People's Democracy

Jottings From Porto Alegre

Ranja Sengupta

THEY have come from all over. From Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe ... to join the 3rd World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The enthusiasm is great, more because Lula is now there to show the way, show that “yes, if you choose we can do it another way”.

The march, to mark the inauguration of the forum was to start at 5 p m on January 23. From 4 p m people started streaming into the little square in front of the Central Mercado or the central market, a beautiful old market that has been Porto Alegre’s favourite centre of activity.  Very soon the place was choc-a-bloc, with activists, labourers, students, academicians, lawyers, journalists.  Photographers perched on anything they could lay their feet on.

The young joined from the Youth Camp located a few kilometres away and the old from all over the city.  Little children on their parents shoulders, one wearing a PT (Lula’s Workers Party) head scarf, moved along with the crowd.  Over a lakh people joined the great procession that moved from the central market, past the Centro - the central part of town where a lot of official buildings are located - to the youth camp.  Speakers, from atop the trucks that moved along, talked of hope and courage, of fighting imperialist forces that were destroying our world with globalisation and war.  People danced, sang, held hands and the feeling of brotherhood, of bonding was complete. Drum beats that the protestors danced along with, filled not only our ears but did something to our hearts. Made us strong, made us believe that another world is indeed possible.

Seeing my Indian face evoked a lot of curiosity, “next time in India” was the common refrain. “Yes”, I replied, “see you there the next time”.

The question of peace seemed to be the pressing issue. Most placards displayed the word PAZ or peace!! ‘No war on Iraq’ shouted the crowd enthusiastically. In fact in the panel discussion on war that followed the next day, the huge attendance itself bore a testimony to this fact.  Speeches by Tariq Ali and Samir Amin, though rhetorical in parts, drew huge cheer from the crowd.  A woman speaker from the US talked about the protest within America against the proposed war in Iraq and how the families of those killed on September 11 themselves sent a delegation to Iraq to show how much opposed they were of this looming war on innocent people in Iraq. 

The participation from the youth in the WSF has been tremendous. They have come from Brazil and also from the rest of Latin America, and even from the USA, Germany, France and UK. They have added the extra energy the forum needed.

However much the anger in people’s hearts, the misery in their eyes, the hunger in their stomachs, the people in the forum have not forgotten to live and to laugh, and to greet one another with the familiarity of old friends.

And the people of Brazil have been amazing. They have opened up their city to millions of strangers whom they have not hesitated to call their brothers and sisters, have popped out of buses to give directions to non Portugese speaking brethrens, and have bared their soul, and with that their inner core of strength and warmth, to the people of the world.

The organisation, of course, left a lot to be desired - programmes were not finalised till January 24, a day after the inauguration, no printed programmes were provided in English, translation arrangements were quite inadequate in parts. But none of this could detract from the enthusiasm, the eagerness, and the coming together of people who were suffering together at the selfish materialistic greedy hands of the developed countries, led by the US.  The great curiosity in each others worlds, their problems and their strengths made everything else seem insignificant, and made WSF worth it.