From cacim at cacim.net Tue Jan 17 06:02:23 2006 From: cacim at cacim.net (cacim@cacim.net) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 06:02:23 -0000 (UCT) Subject: [openspace-announce] Announcing the WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net listserve! Message-ID: <41851.127.0.0.1.1137477743.squirrel@cecil.ocssolutions.com> Tuesday, January 17, 2006 PLEASE EXCUSE CROSS-POSTING But feel free to send this mail out to others! *************************************************************************** ** ANNOUNCING THE WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net LISTSERVE! ** ** ** ** Featuring: Some Hard Questions about the upcoming World Social Forum ** ** and associated discussion around that ** *************************************************************************** Dear friends ! Greetings from CACIM for the new year ! In the run-up to this year's 'polycentric' World Social Forum (that is taking place starting from later this week - January 19-23 in Bamako, Mali, January 24-29 in Caracas, Venezuela, and in Karachi, Pakistan, in March), this mail announces the creation of WSFDiscuss, a listserve for discussion of the World Social Forum as an idea, and invites you to join the discussion that has already started there. Although focussing at this point on the WSF, this discussion will not only be about the Forum as such but also about lessons for politics and movement as a whole. Join us ! *************************************************************************** ** To subscribe to WSFDiscuss, you can: ** ** Either send an empty mail to ** ** worldsocialforum-discuss-subscribe at openspaceforum.net ** ** Or visit the website below and fill up the subscribe form there ** ** http://www.openspaceforum.net/mailman/listinfo/worldsocialforum-discuss_openspaceforum.net *************************************************************************** Background ---------- In September last year (2005), we at CACIM sent out a mail welcoming everyone to an experiment in creating open spaces for discussion and debate, first about the World Social Forum and its culture of politics and then towards discussing institutions and processes more generally. Our letter told you about CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action: Centre in Movement), a new organisation, about some of its activities over the next while, and specifically about something that was happening right then, over those next 2-3 weeks, the 'Chennai Open Space Action'. This action, like most of CACIM's activities, was about promoting and defending open space, and towards opening spaces - pushing the boundaries of existing spaces and maybe even opening new spaces. This was the first step we took in cyberspace towards specifically engaging with the WSF. We are now broadening our focus and have thus created a new, more generic listserve for ongoing discussion of the WSF as a whole, WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net The upcoming World Social Forum and some hard questions : --------------------------------------------------------- THIS LISTSERVE has been initiated with a note about the 'polycentric' World Social Forum, titled 'Some Hard Questions about the World Social Forum'. The note, by Jai Sen, is available at: http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WSF2006:SomeHardQuestions Some of the questions Jai asks are : - What has the leadership of the World Social Forum hoped to achieve by doing this ? by choosing these three particular locations for this major experiment? Why is there so little material on this experiment on the WSF's own website ? and therefore such little apparent interest in it? And what might be the actual possible outcomes of these events, in their respective countries and regions? - This polycentric design is an ambitious idea. But - is this design in fact going to help a much larger number of people to gain access to the World Social Forum (as is one of its objectives)? What ways are there for synergy to take shape between the three meetings ? or are they simply going to be three regional meetings? And will this polycentric design really create a greater impact than the single world meetings that have so far taken place? - In spite of the fact that the WSF's Charter specifically proscribes the participation of political parties and governments in the Forum, as parties and governments, there is very little public discussion of the fact that the Caracas Forum seems to be virtually being sponsored by Hugo Ch?vez and his government and completely dominated by them, and where the Caracas Forum will almost certainly be used by him as a platform and as a way of promoting his understanding of the Forum. The WSF leadership has presumably agreed to make Caracas one of this year?s centres because they believe that 'Ch?vez is on our side'. But the key question is : What are the real 'sides' in this game, in these politics? And who is on which side? In short : Do you agree that the Forum should and can be organised by political parties and by governments, towards their partisan ends? But if Ch?vez in Venezuela, then why not Musharraf in Pakistan? In a way, what seems to be happening is a kind of a creeping coup within the Forum; in the broadest sense, of old politics over new politics. Should we agree then, that the 'alternative power' and influence that so many have said that civil movements can exercise is, in the final analysis, not relevant? Or do you have another take entirely, on what is happening? If so, let's talk about it. **There is not much time left before the Forum starts.** Let's therefore use this time, as best and as incisively as we can, to understand what is happening in the Forum today, what the stakes are, and what the likely outcomes are. The above note will also give you links to some other reading material on this year's Forum. About WSFDiscuss ---------------- We hope that over time, WSFDiscuss will become an open space for discussion, for all those interested in the World Social Forum. Although at least one other discussion group already exists looking at the WSF (WSFItself), the special feature of WSFDiscuss is that it comes along with all the features provided on the OpenSpaceForum webspace. These include an archive of all the messages exchanged on the list, a library of reference material that we are building on matters related to open space and cultures of politics, and links to other related sites; and it is also a space where you can freely chat, blog, create your own wiki pages and upload your own material, and comment on material already up there. In short, an open space in cyberspace. For more details, see below. The OpenSpaceForum webspace --------------------------- WE INVITE YOU ALSO TO VISIT THE OPENSPACEFORUM WEBSPACE : http://www.openspaceforum.net OpenSpaceForum was set up in 2004, in part in connection with the work of the EIOS (Explorations in Open Space) Collective, a new worldwide network of scholar-activists involved in or concerned with movement. The goal of this initiative is to explore and advance thinking and action involving new and more democratic ways of conducting and understanding politics and organisation within movements, institutions, and related political processes. We welcome you to also contribute to the process of organising the webspace. This is still very much an experiment-in-progress, and you can contribute in a variety of ways: by uploading material; by editing/adding to/commenting on existing material via the wiki facility; by sharing experiences and writing, by using the blog spaces provided to further push the boundaries of open spaces; contribution articles; by coming forward to manage a subsection of the webspace; by debating, on this new listserve, the material that is being placed there; and by bringing up anything else related to issues of cultures of politics you would like to draw attention to. About CACIM ----------- CACIM is a newly-forming initiative that has grown out of a five year experiment called 'CA Net' ? the Critical Action network. Although based in one country (India), it is transnationalist, global, and open in spirit and concern. One of our key objectives at CACIM is to promote a culture of critical reflexivity, especially in terms of movement, and to create spaces for this to take place. And one of our several concerns, as a part of a general interest in strategies and cultures of movement, is in the World Social Forum as an emerging world institution. CACIM is work-in-progress; we are gradually giving shape to it. We hope look forward to your joining us -- right now on http://www.openspaceforum.net and WSFDiscuss, and soon also on http://www.cacim.net. Unsubscribing from the openspace-announce list ---------------------------------------------- We understand that these days, everyone is inundated with email, and we do not wish to burden you with unwanted mail. You can unsubscribe yourself by - emailing openspace-announce-unsubscribe at cacim.net (empty email suffices) - visiting: http://www.cacim.net/mailman/listinfo/openspace-announce_cacim.net - emailing cacim at cacim.net ("cacim AT cacim DOT net") and asking us to take you off. With warm greetings, in peace and in solidarity - Members of CACIM