Zubeida Mustafa has written a great article on OneWorld South Asia. He looks at how a more representational local-to-national hierarchy of Forums might turn it into a more positive force. OK, but how could anyone who had been to the World Social Forum realistically propose this idea:
It has been suggested that the WSF should become a movement of all the participating movements to make the forum a deliberative world parliament. It would have a global structure. Its proceedings would consist of participatory politics. It would operate like a workers’ international or a radical democracy.
Although Mustafa does not unequivocally support the idea, he suggests each "chapter" of the WSF should begin to think more of more positive proposals for change from the bottom up. Not to be negative myself, but I think creating such hierarchies within the movement would be the perfect strategy for infectivity and in-fighting. I do agree that Forums larger than 100,000 participants are too big. At the end he says the Forum is returning to Porto Alegre next year. It is not... WSF 2007 will be held in Nairobi.
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