Dear friends

On February 15, world civil society took to the streets in protest against the war on Iraq, giving the best proof in history that international networking is possible. A range of different assessments set the numbers at between 10 and 30 million people in anti-war marches the world over. The records were 3 million in Rome and around 1.7 million in London. This unified and – with calls to action continuing to come from groups around the world – continued action is putting heads of state who support the US president’s war plans in an uncomfortable position. This shows not only how successful – but how very necessary – is worldwide organization and networking by world civil society and its organizations.

The WSF web site continues to publish the various organizations’ projects and calls to action on the war. Those that would like their actions included please send us the relevant information.



CONTENTS
1. Site update 
2. Material for the WSF 2003 memorial and certificates
3. Towards Social Forum 2004
4. Colombia Thematic Forum
5. Travelling exhibition of the Living Museum of Diversity
6. Announcement
7. Calls to action

1. Site update

WSF 2003 on Balance
Read texts by Emir Sader, Mark Weisbrot, Michael Albert, Naomi Klein, Peter Waterman, Raúl Zibechi, Roberto Savio, Sanjay Suri, Llorenç Buades and Paulo Vieira by click here

Texts of conferences and testimonies
To read texts by Arundhati Roy, Eduardo Galeano, Noam Chomsky and Chinsung Chung (speakers) and Fritjof Capra and Ken Coates (testimonies), click here

Against the war on Iraq
To read the texts by João Pedro Stedile, Emir Sader, Leonardo Boff, subcomandante Marcos, Pedro Carmona, and others, and to access the agenda of calls to action against the war, click here 

2. Material for the WSF 2003 memorial and certificates
As we explained in the last WSF Newsletter, a large part of the self-managed activities (workshops, seminars, assemblies, etc) and all the panel debates, conferences and dialogue and controversy round tables are being systematized by a team from the WSF Secretariat and will be organized in the Forum’s four languages by the end of May. Meanwhile, we would ask all those who organized activities or took part in assemblies, encounters and meetings which produced final reports, documents and declarations to send us this material for posting on the web site (in the original language). We ask everyone to send their reports with the number and name of the activity and the contact details of the persons responsible for the text. Those who have already sent material will see their texts posted shortly.

We would also like to remind all delegates to WSF 2003 that participant certificates are being sent out by e-mail to the address given on their registration forms. If you have any doubts, please contact Maíra Junqueira by e-mail at fsm2003inter@uol.com.br

3. Towards Social Forum 2004

Meeting from February 14 to 16 in New Delhi, India, after a major national consultation, the group of Indian organizations that has taken over the WSF process in the region reasserted their commitment to hold WSF 2004 in India. The meeting also decided that a large-scale call will be made to involve as many Asian organizations as possible in the process of building the WSF and especially in organizing WSF 2004. A further meeting and consultation has been set for March 21 and 22 in the city of Nagpur by a preparatory committee comprising some 35 organizations. More information: wsfindia@vsnl.net

4. Colombia Thematic Forum

After WSF 2003 in Porto Alegre, the next major event in the WSF process is the Colombia Thematic Social Forum, which will take place in Cartagena de Indias from June 16 to 20, 2003. The proposal to hold a Social Forum to discuss the situation in Colombia was submitted at the second last WSF International Council meeting in Florence. The aims of the Forum, as described by its Colombian organizers, include fostering an analysis of the drugs industry and anti-drug policies applied in countries of the North and in countries of the South, to debate and draw up a balance on Plan Colombia and its social, political and environmental effects on Colombia and the region, to evaluate the humanitarian crisis in Colombia and to bolster processes of convergence and mobilization among democratic social sectors. Click here  to see the Thematic Areas of the Colombia TSF.

5. Travelling exhibition of the Living Museum of Diversity
The Brazilian National Working Group on Culture of the World Social Forum is showing a travelling exhibition of the living museum of diversity, including the Flag of Flags, the Panel of Cross Destinies and the Citizenship Mosaic built up in part by the atelier that operated at Gigantinho Stadium during WSF 2003. In addition to these collective products, the exhibition also includes showings of videos made at WSF III by the team of the Instant Memory project (which gathered together over a hundred hours of uncut video material, including several documentary shorts, all produced during WSF III) and an exhibition of photographs of the live body painting done at the Living Museum for the march that opened WSF III.

Organizations and WSF Mobilization Committees interested in scheduling this Living Diversity Show in their towns or countries should contact Luana Vilutis by e-mail at fsm2003cultura@uol.com.br by March 17, 2003.

6. Announcement

Lost Documents
Anyone who lost documents at WSF 2003 should contact the central post office in Porto Alegre, which offers a lost documents search service. Within Brazil, the post office information centre can be reached at the toll-free number 0800-570-0100.

Photos from WSF 2003
Several photographers who were at WSF 2003 at making their material available. Here are some contact details:
- Radiobrás: www.radiobrás.gov.br (in “fotografias”)
- Simone Bruno: www.simone.bruno.name/wsf
- Jorge Bueno: jc.bueno@terra.com.br
- Ricardo Martini: ricardo.martini@uol.com.br

7.Calls to action

The international activities planned and promoted by organizations participating in the WSF process have always been publicized via the WSF web site and newsletters. The agenda of calls to action endeavours to announce the greatest possible number of activities and campaigns around the world relating to struggles and proposals discussed at the WSF (such as demonstrations against neo-liberal globalization, meetings in parallel with official events or major campaigns built up in the WSF process). We therefore ask everyone to send us their agendas so that we can make them more widely known.

Peoples World Water Forum ­ March 21 and 22, in Florence, Italy
At the same time as government and business figures from all over the world are coming together at the III World Water Forum in Japan, a number of civil society organizations will be holding parallel events for the purpose of drawing up proposals alternative to the world trend towards privatizing water. The largest of these meetings, the Peoples World Water Forum, is being organized by the Europe Social Forum in partnership with a number of international organizations in Florence, on March 21 and 22. More information: http://www.cipsi.it/contrattoacqua/forum-acqua/index.htm