USA: Mobilizing World Opinion
As the ‘biggest media event in history’ filters out of the mainstream press, shortly after diverse reviews of the first United States Social Forum quieten down in the alternative newswires, a renewed air of questioning is being felt in the movement for global justice.
Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are left wondering what’s next after the hollow promises made at Gleneagles for ‘more and better aid’ have proven to be an irreverent smokescreen at the latest G8 summit; environmental issues are becoming more fashionable and yet protracted than the campaigns against poverty and unfair trade; whilst the peace movement is being widely condemned as “politically impotent” and prone to collapse. There is no doubting amongst pundits that “the crisis is clear,” that a better world “is possible” and that a humbling of the White House “is necessary”, but for the first time since ‘alter globalisation’ became a phrase there is an embryonic and definite note of recognition on the required direction for change.