What happened at the Fourth World Social Forum (WDF) in Mumbai, India?
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A summary of events and issues at the Fourth World Social Forum (WDF) in Mumbai, India held from January 16-21, 2004.
By Janice Duddy 2) What were the experiences of AWID staff at the WSF? AWID had the opportunity to send Lydia Alpizar, Program Coordinator, Feminist Organizational Development and Ann Elisabeth Samson, Senior Researcher, Gender Equality and New Technologies to the Fourth World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai. I recently had the opportunity to ask them about their experiences at the WSF. By Janice Duddy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) What happened at the Fourth World Social Forum (WDF) in Mumbai, India? A summary of events and issues at the Fourth World Social Forum (WDF) in Mumbai, India held from January 16-21, 2004. By Janice Duddy The Fourth World Social Forum (WSF) opened in Mumbai, India on January 16th and ran until January 21st. Rallying under the banner "Another World is Possible" the WSF seeks to provide a space for discussing alternatives, for exchanging experiences, and for strengthening alliances between social movements, unions of the working people, and NGOs. Some have argued that hosting the WSF in India has had an irreversible impact on the WSF. As Marwaan Macan-Markar from the Inter Press Service News Agency points out, "India's hosting of the just-finished World Social Forum (WSF) has left an indelible mark on the body politic of this annual meeting, still nascent and without peer on its fourth year but now also facing growing-up pains. By the end of the Jan. 16-21, 2004 jamboree, it was clear that the grim reality provided by the Indian setting - the glaring gaps between rich and poor seen right at the WSF venue, the huge participation of marginalised groups ranging from the Dalits or untouchable caste to sex workers, brought many WSF veterans face to face with the issues that they say they have been fighting for" (http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipsnews.net%2Finterna.asp%3Fidnews%3D22042). The focus of the most recent WSF was debating the following issues: imperialist globalization; patriarchy; militarism and peace; communalism - religious sectarianism and fundamentalism; and casteism & racism - oppression, exclusion and discrimination based on descent and work. More than 150,000 people from 130 countries participated in this years WSF. It is significant that patriarchy was a focus of this WSF. For feminists, the issues of patriarchy, gender equality, and women's rights are obvious issues for discussion at a globally meeting dedicated to the fight against globalization and neoliberalism. However, it proved to be a long struggle by feminists to get these issues on the agenda. As Carol Barton, from the Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice (WICEJ), explained in Friday File no. 157 the groups that were involved in ensuring a coordinated feminist presence at the 2004 WSF were Articulacion Feminista Marcosur; DAWN; FEMNET in Africa; INFORM, which is the only local group and is based in Sri Lanka; ISIS International; The National Network of Autonomous Women’s Groups in India, and WICEJ. With over 140 feminist events planned at the WSF these feminists leaders proved to be successful in lobbying for an increased feminist presence at the WSF. (To view a list of the feminists events at the WSF please visit the ISIS web site at: http://www.isiswomen.org/onsite/wsf/womenevents.html) Les Pénélopes states, "the five-day event in itself is only the final manifestation of a long process of mobilisation - at the local levels, national levels, and regional levels. Having followed the process from the beginning one can note that feminists have more and more, both at national and global level, identified this process and the spaces created within the alternative globalisation movement as one of the most important arenas to take action" (http://www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xarticle.php3?id_article=813). In addition to the feminist events held at the WSF there was a two-day strategizing meeting held prior to the opening of the WSF called "Feminist Dialogues: Building Solidarity". This meeting provided an opportunity for leaders in the women's movement to reflect upon and discuss some key issues challenging women's movements globally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2) What were the experiences of AWID staff at the WSF? AWID had the opportunity to send Lydia Alpizar, Program Coordinator, Feminist Organizational Development and Ann Elisabeth Samson, Senior Researcher, Gender Equality and New Technologies to the Fourth World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai. I recently had the opportunity to ask them about their experiences at the WSF. By Janice Duddy Lydia Alpizar: JD: You participated in the Feminist Dialogue at the WSF. Do you feel that this was a successful event? What do you feel were the important outcomes from this event? LA: Yes, I think it was a successful event, considering the short timeframe and resources they had to organize it. I think the idea is to have this event every year, just before the World Social Forum. I think the women's movement internationally lacks spaces where people from different regions can sit down face-to-face and have strategic discussions about key issues in terms of the strategies, approaches, and implications of what we do. I think the Feminist Dialogue is an important initiative that provides a venue to do this. The very fact the dialogue was organized and had participation from feminists from different regions of the world, is a success in itself. Now that there is more time to prepare for the next Social Forum, I would hope that more women will be able to participate, especially, women who come from different regions and represent the diversity of the movement (in terms of issues, ethnic groups, strategies, approaches, sexual orientations, ages, genders, etc.). I think one of the most important outcomes of the dialogue is the learning and listening that took place during the two days. I think we have a long way to go in terms of understanding each other's realities, this was evidenced in the way we used certain terms and concepts, the priorities of our struggles in different regions, etc. In order to find alternatives to corporate globalization and all its expressions we have to come up with strategies as a movement at the international level, understanding each others realities is a very important step in that direction. I think this dialogue represent a venue where those kind of discussions can take place. JD: Do you feel that this event helped to consolidate the feminist presence at the WSF? LA: The focus of the event was not the WSF. I think activities organized by women and particularly by feminists, were already in place when we arrived to the dialogue. We did not have a lot of time to discuss the WSF during the dialogue. So, I guess it did have some impact in the forum, but I do not think it went that far as to consolidate feminist presence at the WSF. Although, I think some really good panels and events organized by feminist, for example the dialogue among movements organized by Indian women's organizations, was one of the very important and interesting activities of the WSF. JD: Do you feel that there was an adequate active feminist presence at the WSF? LA: Yes, but we need to have more women's voices and we need to ensure that women are a major presence at the forum as a whole. We probably need to have better coordination among the dozens of events organized by women during the WSF. Women who went to previous forums said, this forum had a larger feminist presence. One outstanding event was "Women against Wars, Wars against Women", held in the largest space at the forum. I think the fact that one of the major events of the forum was focused on women is positive. However, I think we need to engage more in dialogue and analysis with other movements present at the forum. That is something I would like to see happening more. JD: Do you feel that the WSF is a good environment for the feminist movement to connect with one another and to start to influence other social movements? LA: Yes, definitely. As I said, the dialogue among movements was a very good space to do that. I think the diversity of movements and organizations present is one of the most interesting and largest potentials of the WSF. So yes, I think it is an ideal place to sit down and have major discussions with key actors that are part of the movement for social justice. We need to push and influence other movements, to encourage them to pick up our agenda, to work within their movements and organizations to eradicate discrimination and violence against women (VAW) for example. But, we can also, as part of the women's movement, benefit from the experiences, practices and approaches used by other movements in their struggle. I think women have tried to build bridges and connect with other movements, but much more could certainly be done. JD: What were some of the highlights of the WSF for you, especially in terms of your position of AWID's Program Coordinator for the Feminist Organizational Development (FOD) theme? LA: At the WSF it was possible to talk and interview feminist from different regions about different issues related to FOD, for example, how do they define FOD? What are the most important issues that a program like FOD should be dealing with? What kind of projects and actions could we promote? It was a great opportunity to get ideas and some feedback, in this stage of building up the FOD program. Also, there were some interesting events, as I mentioned before: the dialogue among movements is a highlight, because one of the issues that we want to reflect and act on in the FOD program, is how the women's movement could link up, build alliances, and work together with other movements. In that sense, the format and facilitation of this particular event was a good example of a way to promote the creation of spaces to allow us to come closer to each other and learn about each other visions and proposals. Another highlight was the possibility to make contacts and meet feminist from different regions, people that I will be contacting further, as we build the program. Also, the ability to be part of a dialogue among feminist from different regions was excellent. It was a very informative experience, in terms of locating some of the difficulties that we, as feminist, have understanding each other while highlight the need to continue building safe spaces to come up with common globalized strategies to challenge neoliberal globalization, war, and fundamentalisms. Ann Elisabeth Samson: You participated in the Feminist Dialogue at the WSF. Do you feel that this was a successful event? What do you feel were the important outcomes from this event? The feminist dialogue was a space organized to bring feminists from around the world together to discuss and strategize around current pressing issues, particularly as they related to the world social forum. This was an interesting and informative process, and of course showed how difficult international organizing can be, given people coming from different contexts, language difficulties, and limited time and resources. However, it was a great space, especially for someone relatively new to this kind of work, to meet people and learn more about different perspectives and the unique challenges faced by women's rights activists in different parts of the world. I particularly appreciated the opportunity to connect with the Indian women and learn more about what they are doing, what the political situation is in India, and what local issues would be informing the WSF. Do you feel that this event helped to consolidate the feminist presence at the WSF? In a way, yes. It was good to be able to get in touch with other feminists and learn about the upcoming events at the WSF in order to better plan what sessions I would attend and how I wanted to use my time at the WSF. JD: Do you feel that there was an adequate active feminist presence at the WSF? AES: I'm not sure what we mean by "adequate". There were many women at the WSF, and I was particularly impressed by the presence of women in other Indian social movements. All of the Indian groups at the WSF seemed to have a huge number of women. Also, the major plenaries definitely had feminist and gender perspectives included in them. However, this is not to say that I think we can not do better. There is certainly room for more collaboration and organization between different social movements. An addition point of consideration is that in many of the large feminist sessions there were very few non-feminist attendees. I think we still need to do much better in this area. JD: What were the events that AWID co-sponsored at the WSF? AES: AWID's Gender Equality and New Technologies program co-sponsored three events at the WSF about new human genetic technologies. We put together these events with several other groups--one of them being the Center for Genetics and Society (www.genetics-and-society.org) based in the US. We organized three sessions: "Emerging Reproductive and Genetic Technologies: An Overview of the Politics and Policies;" "Genetic Technologies, Corporate Power, and Globalization: From Crops to Humans;" and "Sex Selection, Gender Equality, and Human Genetic Technologies." For me, the most exciting part of all of these sessions was the richness of the content, which we accomplished by collaborating with other organizations. For the first two, we included environmentalists, speaking from their experience with GM crops and applying the lessons they have learned to the promises of the new human genetic technologies. On each panel, AWID represented the specific gender issues related to the new human genetic technologies. Combined with the environmental perspective and the more general focus on the dangers of the technologies themselves, we were able to develop a cohesive and rich picture of these technologies, both in the North and South and from feminist and not-specifically-feminist perspectives. This was an incredible lesson for me in collaborating with different social movements in such a way that our analysis and content is enriched by working together. The third event we co-sponsored was related to sex selection, which is a very important topic right now in India. We discussed the current situation in India with the use of ultrasound, amneocentisis, and sex selective abortion as well as what the new technologies offer in terms of the kind of social sex selection that is so prevalent already in India. We also included Dr. Anita Ghai, a wonderful feminist and disability rights activist from India, to talk about other kinds of "selection" and the relationship between selecting for sex and disability, particularly in India. Again, by having different perspectives on this issue, the seminar was much more interesting and useful for it. JD: How have these events contributed to the discuss of the gender equality and new technologies? AES: These events reaffirmed for me the importance of thinking about technologies when we think about women's rights. In addition, it is more obvious from my attendance at the WSF the vast numbers of technologies and issues which this might encompass. I also attended events related to sustainable energy, GM foods, agricultural technology, militarization and weapons, and information and communication technologies and the media. All of these play important roles in the lives of women everywhere and we must think about all of them. JD: Was the WSF a fertile environment for advancing talks on gender and new technologies? AES: The WSF is a fertile environment for talking about many things. In fact, it might be too fertile in the sense that there are so many interesting sessions to attend and booths to see that it is very difficult to allocate your time and energy while there. The WSF is a great place to meet new people and to learn, and so in that respect it is definitely an important event for networking and also for moving analysis forward. ---------------------------------------- RESOURCE NET is brought to you by The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). Announcements posted on this discussion list do not necessarily reflect the opinion of AWID, but are meant to provoke thought, generate solutions and inspire action. This list is only open to members of AWID. You can become a member at www.awid.org/membership.html. 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