Talk:World Social Forum

Criticisms
I wonder: why is basically half the page dedicated to an odd list of criticisms? I am not used to Wikipedia pages being this critical. Isn't there a world of WSF-related topics to discuss? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.94.99.234 (talk) 13:16, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

What the WSF is
There is a very big misunderstanding of what the World Social Forum is: It is first and foremost a place were activists critical of neo-liberal globalisation meet to discuss strategy, tactics, alternatives, campaigns and give testimonies. The Forum is organised according to a charter of principles and because it is a forum it is not a deliberative body and cannot, therefore, take a position on any particular issue. This does not prevent activists and networks organised within the process from taking positions on various issues, such as the war and occupation of Iraq, and issuing calls to action such as occurred on 15 February 2003. The term anti-globalization is used mostly by conservative elements of the media who want to discredit the movements which have given rise to the WSF. In France these activist are known as altermondialists, and in Italy the phenomenon is known as the movement of movements in the English speaking world the term movement for global justice is used by most activists.
 * I would like to 2nd this commentary on the phrase "anti-globalization movement". In fact I was checking wikipedia to see about just that.  "global justice movement" is a far more accurate phrase and personally I've often used "anti-corporate driven globalization" or the "corporate version of globalization", as the term "anti-globalization" sounds isolationist, and anybody who has ever taken more than a headline's view of this "movement" knows people involved in various issues are anything but isolationist.  It is a derrogatory term used by (US) liberals and conservatives alike who do not like what various groups stand for.  And "anti-globalization movement" is rather US-centric, or perhaps G-8 country centric.  If wikipedia is for accurate protrayal in a NPOV way, the phrase "anti-globalization movement" will be dropped or further explained in this context. - 67.53.78.15 11:39, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

POV
The FARC are just a guerrilla movement, it can't be named "anti-democratic" because of that.

The article citation style is ok (122.174.75.30 (talk) 04:47, 12 December 2016 (UTC))

In addition
The "criticism" recently added to the WSF entry completely ignores the vast amount of literature produced by participants in the WSF process over the last 4 years regarding the purpose of process, and the huge variety of extant and potential outcomes of the process. To simply state, as the "critic" does that the "WSF produces little ideas which seems practical (sic)" in the face of vast evidence to the contrary is not fair, not borne out by the facts, not in the sprit of Wikipedia, and really doesn't belong in the WSF Wikipedia entry. There are many reasoned criticisms that can be and are being made of the WSF process, but the current "criticism" here on Wikipedia cannot be counted among them.

In any case, the WSF entry so far is rather sketchy. It needs fleshing out, and myself and others will have to do so sometime over the coming weeks. Glad people got the entry up here, though.

--jpramas 04:35, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Needs evidence
In the absence of any evidence being offered to support it, I removed this:

"Defenders of totalitarial and/or anti-democratic regimes are usually present.  In the first editions of the WSF were present members of   revolutionary and armed groups of the FARC and ETA"

The WSF has banned armed groups (leading to an alternative to the WSF being organised in Mumbai), so it seems unlikely this is true.

---

Additionally: Anarchists are not criticising it for being a 'central decision making location', they are criticising it for a variety of other reasons. Some are rather nicely summed up in an essay titled "World Forum Movement: Abandon or Contaminate" which argues that the agenda and control of the WSF itself is not libertarian in nature whilst other groups such as the WOMBLES in the UK have more extreme criticisms that the WSF is coopting struggles. This page needs a lot more work on it!

WSF and anti-gloalisation
While the World Social Forum grew out of the anti corporate globalisation protests, I would say that it is more than just a meeting of the left wing of the anti-globalisation movement. Instead, this article should incorporate the fact that the WSF has become the peak meeting place for may organisations and movements, and is attended by representatives of many NGOs and movements who would be better characterised as focusing on a myriad of issues such as that are environmental, human rights, against violence to animals, and many others that would not see themselves as part of anti-globalisation.

I also think somewhere on in wikipedia there should be a bit of an explanation of social forums, maybe with a list? I'll try and pull something together.

WHAT THE CITIZENS PERCEIVE AFTER VISTING SOCIAL FORUMS
During the recent India Social Forum in new Delhi, lots of people wrote about how they perceived things on merinews.com.

2007 WSF
I just put up the "Future" events template because the 2007 WSF is just over a month away. Also, a quick skim through the article seems to show most of the present tense in refrence to upcoming 2006 events. I'll try to go through a bit later and bring the tense up to date... If anyone feels compeled to add info about the 2007 forum, feel free to dive in! Mike McGregor (Can) 18:17, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

you forgot the part where the WSF weren't allowing to the poor kids to get their food, so the kids just raided the place

Article in Vietnamese
I was wondering if someone could help translate this article into Vietnamese, I'd like to get a clearer statement to those in my community about what I'm working on and I don't speak Vietnamese at all.

Can I add a stub or link to this page??? Wikipedia won't let me
I've been trying to add somekind of link or stub to this page about the Florida Atlantic University Social Forum, which is an experimental on campus graduate organization modeled after the world social forum. Can anyone tell me if it would be possible to add this link, and if not, what do I need to do to make this possible?--Ajbunnybutt 13:53, 16 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Sure ! Why is it imposible to edit this page ? It's missing information about the WSF decentralized of 2008, the Global Day of Action of 26 january 2008 ! 212.142.175.234 (talk) 09:46, 24 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't checked the details, but according to the protection log, there has been long-term spamming by IP addresses. The page has been "semi-protected" since September. (And it has information on the "Global Day of Action", even though the notability is questionable.)  &mdash; Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 14:49, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Picture
Can we not have a picture of a white person right up top? --Jammoe (talk) 20:52, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

WSF is a barricade against liberalisation
While neo-liberalisationwants to capture the world, WSF is a barricade against it. India is agrowing country and it's economoc policy was mixed type. But now, liberalisation actually breaks these policy and poor people becomes more poor. Unemployment and jobless growth pushed the Indians towards starvation. Many social crime are also happening by these unemployed, drug or drink adicted youths. Terrorism is also the bi-product of liberalisation. One side shopping malls are constructed and the other side people lives like the animals. WSF is trying to stop these social, economical and political hazards. Thanks to WSF.

WSF is a barricade against liberalisation
While neo-liberalisation wants to capture the world, WSF is a barricade against it. India is agrowing country and it's economoc policy was mixed type. But now, liberalisation actually breaks these policy and poor people becomes more poor. Unemployment and jobless growth pushed the Indians towards starvation. Many social crime are also happening by these unemployed, drug or drink adicted youths. Terrorism is also the bi-product of liberalisation. One side shopping malls are constructed and the other side people lives like the animals. WSF is trying to stop these social, economical and political hazards. Thanks to WSF. Be the honest weapon to bring equality in the WORLD.

Citations on Criticisms
Is applying the 'This article needs additional citations for verification.' tag to the criticisms section of this page a subtle way of trying to de-legitimize or discredit the criticisms? That section of the article does not seem to me to be any more or less well-cited than other parts of the article. -Judd (talk) 20:23, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Desperately in need of updates
The article desperately needs updates! Nunamiut (talk) 16:19, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Full-scale revamping of this article
Hi Wikipedia community, my name is Luke, and I'll be improving this article dramatically in both structure and content over the next few weeks as a part of the US Public Policy Project at Syracuse University. I plan on creating sections for each meeting of the World Social Forum, and adding as much detail as possible about each meeting. I've found it challenging to get sources on the goings-on of each meeting, so feel free to let me know if you find some good sources, or can translate pages (many are in Portuguese, since the WSF is in Brazil, which I can't read). Ideally, I'd really like to make this Wikipedia page an information hub for the World Social Forum, so that when people go to find out more about it, they have a page that rivals the one for the World Economic Forum, and a page that offers accurate and important background information. I welcome any and all suggestions, constructive edits and critiques as I start editing. Let's make this page awesome!Lukey9706 (talk) 00:55, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

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External links modified
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