Anti-globalization Takes Center Stage at WSF, but What Are the Alternatives?

   
This year's second World Social Forum may be the "I told you so" event. While the Davos crowd, which is bringing the World Economic Forum to New York, acts as the cheerleader for globalization, the forces meeting in Porto Alegre as the World Social Forum take on the role of nay sayers. With the menace of a worldwide economic recession hanging over all, both sides will try to capitalize on economic fears to get their messages across. One view advocates intensifying free market reforms, while the other aims to sink the neoliberal model.

In its charter, the World Social Forum describes its movement as "a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives�.The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of capitalist globalization commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations' interests. They are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights, and those of all citizens - men and women - of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples."

In response, the Bush administration continues to invoke the Washington Consensus, most recently during the president's January 16 address at the World Affairs Council National Conference at the OAS. According to Bush, "Our answer to these questions and doubts must be clear and it must be consistent: The hopes of all our peoples, everybody who lives in this hemisphere, no matter where they live, lie in greater freedom. Free markets and open trade are the best weapons against poverty, disease and tyranny." In a specific reference to the crisis in Argentina, he added, "Argentina-and nations throughout our hemisphere-need to strengthen our commitment to market-based reform, not weaken it. Shortcuts to reform only lead to more trouble. Half-measures will not halve the pain, only prolong it." The administration's policy prescriptions remain the same: "Success in the global economy comes to countries that maintain fiscal discipline, open their borders to trade, privatize inefficient state enterprises, deregulate their domestic markets, and invest in the health and education of their people. And those who promise painless protectionism or security through statism, assure a bleak and stagnant future for their people. Countries that stay on the hard road of reform are rewarded."

Clearly, Argentina-just across the border from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the WSF is being held-will be the poster child of anti-globalization. But, it is just as easily an example of how narrow the alternatives for new economic thinking are at the moment. If anything, good governance will be an important part of the discussion in the search for alternatives to what critics portray as failed IMF/World Bank economic policies.

At this point, the rhetoric seems to be constructive, but once the show starts in Porto Alegre, the tone will become clearer. The pressures between "fixing" or "nixing" the world economic order still exist, but anti-globalization rhetoric has taken center stage. Still, the delegation from the US network of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) comes to the event armed with new proposals to enrich the group's Alternatives for the Americas document-the current version is available on the WSF website at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/por/tbib.asp, but only in Portuguese - with a full-day seminar scheduled for this purpose.

The World Social Forum is especially significant for Florida. Although it draws a worldwide audience, the fact that the event is being held in our hemisphere gives it a focus on our region. The economic and political challenges of Argentina and Colombia, among others, will add to the tendency for the Americas to be at the forefront of the debate. On the chopping block will be the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The forum will be an excellent opportunity to gauge the extent and content of the opposition to free trade and the role of the United States in the hemisphere.