Image by Jess Hurd

The very first thing to hit you when you enter Nesco Grounds, the enormous area where WSF was held, is the feeling of taking part in a massive meaningful festival.

There is a fantastic energy coming from the tens of thousands of people who have all come here from all over the world to participate in seminars, workshops and to discuss and be a part of the global movement. You will find everything from the Dalit-movement (working for the rights of those without caste or from low caste), numerous tribal- or Adivasigroups (indigenous people in India) to childworkers and trade unions, all fighting for their rights. Everywhere you see banners and posters followed by hundreds of people demonstrating around the area, some with rhyming chants and slogans, others singing and dancing to promote their cause.

Well over 100 000 activists came together at the fourth World Social Forum and pulled the attention of the world to Mumbai on the west coast of India, a very suitable place to host the event. India has over one billion people, which makes out over 1/5 of the world’s population. The vast majority lives in immense poverty, something which is very clear in all cities and villages. But it is also a country with enormous wealth, and multimillionaires who have made huge benefits from the political development in the country during the last 13 years. Opening up of the country’s economy to the world market, privatization of state-owned companies and general cuts in welfare has forced many millions of people to leave the countryside in search of a better life in the bigger cities. Most of them end up in the slums together with the rest of the vast numbers of unemployed that the development of the last decade has generated.

The opening of the WSF on January 16th was held on a large open-air stage where approximately 60 000 people had gathered to listen to the opening-speeches by Lakshmi Sehgal, Arundhati Roy and Jeremy Corbyn amongst others. There were also speakers from Iran, Iraq and Palestine. Lakshmi Sehgal, over 90 years old, is a veteran from the liberation struggle in India and very popular as one of the first female leaders in the movement. Arundhati Roy put the focus mainly on resisting “the project for a new American century” and the most bloody face of imperialism, the occupation of Iraq - We must not only support the resistance, we must be the resistance in Irak!

During the whole of the forum there was an own Activists anti-war assembly, arranged by anti-war organizations from all over the world. This assemblt included a whole-day strategy discussion on the 19th. Most of the participants in the meeting agreed that the US is now more dangerous then ever, even though we got far thanks to the resistance on 15th february and during the war. What we must now is to gather our strengths and make March 20 a global day of mobilization against the occupation of Iraq and the “war against terror”.

For anyone who was at the WSF there can be no doubt that the movement is growing in India and the rest of the world. To see so many people from so different backgrounds come together to discuss and cooperate is an enormous inspiration and truly strengthens the belief that “Another world IS possible”.

by Alex T. Sen and Amanda Dybeck