ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE: POPULAR ALTERNATIVES TO GLOBALIZATION AT THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM

William Fisher & Thomas Ponniah, eds. London: Zed Books. 2003. 384 pp.

Amory Starr
Chapman University

From "Humanity and Society" The Journal of the Association of Humanist Sociology (February 2003)

This book, whose title affirms the slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF), is one of the most important texts today. This is the case, not because every word is riveting, nor even novel, but because the analysis and proposals it conveys are the product of the most sophisticated and inclusive democratic process undertaken in human history, with massive implications for all social movements, every field of social science, and several physical sciences as well. This book should take a position alongside the most esteemed scholarship.

The World Social Forum, in brief, is a "permanent process" including global and regional open meeting places for groups and movements "opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, andÉcommitted to building a global society of fruitful relationships among human beings and between humans and the Earth." The WSF was established in 2001 as a counterpoint to the meetings of the elite World Economic Forum in order to "proclaimÉ.that Ôanother world is possible'" and to support a collaborative process of "seeking and building alternatives." The WSF's brief "Charter of Principles," from which the above quotes are taken, also states that party representatives and military organizations are not permitted to participate in the Forum and that the WSF will oppose "all totalitarian as well as reductionist views of economy, development and history" as well as "the use of violence as a means of social control by the state." The WSF has held three annual meetings hosted by the Workers Party (PT) in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre and has inspired many regional and local fora. These Porto Alegre meetings grew in size from 10,000 participants in 2001 to over 100,000 in 2003. The 2004 WSF is to be held in Mumbai, India.

Fisher and Ponniah's collection is the first to emit from the WSF, although the book does not speak in the name of the WSF. WSF organizers collaborated with the editors but did not give permission for the book to speak in the name of the Forum, which "has never produced an official final document, nor has it ever assumed to represent" those who attend. The editors explain that this policy reflects a widespread view of the WSF as "a pedagogical and political space" rather than a "deliberative body" (6). The non-existence of a document unfortunately has reinforced rumors that the WSF is elitist, a self-congratulatory celebration, or that it has already been co-opted. Another World Is Possible should do much to allay such concerns.

The collection is a document of astonishing and radical consensus among peoples' movements. It is also a bit overwhelmingÑwhich is in keeping with the event itself. It is not readily clear how the documents were selected, and they are of quite different voice and type. Some are individual essays (including an arcane examination of Western feminism); others are preliminary documents brought to the meetings. There are collective manifestos, careful reports on points of consensus and divergence in several of the fora and conventions, and some of the essays are case studies of local struggles. But once one settles into the mayhem, it is a glorious spaceÑagain, quite like the experience of the meetings themselves.

There is one massive and glaring omission in the book; there is no mention of the encampments and events that physically surround the World Social Forum. These are numerous and sometimes hostile to the Forum itself, but they have certainly come to be seen by activists as part of "the process." Tens of thousands of people "go to the WSF" without any intention to enter the official events to which this book is inexplicably confined.

Much of the book's contents will be familiar to anyone following the anti-globalization movement. Among the topics covered are: the embrace of measures such as the Tobin Tax; immediate repudiation of third world debt; reparations for slavery; either radical reform or total dismantlement of the IMF, World Bank and WTO; unconditional autonomy of indigenous people; food sovereignty; land reform; defense of the precautionary principle; confrontation of the WTO's displacement of environmental and other international treaties; education and health as human rights; the rights of migrants; the tension between "labour's call for a full-employment economy" and the "environmental call for a reduction of growth and consumption"; ecological commons; and the attempt to extend the notion of human rights more firmly into collective cultural, social and economic rights.

Among the many remarkable and less familiar discussions in the book is the section on "solidarity-based economics." This is an attempt to unite issues of livelihood and small enterprise with participatory democratic practices as an alternative method of achieving economic security and human-centered development. Another is the concept of "styles of well-being," which positions first world norms as little more than an uninformed preference. Such "styles" that "cannot be democratized must not continue to exist, since they destroy the planet on which we all depend for life" (127). Another discussion proposes the concept of the "right to the city." Urban social movements seek democracy, sustainability and supportiveness in order to protect public services, land, housing, sanitation and urban mobility from the forces which seek to transform cities into spaces of "passive individual enjoyment and the interests of real-estate capital" (174). An interesting suggestion was made that those who meet in Davos have only quantitative values while the movements of resistance have qualitative ones (329-31). The book acknowledges some tussling over whether anti-globalization is an accurate term for the movement. The strongest argument here is Walden Bello's concept of "deglobalization," by which he means Polanyian "reembedding," "the de-concentration and decentralization of institutional power," "devolving the greater part of economic decision-making to the national and local levels," and the "reorient[ation] of economies away from the emphasis on production for export and towards production for the local market" (285-9).

The collection also portrays strategic and tactical decisions made by the WSF. Repeatedly, the book's contributors claim that the movements in this "movement of movements" (194) should maintain their independence from states and parties "despite the presence of professionals who are sympathetic" (177) and should continue to be the leadership in building "another world." The novel strength of the movement is seen as its "ability to construct in practice a single space of action that respects heterogeneity and does not suppress difference" (265). Universalized human rights are not seen as a good solution, and indeed global problems of cultural conflict are primarily understood as issues of conflict between an oppressive "westernization and cultural heterogeneity." Oxfam International's (the international development non-governmental organization) proposal of the use of "wedge" issues is an interesting tactical response to the ideological problems of radicalizing people (140). For example, "the fact that essential drugs exist while millions of people die for lack of themÉchallenges the credibility of the global market system" (155). The 2002 Forum included a sub-forum on the "culture of violence," the focus of which was a comprehensive and forthright examination of violence against women as a global problem. In addition, the 2002 WSF made a clear stance in support of the self-determination of Palestine and "condemn[ed] violence and militarism as a means of conflict resolution" (2002 WSF Manifesto).

Based on their readings of the documents, the editors contend that "there are many more examples of solidarity than there are of antagonism" (192). They argue that while there is consensus that "social hierarchiesÉare not a legitimate form of organizing social and economic production and reproduction," the movements do "have mixed opinions concerning other forms of vertical organization such as the state" (193). But as the manifestos and other documents show, the movements have achieved confident consensus on an exceedingly radical program.

For other customer reviews see: www.amazon.com