World Social Forum Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting held by members of the alternative globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and around many different issues. It tends to meet in January when its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The first WSF was organized by a lot of alternative globalization movement, like the French Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC). The WSF had been sponsored, in part, by the Porto Alegre government, direct by Brazilian Worker's Party (PT). It was held from January 25 to January 30, 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, one of the PT's strongholds. 12,000 people attended from around the world.
The second WSF, also held in Porto Alegre from January 31st to February 5th, 2002, had over 12,000 official delegates representing people from 123 countries, 60,000 attendees, 652 workshops, and 27 talks. One famous speaker was United States dissident Noam Chomsky.
The third WSF was again held in Porto Alegre, in January 2003. There were many parallel workshops, including, for example the Life After Capitalism workshop, which proposed focussed discussion on non-communist, non-capitalist, participative possibilities for different aspects of social, political, economic, communication structures [1].
The fourth WSF was held in Mumbai, India, from 16-21 January 2004. The attendance was expected to be 75,000 and it shot over by thousands. The cultural diversity was one notable aspect of the forum. The other notable decision that was taken was the stand on Free Software. One of the key speakers at the WSF 2004 was Joseph Stiglitz.
The fifth World Social Forum for 2005 will be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil between January 26-31.
The WSF has prompted the organising of many regional social forums, including the European Social Forum, the Asian Social Forum and the European Education Forum. All social forums adhere to the drawn up by the World Social Forum.