51,000 meet at the World Social Forum in Brazil

By PETER BREWINGTON

Porto Alegre, Brazil-The World Social Forum closed today, February 5, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This event was initiated last year as an alternative to the World Economic Forum, an exclusive meeting of business and government leaders, held to discuss trade policies for the world. While the World Economic Forum met in a heavily fortified New York City, the World Social Forum, with the theme "A Different World is Possible," more than doubled in size this year with over 50,000 participants from every continent in the world. The World Social Forum was originally conceived to bring together diverse elements of civil society who are looking for practical alternatives to a failed neo-liberal model of globalization. 

Argentina offers a striking example of the devastating effects economic policies as now practiced can have on a country. According to many participants at the meeting in Brazil, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, institutions founded after the Second World War in a meeting at Bretton Woods, have outlived their usefulness. The search for more effective, just and democratic alternatives was a recurrent issue in the World Social Forum. The difficulty in simply trusting trans-national corporations (TNCs) to monitor themselves was another powerful concern of the meeting. Corporations have larger budgets than many national budgets, and are using their leverage and lack of accountability to maximize profit and efficiency at the cost of social unrest, poverty, the environment, and cultural heritage. The Forum exists to bring together diverse groups from across the world in a search of alternatives that would preserve our planet, people and resources in a sustainable and just manner. The need for new forms of democratic institutions was also widely discussed in Porto Alegre.

NAFTA benefits unclear
Lori Wallach, director of the Washington D.C. based Global Trade Watch (www.tradewatch.org), is a trade lawyer very concerned with the direction in which world economic policies are going. She discussed the changes occurring with the World Trade Organization, and how it is being used by moneyed interests to take on much more than just the trade of material goods. Also on the above website is a paper, in both English and Spanish, analyzing the concrete results after seven years under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). When you break down the numbers, it becomes clear that this agreement did not lift all boats as promised, and that real wages for workers have significantly decreased during the time of the agreement. This is important for Honduras because the FTAA, Free Trade Agreement for the Americas, is currently being negotiated, and it contains many of the same provisions in NAFTA. Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, attended both forums. She put out a call for "Ethical Globalization", pointing out that since globalization already is a reality, the main question is how will it proceed. She mentioned the need to include the extensive body of international human rights legal standards in any plans for globalization. As she pointed out, "We are one human family in a small and integrating planet. What alternatives have we but to promote respect, tolerance and solidarity among all of us? "The World Social Forum will be held in Porto Alegre again next year, at the same time as the World Economic Forum. Some experts, such as Walden Bello of the University of the Philippines, chose to attend the meeting in Porto Alegre instead of the meeting in New York. It appears a growing network of civil society interests are building common ground and common ideas to offer hope for a world looking at an uncertain future. To learn more about the World Social Forum you can visit these web pages:www.worldsocialforum.org, with information in English and Spanish www.ifg.org, the International Forum on Globalization, with many interesting articles www.commondreams.org, for articles and opinions from the alternative media www.fotei.org, Friends of the Earth International with many downloadable articles on this theme.

Central American, Caribbean summit held in Belize

On Tuesday, the first Presidential Summit of Central American and Caribbean countries (CARICOM), with the purpose of consolidating friendship, cooperation and solidarity between the two regions, took place in Belize City. Hosted by the President of Belize, Said Musa, presidents, vice-Presidents and prime ministers from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, San Cristobal, Santa Lucia, San Vicente, the Cayman Islands, Guyana and Surinam attended the summit. During the meeting, the leaders signed a cooperation declaration in which they promised to: continue implementing poverty reduction programs; increase cooperation in the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking; develop concrete action plans in the face of a slowing economy; augment efforts that assure the success of the objectives established by the Association of Caribbean States; support bilateral efforts that enhance air transportation services between the two regions; exchange information concerning disaster control and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The agreement also reiterated each governments condemnation of acts of terror as well as their efforts towards fighting corruption. In March, the Foreign Ministers of participating countries will meet to define an action plan that will put into practice strategies agreed upon. One of the primary, long-term objectives of the summit and strengthening cooperation is to pave the way for future negotiations concerning the creation of the Free Trade of the Americas Area in 2005.