Development Support Center for Consultancy and Training (DSC) - Porto Alegre: Globalization against Globalization

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Porto Alegre: Globalization against Globalization

The protest movement against the Global Trade Conference which started in Seattle in the late nineties, inspired the Porto Allegro initiative; the initiative attempted to provide another alternative to development. It tried to present the world with a different kind of globalization that would stand against the globalization of capitalism and militarization. In that context the World Social Forum came as a forum for all people, a free space where they can express their common visions, dreams, and their position to Dafos, the Economic Forum as a forum for the world decision makers. The World Social Forum raised for the first time in human history slogans that express the collective refusal of peoples to the current system, and their craving for another just one, economically, politically, socially, and environmentally. Such slogans present the main principles of the desired new world: “another world is possible”, “human before profit”, “justice against monopoly”, “participation against hegemony”, “democracy for all”, “just market against free market”, “healthy environment against pollution”, “international democratic relations against militarization”.

The essence of Porto Allegro is about resistance and opposition to neo-liberalism, and market monopoly, where profit becomes the ultimate aim of humanity. The significance of the World Forum is apparent in the collective expression of participants of a wide range of different organizations, individuals, political parties, syndicates, civil society activists and NGOs working in all fields of development, and carrying different ideologies, from all countries and cultures.

As the Development Support Center’s mission is to contribute to the development of NGOs and civil society movement in order to efficiently be able to carry their role towards a democratic society, where people participate in the process of decision making, the World Social Forum comes as a collective step towards that goal. In that context the Center is publishing a book, whose aim is to document and analyze such an experience and discern the lessons with the aim of enhancing the experience of the civil society movement in the region.

Book Contents:
Introduction: days in Brazil
Chapter one: Globalization against Globalization
Chapter two: Social Movements and Neo-Liberalism
Chapter three: Organizational Framework: Democratic Space for Speech
Chapter Four: Strategy of Alternatives
Chapter Five: The Social Movement Issues…The Party…The State
Chapter Six: The Closing Lecture
Chapter Seven: 15th February Demonstrations: A New History For Humanity
Chapter Eight: The Impact of Advocacy Campaigns on the Militarization of Globalization