Sydney Social Forum to discuss anti-WTO protest

BY NICK EVERETT

SYDNEY — Several hundred participants are expected to attend the inaugural Sydney Social Forum (SSF) on the September 21-22 weekend. The forum, to be held at the Haymarket campus of the University of Technology Sydney, will feature six major sessions, each with a panel of speakers. There will also be at least 40 workshop sessions.

A spokescouncil will take place on September 21 that will focus on building mass protests at the "mini-ministerial" meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), being held in Sydney on November 14-15.

The major SSF sessions will focus on the issues of racism, the environment, the US "war on terrorism"; building alternatives to the WTO and neo-liberal globalisation; and encouraging progressive activism in Sydney.

Fair trade campaigner Pat Ranald and anti-GM food campaigner Ray Fahat will discuss alternatives to the WTO. Marxist historian Humphrey McQueen, Socialist Alliance national co-convenor Dick Nichols and New Internationalist editor Chris Richards will address the final session on alternatives to neo-liberal globalisation.

A range of trade unionists will also address key sessions, including Australian Manufacturing Workers Union NSW printing division secretary Amanda Perkins, AMWU national education organiser Don Sutherland and organisers from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Workshop presentations will canvass topics such as oil and the Middle East, neo-liberalism and resistance in Latin America, building campaigns against GM foods, attacks on civil liberties and the government's refugee policies. Films will be screened throughout the conference, including documentaries on the Easter protest at Woomera and the Porto Alegre World Social Forum.

Sean Healy, a conference organiser, told Green Left Weekly that there will a lot of discussion about "how to advance the movement against corporate globalisation in the wake of the events of September 11 and in the face of a new war drive by the Bush administration".

To register or find out more, visit the SSF web site at < http://www.A HREF="mailto:sydneysocialforum.org"><sydneysocialforum.org>.

From Green Left Weekly, September 11, 2002.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 508