''Improving the world of the States'

World Economic Forum, New York
The first weekend of February proved an important one for the growing global movement for economic and social justice. It saw the simultaneous occurrence of two fora - The World Economic Forum (WEF) in New York City and the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Both offered their own visions for the future of the planet - the WEF's based on corporate power (though their moto is 'Improving the state of the world') and the WSF's based on the vision that 'Another world is possible.'
The WEF was founded in the early 1970s by the Swiss millionaire Klaus Schwab, with the aim of bringing together 'the international business community with the political and economic leaders of specific countries.' Its core members are 1,000 of the worlds largest corporations, including such socially responsible companies as Coca-Cola, food giant Sara Lee and until very recently Enron. It lobbies for greater economic liberalisation and deregulation, aiming to remove annoying barriers to free trade such as labour rights and environmental legislation.
This year the WEF annual meeting was moved from its usual venue in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. The venue was ostensibly changed to show solidarity with the victims of the September 11th attack, although it seems the move was really made primarily for security reasons. About 2,700 politicians, business leaders, academics and the generally well to do gathered for the conference this year. Global justice protesters were out in force, with an estimated 15,000 people taking part in demonstrations throughout the city. An estimated 7,000 online activists also joined the protest in a 'net-strike' that overloaded the WEF server and rendered the web-site temporarily unavailable. In the UK solidarity demonstrations took place in Manchester and London, where protesters occupied the Manchester Free Trade Hall and disrupted a military conference.

World Social Forum, Porto Alegre
Running simultaneously to the WEF conference, but with an altogether different agenda, was the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The WSF was established in 2001 to counter the WEF. It was envisioned as 'a new international arena for the creation and exchange of social and economic projects that promote human rights, social justice and sustainable development." This year an estimated 40,000 delegates took part in the conference. Foreign debt was the major focus of the conference, with a two day International People's Tribunal on Debt. The Tribunal ruled that the $1.8 trillion Third World Debt was illegal and should be forgiven. Another recurring theme at the conference was Bush's purported 'War on Terrorism', which was widely condemned by delegates.

The Counter-Counter-Conference
The WSF is not without its critics, however. It has been accused of wishing to reform institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO rather than fight them and has been criticised for becoming "institutionalised and not radical enough." As a result a 10,000 strong anti-WSF march and counter conference were also held in Porto Alegre this year.

Participants in the counter conference were particularly angered by the presence of several mainstream politicians at the WSF conference, who had been implicitly involved in either trade liberalisation or in the current 'War on Terrorism.'. WSF organisers, however, argued that their involvement was a measure of how powerful the movement against globalisation has become. The protesters drummed home their message in style on 1st February when 300 of them occupied the stage of the meeting room reserved for politicians. The sober atmosphere of the conference was further enlivened on the 4th, when a French minister got pied and carnivalesque march and samba band invaded the VIP's hall. What was a social justice conference doing with a VIP's hall in the first place? That's what the samba band wanted to know…