The main aim is to develop regional dynamism while avoiding fragmentation. There is a definite risk of this in 2006, since by not having a single venue, there will not be the opportunity for campaigns and movements to exchange views and to discuss and define their priorities of action, just when the need to progress in defining collective action is felt to be most pressing...(read)
 

This article gives background on the decision to hold the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya's winning the bid was achieved by strong lobbying by some of its leading civil society figures, among them Wahu Kaara (All Africa Conference of Churches), Prof Edward Oyugi (Social Development Network - Kenya), Oduor Ongwen (SEATTINI)...(read)

The 6th WSF presents us with a challenge that was not planned for. In 2004, the frenetic rhythm of the « World Social Forum process » was opened up to debate within the International Council. A number of national and continental forums, as well as various campaigns and movements ... (read)
 

The necessary search for common actions and strategies needs to be carried out through creative and steady dialogue among the social movements themselves, by identifying common objectives, by creating the tissue of common propositions that value the identities of each and every subject involved, instead of repealing and diluting them...(read)
 

The WSF was conceived as a Forum that was not designed to lead or take decisions on behalf of movements, but rather to provide enabling conditions for movements to come together, exchange experiences and opinions, and forge alliances. The WSF space cannot and should not dictate to movements, nor should it force movements to take unified positions unless they are willing to do so. But the impatience to move forward is sometimes being translated into trying to make the WSF a body that takes decisions and positions on behalf of movements...(read)
 

In recent years, the popular struggles against neo-liberalism and imperialism in the Americas and in other parts of the World have generated a crisis of legitimacy for the neo-liberal system and its institutions. The most recent expressions of this are the defeat of the FTAA in Mar del Plata and the Agreement for a European Constitution in France and Holland. (read)
 

This book enhances the proposals, which were discussed and posted on the Proposals Wall at the WSF 2005 at Porto Alegre. It was published simulteaously in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French through a network of 23 publishers. (...)The book was not only inspired by the varied and interesting proposals made by the participants... (read)
 

This has been an important progression in the history of the forum, as it serves to expand access to the forum by making it easier for activists and civil society players to participate. The forum thus claims to "offer to progressive forces in Africa a very first opportunity, following to the huge range of popular resistances during ... (read)
 

The appeal involves promoting discussion and action on a series of points outlining major problems for humanity. These include the need to build a workers’ united front and to struggle against imperialist domination and U.S. military hegemony; the problems of peasant societies under threat of destruction from subsidized competition; democratic management of media and cultural diversity; and the struggle against neoliberal and market-driven policies...(read)
 

Many campaigners echoed comments by Eurodad and others that the debt deal reached last year is nowhere near enough. Demba Moussa Dembele of Forum des Alternatives, Senegal for example commented that the G8 initiative is currently cancelling just 15% of the debts of Sub-Saharan African countries.
 

At the close of the first World Social Forum in January 2001, its organizers circulated a memo in which they proposed to convene World Social Forums every year, at the same date as the Davos Economic Forum. In 2002, a new WSF was held in Porto Alegre, and the holding of other Forums in various places of the world was encouraged. It had become clear that, along with the success of the first edition of the Forum .
 

Dr Aminata Dramane Traoré is a Malian author and social activist. A former Minister of Culture and Tourism, she is one of the main organisers of the Malian Session of the World Social Forum 2006.
 

"The focus of the conference will be to criticise the neoliberal agenda. But that does not mean that the issues of HIV/AIDS and governance have been dropped; they will be discussed in a broader prospective," Meja told IPS. (The term neoliberalism describes a political and economic philosophy that rejects state intervention in the economy, and encourages limited restrictions on business.)