Verena Glass
Agência Carta Maior
São Paulo – The World Social Forum’s International Council’s decision of carrying out the next WSF’s meeting in India (January 16-21, 2004) after three years in Porto Alegre is mainly due to the fact that, in order to become an effectively worldwide process, the Forum would have to include the Asian universe into the general range of debates about "another possible world’, in more concrete terms. Such debate is now strongly impregnated by its Latin American and European creators’ political conceptions.
Bringing the "Asian universe" closer, however, is no simple task. Differently from social movements in Latin America or Europe which, besides national peculiarities, display a certain unity in political and social organisation, Asia, which concentrates about 60% of the world’s population, is very heterogeneous. Therefore, the very interlocution between Asian countries is very feeble, says Prabir Purkayastha, a member of the WSF Indian Committee. "Asian countries have this culture of relating preferably to European ones. An interconnection and a dialogue as we see in Latin America are virtually nonexistent. That makes it hard to build a genuinely Asian social movement", Purkayastha explains.
Regardless of the articulation between Asian movements, however, changing the WSF’s host country has also taken into account some political factors raised by the International Council. According to economist Samir Amin, one of today’s most well known Marxist thinkers, the increasing US "interest" in the country justifies a larger effort to strengthen the idea and the WSF debates in the region, since Asians’ participation in previous editions in Porto Alegre was hampered by the distance.
India’s selection as the event’s host was mainly due to the multiplicity of social movements active in the country. Nevertheless, according to researcher Jai Sen, the fact that over a billion people will elect the Indian Parliament in 2004 might be a catalyser for popular engagement in the process of democratising the political debate.
According to WSF Indian Committee member Meena Menon’s opinion, with the rightist Bharatiya Janata party in power since 1996, India has been suffering strong effects of the government’s neoliberal policies: privatisation, unemployment, social insecurity, all added to increasing militarisation, religious sectarianism and nationalism. The fact that the BJP also governs Mumbai – the host city for the WSF, which traditionally has a rightist political culture (Mumbai is the birthplace of ultranationalist and religious party Shiv Sena) – has sparked an initial controversy in the International Council. According to Jai Sen, Mumbai was chosen for being a central and easily accessible city, but it is true that right-wingers might create trouble. "I don’t think the BJP will protest against the Forum, even because it will preserve its image before foreigners. Nonetheless, it is my understanding that the Shiv Sena Party will react negatively, specially concerning Pakistani delegates and western women’s clothes, seen as a ‘threat to Indian culture’", says Sen.
Since everything in the country is large-scale – India has the second largest population in the world and one of the most diverse social and political movements –, there are plenty of leftist parties. Among them, theCommunist Party of Indian, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc, also communists, besides the socialist Samajwadi, Samajwadi Janata and the Socialist Peasants and Workers’ Party of India, only to mention the largest and most important ones (among the smaller ones, according to WSF International Council’s Moema Miranda there are eleven Maoist parties, for instance).
Mentality change
According to Meena Menon, the relationship between the several parties cannot be described historically as peaceful, and differences have long been an obstacle for a national leftist articulation. Many social movements also followed such model, since most of them are also linked to one or another political sector. The challenge of organising the Forum in India, however, ended up changing such landscape a lot.
"Since one of the principles of the WSF is respect for difference, whether cultural, religious, social or political, we were able to build a new political culture from India’s WSF, especially after the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad last year, says Menon. For Purkayastha, the most concrete example of this new stage is the fact that the Indian Committee, which is in charge of organising the 2004 WSF in the country, includes about 200 organisations, among them labour unions, NGOs and social movements. "Of course there are tensions between the several groups, but there is room for everyone, big or small". According to Purkayastha, it is certain that the "partisan environment" of the country has influenced the Forum’s organisation in Mumbai, but the non-inclusion of parties from the event and its organising body is and will be respected, as the WSF Charter of Principles demands.
Moving the WSF from Porto Alegre to Mumbai will certainly demand several changes in the event. Not only because of the distinct political scene in the host cities, countries and continents, but especially because of Indians and Asians’ culture, perspectives, and ways of functioning, sustains Purkayastha. "It’s hard to think of which theme will be more relevant in this Forum, but Asian issues will certainly come to the fore".
Untouchables are an example of India’s caste system drama
The existence of around 260 million untouchables – people belonging to a caste seen as impure and extremely discriminated in Asia in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka – shall be one of the 2004 WSF core issues. The Dalits, members of the lowest of Asian castes, besides not having the same rights to education, health and justice as other citizens, have no access to land, are forced to works in a system of semi-slavery and underemployment, and are routinely murdered by the police and by "higher" castes, with the State’s compliance, according to several Indian human rights organisations.
With the motto "another world has to be built", pro-Dalit human rights movements are scheduling a series of activities and protests for the 2004 WSF, with the main goal of gathering more international support for the cause. According to those organisations, the Indian government’s neoliberal policies have deepened Dalits’ exclusion, specially because of privatisation of a great deal of public services, which has been driving millions of untouchables into extreme poverty. The international community has being of great help to overturn other oppressive systems such as South Africa’s apartheid. Its awareness and intervention are crucial at this moment, according to those organisations.
Translated by Roberto Cataldo Costa
