From 26th to 30th of March 2013, the World Social Forum will take place for the first time in the Arab world. Twelve years ago, the Southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre hosted this completely unprecedented event with the slogan "Another World is possible". It attracted more than 12,000 people, who wanted to engage with alternatives to mainstream thinking, resist the neoliberal hegemony, and in this context to make heard the voices of those who felt ignored by the world's powerful.
Since 2001, the World has changed a lot. And the movements have changed too. The World Social Forum has travelled from Porto Alegre in Brazil to Mumbai in India, to Karachi, Caracas and Bamako, back to Brazil to the Northern city of Belem, and, in 2011, to Dakar in Senegal. It has also diversified into regional, national and local social fora, "contaminating" more and more parts of the world with its claim for another possible way of existing, avoiding wars, environmental depletion, racism, oppression and violence. Minorities of all kinds, migrants and feminists have fed into the alter-globalisation dynamics. In one gathering, the World Social Forum, space and movement have at the same time changed and shaped struggles and mobilisations around the globe.
The financial crisis of 2008 brought about new movements, like the Indignados and the Occupy movement, and it also sped up the reflection about the future of the World Social Forum itself.
Honouring the Arab Spring, starting in 2011, the World Social Forum decided it was time to enter this region. The Maghreb, and in particular the Tunisian social movements offered to organise the event, which is about to open its doors.
Since its very first edition, the Greens in the European Parliament have participated in uncountable events of the World Social Forum and co-organised the World Parliamentary Forum. They have always offered their own events, taking up the challenges of the region and debating possible solutions with people on the spot.
In 2013, the Green delegation of the European Parliament consists of five MEPs:
Malika Benarab, Jean-Paul Besset, Jean-Jacob Bicep and
Karima Delli, from France, and
Sven Giegold from Germany.
The Green MEPs kindly invite you to meet them anytime from the Opening March on the 26th of March to the Closing Rally on the 30th, wherever you want on the WSF site.
Furthermore, a they would like to send a special invitation to you for:
* 28th March, 14:00 - 19:00:
"Le Gaz de Schiste au Maghreb et en Europe", co-organised by MEP Malika Benarab & GIEST (Groupe d'Intélligence Economique et Scientifique de Tunésie), translation FR-EN-AR,
Contact:
malika.benarab-attou@ep.europa.eu
* 29th March, 09:30 - 12:30
"Quelle énergie pour la démocratie - quelle démocratie pour l'énergie", co-organised by the Greens in the EP and the Tunis Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Contact:
info@tn.boell.org
Both events will take place in the Hotel Belvédère, 10 Avenue des Etats-Unis d'Amérique, 1002 Tunis-Belvédère
* On 28th March, 13:30 -1500, MEP Jean-Paul Bicep invites you to a workshop on
"De la Colonisation aux Réparations", room TD 14,
Contact:
jean-jacob.bicep@ep.europa.eu
Last but not least, on 27th March, in the afternoon and 28th March, in the morning, Greens will participate in the
World Parliamentary Forum, inside the WSF, on the El Mannar University Campus. During three sessions, the WPF will deal with "Women and gender equality in the Arab Spring"; with "Peace and Democracy in the Southern Mediterranean and Sahel"; and with "Migrations, Free Trade Policies, Austerity and Debt. For contact and registration:
forumparlementairemondial2013@gmail.com
For everything you could want to know about the 2013 Tunis World Social Forum, click on
http://www.fsm2013.org/en
Don't miss: from the 25th to the 30th March 2013, you will get a daily update with a written and a visual blog by our MEPs.
