olympic torch was used and a common slogan
and a common logo are to be developed soon towards this aim. Small
groups of around eight to ten people worked to draft proposal for
possible slogans. A degree of convergence was discovered on returning
to the plenary on the spirit of urgency that the slogan should
communicate. Examples are Let's build another world now! Or Together
for another world now! The principle of plurality has been remarked
once more to avoid suggesting that this process should lead towards a
global campaign but to a multiplication of existing or new campaigns
in the spirit of the WSF. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">In
the afternoon of the second day Taoufik ben Abdallah presented in
detail the current work of the African and Senegalese organising
committee for Dakar 2011 and while sharing the excitement of all
involved it also did not hide the enormous challenges, financial and
human that such an endeavour implies. However he confirmed the
support of the Senegalese government and that of some old donors of
the WSF. Moreover, he stressed vigorously that a fundamental novelty
introduced by the Dakar forum will be the aggressive fundraising
strategy aimed at raising internal resources inn Senegal and Africa
to consolidate the ownership on the forum. This however has to be
considered a fully World SF rather than an African Social Forum. All
partners and all members of the IC should consider themselves at home
in the whole organising process. He added also some remarks on the
extent to which the whole year 2010 will be considered by the
organising committee a long mobilizing march towards Dakar 2011. This
process will be launched later this year with a seminar in Dakar to
which all IC members will be invited and where the inclusive
mobilization strategy will be highlighted by the participation of
important social movements from Senegal and wide range of partners
from the whole continent, old and new members of the WSF African
Council. This seminar will also give all the opportunity not only to
meet and design articulations for the year to come but also to
imagine a shared strategy on presenting the Dakar 2011 strategy to
respond to the crisis and develop alternatives from the vantage point
of West Africa. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Questions
were asked from the floor which echoed the congratulations for the
work already done and the wishes and promises of support for the hard
work ahead. What would be the relationship between NGOs and social
movements and will there be a strong prevalence of the formed as was
the case in Nairobi? What will be the role of culture in the event?
Will it be possible to maintain the WSF devoid of multinational
corporation encroachment? Will the Dakar forum be fully designed for
self-organised events or are the organisers thinking of setting up
special events and what would be the way to contribute to the
organisation of such events? What are the expected numbers in the
forecast of the organising committee? What would be the articulation
between IC commissions and functional groups in organising committee?
Would we have the chance as IC to reflect on the fundamental role of
migrations in the world today from the West African crossroads of
important fluxes of migrants? The members of the African process for
Dakar, responded to the questions reassuring that the organisation
will be conducted in full respect of the principles of the WSF
Charter and that the lesson learnt in Nairobi will become a solid
foundation on which to bring the new forum. For other more specific
issues the IC members were invited to actively contribute to shaping
the answers by participating in the efforts starting from the Dakar
forum in a month time which will officially launch the true
organisational process. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
first half of the third day was dedicated to the work of the IC
Commissions: Strategy, Resources, Communication, Methodology and
Expansion. In the first and longest session of the afternoon choral
reports were made by members of each commission. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
Communication committee presented first. Due to the intensity of the
conversation that had touched on issues not immediately related to
the task at hand (designing a communication plan for the 2010 year of
forums and for the mobilisation towards Dakar) the commission could
not complete its work and will meet again in the night. However the
presentation touched on crucial issues of communication in the forum
and with the outside and on the substantial issue of difference
between information work, with mainstream or alternative media, and
the communication that best embodies the values of the WSF. It was
indeed clear in the presentations made by several members of the
group that substantial ground had been covered on issues of
interpersonal relations in the commission's open space, on efficiency
and productivity versus faithfulness to the values embraced by its
members, on the nature of communication and its impact on the overall
methodology of the WSF year-long 2010 process and beyond, the role of
facilitators and contributors both directly involved in the work of
the group or from a wider territory of potential contributors to its
work, and on further issues of such import. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Next
presented the Resource Commission. The spokesperson of the group
updated the plenary on the finances of the forum and their allocation
for the year to come but most importantly it invited all to reflect
on the fundamental constraints that the forum has to be ready to face
in the years to come. These constraints are due to donor fatigue and
to the considerable loss in the value of their endowments that the
foundations of Europe and America have to face as a consequence of
the crisis. Moreover, some funders might also start revising their
funding policies and recalculate their costs and the benefits they
derive in the engagement with the forum. Although, was added by
another member, the forum cannot allow funders to lead its policies
and visions, yet donor constraints could give the forum some needed
focus. Indeed as someone noticed, the message that seemed to come
across from this presentation did resonate what previously reported
by the communication commission and by others during the whole
meeting: it might be useful to return to the central values of the
WSF and redesign a vision statement on the basis of a more
sophisticated strategy that could successfully be communicated to old
and prospective funders. This process may indeed facilitate focus
within the WSF as asked for by several members in the previous two
days, consolidate the position of the WSF with current funders and,
finally, entice new partners to join its journey to contribute
building another world. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
Expansion commission reported on process of accepting new members to
the IC on the basis of the application recently received (two of
which were accepted and two were postponed due to lack of information
on the applicants). The process of selecting the new candidate for
admission to the IC had also generated a lively conversation on
criteria for admission. Past contribution to the forum, future
potential input, regional relevance and sectoral balance were all
considered when assessing organisations that may have been excluded
if assessed on a stricter application of the guidelines of the
expansion commission. In particular if the Rabat work of the
commission focused on the indigenous sector, given the conversation
of the previous days, this time the commission suggested that extra
efforts were to be put in welcoming environmental organisations and
networks. It is also customary of the commission to set the date for
the following IC meeting, that was fixed for the 5<sup>th</sup> to
7<sup>th</sup> of May 2010 in Mexico City. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Next,
the methodology commission presented its work. Its ambitious and so
much needed work to create a compendium, a memory of the past
experiences of the forum in the 10 years since its inception, has and
will generate in the following months a set of documents among which
the compendium itself and a set of guidelines for future forums. At
the heart of the elaboration of the members the acute awareness that
methodologies are not ideologies and are context specific and cannot
simply be transported from one forum to the next. However, a spirit
is common to the WSF and that spirit was highlighted in their
presentation. A key issue that attracted particularly the attention
of the floor was that of the agglutination process by which the
commission facilitates the process of convergence of several
self-organised events into wider ones giving the possibility to
activist from different parts of the world working on similar issues
to share their experience and present more compelling cases to their
partners during the events. It was also suggested that the
fragmentation of the events does not necessarily extoll the
multiplicity of views of the forum but it may indeed generate a
feeling of chaotic confusion which is hard to navigate and therefore
disempowering both for organisers and participants. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">Intense
and identity searching debate took place in the Strategy commission
as well, as previously in the communication and resources
commissions. It was reported that the now clearly understood loose
mandate of the commission did not help to facilitate as fruitful a
conversation as it could have. Moments of confusions about what was
that the members were going to discuss generated moments of impasse
and the call to go back to the drawing board. The plenary heard that
in the next weeks a new set of guidelines will be drafted to guide
the work of the commission. At the same time a new questionary will
be circulated to the members of the IC so that they could contribute
to the analysis that will inform the strategy of the commission and
of the whole IC. </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="it-IT"><font size="3"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">The
questions of the questionnaire on which the members were asked to
reflect, were the following: </span></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><font size="3"><span lang="it-IT">What
is your analysis of the current crises? What are the possible
alternatives? </span></font><font size="3">What should the role of the
WSF be in such context? A further subject of conversation in the
commission was the organisation of an international day at the USSF
were the recurrent theme of the 2010 world forum events would see a
direct resonance in Detroit. Finally to help the strategic thinking
of the commission three new position papers will be circulated by the
facilitators on the issues of poverty, war and environment. T</font><font size="3"><span lang="it-IT">he
meeting ended with two brief presentations by the working group on
the 2010 forums and by the working group on the liaison committee.
Finally one of the organisers of the next meeting said few words of
welcoming to the next IC in Mexico City.</span></font></span></p>