The Brazilian city, which hosted the first edition of the forum and another three throughout this decade, is ready for another meeting that will take place on Friday under the slogan “10 years later: challenges and proposal for another possible world”.

130,000 delegates and the Presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Venezuela, Hugo Chávez; Bolivia, Evo Morales; Paraguay, Fernando Lugo and Ecuador, Rafael Correa participated in the last WSF held in Belem, Brazil, in 2009.

This year the Uruguayan President elect Jose “Pepe” Mujica, who is in the transition process before being inaugurated on March 1st, refused the invitation to participate in the WSF, although he has participated in previous editions.

Besides discussing the future of the world economy and politics, the participants of the meeting in Porto Alegre will have to discuss other central issues like the environment and will attend workshops, exhibitions, shows and a market of solidary economy.

Also, the Prefecture of Porto Alegre aims to organize a solidarity fund for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Although the meeting in Porto Alegre is symbolic for having been the first city to host the World Social Forum, ten years after it started, the forum will not have a unified, centralized event.

In 2010, the WSF will be a continuous process throughout the year with events and activities around the world.

This year the WSF will focus especially on the world crisis, which includes multiple dimensions – economic, environmental, political, social, food, cultural and civilization.

The aim of the World Social Forum in 2010 is to collect evaluations, proposals and demands from the movements and social organizations to face this different crises.

The convergence space of the proposals will be the World Social Forum in Dakar in 2011, this time a centralized event.

Photo: Roberto Vinicius