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As PN went to press, the 7th WorldSocial Forum was underway in Nairobi - the first World Social Forum to take placein Africa. Andreas Speck, in the city as part of the War Resisters' International delegation, reports direct from the WSF.
Is another world possible?
Andreas Speck
No doubt, this World Social Forum is different. Africa — Kenya — makes its presence felt.
Kenyan and African culture and music are present everywhere at the forum, to the extent that the drums and music
do not always have a positive impact on discussions.
But Africa also makes its presence feltin terms of participation and content: on the one hand negatively , as participationfrom European and Latin American social movements is poor , compared toprevious World Social Forums. Poorer , especially, when it comes to grassroots-based movements, which simply cannot afford the expense of travelling to Africa--or are less inspired by a WSF in Africa, as they have fewer links withAfrican social movements. On the other hand positively, as nonviolence and deal -ing with conflict are higher on the agen da in Africa, than, for example they werein Porto Alegre or Mumbai.
NGOs or social movements?
The stalls belonging to groups present at this WSF are also very different: manyAfrican groups are church or religiousbased, and this is very visible when wan -dering around the stalls. And many are linked to W estern church-connectedhumanitarian and development NGOs such as Caritas or Oxfam. Most of the work carried out by these groups is more focused on communitydevelopment, education, and so on, than on street protest or direct action. Thoughthat is not to say that those groups do not have a political perspective which iscritical of economic globalisation, pri vatisation of public services, militarisa -tion, and other forms of domination.
Antimilitarism
While nonviolence and dealing with conflict are important issues at thisWorld Social Forum, this is not extended
to embracing antimilitarism. We got our first shock when we arrived at the WSF venue and found it guarded by Kenyan military and militarised private security . At best, this can be attributed to a lack of awareness among the organisers, combined with legal requirements. But among the participants there was also little visible critique
of, not to mention protest against, a military presence at a World Social Forum.
Parallel worlds or new links?
Another open question is, how much this World Social Forum can really help to develop new links between European, US, Latin American and African groups,or how discussions happen in parallel worlds. The different ways of or ganising,and the importance of church and religion in African organising, make it difficult tocreate these links, as there is little under standing for each other's approaches. The lack of presence of non-African move ments doesn't help to overcome these problems either.
But clearly there are common issuesand common perspectives. Economic globalisation makes its presence felt inAfrica: Africa's resources are of great interest to globalised corporations,fuelling many of the conflicts on the continent, from Congo to Angola, fromSudan to Somalia.
Building on mutual respect
In contrast to globalisation from above, globalisation from below should valuedifference, and global cooperation should be rooted in local and regional culturesand struggles.
If the global social movement — if there can be such a movement — does not want to be a mirror image of economic globalisation and cultural imperialism, then we need to take this issue seriously and make an effort to build on the many contacts made at this forum; to build and strengthen links with African movements, based on mutual respect.
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