- The WSF was initially proposed as a counterpart to the World Economic
Forum, which since 1971 has been bringing together the elite of neo-liberal
thinkers in Davos (Switzerland). Since the second meeting in Porto Alegre
(2002), it has been shown that this goal has been achieved, as the WSF
is now an obligatory reference when alluding to Davos. And, more importantly,
within this counterpart the character of the WSF as a space and process
of solidarity has been key. This is due to those who are shaping themselves
as the subjects of struggles, movements, associations, and organizations;
in actions small or large, local or national, regional or global. It is
a type of melting pot of the diversity of networks, movements, nations,
and citizens who interact and project their visions of change at a global
level.
- The great force of the WSF revolves around that which at the same time
makes it unique: that it is an initiative of the emerging planetary civil
society that aims to value the practices of civic struggle and participation
in different societies, and to give a global dimension to the proposals
that are born of them. In this sense, it constitutes a great movement
of ideas that feeds off the diversity of human possibilities, in contrast
with uni-linear dominant thinking.
- The
WSF gathered for the third year in a row in the Brazilian city Porto
Alegre in January of 2003, affirming itself as a meeting space for the
deepening of reflective thinking, the democratic debate of ideas, the
formulation of proposals, the free exchange of experiences, and the
interlinking for effective action, in which entities and movements of
civil society that oppose neo-liberalism and the dominion of the world
by capital or by any form of imperialism come together, and are committed
to the construction of a planetary society centered on the human person.
- The WSF sees itself as a permanent process of searching out and building
alternatives, and does not reduce itself to the events in which it is
based. It is a process with a global character, and all the meetings that
take place within its framework have an international dimension. As such,
the world, continental, regional and thematic forums that have been organized
since 2001 nourish this larger process.
- It was with this perspective that it was agreed that the first Social
Forum of the Americas would take place in Quito, Ecuador, from July 25
to 30, 2004. This decision implies a symbolic recognition: Ecuador is
a country where the presence of the indigenous movement, which has to
its name centuries of resistance and is today one of the most organized
on the continent. Since 2001, the social organizations and citizens committed
to these causes have given to the Ecuadorian Chapter of the WSF, the agency
responsible for the logistic organization of the SFA 2004. It consists
of a pluralistic and diverse grouping, incorporating different sectors
of the social movement: indigenous peoples, peasants, women, union workers,
youth, lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT), environmentalists,
human rights workers, churches, mass communications, and centers of study,
amongst others.
