Associated Press Worldstream | By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM | January 16, 2004
Activists clanged cymbals, beat drums and yelled anti-war and anti-globalization slogans Friday, as they geared up for the opening of the World Social Forum.
The six-day event in a Bombay suburb aims to help activist groups connect and develop alternatives to free trade policies that many say are harming poor countries.
Opposition to the United States-led war in Iraq will be a key focus at the annual gathering of peace and anti-globalization activists, who are meeting for the first time in Asia. The earlier three forums were held in Brazil.
"Stop USA," "No to war," and "Speak up against George Bush" read some of the placards at exhibits in a dusty, sprawling field in Goregaon - the forum's venue.
About 100,000 activists, political workers and intellectuals from 130 countries were expected to attend more than 1,000 conferences, workshops and cultural programs over the following five days.
"We have the right to food, to land. We need a better world. Stop war," chanted one group of protesters, dancing on a road leading to the conference halls.
Another group of activists marched by waving red flags that read, "Another socialist world is possible." On a patch of grass nearby, Tibetan monks in red robes sat in a circle jangling bells and chanting Buddhist scriptures.
The forum drew a diverse crowd from around the world; South African women with dreadlocks and felt hats sang peace songs, while Indian village women in red saris beat traditional copper plates and sang, "WTO go back" in Hindi.
Organizers at the forum took the anti-globalization theme to heart, with food stalls barring multinational brands such as Coke and Pepsi. Computers used at the event ran the operating system Linux, which - unlike Microsoft's Windows - is free.
"There's no one single viewpoint here," said Ossian Theselius, an activist with the Swedish art collective, Meteor.
A forum statement said Bombay bore the brunt of India's economic liberalization polices, which it says resulted in an estimated 600,000 factories being shut down over the past five years, throwing some 130 million workers out of jobs across the country.
Glitzy malls and bowling alleys in Bombay - India's financial and entertainment hub - have replaced mills and factories torn down over the last decade. Thousands of unemployed workers from these mills will join anti-globalization activists at the forum, organizers said.
Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Joseph Stiglitz, and Algeria's first president Ahmed Ben Bella are among the speakers at the event, which formally opens later Friday.
The meeting is a counterpoint to the summit of business and government leaders at the World Economic Forum, held annually in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This year's meeting in Davos is scheduled for Jan. 21-25.Associated Press Worldstream:
