Denne artikkelen ble skrevet rett før det sosiale verdensforumet i Porto
Alegre, men er likevel meget relevant i dag.
Mvh,
Per
The Promise of Porto Alegre
by IGNACIO RAMONET
The new century is starting in Porto Alegre. All kinds of people, each in
their own ways, have been contesting and critiquing neo-liberal
globalisation, and many of them will be gathering in this southern
Brazilian city on 25-30 January for the first World Social Forum (1). This
time they won't just be protesting - as they were in Seattle, Washington,
Prague and elsewhere - against the world-wide injustices, inequalities and
disasters created by the excesses of capitalism (see the article by
Bernard Cassen). This time, in a positive and constructive spirit, they
will be working towards creating a practical and theoretical framework for
a new kind of globalisation. They are fired by a belief in the possibility
of a new world that is less inhumane, more inclined to solidarity.
This dissident International will be held in Porto Alegre at the same time
as the World Economic Forum meets in Davos. In recent years this has been
the meeting place for the world's new masters, in particular the
policy-makers who set the agenda for globalisation. These people are
worried. They take very seriously the citizen protests that descend on
them every time there is a meeting of one of the world's major governing
institutions. From Seattle to Nice, the World Trade Organisation, the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Group of 7,
even the European Union.
Already in 2000 events in Seattle had clearly made a big impression on the
decision-makers gathered in Davos. As one journalist noted, each year a
particular theme or personality is the "star" of Davos. And in 2000 that
star was inescapably Seattle. That was what they talked about (2). Aware
of the lack of democracy that accompanies the process of globalisation,
defenders of today's economic model are quick to point out that they are
"thinking seriously" about how to modify the parameters and procedures of
globalisation, in a direction of greater democracy (3). And now we even
have Alan Greenspan, president of the US Federal Reserve Bank, telling us
that societies cannot succeed when "significant sectors" perceive their
functioning to be unjust (4).
The "significant sectors" who will be arriving at the World Social Forum
from the four corners of the earth are opposed to the present climate of
economic barbarism. They reject the ethic of neo-liberalism as a step too
far. A new spirit is abroad, a spirit of renewal, and the people gathered
in Porto Alegre will be looking to establish a basis for effective forms
of counter-power (5).
Why Porto Alegre? Because in recent years the city has become something of
a symbol. The capital of the Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do
Sul, on the border with Argentina and Uruguay, Porto Alegre is a kind of
social laboratory, and as such is being closely watched by international
experts in urban planning (6).
For 12 years now it has been governed in new and original ways by a
leftwing coalition led by the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT). In a whole
range of sectors (housing, public transport, highways, garbage collection,
clinics, hospitals, sewerage, environment, social housing, literacy,
schooling, culture, law and order etc) the city has made spectacular
progress. The key to this success has been its "participatory budget"
(orçamento participativo), which makes it genuinely possible for the
inhabitants of any given neighbourhood to define concretely and
democratically where municipal funds are to be allocated. In other words,
the people of the city decide what kind of infrastructures they want to
create or improve, and the system enables them to follow in detail how
work is progressing and how the money is being spent. This leaves less
room for corruption and the siphoning of public funds, and urban
investment is more likely to match the majority desires of the city's
population.
We might add that this political experiment is taking place in an
atmosphere of total democratic freedom, in confrontation with a very vocal
rightwing opposition. The PT does not control local newspapers or radio
stations, let alone the TV channels, which are in the hands of big media
companies allied to the local employers and therefore hostile to the PT.
In addition, the party has been careful to respect the Brazilian federal
constitution, which means that it has very limited political margins of
manoeuvre. Particularly in fiscal matters, where it has not been able to
legislate as it would have wished. However, citizen satisfaction has been
such that in the mayoral elections of last October the PT candidate
received more than 63% of the vote.
In this remarkable city - the site of a new kind of developing democracy -
the World Social Forum will be trying to create an alternative model of
globalisation - one that is not built on principles of exclusion. For
years capital and the market have been telling us that, contrary to the
claims of the socialists, it is they, not the people, who provide the
basis for human happiness. But at the start of this new century, the
dreamers gathered in Porto Alegre will remind us that globalisation
extends to more than just the economy. The protection of the environment,
the crisis of social inequality and human rights are also matters of
global concern. And the time has come for the world's citizens to take
them in hand.
(1) For more information see the website at:
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br.
(2) International Herald Tribune, Paris, 2 February 2000.
(3) Joseph S. Nye, "Take Globalisation Protests Seriously", International
Herald Tribune, 25 November 2000.
(4) Cited by Jean-Paul Maréchal in Humaniser l'economie, Desclée de
Brouwer, Paris, 2000, p. 22.
(5) See Miguel Benassayag and Diego Sztulwark, Du contre-pouvoir, La
Découverte, Paris, 2000.
(6) See Bernard Cassen, "Participative democracy in Porto Alegre", Le
Monde diplomatique English edition, October 1998.
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