[Reader-list] World Social Forum India, Hyderabad, January 2-7, 2003

[geert lovink]

(from the attac newsletter)

World Social Forum India
By WSF India Secretariat

We take great pleasure in inviting you and your organisations to
participate in the Asian Social Forum that is being held in Hyderabad
from 2nd - 7th January, 2003. As you might be aware, the Asian Social
Forum is a follow up of the two successful World Social Forum events
organised in Porto Alegre and the decision to have regional and
thematic events.

The Asian Social Forum (ASF), being organised by WSF India, will be
held in the city of Hyderabad, in the Southern Indian State of Andhra
Pradesh between January 2nd to 7th, 2003. It is an open forum: the
only criteria is that the participants be opposed to imperialist
globalisation as well as religious sectarian violence, and have a
commitment to democratic values, plurality and peace.

We hope that the ASF will provide an inspiring space where movements/
organizations/ groups/individuals / will come in from all over India
and Asia to carry the message of the World Social Forum. We expect
about 7000 delegates to participate in the ASF, out of which about
1000 would be from outside India. Organisations both in India and Asia
and also the rest of the world, are invited to participate by
organising conferences, seminars and workshops broadly falling under
the themes of the ASF.

Main Themes of the ASF are the following:
* Peace and Security
* Debt, Development and Trade
* Nation State, Democracy and Exclusions
* Ecology, Culture and Knowledge
* Social Infrastructure, Planning and Cooperation
* Alternatives and Peoples Movements.

The events that are envisaged over a period of 6 days, from 2nd to 7th
January are:
* 2 public/ plenary sessions, i.e. opening session on 2nd
afternoon/evening and closing session on 7th morning.
* 2 conferences daily (total 6-8)
* 25 parallel seminars daily (total 50-100)
* Up to 50 workshops daily (total 100-200)
* Testimonials, and open "spaces" for mass movements
* A Youth Camp
* Cultural Events
* Film Festival

The Opening and Closing plenary session will be open to the public and
will be organized on 2nd (afternoon-evening) and 7th (morning)
respectively.

We hope that you and your organisation will participate in the Asian
Social Forum event. More details of the event including organising
seminars and workshops, registration details, etc., cab be found in
the website www.wsfindia.org. Please write to us for any further
details that you may require. Those who would like to be kept informed
about the Asian Social Forum event can do so by going to the website
and registering for the Asia Social Forum newsletter or giving a mail
to wsfindia at vsnl.net

Please circulate this mail to other organisations or individuals that
may be interested in the Asian Social Forum event in Hyderabad.

Out apologies for such a late invitation.
Thanking you

The tentative decision of the International Committee of the WSF to
hold the WSF in India in 2004 was discussed. The meeting decided to
hold an India WSF conference in December 2002 which could also be
organised as an Asia regional event or an Afro-Asian event after
consulting Asian and international organisations - of which a meeting
should be held in India within a month. After this it was hoped that
the decision about the WSF 2004 would be taken and finalized by the
International Committee. The India / Asia meeting would also be a
dress rehearsal for the world event.

A draft statement on the WSF process was presented by Meena Menon and
one on the organizational structure by Prabir Purkayastha. These were
discussed and passed with changes. The drafts are to be accordingly
changed and circulated to all the participants.

The main points that emerged in the discussion on the process and
organizational structure were as follows:

a) The question of participation of political parties in the process
is still under discussion in the world forum, so for the moment there
will be no representatives of such entities on any bodies of World
Social Forum India.

b) The event should have the character of an open event, a space, - a
mood of sharing experience and of celebrating and dreaming together,
while keeping the political focus on struggle against globalisation
(imperialism) and the neo-liberal agenda of the world elite. The event
should have an Indian character and ethos, financed largely with
resources raised within the country.

c) The WSF India awareness-building process is as important as the
December 2002 event, if not more so, and the stress should be on the
building of mass awareness at district, state and zonal levels through
a wide range of activities including (but not only) conferences to
bring movements and civil organizations together on this open space of
the WSF.

d) Although it will take time for the process to become truly
representative involving all the movements and civil organizations in
the country we should continue with the formation of a comprehensive
Working Committee and keep expanding its scope as we go on, including
more people as the local state level processes go forward.

e) All the major networks and organizations, which have agreed and
will agree to participate in the process, should see to it that their
organizations at state and district level are informed of the
decision.

f) Youth is an important segment and special attention should be paid
to this, as also children.

g) The Working Committee should mainly be composed of people who
represent organizations and national networks and they should bring
their organizations into the process. At the same time, it should be
kept in mind that the process should be a mosaic of 'small and big'
and should be truly democratic and representative in time. In this, it
was agreed that three fourths of the committee shall be from
organizations with regional/national networks from which individuals
who have the authority and the time should be invited to join the
committee; one fourth should be from smaller organisations from
various fields and individuals from academic, creative and other
fields, ideally those who have an outreach capacity and can give time
to the WSF process. Gender balance should be maintained by including a
substantial number of women.

h) There should not be a strict limitation on the numbers in the India
Working Committee. At present we will take on only about 20-25 and
will leave the rest for later inclusion.

i) The meetings of the Working Committee will be completely
transparent, and anyone can attend the meetings. However, the
decision-making powers will be restricted to the members of the
Committee.

The following list was drawn up, of networks and organizations and
some individuals which / who are agreeable to take the responsibility
of participating in the leadership of the WSF India process, as per
the Bhopal Document : All India Democratic Women's Association
(AIDWA) - All India Federation of Trade Union (AIFTU) - All India
Trade Union Congress (AITUC) - All India Asian Kisan Sangharsh
Samittee (AIAKSS) - All India Central Council for Trade Unions
(AICCTU) - All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) - All India
Progressive Women's Association (AIPSW) - All India Students
Association (AISA) - All India University Teachers Network - Alliance
for a Responsible and Plural United World (Asia Pacific) - Asian Youth
Network - Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti - Centre for Indian Trade Union
(CITU) - Federation of Medical Rrepresentatives of India (FMRI) -
Focus on the Global South India Program - India People's Campaign
against WTO - Inquilabi Youth Forum - Jan Swasthya Abhyan - National
Alliance for Peoples' Movement (NAPM) - National Campaign Committee
for People's Right to Information - National Campaign Committee for
Rural Workers - National Campaign for Tribal Self Rule - National
Campaign on Dalit Human Rights - National Centre for Labour - National
Dalit Forum - National Dalit Women's Federation - Network for Mines,
Minerals and People - Rashtriya Yuva Sanghatana - Sarva Seva Sangh -
South India Forum for Peace and Justice - Vasudeva Kutumbakkam

The interim secretariat will contact all the above organisations and
ask them to confirm their participation in the WSF India Process.
Based on the above, a preliminary WSF India Working Committee was
constituted consisting of representatives of the following all-India
networks and organizations and some individuals. The names are as
given below: Amarjeet Kaur - P. K. Murthy - Amit Sengupta - Prabir
Purkayastha - Aruna Roy/Neelabh Mishra - Ruth Manorama - Brinda Karat/
Subhashini Ali - Sanjay M.G. - Chakrapani Ghanta - Siddhartha -
Charles Wesley Meesa - Srilata Swaminathan - David Selvaraj - Subhash
Lomte - Dinesh Abrol / Sridip Bhattacharya - Usha Pandit / Sawai
Singh - Jai Sen - Vasavi / Janu - Martin Makwan / Paul Divakar - Vijay
Pratap - Meena Menon - Vinod Raina/ T Sunderaman - N. P. Samy - W.
Varadarajan

A list of people who could be taken in the WSF India Advisory
Committee was read and it was decided that the newly constituted India
Working Committee would finalise the list based on suggestions of more
names submitted in writing from the other participants in the National
Consultation.

A WSF India International Subcommittee was constituted to look into
the possibilities of an Asian regional event, to get in touch with
organisations outside the country, and to handle the international
affairs of WSF India. The members of this committee are as follows:
Ajit Jha,, Jai Sen, Minar Pimple, Siddhartha, Srilatha Swaminathan.

In a discussion on the possible venues for the India/regional event,
in December 2002, it was noted that the only place, which was making a
concrete offer was Hyderabad. It was decided to check out the
following as possible venues besides Hyderabad: Kolkata, Bhopal, Pune,
Mumbai. The decision should be taken by the Working Committee within a
month.

Contact for this article. WSF-India Secretariat 204 Elite House 36,
Community Centre Zamrudpur, G.K.-I New Delhi-110048 Tel : 011-6221870
Email : wsfindia at vsnl.net Url : www.wsfindia.org