World Social Forum opens in Senegal amid Arab strife

A protester holds a banner reading, "Reducing extrem poverty and hunger''

THE leftist World Social Forum (WSF) that seeks to change a capitalist world, has opened in Dakar amid social upheaval in Arab countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, and protests in the host country, Senegal.

“We do not decide. We analyze policies and we make alternative proposals,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Mignane Diouf, organiser of the Forum as saying.

According to its leaders the WSF brings together all those who oppose “the values of neo-liberalism defended by international institutions, multinational corporations and even governments that leave the majority of the population stranded in favour of a privileged fringe who use and abuse the world’s wealth.”

The 11th annual edition of the forum, which began as an alternative to the elite World Economic Forum held in Davos last week, kicks off with a march through the streets of the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Organisers said for six days up to 50,000 expected participants will fan out across the city to debate and propose alternatives to “the crisis of the capitalist system.”
The presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Boni Yayi of Benin, Alpha Conde of Guinea and former Brazil leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to attend.

African Union head Jean Ping and French Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry will also be present.

This is the second time the Forum has come to Africa since its inception in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001. It was held in Nairobi in 2007.

“Africa is an example of the biggest failures of three decades of neo-liberal policies,” according to the Forum’s press dossier.

“In response, social movements and citizens of the world are joining with Africans who refuse to pay the price of the current crises in which they have no responsibility.”

Since December 2010 popular revolt has spread across Northern Africa with Tunisia’s president El Abidine Ben Ali fleeing his country and Egypt crippled by violent protests which have shaken President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

To a lesser degree, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, is also faced with popular protest, as is the regime of his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh.
And Senegal, a Muslim country ruled for 11 years by Abdoulaye Wade, an ardent supporter of liberalism, has experienced ongoing protests, which often turn violent.

Youths regularly take to the street to protest massive power outages which affect all corners of Senegalese society. Desperate, facing unemployment and a grim future their anger comes as Wade, 83, plans to stand for a controversial third term in 2012 elections.

The Forum comes “at an historic moment when everything is explosive,” said Pouria Amirshahi, from the French Socialist Party delegation.

But, 10 years after the first edition in Porto Alegre, the forum remains a talkshop that has not dented capitalism’s hold on the world.