By Carlos Arenas
WCCN Executive Director

Between June 6 and 9, 2006, the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hosted the first Midwest Social Forum (MWSF), a regional gathering of social activists committed to finding the way to make its slogan a reality: “Another World is Possible”.

The MWSF was inspired by the successful example of the World Social Forum (WSF) gatherings, first organized in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in 2001 by a very broad coalition of progressive social movements and activists from Latin America and elsewhere. Originally the WSF was conceived as an alternative event to the World Economic Forum, the elitist meeting of the heads of state from the wealthiest countries and CEOs of multinational corporations held every year in the Swiss city of Davos. Since the beginning, the WSF has been very successful, growing from 3,000 participants in 2001 to 100,000 in 2005. As a result, the WSF philosophy and format has been adopted and reproduced worldwide. The slogan, “Another World is Possible” has turned out to be a very powerful idea that has mobilized millions of people around the globe that share the belief that it is both necessary and possible to comprehensively change things worldwide.

Today, Social Forums have been organized in different continents, countries and regions. This particular event in the Midwest grew from an annual gathering previously called “Radfest” organized annually by the Havens Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. In the process of organizing this year’s event, the Havens Center opened the floor to every group and/or activist in the Midwest willing to collaborate, while making a special effort to reach underrepresented groups in the spirit of democracy and participation of the WSF. As a result, although the Havens Center was the main promoter of the event, it kept a low profile, allowing other groups and activists to become the real organizers. The experience was very successful and satisfying.

It is perhaps fair to say that the Havens Center is a very rare example, especially in the U.S., of how things can be successful when social activism and progressive academic thinking go hand in hand. In May 2004, the center organized a very successful event in Madison on the New Latin American Left, in which WCCN actively collaborated. That effort resulted in the first book published in Spanish on the new wave of progressive governments in Latin America1. This publication will be available in English soon, and the project is currently moving to a second stage.

Last January, I had the opportunity to attend the WSF, held in Caracas, Venezuela, as a follow up to the event in Madison. Participating in the WSF in Caracas was a very powerful educational experience for me, even though I only attended for a few days. The fact that the forum was held in a country currently experiencing a deep process of political, social and economic transformation made this WSF even more attractive.

As stated in a previous issue of Nicaraguan Developments, Central America in general, and Nicaragua specifically, has not been very visible during previous WSF editions2. The event in Caracas was no exception. I met two Nicaraguans during the event, Vilma Nuñez, the President of Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), and Luz Marina Torrez, director of the March 8th Women’s Collective. Both told me that there were only seven or eight Nicaraguans attending the WSF in Caracas. Besides the fact that economic conditions limit the participation of people from the poorest countries such as Nicaragua, and the low profile of Central America in general, the low level of participation is also a clear result of the crisis of social movements in the region, with the exception of the women’s movement, which is especially strong in Nicaragua, and the peasant movement in Honduras.

Why did WCCN organize panels on Nicaragua at the MWSF?

Social forums could be analyzed through at least two radically different lenses. With a short vision lens, social forums are simply a marathon of panels where there is no agreement on a single topic and where there are no conclusions or even a final declaration. Under a more visionary lens, however, you can appreciate the potential of this gathering and the format. As Boa Santos has stated:

“The WSF is a new political phenomenon. It is not an event, nor is it a mere succession of events, although it does try to dramatize the formal meetings it promotes. It is not a scholarly conference, although the contributions of many scholars converge into it. It is not a party or an international of parties, although militants and activists of many parties all over the world take part in it. It is not an NGO or a confederation of NGOs, even though its conception and organization owe a great deal to NGOs. It is not a social movement, even though participants designate it as the movement of movements (…) The WSF entails the reemergence of a critical utopia, that is to say, the radical critique of present-day reality and the aspiration to a better society” 3

At WCCN we share this latter vision, and WCCN organized two panels at the Midwest Social Forum and sponsored three Nicaraguans to participate in this important event, thanks to the generous support of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program (LACIS), of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Center for Latin American and the Caribbean at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

There are four main reasons why WCCN considered its participation at the Midwest Social Forum an issue of primary importance. First of all, we believe that it is important to highlight the historical connection between the U.S. and Nicaragua, and specifically between Nicaragua and Wisconsin, which have been sister states for more than 40 years. It is also important to keep in mind that a whole generation of political activists and analysts in the U.S. were strongly influenced by the Sandinista Revolution and the solidarity movement with the people of Nicaragua and against the “Contra War”. Second, WCCN has made significant contributions building economic alternatives and showing ways of connecting social movements. These experiences have a history of 22 years, and we believe they deserve to be shared with both old and new generations of social activists. Third, the MWSF is, without a doubt, the most important activist networking event in the Midwest. Finally, contributing to the success of the MWSF demonstrates to the nation that the U.S. is also fertile for these kinds of initiatives, which little by little sow the seeds for social change.

A report on the two panels organized by WCCN

The two panels WCCN organized at the MWSF focused on the two main topics we have been working on throughout the last fifteen years. The first panel was entitled Picturing the Social Impact of Microfinance in Nicaragua and the second, Empowering Women in the Process of Development: Land Rights and Domestic Violence in Nicaragua. WCCN invited three Nicaraguans to participate in those panels: Francisco Barquero, NICA Fund Representative in Nicaragua, Sonia Agurto, director of the research organization International Foundation for the Global Economic Challenge (FIDEG), and Patricia Hernández, head of the Gender Unit in the Rural Titling Office in Managua.

The panel on the Social Impact of Microfinance in Nicaragua was coordinated by Emily Allred, Loan Fund Manager of the NICA Fund. WCCN is involved in microfinance with the intention of not only providing access to credit to many Nicaraguan families, but also to have a visible and measurable social impact. WCCN has conducted, through FIDEG, the only two studies of the social impact of microfinance in Nicaragua, one published in early 2003 and the other which is scheduled for publication in late 2006. Sonia Agurto introduced several studies conducted by FIDEG related to credit in Nicaragua, including the social impact studies made for WCCN. Francisco Barquero highlighted the importance of rural lending in Nicaragua, explaining the differences from urban lending, and pointing out the specific difficulties of providing this kind of credit in a country such as Nicaragua. Finally, Allison Wood, the founder of the Microfinance Students Alliance at the UW-Madison introduced her group and how they have partnered with WCCN to spread the interest in microfinance among students.

The panel on women, land rights, and domestic violence in Nicaragua was originally suggested by Shelly Grabe, a researcher at the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a local advocate for women’s rights. In June 2005 Shelly participated in WCCN’s study tour focused on women’s issues. Shelly has put together a research proposal to examine how the acquisition of land contributes to lower rates of domestic violence in Nicaragua. She is in the process of looking for funding to conduct this study on behalf of the University of Wisconsin Women’s Center, WCCN, and several Nicaraguan women’s organizations.

Shelly introduced WCCN’s second panel with a reference to a recently published study done in India that found a strong correlation between the issue of women’s access to land and domestic violence4. This pioneering study showed that women’s access to land contributes significantly to reduced violence against women. It is this study that she intends to replicate in Nicaragua. Sonia presented some of the findings from several studies FIDEG has done on this topic in Nicaragua, showing very rich data from surveys completed over ten consecutive years. Finally, Patricia presented her experience as head of the Gender Unit in the Rural Titling office. She focused on the efforts made over the last decade and the barriers they have faced in the process of promoting the inclusion of women’s names in the title of land granted by the state.

Our participation in the MWSF was a very positive experience. We fully understand that the momentum of growing social mobilizations in the U.S. needs to stay strong, especially after the massive mobilizations of immigrants during the spring of 2006. It is only with the collaboration of everyone that the world will be different. Or, as some people at the WSF in Caracas have said, “another world is necessary, and with your help it will be possible.”

1 Rodriguez-Garavito, César A., et al (2005), editors. La Nueva Izquierda en América Latina. Sus Orígenes y Trayectoria Futura. Bogotá: Editorial Norma.
2 Becker, Marc (2004). “The World Social Forum”. Nicaraguan Developments. Spring edition.
3 Santos, Boaventura de Sousa (2005). “Beyond Neoliberal Governance: The World Social Forum as Subaltern Cosmopolitan Politics and Legality”. Law and Globalization from Below. Toward a Cosmopolitant Legality. Edited by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and César A. Rodriguez-Garavito. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4 Panda, Pradeep and Bina Agarwal (2005). “Marital Violence, Human Development and Women’s Property Status in India”. World Development, Vol. 33 (5), pp. 823-850.