The World Social Forum (WSF) will take place in Africa for the first time in January 2007 when it is held in Nairobi, Kenya. The holding the WSF in Mumbai was certainly an important boost for the social movements in Asia, especially in the sub-continent. Bobby Wilcox examines the situation of the movement in South Africa today. The organisations in South Africa who are resisting neoliberalism and the worst ills of capitalism have not yet squared up to the task of establishing a South African Social Forum.
While there have been some limited voices of criticism of the WSF- that it is mainly an organ of NGOs, it is generally accepted that a dynamic link with the WSF will strengthen and deepen the base of the resistance movement here in
Since the birth of the WSF various South African organisations have participated in its meetings, most significantly, Cosatu and some prominent NGOs. Recently, the Gauteng APF has also linked itself to the WSF while the Social Movement Indaba (SMI) has formally linked itself to the SASE.
There have also been various public report backs of WSF gatherings as well as discussions locally about the WSF itself.
Why then has there been no concerted effort to establish a South African Social Forum?
It could have been expected that the SMI would be in the forefront of such an initiative.
But then the SMI has been in a state of flux ever since its establishment and it still has to be consolidated into an association of real substance.
What is more relevant however, is the inability of the