"Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World" Is Holding a Forum for Ten Days

For more than ten years, the "Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World" has organized a large number of meetings and debates among organizations and among citizens involved in a variety of organizations, professions, or functions, as well as in national or local bodies.

The work accomplished within these many networks has resulted in proposals, which in essence are scenarios of alternatives for the planet.

More than 400 distinguished persons from 125 countries and 25 different social and professional spheres are in Lille (France) to discuss these scenarios within a general forum from December 2 to 10, 2001.

This is not a summit meeting, but a broad deliberation among participants from different regions and socioprofessional cultures, not to negotiate their interests, but on the contrary to share their thoughts, their projects, and their expectations. They are all joined by the same concern: to promote "another form of globalization," which is responsible, plural, and united in solidarity and which is designed on the basis of citizens' interests.

The debates in Lille were prepared at a number of previous theme-based or regional meetings. The socioprofessional groups drafted proposals. These are summarized in documents called "breakthroughs," which are available on the Alliance Web site
http://www.alliance21.org/proposals , where they can be read and commented upon.

The World Citizens Assembly in Lille is to produce, on the basis of the work achieved by the different groups present there, a new set of improved proposals that will be contributed to future global debates, starting with the Second World Social Forum of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2002.

This is the first of a series of daily releases. A summary of the debates and of the proposals will be published here every day. It will be produced by a group of student observers and journalists who will be continuously attending the debates.