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Article: World Social Forum 2005: 'nation shall speak unto nation': Damian Grenfell argues that the nation was the unmentioned presence at this year's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.(Against the Current)
- Article from:
- Arena Magazine
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
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The grand finale of this year's World Social Forum (WSF), which returned to Porto Alegre, Brazil in January, was a speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Gigantinho--a huge indoor concrete cauldron of a stadium packed with the factionalised Brazilian left. Many thousands more listened outside. During the final stages of the speech a lone figure struggled through the audience carrying a massive Brazilian flag. Tolerated by the socialist masses, the appearance of the flag in the dying moments of this year's WSF typified a kind of persistent 'unmentioned presence' afforded to the nation throughout the forum.
Around 155,000 people attended this year's WSF, ...