*Unless you're Brazilian, that is.
http://www.ips.org/TV/wsf/this-world-is-impossible/
"Since 2001, the WSF has generated giant expectations with its debates, ideas, and proposals, all oriented towards its ultimate goal and motto: “Another World is Possible.”
"The last decade has been one of the most turbulent and full of change in the history of the world. When it began, the world was still in the grips of neo-liberal ideology, the Washington Consensus was considered a near-religious commandment, the massively-expanding world of finance was suffocating the real economy, all culminating in the assertion that a response to the catastrophic acceleration of climate change should be entrusted to market forces and free enterprise.
"The hegemony of Washington was so crushing that it was able to make the world accept its warped allegation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction -even after this had been proven untrue- and on that basis invade the country with a handful of allies, marginalising the UN in the process.
"Throughout this period the forums provided more than a source of denunciations, resistance, and mobilisation. They generated a clear and cogent argument that extreme liberalisation, blind faith in the market as the guardian of the economy, and the rejection of all regulation, especially of the financial groups up to their necks in speculation, would speed the world towards planetary disaster.
This is precisely what happened, though many people outside the initial forums rejected these warnings, which they dismissed as naive or mere vapours of ideological extremism. (((Or maybe they rejected them because they were arguments instead of actual policies.)))
"This decade has provided a vigorous confirmation of both the critique and the premise that inspired the World Social Forum: that “This World is Impossible.” This is why another world is possible – and necessary. ((("This World is Impossible." Yep, that's some rallying cry.)))
"However, while the former is indisputable, in terms of the latter, conditions are more favourable than even before, though certainly the path is not clear to bring about the changes and reforms needed to make the world better, more just, more safe, and more sustainable.
"In other words, if civil society doesn’t provide firm resistance and demand real and profound changes, this giant crisis might result in nothing more than a restoration conveniently devised to maintain the basic elements of the current system for the long term. (((Kinda like ten years of hard work by the World Social Forum. You think the Tea Party is gonna take ten tedious years to exacerbate a giant crisis? No way!)))
"It is instructive to study what happened after the Great Depression that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929. To overcome this crisis, president Roosevelt in his New Deal introduced numerous changes, like the law that separates commercial banks from investment banks, and limits on financial exposure, among others.
"With these changes, the system survived for more than fifty years until, in the 1980s, a process of reversal began which culminated during the second term of president George W. Bush in the global depression, which is its predictable and tragic consequence.
"The dilemma facing the Dakar Forum (((yes, they're in Dakar this year))) and certain to face those that follow is this: how can we make sure that the epic financial dysfunction that was diagnosed and predicted to implode will lead not to a return to business as usual but rather to the introduction of the changes that it requires?
"From our point of view, this message should reach all civil society in order to spur it to mobilise and become a real engine of pressure. The main obstacle is the fact that the media have thus far have not been receptive to the forum. Thus the battle over information should now be given top priority. (((As opposed to, like, getting leftists elected to office or something.)))
"This battle should be fought not only in the conventional media. By fortunate coincidence, the Dakar forum is taking place immediately after the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. (((Neither of whom have ever heard of the World Social Forum, but never mind.))) Both countries were ruled by dictatorships, the press was mostly controlled by the government with few independent media, while opposition parties lacked influence and importance, as is usually the case in authoritarian systems.
"Apparently everything was under control. But the opposition, sometimes virulent, was alive and it was a majority. Lacking political freedom and media that reflect their views, civil society was waiting for its chance and adopted its own means of communication, the Internet as well as more direct channels.
"This is exactly the way the WSF came about, as a social network unconnected to political parties or economic or religious interests.
"For this reason, the winds blowing from North Africa carry a lesson and stimulus for the Dakar meetings. Above all they confirm the strategies of the forums, which were born of and work in the heart of civil society in order to promote and introduce bottom-up change, the only kind that really changes the world...."
