World Social Forum
Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, eds.

This comprehensive volume provides a glimpse into the wide-ranging discussions, debates and arguments which have gone into making the World Social Forum (WSF) one of the most prominent platforms of alternative ideas and practices in the present world. Building on the First Edition (published in India by the Viveka Foundation, New Delhi in 2004), this Second Edition has been revised and updated to include coverage of those Social Forums that took place as recent as the summer of 2007.

Praise for World Social Forum:

"If you want to know how the World Social Forum was formed and what the opinion of some of the main actors in it is on issues such as globalization, transnational feminism, justice and peace among others, this is the book to read." - VirtualActivism.org

"A useful array of writings on the entire WSF process--the global context in which it emerged, the manner in which different movements and ideologies have interacted and shaped this process and the manner in which it has itself grown in the past years." - Aniket Alam, The Hindu

"An excellent effort at combining both information and critical reflection on the World Social Forum phenomenon." - Massimo De Angelis

"A stellar collection of essays. Indispensable reading." - Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel Center

Table Of Contents

PART 1: ANTECEDENTS: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES 

• For Struggles, Global and National by Samir Amin, interviewed by V. Sridhar
• Coming: A Rerun of the 1930s by Walden Bello
• The Road From Genoa by Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, Brendan Smith
• Towards a New International? by Michael Löwy
• Transnational Feminism and the Struggle for Global Justice by Johanna Brenner
• Towards Another Anarchism by Andrej Grubacic
• Empire, Global Power Centres, and People’s Alliances by Muto Ichiyo
• The Global Justice and Solidarity Movement and the World Social Forum by Peter Waterman

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM DOCUMENTS

• World Social Forum Charter of Principles by WSF International Council, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2001
• WSF IC—Nature, Responsibilities, Composition, and Functioning by the WSF Brazilian Organising Committee, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2001
• Note of Information, Fourth Day Activities at WSF Nairobi by the WSF Organising Committee, WSF Nairobi, Kenya, 2007
• Call for Day of Action/Mobilisation January 26th 2008 by the WSF International Council, Berlin, Germany, 2007

PART 2: CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT - THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM

• The World Social Forum As Open Space by Chico Whitaker
• The World Social Forum: Arena or Actor? by Teivo Teivainen
• Another World Is Necessary by Nawal El Saadawi
• The Secret of Fire by Peter Waterman
• Is It Possible to Put a Human Face on Globalisation and War? by ILC
• World Forum Movement: Abandon or Contaminate by Linden Farre
• De-Centering the Forum: Is Another Critique of the Forum Possible? by Michal Osterweil
• Another (Also Feminist) World Is Possible by Sonia E. Alvarez, with Nalu Faria and Miriam Nobre
• How Open? the Forum As Logo, the Forum As Religion by Jai Sen
• The World Social Forum 3 and Tensions In the Construction of Global Alternative Thinking by Gina Vargas
• The World Social Forum: Toward a Counter-Hegemonic Globalisation by Boaventura de Sousa Santos
• World Social Forum’s ‘Many Alternatives’ to Globalisation by P.J. James
• The World Social Forum, Beyond Critique and Deconstruction by Emma Dowling, interviewed by Rebecca Shah

MOVEMENT AND OTHER INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTS 

• Call of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 2002
• Mumbai Declaration 2004 - Mumbai Resistance, Mumbai, India, January 2004
• Porto Alegre Manifesto - Group of Nineteen, WSF Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 2005

PART 3: GLOBALIZING THE FORUM: THE FORUM THE WORLD

• Globalising the WSF: Ironies, Contrasts, Challenges by Achin Vanaik
• Citizen Mobilization In the Americas and the Birth of the WSF by Dorval Brunelle
• The World Social Forum In Africa by Jean Nanga
• The World Social Forum:Current Challenges and Future Perspectives by Irene León and Sally Burch
• Another U.S. Is Happening by Judy Rebick
• The Road to Atlanta by Michael Leon Guerrero, Tammy Bang Luu, Cindy Wiesner
• Asterix On the St. Lawrence by Pierre Beaudet

MOVEMENT AND OTHER INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTS

• The Bamako Appeal - World Forum for Alternatives, Third World Forum, Forum for Another Mali,ENDA, and others, WSF Bamako, Mali, January 2006
• Call of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Caracas, Venezuela, January 2006
• Declaration of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Nairobi, Kenya, January 2007

PART 4: LOOKING BEYOND: POSSIBLE FUTURES, POSSIBLE WORLDS

• WSF: Where to Now? by Michael Albert
• The Twilight of Vanguardism by David Graeber
• The World Social Forum and the Future by Boaventura de Sousa Santos
• Women’s Global Charter for Humanity by World March of Women
• Other Worlds Are (Already) Possible by Arturo Escobar
• Glossary
• References

Jai Sen, an architect and a housing-rights activist since the 1970s, is an independent researcher living in New Delhi. Peter Waterman worked for the institute of Social Studies, The Hague, for nearly thirty years. He is the author of Globalisation, Social Movements, and the New Internationalisms.

2007: 475 pages

World Social Forum Retail Prices:
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