Daniel Merli
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The 6th World Social Forum is expected to mark the emergence of a new cause. In its American edition, which begins next week in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the Forum will be the launching pad of a campaign to prevent the privatization of water supplies. "We plan to initiate a continental mobilization to remove water from all trade agreements," says Pablo Sólon, director of the Sólon Foundation, a civil society organization responsible for the mobilization that produced the law reversing the privatization of petroleum and gas in Bolivia.

According to the Bolivian activist, various Latin American movements have decided to oppose the inclusion of water-related clauses in Free Trade Agreements like the one signed between Chile and the United States. "We also want water supplies to be eliminated from the negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO)," Sólon remarked.

Sólon argues that, by determining that countries cannot impose barriers against private investments in the sector, these agreements attempt to turn water into a product like any other. In his view, this commercial logic runs counter to the idea that water is a universal right to be guaranteed by the State.

The Forum represents the chief gathering of civil society to discuss the struggle for the democratization of politics and the economy. The 6th World Society Forum introduces an innovation in that it will take place, nearly simultaneously, on three different continents. In the previous versions, the Forum was held four times in Porto Alegre (2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005) and once in Mombai (2004), the Indian city once known as Bombay.

The Forum in Caracas will run from January 24 to 29. The African version, in Bamaka, capital of Mali, will take place several days earlier. The Asian version will be held in Karachi, capital of Pakistan a few months later.

Translation: David Silberstein