Answers From Anti-Globalism

Since the end of 1999, from Seattle to Genoa, from Porto Alegre to Bangkok, the mediagenic protest against current globalization has been in full view. What drives all these people is scepticism about a world where the economy takes precedence over people, where prosperity is increasingly unequally distributed, where human rights are being suppressed, where the ecological devastation is unimaginably great and where decision-making about all of this is often done in secret and therefore undemocratically.
Anti-globalization movement has become its name, actually completely unjustified. Because this movement is eagerly looking for alternatives. For example, at the end of January 2001, thousands of people from all over the world gathered in the Brazilian Porto Alegre for the first World Social Forum under the motto Another world is possible. This new Forum wants an economy in the service of humanity and consciously profiles itself as the counterpart to the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss Davos.
One of the participants in Porto Alegre was Dirk Barrez. He had dozens of conversations with people like Naomi Klein, Walden Bello, Ignacio Ramonet, Aminata Traoré, Joao Stedile, Riccardo Petrella, Shalmali Guttal, Bernard Cassen, Muchtar Pakpahan, Harlem Désir, Sylvia Borren and many others. With as a guideline, what is wrong with the current globalization and where should our world go? And are we experiencing the birth of a global social movement that can become so strong that it can realize that multifaceted utopia of a new world?