5 Latin American Presidents attend WSF

Some 60,000 activist members of social movements throughout the world and hundreds of indigenous people rallied on the streets of Belem, Brazil, during the opening of the World Social Forum (WSF) on Tuesday, AFP reported.

Drums and singing flooded the city in a rally full of slogans and multicolour flags from every corner of the world.

Despite the rain, the rally began, under the motto “Another world is possible,” and the variety of participants showed the cultural plurality of the event, in which some 100,000 activists and five Latin American presidents will take part.

The heads of state attending the forum are Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) and Michele Bachelet (Chile).

The activists also called on the international community to support the cause of the Palestinian people and to protest against the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. They also defended the right of humanity to life, and advocated protecting the environment.

The forum was created in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) in 2001. In 2009, and for the first time since its creation, the gathering began this time without the cry of “Bush Go Home.” Instead, people expressed their hopes about the new US president, Barack Obama.

The WSF will session parallel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where leaders of the most powerful countries of the world will meet to analyze the economic crisis, the environmental situation and the scarcity of food throughout the planet.

According to Prensa Latina, more than 2,400 events will take place during the forum in the national universities of Pará (UDPA) and Rural de Amazonia (UFRA).

The WSF had been previously held in Brazil in 2002, 2003 and 2005. In 2004 it took place in India, and in 2006 it was celebrated in three countries simultaneously, Mali, Pakistan and Venezuela. In 2007, it was held in a single country, Kenya, and in 2008, it was celebrated as an Action Day of World Mobilization in more than 80 countries.

from Cuban Youth paper, Juventud Rebelde