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The Washington Peace Letter is published monthly for the social justice community of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Its purpose is to support local, national and international struggles against oppression. It seeks to present a radical analysis of current events, covering information not readily available in the corporate media.

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The World Social Forum and World Economic Forum
by Debi Kar

February 2002
Volume 39, Number 1

The World Economic Forum is set to take place in New York City from January 31 through February 4, and thousands plan protest this meeting of the world's financial elite. Many protesters also intend to participate in the numerous workshops that will take place around New York City that weekend which will take a critical look at the economic framework the Economic Forum operates within.
As the global elite plan out the world's economic future in New York, workers, activists and members of civil society will gather in Brazil to develop an alternative vision of how to achieve economic and social progress for all people. Local activist Debi Kar provides us with some background on these two events:

World Social Forum

The first World Social Forum was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2001, and was conceived of by the Worker's Party of Brazil and other Brazilian civil society organizations as a counter gathering to the World Economic Forum held for decades in Davos, Switzerland. The Social Forum stands for the ideals of people-centered globalization, with ÔAnother World is Possible!' as its battle cry.

The Social Forum will be held again this year in Porto Alegre. The Forum provides a space for social and environmental justice activists from all over the globe, North and South, to come together to share ideas, knowledge, tactics, and visions for this Ôother world' we are working together to create. There are workshops that place during the course of the Forum, mobilization committees that work together during and after the Forum, and preparatory sessions that take place throughout the year. During last year's Social Forum, there was even a televised debate between representatives of the World Social Forum and the World Economic Forum.

Walden Bello, Director of Focus on the Global South, put the difference between Porto Alegre and Davos this way: "Here in Porto Alegre, we are discussing how to save the planet. There in Davos, the global elite is discussing how to maintain its hegemony over the rest of us. In fact, the best gift that the 2000 corporate executives at Davos can give to the world is for them to board a spaceship and blast off for outer space. The rest of us will definitely be much better off without them."

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a gathering of the CEOs and top management officials of among the 1000 richest and most powerful corporations in the world, in addition to convening other members of the global political and financial elite. It was the brainchild of Professor Klaus Schwab, who called the first meeting in Davos, Switzerland in 1971. It started out as the European Management Forum, and over the years grew to include member corporations and representatives from all over the world, becoming the World Economic Forum in 1987. The Forum also facilitates regional economic summits that occur throughout the year.

The meetings involve strategy sessions and "wheeling and dealing" among the world's political and financial elite. January 2002 marks the first Economic Forum to be held outside of Davos - a major reason for the site shift being security concerns arising out of mass protests which took place at last year's Forum. Instead, the World Economic Forum will be held in New York City, and New York government and business are using the opportunity to pump revenue into their financial system.

The World Economic Forum represents another opportunity for the architects of corporate-led globalization to formulate plans of action that further the basis of neoliberalism, capitalism, and imperialism - adding to social and environmental destruction throughout the globe. As Bello states: "Porto Alegre is the future while Davos is the past. Hemingway wrote that the rich are different from you and me, and indeed, we live on two different planets: Davos, the planet of the superrich, Porto Alegre, the planet of the poor, the marginalized, the concerned."