BY ALISON STEWART
BRISBANE — In an exciting new development for the Queensland anti-globalisation movement, activists are preparing for the launch of the Brisbane Social Forum, planned for March 16-17.
The social forum will discuss peace, globalisation, justice and environmental sustainability with the aim of encouraging discussion and cooperation between groups and individuals to strengthen a movement for change.
Its specific objectives are: information sharing about key issues and campaigns; development of "cross-movement" strategies; debate of tactics, strategies and politics; discussion of visions and alternatives to capitalism and globalisation; and to provide people new to the movement with an understanding of who is doing what, how and why.
The idea for the Brisbane Social Forum came from the January 2001 World Social Forum in Porto Allegre in Brazil. A direct counter to the World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum was inspired by the theme "Another world is possible" and attracted 10,000 participants from across the globe.
The Brisbane forum will be structured on an "open space" model, with the agenda defined on the day by those who attend. This is not a recipe for chaos but a dynamic, clearly structured model that can respond to the needs of the participants.
Rooms will be made available and time slots pre-determined. People will then be invited to nominate workshop topics — declaring who they are, what their workshops will be about, at what time and in what room.
People can then attend workshops at their leisure. If no-one attends a particular workshop, fine. If participants in another workshop decide that they want to spend the whole day exploring the issues in more depth, fine. The people who are there define and create the conference they want. (For more information on the "open space" model, see <http://openspaceworld.org>.)
Michael Albert — co-founder of Boston-based Z magazine and Znet — will be a keynote speaker at the opening session. Albert has been an activist for over 30 years and has written extensively on movement building and alternatives to capitalism and globalisation. His most recent book is called Moving forward: program for a participatory economy.
Rap artist Michael Franti of Spearhead (and previously the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy) will be performing a spoken word event at the conference on March 16. Franti's most recent album, Stay Human, focused on the injustice of the state-sponsored murder of the death penalty.
Everyone engaged in working for social justice and sustainability is encouraged to attend the conference.
Conference organisers are approaching a wide range of organisations with the aim of moving beyond the usual confines of "left activism". The event will hopefully build on the links and unity that began to emerge between activists and organisations in the process of building protests against the (postponed) October CHOGM.
For more information on the Brisbane Social Forum or to get involved in helping to promote and organise the conference, contact Daniel Franks or John Hepburn on (07) 3846 5793, Sean Vickery on 0500 577 779 or Alison Stewart on 0407 150 728 or check out <www.brisbanesocialforum.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, January 23, 2002.
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