[WSMDiscuss] Fwd: World Social Forum: Pre-call to movements

[Francine Mestrum]

Since Jai, asked my opinion, this is the letter I just sent to the 
International Council of the WSF:

Dear friends of the International Council,

You will have received the documents of the Facilitating Committee of 
the WSF Mexico with a pre-invitation.

I would like to explain very briefly why I voted ‘no’ to this proposal. 
I think that, at this moment, the Committee is not able to organize a 
Social Forum.

1)The Committee is extremely weak and all but democratic. Comments and 
questions of those who do not totally agree with the proposals are 
simply ignored. It is a very weird interpretation of what they see as 
‘consensus’. For instance, as the thematic axes necessarily have to be 
the result of the proposals of participating movements, I proposed a 
simple framework within which these proposals can be integrated. 
Nevertheless, the group continues to work with a predetermined list of 
axes in which even the struggles against authoritarianism and fascism 
are failing! You will understand that various organisations already have 
left this facilitating committee.

2)In 2021 the WSF will celebrate its 20^th anniversary! This is an 
excellent opportunity to invite movements and organisations that till 
now did not take part in the Forum so that the process can be enlarged. 
It is also an opportunity to reflect and discuss the rules and 
principles of the WSF. This is what a small group of members of the IC 
has proposed. They want to organize, inside the Forum, a debate on the 
relevance of the Charter of Principles after 20 years. For these two 
reasons, they propose to ask all facilitators and participants in the 
Forum not to ‘agree with the Charter of Principles’ but to ‘respect the 
Charter of Principles’. This simple change is also totally rejected and 
people are asked to sign a ‘letter of commitment’ of two full pages!

In other words, the current process is excluding and bureaucratic and it 
lacks the most minimal sense of democracy. I could give you many other 
examples. Without fundamental changes, I cannot participate in such a 
process. After almost twenty years of work for and in the WSF, this 
really hurts. But I think that all persons and all opinions deserve some 
respect.

Op 04/05/2020 om 23:02 schreef Tord Björk via WSM-Discuss:
> FIY
> Tord Björk
>
> email: tord.bjork at gmail.com <mailto:tord.bjork at gmail.com>, skype: 
> tordbjork, tel: +46 (0)722 15 16 90
> address: Götgatan 7 A, 29133 Kristianstad, Sweden
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: *Mirek Prokeš* <mirek.prokes at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mirek.prokes at gmail.com>>
> Date: Mon, May 4, 2020 at 10:39 PM
> Subject: World Social Forum: Pre-call to movements
> To: Tord Björk <tord.bjork at gmail.com <mailto:tord.bjork at gmail.com>>
> Cc: Balint <balint at unitedagainstracism.org 
> <mailto:balint at unitedagainstracism.org>>, helga suleiman 
> <helga.suleiman at gmail.com <mailto:helga.suleiman at gmail.com>>, Viktor 
> Koren <viktor at iynf.org <mailto:viktor at iynf.org>>, Leo Gabriel 
> <lgabriel at gmx.net <mailto:lgabriel at gmx.net>>, igor 
> <igorgotlib0 at gmail.com <mailto:igorgotlib0 at gmail.com>>, matyas benyik 
> <benyikmatyas at gmail.com <mailto:benyikmatyas at gmail.com>>, Aktivister 
> för Fred <aktivisterforfred at gmail.com 
> <mailto:aktivisterforfred at gmail.com>>, Dagmar Svendova 
> <svendova at transform-network.net 
> <mailto:svendova at transform-network.net>>, Bilinç Sezgin 
> <bilinc at yeenet.eu <mailto:bilinc at yeenet.eu>>, Marek Hrubec 
> <marek.hrubec at gmail.com <mailto:marek.hrubec at gmail.com>>, Kavan Jan 
> <kavanjan17 at gmail.com <mailto:kavanjan17 at gmail.com>>
>
>
> Dear friends and comrades,
>
> three months after the meeting of the International Council in Porto 
> Alegre, it has today published the attached call and conclusions of 
> the meeting (by consensus).
> Please spread the call, e.g. post it on your websites and facebook 
> pages/groups.
>
> Have a good evening,
>
> Mirek
>
> ________________________________________
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