arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Funds for the World Social Forum

The WSF is not transparent regarding the sources of its funding. Moreover, given the structure of the WSF, where a number of organisations carry on activities semi-autonomously, it is near-impossible to trace the funding provided to all activities by all funding agencies.

A. Funds for the WSF Secretariat

Certain funds are provided directly to the WSF as a body. The following list, available on the WSF website (http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id menu=2&cd language=2), does not provide a break-up by amount:

WSF Partners WSF 2001:

Droits et Démocratie -- a foundation run by the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ford Foundation

Heinrich Boll Foundation -- of the German Greens party, a partner of the ruling coalition in Germany, whose leader, Germany's foreign minister, was an active supporter of the wars on Yugoslavia and Afghanistan

ICCO -- an inter-church organisation, funded by the Netherlands government and the European Union

Le Monde Diplomatique

Oxfam

RITS - Rede de Informações para o Terceiro Setor

The state government of Rio Grande de Sul

The city government of Porto Alegre

WSF Partners WSF 2002:

RITS, EED, CCFD, NOVIB, OXFAM GB, Centro Norte Sul, ACTIONAID, ICCO, FUNDAÇÃO FORD, Governo do Estado de Rio Grande do Sul, Prefeitura de Porto Alegre, Procergs, World Forum for Alternatives.

B. Funding for WSF participants

In fact the financial role of the funding agencies is much larger than would be reflected in their contributions to the WSF as such. For the same agencies also funded various organisations which attended the WSF, and staged activities there. For example, the following list is from the Ford Foundation website database:

1. Ford Foundation Grants to WSF and Related Operations (from the Ford Foundation website database; apparently does not include current funding)

The following grants have been given as part of Ford's "Asset Building and Community Development Program", which "supports efforts to reduce poverty and injustice by helping to build the financial, natural, social, and human assets of low-income individuals and communities."

Organization: Brazilian Association of NGOs

Purpose: For the 2003 World Social Forum, where civil society organizations develop social and economic alternatives to current patterns of globalization, based on human rights and sustainable development

Location: BRAZIL

Program: Peace and Social Justice

Unit: Governance and Civil Society

Subject: Civil Society

Amount: $500,000

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=106054

Organization: Brazilian Association of NGOs

Purpose: Support for the organization of the first World Social Forum Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2001

Location: BRAZIL

Program: Peace and Social Justice

Unit: Governance and Civil Society

Subject: Civil Society

Amount: $100,000

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=107383

Organization: Brazilian Association of NGOs

Purpose: To hold a seminar on international mechanisms for the protection of human rights during the second World Social Forum

Location: BRAZIL

Program: Peace and Social Justice

Unit: Human Rights

Subject: Human Rights

Amount: $40,000

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=112616

Organization: Brazilian Consumer Defense Institute

Purpose: For a multimedia public information campaign at the World Social Forum and the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum

Location: BRAZIL

Program: Asset Building and Community Development

Unit: Community and Resource Development

Subject: Environment and Development

Amount: $30,000

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=106056

Organization: Feminist Studies and Assistance Center

Purpose: To coordinate a campaign against fundamentalist dogmas during thesecond World Social Forum

Location: BRAZIL

Program: Peace and Social Justice

Unit: Human Rights

Subject: Human Rights

Amount: $65,600

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=113190

Organization: Internews Interactive, Inc.

Purpose: For the Bridge Initiative on Globalization, a collaboration with television agency Article Z, to provide a means of communication for participants in the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum

Location: SAN RAFAEL, CA

Program: Peace and Social Justice

Unit: Governance and Civil Society

Subject: Civil Society

Amount: $153,000

http://www.fordfound.org/grants db/view grant detail.cfm?grant id=106245

2. Sponsors of the World Social Forum media centre

Another example of indirect funding: the WSF media centre, given below.

(source: http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/esf.html)

The "independent" media centre Ciranda was sponsored by Le Monde Diplomatique and IPS, Inter Press Services (IPS). IPS itself is sponsored by:

* Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

* Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft - CDG (Germany)

* Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (USA)

* Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* European Commission

* Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

* Ford Foundation (USA)

* Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - FES (Germany)

* German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ)

* Group of 77, G77

* International Labour Organisation - ILO

* Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (USA)

* Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, Novib

* North-South Centre (Council of Europe)

* Norwegian Agency for Development - NORAD

* Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* Student Union, Helsinki University

* Swedish International Development

* Cooperation Agency - SIDA

* U.N. Children´s Fund - UNICEF

* U.N. Development Fund for Women - UNIFEM

* U.N. Development Programme - UNDP

* UNESCO

* U.N. Environment Programme - UNEP

* U.N. Population Fund - UNFPA

* W. Alton Jones Foundation (USA)

3. Other sources of funds

At the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, the elected officials present agreed to constitute an International Network of Members of Parliament to advance the goals of the WSF. Francis Wurtz, chairperson of the United Left in the European Parliament, revealed that "The principle was adopted that the European Parliament would take responsibility for the coordination of all technical aspects of the Parliamentary Network, including its financing."

The extent of coordination among the WSF funders is clear from the following passage from the website of the US-based "Funders Network on Trade and Globalization":

"World Social Forum Funder Conference: FNTG initiated and has been helping to organize and co-host (with Ford and Veatch) a funder conference in New York on June 12 [2002] at the Ford Foundation. The convening, which brought together over 60 funders from NY and beyond, highlighted the work of the WSF, but also encouraged funders to support the participation of relevant US and non-US grantees at this annual forum, and the development of alternative strategies for equitable and sustainable development in the US and around the world.

Il ne faut pas tout mettre dans le même panier en disant "des associations que nous combattons". Il y a un effet un monde entre l'UNESCO et la Ford fondation.
L'UNESCO fait ce qu'elle peut avec les moyens que les états lui accorde, ou plutôt avec la misère qu'ils leur reste après avoir acheté toutes les armes qu'ils adorent.
Ford ainsi que les Rockefeller, Morgan, ... fournissait de 1923 à 1942 des sommes d'argent à une banque US dirigée par Bush-Walker, le grand-père de l'actuel chef du terrorisme mondial. Ce dernier envoyait cet argent sous forme d'investissement aux nazis. Ils contribuèrent ainsi à environ la moitié du bidget des nazis dés 1923 jusqu'en 42, c'est à dire jusqu'après l'entrée en guerre des USA contre l'Allemagne. ( http://www.copvcia.com )

L''UNESCO c'est les Nations Unies, càd le gouvernement US.

Voir : http://altermundus.net/onu_usa.htm

Ok l'UNESCO finance des actions utiles pour la société. Mais si l'ONU fait plus de bien que de mal à la société humaine, alors il faut supprimer l'ONU. L'UNESCO c'est une partie du spectacle ONU. Sa fonction est de rendre crédible ce spectacle auprès des plus naïfs. Un équivalent au niveau du spectacle de la monarchie belge est la fondation roi Baudouin.

Il me parait assez intéressant de remarquer que les Forum sociaux Européens, mondiaux, locaux, etc. ont petit à petit remplacé les manifestations anticapitalistes ou radicales du début du siècle. Alors que Siattle avait pu coaliser des tas de forces sociales contre les profiteurs internationaux, les Forum Sociaux Mondiaux (ou locaux, etc.) sont plus une foire aux stands qu'autre chose.
Au niveau organisationnel, la contestation est minutieusement enlevée de sa base. Bien joué les Ford & cie !
Rien ne sert de critiquer, il faut agir. Et bien c'est à nous de tisser un patient travail de terrain. Certain le font déjà depuis pas mal d'année, les autres se casseront les dents !
Dans les entreprises, dans les syndicats, délégués étudiants, conseillés communaux, parlement, etc. c'est là que doivent se trouver les personnes les "altermondialistes". Non pas pour faire un show ou discutter dans le vide, mais pour prouver l'inconséquence des pavaneurs DiRupo, Durant & Co et proposer une alternatives aux personnes les plus exploitées de ce monde, pour le changer.