PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL -- For those who have followed the anti-globalization struggles of the past few years, this past week takes on special importance. As they have for the last 30 years, the elite from the world's most powerful corporations sat down with government leaders at the invitation-only World Economic Forum, this time amidst the palatial tower of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and attempted to plot the future of a world that the rest of us have to live in. Meanwhile, a different gathering -- the World Social Forum -- convened in Porto Alegre. Transparent, free, and open to all, the forum attracted more than 60,000 people to consider the radical idea that another world is possible.

Here, in the heart of what is considered the Third World, attendees shared alternatives and strategies for resisting the growth of corporate power and its globalizing influence. The broad diversity of players at the World Social Forum included Juan Garcia, a community organizer from the St. Teresa's Church in Providence's Olneyville section and co-chair of the Rhode Island chapter of Jobs with Justice.

Garcia flew 5000 miles to discuss his experience of grassroots labor struggle during a workshop, entitled "In the Belly of the Beast -- Social Struggles in North America." He talked about the effect of trade policies on undocumented workers, speaking after a Canadian cited the devastating affects in his country of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Garcia also found time during his trip to visit a settlement of The MST, a Brazilian movement of landless peasants. The MST is famous for nonviolent occupation and the appropriation by tens of thousands of unused Brazilian farmland. The same neo-liberal policies that originated in the World Economic Forum -- and which spawned NAFTA and are at the heart of what Garcia works against at home -- also threaten the work and legitimacy of the MST. Usually separated by huge distances, the Rhode Island organizer and the landless Brazilians nevertheless share much in common.

Calling the MST "impressive, courageous, and effective," Garcia plans to bring home the group's stories and tactics. More importantly, he returns with the real triumph of the World Social Forum -- demonstrative proof that the fight against destructive economics, after beginning at home, can stretch across continents. The forum is the pinnacle of this movement, or, as Garcia puts it, "A cold glass of water in middle of the desert."

Issue Date: February 8 - 14, 2002