Maailman sosiaalifoorumi WSF: Avoin tila vai liikkeiden liike?

1. Maailman sosiaalifoorumi WSF: Avoin tila vai liikkeiden liike? Politiikka uusiksi! –luentosarja http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/spaces/politiikka.htm 14.11.2007 Mikael Rönkkö mikael.ronkko@helsinki.fi

2. Johdantoa

3. Charter of Principles (9.4.2004) WSF is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth.

4. “foundation for a more democratic global polity,” since it enables citizens of many countries to develop shared values and preferences, to refine their analyses and strategies, and to improve their skills at transnational dialogue.[1] • “the Forums’ informal organizational frameworks and decentralized forms of authority serve to make it one of the most promising civil society processes that may both contribute significantly to global democratization initiatives and work to constitute such an initiative in itself.”[2] • “forms a loosely defined party of opinion” from which global parties could emerge and influence on world politics.”[3] • [1] Smith, Patty: The World Social Forum and the challenges of global democracy. Global Networks 4 (4), 413-421. pp. 420 • [2] Scott, Byrd C (2005):The Porto Alegre Consensus: Theorizing the Forum Movement. Globalizations 2 (1), 151-163. pp. 158 • [3] Patomaki, Heikki & Teivainen, Teivo (2004): The World Social Forum: an open space or a movement of movements. Theory, Culture and Society 21 (6), 145-154. pp. 151

6. Table 2 demonstrate relative size distribution of the indications by respondents of movements in which they are actively involved ( in terms of number of participants who say they are actively involved). (Riverside survey 2005)

7. Thematic Areas and Sub-Areas Mumbai 2004 1. Militarism, War and Peace2. Media, Information, Knowledge and Culture3. Democracy, Ecological and Economic Security i Debt, finance and tradeii Land, Water and Food Sovereigntyiii Labour and World of Work in Production and Social Reproductioniv Social sectors -- food, health, education -- and social security4. Exclusions, Discrimination, Dignity, Rights and Equalityi Nation, State, citizenship, law and justiceii Caste, race and other forms of descent/work based exclusions iii Religion, culture and identitiesiv Patriarchy, Gender and Sexuality

8. Methodology of WSF 2005 Porto Alegre • 01. Assuring and defending Earth and people’s common goods – as alternative to commodification and transnational control 02. Sovereign economies for and of people – against neoliberal capitalism03. Peace, demilitarisation and struggle against war, free trade and debt04. Autonomous thought, reappropriation and socialisation of knowledge and technologies05. Defending diversity, plurality and identities06. Social struggles and democratic alternatives – against neoliberal domination07. Ethics, cosmovisions and spiritualities – resistances and challenges for a new world08. Communication: counter-hegemonic practices, rights and alternatives09. Arts and creation: weaving and building people’s resistance culture10. Human rights and dignity for a just and egalitarian world 11. Towards construction of international democratic order and people’s integrationThree transversal axles were also identified:01. Social emancipation and political dimensions of struggles02. Struggle against patriarchal capitalism 03. Struggle against racism

9. Selityksiä ja syitä

10. Model of explanation of global justice movements democracy view (Donatella della Porta Demos-project) POs = Political Opportunities SOs = Social Opportunities COs = Cultural Opportunities

11. Moninaisten kansalaisliikkeiden aktivismi WSF:n taustalla • Rauhanliike ja ympäristöliike 80-luvulta • Globaalin Etelän protestiliikkeet • Zapatistat - taitava informaatiostrategia • NAFTA ja MAI • Poikkikansallinen demokratialiikkeiden verkosto, ”battle of Seattle” • Demokratiakritiikkiä kaikilla tasoilla: WTOn ja kansainvälisten rahoituslaitosten (IMF ja Maailmanpankki) politiikan sekä WSF ja G8 kokouksien kritiikkiä • Pariisi, Seattle, Washington, Praha, Melbourbe, Davos, Quebeck, Nizza, Birghminham, Köln… • Göteborgin ja Genovan väkivaltaisuudet • WEF Davos • Attac verkosto • Globaali naisliike ja feminismi ja konstruktionismi • Mielenosoitusten väkivalta ja reaktiivisuus: >proaktiivinen vaihtoehtofoorumi WSFille Etelässä

12. Kansallisia poliittisia mahdollisuusrakenteita • Brasilian ja Ranskan erityissuhde, Attac-yhteys Davosiin • Työväenpuolue PT:n keskeinen asema • Rikas kansalaisyhteiskunta diktatuurin jälkeen • Brasilian kansallinen WSF-komitea ainutlaatuinen vahva järjestöjen allianssi: vahva ay-liike (CUT), laajapohjainen radikaali kansanliike (MST), poikkikansallinen verkosto Attac, NGOt (Abong), tutkimusjärjestö Ibase, vapautuksen teologi Chico Whitaker ja reilu liikemies Oded Grajew • Porto Alegre, Rio Grande de Sul ja osallistava demokratia • Latinalaisen Amerikan vasemmiston uusi nousu – kuten bolivaarinen vallankumous ja zapatistat • Argentiinan talouskriisi • Latinalaisen Amerikan ulkopuolelta useimmat järjestöt Ranskasta ja Italiasta – mitä niiden mahdollisuusrakenteet selittää?

13. Ylikansallinen mahdollisuusrakenne (supranational) • Globaalin kansalaisyhteiskunnan ja poikkikansallisten yhteiskunnallisten liikkeiden aihioita? • Charles Tilly & Sidney Tarrow [1] : • Globalisaatio luo uhkia ja mahdollisuuksia mutta ei riittävän selittävä mekanismi tai prosessi • ”Internationalisaatiosta” syntyy monimutkaistuva suprakansallinen mahdollisuusrakenne: • Eräänlainen ”koralliriutta”, jossa hallitukset, yhtiöt ja kansalaisyhteiskunnan toimijat uivat • Maailman pieneneminen, kommunikaatioteknologia [1] “Contentious Politics”, Paradigm 2007

14. Global Democracy Deficit

15. Monarchization of democracy * Teivo Teivainen: Enter Economism, Exit Politics: Experts, Economic Policy and the Damage to Democracy.. London: Zed Press, 2002

16. Avoin tilavai liikkeiden liike

17. “open space" • “The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action.“ Methodology of the open space of WSF can be seen as a deliberative space of democracy.[1]

18. Avoimen tilan metodologiasta • WSF ei ole pelkästään reaktiivinen ilmiö vaan (deliberatiivisen) demokratian laboratorio, vaihtoehtoisten demokratiakäsitysten koekenttä ja yhteiskunnallisten liikkeiden moninaisuuden hybridi ? Donatella della Porta: what become interesting is how democracy is conceptualised in WSF arena and how it is implemented inside WSF. In WSF proposals are developed — ranging from limited reforms to ambitious utopias — for alternative democratic practices. WSF could be seen as an experimental arena of new models of democracy both in the internal structure and in the way WSF participants interact with political institutions. Recent research confirmed the high degree of critical debate on democracy presents in social movements and social forums: internal democracy emerges as an important topic of discussion for the activists Past experiences are reflected upon, showing important learning processes, although no satisfactory solution seemed ready yet to address the main organizational dilemma (between e.g. participation versus efficacy, equality versus specialization, etc.). In other word, one could look at WSF as space for the elaboration of conceptions of democracy and first experimentation with them.”

19. "deliberative democracy, which emphasizes participation and the quality of communication, is particularly relevant for a multifaceted, heterogeneous movement that incorporates many social, generational, and ideological groups as well as movement organizations from different countries."[1] • [1] della Porta, Donatella (2005b): Making The Polis: Social Forums and Democracy in The Global Justice Movement, Mobilization. An International Quarterly 10 (1)

20. WSF eräänlainen paikallisten, kansallisten ja poikkikansallisten yhteiskunnallisten liikkeiden hybridi, monimuotoisen “globaalin kansalaisyhteiskunnan” muotoutuva tila, josta voi erottaa monia eritasoisia vastakkainasetteluja, joista monet palautuvat eri kansalaisliikkeiden traditioihin ja erilaisiin demokratiakäsityksiin: • Avoin tila vs liike • horisontaalit vs vertikaalit • puolue vs verkosto • Kansallinen vs poikkikansallinen • paikallinen vs globaali • etelä vs pohjoinen • nuoret vs vanhat, nais-mies • NGOt vs kansanliikkeet • vallankumous vs reformi • Tavoittena valtaanpääsy vai deliberatiivinen demokratia • Edustuksellinen vs osallistavat demokratiakäsitykset • Partisipatiivinen vs deliberatiivinen demokratia • Deliberatiivinen vs konstruktiivinen demokratiakäytäntö • Esimerkkinä kiista foorumin luonteesta: “avoin tila vai liike”

21. Forum was becoming "an institution unanchored in actual global political struggles, and this is turning it into an annual festival with limited social impact", that ”the WSF is under an illusion that it can stand above the fray, and this will lead to its becoming some sort of neutral forum, where discussion will increasingly be isolated from action. “."The WSF is at a crossroads. ... “We must have a strategy of ‘counter-power.’ [1] [1] Bello, Walden (2007): The WSF is at a crossroads. Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), International Relations Center, May 4, 2007, www.fpif.org

22. Chico Whitaker defends the concept of the open space in a open letter to the WSF International Council in march 2003: • “At this stage of the evolution of the Forum, the question of whether the Forum is a ‘space’ or a ‘movement’ has become a fundamental question and choice … For me, there is no doubt that it is fundamental to ensure at all costs the continuity of the Forum as a space and to not yield to the temptation of transforming it now or even later, into a movement. … As an open space, the Forum has the possibility of ensuring respect for diversity, unlike if it were a movement. The principle of respecting diversity, adopted by the WSF Charter, is grounded on the conviction that one of the fundamental characteristics of the other world we intend to build must be respect for diversity. ...” • Chico Whitaker: The WSF as Open Space, in Sen wt al 2004. Look also Chico Whitaker 2007, and Whitaker, Chico (2005): Desafio do Fórum Social Mundial, O: Um modo de ver, Fundação Perseu Abramo & Edições Loyola

23. Samir Amin presented his criticism of WSF in his letter to WSF International Council IC before Porto Alegre WSF 2005 [2]: • “the "movement" is being seriously threatened of having reached a dead end and some people are trying to legitimate this option in principle.... I am suggesting here the definition of common platforms, articulated around the double rejection of both neo-liberalism and militarized globalization under US control. To me, it is obvious that this alliance is excluding reactionary social movements, which calls for putting an end to ambiguous attitudes of important segment of the Left towards those movements. Failing that, social forums will become jumbles from which nothing can be expected. Of course, the dominant system is encouraging this option which enables it to let it known that it is "playing the game of democracy", actually a powerless democracy which is unable to produce consistent and efficient alternative political strategies, and in this way it strengthens its power.“ • Samir Amin´s message to WSF International Council list. Subject: Some toughts and proposal about World Social Forum, December 2005. Samir AMIN's letter to the WSF.; http://www.forumtiersmonde.net/

24. Theory typesCriteria for a good democratic public discourse • Who In what sort How ideas Outcome of • participates participates of process should be relation between • presented discourse and • decision-making • Representa- Elite domi- Free market- Detachment Closure • tive liberal nance place of ideas Civility • Expertise Transparency • Proportionality Samir • Participatory Popular Empowerment Range of Avoidance Amin • liberal inclusion styles of imposed • closure • Discursive Popular Deliberative Dialogue Avoidance • Inclusion Mutual of premature, • respect non-consensus-based • Civility closure • Chico • Constructio- Popular Empowerment Narrative Avoidance of Whitaker • nist Inclusion Recognition creativity exclusionary • closure • Expansion of • the political community • * Ferree, Myra, Marx, Gamson, William A, Gerhards, Jürgen, Rucht, Dieter (2002): Four models of the public sphere in modern democracies, Theory and Society 31: 289-324.

25. Competing conceptions of internal democracy in WSF

27. (1) Do you think we need to reform capitalism or abolish it? • Reform it: 43.7 %; Abolish it and replace: 56.3 % • (2) In the long run, what do you think should be done about the existing international financial and trade institutions such as the IMF and the WTO? • Negotiate with them: 13.9%; Abolish them: 24.5%; • Abolish and replace: 58.9% • (3) Which of the following approaches would best solve the problems created by global capitalism? • Strengthen local communities: 53.4%; Strengthen nation states: 8.6%; • Create democratic global institutions: 25.6% • (4) "Overall the world needs less economic growth." • Agree: 58.7%; Disagree: 41.3% • (5) "The World Social Forum should remain as an open space for debate and should not itself take public positions on political issues." • Agree: 49.0%; Disagree: 51.0% • Ellen Reese, Mark Herkenrath, Chris Chase-Dunn, Rebecca Giem, Erika Gutierrez, Linda Kim, and Christine Petit: “Alliances and Divisions with the ‘movement of movements’: survey findings from the 2005 World Social Forum”, IROWS Working Paper 29

28. Lisäinfoa: • Ephemeran erikoisnumero:http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2biblio.htm • NIGD: http://www.nigd.org/ • Open space forum: http://openspaceforum.net • WSF2008: http://www.wsf2008.net/ • Euroopan sosiaalifoorumi: http://www.fse-esf.org/ • Suomen sosiaalifoorumi: http://www.sosiaalifoorumi.fi/ • International Ciranda of Independent Information: http://www.ciranda.net/ • IPSin Terraviva-lehti: http://www.ipsterraviva.net/ Kysymyksiä, kommentteja, palautetta: mikael.ronkko@helsinki.fi