World Social Forum

Revitalization of the WSF as a space for new critical thinking and coordination of action

By Aram Aharonian: It is time to give way to new generations, to new critical thinking. The forum - virtual or face-to-face - should be the home of our movements, our youth, our women, of those who still play their lives daily for a new world for all.

The attempt by a group of facilitators, including several of its founders, to hold a new World Social Forum, perhaps in Mexico, pandemic through, as an open space for the coordination of actions in the common struggle for another world, almost two decades since the celebration of the first, in 2001 in Porto Alegre.

Without a doubt, the world is no longer the same. And it will not be the same as the last four months, Two decades ago, a letter of principles established the rules of the game, seeking that the meeting was a space for coexistence, debate, exchange of ideas, and not for dogmatic and / or fratricidal confrontation .

The organizers of this new WSF are aware that the rules of open space served for various interpretations -many of them dogmatic, others anchored in a past that no longer exists-, preventing it from becoming a global political subject, with the ability to interact with the world.

The recent call was to create a ‘space for action’ for a diverse and diverse group, not to propose programs of global scope or to impose political positions. Sadly, some responses to the appeal have been immobilizing self-reflection

New realities, new agenda

Almost two decades after the first forum, the fight for another possible world must have a new agenda. This world is in the midst of a crisis of the emerging fascism of financialized capitalism, whose objective continues to be the appropriation of the natural and financial resources of the emerging peoples and nations, in general by means of blockades, wars, invasions, genocides.

The security of capital over property, which guarantees the conditions for its reproduction, is one of the axes of the capitalist strategy, together with security against the irremediable loss of social cohesion, which implies domesticating the oppressed, prone to corruption. protest, rebellion, resistance.

A world that is on the verge of environmental collapse, where racism, patriarchy and, above all, inequality have grown, causing large migratory movements

To reshape the instrument, the political tool, we must first change the political culture of the left and / or progressivism and its vision of politics, which cannot be reduced to speeches, slogans, tweets, disputes for control of a parliament, win a bill or an election.

Politics cannot be limited to the art of the possible, but to do the impossible, feasible and essential, that is, to build social and political force capable of changing the correlation of forces in favor of the popular movement.

Political organizations must respect the autonomous development of popular force, abdicating any pretense of manipulation or imposition, hegemonic behaviors that generally try to impose arrogant academics and intellectuals, each one taking the score of their interests.

Today the demands of the popular field are not expressed in a forum (which, moreover, does not exist). Workers, unemployed, peasants, young people, women take to the streets in demand of something more than bread, peace and work: justice and a future.

Democratization

If the goal is to revive it, without a doubt it is necessary to democratize the structures and governance of the Forum, through open and participatory discussion, with a new roadmap (or Charter of Principles) and that is understood by those who make the new appeal.

Instead of a forum, several regional, thematic forums, With a new governance that takes into account new actors. It should also be an opportunity for new generations to comment on the roadmap, collectivize, socialize their discussion and not leave it only in the hands of a committee of notables.

We are living the pandemic. When it's over, the world will be different. It is time for new approaches, new ideas, new solutions, but above all new critical thinking, without ties to old dogmatisms.

Who are the true social actors? What will be the social subject of the post-pandemic? Can the agenda often anchored in a Europeanized or Oenegeized perspective be decolonized?

The appeal of the facilitators and founders should not be limited to the organization of another forum. A revival for nostalgic people or a tool for debate and coordination for action (or actions)?

It is time to give way to new generations, to new critical thinking. The forum - virtual or face-to-face - should be the home of our movements, our youth, our women, of those who still play their lives daily for a new world for all.

The first thing we must democratize and citizenship is our own head, reformatting our hard drive. The first territory to be liberated must be the 1,400 cubic centimeters of our brain. Maybe learn to unlearn, so that we can start rebuilding. Simón Rodríguez, Bolívar's teacher, said: Either we invent or we err.

Aram Aharonian: Journalist and communication scientist, born in Uruguay, with vast experience in Latin America. Master in Integration. Creator and founder of Telesur, he chairs the Foundation for Latin American Integration (FILA) and directs the Observatory on Communication and Democracy and the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE)