Anti-Globalization Meet Hailed a Success Despite Low Turnout

By: Agence France Presse -- English, January 25, 2007

This article is about Anti-Globalization activists in Kenya and a meeting they held on Thursday. The activists claimed that their World Social Forum meeting had been a successful even though it drew barely a third of the expected attendance.

This meeting was the seventh of its kind. The organizers said they were optimistic because “thousands of people from poor nations boosted their ranks for the six-day gathering to some 57,000.” Their pre-meeting predictions expected about 150,000 attendees.

The key issues discussed at the meeting included, the HIV-AIDS epidemic, conflict resolution, debt, migration as well as fair trade between the developed world and poor nations, the majority of which are in Africa.

"In terms of participation, we think we achieved the initial goals," said organizer Taoufik Ben Abdallah. "It's the first time that the African social movements are the majority of the participants. All Africa was present," he said at a news conference. “In terms of impact, we really expect that the African social movement will be different ... if all the actions defined by African people in Nairobi will be achieved."

The World Social Forum was scheduled to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The Nairobi meeting attracted Anti-Globalization activists from “Italy, France, Spain, Latin America, and more than 400 others from Brazil in addition to Nobel peace laureates.”

The goal of the meeting is to outline their plans for next few years. However, the organizers have already said that the forum will not be held next year.

Instead, "We decided to organize in 2008 one big day or days of global mobilization," said Raffaela Bolini, the WSF's Europe representative.

This event is important to showcase the Anti-Globalization movement which largely claims that Globalization only benefits the wealthiest countries, marginalizes local cultures, and is a system of covert colonialism. The movement appears to be losing steam however, because of the seemingly unstoppable speed of the Globalization movement.