Listen 7:00- 8:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest David Kubiak.
Listen 8:00- 9:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guests Carol Bonvin.
World Social Forum 2008 "Another World is Possible!" has been the theme of the World Social Forum for many years. While the first gathering in Brazil took place in January 2001, drawing thousands of people from hundreds of countries, united in opposition to the policies of the World Economic Forum, World Bank, IMF, WTO, militarism, over the years it has evolved, has been held in different places, including India, Africa and Venezuela. This year it is calling for a Global Day of Action! And people are organizing different events, actions, conferences all over the world.
"The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. This definition is in its Charter of Principles, the WSF’s guiding document."
"The World Social Forum is also characterized by plurality and diversity, is non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party. It proposes to facilitate decentralized coordination and networking among organizations engaged in concrete action towards building another world, at any level from the local to the international, but it does not intend to be a body representing world civil society. The World Social Forum is not a group nor an organization."
David Kubiak, International Campaign advisor for 911Truth.org, and long time, anti-corporate-globalization activist, is one of the organizers of The Independent Media Strategy Summit whose mission is a critical part of the social change that we are working towards the PURPOSE of the Summit-
"A collaborative gathering of media veterans, scholars, activists & whistleblowers to assess and marshal our most powerful messages to rectify history, awaken a critical mass, and effectively expose the accelerating corporate coup d'état."
VISION
"Truth movements that arise after pivotal events like electoral fraud, 9/11, key assassinations, false flag ops and casus belli fabrications can/should become more than forensic inquiries into a single heinous crime. They can also strive to expose wider patterns of illicit control, deception and propaganda, and use their revelations to rouse entire societies to reject a malignant status quo.
"Consequently, this is not a media conference to dissect or condemn the conglomerates, demand reforms, or even celebrate the increasing vigor of independent journalism. It is intended as a strategy session for already active and influential players to coordinate their most revealing messages, forge tactical alliances, innovate new distribution technologies, and mutually enhance each others' strongest work."
Carol Bonvin is Swiss-American and her interest in global social and economic policy stems from her travels and fascination with people, places and world affairs. For years she has been a global justice activist and belongs to Attac, a widespread civil society movement primarily in Europe. The main objective of Attac is to analyze aspects of free trade and neoliberalism and their large negative impact on basic human rights, to carry out public awareness campaigns and to develop and promote alternatives.
THE OTHER DAVOS Social Forum and Conference will be held in
Zurich, Switzerland, January 26, 2008
Zurich, a center of high finance, is the gateway each year to the mountain resort of Davos where the World Economic Forum takes place. As is widely known, the World Social Forum was launched in 2001 as a counterweight to this very gathering of the economic and political world elite, who never have been given a mandate by the world citizens to take decisions with little to no scrutiny by those whom the decisions impact.
Since this year was part of the WSF Global Action Day, we made it a special edition and included an afternoon social forum. We gave it a special title as well: “Aboard the “M.S Neoliberalism”: Pleasure Cruise or Piracy? Why this choice?
The neoliberal economic model is more and more like a cruise ship -- increasingly elitist and excessive, a façade of luxury and opulence, pretending the whole globe is its home, non-sustainable, ecologically damaging and dependent on labor and resource exploitation, but sold to everyone as wonderful, restorative and accessible to all.
In order to expose the dishonesty of this model, we thought we’d invite the public for a satirical cruise. Aboard the M.S Neoliberalism, there were stands such as the weather station (about turbulences in the financial markets), the pilot's bridge (about the neoliberal elite and the institutions they use to navigate, such as the IMF and World Bank), the service personnel's chamber (about labor exploitation), the tax-free shop (about the free movement of goods and the WTO), the tax haven (about tax [in]justice), ports of call (about different developing countries), the lifeboats (alternatives to neoliberal capitalism) and a dining hall with an incredible buffet (about food overproduction in industrialized countries and how it challenges food sovereignty in developing countries). People could go from 1st class all the way to the depths where the poor people work for the rich.
Speakers Susan George, Christian Felber, Rita Schiavi and Jean Ziegler will point out better horizons and launch lively discussions.
