Social Forums and Social Change
By Quinlan Bowman
January 2005
Volume 41, Number 1
The World Social Forum (WSF) is a newly-created venue that strengthens
existing activist networks while facilitating the emergence of new ones.
The Social Forum was designed as an educational space where non-governmental
groups could meet to engage in democratic debate, exchange information,
and make concrete proposals for action on the many issues of globalization.
In using social forums as venues for discussion, debate, and reflection,
the goal is to awaken people to the feasibility of social change.
The emergence of the WSF has generated many regional and local social
forums. Since 2001, when the first WSF was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
local and regional forums have proliferated. By 2002 the movement
had spawned approximately 250 new local forums in cities and towns
throughout Italy. Asian, European, Middle Eastern, African and Pan-Amazonian
regional social forums have also been created.
In the fall of 2003, I conducted field research on London-based
groups in the second European Social Forum (ESF). One NGO member said
the ESF provides his organization with the opportunity to create new
campaign alliances and to make contacts with similar organizations.
Furthermore, he finds the ESF useful as a tool for judging the effectiveness
of other organizations' work, which in turn helps his group orient
its own work. He noted that the social forums have become a "global
reference point" for many activists and are viewed as valuable
educational and organizing tools.
A member of a large union was similarly positive about his organization's
experiences with the ESF. He pointed out that policies affecting many
unionists are increasingly formulated at a global level, so the need
to coordinate with unionists in other countries has dramatically increased.
Another unionist offered a similar appraisal of the forum. She emphasized
the sense of unity and solidarity that social forums have created,
noting that the ESF has both revitalized life-long activists and created
new ones. Those whom I interviewed consistently stressed the role
of social forums in bringing together individuals and organizations
who have historically struggled in working with one another for tactical
reasons.
Many activists I spoke to also emphasized the role that social forums
played in mobilizing the peace and justice community for the 2003
global day of protest of the Iraq War. This mobilization was initially
proposed at the first ESF in Florence, and then went on to be planned
at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.
Social forums are not without their problems, of course. In July
I attended a New England regional social forum held in Boston where
several of the forum's organizers mentioned challenges that currently
face the movement. One organizer pointed out that despite the efforts
of social forums to attract as diverse a set of participants as possible,
grassroots participation - as opposed to the participation of grassroots
organizers - was still terribly lacking. He proposed that it is necessary
to resolve this imbalance if the social forum movement is to progress
effectively.
As advocates for peace and justice, it is foolish for us to focus
solely on what we want to change without knowing how to get there.
The urgent task that faces us is to develop educational spaces that
encourage the creation of similar strategies, common analysis, and
solidarity within the movement. At present, despite the challenges
facing them, social forums are the proper venue for furthering these
aims.
References:
William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah, eds., Another World is Possible
(Nova Scotia: Fernwood, 2003), 13.
Pierluigi Sullo, "Social Forums Italian-style," Red Pepper,
November 2003.