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Dear
JCTR Bulletin Readers:
The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting held by left wing members of the alternative globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. The 2006 World Social Forum took place in three different places of the world. The organizers of the World Social Forum chose the city of Bamako, Mali to host the African session of its 2006 gathering from January 19-23.
The Bamako forum was an interesting one for us Africans since it was the first time the forum had been held on the African soil. It was encouraging for us as well that the African issues took centre stage on most of the discussions. A march past at the beginning of the forum indicated the wish of many people as the posters and blanked read. The major interests were in fair trade policies, no privatization of the railroad, an end to subsidies to imperialist agribusiness, freedom for Western Sahara and an end to the third world debt. Development of industries in Africa, fair treatment of immigrants in Europe, protection of the environment of the poor countries and promotion of African cultures were some of the major interest points for the participants. The African participation was also very encouraging as observed by the organiser of the forum Mamadou Goita, “We had over 300 people from the rural areas of Mali alone, while another 8,000 came from neighbouring countries. All of them participated in the forum and enriched the discussions. This has never happened before.” Complete letter
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