>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>> I doubt that anarchists and autonomists have money and manpower to
>> organize such assemblies as Social Forums. The benefactors and
>> beneficiaries of World and European Social Forums must be (A) old-time
>> political parties such as the Workers Party (Brazil), the Socialist
>> Party (France), and the Communist Refoundation (Italy), (B) foundations
>> such as the Ford Foundation (cf.
>> <http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=2&cd_language=2>
>> &
>>
>><http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=391>),
>> and (C) NGOs/front groups that are supported by either (A) or (B).
>
>We anarchists could do it easily if we thought that social forums
>were a critical part of our strategy. Anarchists are pretty good at
>organizing big events on limited resources. For example, the
>National Conference on Organized Resistance
><http://www.organizedresistance.org/> draws over a thousand
>activists from around the country to its annual conference at
>American University. This conference has been organized by
>anarchists for going on seven years. The San Francisco Anarchist
>Bookfair draws 2-3000 members of the public each March.
Anarchists and autonomists could surely do an assembly of 2-3,000 in North America or Western Europe, but a Social Forum is an extravaganza of 40,000-60,000, and the next WSF in Mumbai is slated to cost $29.7 million:
***** Large requirement of funds
The foreign funding here, as in Porto Alegre, is of two types: first, the infrastructural funding which comes to the WSF central bodies; secondly, the funding for various participating organisations, which is much larger, but which is near-impossible to trace.
As for the first, the "Part Funding Policy" as adopted by the India General Council of the WSF at its April 7-8 2003 meeting at BTR Bhawan in Delhi, "Maximum international funds [are] to be raised and managed by IC/BOC (International Council/Brazilian Organising Council) as per their policy". No principle is laid down here for what type of sources may be tapped, just as the WSF Charter is silent on this score. Apart from this, the Part Funding Policy says that "NRI's [and] organisations other than funding organisations and individuals may be approached for contribution to solidarity fund." The document "Project World Social Forum 2004" (World Social Forum Secretariat -- Brazilian Organising Committee and Indian Organising Committee) estimates that $2.5 million will have to be raised.
However, as mentioned above, this does not capture the full role of funding agencies. In fact "Project World Social Forum 2004" estimates total expenditure for the event at $29.7 million (about Rs 135 crore), the bulk of which, $26.2 million, is the cost of the delegates' participation (transportation, accommodation and food). Funding agencies would bear much of this cost, since an army of NGO functionaries and employees would be attending - nearly all of the country's foreign-funded NGOs would be present, as well as many from abroad. The visits of many important personages too would be sponsored by NGOs. However, these sums would be disbursed directly to delegates without entering the WSF Secretariat accounts. The amount provided by foundations/funding agencies directly to the WSF Secretariat is a small fraction of such funds actually involved in the WSF meet (see Appendix II for some examples of this).
<http://www.rupe-india.org/35/wsfmumbai.html> *****
This level of expense can be only defrayed by social democratic political parties and governments and liberal foundations. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>