BY EVA CHENG
The first Asia-wide "social forum" was held in Hyderabad, India, on January 2-7. It was attended by at least 15,000 people. The Asian Social Forum (ASF) was intended to be the Asian extension of the World Social Forum (WSF), which has been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the last two years.
The WSF is held to counter the World Economic Forum, the annual global gathering of big capitalists and governments that has met in Switzerland for more than two decades. The third WSF will be held January 23-28 again in Porto Alegre, however the 2004 WSF is projected to be held in India.
The ASF kicked off with 10,000-strong "people's march" on January 3 and closed with a rally of more than 40,000 participants. The central theme of the meeting was "Another world is possible/Another Asia is possible".
There were eight major conferences held over ASF's six days, as well as 160 seminars, 164 workshops and scores of cultural and other events (mostly under huge tents), all with a focus on issues confronting movements fighting for social justice. A session on "socialism of the future" was well attended.
The ASF adamantly rejected the current US war drive, especially Washington's imminent war on Iraq, and moves by repressive regimes in Asia to use it as an excuse to introduce even more undemocratic and draconian "anti-terror" laws to bully their own citizens.
Although only 780 registered participants came from abroad, the non-local component was significant, especially considering Delhi's zealousness in denying or delaying visas for a big number of foreign participants. The January 10 Hindustan Times said there were hundreds of such cases. "The worst example of this was the systematic deletion of well-known Pakistani activists' names from the almost approved list, including Asthma Jehangir, Pervez Hoodbhoy, I.A. Rahman and A.H. Nayyar... they happen to be among the staunchest and best-known critics of Islamabad's hawkish policies", the Hindustan Times reported.
Despite such sabotage, a number of more well-known progressive personalities were there, including Egyptian economist Samir Amin, Indian left-wing writer Arundhati Roy, leader of women's resistance to dictatorship in Argentina (Mothers of the May Plaza movement) Nora de Cortinas, left-wing writer and commentator Walden Bello and Indian activist Vandana Shiva. The forum was closed by former Indian president KR Narayanan.
Activists from a broad range of social and political movements were also represented, including the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the campaign to stop the damming of the Narmada Valley, the campaign on behalf of the victims of the Union Carbide disaster at Bhopal, the Pesticide Action Network in Asia and the Pacific and the Asian Peace Alliance in Japan.
Although the WSF's initiating charter formally denies political parties an open role in the Porto Alegre meeting and other social forums, left party activists were prominent participants at the ASF.
An Anti-Globalisation Convention of left parties was also held in Hyderabad during the ASF. The January 5 gathering included participants who came from parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI (Marxist-Leninist), the CPI (ML) Unity Initiative, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, the MCPI and the ML Committee.
In his address to the left parties conference, CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya emphasised the need to integrate the social and political dimensions of the anti-neoliberal globalisation struggle: "The 'political' devoid of the 'social' is bound to degenerate into a managerial exercise in defence of the status quo, while the 'social' divorced from the 'political' can hardly scratch the surface of oppressive and brutal reality of globalisation".
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 22, 2003.
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