External Forces Pose Challenges to the WSF and Local Authorities

  
The local press is hailing the thousands of foreign visitors descending on Porto Alegre as a new example of "social tourism." Anyone with a political cause or favorite issue will have much to choose from over the coming week. The WSF itself features five mornings of 27 core conferences with simultaneous translation into different languages, scattered around the city at seven large venues, universities, sporting arenas, hotels and auditoriums. Afternoon participants can select from a list of more than 900 workshops on various topics, and the evenings will be livened by talks by well-known figures and distinguished speakers from around the world.

But the WSF is not the only event in Porto Alegre these days. Concurrently with the WSF, the city is hosting the second World Parliamentary Forum-on February 1 and 2-the first ever World Judicial Forum, and a World Children's and Adolescents' Forum, referred to affectionately as the forinho, or little forum. A meeting on developing country debt will aim to fill a 5000-seat gymnasium, and a special conference will address the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Added to this will be the WSF's opening and closing ceremonies, featuring public acts and popular mobilizations.

Not all of the foreign visitors and "social tourists" to Porto Alegre are receiving a warm welcome from the local authorities, however. Anarchists from throughout Brazil and the Southern Cone have converged on the city and are making their presence felt. Protests are scheduled and may include elements of the Black Bloc of ski-masked demonstrators from Europe. The prestigious national newspaper Folha de S�o Paulo reported on January 30 that the police are taking the protests seriously.

The local authorities don't want to mar the proceedings or the image of the World Social Forum. A violent confrontation with demonstrators would go against the type of event they want to project. Potential trouble spots include a countermarch to the WSF official opening march organized by a Brazilian group, A��o Global dos Povos, which is also threatening to occupy a vacant building to set up its own forum. Local anarchists have already publicized a parallel forum at the local water and sewage workers union hall.

The anarchists seek to portray the World Economic Forum in New York and the WSF as being cut from the same cloth: One just wants to reform what the other defends, they charge. Indeed, the theme of "reform or reject" is a leading topic of debate among the groups meeting at the WSF itself. Forum groups will hold parallel meetings to try to improve the cohesiveness of this "movement." Anti-globalizationists and more moderate groups want to gain greater common ground, while the anarchists aim to deepen their differences. A successful direct action provoking a strong police response could allow the anarchists to undermine the WSF's official message, "another world is possible." A small but well-trained anarchist group could pull this off. Local police are not trained or equipped for the type of provocations experienced in Seattle, Prague and Quebec.

Also dividing local authorities is political opposition to the city and state governments' support for the forum. A Porto Alegre council member obtained a court order for the Workers Party (PT)-controlled city government to turn over documents showing the type and extent of support that has allowed the WSF to expand its presence this year. For instance, many foreign guests were paid to attend. The city of Porto Alegre doubled its support to R$818,400 and the state of Rio Grande do Sul increased its backing from R$1.5 to R$2.3 million. In terms of an investment, these figures are small compared to the economic benefits that the tens of thousands of participants bring. This is vacation time and Porto Alegre, an interior business and commercial center, would be empty if it weren't for the forum. Nevertheless, the Workers Party is a leading national contender for the upcoming November elections, which include local and state candidates, and its rivals in the PMDB party want to make hay with voters who could see the largesse of support for the WSF taking needed resources from their city's budget and their pockets.