Abstract

Optimism and Antiwar Fervor: A Report From Porto Alegre

The article presents information on the World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil on January 27, 2003. The double-header demonstration, against war and against corporate globalization, was a fitting finale to this year's forum. The forum was established in the city three years ago primarily by French and Latin American activists to run concurrently with, and serve as a sort of people's alternative to, the elite World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. The focused on several issues, including the collapse of the Argentine neoliberal economic model, the problematic but populist President Chávez in Venezuela, the election of a reformist president in Ecuador and, last but not least, the earthshaking political events in Brazil.