Organizational participation included well-known groups like OxFam, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders, as well as dozens upon dozens of groups I'd never heard of. The World Social Forum was created in 2001 to counter the World Economic Forum, which is an annual gathering of influential bankers, industrialists, and politicians who have in recent times favored the economic philosophy of neoliberalism. This philosophy is, basically, a return to the historical concept of "laissez faire," the theory that government should intervene as little as possible in the marketplace. We have felt its contemporary influence in the U.S. with such concepts as "deregulation" and "privatization." The minimizing of regulation associated with neoliberalism has its downside, especially when it's found in combination with an absence of ethics, such as when Enron manipulated the cost of energy in California. The policies of neoliberalism, with an emphasis on free trade between nations (no protectionist tariffs) and the privatization (rather than public ownership) of public goods such as water, has had negative impacts in many nations. As a result there is a growing opposition to free trade and privatization, especially when these policies adversely affect the local economy.
As one illustration let me briefly describe what I learned about the landless farm workers movement in Brazil. The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Tierra (MST) was formed in 1984 in opposition to a neoliberal policy established by the government of Brazil that favored large farms or agribusiness over small-scale localized agriculture. The policy was enacted for the purpose of increasing exports, which would then help to pay to off foreign debt. Under this policy 900,000 families lost their land and two million farm workers lost agricultural jobs. These dislocated agricultural laborers migrated to the cities looking for any kind of work that would allow them to survive. On the other side of things, the growing concentration of agriculture resulted in less than 3% of the population owning over two thirds of the land.
The Brazilian government was aware that the process of land acquisition by large landowners often involved illegal or coercive tactics. As a result, the landless farm workers were promised that the government would take possession of agricultural land that was not being fully utilized or was deeply in debt and would redistribute it to the poor. But the government was not in the habit of fulfilling these promises. So the MST started moving on to unused land in order to force the government to honor its commitments. Groups of families camped under plastic tents on the unused land or along highways near the land and waited, sometimes as long as ten years, for the government to keep its promises. We visited such an encampment and talked with the residents. We visited an MST school where future leaders of this movement are educated, as well as a successful MST settlement where organic methods of farming are used. To visit these people and to witness their commitment was extremely inspiring. As a result of their tireless efforts, more than 250,000 families have won land titles to over 15 million acres.
The transition associated with neoliberal policy in Brazil, from meeting local agricultural needs to encouraging export-oriented agribusiness, has resulted in much suffering. The Brazilian economy is not able to adequately supply the displaced agricultural workers with optional employment. What may have made sense to some global theoreticians turned out to be disastrous in its local application.
I was drawn to the World Social Forum because, like so many thousands of other people, I believe that the global wellbeing of people is considerably more important than the wellbeing of multinational corporations. It was a journey to where ideas meet realities and to where a sense of hope for the world is growing.