Jon Lamb, Mumbai
The January 16-21 World Social Forum followed many months of planning and coordination by the Indian Organising Committee. 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly spoke to IOC member Srilata Swaminathan, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation), about the WSF and its impact on Indian politics.
Despite being exhausted, Swaminathan was on a high at the close of the WSF. "It has been a thumping success!", Swaminathan exclaimed. "We have had lots of people, from all walks of life. We had tribal peoples, Dalits, women and young people. It really exceeded our expectations. The people were there. They were dancing, singing and shouting slogans."
The WSF made a considerable impact on the thinking of the Indian participants, Swaminathan told GLW. "People are not going to go home and allow the world to marginalise them and to exploit them. People are waking up and are going to try to take the future into their hands."
This "political awakening", Swaminathan noted, is uneven. "There are a lot of undercurrents and the IOC is made up of many disparate groups... I would say that 80-90% of people who attended do not have a clear alternative. Many are working on one issue — like the elimination of child labour or the exploitation of women — so they concentrate on finding an answer to that. They don't yet have a 'macro' political-economic understanding of what it may take to create 'another world'."
For Marxists, Swaminathan explained, "this interaction with people who don't share our dreams, who don't speak our language, is a very good lesson for us, as well as for them. We need to open our minds a bit, and they need to be more concrete in their understanding of what this other world is about."
"We weren't only talking to the converted here", she added, "and that debate is essential. While we of the left are very clear on what alternative we want, it is still very necessary to take as much of the world's people with us."
"The WSF has to throw the cat among the pigeons and get a lot of debate happening, a lot of thinking happening", Swaminathan told GLW. Debate can help different organisations campaigning around single issues to work together, she pointed out.
"All these little groups that are just fighting one issue, fighting a problem in a village or a small area, can suddenly realise that it is a much larger problem", Swaminathan believes. "So if I want justice for women, then I also have to ally with peasants. I also have to ally with ecologists. I hope that this sentiment is growing in the WSF."
The meeting has sparked important discussions around capitalist globalisation in India and the role of the country's ruling parties, Swaminathan explained.
"The whole of Mumbai is suddenly debating globalisation... Because of the level of poverty in India, people ... have very little control over their lives. If you don't keep the bigwigs happy, they can destroy you and your family. The big-wigs always belong to the establishment and the right-wing parties...
"I am hoping that the WSF will help to politically polarise the anti-globalisation forces in India. In the trade unions, you can have people who are in the left-wing trade unions, but vote for a right-wing party. Workers are beginning to realise that there is a link between which party they choose and the problems they face — like retrenchments, unemployment and receding trade union rights."
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, January 28, 2004.
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