January 18 - 23, 2005.
We arrived in Porto Alegre, in Southern Brazil, a week ahead of the fifth World Social Forum (WSF). We were anxious about finding a place to stay, as we had not booked anything prior to arrival and had heard that this year´s attendance would be about 120,000 people. To our relief, a helpful and kind forum organizer pointed us in the direction of Harmony Park, on the shore of Porto Alegre and within WSF “territory,” where the Acampamento Intercontinental da Juventude would be home to thousands of campers for the duration of the forum.
After a warm welcome by one of the few Spanish-speaking volunteers running the camp, we began to pitch our tent. We were soon surprised by that same volunteer, leading a camera crew in our direction who wanted to interview us and film us setting up our tent. After a few jokes with the crew about their impartiality, they began interviewing me. They asked me questions about whether the social forum is a meeting for socialists, what I thought of Lula (the Brazilian president), and to make some general comments about why I was going to attend the forum.
Obviously, all questions were answered in Spanish, which will win me no popularity among the Brazilian public, who generally seem to refuse to speak Spanish with foreigners whom they know speak English – even though Spanish and Portuguese are quite similar.
Anyway, the social forum is not only for socialists, as there are several anarchist groups in attendance; Lula, in my opinion, has sold out by staying so close to IMF and World Bank-sanctioned neoliberal economic policies and trying to play to the right, even though he´s already been elected on a leftist platform; and I wanted to attend the forum to make contacts for when I get home, meet like-minded people from around the world who share my concerns, and learn a little about the world and whether or not, in fact, “another world is possible,” as they say.
So after a few minutes of awkwardly setting up our tent as a camera loomed around us, we walked around the rather large campsite. In the park, there was already a population of camping groups, clearly marked out by their socialist, anarchist, and Palestinian flags.
Throughout the five days that we stayed at the campsite, the mood was tranquile. The large and ever-growing artesan population began to line itself along the main path in the camp, and everyday, new people, mostly from Sao Paolo but also a large group from Quebec, arrived.
The nights, however, were characterized by barbaric howling, mainstream Bob Marley, cross-camp conversations at 5am, and numerous successive chants in rising furor, though I couldn´t make out what they were screaming about. Strangely, our tent seemed to amplify this unique orchestra – outside the tent it was almost tolerable. We were also accompanied nightly by a mini-ant colony, who were too small to be stopped by the mosquito screen on the tent.
From the first night, one thing has been clear: seeing as the World Social Forum is Brazil´s biggest international event, there is a considerable amount of rif-raf who come to party and get drunk.
While the youth camp was a good option for us prior to the forum, one particular nocturnal event made us change our minds about staying there for the entire forum: the sounds of a lynchmob chasing guys with knives around the campsite at 4am. That was enough. We were not getting any sleep, and we knew that when more people arrived, it was only going to get worse. Whter it did not not, I don´t know.
We moved our tent to a more quiet area after the crazy night. But another reason or our exodus was the massive group of artesania people who were slowly trickling in from who knows where, creating along the main path what Jess calls “the brown mile,” seeing as they were all totally dirty and seemingly proud of it. They were not the peace-loving-hippy-Woodstock types, but (sorry to be so blunt) bums who practically attack you when they hear you open a pop can, mistaking it for beer, and pleading that you give them some. The good thing is that, when you tell them it´s not beer, their eyes and tongues fly back into their heads, and they move on to another sucker.
In our escape plan from the camp, we made contact with a Porto Alegre-area resident named Analu, who had offered to let us stay at her house for the duration of the forum. The only inconvenience is that she lives in Viamao, a city one hour by bus outside of Porto Alegre. But at that point we were glad to get away from the insanity of the Acampamento.
As far as the event goes, the preparations progressed quite rapidly, and we were really surprised at what a big deal the WSF really is. There are so many tents set up along the shoreline and in the area, and in some cases, structures made of mud, hay, and even recycled material set up to house the seminars: this is what the organizers are calling “bioarchitecture,” purportedly another demonstration of the WSF´s “alternativeness.”
There are 200 tents for seminars alone, at least 100 more for the over 1000 participating organizations, and space for the 120,000 expected to participate. Considering its size, you may be wondering what the local reaction to the WSF would be. So far, by all accounts, they seem to embrace it. For one, it brings a lot of interesting people to town for one week every year (though last year the event was held in India). Moreover, it boosts the local economy. I read in a Portuguese-English weekly that the hotel industry really missed the event last year because the tourism in Porto Alegre has never been such that it could never fulfill its capacity. It is ironic that the World Social Forum keeps the Porto Alegre capitalists on their feet each year!
The WSF is getting us really excited about the next week. We are so happy to be able to participate in such an international event, and we are really hopefull that it will be more than just a debating society or a place to exchange emails with big-time NGOs.
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