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A moment, not a movement: the World Social Forum 2004.

Article Excerpt
The air resonated with the sounds of bells, drums, chants and songs; throats were lined by dust; hands were crammed with pamphlet upon pamphlet; and vision was filled with posters, flags, banners and placards as thousands of activists converged for the opening of the World Social Forum (WSF). Those contemptuous of the differences between the many groups who oppose corporate globalisation and war would have been at their most scornful as an array of rallies criss-crossed and dovetailed into one another in what was indeed a 'world of many worlds'. Unionists, farmers, fisher folk, sex workers, transgender campaigners, peace activists, women's organisations, environmentalists, Dalit groups and those opposing communal violence came together in ah endless milieu of opposition to exploitation in its innumerable forms--patriarchal, racial, ethnic, economic, environmental--giving life to the exclamation 'Another World is Possible!'

Held between 16 and 21 January 2004, this was the fourth World Social Forum and the first outside of Porto Alegre in Brazil, where it has been held annually since 2001. As a precursor to holding the WSF here in Mumbai, the Asian Social Forum was held in Hydrebad in 2003 and was attended by over 20,000 people from 840 organisations. In preparing for the World Social Forum, the Indian General Council was made up of some 200 organisations, and the Indian Organising Committee of 57 persons. The event was attended by approximately 100,000 participants and, as in Brazil, the majority of participants were people from the immediate region.

The relationship between place and event is an important theme in the campaigns and movements that contest neo-liberal globalisation, and the shift to Mumbai in India is a critical development in the WSF process. The city was chosen not only for its massive size and good transport connections, but also because it is seen...