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

[Brian K Murphy]

Thanks for this, Tord.  Some vary useful plain talking. I myself have no history  of WSF involvement, preoccupied with other processes and engagements during the hey-day.  But much of what you say rings true to me, and I think you have offered a useful challenge to your colleagues in launching this new converstion/process

Brian

> On 21 May 2020, at 8:26 pm, Tord Björk via WSM-Discuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net> wrote:
> 
> Jai says: "the WSF has, if carefully nurtured, the potential to be a vital instrument in the struggle for justice and peace, and of building other worlds." This is a trivial and useful notion to which most people interested in WSF would agree to.
> 
> Jai also says "And that indeed, it is the only such international space and instrument that is presently available.  It is not less than this." This is the kind of normative notion which precludes the discussion before it begins and makes an empirical discussion on the matter impossible. The potential of being a vital instrument for justice and peace to not talk about other relationship between human beings and nature has been there since peoples- movements emerged and began being related to each other. The refusal to recognise this fact has been destructive for understanding how WSF become a better tool for what it wants to achieves as this kind of argument says there is no alternative. 
> 
> What we today see as already existing other ways fulfilling the potential claimed that only WSF can fulfil is the combination of International Peoples Assembly with its democratic character and continental way or organizing peoples movements and political parties, Progressive International with its open space model for intellectuals including some in the IPA process and members mainly so far media outlets and other open space model as global dialogue organized by progressive NGO as TNI, Focus on the Global South etc. to not talk about all the main international peoples movements with the exception of the trade union having direct contact with each other, integrating the issues of the other movements in their own response to covid19 crisis while very many of them also responds collectively in a common broad statement, Very little of this has WSF asa a root for what happens now much faster outside the deadlocked WSF process than the normative way of running to the conclusion that only WSF have the unique quality, or as Jai frames the role of WSF as "is the only such international space". When it comes to the environmental movement this has existed since it was institutionalised as a global movement by the Consumer Alliance and Friends of the Earth Malaysia with the creation of Third World Network 1983 with people like Martin Kohr and Meena Rahman. 
> 
> At the moment the two opposing sides in the conflict regarding the future of WSF seems mainly to build on abstract notions rather than empirical. If we look at it from an empirical angle and not a TINA view on uniqueness of WSF one might say that the main obstacle for making WSF more political is the lack of interest from main peoples movements- The same problem applied to Peoples Global Action in the period of mass antiglobalization protests at summits. Bigger organizations did not want to build a coordinating secretariat and thus PGA disintegrated. WSF with its main reference in left history nurtured by both proponents of open space and those proposing to turn WSF into a decision-making were never interested in the environmental movement more than as a decoration, at least in Europe.  The environmental movement lacks a history of hierarchic organization model as a main problem and cannot share the left wing sharp division in horizontal and verticals.   
> 
> Nor the history making claiming that there was a period of strong movements in the early 2010s like Occupy and Arab Spring which did not become part of WSF. Well did did not become a part of themselves either as they disappeared very soon or turned into political parties as Podemos who are not allowed into WSF but IPA and other structures. Nether is the notion by Gustave that once we had an internationalistic anti globalization movement and now we have movements more oriented towards the national level applicapable to movements like Via Campesina and the environmental movement. This is once more internal problems of the left that opportunistically runs to hot spots and hot issues por hot countries and soon runs to next place hoping to fine a frontline they can support instead of doing their home work. The environmental and small farmers movement never left the local and national level during the opportunistic left wing days when different factions of the left were involved in summit hoppning soon seeing others in the left as their main enemy that brought violence or reformism to the movement. When these leftist strands popped up again it was a opponents to right wing populism and extremism, not by having a political program but by labelling their opponents as fascists or other simplistic concepts, in its worst version GAL against TAN, Green Alternative and Liberal against Traditional. Authoritarian and nationalistic, a perfect way to create division instead of unifying the struggle.Meanwhile environmentalists and farmers continued their antiglobalization struggle as before being against TTIP and other similar free trade agreements while the peace movement also continued outside te interest of the left in the west. 
> 
> The movement of the early claimed to be horizontal soon find its way for some into hierarchic institutions as academia, donorfunded NGOs and political parties. One find many of the in Progressive International, a tyical open space cooperation seemingly diverse nut at the core quite much of an alliance between individuals with (global) pink tide politicians and single issue NGOs at the core, India being an exception. Occupy was never to be anything either as a movement until it turned up again as Bernie Sanders supporters and after a short while collapsed as it was integrated into the Democratic party war machine and corporate political will.  In other countries, at least in Sweden and the Nordic countries Occupy was a joke with its tiresome endless decision making process and filled with US junk ideology as Zeitgeist etc. 
> 
> Concerning Gustav Massiah as a starting point there are much other things one can agree to, some can be seen as trivial like saying we need a strategy, the situation is new etc. Here I rather refer to the existing statements by international social movements which is carried forward by collective efforts and sometimes a more articulated response to the present situation than what Gustave writes.
> 
> He says also: "The WSF is now defined as a process formed by the different national, regional and thematic forums and events". This is against what most others ask for including the official questions put to all in the IC which wants to include also international main movements whether they have been involved in WSF before or not. As Gustave rightly notes the climate and ecological crisis movement have developed outside WSF and is contrary to social forum present more or less in every country, the same goes for many other movements including Via Campesina who never was positive to the way WSF was structured and already in Belem 2009 put more effort in activities outside WSF than inside and now puts a main effort in International Peoples assembly as well as cooperation with the environmental movement around concept as food sovereignty, also a movement that have developed outside WSF in very many countries. 
> 
> I guess both Gustave and most others agree to that a key to go forward for the movements of movements and WSF is rather to listen to the already existing strategies as they e.g are addressed in the covid 19 statements or documents as Trade Unions of Energy Democracy statements rather than constructing an abstract view from above it would be useful to look at these already existing strategies and start from there to develop a strategy  that is even more advanced.
> 
> Jai description of the key issue I do not agree upon. The way to frame it as an issue of for or against rewriting the WSF charter of principle is a way to make the conflict into a juridical concern instead of a concern for a solution built on actors. Rather is the the issue open space fundamentalism against decision-making fundamentalism and other live and let live options making it possible to have most of those belonging to on or the other psotions interests fulfilled.
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 4:51 PM Fayyaz Baqir <fbaqir at uottawa.ca <mailto:fbaqir at uottawa.ca>> wrote:
> I think these are very good ideas. Would it be right to ask how self-liberation begins? Global Capital resides in each one of us with different names and in different guises. Our longing for comfort and'success' is the greatest ally of the big Capital. How do we begin the conversation with the self and how do we take it to the public square? I would love to hear from other list members.
> From: WSM-Discuss <wsm-discuss-bounces at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-bounces at lists.openspaceforum.net>> on behalf of Karl-Heinz Thier <k.thier at gmx.com <mailto:k.thier at gmx.com>>
> Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2020 1:14 PM
> To: wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net> <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>>
> Subject: Re: [WSMDiscuss] World Social Forum: Pre-call to movements
>  
> Attention : courriel externe | external email
> I've been another silent observer for the last couple of years. Now I intervene.
> 
> There are five cognitive prerequisites for any socialist solution globally:
> 
> I.   Man is an animal. Back to your genes. (You're not made to fly from Europe to Africa: the cuckoo has a better performance: less expenditure, not destroying its habitat.)
> 
> II.  This society is insane. People must get a chance to change their minds.
> 
> III. We've done well for two million years without barter and money.
> 
> IV. There are no borders.
> 
> V.  Solutions start locally and regionally, and flow together. Here's one for Germany (EU):
> 
> 
> 
> 

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