This
Is What Democracy Looks Like
Special
dispatch by Kenny Bruno to Corporate Watch January 28, 2001
"Um outro
mundo é possível."-- Another world is possible.
Porto Alegre, Brazil -- That's the slogan of the World Social
Forum underway here. Or, as they said in Seattle, "This is what democracy
looks like."
While thousands chanted that slogan in Seattle, Washington D.C., Chiang
Mai, Melbourne and Prague, they were being tear gassed, preemptively
arrested, harassed and generally denied their rights by an enormous
show of state force on behalf of undemocratic international institutions.
In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: During a march of
thousands against neo-liberalism I counted 10 police officers. When
200 Brazilian anarchists broke off from the march to throw white paint
on a McDonald's, about six police stood by. The next day, an ex-cop
explained it this way, "We police were instructed to form partnerships
with the social movements."
By comparison Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is
meeting this week, has become a fortress. Porto Alegre is an appropriate
setting for the World Social Forum, while authorities have shut down
the roads to Davos, deported activists, and banned marches. In Porto
Alegre, the Governor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, gave the opening
speech. In fact, his government was a major funder of the Forum. In
Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: Hundreds of young people
are camping nearby - apparently without ever sleeping -- virtually without
police presence. This is what democracy looks like: Participatory budgeting.
For 12 years, Porto Alegre´s budget has been decided made by hundreds
of well-organized community and worker groups.
This is what democracy looks like: There is no corporate sponsorship
of the World Social Forum. No ads telling us how sustainable Shell is,
or how clean Dow is, or how concerned for the poor Philip Morris is.
No Nike swooshes. Just a few banners for the national bank of Brazil,
saying "It's better because it's ours." The most ubiquitous logo around
is that of the Workers' Party, on flags everywhere.
In Porto Alegre, this is what democracy looks like: Lots of meetings
and lots of talking. The humid rooms, over-packed with people, listening
for the umpteenth hour to plans to stop new free trade agreements and
models for local economic democracy.
This is what democracy looks like: There are lots of unionized workers
present. The state of Rio Grande do Sul has twice as many union members
as the national average.
This is what democracy looks like: The entire state of Rio Grande do
Sul has been declared GMO-free, although some Roundup Ready soy has
been smuggled in from Argentina, according to one knowledgeable government
official from Brasilia.
Two days ago activists traveled with French farmer/activist Jose Bove
four hours out of Porto Alegre to tear up a few illegal acres of Monsanto's
Roundup Ready Franken-soy. The World Social Forum is the first significant
post-Seattle gathering where the goal is not to disrupt the meetings
of undemocratic institutions, in what has become a series of traveling
protests. Rather it is a space for activists to think, talk and imagine
another world -- a more just, democratic world.
The anti-corporate globalization movement has come to "an important
stage in the counter-offensive that began in Seattle," says Walden Bello,
Executive Director of Thailand-based Focus on the Global South. Naturally,
the rhetoric of democracy in Porto Alegre cannot be transferred everywhere,
especially not to the U.S. In the opening ceremony, during introductions
of the 120 countries represented by delegates, Cuba received the loudest
ovation, while the U.S. and Israel got a smattering of boos. There is
occasionally a flavor of old-style leftism that sounds irrelevant to
most U.S. ears. And, as one should expect in a gathering as large and
diverse as this one, there are significant differences of opinion on
policy and strategy. For example, some participants are working to incorporate
social and environmental clauses into the WTO, others insist there must
be no new round of the WTO. Nevertheless, the overall feeling here is
of fresh air coming into the debate over globalization, especially compared
with the stale rhetoric in Davos.
From Porto Alegre, the concept that a gathering of the rich and powerful
is the answer for the poor and dispossessed, that the World Economic
Forum has somehow transformed itself into a global poverty program,
seems too absurd to bother debunking. Yet neither is the Social Forum
a poverty program. And that is one of most refreshing aspects of the
gathering. It is not about money. It's not about growth, "sustainable"
or otherwise. It's not even really about development -- a concept that
has perhaps been hopelessly perverted by institutions like the World
Economic Forum and the World Bank.
Still, economic issues are prominent in the discussions here. Rather
the Forum is about democracy. Not the democracy that comes from more
money and therefore more choices of things to buy, but rather the democracy
of participation in local and society-wide economic decisions. This
is the democracy that corporate globalization gazes so harshly on. Even
the most ardent supporters of the current form of globalization acknowledge
that it is a web of powerful and unaccountable forces. They say the
best we can do as individuals and as nations, is to prepare ourselves
to flourish in this lightening-fast, hyper-competitive world, grabbing
what we can for ourselves -- mobility, wealth, markets, computers. The
folks here would not be interested in this individualistic and competitive
vision of society, even if the powerful institutions controlling globalization
were to reduce the inequities and provide a safety net for those left
out. There are many challenges for the World Social Forum. Midway through
the gathering, participants had not decided where, when and if there
will be another one (it seems likely). Nor had they settled on producing
a statement or manifesto (it seems unlikely). Activists must stay alert
to the cooptation of our language and ideas by the World Economic Forum,
by the WTO and World Bank. We must improve the democratic process within
the Social Forum -- to include more students, more non-Brazilians, more
indigenous people, and others. We must make sure to keep the momentum
that started with the explosion in Seattle. Seattle was the pivotal
moment in the first plank of this complex movement -- protest and resistance.
Porto Alegre will, I believe, come to be seen as an important step in
moving forward the second part - innovation and alternatives. It is
important that many protestors have gone to Davos to continue to expose
the injustice of the World Economic Forum. But I'm glad I came to Porto
Alegre. As Walden Bello, a veteran of Davos meetings, says, "Davos is
the past. Porto Alegre is the future." And the present is a collective
dream of the thousands gathered here: Um outro mundo é possível.
Kenny Bruno is a Corporate Watch Research Associate.
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