'A Better World is Possible' World Social Forum

Anuradha Mittal / Food First 28jan02

Oakland, CA -- While the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets behind police barricades at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, civic organizations from around the world -- representing the world's working poor, environmentalists, farmers, indigenous peoples and others -- will come together at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, without barricades and open to the public.

"Though they say they are committed to improving the state of the world, the WEF is really just a multimillion dollar cocktail party open only to the world's corporate elites," said Anuradha Mittal, Co Director of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy, an Oakland, CA policy think tank. "It's an exclusive cocktail party for the rich to go over the blueprints for the global economic rules for finance, trade, and investment that are being drafted to benefit corporate profits rather than people. From the GATT to the planning of NAFTA, the Forum claims to be the birthplace of the World Trade Organization," she continued.

Members of civil society meeting in Porto Alegre see the World Social Forum as an antidote to the elite economic hegemony of the World Economic Forum. Contrasting the WEF's narrow agenda of opening markets and protecting investors, the WSF will examine the growing threat of corporate globalization to people's livelihoods, while proposing new and transparent democratic structures, checks and balances to create a more fair and equitable world.

"Those engaged in the WEF invariably seek to erect a 'firewall' between economic and social policy, arguing that economic policy processes should not be 'over loaded' with extraneous considerations. The World Social Forum will tear down that artificial and insubstantial firewall," said Peter Rosset, Co-Director of Food First. "The Social Forum is a leap forward in building international coalitions, coordinating strategies, and devising policies that take into consideration the majority of the world -- those who have no voice at the Economic Forum."

Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy will be joining global civil society at both the WSF in Brazil and at the counter-WEF demonstrations in New York. The World Social Forum will open in Porto Alegre, Brazil on January 31 and continue through February 6  http://worldsocialforum.org. Events countering the World Economic Forum in New York will begin on Wednesday, January 30, and continue through Sunday, February 3.

For more information, or to schedule interviews, please contact Nick Parker at (510) 654-4400, ext. 229.