The “miracles” of the Arab Revolution: Notes from the World Social Forum International Council meeting, Paris May 2011.

Among the incredible feats achieved by the revolutions that have been sweeping the Maghreb-Mashreq region in the past months, there is one that perhaps won’t make the news but is not less remarkable.  At the International Council meeting of the World Social Forum, held in Paris between the 25^th and the 27^th of May, presenting the work of the Expansion Commission, tasked with deciding the next venue of the WSF global event, its spokesperson told his colleagues the following. Never before, in the history of the WSF (whose first edition was held in Brazil in 2001), the decision regarding the venue of the next event had been so quickly taken with absolute consensus. The decision followed days of intense reflections and deep analysis of the regional events of the past months.

For a Cosmopolitan Social Science: lessons from the “Arab Spring”.

Dubbed by the global media the Arab Spring, the Arab Awakening, the Arab revolution and often by activists the Arab Intifada, the wave of protests that started in Tunisia in December 2010 spread like wildfire through Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and on to Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Syria and Libya. The multiple denominations allude to the difficulties to make clear sense of the large social phenomena that are currently taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. In order to learn more about the struggles, the demands and the people involved I joined, in April, a solidarity caravan of civil society activists from thirteen countries and three continents who travelled across Tunisia. Interacting with activists and citizens involved in the uprising and engaged in the reconstruction of a wounded society allowed the members of the caravan to add flesh and soul to the too often abstract debates that have been sweeping the global mediascape.

Liquidated. An Ethnography of Wall Street by Karen Ho

This groundbreaking ethnography of Wall Street was inspired by a paradox: the profound disjuncture between the interests of American corporations and those of their employees. She queried therefore the rationale behind the downsizings imposed by Wall Street and supported by the instrumental ideology of shareholder value. Further she explores the relationships between layoffs, corporate profits and stock prices. She discovered that the rationalisation of overgrown and inefficient corporations did not positively correlate to a long term increase in shareholder value and would not generate the expected growth of the labour market which would follow the brief (but painful) shock therapy. Such initial recognition of the paradoxical mismatch between stated claims and actual results by Wall Street bankers led her to investigate the broader mechanisms through which Wall Street makes markets in the face of recurrent failures in achieving its stated goals.

Glimpses of the Tunisian Revolution: The Victory of Dignity over Fear

“You can tear a flower but you can’t stop spring from coming!”
(An activist in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia)
 

The African Social Forum, continental Chapter of the World Social Forum (WSF), has convened a solidarity caravan across Tunisia from the 1^th to the 5^th of April to meet the women and men that ignited the transformations that now affect several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Dubbed by mainstream media the Arab Spring (though it started in December), the wave of protests started in Tunisia spread like wildfire through Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and on to Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia (briefly, or so it seems) Syria and Libya. The Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings and the ousting of their dictators have given a distinctive flavour of exhilaration and hope to the latest World Social Forum held in Dakar from the 6^th to the 11^th of February.

Preliminary Notes on the World Social Forum 2011, Dakar

The latest World Social Forum took place in Dakar from the 6^th to the 11^th of February.  It was followed by a two-day meeting of its International Council which began the assessment exercise, that will continue in the next months, and reflected on the way ahead for the next two years. The WSF had a special flavour this year. Whereas the “usual suspect” issues of world activism recurred predictably, though often articulated in new and inspiring ways as I will say below, the overall mood of WSF 2011 was inspired by the exceptional success of the Tunisian and Egyptian Intifadas. Activists followed with trepidation the events unfolding and a gift from fate (may the aulic tone be excused) that on the day of the closing ceremony Hosni Mubarak finally gave in and fled in front of the unrelenting, un-intimidated and growingly confident crowds of Egyptian citizens that washed the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and all Egypt of the grim remains of thirty years of brutal dictatorship.

Bringing down the walls

by Taran Khan

One of the innovations of WSF 2011 is the Dakar Expanded format, which saw events being linked to different parts of the world through Skype and the internet. On the campus itself, things were a little different, with the battle for space reaching a new high. As different groups often found themselves allotted the same room, the Forum moved from ‘open space’ to ‘where’s that space’ to ‘grab that space’. (There are rumours of rooms with enough space for discussions, air conditioning and simultaneous translations. We haven’t seen them yet.)

The case of the missing Afghan

by Taran Khan

Headline: Has anyone seen Afghanistan at the Forum? I haven’t, at least not yet, and I’ve looked. Granted, I may have been looking in the wrong places, or perhaps its been addressed in broader based anti-war/anti occupation events. But I cant escape the niggling feeling of discomfort at this relative invisibility, even if it is incidental, and an outcome of the location and thematic preoccupations of this Forum.

Between University Campus and Banlieue… with an eye on Egypt.

As the forum finds a more regular pace than the halting initial, commotion and emotion is brought by dramatic confrontations between supporters of the Saharawis people and Moroccan activists allegedly on the books of the Moroccan Interior Ministry who forcefully impeded that an event to which two European parliamentarians were participating could take place. Yesterday afternoon the organisers of the forum gave a passionate press conference to engage a troubled audience indeed shocked that such events could happen in a social forum.

May the dances begin. The opening march at the World Social Forum 2011.

The World Social Forum 2011, opened officially yesterday, after days of informal and preparatory events to the biannual convention, with a march that sealed the hopes of success and the excited mood that had been mounting in the Senegalese capital in the past days. A sea of diverse humanity, waved through the streets between the headquarters of the national television and the central avenue of the University campus. The march yesterday came with what the most exhilarating marches come with. A colorful summary of the campaigns, struggles, demands, slogans, ideal, visions, statements that are the global alter-globalisation network. And a wide collection of emotions and a shake to the senses too. Some say we were 50 or even 60 thousand.

Scenes from a march

It begins with a with a few flags coming together at street corners, attracting curious glances from passers-by, and courteous waves from passing cars. As we get closer to the venue of the march, the numbers grow, and the rhythmic beats of music start to give the flags a spring in their waves, an extra bounce in the walk of those holding the flags. And then there are many of us, waiting under the shade of trees, smoking, greeting old friends, talking to strangers met by the sidewalk.