Lessons from Porto Alegre and Follow-up …

We are presenting a document written by Chico Whitaker, who draws a few conclusions from the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre last February 2002. Chico is one of the major coordinators of the Brazilian Committee, in charge of the organization of this forum, which has become one of the key meetings for civil society.

The next Forum, scheduled for January 2003, will be held once again in Porto Alegre. It will be preceded by several continental and thematic forums. In January 2004, it is planned to take place in India, and in 2005 in an African country.

This annual meeting is indispensable for bringing together various initiatives working to build citizen globalization. What has become obvious is that the various networks and organizations converging on these Social Forums cannot be qualified as simply forming an anti-globalization movement. The new civil-society actors are seeking to build an innovative citizen globalization able to meet today's challenges. This is demonstrated by the efforts being made to debate the many different proposals these actors have presented. In addition, the fact that these forums are attended not only by NGOs, but also by leaders of the main trade-union organizations, parliamentarians, regional government authorities, mayors, religious leaders of different spiritual families, youth networks, women's organizations, intellectuals, Nobel Peace and Literature Prize winners, etc., demonstrates the diversity of the actors involved in this globalization on a human scale.

In spite of the wars, conflicts, and increasing extreme poverty, citizen globalization continues to progress thanks to men and women who, in the various regions of the world, are fighting so we may live in peace. The outline of an autonomous citizen agenda is in the making at the dawn of this new century ...

Allies were present at Porto Alegre in various forms:
- Participation in conferences and seminars, including the conferences on Economy in Solidarity (one of the conferences that attracted the largest audiences this year), food sovereignty, militarism, and globalization (where General Jean Cot's speech attracted considerable attention), water
- a common good, art and cultural diversity, principles and values (where Siddhartha presented the Charter of Human Responsibilities), etc.
- Organization of street events. A "street conversation" was organized by some of the coordinators of the Sao Paulo Group and of the "Artists in Alliance" network.
- Posters presenting the Proposal Papers and the Charter of Human Responsibilities were put up.
- A team was formed to take charge of writing/translating conference reports (this year reports from the main conferences were published on the Web site of the WSF the following day). This team was reinforced by the participation of facilitators of the Youth Network.
- We held a stand and circulated the Proposal Papers and a brochure containing Desirable News
(see http://www.alliance21.org/en/press/index.html )