[E-rundbrief] Info 457 - RLA 2006 - Chico Whitaker (Brazil)
Matthias Reichl
info at begegnungszentrum.at
Do Sep 28 17:23:20 CEST 2006
E-Rundbrief - Info 457 - Right Livelihood Foundation: 2006
(Stockholm): Right Livelihood Award/ 'Alternative Nobel Prize'
2006 - Honorary Award for Chico Whitaker Ferreira (Brazil). "
for a
lifetime's dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened
democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World Social Forum,
showing that 'another world is possible'"
Bad Ischl, 28.9.2006
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
===========================================================
Right Livelihood Award 2006 - Honorary Award - ("Alternativer Nobelpreis")
www.rightlivelihood.org
Chico Whitaker (2006)
Brazil
"
for a lifetime's dedicated work for social justice that has
strengthened democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World
Social Forum, showing that 'another world is possible'"
Francisco ('Chico') Whitaker Ferreira is a Roman Catholic activist,
who has worked for democracy and against corruption throughout his
life, both at home and in exile. He is one of the key people behind
the burgeoning World Social Forum.
Early career and exile
Chico Whitaker was born in 1931 and received his diploma in
architecture and urban planning in 1957. He left architecture school
to participate in research on the standard of living of the
inhabitants of São Paulo at the Research Institute SAGMACS. Whitaker
joined the Planning Office of the State Government of São Paulo and
became, in 1963, the director of planning for the Federal
Government's Land Reform Superintendence, SUPRA. He left this
function with the military coup in 1964, joining the opposition to
the regime. During 1965-66 he could still work in Brazil, as planning
advisor of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB). But
at the end of 1966 the military forced him into exile with his wife
Stella and their four children.
During 15 years abroad, Whitaker initially lived in France, where he
worked as a teacher in the training of Third World public servants,
as researcher and as UNESCO consultant. He also worked in Chile for
the UN Economic Commission for Latin America for four years, and
lived through the overthrow of Allende. When returning to France
after his stay in Chile, he coordinated in Paris, during six years,
the "International Study Days for a Society overcoming Domination",
launched by the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops with the
support of four other Bishops Conferences and the International
Commission of Jurists. This project facilitated the exchange of
experiences among people fighting in 100 countries against all types
of oppression.
Work for democracy and against corruption in Brazil
Back in Brazil from 1982, Whitaker first worked as political and
social affairs advisor to Cardinal Evaristo Arns in São Paulo. He was
one of the founders of the São Paulo Association for Solidarity in
Unemployment and, always with his wife, was one of the main activists
in organising the popular participation process during the drafting
of the Brazilian constitution: The "Plenaries for popular
participation", created all over the country for this purpose,
presented 122 amendments to the Constitution project, with 12 million
citizen signatures.
From 1989 to 1996, Whitaker was elected twice as local councillor in
São Paulo for the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT). In 1996 he left this
function to return to work with civil society. He remained a member
of the PT until early 2006, resigning when he considered the party
was no more faithful to the principles of its foundation.
As Executive Secretary to the CNBB's Commission of Justice and Peace
(CBJP) Whitaker both conceived the idea, and was instrumental in the
implementation, of a Bill of Popular Initiative: One million
signatures were collected against electoral corruption, and
particularly the purchase of votes. The Bill was approved by Congress
in 1999. Whitaker sits as the CBJP's representative on the National
Committee of the Movement Against Electoral Corruption, created after
the approval of the Bill, which involves more than twenty of the
major national civil society organisations in Brazil. The Bill has
already had great impact: Since the first election respecting it, in
2000, more than 400 mayors, deputies and councillors, who were found
to have been involved in electoral corruption, have lost their mandates.
The World Social Forum
In 2000 Whitaker was one of those who conceived the idea of the World
Social Forum (WSF) and played a key role in bringing it to
realisation. The idea was to hold a large conference event, a
parallel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, to share the various
insights of those from around the world who were working for
alternatives to "world domination by capital, within the parameters
of neoliberalism." The slogan was 'Another World is Possible'. The
idea was taken forward by eight leading Brazilian organisations,
operating by consensus.
The first World Social Forum was held in 2001 in the city of Porto
Alegre in Brazil, attracting 4,000 delegates and 16,000 individual
participants from many countries - far more than the organisers had
anticipated. People came from Porto Alegre and other places in Brazil
and neighbouring countries, as well as from Europe, North America,
Asia and Africa. It was such a success, that a second event was held
in 2002, attended by 15,000 delegates representing 4,909
organisations and movements in 131 countries, with another 35,000
'non-delegate' participants. During 2002 several regional or national
forums were organised in all continents, and a World Social Forum
took place again in Porto Alegre in 2003, with 100,000 participants.
That year also saw the first Asian Social Forum being organised in
Hyderabad. In January 2004, the WSF itself moved to Mumbai, and
attracted 120,000 to take part. In 2005 the WSF was back in Porto
Alegre, with 150,000 participants, and in 2006 was decentralised in
three regions of the world: Mali, Caracas and Karachi. The 2007 WSF
will be in Nairobi.
From the beginning, the Forums have been much more than just meeting
places. They have become platforms for civil society organisations
from all around the world to exchange views, form coalitions, work on
concrete strategies and coordinate campaigns.
The success is explained by Whitaker by the principles adopted to
organise the Forums: horizontality, non-directivity, respect of
diversity, no spokespersons, no final document or orientations,
self-organisation of the participants' activities in the forums.
These were defined in 2001 after the success of the first Forum, in a
Charter of Principles, which is now the sole criterion for
participating in the Forum events. It provides for anyone to take
part, except government representatives, military organisations and
political parties.
Quotes:
Whitaker wrote for a French publication for the 2003 World Social Forum:
"Porto Alegre is not a 'summit of grassroots organizations' nor
is it a world congress of a new international movement, but rather a
free-form context designed for encounters to enable mutual
recognition and learning, which respects all individualities. The
Forum brings together delegates from social organisations that are
striving the world over to build a world centred on people instead of
on accumulating wealth. Today the Forum's organisers are certain they
are on the right track to helping citizens rid themselves of their
feeling of powerlessness".
Liberation Theology, the inspiration underlying Whitaker's life's
work, is the radical Catholic theology, which - as he puts it - says that
"true religion, especially Christianity, basically means working
for the upliftment of the poor, fighting for their rights and against
the exploitation of the have-nots by the haves."
Publications:
A book written by Whitaker in 2005, "The challenge of the World
Social Forum", has been published in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and
French. Editions in English, German and several Indian and Kenyan
languages are on the way.
Contact Details:
Chico Whitaker
Rua Simao Alvares, 250
apt 51
Sao Paulo 05417-020
BRAZIL
Fax +55 11 3085 3861
http://www.worldsocialforum.org
On September 28, Chico Whitaker can be reached at +55 11 3064 1535
------------------------------------------------------------
Interview with Chico Whitaker
questions asked by Ole von Uexkull on September 22, 2006
(free to use, no copyright)
Q: You have worked your entire life for the democratisation of
Brazil. Are you hopeful about the situation today?
A: We have lived, in last century in Brazil, two long periods of
dictatorship: from 1930 to 1945 and from 1964 to 1980. Each time,
when we have again a period of democracy, we must re-learn how it
functions. Many distortions remain, and people take a good bit of
time to believe in the possibility of solving our problems through
the democratic institutions. And we have a lot of problems to solve.
Our country is champion in social inequality. And democratisation is
not only guaranteeing political rights, elections, etc, but
especially the right for all to live with dignity. Nearly half of the
Brazilians are still half-citizens: the Constitution guarantees to
them all these rights but they don't even know they have these rights...
Democratisation is really a long process. In between new problems
appear, like now, for example, with a big corrosion in the
credibility of the parliament because of corruption scandals. I am
nevertheless hopeful because we are progressing. Slowly, but
progressing. If political parties are in crisis, civil society begins
to emerge as a political actor with more autonomy. We have very much
to do, but there are much more people than we can imagine wanting to
change things. If we arrive to define strategic objectives of change,
we will go more quickly.
Q: You quit the workers' party (PT) earlier this year. Why?
A:This is also a long history. When I returned from exile in 1981 the
PT was starting to get organised. With people having many dreams. It
was really a new type of party, in its way of functioning and in its
composition. It attracted effectively the poor of the country, giving
them the opportunity to play a political role in the fight for
equality and justice. The respect of ethical principles was also
essential in its practice, in a country where corruption is nearly
endemic and enters everywhere. But as the party entered in the
electoral process and began to conquer positions in the
administration, pragmatism all means are good to conquer the power
became dominant inside the party. I saw this tendency arriving
already ten or fifteen years ago, when I was elected councillor in
São Paulo. As the party won the Presidency of the Republic, these
distortions exploded, changing it entirely. It became only one more
party among the others. Many of us nearly half of its
members decided to work in the re-foundation of the party. Myself,
as I had always worked with popular participation and civil society
organising, I thought I could be more useful in this type of work,
outside any party.
Q: You were in Paris with Oded Grajew when he conceived the idea of
the World Social Forum in January 2000. What did it take to make this
idea come real?
A: Returning to Brazil, we presented the idea to others, coming from
various types of work in society. A group of us from eight different
organisations decided to face the challenge. We deepened the idea of
Oded, that we considered brilliant, and from then on we had no more
time to stop or to think about what to do. The first Forum was a big
surprise also for us. We were expecting 2,500 participants and they
were 20,000. We then wrote our Charter of Principles, based on the
reasons we identified for this success. From then on, there were
still less possibilities to stop. The WSF was a real political
invention. And it is now a global process that brings hope to more
and more people.
Q: The slogan of the World Social Forum is "Another world is
possible". - How does this world look like?
A: Very frequently people ask us this question. I always say to those
who ask the question: you know it. The "other" world we would work to
build is the utopia of all human beings: peace, justice, dignity of
life for all, cooperation and not competition as rule of life,
solidarity as main value, no kind of oppression, respect of
diversity, no more wars and violence between human beings, respect of
the nature to protect our planet and thinking of future generations, etc, etc.
Q: What about the impact of the World Social Forum? Isn't it just a
big fair with little concrete outcomes?
A: The first big impact is the perspective of hope the Forum opened,
encouraging people to rise up to work for a new world. A second
impact is in the action of those who come to Social Forums. All those
who come at the world level as well as at the regional, national and
local levels are already working for this or are being invited to do
it. When they return home after having experienced the openness and
horizontality of the event when it functions according to our
Charter of Principles they continue their work enriched with the
experiences of others they have got to know during the Forum, the
exchanges they have experienced, the convergences they have
discovered with the struggles of others, the articulations they were
able to build to initiate new actions to change the world.
All this makes people feel happy like in the joyful fairs also
because they discover that it is possible to do politics without
having to fight for power, and build a type of unity based on
friendship, solidarity and cooperation. As in good networks, not
depending on orders coming from above, as in the traditional
pyramidal and disciplined political organisations. In this sense many
new initiatives in the struggle against neo-liberalism and the
domination of money were born in the Forums, and they already have
concrete results. But the deepest impact of the Forum will appear in
many more years, as its process expands all over the world, rooting
itself in all countries and continents, through the regional,
national and local forums that are already multiplying everywhere.
Q: What is your aspiration for the future of the World Social Forum?
A: My aspiration is this multiplication of Forums all over the world,
creating the conditions to overcome the frustrations we had in the
attempts to change the logics of economic, social and political life
in the XX. century. My aspiration it that the Forum becomes really a
door opened to hope in a new century free of all types of domination
and oppression, for the happiness of mankind.
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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Bad Ischl,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX
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