At the forum on Social movement for Morocco and the Maghreb/Machrek region held in Bouznika from March 5th– 7th, 2010, the e-joussour team got a chance to interview Mr. Muhammed Hilaluddin from Bangladesh, one of the keynote speakers at the forum. Mr. Muhammed is a professor and researcher, and also plays a key role in the Bangladesh social forum. The following is what Mr. Muhammed shared with us:

Can you please brief us about the background history on when Asian countries were involved in the world social forum?

Firstly, the world social forum started in 2001 in Brazil and since then it has been organized in different parts of the world. In 2003 the first Asian social forum was held in Hyderabad, India and later in 2004 in Mumbai, India, that was the only world social forum was held in Asia. In 2006, there were three polycentric social forums in the world: there was one in Latin America, one in Africa and one in Asia, which was held in Karachi, Pakistan.

How were the dynamics at the Asia forum at that time?

Honestly speaking, Asia means more or less South Asia, it was dynamic. Korea, Japan and Indonesia participated too. Afterwards, Southeast Asian dynamics did not proceed much. In Japan, there is a forum going on in Osaka but the dynamics are not that much vibrant. The problem of this is that WSF wanted to expand to China but they didn’t find good ways in to get there and how to convince the Chinese authorities to allow such events. Nevertheless, there are news that on 4th March we had the WSF expansion meeting (the international commission expansion meeting), a top-level meeting, held in Casablanca. There, it was decided that we have to touch and we have to encompass Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. As expansion strategy, we found that Actionaid international (an NGO) is in our international commission, and there are Actionaid offices in the three countries, we will try to build a forum there through them.

Again we are trying to enliven the Korea and Japan’s contexts to make them more active. There will be a meeting within some months in Bangkok, encompassing those contexts and countries. Bangkok will be a center of our expansion work in Southeast Asia. There will be a forum for Southeast Asia by next year.

Now returning to this social forum for Morocco and the Maghreb/Machrek region, how do you find it different?

You see, they have less social movement here, less vibrant because they are working in a difficult context, which limits them. So they passed difficult times earlier but nowadays they are getting some sort of freedom. In this sort of countries you see getting organized was a very difficult thing, so with this perspective, this progress is important. I am honestly amazed at their progress, there are other processes that they could not take part in as they should because of their context, but the main point here is that the leadership is strongly committed and integrated. They have strong people who are very dedicated and well-respected, thus, the leadership is good and integrating. So here the social forum is very much helpful for them to get socially and politically organized. I am positive that this politically leadership will become strong, in another word, it is promising. In addition, the social forum methodology can lead them to a more democratic society.

In South Asia, the social movement is strong, as for example in India. However, nowadays there are different domestic issues that weaken the movement, but there is potential to grow. In Bangladesh we are there, the movement is not strong nor weak. We always participate in the events in India. Additionally, there will be the South Asia forum in Bangladesh probably in November or December this year. This is one of the reasons I came here, to finalize the timeframe and distribute this news, so that’s progressing. In Nepal, the WSF process is there, but there is a problem between two main left parties in power struggles, so they will have to resolve those problems before the social movement can reemerge. 

Nevertheless, WSF leadership’s main concern is to influence Eastern Europe countries, Russia, and in Asia, namely China, to make it a truly world social forum. Overall, WSF is against neo-liberal discourses. We have nothing to do with the governments, we are not against the government in those countries but we are trying to link with the social forces.

How can we evaluate the WSF? What do you foresee as the future direction of the WSF?

You see, this is a new process. We would like to create an open space and now we have edited one thing: ‘we must seek alternative’. Since the beginning of the WSF, we told people to come to this space, speak about anything and there will be ways, but now we need action. We cannot just tell people that they are bad, but we need to show them how to become good in different ways. We have repeatedly accused neo-liberalist discourses, that is fine, but what are new alternative discourses, since we have experienced that neo-liberalism cannot cure people. Thus, we need new Karl Marx, new Lenin, and new Mao Zedong for resolving the present problems and for creating new alternatives. WSF must go to the field with alternatives, because, as it is today, it is proposing none. WSF can diagnose or analyze the situation, but they cannot treat. If I can diagnose your problem, I must have quality to treat your problem too. So for treatment we need alternatives, we are now searching for alternatives, that is our limitation and at the same time our vision. This is a challenge for all the WSF organization across the globe, this does not target only to the Brazilian, India, or Bangladesh but it is for all. We have created enough space, now it is time to look for alternatives. Thus, we need to brainstorm together and find alternatives. If we cannot find alternatives, WSF will not go ahead much.

Finally, I want to point out the role of WSF: it is an open forum for everybody, actions should not be done by WSF because it is not a political party. We can agree on something and we can do something, but, for example, after this Maghreb/Machrek forum, we will make a plan on how to go on struggling and fighting. WSF is not a place for those actions, what WSF should do is to propose alternatives. It is the Moroccan people who decide about their future, not WSF.  WSF is a process grown from the grassroots, not from the state power. It is an open space, we will go for action to some extent but without creating alternatives we cannot act either.

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