<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Orsan</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:orsan1234@gmail.com">orsan1234@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 8:11 PM<br>Subject: [NetworkedLabour] Fwd: [WSF-Discuss] Fw: Advancing Global Solidarity in Tunis and Beyond<br>To: "<<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>" <<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>><br><br><br><div dir="auto"><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> jasper teunissen <<a href="mailto:jasperteunissen@hotmail.com" target="_blank">jasperteunissen@hotmail.com</a>><br><b>Date:</b> 10 april 2015 14:09:54 CEST<br><b>To:</b> Discussion list about the WSF <<a href="mailto:WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net" target="_blank">WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[WSF-Discuss] Fw: Advancing Global Solidarity in Tunis and Beyond</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> Discussion list about the WSF <<a href="mailto:worldsocialforum-discuss@openspaceforum.net" target="_blank">worldsocialforum-discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><div><span></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/" target="_blank">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/</a><br>
<br>
Weekend Edition April 10-12, 2015</div>
<div>Scenes From the World Social Forum</div>
<h1>Advancing Global Solidarity in Tunis and
Beyond</h1>
<div>by BENNY KURUVILLA and SUSANA BARRIA</div>
<div>
<p><em>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. </em><em>Benny Kuruvilla and Susana Barria <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/#_ftn1" name="14ca380e646776af__ftnref1" target="_blank"><strong>[1]</strong></a> 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.</em></p>
<p><em>Tunis.</em></p>
<p>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 21<sup>st</sup> 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.</p>
<p><strong>The UGTT and</strong><strong> Tunisia’s unfinished
revolution</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf1.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf1" height="286" width="510"></a> <em>The UGTT office on Rue
de Grece. </em></p>
<p>‘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 <a href="tel:1946" value="+661946" target="_blank">1946</a> 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.</p>
<p>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’.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf2.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf2" height="382" width="510"></a></p>
<p><em>Leader of the Popular Front Hamma Hammami at a seminar
during the Tunis WSF.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-Who-Has-The-Best-Shot-At-Winning-The-Nobel-Peace-Prize/articleshow/44770548.cms" target="_blank">The
UGTT was nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize</a>,
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.</p>
<p><strong>The 2015 Tunis Forum</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf3.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf3" height="319" width="510"></a></p>
<p><em>The opening WSF march reaches the Bardo Museum.</em></p>
<p>Tunisia has unfortunately seen an increment in terrorist
attacks and, according to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/tunisia-breeding-ground-islamic-state-fighters" target="_blank">estimates</a>,
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.</p>
<p>But the Tunis Forum was not deterred by the Bardo attack.
More than <a href="tel:1200" value="+661200" target="_blank">1200</a> groups from 120 countries registered <a href="tel:1074" value="+661074" target="_blank">1074</a>
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.</p>
<p><strong>Space for regional solidarity and convergence</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The World Parliamentary Forum, comprised of progressive
legislators from the South and North, met for a whole day on
March 26 and <a href="http://alainet.org/en/articulo/168650" target="_blank">issued
a motion</a> 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’.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf4.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf4" height="286" width="510"></a> <em>Members of the World
Parliamentary Forum during the WSF March.</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.phmovement.org/sites/www.phmovement.org/files/FSM-WSF%20Sant%C3%A9-Health%20&%20Social%20protection%20sociale.pdf" target="_blank">joint
declaration</a> 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!’</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf5.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf5" height="600" width="391"></a><em> Groups advertise one of
the many Convergence Assemblies.</em></p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Letter-to-WSF-from-Greek-Prime-Minister-Alexis-Tsipras-20150325-0030.html" target="_blank">letter
of solidarity</a> 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.</p>
<p><strong>What next for the World Social Forum?</strong></p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/04/wsf6.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="wsf6" height="275" width="510"></a></p>
<p><em>Palestinian activists at the WSF closing march.</em></p>
<div>
<p><em><strong>Benny Kuruvilla</strong> is the policy chief of
the South Solidarity Initiative, based in New Delhi,
India.</em></p>
<p><em><strong>Susana Barria</strong> works at the Global
Secretariat of the Peoples Health Movement, based in New
Delhi, India.</em></p>
</div>
<p><strong>Notes. </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/10/advancing-global-solidarity-in-tunis-and-beyond/#_ftnref1" name="14ca380e646776af__ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> Are researchers with the South
Solidarity Initiative at ActionAid India and Peoples Health
Movement (PHM), respectively. They can be contacted at <a href="mailto:benny.kuruvilla@actionaid.org" target="_blank">benny.kuruvilla@actionaid.org</a>
and <a href="mailto:sus.barria@gmail.com" target="_blank">sus.barria@gmail.com</a>.
The views expressed here are the authors personal views, and
do not necessarily represent the views of their organisations.</p>
</div>
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