It is impossible to pinpoint a focus or even ten foci at a World Social Forum (WSF). After a couple of days of this fifth edition, back in Porto Alegre, however there are a couple of co.uk themes that are emerging among the multitude of issues, ideas, campaigns and dreams that make up the WSF.
The first, which is not on the agenda, is the fight over the politics of the Lula government and the future of the PT and Brazilian socialism.
Government ministers have fanned out through the WSF to speak at issue based assemblies and workshops on the environment and human rights among others, where they have been well received. Lula made a keynote speech before going to Davos.
The left in the PT, the Trades Unions and the
DO GUARDA Members of Brazil's dairy union demonstrate against the closure of the Parmalat factory parties to left of the PT slogans all over the have organised many town attacking neo-libfrequently clashing eralism and Lula. events to discuss the The PT majority in way ahead, marched on response are wearing Lula's keynote meeting "100% Lula" T-shirts to picket and heckle and and altering the wall have billboards and wall paintings to read, "with Lula another world is possible".
Given the close connection between the PT and the WSF this debate was probably inevitable but unfortunately has largely been carried out as a Brazilian internal discussion and not made its way out into a wider context of learning lessons for the left internationally.
The WSF's official daily newspaper reflects the issues behind the controversy by having a photo of Lula on the front page saying, "l belong here. I am the president, but l am of the social movements" and Walden Bello's article 'Lula, the darling of Washington' inside.
The second theme is one of 'whither the WSF?' At 100,000 strong this is no small event but there is debate about a longerterm role.
Is it becoming just an annual routine or is it actually making a difference and will it be able to continue to do so?
There does appear to be a wide consensus about the utility of debate, the generation and exchange of ideas. But also there is awareness that the attendance is very narrow geographically and socially.
The decision to move out of Porto Alegre (to Africa in 2007) and away from an annual structure (with simultaneous regional meetings next January in various parts of the world) are the immediate steps by the coordinating committee to address this debate and develop a useful long-term strategy. • Socialist Resistance will carry fuller coverage of the 2005 World Social Forum in our next edition. part a response to mass pressure caused by this resentment but there is nothing progressive about them.
Writing in December 2003 Boris Kagarlitsky argued that the political team around Putin was made up largely of individuals who had missed out on the first wave of privatisations in the 1990s.
Their motive for attacking the oligarchy, therefore, was to use political power to get their hands on some of privatised wealth and muscle their way into the new ruling class.
Putin's goal has been and remains the creation of a more centralised and authoritarian state. Recent legislation has abolished the election of governors In Russia's provinces.
They now to be appointed by the President though they have to be confirmed by local assemblies. Other legislation has abolished single member constituencies for the Duma (currently about 50% of the total) in favour of a national list system of proportional representation
A major weapon in Putin's arsenal is that of great Russian chauvinism, weapon often used as a tool to deflect attention away from social problems at home, as shown most graphically by turn of events in the Ukraine. The victory of Yushenko in the presidential
at the second attempt represents a serious blow for the Russian oligarchy given Putin's endorsement for Yanukovich.
Though even if Yanukovich had become president he may have intended to go in the same direction. It was the 'pro Russian' president Kuchma who, with Yanukovich's support as Prime Minister, sent Ukranian troops to Iraq.
Great Russian chauvinism is literally the only weapon that Putin and the oligarchy could now deploy in response to events in the Ukraine, that is if they choose to use it.
But the use of this weapon as a means for example to split the Ukraine on ethnic lines between the Russian speaking east and the Ukrainian speaking west would be an extremely high risk strategy that could potentially blow up in their own faces. Online Sources: Peter Gowan 'The Dynamics of European Enlargement' labourfocus.gn.apc.org/Gowan56.html Boris Kagarlitsky Russia: The elections, The crisis of the CP and the new left' www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/565/565р 15.htm
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