Peace needs imagination

By Tripta Batra Two women from Tel Aviv - one Jewish and the other Palestinian - stand centre-stage for a few minutes on the evening of January 19, 2004 at the NESCO grounds in Mumbai.

Both speak of their efforts to address peace among the people of Israel and Palestine.

Together in Mumbai, they call for peace in the world and for an end to violence in their own region, in Iraq, Afghanistan.

The most significant aspect here is that these two are not na‹ve, romantic beings asking for peace as some would the moon.

These are women who live (and have lived) with the day-to-day despair of war, violence and death among their people, or the history of the regional conflict since 1948.

Their words held pain as well as hope.

At least 20 other women spoke the same evening - all for peace.

Women from India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, UK, USA, France, Germany, Australia...

Standing on the grounds in rapt attention was a huge spiral of women and men - with a banner or poster in one hand and a candle aglow in the other - willing and expressing peace.

This then, was only one event quiet but powerful of the over 1200 meetings, seminars, roundtable conferences, workshops, and other cultural events that unfolded between January 16 and 21 at the World Social Forum (WSF) 2004.

There were infants as young as a few weeks, and people as old as 90 Lakshmi Sehgal for one and a virtual river-load of others with fire in their hearts and dreams in their heads.

So, what was it that drew more than 100,000 people from 130 countries to this platform that claims that another world is possible? To begin with, it was a historic occasion in India and by implication, the world.

A space where peace and social justice could be expressed in myriad ways and languages - and you could be sure that somebody was listening! While there was one group of culturally diverse people that deliberated and prepared strategies to resist the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, there was another that demonstrated hands-on ways to reintegrate play into our lives.

WSF 2004 was not about what Arundhati Roy had to say, as part of the media would have us believe.

It was about the millions of people involved in the daily struggle of living with dignity or protecting their livelihood from being destroyed.

Or of those fighting for justice - in the not yet telephone-linked villages of Jharkhand and elsewhere in India, or in Uganda, Uruguay, Japan and the US.

There was Daya Bai of Kerala who has worked with the tribals in Madhya Pradesh, waging a lone struggle for 24 years now.

And there was the stout-hearted British Labour Party MP, Jeremy Corbyn - the only European to address the opening plenary of the Forum - who castigated the role of the US and the UK in the war against Iraq.

Thinking women and men and those struggling against the perils of globalisation sat down to cooperate beyond the political divisions of culture and geography.

On the basis of laborious research, hard statistics or demeaning experience, they deplored international financial organisations and the decisions that have exploited developing nations and the poor of the world.

They worked towards countering increased trafficking in and the migration of women and children in many parts of the world; substantially reduced expenditure on health and education (in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia for instance); and the exploitation of indigenous or tribal people.

At the Forum and therefore in the ongoing struggle for justice, many targets were set and strategies built painstakingly.

Over 300 people came from Pakistan to Mumbai, the largest ever delegation to India since the Partition in 1947.

During the meetings and seminars held on the issue of human rights, some like Miloon Kothari (Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing with the UN Commission on Human Rights) pushed for the integration of women's rights at all levels.

And at a session entitled 'Engagement with Gandhi: An Alternative Worldview', Chico Whitaker of Brazil and speakers from Nepal, India and Finland explored and expressed the relevance of Gandhi in WSF.

According to Whitaker, Gandhi's wisdom and faith in a horizontal democratic process, the inner power of the people, respect for the diversity of culture and belief, and the struggle for truth and justice is deeply linked with the process of WSF.

Karamat Ali - a Pakistani trade union leader - said it is not possible to build another world unless we stop consuming beyond our needs, and without taking Gandhi and his ideas into consideration.

Throughout the Forum, economists and other intellectuals from the Left intervened to make the focus of many a discussion or session sharper.

An outstanding reality within the Forum was the openness to consider seemingly or obviously disparate views and ideas, an overarching inclination to cooperate despite differences.

The movement (WSF) that started in protest of the unsustainable and unfair policies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) has grown from year to year - inevitably expanding its range to address issues linked to or going beyond economic exploitation.

In Porto Alegre, Brazil - from 2001 to 2003 - WSF has moved rapidly ahead in terms of both people's response and the issues it addressed.

In 2003 for instance, the Forum's call to protest the US attack on Iraq had millions of people worldwide out on the streets on February 15 - saying no to war and yes to peace.

And in 2004 - choosing India as the venue and Africa and Asia as the focus WSF accommodated an implosion of issues, ideas, culture and grassroots representation.

As one member of the International Council (IC) of WSF put it: Post-January 2004, the process has truly become a World Social Forum.

The Indians have performed a miracle, said another IC member.

The Council now has the responsibility of integrating the experience of 2004 into its future process.

For each of the 100,000 people who made it to Mumbai, there were thousands of others who would have liked to, but couldn't or didn't.

Put these numbers together and it is obvious that WSF in 2004 represents the support of a staggering number of people on the planet.

This reveals a growing world opinion that may not have been successful in stopping the war on Iraq last year, but with its eyes and ears more firmly set towards peace and social justice in the future.

Perhaps it requires a lot of imagination to understand the links between the struggle for food security, children's rights, ecological sustainability, for an end to sexual violence, war, human and drug trafficking, skewed economic and trade policies, and so on.

But for most of those gathered at WSF, such links were clear, as was their demand for peace.

A heart-warming example of this was shown by the South Koreans who, having learned about the genocide in Gujarat in 2002, marched along with their Indian friends and joined their voices in saying "BJP murdabad" (Down with the BJP).

For those with adequate imagination, peace and social justice are worth working for every day of their lives.

And the coming of WSF 2004 to Mumbai deserved nothing less than the celebration of such possibilities.

While each smile, song, dance, and word of appreciation during WSF 2004 expressed the realm of possibilities, Shubha Mudgal of India and Gilberto Gil of Brazil made it poetically memorable.

"I hear, I see, I feel, I sense a planetary celebration human happiness is possible," said Gil, the poet and musician.

In voicing the dominant pulse of the people who had gathered for WSF 2004, Gil revealed that peace clearly needs imagination.

He also proved that the millions that support WFS worldwide are bewitched by the possibility of peace.[WFS] About us | Advertise | Other Publications | Subscriptions | Weather | Letters | Send Mail Disclaimer: Information is being made available at this site purely as a measure of public facilitation.

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