World Social Forum held in Brazil

Leaders from around the world are meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland though they don’t always see eye-to-eye. At the same time as the Davos forum a shadow conference is being held in Belem, Brazil.

Entitled the World Social Forum, the conference gathers about 100,000 progressive activists representing social causes such as a sex workers union from India. The conference is being promoted and attended by populist leaders from the Americas including the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia. Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa said that the forum represented “part of the solution” to the problems brought about by the “perverse neoliberal system”.

Despite Brazil’s increased global economic clout, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva makes his first social forum appearance in three years. Lula’s decision to skip Davos makes sense according to some analysts and advisors:

“These days, any suggestion Brazil’s credit standing depends on whether its president sprints to a Swiss ski resort and eats oysters and champagne with bankers is preposterous,” said James Galbraith, a University of Texas economist who’s scheduled to meet Lula in March in Brasilia and advised President Barack Obama during the campaign. “Davos needs Lula. Lula doesn’t need Davos”…

Davos is “important” though it was a “natural choice” to attend the social forum, presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said yesterday when asked why Lula didn’t go to Switzerland.

Some forum attendees plan to protest Lula’s presence due to his moderate economic policy that doesn’t entirely shun capitalism.

Image- AP (“Bolivia's President Evo Morales, middle row left, Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo, middle row second left, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, middle row third left, and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, middle row right, attend the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, World Social Forum, BBC News, canoe.ca, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, AP, Bloomberg