-----Mensagem original----- De: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]Em nome de Guilherme C Roschke Enviada em: sexta-feira, 26 de janeiro de 2001 11:33 Para: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Assunto: Re: Davos
the article neglects to mention an even bigger, perhaps more important, counter forum. The world social forum in porto alegre, brasil. (www.forumsocialmundial.org.br). Last nights opening march led to an amphiteater, where 50,000 heard leftist pop and country music.
The forum is being co-sponsered by the state and city government, both controlled by the PT (workers' party) for the last 12 years or so. An amazing thing about this state and city is they have a "participatory budget" where massive town meetings are held to decide expenditure questions and set budgetary themes. I'm trying to getmore information on this , and will pass it on.
this place is quite full of surprises, last night me and the other indymedia people were surprised to find out we could ride the delegates bus to the march. usually when indymedia rides the bus its the one that goes to jail.
gr at luminousvoid.net http://www.luminousvoid.net
-Yes, and Porto Alegre is being hailed as a new Meca for leftists. The -Worker´s party won its fourth consecutive election, in a city that never -had elected a mayor from the same party of the previous one. This -participatory budget is an example of direct democracy and is one of the -main projects from Worker´s Party. I don´t know the operational details. -In the last 12 yeras there was a dramatic increase of households linked to -sewer system (from 50% to 85%) and children attending to schools. More -impressive is the fact that right and left wing factions of PT were able -to coexist and alternate in the government (this is the most serious problem -in the Worker´s Party, where you have from Third way defenders to Trotskysts). -The success in Porto Alegre led the PT to win the government of Rio Grande do -Sul state (whose capital is Porto Alegre). Governor Olívio Dutra inherited -a massive debt from the former right wing governor, so it´s difficult to do -a good job. Furthermore, it refused to fulfill and agreement in which this -ruined state would give US$500,000,000 to Ford open a factory in Gravataí -(near Porto Alegre). It eventually lost the factory to another state, due -to the colonialist federal government, which gave US$700,000,000 in subsidies -(in a country where there is not enough credit for local enterprises... -imperialism works well, right...), but his attitude called attention to this -treacherous and suicidal policy. In the end, I think it will do well.
Alexandre