By Luís Hernández Navarro Enviado

Translated By Carly Gatzert

January 25, 2006

Original Article (Spanish)

Cindy Sheehan, Mother of a Fallen U.S. Soldier, At a March at the Start
of the Annual World Social Forum in Caracas. (above and below);

— VIDEO PODCAST: An Independent Look Inside
the 6th World Social Forum in Caracus, Venezuela,
Part I, Jan. 27, 00:06:43

— VIDEO PODCAST: An Independent Look Inside
the 6th World Social Forum in Caracus, Venezuela,
Part II, Jan. 28, 00:06:43
[NEWS SLIDE SHOW: World Social Forum].

The Banner Reads, 'No to War and Imperialism,
Another World is Possible (below)





An Activist Wears a Sombrero That
Reads 'Radical Subversion, No to the Capitalism' (above);



Dick Cheney Impersonator Takes Part in March Against
the Iraq War, at the World Social Forum (below)





Colombian Activists Carry a Poster Which Reads
'Because I Love the Life, I Don't Drink Coca Cola,'
During a Protest Against Coca Cola. (above).



A Wall Mural in Caracus. (below)





A Collection of Buttons Being Sold at the Forum (above).



A Cuban delegate Holds a Poster Depicting U.S President George
W. Bush Before a Speech By Venezuelan President Chavez. (below)





Sign Hangs from Caracus Apartment Bloc. (above).

Caracas, Venezuela: With a hasty start, the World Social Forum began its first day of activities today, amid tributes to Shafic Handal, the director of the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) who passed away last year. The Forum was also marked by musical concerts in competition with work sessions as well as discussions about future integration of the Americas and the path that the Forum itself will take.

In one of the activities organized to highlight key points of the World Social Forum agenda, Cuban economist Osvaldo Martinez explained how Latin American elites failed miserably in their administration of continental integration. The project remains an unfulfilled dream, despite its being able to count on the best conditions for its execution.

According to Martinez, the path toward a Continental union has been lost. The ECLAC path [U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean], which assigned the task of promoting sustainable development to the middle class, suffered a major setback. Rather, the path of neoliberal integration has become entrenched, triggering the splintering of Latin America and destroying the little integration that the ECLAC path had already achieved.

[Editor's Note: The "ECLAC path" is the development process proposed by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. [].

Three fateful ideas, according to Martinez, have guided the journey toward integration of the region. The first is to conceive of it as a consequence of the growth of commercial exports to the U.S. and Europe. The second is the setting up of a suicidal competition between Latin American nations, and the abandonment of preferential treatment for smaller countries. The third is the massive privatization of public assets, while meanwhile losing the capacity to manage the process.

According to the Cuban economist, Latin America is now facing an irreconcilable dilemma regarding which path to follow for regional integration: Latin America will either follow the path of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) or it will opt to pursue the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). The first choice aspires to transform the region into a subordinate appendage of the United States; the second strives for the integration of the people, beginning with the payment of social debt to the poorest sectors of society.

From another perspective, Ecuadorian Alejandro Mariano explained that the integration now under way is the result of national developmental exhaustion, so that the challenge for progressives today is to change the global economy rather than separate from it. According to [Mariano], national resistance has transformed into projects that are increasingly global in scope, and the same can be said of political projects.

Mariano warned the audience about the Right's cosmopolitanism [a disregard of national or local needs], and proposed, to compensate for this, a Southern cosmopolitanism - to revitalize the poorest regions in the south. This would be an international movement to coincide with the emergence of a new transformation: of humanity. It would be a movement that by its very nature would show the level of integration that actually exists.

Using "the other integration" as his central point, operations coordinator for the Farmer's Union of Honduras, Rafael Alegria, gave a detailed account of what Latin American citizens have endured. For him, some key moments include the 1992 celebration of 500 years of Black and indigenous resistance; the foundation of the Continental Social Alliance of the Americas and its fight against the FTAA; the foundation of the World Social Forum, and the projects for the unity and transformation of Latin America brought about by Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Evo Morales.

AMERICANS AGAINST IRAQ INVASION

Today in Caracas, U.S. opposition to the Iraq War surfaced to fight yet another battle. Many of those that comprise the [anti-war] "troops" aren't leftist radicals, but rather informed common citizens, parents of fallen soldiers, and soldiers that refuse to kill and die in a conflict they believe to be immoral. They are individuals that are motivated and inspired by their pain. And more than a handful of them have Latino surnames.

Fernando Suarez del Solar lost his son, Jesus Alberto, in Iraq during the initial occupation. In public, Fernando proudly portrays himself as a Mexican by birth and spirit, but American by naturalization. "I live," he says, "in occupied Mexico, within California, United States."

Fernando has dedicated his life to giving talks to young people about the reality of war. He has been to Iraq to give medical aid to Iraqi citizens. He doesn't want the tragedy of his son's death to be repeated. "My son," he reveals, "died by stepping on a cluster bomb, an illegal weapon according to the United Nations. But the Bush Administration lies to me and tells me that he died from a shot to the head."

He [Fernando] has come all the way to Caracas to deliver a message: another world is possible, but it cannot succeed with bullies, or with dictatorships disguised as democracies, like the government of his adopted country.

"I was in Iraq," he recounts, "and I saw children die. Children are not terrorists, nor are they soldiers. They are children. Bush took away my son's life and those of 2,000 other U.S. soldiers. But [my son] was a soldier. His [death] was a risk he took himself. But children? Why are soldiers sent to kill them?"

Fernando is convinced that not only must this war be stopped, but imminent wars, such as those contemplated against Iran, Libya, or Venezuela, should also be prevented. He ended his speech by saying, "We have to fight so that militarism does not triumph in our schools."

Alongside [Fernando], conscientious objector Pablo Paredes is also involved in the talk. Born in New York to a Puerto Rican mother and an Ecuadorian father, he regrets the loss of his culture and history, having grown up without knowing of heroes like Simon Bolivar.

He had the good fortune, however, to have known about Albert Einstein, who inspired him to fight against an unjust war.

Venezuelan President Chavez Gives a Speech
During a Meeting With World (above and below);

— BBC NEWS VIDEO: Anti-Globalization
Activists Meet for the 6th World Social Forum,
Jan. 25, 00:01:52

"I read that Einstein once said that wars will end when people are no longer willing to fight them. I understood then that the duty of a soldier is to loudly resist. I decided to do it in the most theatrical way. I tried to make a scene. I put on a funny shirt. I did this because the media will not cover reality unless it is a spectacle."

Pedro wants to go further in his fight. It goes to show that not only the parents of fallen soldiers protest against the war in Iraq; soldiers and marines participate as well. This conscientious objector in particular seeks to build a bridge between those Latinos that live in the United States and those that live in Latin America.

THE FUTURE OF THE FORUM

One of the most critical questions that surfaced at the convention revolved around the future of the World Social Forum. During a central discussion panel, the Forum reflected upon itself, analyzing its problems, challenges, and the future. Various pundits responded, without saying so explicitly, to criticism regarding the Forum's refusal to pass resolutions and assume a more centralized plan of operation.

Jacobo Torres de Leon, national coordinator of the Bolivarian Force of Venezuelan Workers, a key organization promoting Chavismo (Chavez fervor), put the birth of the World Social Forum into context. When the Forum was first created, he said, it adopted a defensive attitude toward neo-liberalism. At the time, the Forum allowed for the cohesion of social movements. Now, it [the Forum] has taken on a more offensive stance. According to Torres de Leon, the events at the Mar del Plata Summit of the Americas, specifically the opposition to certain Latin American governments to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, showed that imperialism can be defeated, but only as a result of the actions of the people, and not presidents.

A critic of the Forum's structure, Torres de Leon, said he was convinced that the autonomy of social movements is necessary, but also that they "should connect themselves to real movements." With [this statement,] he sought to express his disagreement with the Forum's lack of a defined purpose, in the face of fierce opposition from those who argue that social movements should be autonomous.

Ecuadorian Irene Leon indicated that from the beginning, the Forum envisioned the future and gained strength from its criticism of neo-liberalism. She emphasized the pluralistic character of the Forum by stating the fact that a single alternative does not exist, but rather there are a variety of alternatives. The ideas for change that the Forum brings to life come, she claims, from a convergence of inclusiveness, solidarity and equality. She proposed the idea that the Forum is akin to a "Fair of Alternatives."

For one of the key figures in the founding of the Forum, it is necessary to reinvent the World Social Forum on a foundation of a new citizen-culture, so that both power and the economy can be transformed. According to Brazilian Candido Grzybowsky of the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis, the feverish activity of [activists attending the Forum] is a symptom of its problems; beyond the activity of the participants there is confusion.

"Still," he said, "we don't know how to create a more effective dialogue among ourselves." He emphasized the value of differences [of opinion] over a forced consensus. "We must not fear conflict," he claimed. "We must radicalize the imagination of another world because," he said, "it is not sufficient to merely resist."

The core of the problems that encompass the Forum became extremely clear when one of the listeners asked about the organization's position on the [U.S.] blockade of Cuba, the 5 imprisoned Cubans in the United States, and the U.S. Iraq invasion. Many of the pundits said it was necessary to take a stance on these issues. However, this will not happen: the World Social Forum does not adopt these kinds of resolutions.