WSF 2007 in Africa:
The Last WSF or the First of a New
Stage?
The World Social Forum 2007 will be held
in Nairobi, Kenya, from January 20 to 25, 2007. (The Davos Forum
will take place from January 24 to 28.) A Kenyan Organization
Committee has been set up. It will be supported by an East African
Committee. The Conference Center in Nairobi has already been
reserved. The surrounding park and the nearby university are also
available. All of the Forum venues will be located right in the
center of Nairobi in territorial continuity.
The WSF 2007 in Nairobi could be a
participatory and popular event. It could be the first major
demonstration of African civil society since the fights for
independence. Estimates range from 50 to 100 thousand participants
in Nairobi in January 2007, 20 thousand of which would be Africans
from outside of Kenya and 10 thousand from outside of Africa.
Social Forums constitute significant
civil-society assemblies. They certainly do not cover the totality
of citizen initiatives fighting for a world in solidarity at the
beginning of this century, but they can contribute to the emergence
of a global community, and have done so. In this perspective, ever
since the very first WSF, in January 2001, Allies have insisted on
the need to go beyond the mere protest dimension, which although
indispensable, is insufficient to open the roads to new
alternatives.
Consequently, they have always
underscored the tools and methods needed to visualize the proposals
resulting from the many self organized activities and to draw
strategic perspectives from them collectively.
Social Forums, the local and regional
ones in particular, are the illustration of the extension and
rooting of this dynamics, but its extension to new actors and new
regions where it is practically unknown (China, Russia, Middle East,
Central Asia, etc.) is not easy.
If the process succeeds in extending to
regions and spheres that are practically absent from it, and if the
new ideas manage to find ways to move forward, especially if
promoted by young and new players, the Social Forum process will
continue to open paths so that not only the “alterglobalization
movement,” but also all citizens can make each other stronger in
pressing forward with their fights and proposals. Otherwise, this
experience will be limited to an experience, generous but powerless
in helping citizens to take up the challenges of this early
century.
The WSF 2007 in Africa could then be the
last World Social Forum or the one that will contribute to
re-energize civil society’s momentum and continue to make this event
an essential pillar of global citizenship in this early century.
Gustavo Marin
http://www.alliance21.org/2003/article.php3?id_
article=1316
