Chela Vazquez

The Second World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil showed that the anti-globalization movement has grown, both in numbers and diversity. Among the thousands of delegates that met at the WSF II from January 30 to February 5, 2002 a unifying theme coalesced the plurality of voices: resistance to the neo-liberal economic model of development.

Opposition to economic globalization brought together 60,000 people to Porto Alegre, a 4-fold increase from the WSF I the previous year, also in Porto Alegre. The first WSF was born in response to the World Economic Forum that met annually in Davos, Switzerland but met in New York City this year.

The WSF II gathered more than 3,500 non-government organizations from around the globe that represented indigenous groups, labor unions, municipalities, women's groups, environmentalists, Jubilee activists, parliamentarians, theologians, farmers, left and center parties, WTO activists, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, etc. What appeared to be a Tower of Babel at WSF II was a mosaic of civil society groups standing against a global economic trend that propels free trade with disregard of humanity and nature.

The great diversity of civil society participation at the WSF II produced 24 conferences and more than 800 workshops and seminars. Discussion revolved on plans of action and concrete proposals.

At the WSF II a Treaty Initiative to Share The Genetic Commons was launched that declares genetic resources a global commons, belonging to all and to which no private ownership can be claimed. This treaty aims at the heart of biotechnological research for profit currently underway and financed by giant pharmaceutical corporations and agribusiness. The Global Commons Treaty is intent at restoring indigenous people rights to use freely their genetic resources and farmers' rights to save and exchange seed the way it has been for thousands of years.

The Treaty Initiative To Share the Genetic Commons has economic, political, and social ramifications because it will give power to indigenous people and farmers worldwide to challenge patents on drugs developed from indigenous knowledge and on new plant varieties engineered from native crops. Also, it will give governments a tool that can be used in international law to defend their genetic resources.

The Global Commons Treaty will be taken to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in August. Governments will be asked to sign to this treaty. This is the next campaign ahead.