Walking around in Brussels ...
The Global Action Day and the Social Forum of Belgium

Diversity is one of the main characteristics of the global justice movement. And one of its consequences is that the movement looks very differently whether you look at it from the global, the regional, the national or the local level.

In Europe, the alterglobalist movement is not extremely dynamic, or should we simply state that it is not as dynamic as its counterparts in Latin America or Asia? The overall wealth of an ageing population, the rejection of leftwing politics by a majority of people that lived for 40 years under communism and the very fragmented leftwing parties in Western Europe are all elements that help to explain why the global justice movement remains rather weak.

Belgium is no exception. It has a national social forum in which the French speaking South and the Dutch speaking North work together, and this is certainly one of its major advantages. The differences between the more dynamic South and the more pragmatic North are indeed rather important though no one wants a split. Working together helps to promote unity in diversity and to look for convergence at this basic level.

All the same, the Social Forum of Belgium is somewhat unbalanced. In the North, leftwing forces are very weak, the main partners in the Forum are the trade unions and the third world NGOs, whereas the South has a broader range of social movements that participate in different actions. Horizontalism has more success in the South than in the North. All in all, French speaking movements play a more active role in the Forum.

The major social movements in Belgium remain however outside the Forum. Ecologists, human rights defenders, movements of the poor and of migrant workers are not represented. A very dynamic ‘Network’ working around alternative finances is not a member of the Forum either. The women’s movements are rather weak in Belgium.

Nevertheless, January 26th 2008 can be seen as a modest success. About 1000 people were mobilized in Brussels for a series of alternative tours. Twelve major issues had been selected: peace, health care, taxes, food sovereignty, environment, freedom of speech, decent work, development, migration, water, housing and public services. In different parts of the city, tents had been built where short performances were presented, where information was given about the thematic issues and where people stood by and watched. Guided tours were organized along the different sites in the centre of Brussels. On a Saturday afternoon, this inevitably helped to reach a lot of people who in fact where only there to do some shopping but who went home with some clear political messages.

In the evening, a debate was organized with GCAP, the trade unions and some other movements. According to the Social Forum philosophy, no specific demands were made, though this point certainly gave rise to difficult internal discussions.

This modest success has strengthened the movement in Belgium, though there is also a clear need to discuss its future strategies. Too many movements remain outside and the Forum has no political influence.  Another world is possible, and maybe we should also say: another social forum is possible.

Francine Mestrum