BY JIM McILROY
BRISBANE — "If you want to replace the World Bank, World Trade Organisation and International Monetary Fund, you need to create massive movements that are powerful, conscious and raise the social costs for the ruling class", Michael Albert, founder of the US-based Z magazine and the Z-net cyber journal, told the Brisbane Social Forum on March 17.
Albert's keynote address provided a lively and provocative outline of the challenges facing the left in the US and around the world. He drew lessons from the 1960s movement against the US war in Vietnam and from today's anti-corporate globalisation movement.
The Brisbane Social Forum was held at the Powerhouse on March 16-17. It attracted 350 people. It was inspired by the World Social Forum, which took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January.
Well-known US activist, musician and poet Michael Franti and his group Spearhead performed a spoken-word set, slamming racism and the war against the Third World.
Other featured speakers included NSW Greens senator-elect Kerry Nettle, academic and author Sharon Beder and Indigenous activist and author Sam Watson.
The BSF was organised on the "open space" model, in which the agenda for the event was defined by the people who attended an opening session. Participants volunteered to present workshops on a wide variety of topics of interest. The success or otherwise of these sessions was determined by the people who chose to attend them.
Topics included building the refugees' rights movement, opposing the federal government's bill to give harsher powers to ASIO, environmental issues, support for Cuba and a debate on socialism versus anarchism.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, March 27, 2002.
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