André Deak
Special Report

Caracas (Venezuela) – Demonstrators from all over the world, human rights activists or just people opposed to capitalism, marched through the streets of Caracas yesterday to mark the beginning of the 6th World Social Forum, Latin American stage [the first stage, in Africa, took place last week in Mali; an Asian stage will take place in Pakistan in March].

The keynote at all the World Social Forums is diversity. This year most of the marchers expresed their opposition to the war in Iraq and imperialism. But there were also feminists, defenders of the Palestinian cause, environmentalists, representatives from the Basque country and many more.

Venezuelan officlals did not release an official estimate of the number of participants, but it was smaller than in other forums.

There was a large Brazilian presence (Brazil has proposed more activities for this forum than the Venezuelans). Among the Brazilian groups present in the opening march were: Socialist Youth Union (União da Juventude Socialista), a student branch of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB), High School Student Union (União Brasileira dos Estudantes Secundaristas) (Ubes) and Brazil's largest labor union (Central Única dos Trabalhadores) (CUT). They joined representatives of other South American social movements on the streets of Caracas.

Translation: Allen Bennett

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