More than 100,000 Expected at `anti-Davos' World Social Forum in Brazil
By ALAN CLENDENNING | Associated Press 01/23/2003 Italian activist Vittorio Agnoletto speaks with Italian delegates before the opening of the 3rd World Social Forum in Brazil. The forum is an annual protest against the World Economic Forum held simultaneously in Davos, Switzerland. AP | Giuseppe Bizzarri ORTO ALEGRE, Brazil —As thousands of anti-globalization activists lounged near bright red banners espousing socialism, Chilean teacher Claudio Alfaro lashed out at U.S. President George W. Bush. Alfaro said Bush personifies the darkest fears of the activists flocking to Brazil for the third annual World Social Forum: Capitalism favoring huge corporations; war with Iraq to guarantee developed countries get the oil they need. "He's as dangerous as Hitler, and could lead us to worldwide destruction," said Alfaro, a teacher who works with the children of poor vineyard workers. The six-day forum begins Thursday in this far southern city, and as many as 100,000 activists will attend the protest against the World Economic Forum taking place simultaneously at a luxury Swiss ski resort. Tens of thousands are expected to officially open the social forum with a march against militancy and a U.S.-led war. In between protests, participants will hold extensive talks on alternatives to tame the excesses of global capitalism. Italian biologist Umberto Pizzolato readily acknowledged the march would do little to deter a U.S. military strike, but said it is still important. He toted his bicycle from Italy to Porto Alegre and hoped to ride it during the march to send a message on behalf of his activist Italian cycling group. "Less oil, more bicycles, less war," said Pizzloato, 36. "I'm sure I cannot stop the war, I'm not stupid. But if you use a car, your country has to buy oil. And with less oil, there would be fewer conflicts." Alfaro, the Chilean teacher, traveled with 16 friends who set up tents with at least 6,000 other activists near the site where Brazil's new president will become the first government leader to personally address the forum. The forum is now in its third year, but the appearance of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — Brazil's first elected leftist leader — is in a sense revolutionary, because government officials were previously excluded. Silva will deliver his speech Friday, and embattled Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was expected to attend on Sunday. After Silva speaks, he will fly to Davos, Switzerland, to participate in the economic forum, which is expected to attract 2,000 business and government leaders. The landslide election of Silva, a former radical union leader, in October was seen as a rejection of the free-market policies of his Social Democrat predecessor Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Social Forum participants say their opposition to American-style capitalism should strike a responsive chord. The summit follows a year of unprecedented business scandals involving multinational corporations. Participants will crowd into a soccer stadium, a string of warehouses alongside the muddy Rio Guaiba and at Porto Alegre's Catholic University for hundreds of panel discussions, debates and seminars on themes ranging from corporate misdeeds to the Third World's foreign debt. They can also dance at a concert by Brazilian pop superstar Jorge Ben Jor, attend Japanese Noh theater presentations or even see a drag queen show. Prominent activists attending include actor Danny Glover, anarchist and linguistics professor Noam Chomsky, and Aleida Guevara, the daughter of legendary guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. French anti-globalization activist Jose Bove said Wednesday he had no plans to create disruption as he did at the first forum in 2001 — when he led the invasion and occupation of a farm owned by U.S. agribusiness giant Monsanto. Brazilian authorities made him leave the country. Bove, a farmer who became famous in 1999 when he and nine others used farm equipment to dismantle a French McDonald's under construction, said there is no need for such protests now that Silva is in power. "Things have changed in Brazil," he said. At the campsite where Alfaro was staying, banner after banner denounced Bush for trying to incite a war. "He's just not capable of seeing the consequences for the world with what he's doing," Alfaro said as friends sipped beer and grilled beef over a makeshift grill. Besides destruction, a war could have dire consequences for the world economy — something the Economic Forum participants in Switzerland should recognize, said Rainer Rilling, a German social sciences professor with the Berlin-based Rosa Luxembourg Foundation. "We hope a war can still be avoided," he said. Forum organizers said the 2004 event will be held in New Delhi, India. The forum will return to Porto Alegre in 2005.