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*From:* jasper teunissen <jasperteunissen at hotmail.com>
*Date:* 10 april 2015 14:09:54 CEST
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*Subject:* *[WSF-Discuss] Fw: Advancing Global Solidarity in Tunis and
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/

Weekend Edition April 10-12, 2015
Scenes From the World Social Forum
Advancing Global Solidarity in Tunis and Beyond
by BENNY KURUVILLA and SUSANA BARRIA

*The World Social Forum continues to be the pivotal global venue for left
and progressive forces to advance struggles and create internationalist
alliances to make another world possible. **Benny Kuruvilla and Susana
Barria [1]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/#_ftn1>
report from the 2015 Tunis WSF on the challenges of the unfinished
revolution in Tunisia, solidarity with Palestine and Greece and how the new
innovative space of convergence assemblies provided concrete plans for
activists to work together beyond the WSF.*

*Tunis.*

The world has changed since 2001, but many of the challenges that led to
the founding of the World Social Forum (WSF) in the southern Brazilian city
of Porto Alegre remain. In the initial years of the 21st century, people’s
movements were arguably on the offensive what with the massive global
mobilisations against the war on Iraq; the defeat, by social movements in
Latin America, of the US led Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); the
dramatic collapse of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Round at the
2003 Cancun Ministerial and left resurgence in Latin America. In 2015, the
world is a far more complex place with a still unravelling 2008 financial
crisis in the North and South that has left millions jobless in its wake
and a looming climate catastrophe that two decades of inter-governmental
negotiations have failed to address. On the trade and investment front,
mega regional treaties pushed by the USA such as the Trans-Atlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
have raised the stakes for the control of global trade, relegating the WTO
to an afterthought. In the Maghreb, the euphoria and promise of the Arab
Spring have tempered with the rise of extreme religious forces and return
of status quo-ist elements to power in countries such as Egypt. Arguably on
all these fronts, progressive forces are fighting defensive battles – in
defending the right to decent work, defending the commons, defending
democratic spaces and defending social services.

*The UGTT and** Tunisia’s unfinished revolution*

Tunisia, which provided the spark for the Arab Spring, hosted its second
WSF from 24-28 March in its capital Tunis. 4 years after a young fruit
seller Mohammed Bouazizi’s self immolation led to a popular overthrow of
the Ben Ali regime, the Tunisian revolution remains unfinished. This is
despite a relatively successful democratic transition, which initially saw
the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party win elections in October 2011. The
Ennahda regime, despite its call for civil liberties maintained the
economic status quo that saw rising unemployment and skyrocketing food and
fuel prices. It was out voted in October 2014 by the secular front Nidaa
Tounes currently led by President Beji Caid Essebsi and Prime Minister
Habib Essid.

[image: wsf1]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf1.jpg> *The
UGTT office on Rue de Grece. *

‘The outlook for the new ‘technocratic’ Government is also bleak as there
is as yet no sign of a break with neo-liberal economic policies’ says
Mounir a senior trade unionist with the teachers federation affiliated with
the Tunisian General Labour Union (known by its French acronym UGTT). We
meet Mounir at the busy UGTT office after traversing through the crowded
bylanes off Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Tunis. Many
UGTT functionaries are actively involved in the Tunis WSF. The UGTT has
played a key role in Tunisia’s politics since its founding in 1946 and more
so in the period before the revolution when it catalysed the coming
together of groups opposed to the dictatorship and neo-liberal policies. As
opposition parties were prohibited during the Ben Ali regime, the UGTT
provided a platform to articulate the struggles of workers, the unemployed,
professionals and the precariat. UGTT’s various offices across the country
were actively involved in the revolt against Ben Ali and Mounir led many
protests and suffered a broken arm after a brutal attack by the police
during the upheaval in January 2011.

The UGTT continues to be a refuge for struggles. After our meeting, Mounir
took us to one of the halls in its sprawling office on Rue de Grece which
was converted into a venue for an indefinite hunger strike since March 16.
Twenty four young women and men were protesting against being denied jobs
by the post revolution governments despite having the requisite academic
credentials. They were earlier banned by the Ben Ali Government from
holding government jobs due to their affiliation with the militant Tunisian
General Union of Students (UGET in French). A pamphlet given to us by one
of the UGTT lawyers fighting their case reads ‘the fight against social
inequality is the great collective purpose that a nation should fulfil’.

[image: wsf2]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf2.jpg>

*Leader of the Popular Front Hamma Hammami at a seminar during the Tunis
WSF.*

The UGTT was nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
<http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-Who-Has-The-Best-Shot-At-Winning-The-Nobel-Peace-Prize/articleshow/44770548.cms>,
narrowly losing out to the eventual winners. Rooted in this progressive
trade union movement, a new coalition of left parties and independents
formed the Popular Front, which emerged as the fourth largest political
force in the 2014 elections. In a clear departure from other mainstream
parties, the Popular Front led by the communist leader Hamma Hammami
promises not only to deepen democracy but also a departure from neo-liberal
economic policies.

*The 2015 Tunis Forum*

The Tunis Forum, hosted at the state run El Mannar University, began with a
march in the rain to the Bardo museum (the site of a horrific attack a week
prior to the WSF) under the slogan of ‘Peoples of the World United for
Freedom, Equality, Social Justice and Peace: In Solidarity with Tunisian
People and all Victims of Terrorism against all Forms of Oppressions’. This
formulation was important in asserting WSF’s tradition to speak truth to
power. Immediately after the Bardo attack, there was a proposal to hold the
march under the slogan, ‘Peoples of the world united against terrorism’.
However, groups responded by arguing that the discourses, policies and
practices of the ‘war on terror’ have contributed to perpetuate capitalist
and imperialist power. It was essential for the WSF to challenge dominant
narratives and provide an alternative perspective that asserts solidarity,
while challenging oppression and violence.

[image: wsf3]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf3.jpg>

*The opening WSF march reaches the Bardo Museum.*

Tunisia has unfortunately seen an increment in terrorist attacks and,
according to estimates
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/tunisia-breeding-ground-islamic-state-fighters>,
is the largest source of recruits to the Islamic State (IS). Some 30,000
dinars were found in the house of one of the Bardo attackers. Mounir
asserted the importance of creating decent jobs to curb the attraction of
unemployed youth to radical religious forces, telling us that amount was
more than fifty times a teacher’s salary in Tunis. Tunisia’s rate of
unemployment is at its highest since the 2011 revolution with a huge
percentage being educated youth. Skilled but jobless young Tunisians are
fast becoming cannon fodder for radical forces that have the money to offer
youth dreaming of a better life, if not for themselves, for their families,
explained Mounir.

But the Tunis Forum was not deterred by the Bardo attack. More than 1200
groups from 120 countries registered 1074 workshops with numbers of
activists attending from countries such as France actually increasing after
a call for solidarity following the 18 March incident. The most striking
feature of this forum was its strong Arab and Mediterranean character with
significant participation from not only Algeria, Morocco, Palestine and
Egypt but also from Greece, France, Italy and Spain. For many, expectations
were high as the 2013 Tunis Forum was reportedly the most vibrant and
youthful WSF held in recent years. This was not surprising as the last
edition was held barely two years after the revolution, and a few weeks
after street protests pushed the Ennahda Government out of power accusing
it of complicity in the February 2013 assassination of Chokri Belaïd of the
Popular Front.

*Space for regional solidarity and convergence*

This edition might not have had the high numbers and energy of 2013, but it
remained a highly stimulating space for solidarity, exchange and
convergence of ideas and struggles. Palestine was one of the key motifs at
Tunis and the closing march had thousands marching to the Palestinian
Embassy, concluding with a resounding rendition of Fida’i. There were many
workshops directly related to Palestine and it also figured in many
thematic workshops, such as on social protection systems, health at work
and corporate violation of human rights.

The World Parliamentary Forum, comprised of progressive legislators from
the South and North, met for a whole day on March 26 and issued a motion
<http://alainet.org/en/articulo/168650> that focussed on issues ranging
from debt, corporate impunity, migration and peace. Later Hamma Hammami,
leader of the Popular Front hosted a meeting in downtown Tunis for members
of political parties that were at the WSF. In attendance were
parliamentarians and activists from left wing parties such as Tunisia’s
Progressive Peoples Party, (that had recently left the Popular Front),
Socialist Workers Party of Algeria, Green Party of Ivory Coast, Quebec
Solidaire, the German Die Linke, the French Parti de Gauche, the Belgian
Red-Green Alliance VEGA and the Communist Party Bruxelles. In his opening
remarks, Hammami was quite blunt in laying out the tasks ahead –
emphasising that the global left had lost the habit of working together
even as its enemies were coordinating their attacks on the economic, social
and cultural rights of the working classes. Activists recognised that while
struggles are concrete and local, the challenge is to formulate common
positions to create joint international struggles on issues such as
migration, debt and austerity. A young activist at the meeting argued that
‘the Left needs to go back to basics – do politics that is concrete and
grounded and take the line from the youth in Tunisia who have become
increasingly politicised after the revolution’.

[image: wsf4]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf4.jpg> *Members
of the World Parliamentary Forum during the WSF March.*

For some years, groups have realised that the WSF needs to adapt to the
needs of social struggles in a rapidly changing global environment. In the
2013 Forum and previous editions, similar networks and groups ended up with
a duplication of workshops and conferences, which created silos with
networks mainly talking to themselves. The idea of promoting ‘convergence’
spaces between groups and thematic joint actions was quite successful at
the 2015 Forum.

For instance, this process allowed more than 20 organisations working in
the area of health and social protection to club their events into 10 joint
activities (6 Workshops, 2 Conferences, 1 Theatre Play and 1 Convergence
Assembly). This collaboration helped several organisations and networks
working on similar issues to understand each other’s positions, debate and
share perspectives. Working together towards the joint activities also
allowed them to initiate work links and trust which are fundamental for
carrying initiatives beyond the Forum itself. Key issues that emerged
included the need to counter policies aimed at creating new avenues for
profit making in the health sector, such as Public-Private-Partnerships or
private insurance based health system models promoted under the proposal of
Universal Health Coverage. Social determinants of health also held centre
stage, and it was noted by European labour activists that while this
discussion is very advanced in the South, people in the North are only now
coming to grasp its centrality in the new context created by the financial
crisis and austerity measures. The joint declaration
<http://www.phmovement.org/sites/www.phmovement.org/files/FSM-WSF%20Sant%C3%A9-Health%20&%20Social%20protection%20sociale.pdf>
from this convergence reads ‘Our discussions show that the crisis in health
and social protection is in fact the consequence of the global neoliberal
politics. [...] Inspired by our experiences, we believe that the time is
now for collective action!’

[image: wsf5]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf5.jpg>* Groups
advertise one of the many Convergence Assemblies.*

The Greece convergence assembly on 28 March, held just before the closing
march expressed its solidarity with the Greek people fighting against
austerity and for another Europe. The assembly resolved to scale up
solidarity for Greece with a call to international delegations to
participate in the May Day demonstrations in Athens. Further, a Peoples
Summit will be held during the June 2015 European Union (EU) – Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit which will be an
important moment for exchanges between Latin America and European movements
as well as from other regions. On the inaugural day of the Tunis Forum,
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had written a letter of solidarity
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Letter-to-WSF-from-Greek-Prime-Minister-Alexis-Tsipras-20150325-0030.html>
to the Tunis Forum. With the Syriza Government on a collision course with
neo-liberal governments and European institutions, Tsipras knows it cannot
be a national battle of the Greeks alone as a progressive future for the
people of Europe is interlinked with the future of the Greek people.

*What next for the World Social Forum?*

During the Greece Solidarity convergence, there were several calls for the
next WSF to be hosted by Athens. A common refrain was that ‘In Greece we
are doing politics week by week, if not day by day. It is impossible us to
take a commitment that will project us two years in the future’. Given the
formidable logistics around hosting a WSF, the Greeks were also clear that
a global event of this size would be more of a burden at a moment when
there is tremendous political pressure and activists are ramping up to
counter the European troika (European Central Bank, European Commission and
the International Monetary Fund).

The International Council (IC) of the WSF met after the Forum at the UGTT
office to assess the Tunis event and decide on future plans. After the
meeting it was announced that the next WSF will take place in Montreal,
Quebec in August 2016. The announcement wasn’t without controversy since
the IC had earlier agreed that the WSF would be a biennial event. Further,
Canada has a rightwing Government which will impact local organisational
capacity and the participation of activist groups from both the North and
South given high costs and visa difficulties.

Nevertheless, this will be the first ever WSF hosted by the global south of
a northern country and that is exciting by itself. A collective of more
than 140 groups representing labour, indigenous, feminist and environmental
groups have worked tirelessly for the past two years to bring the forum to
Quebec. The opportunity for the global south in the north to participate
more actively in the WSF process is invaluable. In addition, the new ways
of organising and activism emerging from the vibrant movements of the
marginalised in North America could be a shot in the arm for re-vitalising
and re-inventing the WSF. This is critical as the World Social Forum is the
only act of its kind – a global platform for the left and progressive
forces to share struggle notes, strategise and build another world that is
not just possible, but more necessary than ever.

[image: wsf6]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf6.jpg>

*Palestinian activists at the WSF closing march.*

*Benny Kuruvilla is the policy chief of the South Solidarity Initiative,
based in New Delhi, India.*

*Susana Barria works at the Global Secretariat of the Peoples Health
Movement, based in New Delhi, India.*

*Notes. *

[1]
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/#_ftnref1>
Are researchers with the South Solidarity Initiative at ActionAid India and
Peoples Health Movement (PHM), respectively. They can be contacted at
benny.kuruvilla at actionaid.org and sus.barria at gmail.com. The views expressed
here are the authors personal views, and do not necessarily represent the
views of their organisations.

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