March, 2006

The World Social Forum: Connecting the world's poor

By James Pfluecke

The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of social movements, community activists, organized labor and civil society. The focus of the event is on economic and community development methods that put the needs of people and communities first before the needs of multinational corporations. The meeting is always held to coincide with the World Economic Forum to provide an alternative to neo-liberal, top down economic development models. This year, the World Social Forum was divided into three sites - one in Caracas, Venezuela for North and South America, one in Pakistan for Asia, and one in Mali for Africa.

I attended the World Social Forum in Caracas as part of a delegation of 110 people from organizations of poor people from all over the United States.

We went to Caracas full of hope to make connections with other U.S. groups and with organizations from Central and South America and to make sure we were able to let the world know what is going on with the poverty and homelessness crisis in the USA. Being from Chicago, myself and the three other people from Chicago wanted to show the world the housing crisis in our city and to learn from the movements in Latin America. We were not disappointed.

The bus ride from the airport to Caracas was an eye opener to us. We all know that poverty in America is real - one of the men I traveled with has a sister who is homeless - but to see an eight-year-old girl carrying a bucket of water up a hill is shocking to anyone. The main road from the airport to the city was closed so we took a winding mountain road through a national park and the slums that surround the outside of Caracas. We saw water trucks delivering water to bucket wielding families. We saw houses poised to fall down the mountain that were obviously inhabited. Half-built, one-room homes stacked on top of each other. And smiles and waves. Everyone loved the Americans with the cameras.

Mostly, we saw miles and miles of poor communities.

This got us thinking: after Chicago and other cities clear out all of the urban poor and push us to the outskirts of the city, as in Paris, will this be what Chicago will look like? Will we live in a forgotten place with no economy, no services, and little hope for anything better? We had already talked to the delegation from Detroit who talked of whole suburbs (Highland Park, MI) with no police department and a privatized water system that left one third of the families in the city of Highland Park with their water cut off. And everyone knows the catastrophe going on in Chicago and elsewhere as heating prices double and triple and poor people are getting their gas cut off and getting evicted as a result.

In Venezuela, as we learned, these poor communities are the backbone of the movement that has allowed Chavez and his supporters to win three national elections. When the CIA and the rich business elite of Venezuela tried to overthrow Chavez, one million people filled the streets to stop the coup. Basically, over one quarter of the adult population of Caracas risked their lives to save their revolution.

These neighborhoods are the focus of intensive literacy, food, housing, and organizing projects. The Venezuelans will tell you that the process is not perfect, but the Venezuelan organizers whom we spoke to, poor themselves, see hope in the future and, unlike in the USA, see that their government is committed to a path to eliminate poverty.

In the USA, neighborhoods like these would be ignored, shunned, and blamed for their own demise. In Venezuela, we heard over and over again that the people in these communities are working with the government to make changes in these neighborhoods to give the people what they need.

One thing that really stuck out to me about our Venezuelan hosts was their self confidence and their sense that they were going to beat the odds and win. They feel like all of their work has been worth it because they have seen things change. Many had learned to read through participating in their organization and all of them had seen changes in their community for the better.

I returned to Chicago spiritually refreshed. Millions of Venezuelans have come together to forge a new future for their children. We can do the same here in the USA.

James Pfluecke is a low-income housing organizer in Chicago, IL.