[openspace-announce] Announcing the WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net listserve!

cacim@cacim.net cacim at cacim.net
Tue Jan 17 06:02:23 UCT 2006 

Tuesday, January 17, 2006
PLEASE EXCUSE CROSS-POSTING

But feel free to send this mail out to others!

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** ANNOUNCING THE WorldSocialForum-Discuss at openspaceforum.net LISTSERVE! **
**                                                                       **
**  Featuring: Some Hard Questions about the upcoming World Social Forum **
**                and associated discussion around that                  **
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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 !

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** 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
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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
  Chávez 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 year¹s centres because they
  believe that 'Chávez 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 Chávez 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.

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With warm greetings, in peace and in solidarity -

               Members of CACIM

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