Activists clanged cymbals, beat drums and yelled anti-war and anti-globalization slogans yesterday, as they geared up for the opening of the World Social Forum in Mumbai.
The six-day event in a Mumbai suburb aims to help activist groups connect and develop alternatives to free-trade policies that many say are harming poor countries.
Opposition to the US-led war in Iraq will be a key focus at the annual gathering of peace and anti-globalization activists, who are meeting for the first time in Asia. The earlier three forums were held in Brazil.
PHOTO: AFP
"Stop USA," "No to war," and "Speak up against George Bush" read some of the placards at exhibits in a dusty, sprawling field in Goregaon -- the forum's venue.
About 100,000 activists, political workers and intellectuals from 130 countries were expected to attend more than 1,000 conferences, workshops and cultural programs over the following five days.
"We have the right to food, to land. We need a better world. Stop war," chanted one group of protesters, dancing on a road leading to the conference halls.
Organizers at the forum took the anti-globalization theme to heart, with food stalls barring multinational brands such as Coke and Pepsi. Computers used at the event ran the operating system Linux, which -- unlike Microsoft's Windows -- is free.
"This forum will blow up the myth that there is no alternative," said W.R. Varada Rajan, a trade union leader.
"It will also explode the myth that this model of globalization has universal acceptance," he said.
India was chosen for this year's meeting to ensure greater participation from Africa and Asia, said Chiko Whitaker, a key organizer of the forum's three meetings in Brazil.
"There's no one single viewpoint here," said Ossian Theselius, an activist with the Swedish art collective, Meteor.
Perched on a scaffolding with an Indian and Swedish artist at the forum's entrance, Theselius added black and green strokes to a large canvas depicting a gun, tanks and bullets that overshadow crowded shanties and closed factories.
"This is about globalization, about war, about violence, about the right to live," said Theselius.
A forum statement said Mumbai bore the brunt of India's economic liberalization policies, which it says resulted in an estimated 600,000 factories being shut down over the past five years, throwing some 130 million workers out of jobs across the country.
Glitzy malls and bowling alleys in Mumbai -- India's financial and entertainment hub -- have replaced mills and factories torn down over the last decade. Thousands of unemployed workers from these mills will join anti-globalization activists at the forum, organizers said.
Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Joseph Stiglitz, and Algeria's first president, Ahmed Ben Bella, are among the speakers at the event, which formally opened late yesterday. Panels on religious fanaticism, unfair global trade, poverty and the rights of women, children and animals also feature in the forum's schedule.
The meeting is a counterpoint to the summit of business and government leaders at the World Economic Forum, held annually in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This year's meeting in Davos is scheduled for Jan. 21 to Jan. 25.
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