Passage to India

A Report on the People’s World Water Forum and the World Social Forum

By Maude Barlow
January 26, 2004

Part Two: The World Social Forum in Mumbai, January 16-20

How to describe this event? I guess I would have to start with the city itself. Mumbai – formerly Bombay – has a population of 18 million people, 60 per cent of whom are living in slums or directly on the streets. If current trends of de-population of the rural communities due to WTO agriculture policies persist, in ten years time the number of people living in slums in Mumbai will rise to 80 per cent of the population. The current Indian government is quickly adopting economic globalization and with it is coming the growth of a wealthy entrepreneurial class with money to burn, and the entrenchment of the “underclass” – already present in India from the caste system, which is still very much alive.

I have been to other Third World cities, including Mexico and Manila, but have never witnessed the sheer massive volume of destitute people eking out some kind of existence on the streets. For example, if your car is stopped in traffic, it is quickly surrounded by dozens of street children, with babies in arms, begging for a little money. As well, the exponential explosion in the number of cars on the streets, many of them very old and dirty, plus the almost total lack of garbage collection or basic sanitation for the people on the streets, makes Mumbai the most polluted city I have ever seen, or smelled.

At the same time, there is a tremendous energy to the city, indeed to the entire country, which was mirrored at the World Social Forum (WSF). The event, which was held at a huge abandoned warehouse site, brought together more than 100,000 people from all over the world (including several hundred Canadians) to sing, dance, protest, talk, listen, strategize and give each other hope. Keynote speakers included Indian writer Arundhati Roy, anti-dam activist Medha Paktar, French farmer Jose Bove (with whom I shared a panel) and many more great activists and thinkers from around the world. Hundreds of workshops on every aspect of economic globalization and alternatives to it were filled to capacity. I participated in quite a few, including workshops or panels on water and food security, trade agreements, and reforming the UN. Activists from the People’s World Water Movement spread the word around the WSF and had a powerful impact on the gathering.

More than any other memory, I will remember the demonstrations of the poor and powerless at the 4th WSF. Dalits (formerly “untouchables”), disabled street children, displaced dam refugees, Tibetan and Burmese human rights activists, women against domestic violence, and many, many more, marched up and down the dusty roads of the site, chanting, dancing, singing, shouting and celebrating their common humanity and new found sense of power. At times, the din was so loud, you could not hear the speeches, even with the powerful sound systems.

As I watched and listened to these amazing street demonstrations, I felt a surge of hope and knew in my heart that the politics and policies of neo-liberalism will never be able to dampen the human spirit or destroy the sense of social justice so clearly alive among the people. The words “Asia Rising” kept coming into my mind. Some criticized the event as chaotic; what I saw, however, was an outpouring of amazingly organized grassroots activism and a milestone in a movement whose time has come.

• Part One: The People’s World Water Forum in New Delhi, January 12-14
• Part Two: The World Social Forum in Mumbai, January 16-20
• Part Three: Solidarity Tour to Kerala, January 21-23

 

Home | Resources | About us | Links | Site map | Contact