Report Preparatory WSF 2011 in Dakar, 17 November

by Mikael Book (NIGD)

The three-day Seminar, attended by circa sixty persons opened here in Dakar yesterday with a discussion of the social and economic situation in the world and an overview of the preparations of the next WSF event in Dakar 2011. In his introduction on the crisis and the challenges confronting the social movement, Samir Amin said that the emergence of Asia, Africa and Latin America on the world scene had been the great positive fact of the last century despite all its horrors. He stressed that "The South" now has to take initiatives independently of "The North" to solve the present social, economic and environmental crises. Taoufik ben Abdallah and many other  participants followed up Samir's introduction with a discussion on  how the WSF event in Dakar couldcreate platforms for  South-South initiatiatives. Meena Menon from Focus on the Global South, for instance, talked about the need to deepen relations between Asian and African social movements. In one the many  comments to Samir's speech , the present writer suggested that the the birth of the Internet during the last decades of the 20th century had been another great positive development, and asked how the Net relates to Capitalism, and to "South" and "North".  Njoki Njoroge Njehu from the Daughters of Mumbi Resource Center in Kenya, pointed out that the Internet, being "a means for certain classes" is "not a prominent medium" when it it comes to making the majority of the people to understand the crisis, at least in Africa.

The morning session was chaired by Senegalese adult educationist Babacar Diop Buuba. The afternoon session, which was chaired by Hélène Rama Niang, started with Demba Moussa Dembele's presentation of the preparations of the WSF event. Accordning to Demba all organisations, the government and the president of the republic have been  informed. The preparatory committee has asked the authorities to free the spaces of the university, the conference center and the stadium for the purposes of the WSF event. The university would have the most suitable facilities.

Two Committees have been formed, namel,   'le comité du pilotage' and 'la coordination génerale', and also ten Commissions, which are enumerated below with their French names or descriptions:
 * scientifique ; objectifs
 * logistique
 * communication;  mobilisation
 * culturelle; artistes
 * gender (parité; équité)
 * diaspora
 * securité
 * médicale; santé
 * jeunesse ; camp de jeunesse
 * finance

After Demba, Taoufik reported about the preparations of the Council of the
African Social Forum.

Before the close of the meeting we also heard rports from the Commissions
of the International Council of the WSF:

- IC Expansion Commission, by  Raffaella Bollini. She said that  Expansion
means to be ready to change. To be ready to share power.  To be prepared
to change priorities and format.
- Methodology Commission, by Chico Whitaker. He gave an
overview of various Social Forums which are to take place in the world
during 2010, for instance, two SF in Japan.
- Communication Commission, by Jason Nardi. He presented the plans of the
Comcom which are documented there:
openfsm.net/projects/communication-commission/communication-plan-2010-11-draft
- Financial commission.

To be contd

 Greetings from Dakar

 - Mikael

Mikael Böök * book(a)kaapeli.fi * gsm +358(0)-44 5511 324 *
http://www.kaapeli.fi/book/  * http://blogi.kaapeli.fi/book/ *
http://blog.spinellisfootsteps.info/