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Este documento faz parte do

Repositrio Institucional do
Frum Social Mundial
Memria FSM



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The Guiding Principles

1. Participation :

Inclusion criteria:
- open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of
proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action
- by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to
domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism
- plural
- diversified
- non-confessional
- non-governmental
- non-party
- decentralized fashion
- interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action
- from the local to the international level
- the WSF seeks to strengthen and create new national and international links among
organizations and movements of society, that, in both public and private life, will
increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance to the process of de-humanization
the world is undergoing and to the violence used by the State

Exclusion criteria:
- party representations
- military organizations



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- Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this
Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity
- All the organizations and networks that register for the WSF event have to accept their
adherence to the Charter of Principles.
- The OC may seek the help and support of the IC (LG and Commissions), when it is
not clear to it whether a particular application is acceptable or not.

2. Equality of Access:
- the OC should ensure equal access to the WSF space.
- That there is maximum diversity in participation, particularly of grass roots social
movements and organisations; and space is made available to them even without any
payment, if required.
- That most of the activities, if not all, are self organized; and there is no hierarchy
within such activities.
- If necessary, a limit is decided upon on the amount of space any organisation can hire,
so rich organisations do not corner all the spaces.
- Registration fees are kept in a cascade form, even allowing free entrance to those local
groups who are unable to pay.
- Proper arrangements, for drinking water, latrines etc. are made, and subsidized or free
stay of grass roots activists is attempted. Cheap or subsidized food and water is
available for them at the venue.
- Language needs of such activists are given utmost attention.
- Proper space is provided for their modes of expression and articulation, which may be
in a variety of cultural forms, rather than through lectures and conferences.
- That women participate in large numbers.
- That the venue is so constructed that it is friendly to persons with disability and they
are encouraged to participate.

3. The Venue:



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- constraining factors in the choice of a venue can not be that of a commercial event
management company.
- the cultural and political dimensions of the choice exist:
- environmental
- transportation
- levels of cleanliness and hygiene.
- highly desirable to make the space for the duration of the event a common, to which
not just the organizing committee but all the participating organisations have
responsibility in manner of use, maintenance and upkeep.
- controls on pricing and ensuring equal access for food, water, sanitation,
communications etc.
- it must be done in a completely transparent and open manner.
- it must be ensured that contracts are not given to firms and institutions owned by
corrupt politicians, criminal and undesirable elements.
- A prominent space should be given to fair trade and solidarity economy.

4. Funds:
The total resources of an event are composed as follows
- Raised by the organizers from foundations and other agencies
- Raised through registration and other fees, for space etc.
- Raised by the participating groups for their events, travel etc.

- The major expenditure for the organizing committee should be on preparing the space
and venue, with all the facilities, including translations.
- the OC can also decide to hold a number of activities, but it can block time and space
that could be used by participants. Reducing them will reinforce the self organization of
activities in the forum event.



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- Raising funds from foundations is the major resource, but it is deeply political, since in
each region and country, there can be differing opinions regarding the desirability of
raising funds from a particular or different funding sources.
- neo-liberal sources must remain excluded, namely: International Financial Institutions,
multinational commercial agencies and corporations, and sources with known links to
drugs, mafia and crime, sponsorship fees from private corporations for allowing them to
advertise or sell products at the venue.
- The grey areas are funds from governments and public sector enterprises. While
accessing government funds, the WSF event cannot loose its autonomy and should not
be seen to be hijacked by the party in power, as that would be against the Charter of
Principles.
- caution to assess the record of a particular public sector enterprise, since many of them
are also multinational, and their record in their own country and in other countries
environmental, land use, pollution etc. can sometimes be a matter of concern.
- But it has to be ensured that registration fees do not act as tariff barriers to keep the
less rich organisations and activists out, and a sensible cascade structure that may even
allow free access and use to the most deprived needs to be put into place.
- A possible way to ensure equality and solidarity would be that all participating
organisations contribute to a common pool of solidarity funds, depending on their
capabilities. The organising committee could then allocate adequate subsidies and
residential, food, facilities as part of the commons to those who need it.
- The consolidated budgets of the WSF event should be made public on the WSF web
sites within three months of the event for transparency and memory.

5. Formation of an Organising Committee:
- Inclusiveness, diversity, broad-basing, and a process that leads to forming an
organizing committee, rather than a few persons or organisations first making one
organizing committee and then seeking participation from others.
- put into practice a process of mobilization and consultation throughout the
region/country in which the event is to be held, and forming the committee at the
culmination of such a process.
- the OC should promote open functioning and should not act in a top down manner.



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- the OC is not the head of an organisation but a facilitating body, set up to promote a
specific activity for a fixed period of time.

Primary tasks of the Organising Committee:
- organising the venue and logistics
- pay adequate attention to forming proper and broad-based commissions and functional
groups for carrying out various tasks, involving professionals (like architects, IT
personnel, artistes, film-makers etc)
- ensure raising volunteers nationally and globally
- ensure proper media linkages and outreach
- a wide consultation for deciding on themes and axes providing horizontal linkages for
movements and groups
- and adequate attention to print and audio-visual documentation for purposes of
memory.
- Mobilization of volunteers should be seen as a process of political outreach rather than
as a means of using cheap labour.

6. Overall commitments of the OC:
- put into practice: respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy,
participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people,
ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all
subjection of one person by another
- The commitment to equality between women and men.
- No form of violence shall be tolerated on the premises of the WSF event and support
shall be given to those who come forward to denounce such occurrences, particularly
women.
- the WSF space would provide dignity, respect and a feeling of equality to the persons
of colour, indigenous people, dalits and the poor.




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Space for Horizontal Interconnectedness of organizations:
- The impact of the World Social Forum has to become visible through concrete actions
following an event.
- The WSF itself cannot engage in such actions. It is chiefly the movements, that are
engaged in such actions on a sustained basis, that can carry forward the action agendas
they devise at WSF events.
- the WSF must provide a platform for exchange of ideas, talks, workshops, lectures and
so on
- the outcome of concrete actions depend on the degree of interconnectedness achieved
by movements using the WSF space.
- the organisers shall provide spaces and methods for (groups) of organisations to make
visible the outcomes of their participation in the event and stimulate them to develop
their outcomes after the event

Those considerations apply both to physical spaces during the event and to virtual
spaces before and after the event , in particular using process websites available in the
wsf context

- the organizers and the IC must pay adequate attention to facilitate the assemblies,
tribunals and other forms of horizontal interconnectedness of different movements, by
devising appropriate themes and axes, allocating space, subsidy so on.

- All efforts must be made by the organisers to ensure that a WSF event acts as a
catalyst for the forces of direct action to further empower and integrate their actions,
and that it is not allowed to be reduced to a mere talk-shop.

9. Translation, Languages, Communication

- The organizing committee should reflect in time on the linguistic/translation and
interpretation needs of the WSF.



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- The necessary measures and decisions should be taken well in advance of the Forum
in order to get efficient and affordable translations throughout all the forums events in
order to have equal treatment for all participating movements and to take into account
the needs of minority languages.

- Before the event: Create inclusive spaces, physical and online, for working groups
linked to the organization committee preparing the event.
- Stimulate organizations willing to hold activities in the event to upload to sites
provided in the WSF context in order to help collaboration between the self organized
activities.
- Provide ways for organizations registering activities in the event website to link
clearly to such associated spaces.

- During the event: provide a properly functioning media center, total support to non
profit and alternative media stimulating them to share production of coverage, provide
maximum access to internet for participants, and also infrastructure and support to
organizations setting up interconnections with organized groups that are willing to
participate remotely in the event.

- After the event: Stimulate participant organizations to publish outcomes of their
participation in the event site, and create spaces to develop further interconnections and
collaborations, around these outcomes.

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