Karnataka Social Forum

The Context and our Involvement

U.S. imperialism and corporate globalisation has today become the biggest threat to the survival of the poor, the farmer, the small entrepreneur, the worker, the woman, the vulnerable, the other.

The policies of liberalisation and privatisation which are the basic foundations of contemporary globalisation have almost annihilated all those who cannot or will not live within the framework of the dominant market economy. The illegal and unethical international war against terror that is the logical outcome of U.S. economic and militaristic domination of the world poses the biggest threat to global peace and social harmony. America which claims to be the saviour of democracy that needs to be saved from the terrorist, is in fact the world’s biggest terrorist for two reasons: one it is the first and only country to produce and use the atomic bomb and has the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons today. And the second is that the U.S., in the name of democracy and freedom, has launched innumerable overt and covert terror operations that have not only destroyed countries and their economies but also entire peoples and civilisations. Iraq and Afghanistan are the latest in a series of genocides it has been responsible for. 

This unrestrained globalisation by hegemonistic powers is now being countered by a new form of globalised resistance - that of the World Social Forum which seeks to dream and prove that Another World is Possible.

When it was decided in 2003 that the next WSF would be held in Mumbai in 2004, many state processes were initiated to draw more groups into the planning and participation in WSF. The Karnataka Social Forum was part of this process. CIEDS, through one of its collective members, Bhogananjundiah, played a central role in initiating and organising the KSF that drew together a range of organisations and individuals from NGOs, mass movements, trade unions and other left organisations, women’s and human rights groups et al. Along with the Organising Committee we took the initiative for organising district level meetings as also two state level meetings / seminars , in Bangalore and Hubli on the issues raised by WSF. This meant being part of the entire process from conceptualising the programme, acting as resource, coordinating the logistics to also mobilising of funds. 

As we see both the WSF and the KSF as a continuous process and not as one time events the organising committee continues to deepen and extend the tremendous interest and involvement that this process has engendered, particularly in civil society groups that have been coming together so effectively and powerfully during the various Social Forums held in the past. We have therefore been part of holding meetings/seminars/conferences/debates/dialogues within the State of Karnataka at regular intervals. 

Apart from these initiatives at the level of Karnataka, Corinne Kumar through El Taller International and AWHRC has been part of processes holding Courts of Women in the various regional social forums that are being organised in Africa, Central and South America and others.
www. eltaller.org

home    back