Re: Walden Bello on World Social Forum/Davos debate

Greetings,

you might want to look at what the man himself said in his editorial to
last months Monde Diplomatique

at

      

http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/01/01portoalegre

best regards

Harry Forster

At 13:34 04/02/01 -0500, you wrote:
> you
> wrote:
> Does anyone know what the story is behind the various European donors to
> the WSF?  I'm especially interested in the logic behind Le Monde
> Diplomatique's decision to give them some funding.
>  
> COMMENT:
> "Le Monde Diplomatique" comes out of Paris (monthly). Its
> editor is Ignacio Ramonet, also professor in Paris. You could, perhaps,
> describe him as the French Chomsky. His paper is a leading leftist,
> pro-Third World paper which has also editions in other languages. Ramonet
> is a co-founder (or "the" founder?), just a few years ago, of
> ATTAC, an association which promotes the Tobin tax and has chapters in
> some 30 countries, European and Third World, also Quebec/Canada. Ramonet
> has also written in favour of "one, two, many Marshall Plans"
> (for development finance). In contrast to Chomsky, who is specialized in
> criticism, Ramonet and friends emphasize constructive action, along with
> criticism. ("Constructing alternatives" appeared also as a
> theme in Porto Alegre). One may surmise that Ramonet has read
> Boswell/Chase-Dunn, The Spiral of Capitalism and Socialism [at least, he
> and friends behave, as if they had read it], which states on page 12:
> "Global democracy is the equivalent of social democracy at the world
> level. It is both the first step and the primary goal of world socialism.
> All other benefits for working people, from environmental protection to
> banning child labor, flow from their ability to contest the standards and
> rule of the world order." If you were WSF, would you accept money
> from such a donor?
>  
> gk