Thematic Social Forum kicks off in Brazil

Starting on Tuesday (Jan. 19) in Porto Alegre, Brazil's edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) will celebrate the 15 years of the event. Under the theme “Peace, Democracy, and the Rights of People and the Planet”, it runs until Saturday (23) bringing together of non-governmental organizations and social movements to discuss the world scenario and work towards a new development model. Brazil's thematic forum is a warm-up event for the world forum that takes place on August 9-14 in Canada, its first Northern venue.

Since 2001, the WSF has been a counterpart that takes place at the same time of year as the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

According to Oded Grajew, Coordinator at NGO Rede Nossa São Paulo, democracy will be the focus of this Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre. “The existing political models are alarming not only in Brazil but around the world. There is a widespread feeling that politicians and governments work to benefit an economic elite rather than a majority of the population,” he told Agência Brasil. He hopes the forum will discussions of proposals and experience sharing that “can inspire others.”

After 15 years of the first WSF, Grajew believes many of the problems have remained, including inequality. “Not only are gaps huge and startling, they continue to widen. We must keep standing up against this as we have not yet succeeded in changing this trend. Although poverty has been reduced in absolute , the gap remains,” he said, citing recent Oxfam findings that the wealth of the richest 1% of the world population has sured that of the remaining 99% in 2015.

Translated by Mayra Borges

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