World Social Forum 2007 Nairobi

Kenya will host the massive conference of the World Social Forum (WSF) in January 2007. Starting in 2001 with 12,000 attendees, the WSF has grown rapidly and 120,000 are expected to attend in Nairobi.

Noam Chomsky at WSF 2003

The World Social Forum is an annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalisation movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This is not a coincidence. The date was chosen because of the logistical difficulty of organizing a mass protest in Davos and to try to overshadow the coverage of the World Economic Forum in the news media.

Rallying around the clarion call of Another World Is Possible, the World Social Forum has placed social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the environment on the agenda of the world’s peoples. From Porto Alegre to Mumbai to Bamako to Caracas, Karachi and now Nairobi, the forces and the contingents of the World Social Forum have collectively expanded the democratic spaces of those seeking concrete, sustainable and progressive alternatives to imperialist globalization.

By locating the conference in East Africa, WSF will draw attention to issues that affect Sub-Saharan Africa and will also give a boost to local economies through the business brought to the region by so many visitors.

Who knows, some WSF visitors may find themselves in Arusha and get the opportunity to learn about one of the great grass-roots projects that is Fighting Poverty Through Education – The School of St Jude.

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Oh, the 10-woman team climbing 3 peaks in 3 weeks has just completed the second summit – in pouring rain! They are really earning those sponsor dollars!