World Social Forum
thenation.com
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Letter From Pôrto Alegre by Marc Cooper Thursday, February 1
PÔRTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL--Flanked by swaying palms and under a sky streaked with flaming orange and pink, more than 50,000 people from around the world filled a water-side amphitheater and, singing "Another World Is Possible," celebrated the official opening of the second World Social Forum.
The state's elected governor, Olivio Dutra--decked out in traditional "gaucho" cowpunching garb, welcomed and thrilled the crowd with a fiery, radical speech that condemned what he called the "profound dehumanization and systematic banalization of civilization" wrought by a global economy driven by market ethics. "We are among millions of other people," he said, "who now proclaim that humanity is not for sale!"
An infectious optimism rippled through the crowd, and the evening was punctuated when an Internet video hookup broadcast live greetings from AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, who was among those protesting in New York City against the corporate World Economic Forum.
Earlier in the day, MIT professor Noam Chomsky--one of the forum's big draws--said he had hopes that the Pôrto Alegre conference would become "a new International" for global social justice movements.
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