Brazil: World Social Forum,
a laboratory of subversion
Gonzalo Guimaraens
The so called World Social Forum (WSF) that took place from January 25 - 30 in the city of Porto Alegre, in the southern region of Brazil, near the border with Argentina and Uruguay, was announced as an alternative from the moderate left capable of presenting solutions that would be "concrete and viable" for the world's problems. However, the WSF could not hide its true face and its revolutionary claws, with the protagonist role from the delegation from communist Cuba, from the Colombian narco-guerrillas from the FARC, from the "liberation theologians" from several countries, from the Communist Party of Brazil and from the Movement Sin-Tierra (MST), also from Brazil, which has been eulogized by Fidel Castro as a new model of social unrest.
In the inaugural session, which took place in the Convention Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Porto Alegre, the Frenchman Bernard Cassen, director of Le Monde Diplomatique and one of the promoters of the WSF, proclaimed the motto of the encounter before 16,000 participants and members of the delegations coming from 122 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe: "We are gathered here to show that a different world is possible."
A while after, when a prolonged ovation was given to the delegation from communist Cuba, headed by Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Assembly of the Popular Power, and an euphoric theater began chanting slogans in favor of the Zapatist guerrillas from Mexico, and from the Colombian FARC narco-guerrillas, was made evident which was that "different world" desired by a good portion of the participants.
After the opening session, the participants made a demonstration through the center of the city waving flags with the hammer and sickle ,showing pictures of Lenin and shouting slogans in favor of communist Cuba, of the Colombian guerrillas, etc. The demonstration included the presence of the governor of Río Grande del Sur and the mayor of Porto Alegre, both from the leftist Party of the Workers, and with internationally known people like Danielle Mitterrand and the French agitator-farmer José Bové.
During the days of the encounter -which was financed by the Ford Foundation (United States), Novib (Holland) and Heinrich Böll (Germany) - there were more than 400 conferences and workshops relating to the most various political, social and ecological themes. One cannot affirm that all those reunions had a subversive orientation. But what became very clear was that the most dynamic and better attended , which gave the tone of the event, were those of revolutionary contents, in which strategies were delineated of "armed resistance" in Latin America. A Colombian guerrilla named Javier Cifuentes, advocated to fight for "the construction of the only regime reserved to carry happiness to the human species, which is socialism" and he affirmed that "FARC is completely sure that the 21st Century is the Century of socialism, is the Century of Latin America."
On various conferences the exhibitors manifested contempt for the so-called "3rd way" sociodemocrat. "We do not admit the humanization of capitalism, but we favor its annihilation by socialism," affirmed the economist Jorge Benstein, from the University of Buenos Aires(UBA), who announced the "apparition of popular unrests in Latin America." A director of the Central Unica de Trabajadores(CUT), from Brazil, made a call to articulate "actions of simultaneous resistance in various continents," such as strikes and street protests, already this year.
A Belgian priest Francois Houtart, an important proponent of the liberation theology, who during many years advised dictator Castro and continues to be a frequent visitor to Cuba, affirmed that before the actual systems based on private property the only way out is "to fight for its radical destruction."
The repeated ovations to the members from the communist Cuba delegation were judged by José Barrionuevo, a well known reporter from Porto Alegre, as "the mayor contradiction of the World Social Forum" because it refers to "ovations to oppressors" of the Cuban people. But that contradiction apparently did not have any effect on its participants. Francisco Whitaker, one of the WSF organizers and director of the Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops from Brazil, while he was waiting for the arrival of the chief of the Cuban delegation, Ricardo Alarcón, said: "The rationale for that support is very simple: because Cuba is a symbol." The Colombian priest Oliverio Medina, who is active in the FARC guerrillas, added that "Communist Cuba is the proof that capitalism is not the panacea for humanity, while socialism is. Cuba is like a sister which shines with her own light. I say this because I lived there." Meanwhile the Italian Riccardo Petrella, professor from the Catholic University of Lovaina, Belgium, interpreted the ovations given to the Cuban delegation as "an homage to the myth it represents, even though the reality of Cuba is not entirely in agreement with the myth. People need myths. If the myths of Cuba and the Che are destroyed, what do we have?"
Simultaneously, the 1st World Parliamentarian Forum took place, with the assistance of 400 legislators from the left from 30 countries, and who announced the founding of an "international network" to assure that the leftist proposals coming from the WSF have "a truthful legislative interpretation."
What came out clear in Porto Alegre was the presence of an enormous laboratory for world subversion; "a planetary archipelago of resistance," as it is defined in an official document of the WSF. No wonder the main trade unions and political parties that played a relevant place in this Forum, including the guerrillas from FARC, and communist Cuba, taking part also on the Forum of São Paulo (FSP). This was created on July 1990 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, by petition from the dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, worried by the dismantling of the soviet empire and seeing the need of jointing the leftist revolutions in the Americas(cfr.Ariel Remos, "Foro de São Paulo y toma del poder en América Latina,"DIARIO LAS AMERICAS, Miami, Sept. 14, 2000). The World Social Forum (WSF) and the Forum of São Paulo (FSP), are two faces of the same revolutionary coin, of an international pro-communist that is getting more active, with extensive "support networks" from all over the world.
Ignacio Ramonet, editor from the Le Monde Diplomatique, announced that "the new Century begins in Porto Alegre."If this bad prediction would become a reality, the 21st Century would be noticeably revolutionary. Whoever has eyes to see let him see and take action, contributing to denounce this anti-christian jointing.