He who fights can lose, but he who does not fight has already lost.
Bertolt Brecht
Last January, a Social Forum of Resistances took place in Porto Alegre at the instigation of Brazilian popular movements. Within the framework of this Forum, a two-day-long seminar was organised by Açao educativa (Brazil), in collaboration with several networks, including the Transnational Institute, Systemic Alternatives, Intercoll, Alternative Information Development Center, People’s Dialogue and several others.
The International Council of the World Social Forum met on January 20 and 21, 2017, in Porto Alegre. Work committees were put into place beforehand to facilitate this discussion on the functioning of the Forum, its ambitions and its objectives. Reports on the structure of the Forum, the secretariat, information, and communication were discussed.
A commission on the global situation prepared two reports that were discussed. These reports were prepared by contributions from some forty people and synthesised by Pierre Beaudet (Intercoll). The first analytical report contains extracts from the contributions in their own language. The second synthesising report was present in English, Spanish and French. These two reports were discussed at the Internation Council.
During the same period, from 17 to 22 January 2017, a Social Forum of Resistances took place at Porto Alegre at the instigation of Brazilian popular movements. Within the framework of this Forum, a two-day-long seminar was organised by Açao educativa (Brazil), in collaboration with several networks, including the Transnational Institute, Systemic Alternatives, Intercoll, Alternative Information Development Center, People’s Dialogue and several others.
This meeting is part of a panoramic vision of the current global situation through the perspectives of the popular movements of each region : South America, North America, sub-Saharan Africa, Maghreb-Mashriq, Europe, South Asia and East Asia.
The dossier presented here is a synthesis of these analyses in an attempt to identify a number of major trends. It is this particular synthesis that was discussed at Porto Alegre. The text that follows recalls the principal conclusions of the discussion, which were (and this was normal) enormously marked by the Lation-American context, taking into account the place and the participants in the meetings.
