The World Social Forum is being held this year in Porto Alegre, Brazil from January 23rd-28th. One of the themes for this year's gathering is “No New Round”, emphasizing opposition to the newly emerging rounds of World Trade Organization negotiations. This forum, begun in 2001 as a parallel response to the yearly World Economic Forum and its pro-globalization agenda, attracts tens of thousands of representatives from various NGOs and activist groups worldwide. The World Social Forum denounces the WTO “for non-democratic decision-making processes, a lack of internal transparency and for marginalizing most developing countries in WTO decisions and member benefits.” The 2002 Forum condemned the U.S. and Britain for bombing Afghanistan, and renewed censure of U.S. military action in Iraq is expected in this year's gathering.
