Histórico: conheça trajetória do FSM 2018

Histórico –  O Fórum Social Mundial nasceu  em 2001 por organizações e movimentos sociais que, a partir de uma proposta inicial, se auto-convocaram e mobilizaram para um grande encontro em Porto Alegre, em contraposição ao neoliberalismo representado pelo Fórum Econômico Mundial, que ocorria ao mesmo tempo em Davos, na Suiça.

Os acontecimentos mundiais que sucederam ao primeiro FSM chocaram-se com os anseios de paz da humanidade. No mesmo ano 2001 vieram abaixo as Torres Gêmeas. E em nome de combater o terrorismo, o Ocidente capitaneado pelos EUA passou a justificar novas guerras e semear novas formas de terror, a estigmatizar povos inteiros por suas etnias e culturas e a perseguir violentamente os imigrantes. Armou-se sem hesitar para combater justamente a diversidade que o FSM nasceu para celebrar.

Contra tudo isso, as lutas reunidas no FSM conseguiram impulsionar mudanças e apontar caminhos. hoje seriamente ameaçados. Na América Latina, em especial, foram possíveis experiências mais democráticas, de ascensão de forças populares, de indígenas e trabalhadores, ou mais progressistas, aos governos. E contra as quais também se organizaram todas as forças conservadoras.

Com as primeiras edições em Porto Alegre (2001, 2202, 2003 e 2005), o FSM percorreu o mundo com encontros em Mumbai, Caracas, Karashi, Bamako, Nairobi, Belém, Dacar, Tunis e Montreal. Além de edições temáticas, regionais, continentais.

Ao Norte da África, a construção de duas edições mundiais foi parte dos acontecimentos da chamada Primavera Árabe. No Canadá, têve pela primeira vez sua realização em um país do Norte, com forte protagonismo da juventude.

O FSM volta ao Brasil após uma fase de intensos debates sobre o futuro das lutas sociais e do próprio processo FSM, com a perspectiva de servir aos movimentos de resistência contra o avanço das forças neoliberais e suas investidas contra as jovens democracias na América Latina.  Próxima etapa: março de 2018.

Leia também a Carta de Princípios do Fórum Social Mundial

The World Social Forum was created in 2001 by organizations and social movements that were self summoned and mobilized for a huge meeting in Porto Alegre, in opposition to the neoliberalism represented by the World Economic Forum, which took place at the same time in Davos, in Switzerland.

Participants discussed ways to confront the dictatorship of the financial system, the imperialism of transnational corporations, the oppression of authoritarian regimes, the enslavement by the media, the culture of patriarchy and racism. They discussed alternative proposals for building more just and sovereign societies, access to knowledge and technologies and protection of the planet’s resources. It was the first great meeting of the diversity of the many libertarian struggles, bringing together historical movements and self-organized youth. Thousands of workshops and conferences have put in debate the dilemmas, projects and utopias of the turn of the millennium.

In opposition to the single thought proposed by the Davos Forum, the meeting in Porto Alegre announced that Another World is Possible.

The world events that followed the first WSF have clashed with humanity’s longings for peace. In the same year 2001 the Twin Towers came down. And in the name of fighting terrorism, the US-led West has come to justify new wars and sow new forms of terror, to stigmatize entire peoples by their ethnicity and cultures, and to violently persecute immigrants. It armed himself without hesitation to fight precisely the diversity that the WSF celebrated.

Against all this, the movements and struggles gathered at the WSF were able to drive changes and show alternative paths which are now seriously threatened. In Latin America, in particular, more democratic experiences were possible through the rise to power of more progressive and diversified forces, including women, indigenous people and workers. And against which all conservative forces have teamed up.

The dreams of humanity today are confronted with the fundamentalisms of wars and xenophobia, and systems of domination with their new ways of striking liberties and democracies. The ability to resist is once again challenged. That is why organizations and movements aligned with the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum once again join together to gather their diversity of struggles and join forces for resistance.

Salvador 2018 will be the meeting point: horizontal, self-managed and determined. If you agree with the WSF Charter of Principles, you are already a part of it. Get involved either in person or from the distance. The Salvador meeting will be networked, with everyone who wants to participate.

Read the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum