Who we are
Peoples' movements around the world are working to demonstrate that path to sustainable development and social and economic justice lies in alternative models for people-centred and self-reliant progress, rather than in neo-liberal globalisation.
The World Social Forum was created to provide a forum to discuss strategies of resistance to the model for globalisation formulated at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos by large multinational corporations and by the national governments and IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, which are the foot soldiers of these corporations. Firmly committed to the belief that Another World Is Possible, the WSF is an open space for discussing alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal processes, for exchanging experiences and for strengthening alliances among mass organisation, peoples' movements and civil society organisations.
The first WSF was held in 2001 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. It was here that the WSF's Charter of Principles was adopted to provide a framework for the forum. The annual forums in 2002 and 2003 saw the movement grow rapidly, as the WSF came to symbolise the strength of the anti-globalisation movement and became a rallying
point for worldwide protest against the American invasion of Iraq.
At WSF 2002, it was proposed that the next forum be held outside Brazil. This shift represents the need that the WSF process must reach out in a larger way to the African-Asian region, where two-thirds of the world's population lives.
The Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad in January 2003 was a demonstration of India's commitment to the WSF process, prompting suggestions that the next be held in the subcontinent. A preparatory meeting at Bhopal in April 2002 framed the Bhopal Declaration,which governs the WSF process in India. The organisational outline of the process was also formulated.
The WSF India process will reach a crescendo in Mumbai between January 16 and January 21, 2004, when 75,000 delegates are expected to express their belief that Another World Is Possible.