Denis Viénot, President of Chrétiens en Forum
 Some lessons from the World Social Forum

Water is not a commodity like others. It is not even a commodity.
  It is the very life and essence of all humanity.

The World Social Forum, which has just taken place in Belém (Brazil), has truly lived up to its name more than ever: Forum! Because, with over 2,000 symposia, workshops and seminars, this gigantic brilliant fair continues to be a rare occasion for a cultural melting pot and exchanges stimulating reflection and dynamism among the 130,000 participants coming from every corner of the world’s civil society. All this against the background of the Brazilian soul which, through its music and dance, becomes universal.
  Not only Forum, but also Social! The theme of this get-together was primarily to make it known that the poorest people are the first victims of the dysfunctional activities of the richest people on our planet: the financial crisis, climatic imbalance… The obvious risk of this type of meeting is that it stays at the level of the agora; and yet, despite the effervescence of the material organisation, the Forum demonstrated that the voices of the poor must be heard if the world wants to remain humane. There were four examples that illustrated this social dynamic.
  There was the workshop where a Brazilian peasant involved in the infernal process of poultry production, under the ever-increasing pressure of a food distribution company, met up with a colleague from Cameroun, a victim of imports coming from Europe. The Brazilian is crippled by debt and exports his production. In Europe, only the best parts are kept and the frozen carcasses are then sent to Africa. They prove to be the ruin of local producers and are also harmful for health due to frequent breakdowns in the cold chain, through electricity breakdowns and the ambient temperatures.
  The work on the financial crisis, supported mainly by the CCFD (Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development), Secours Catholique and Attac, highlighted the emergence of several strong tendencies. Faced with a systemic crisis, affecting “food, finance, the economy, the climate, energy, migration … and civilisation”, it is not enough to socialise the losses to ensure the survival of a system that privatises everything, even nature itself… We must ensure that social needs are satisfied and the rights of nature are respected, that there is harmony between “Mother Earth”, society and culture, as has been stated in the declaration of the indigenous peoples. In order to achieve this, the role of the nation states and the United Nations has to be reassessed: a real regulation of the financial sector has to be put in place, social and environmental criteria have to be introduced into the mechanisms of financing and credit, tax havens have to be dismantled and the fight against corruption, for example, by establishing greater transparency in national and international contracts regarding their royalties and profits; and there has to be improved surveillance of elections and their financing, as has been carried out for years by the Church in the Philippines.
  In the final declaration, “The Assembly on Water” considered that our economic system has “declared war on nature, water, air, the earth, the forests, and on all our common natural assets.” The Assembly categorically rejects the privatisation of water in all its forms, while guaranteeing solidarity between the generations. Water is not a commodity like others. It is not even a commodity. It is the very life and essence of all humanity. Yet there are “water pirates” who purchase water, for example, in Argentina, only to sell it for ten times the price in the Middle East. When we learn from a recent report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme that 17% of the Amazonian forest has been destroyed over five years in order to sell the wood, set up the cultivation of soya and agri-fuels, and to increase farming, we are shocked by its disappearance and what will disappear over the next twenty-five years if this state of affairs continues. The Bishop and President of Justice and Peace for the north-east region of Brazil, Dom José Luiz Azcona, was most disturbing when he described this region as a territory sold by Brasilia to the major companies. “The Assembly of Urban Social Movements” has expanded the notion of the right to housing to the concept of “the right to the town”, which is being threatened by an increase in forced evictions. This global right to housing seeks to integrate social and environmental justice. At the beginning of the event, there were two illegal sit-ins that took place in the town and suburbs of Belém organised by the Movement of Homeless Urban Workers, which illustrated this problematical situation. The goal was akin to the actions of the Landless Peasants Movement in rural areas who establish themselves on empty plots of land and stay there in order to obtain legal recognition, after some years, for the benefit of entire families of squatters.
  In conclusion, this eighth Social Form has pursued its original intent which is to permit “every man and all men” (Paul VI) to develop, but to develop in real terms, physically – indeed, a Bolivian friend once told me that in his Aymara language, the word ‘development’ did not exist, but the expression “living well” did exist!

The opening of the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil, on 27 January 2009. Faced with a systemic crisis, it is imperative to ensure the harmony between “Mother Earth”, society and culture, according to the declaration of the indigenous peoples.
 LUCIVALDO SENA/AE/AFP