From the outset political parties have not been allowed to be formal participants in the gatherings and structures of the WSF the reason being the fear of the domination of the space by those parties. The Global Youth Justice Movement is a text-book example of a local grass-roots volunteer-driven "scaleable model" to strengthen juvenile justice, youth justice and criminal justice …
Sure seems more effective that a Live Aid concert and Bob and Bono going for tea at Gleneagles.On 6 May we launched an appeal for 10 000 euros to strengthen and extend our online presence - something that has been and continues to be particularly necessary in this lockdown period.Households living in poverty have dropped from 55% to 30.6% and those in extreme poverty from 25% to 9.1%.There are wide political differences within the International Council of the WSF which involves about 100 organisations. The political spectrum gathered under the WSF umbrella is broad to say the least, from the Christian organisations, through development NGOs and leadership bodies of international trade unions to socialists and revolutionaries.International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. The global justice movement has expanded geographically, but at the same time the 2006 “Polycentric” WSF held in Bamako, Caracas, and Karachi and the 2007 WSF in Nairobi were in many respects less successful than previous events. The big question facing the movement is how will these aims be achieved?There are many voices who are contributing to the global debate from this position, the very experience of the movement is posing new questions and developing a deeper anti capitalist consciousness. It was the initiator and co-ordinator of the biggest anti war demonstration the world has ever seen when on 15 February 2003, 12 million people simultaneously took part in protests against the invasion of Iraq.Despite the 12 million who took to the streets in a global movement to prevent war in Iraq, US and British Imperialism invaded. The great moral issue at the heart of this movement is solidarity with the Third World, where 80% of the world’s population are denied any benefits of neo-liberal globalisation.Promoted by Jim McVicar on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party, both at Suite 370, 4th Floor Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LDInitially we saw ourselves as opposing a war waged with interest rates, terms of trade, cash-crop economies and debt. However, we have moved on from this listing format. Actions/Campaigns. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.A few weeks ago during an interview with the Sunday Herald Naomi Klein author of No Logo and prominent spokesperson for the anti globalisation movement was asked about the high point of the movement at Seattle in 1999 when tens of thousands of activists and trade unionists closed down the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in protest at the neo liberal, unfair global trade arrangements.Since the first WSF in 2004 there has been an annual WSF, the biggest of which were Mumbai (India) in 2004 (140,000) and Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 2005 (150,000). They are part of the climate that has allowed the SSP to grow so readily.This inevitably leads to a debate around the strategy of the movement, a debate which is forcing itself into the foreground of the World Social Forum process. Links forged in the movement have played an instrumental part in rapidly mobilising anti-war sentiment, and have brought with them a broader social analysis, demanding that social justice, sustainability and democracy are integral to peace.With the political confusion that followed September 11 some predicted that the movement would falter.