From: Patrick Bond (pbond@MAIL.NGO.ZA)
Date: Wed Jan 17 2007 - 12:50:24 EST
(Sorry about x-posting) FREE DOWNLOADS: http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=BAReader and http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/CACIM%20CCS%20WSF%20Politics.pdf CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement cacim@cacim.net, www.cacim.net CCS - Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs *** Wednesday, January 17, 2007 Press Release A Political Programme for the World Social Forum ? The World Social Forum is widely celebrated as an ‘open space’ that has no clearly defined political programme of its own – other than its Charter of Principles - but rather provides a relatively free and undirected space for all those interested in exchanging ideas and experience about the state of the world, or in developing their own programmes, to do so. Over the past some years however, there have been several initiatives taken either within the World Social Forum or in relation to it that have either directly proposed or otherwise implied that the WSF – and more broadly also, the emerging global justice movements - needs to have a clear political programme. These have included the Calls of Social Movements issued by the Assembly of Social Movements that have taken place within all but the first Forum; the so-called ‘Porto Alegre Manifesto’ issued by nineteen eminent personalities in January 2005; and most recently, and most strongly perhaps, the Bamako Appeal, issued just before the polycentric WSF at Bamako, Mali, exactly one year ago in January 2006. Some documents have been known to change the world. The Bamako Appeal, is seen by some to perhaps be one of those; the authors themselves drew inspiration from the historic Bandung Communiqué in 1955, which announced the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, the first time ever that ‘The South’ had dared take a position independent of the big powers; and others have compared the Appeal to the Communist Manifesto drawn up by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. In conventional terms the Bamako Appeal would seem that it could be such a document, as well. But we live in different times today, with a historically new political culture in the making, with a far greater popular and widespread emphasis on democracy, equality, and horizontality in human relations. The proposals of the Bamako Appeal, and also of all the other documents proposing such a programme, have therefore been and continue to be hotly debated within the WSF. The Bamako Appeal in particular, otherwise very distinguished, has been subjected to intense criticism and debate in many parts of the world and online, both in terms of its content but also of the process by which it was drawn up and has been taken forward. One of the main issues is the manner in which it appears to be proposing a political programme for the World Social Forum and for the still-emerging global social justice movements – but without saying as much. In these circumstances, CACIM (the India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement), based in New Delhi, India, and CCS (the Centre for Civil Society and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, are hosting a major Workshop at the World Social Forum in Nairobi on January 21 2007 to carry forward and join this debate at this Forum, and to mark this occasion have compiled and published a Reader titled A Political Programme for the World Social Forum ? Democracy, Substance and Debate in the Bamako Appeal and the Global Justice Movements The Reader has been compiled by Jai Sen and Madhuresh Kumar of CACIM, together with Patrick Bond of CCS and Peter Waterman of The Hague, The Netherlands. It brings together some of the more important related such documents in history, including – aside from the Bamako Appeal itself, together with its list of signatories - the Communist Manifesto in 1848, the Bandung Final Communiqué in 1955, two key documents authored by the Zapatistas (1996 and 2006), the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum (2001), and also the so-called ‘Porto Alegre Manifesto’, two of the ‘Calls of Social Movements’ held during the WSF (2002 and 2003) and one from a related meeting in 2006, an important Women’s Global Charter, and two communiqués from the Zapatistas of Chiapas in south-eastern Mexico. Made up of nine sections, the book also includes commentary on several of these documents, and most particularly a section containing several detailed commentaries on the Bamako Appeal, by people from different parts of the world, from India to South Africa to Brazil to Europe and North America. The Table of Contents of the Reader is given at the end of this Release. The full text is available online at www.cacim.net and at www.nu.ac.za/ccs. The contributors to the Reader include eminent economist Samir Amin of Cairo and Dakar; Peter Waterman, labour specialist of The Hague; planner Peter Marcuse of Columbia University, New York; Dorothea Haerlin of ATTAC Berlin; Patrick Bond of the Centre for Civil Society, Durban; anthropologist Arturo Escobar at the University of North Carolina, Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire and Multitude; and Antonio Martins, Chico Whitaker, and Sergio Haddad of the WSF International Office; among others. The Reader will be released at the beginning of the Workshop being organised by CACIM and CCS at the World Social Forum at Nairobi on Sunday January 21 titled : Revisiting the Bamako Appeal : Issues of Democracy and Substance in the world movement The compilers of the Reader will be available for comment after the Workshop. At this point, and in large part because of time limitations, the Reader is available in English only, but given its scope and its intense relevance to the ongoing debate about the future of the World Social Forum and the wider movements, we hope that it will be taken by others and in time also become available in many world and national languages. CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India www.cacim.net cacim@cacim.net Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 2433 2451 A Political Programme for the World Social Forum ? Democracy, Substance and Debate in the Bamako Appeal and the Global Justice Movements TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Contributors to this Reader Section 1 Introductions 1.1 The Bamako Appeal Dialogue : An Introduction : Peter Waterman 1.2 Fragments of an Introduction : A Background to this Reader : Jai Sen, CACIM (New Delhi) 1.3 A Political Programme for the WSF ? : Patrick Bond, CCS (Centre for Civil Society, Durban) Section 2 The Communist Manifesto 2.1 Communist Manifesto : Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848 Section 3 Bandung 3.1 Final Communiqué of the Asian-African Conference : Asian-African Conference, April 24 1955 3.2 Outcomes of the Asian-African Summit : Asian-African Summit, April 1955 3.3 Speech to Bandung Conference Political Committee, 1955 : Jawaharlal Nehru, nd [1955] Section 4 The World Social Forum 4.1 World Social Forum Charter of Principles : World Social Forum Organising Committee and World Social Forum International Council, June 2001 4.2 Today’s Bandung ? : Michael Hardt, March-April 2002 Section 5 Call of Social Movements 5.1 Porto Alegre II – Call of Social Movements – Resistance to neoliberalism and militarism : for peace and social justice : Anon, January 2002 5.2 World Call of the Social Movements, Porto Alegre, Brazil - January 27th 2003 : ALAI - Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (Ecuador), Amigos de la Tierra (El Salvador), Arab NGO Network for Development (Lebanon), and others, January 2003 5.3 Seminar of the Social Movements, Brussels, September 28 - October 1 2006, Summary Report : Christophe Aguiton (European March Against Unemployment), Ruli Agus (Federation Indonesian Peasant Union (FSPI), member Via Campesina), Akimoto Yoko (ATTAC Japan), and ors, October 2006 Section 6 Porto Alegre Manifesto 6.1 Porto Alegre Manifesto : Group of Nineteen, February 20 2005 6.2 Discussing the Porto Alegre Manifesto : Patrick Bond, February 22 2005 Section 7 The Bamako Appeal 7.1 The Bamako Appeal : Forum pour un Autre Mali, Forum Mondial des Alternatives (France), Forum du Tiers Monde (Sénégal), ENDA (Sénégal) and ors, February 2006 7.2 Signatories to The Bamako Appeal : François Houtart, WFA (World Forum for Alternatives), April 2006 7.3 Answers to Bamako Appeal : François Houtart, April 13 2006 7.4 Bamako Appeal promotes struggle against market-driven society, Bamako, Mali : John Catalinotto, January 27 2006 7.5 World Social Forum puts Africa up front / Round tables issue Bamako Appeal / Appel de Bamako : John Catalinotto, February 2006 7.6 The World Social Forum lands in Africa : Geoffrey Pleyers, September 2006 Section 8 Reactions to the Bamako Appeal 8.1 The Bamako Appeal and The Zapatista 6th Declaration : Between Creating New Worlds and Reorganizing the Existing One : Kolya Abramsky, May 2006 8.2 Some Comments on the Bamako Appeal : Michael Albert, May 4 2006 8.3 Does Bamako Appeal ? The World Social Forum Versus the Life Strategies of the Subaltern : Franco Barchiesi, Heinrich Bohmke, Prishani Naidoo, and Ahmed Veriava, July 22-23 2006 8.4 Politics of the WSF: A debate in Durban : Centre for Civil Society Workshop on the World Social Forum, July 2006 8.5 Appraising the Bamako Appeal : A Contribution to the Debate : Peter Custers, June 15 2006 8.6 Some Questions Directed to the Authors of the Bamako Appeal : Dorothea Haerlin, April 28 2006 8.7 Comments on Bamako Appeal : Peter Marcuse, May 6 2006 8.8 A Critique of the Bamako Appeal : Steve Martinot, 2006 8.9 Letter to Organisers of Bamako Meeting : Antonio Martins, Chico Whitaker, and Sergio Haddad, March 16 2006 8.10 Some Comments on The Bamako Appeal : Francine Mestrum, February 20 2006 8.11 The World Social Forum and the Bamako Appeal : Yes, but no … : Francine Mestrum, June 10 2006 8.12 From the ‘Conference of the Peoples of Bandung’ to the Bamako Appeal : Geoffrey Pleyers, January 2007 – 8.13 Comments on the Bamako Appeal : Subir Sinha, April 25 2006 8.14 Bamako Appeal Spikes Controversy : Ruby van der Wekken, Peter Waterman, Francine Mestrum, Teivo Teivainen, Ruby van der Wekken, Ruth Reitan, Tord Bjork, Marko Ulvila, February 2006 8.15 The Bamako Appeal : A Post-Modern Janus ? : Peter Waterman, April 15 2006 8.16 Beyond Bamako : The Bamako Appeal and the Maturation of the World Social Forum : Peter Waterman, May-June 2006 Section 9 Beyond Bamako : Many Worlds, Many Languages 9.1 Democratic Politics Globally : Elements for a Dialogue on Global Political Party Formations : Samir Amin, 2006 9.2 Beyond the Third World : Imperial Globality, Global Coloniality and Anti-Globalisation Social Movements : Arturo Escobar, February 2004 9.3 The International Union Merger of November 2006 : Top-Down, Eurocentric, and… Invisible ? : Peter Waterman, Autumn 2006 9.4 Women’s Global Charter for Humanity : World March of Women, December 10 2004 9.5 Invitation-Summons to the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism : Press Release for BA Reader.docZapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN - Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), May 1996 9.6 6th Declaration of the Selva Lacandona : Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN - Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), July 1 2005 CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India cacim@cacim.net, www.cacim.net Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 2433 2451 CCS - Centre for Civil Society University of KwaZulu-Natal Memorial Tower Building, Howard College Durban, 4041 South Africa www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs Ph : +27 31 260 3195
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