Press Report Europe WSF 2009 - OpenFSM!

crisis from 28 march to 4 April, and the 17 April 2009 mobilisation of La
Via Campesina.
We support the call for an International Day of Action in Defense of
Mother Earth and Indigenous Rights on 12 October 2009.
We call for mobilisations and diverse forms of actions everywhere, in the
lead up to, during and beyond the UN climate talks in Copenhagen,
especially on the Global Day of Action on 12 December 2009.
In all of our work, we will expose the false solutions, raise the voices
of the South, defend human rights, and strengthen our solidarity in the
fight for climate justice. If we make the right choices, we can build a
better world for everyone.
Press Report Europe WSF 2009
World Social Forum set to meet strengthened by crisis (Monsters & critics – Scotland)
Business Features
By Diana Renee and Helmut Reuter Jan 27, 2009, 2:44 GMT
Sao Paulo - The World Social Forum is set to meet starting Tuesday in the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem, as the
gathering gets renewed strength and meaning from the ongoing global financial and economic crisis.
This is the ninth edition of the forum, a self-declared 'alternative' to the simultaneous World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland.
'The global financial crisis is an opportunity for us, who were born to oppose that neoliberal globalization that is now
crumbling. It is a chance to show that something else is possible,' Candido Grybowski, one of the organizers of the World
Social Forum, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview.
Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil have confirmed
their attendance at debates set to take place Tuesday to Sunday.
The organizers did not rule out the presence of other South American leaders, like Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Rafael
Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay.
In any case, there will be many fewer leaders in the Amazonian city of Belem than the more than 40 that were expected
in Davos.
'Heads of state have never been as lost as now. They are as lost as a peasant in the Amazonian forest,' said Grybowski,
who heads the Brazilian Institute for Socio-Economic Analysis (IBASE).
'Perhaps the only one of them who is a little bit lucid is (new US President Barack) Obama, who at least has a discourse
that falls out of the usual line,' he stressed.
To bring home the point, Grybowski wondered what France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi or Germany's
Angela Merkel may have to say.
'They are all responsible for the crisis, both the leaders and especially the companies and the media who will be there,'
the expert said.
He graphically defined the Davos forum as 'the free university of the large speculative capital, of the bankers.'
Grybowski added that the measures that have been adopted so far to counter the crisis have focused on rescuing
companies and banks.
'We always advocated state regulation (of the financial system), but so far things are only being done to save the system,
not to change that system that is a castle of cards, a casino.'
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