21 January, 2010At a World Social Forum event in Porto Alegre in January 2010, civil society groups will seek alternatives to neo-liberal policies and reflect on ten years of work.
GLOBAL: Celebrating its tenth year of existence, the World Social Forum (WSF), will take place in 2010 in a permanent way all year-round with at least 27 regional, national and local events throughout the world during the year.
Opening this process, the regional event "Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum", which is going to happen from January 25 to 29, 2010 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have over 500 decentralized activities in the cities of Porto Alegre, Gravataí, Canoas, São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo and Sapiranga.
One of the main activities of the Greater Porto Alegre Social Forum is the international seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world", which aims to examine the new challenges of alter-globalist civil society and to design future directions to be followed by the WSF. It also aims to provide a more systematic reflection on what has been done thus far, including mistakes and successes.
The WSF is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations can engage in a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. Many trade unions affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation will take part in WSF activities throughout the year.
The dates of the 2010 Porte Alegre event overlap with the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, taking place from January 27 to 31, 2010. The 40th anniversary of the WEF meeting will be held under the theme "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild", where organizers hope that the 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries representing business, government and civil society participating will show true "corporate global citizenship".
You can find the complete list of World Social Forum events and activities here.
Go here for more details on the World Economic Forum.