Social
forum ends in Caracas with Sheehan calling Bush a 'terrorist'
By
Patrick Moser
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 01 30 06
The six-day World Social Forum ended in Caracas Sunday, with US
anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan calling President George W. Bush
a "terrorist" during an event hosted by Venezuela's
leftist leader.
"By his own definition, he is a terrorist," said Sheehan,
the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, who gained notoriety
for setting up a protest camp outside the US president's Texas
ranch last year.
"George W. Bush is responsible for killing tens of thousands
of innocent people and his definition of a terrorist is someone
who kills innocent women, men and children," she said at
the live broadcast of President Hugo Chavez's weekly program outside
a historic Caracas house.
She was visibly moved as Chavez, clad in his trademark red shirt,
put his arm around her as he addressed jubilant supporters and
delegates from the World Social Forum.
Later in the evening, Chavez again hosted the anti-globalization
movement, this time at the headquarters of the Venezuelan armed
forces. The forum, which started on January 24 with a march against
war and militarization concluded at an officers club.
The forum brought together some 70,000 activists, mainly from
around the Americas, for debates on globalization, poverty and
war, marked by virulent attacks on Bush and the Iraq war, but
also by some concern over the dominant role played by Chavez and
Cuban officials.
The Venezuelan president was given rock star treatment by participants,
and street vendors in the city center did brisk business selling
Chavez memorabilia, such as talking dolls and wooden statuettes,
pins, badges, T-shirts and posters.
Chavez projected himself as a leader of the world social movement
designed as an ideological counterpoint to the Davos World Economic
Summit of political and business leaders.
His opponents dismissed the whole thing as a gabfest dominated
by archaic leftist ideals.
There were also grumblings within the forum, where some participants
complained about the dominant role played by Chavez, and to a
lesser degree by Cuba, which deployed an 800-strong state delegation
to the non-governmental event.
"I'm very disappointed," said Cesario Ribero, a delegate
from a Brazilian social movement. "Chavez took over the forum,
it became very governmental and pushed aside the organizations."
Olivier de Marcelus, 62, from a Swiss anti-globalization group,
called the Venezuelan and Cuban state presence "a little
invasive."
He said he understood Chavez represented a symbol of hope for
many people in Latin America who seek political change, but warned
against allowing governments and "old leftist projects"
to take over the event.
"We need to concentrate on finding other avenues than the
form of socialism that has been tried in eastern Europe and Cuba,"
said de Marcelus.
He said, however, the get-together was a useful networking opportunity,
particularly for small movements that seek to learn from the experience
of others and gain support for their own cause.
Indigent Americans who traveled to Caracas with the Poor People's
Economic Human Rights Campaign said they attended the forum to
draw attention to their plight.
"We're here to let people know how we are struggling,"
said Zenaide Cosme, 37, a homeless mother of five from northeastern
US city of Philadelphia.
"The United States is not the American dream people imagine,"
she said, as a nearby speaker drew loud cheers by proclaiming:
"We need a Hugo Chavez in the United States."
AFP
01/29/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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