Saturday 20 January 2007. The opening of the seventh WSF has been quite a spectacular success. A peace march started this morning from Kibera to Uhuru Park.

Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Africa. For those who have seen it, Kibera featured in the film A Constant Gardener. Easily over one million people live there, all scratching an existence on less than one dollar a day. It was a real boost to have the march - an antiwar march start from Kibera, usually westerners would be warned not to go there, but with a protest assembling there was less chance of getting mugged or carjacked. At least 5 Kibera social groups had organised contingents on the protest which was hugely local and surprisingly few white faces were there - given the numbers of people flooding into the city from ariound the world.

At Uhuru Park, the opening event was a showcase of some of the finest African musicians around to day, but some of us had to get stuck into meetings and arrangements for the coming week.

The WSF this year is obviously going to be heavily dominated by NGOs - and western NGOs at that. This comes with good and bad news. The money and the mobilisation is obviously the good part, the politics is left wanting. But all is not lost. There are huge mobilisations of Kenyan grassroots groups and organisations (some even funded by NGOs), and given the presence of so many people the thoughts of Chairman Bono are not going to have much purchase here. It’s a bit of a perverse thought but I’d love someone to get up and try to promote Product Red amongst the masses gathering here.

How many? Hard to tell yet. I’ve heard estimtes from 100,000 to 200,000. But no one can really even pretend to know. The indications are impressive. Trying to get a seat in a bar, or queuing for a cashier in a supermarket or even trying to get on line demands patience beyond some of us - Nairobi is packed, to the gills.

The forum proper starts tomorrow, There’s chaos as the printed timetables have run out, and the proud owners of the few you find are clinging to them like their lives depend on it. The prospect of travelling the 15km to the venue from the city centre is daunting as finding buses and cabs is getting to become quiete a task.

Problems, as ever have come with the programming. The organisers have deemed it fit to put the AntiWar Assembly on at the same time as the Assembly of the Social Movements which means AntiWar decisions might not get considered in the general call of the WSF (but we’re working to resolve that clash). I feel these issues are a symptom of the rightward drift of the WSF bureaucracy and the wishes of the NGOs to have their cake and eat it.

But as the protest this morning proved, the thirst for resistance on a radical basis continues and there’s a good number of people prepared to take a stand against the world powers instead of asking them for favours.

Another World is indeed still Possible.

I apologise for the lack of photos here, the internet connections and computer systems are slow and basic to say the least, will try but there might be a couple of weeks lapse before the joy, feeling and atmosphere is properly reflected on this site.

Guy Taylor