Thu 10 Jan 2008
An interview with Roberto Savio, of the WSF
Posted by miren under New links, Articles by IPS, Interviews by the Author
Q&A: ‘Everybody leaves the Forum happier, wiser and stronger’
Interview with Roberto Savio, member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum
|
|
ROME, Jan 9 (IPS) - Roberto Savio is probably among the best informed insiders at the World Social Forum (WSF). He has been on its international committee since it was created in 2001, and since 2003 he has been coordinator of the ‘media, culture and counter-hegemony’ thematic area.
He founded the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency in 1964, as well as other news and information organisations, always with an emphasis on the developing world. He is now IPS President Emeritus. He is co-founder of Media Watch International, based in Paris, and Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a New Humanity, a foundation promoting the culture of peace.
Savio speaks with IPS Editor-in-Chief Miren Gutiérrez about the future of the WSF.
IPS: The World Social Forum (WSF) is an anti-globalisation movement, using the term ‘globalisation’ in a doctrinal sense, not a literal one. But the WSF is a global phenomenon…
Roberto Savio: The WSF is not a movement against globalisation; it is a movement against the kind of globalisation which is based only on the values of market and profit. That is a globalisation spawned by the Washington Consensus, the call for a New International Order made in the late eighties by the International Financial Institutions and the U.S. Treasury Department.
It also coincided with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and an unprecedented return to unilateralism in international relations, based on hegemony, military might, and the idea that the interests of the U.S. were automatically the interests of humankind, as President (George) Bush declared several times. The result of this kind of globalisation was to marginalise the United Nations, international law, and the call for social justice, sustainable development and other values which are enshrined in the constitutions of practically all countries.
Those who identify themselves with the WSF want another globalisation, where social justice, participation, democracy and people are also values. It is significant that when we started in 2001, we were considered a fringe movement; even by then President of Brazil. Now, seven years later, nobody defends any longer the Washington Consensus. The damages it did worldwide have prompted the IFIs to do some significant corrections, and even the Bush administration is having several changes of route.
