The anti-Davos

Posted By Michael H. Cognato Thursday, January 25, 2007 - 7:50 AM Share

While the world's elite gather in Davos, the great unwashed masses have their own concurrent confab, the World Social Forum (WSF), wrapping up today in Nairobi. Dreamed up in 2001 as a lefty alternative to the capitalist plotting now going on in the Alps, the gathering's charter has a distinct Marxist tone.

TONY KARUMBA/AFP

The WSF drew more attention back when its participants would forcibly disrupt meetings of the WTO, World Bank, IMF, and other organizations deemed part of the vast neoliberal conspiracy. Now, the forum's participants seem mostly concerned with disrupting their own events. The highlight so far this year has been a march on Nairobi's vast slums to remind their residents that—well, evidently, that they should really hate President Bush.

More than 60,000 people have converged on Nairobi for the festivities; most represent NGOs, civil society groups, or churches. A sprinkling of Nobel laureates lend gravitas. The WSF has no agenda or formal schedule, so attendees are free to structure their time opposing the man in whatever way they see fit.

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