February 15, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
In Porto Alegre, she is on her way
by Stephanie Hiller
Part one -- The River of life
Attending the World Social Forum this year was to plunge one's exhausted body into a river of people propelled by a powerful current, charting its own course through an atmosphere of impending doom. It was vivacious, that river, youthful and teeming with life, like the vast country through which it poured, and infused with esperanza -- the hope that South America was rising like a great serpent from the jungle, bursting the chains of colonialization that have corralled its native force into narrower and narrower banks for 200 years. Though the Empire, as the US government was consistently called here, seems to be moving inexorably toward global domination, its tightening control over national economies buttressed by a militarization program unparalleled in human history, its power seems no match for this rising tide of human resistance.
The river of some 70,000 people, mostly Brazilian, flowed through every available pathway on the college campus where most of the workshops were held, into packed queues waiting for packed buses heading out to Gigantinho, the city's soccer stadium, where it massed for major conferences, then on to the city's Centro for other meetings, and into the streets to march against globalization and war. Everywhere in the sticky heat bodies pressed up against each other while hurried delegates sought a drink, a bite to eat, a copy of the program, a set of earphones for simultaneous translation, or a seat in the hall. The energy of this enthusiastic mass was self-sustaining; it buoyed one along despite aching feet and bulging backpack glued to the skin by a constant bath of one's own perspiration. And after all was said and done, this multicolored serpentine surge of humanity was the signature statement of the forum.
"We be many and they be few," said Arundhati Roy in her triumphant conclusion on the closing day of the Forum. "They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible -- she is on her way. On a quiet day, if you listen carefully, you can hear her breathing."
Those words ring with a power that still gives me chills.
"Vivir! Vivir!" shouts a bird outside my window at the Pensao Universitaria, or so it sounds to me whenever its loud call rings, sharp and unexpected, reducing to mere twitter the ongoing conversations in the avian community gathering lunch on the roof of the garage. "To live! To live!" Isn't that all we have ever asked for, through thousands of years of corruption and cruelty, war and torture, starvation in the midst of plenty? And how loud will we have to shout before we are finally heard?
Standing on a slope above the stage of the Rio do Sul outdoor amphitheatre to hear the resonant voice of Brazil's newly elected president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. I thought how easily crowds like these may be incited to riot. Yet everywhere in Porto Alegre, this was a crowd of hearts beating for love, voices shouting for hope, and arms waving flags, signs, banners, to announce that this time, once and for all, the will of the people shall be served.
It was overwhelming, it was exhilarating, it crested above the edge of any external constraint, yet never devolved into chaos. No windows were broken, no children lost, no wheelchairs overturned in the crush. After the rallies and marches, the litter of papers and flattened water bottles were swept away, sorted and recycled by a corps of men driving carts pulled by little horses, part of a city program for aiding the homeless; and morning found citizens returning to their jobs while delegates boarded the bus for another damp day in the sweep of the rushing river.
MORE -- Part 2, The Ghost of Lugano