By Irudya Jothi
Salvador: More than 10,000 delegates from different parts of the world, including India, are attending the World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil from March 13 to 17.
The motto of WSF 2018 is to “Resist is to Create, to Resist is to Transform” pointing to the need for alternatives for another possible world.
The WSF is the largest summit held by non-governmental organizations, civil society and religious leaders working to create a more sustainable and equitable world.
A few delegates from India also are attending the event at Salvador, Bahia.
More than 1,000 activities are lined up in order to discuss on solidarity with many other groups from around the world.
It is a meeting to share concerns and explore effective responses to a range of issues – globalization, ecology, sustainability and actions against human trafficking, trade relations of nations, extractives industries and indigenous people’s rights.
The WSF welcomes people, organizations, social movements, networks, platforms of movements, and organizations from across the globe that are sensitive to civil society’s primary areas of concern with regards to globalization (social development, solidarity economy, human rights, feminist struggle, democratization, racism, and (de)colonization.
The WSF tries to find solutions to the problems of the time. Started in 2001 in Brazil, the WSF brings together in each of its edition tens of thousands of participants to more than a thousand activities (workshops, conferences, artistic performances) on various themes (social, solidarity economy, environment, human rights, and democratization).
In the midst of many setbacks, loss of rights, democratic guarantees, and freedoms throughout the world, the WSF would reflect on the common solutions for humanity, in a solidarity, democratic perspective, respect for diversity, to face the causes of various forms of violence, social and regional inequalities.
The WSF is an open meeting space for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the earth.
Democratic and popular forces have been revaluating their strategies in the latest historical period, reassessing mistakes, achievements and necessary corrections. Therefore, an edition of the WSF in Salvador will be an important opportunity to meet the various experiences of resistance and proposals to face authoritarian thinking in Brazil and in the World.
The last WSF was held in Montreal, Canada, August 9 – 14, 2016. The previous WSFs took place: 2001 -2003, 2005 Porto Alegre (Brazil), 2004 Mumbai (India), 2006 Bamako (Mali), Caracas (Venezuela) and Karachi (Pakistan), 2007 Nairobi (Kenya), 2009 Belem (Brazil), 2011 Dakar (Senegal), and 2013, 2015 Tunis (Tunisia).