Porto Alegre, 24th of january 2003
By Dieuwertje Huijg

I gave myself the goal to at least try to inform you on a regular (daily) basis, about the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where I am now. It seems an impossible task. The WSF2003 is huge. No-one seems to know what is happening where, the program for the workshops arrives the day itself, because the ESF grew so much, everything is happening everywhere.

I arrived on the 23rd, ready to participate in the opening March, with the task to find my friends (with whom I have to prepare workshops), between the 50.000 walking through the streets of Porto Alegre. There were autonomous groups, unions, indigenous movements, different (political) music groups, black movements, organizations from the landless, from the kids living on the streets, from the Theatre of the Oppressed, there were national organizations, there were feminist organizations, there was a huge Palestine flag, and in front of the soundcar, proposing the worker`s revolution, there were we, GLBT movements with their rainbow flag, and I was walking with the apparently attractive proposal: Direito ao nosso corpo, Legalizar aborto (The right of our body, legalize abortus) with the World March of Women. It was a really good beginning. Live music, and in front of the March, in front of the soundcar, in front of the Revolution. They couldn`t pass by us, and that is how it should be.

Today on the 24th, I still havenīt had the possibility to actually see in the program what is happening where. I am running from here to there. In the afternoon I was participating in the panel: "New and old social movements, spaces of confluence and tension, locally/globally", as a member of the NextGENDERation network. In the panel there were members of a black movement (Porto Rico), GLBT movement (Dominican Republic), two unions (India and Canada), Greenpeace (Sweden/the Netherlands), a feminist health NGO (Brazil), and me, from the NG network. Someone from an indigenous movements was invited, but did not appear.

It was great to have a place where everyone could say something on old and new movements, about politics, about inclusion and exclusion. You can read my presentation in the attachment. At the same time I am hoping that this will not be the only place where these subject are discussed. Where the anti-neoliberal globalization movement itself, and the tactics and old/new visions of doing poitics will be discussed. Since the diversification should be inherent to The Struggle(s)/The Movement(s)!

At 6 pm Lula (the Brazilian left president) was talking in the Pôr do Sol, an open podium. The buses were struck, people were running to see him, and of course I took some pictures. It is crazy, and at the same time it is hopeful. He was talking about the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switserland. That unions (Lula has an union past) might have been flirting with the multilateral powers in the past, thus always trying to be present at those fora. But now it is the opposite. Davos is not the place to be (what we already knew!), Porto Alegre is where It happens. Well, Lula is in Davos in a couple of hours, and hopefully telling the people there that that is how it should be. Someone has to tell the international multilateral political and business leaders how things in the world actually are and should be!!

We had a preparatorial meeting about the workshops to be given on the next days. About Feminism and a new political generation, and about the comercialization of the body. What should be discussed, and what should be organized? How can we as young feminists keep in touch, and organize more activities? But another meeting was waiting.

It is incredible how much energy people have. At night the youth camp was the place to be. The youth camp is big, it is full, and now with the sun shining, it is drying (before I arrived in Porto Alegre ir has been raining for 12 hours). The subject of discussion was the construction of an inter/transnational youth network. One should think about an open, horizontally structured network, in which the network decides by consensus. They are against the war in Iraque, they are against neoliberal globalization, and against capitalism. And of course, one should think global, but please act local!

It was already by 22h, and my eyes were falling on the ground, my legs though still felt like dancing on the hip hop in the Pôr do Sol, but of course, first the revolution. It is great to see people from so many countries (eg Latin America, North America, and Europe) trying to unite and strengthen their forces. To find ways to keep in touch. To keep the process (because the WSF should not be considered an event, but a process) going. There were simultaneous translations, and a democratic environment was constructed.