NUMBER 96, January 2004 (PDF version click here)
THIS year’s World Social Forum – the first to be held in Asia — is important. Four year’s after the first brilliant and inspiring gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we are facing a world situation where the stakes are still frighteningly high, with new threats but also with new opportunities. The US’ imperial ambitions are leading it into direct confrontation with adversaries and allies alike, paradoxically resulting in fractures to the post-Cold War consensus that gave us rampant “globalisation” and the disintegration of politics and society. These cracks let in the light.Tens of thousands are coming to Mumbai with a sense of urgency and optimism: urgency because of the problems we face and optimism because the movement for change is growing. We all believe that while me must continue to talk, we must also act. The trajectory of militarisation foisted on the rest of the world by the US, the growing nuclear threat in Asia, corporations running amok with greed and corruption, ecological disasters consuming communities and livelihoods, cannot continue. Our collective future is at stake.
This year, also for the first time, there will be a significant representation from the Arab and Islamic worlds – a deliberate and essential effort by everyone to bring together justice, peace and anti-imperialist movements from all parts of the world, in spite of the attempts to divide us by religion.
On the eve of the 4th World Social Forum, we have in this issue of Focus on Trade an overview of the world situation from Walden Bello, a view from the heart of Mumbai on the politics of place, and a report from Iraq on why the “reconstruction” is at a standstill.
GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY MEETS AMIDST CRISIS OF EMPIRE
By Walden Bello
POLITICS AT THE VENUE: THE WSF IN MUMBAI
By Vijay Prashad
THE RECONSTRUCTION’S BOTTOM-LINE
By Herbert Docena
THIS year’s World Social Forum – the first to be held in Asia — is important. Four year’s after the first brilliant and inspiring gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we are facing a world situation where the stakes are still frighteningly high, with new threats but also with new opportunities. The US’ imperial ambitions are leading it into direct confrontation with adversaries and allies alike, paradoxically resulting in fractures to the post-Cold War consensus that gave us rampant “globalisation” and the disintegration of politics and society. These cracks let in the light.Tens of thousands are coming to Mumbai with a sense of urgency and optimism: urgency because of the problems we face and optimism because the movement for change is growing. We all believe that while me must continue to talk, we must also act. The trajectory of militarisation foisted on the rest of the world by the US, the growing nuclear threat in Asia, corporations running amok with greed and corruption, ecological disasters consuming communities and livelihoods, cannot continue. Our collective future is at stake.
This year, also for the first time, there will be a significant representation from the Arab and Islamic worlds – a deliberate and essential effort by everyone to bring together justice, peace and anti-imperialist movements from all parts of the world, in spite of the attempts to divide us by religion.
On the eve of the 4th World Social Forum, we have in this issue of Focus on Trade an overview of the world situation from Walden Bello, a view from the heart of Mumbai on the politics of place, and a report from Iraq on why the “reconstruction” is at a standstill.
GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY MEETS AMIDST CRISIS OF EMPIRE
By Walden Bello
POLITICS AT THE VENUE: THE WSF IN MUMBAI
By Vijay Prashad
THE RECONSTRUCTION’S BOTTOM-LINE
By Herbert Docena
