WHO IS WHO AT THE WSF
By Verónica Ortiz, Babels-Belgium
Agnoletto,
Vittorio: Spokesperson
of the Genoa Social Forum. Author of Prime Persone.
Aguiton,
Christophe:
Militant politique (LCR) et syndical (SUD) particulièrement dans le mouvement
social. Principal animateur d’AC (Agir contre le Chômage). Responsable des
relations extérieures d’ATTAC (Association pour la Taxation des Transactions
financières et pour l’Aide aux Citoyens).
Ahmed,
Imtiaz: Internationally
known scholar of Islamic/muslim sociology, he has played an important role in
moderating muslim and hindu fanaticism. See Lokayan.
Albert,
Michael: (USA) He
began his political activities in 1967 and has been involved in activism and
organization ever since. He was a co-founder of South End Press where he worked
for about ten years and later of Z Magazine, ZMI, and various online projects
including ZNet.
Alegría,
Rafael: (Honduras) Dirige
desde hace 6 años el secretariado de Vía Campesina. “Primero comer, luego
comerciar” es su lema. Ha dirigido la Campaña de la Semilla.
Al-Rekaby,
Abdel-Amir: (Irak)
Ancien dirigeant communiste contraint de quitter le pays à l’arrivée du
parti Baas au pouvoir, il est aujourd’hui le porte-parole du Courant
d’opposition nationale et démocratique irakien
(CONDI).
Amin,
Samir: Egyptian-born
and Paris-trained, Samir Amin is one of the Neo-Marxian thinkers, both in
development theory as well as in the relativistic cultural critique of social
sciences. Promoter of the conscious self-reliance of developing countries,
mainly in the Arab world. See www.cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/amin.htm.
Ayala, Luis: Secretario General de la Internacional
Socialista.
Barghouti,
Marwan: Born in
1959 near Ramallah. On April 15th, 2002, Barghouti was apprehended
by the Israeli army in Ramallah and has been illegally detained since then. For
his complete biography, see www.freebarghouti.org.
Barlow,
Maude: Ottawa-based
activist, writer and policy critic. She is the volunteer national chairperson
of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy group and serves
on the Board of Directors of the International Forum on Globalization. www.writersunion.ca/b/barlow.htm.
Barón,
Atilio: Member of
ALAI. He wrote, amongst
others, Lula y el espajo argentino and Lúgubre canto de las sirenas.
Baudet,
Pierre: Directeur
général d’Alternatives, revue basée au Québec. Voir www.alternatives.ca.
Beillin,
Yossi: (Israel)
Promoter of the Shachar movement and founder of the Economic Cooperation
Foundation (ECF). The ECF aim is to facilitate the intervention of the European
Union in any negotiations that would take place between Israel and the Arab
world. Co-promoter of the Geneva Peace Plan.
Bello,
Walden: Director of
the Focus on the Global South in Bangkok, a project of Chulalongkorn
University’s Social Reseach Institute and Professor of Public Administration
and Sociology at the University of the Philippines. He serves on the Programme
Board of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development in
Geneva, which provides NGOs information on the WTO. Bello has regular columns
in Philippine and Thai newspapers, Focus on Trade and the Far Eastern Economic
Review. His most recent books are Deglobalisation: Ideas for a New World
Economy (Zed 2002) Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty (updated
2nd edition; TNI/Food First/Pluto 1999) and A Siamese Tragedy: Development
and Disintegration in Modern Thailand (Food First/Zed 1998).
Bendaña,
Alejandro: Director
of the Centre for International Studies, Managua, Nicaragua. The Centre focuses
on issues of peacebuilding, reconciliation and economic justice.
Benjamín,
César: Brazilian
thinker. Member of ALAI
(Agencia Latinoamericana de Información).
Bertinotti,
Fausto: Rifondazione Comunista. He is also a MEP (GUE/NGL group).
Boal,
Augusto: Brazilian
theatre director. He developed The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) during
the 1950’s and the 1960’s.
Bové,
José: French farmer
and unionist (Confédération Paysanne), Bové
is best known for actions against the McDonaldization of food and “malbouffe”
in general.
Brutus,
Dennis: Born in 1924
in Zimbabwe of South African parents. Known as the singing voice of the
South African Liberation Movement. Responsible for South Africa’s and
Rhodesia’s exclusion from the Olympic Games.
He has recently been focusing on the injustices of the IMF and World
Bank policies in Third World countries, including the impact on the
environment. See www.ustawi.org/dennins.htm.
Cassen,
Bernard: Founder of
Attac and one of the architects of the WSF.
Chancoso,
Blanca: Indigenous
leader. Representative of the Ecuador Federation of Indigenous Nationalities
(CONAIE).
Clarke,
Tony : Director
of the Polaris Institute. See www.polarisinstitute.org.
Codas,
Gustavo: (Brazil) Member
of CUT (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores) International Area Advisor.
Coomaraswamy,
Radhika: United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence. She is also the Director of the
International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo.
Corbyn,
Jeremy: UK Member of
Parliament. Labour Party. Islington North constituency.
Córdoba,
Piedad: Senadora
colombiana secuestrada y posteriormente liberada.
Daño,
Elenita: Executive
Director of South East Asia Regional
Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE).
Davis,
Nira Yuval:
Professor at the University of East London. Internationally distinguished
scholar who has analysed the relations between gender issues, ethnicity and
nationalism. Author of Gender and Nation.
Diallo,
Rabiatou Serah: (Guinée)
Member of the WCL (World Confederation of Labour) or CMT (Confédération
Mondiale du Travail). Member of WCWW (World Committee for Women Workers). General Secretary of the
Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs de la Guinée (CNTG).
Dike,
Victor: (Nigeria) Chief Executive Officer of the Center
for Social Justice and Human Development.
Dreze,
Jean: Professor of
the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics.
Ebadi,
Shirin: Iranian
lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadin was born in 1947. Ebadi is an
activist for refugee rights, as well as those of women and children. She is the
founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Irak.
As a lawyer, she has been involved in a number of controversial political cases
such as the serial murders in 1999-2000 and the attack on the students at the
Tehran University. With Islam as her starting point, Ebadi campaigns for
peaceful solutions to social problems. As a consequence, she has been
imprisoned on numerous occasions. www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-bio.html.
Faani,
Nabila: (Afghanistan)
Founder of IAAI (Independent Association of Afghan Intellectuals).
Fardeau, Jean-Marie: President of CIDSE. See www.cidse.org.
Finger,
Anne: Writer and
disabled activist whose childhood polio left her with a disability.
Ghai, Anita: Department of Psychology at Jesus and Mary College in New
Delhi. One of India’s advocate for rights of disabled women.
Francescato,
Grazia: Chairman of
The Greens-Italy.
Freire Neto,
Rafael: Secretario
General de la Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur (CCSCS) y
dirigente de la CUT de Brasil.
Grajew,
Oded: (Brazil) President
of Instituto Ethos. See www.ethos.org.br.
Hassi,
Satu: Chairman of
The Greens-Finland. Finland’s Minister of the Environment.
Herkens,
Eveline: UN
Secretary General’s Executive Coordinator for the MDG campaign.
Jaru CK:
Kerala adivasi
struggle leader.
Jehangir,
Asma: Lawyer, human
rights advocate and activist. Leader of the women’s movement in Pakistan. She
is a partner in AGHS Legal Aid Cell in Lahore, which runs a shelter for women,
called Dastak. She is also a former member of the Women’s Action Forum (Lahore)
and serves as United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings.
Jones
Zulu, Jack: Jubilee
Zambia. See www.jctr.org.zm/jubilee/dcan4-repa.htm.
Karat, Brinda: General Secretary of the All India
Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA). “Hindutva is a political ideology to
grab political power”.
Kaur, Amarjeet: Professor of Environment Management. GGS
Indraprastha University, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi.
Keene,
Beverly: Coordinadora de
la Campaña Jubileo Sur en Argentina.
Keet,
Dot: TNI Fellow and
Senior Fellow at the Centre for Southern African studies at the University of
the Western Cape, South Africa, Keet works also with a variety of NGOs and
trade unions and is on the board of the Alternative Information and Development
Centre in Cape Town. Born in Zimbabwe she spent years working in several
southern Africa countries and was involved in the liberation movements of
Angola and Mozambique. See www.tni.org/fellows/keet.htm.
Kothari,
Smitu: Smitu Kothari is an editor of the Lokayan
Bulletin published by the Lokayan ("Dialogue of the People") group in
Delhi, India. He also co-edits Ecologist Asia with Vandana Shiva, Claude
Alvares, and Bittu Sahgal, is currently writing two books, and is an active
participant in many of India's popular social movements. Recognized as one of
India's leading intellectual-activists, Smitu's life is devoted to contributing
toward the melding of a broad spectrum of social forces in Indian society into
a popular political movement for the creation of a just, sustainable, and
inclusive Indian society.
Lakshmi
Sehgal Colonel:
First woman candidate to contest the post of India’s President, she is the Left
parties’ nominee. She ranks among the legends of the Indian freedom struggle.
An associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, she led the Indian National Army’s
Rani Jhansi regiment. After Independence she started practicing medicine in Kanpur,
became active in Left Politics after the 1971 war and was awarded the Padma
Vidhushan in 1988.
Lidy
Nacpil: Secretary-General
of Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). See www.freedomfromcoalition.org.
Marinho, Luis:
Partido Socialista
Português. He is also a
MEP (Socialist group).
McLaren,
Duncan: Secretary
General of Caritas Internationalis.
Minh-ha,
Trinh T. : Filmmaker,
composer, social theorist and writer. Currently she is Professor of Women’s
Studies and Rethoric at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in
Film Theory and Production, Third World Film and Feminist Theory.
Mittal,
Anuradha: (India)
Co-Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, a leading
progressive think tank and education-for-action centre focusing on food as a
human right. She coordinated the national campaign, Economic Human Rights: The
time has come!
Mkandawire,
Thandika: Director
of UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development), Geneva. www.unhistory.org/iac_res/mkandawire.htm.
Morales, Evo: Líder de los productores bolivianos de la
hoja de coca. Líder de MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo).
Mrinal Gore: (India) She belongs to the Socialist Party and
is the President of Keshav Gore Trust, Swadhar Kendra, Nagarik Niwara Parishad.
She became a well-known figure in the politics of Maharashtra because of the
active role she played in the Anti-Price Rise Agitation (Mahagai Virodhi
Andolan) and she later on came to be known as 'Panivali Bai' after she
organised the 'Pani Parishad'. As the representative of common people, she has
always fought for the issues that affect the everyday life of the ordinary
citizens. We produce an excerpt from her interview.
Muchkund,
Dubey: Indian
writer and journalist.
Muthoni,
Lynne: Executive
Director of FEMNET (African Women's Development and
Communication Network).
Muzaffar,
Chandra:
(Malaysia). He is the
President of the International Movement for a Just World, which seeks to
raise public awareness of the moral and intellectual basis of global justice. A
political scientist, he was the first Director of the Centre for Civilisational
Dialogue at the university of Malaya. See www.just-international.org.
Ngwane,
Trevor: Soweto
Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC). Operation Khangyisa (which means light).
Nicholson,
Paul: Founder of Via
Campesina and EHNE.
Patkar,
Medha: Central
organizer and strategist of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), a people’s
movement organized to stop the construction of a series of dams planned for
India’s largest westward flowing river, the Narmada. The Sardar Sarovar Dam,
financed by the World Bank, is the keystone of the Narmada Valley Development
Project. Upon completion, Sardar Sarovar would submerge more than 37,000
hectares of forest and agricultural land. The dam would also displace some
320,000 villagers, mostly from tribal communities. As an outgrowth of her work
to stop the dam construction, Patkar has helped establish a network of
activists across the country- the National Alliance of People’s Movements.
Patnaik,
Prabhat: Works at
the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Pratap,
Vijav: Former
initiator of Lokayan.
Rabbo,
Yasser Abed: Palestinian
Authority Minister of Information and Culture. He has worked alongside with
Arafat since the 1960’s. Initiator of the Geneva Peace Plan.
Ram, N.:
Editor-in-Chief of
The Hindu.
Robinson,
Mary: High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ethical Globalization
Initiative (EGI) is the new project led by former President of Ireland.
Roy,
Aruna: Recipient of
the Magsaysay Award- valued as the Asian Nobel Prize- for community leadership
and international understanding. Member of
SWRC (Social Work Research Centre).
Ryder,
Guy: General
Secretary of ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) or CIOSL
(Confederación Internacional de Sindicatos Libres).
Saba,
Saher: Activist of
the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). See www.rawa.org.
Sarkar,
Tanika: Professor
at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Her various books reflect her interest to analyse religion, gender and politics
in Indian context.
Seabrook,
Jeremy : (UK)
Distinguished writer, journalist and campaigner. He has written widely on
aspects of social injustice, form housing to workers in the sex trade.
See www.speakersandartists.org/People/AnuradhaMittal/htm.
Setalvald,
Teesta: Journalist
in Mumbai. Chosen in 2001 for the Pax Christi International Peace Prize .
Editor of “Communalism Combat”. She is involved in several initiatives to
stimulate Pakistani-Indian dialogue and has made outstanding contribution in
the field of human rights.
Sharma,
Devinder:
New-Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst. See www.dsharma.org.
Shiva,
Vandana: Director
of the RFSTE (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology). www.vshiva.net.
Somavia,
Juan: (Chile)
General Secretary of the ILO (International Labour Office).
Stallman,
Richard: Founder of
the Free Software Foundation or GNU Project. See www.gnu.org.
Stewart,
Jean: He and Marta
Russell are writers and disability activists.
Stigliz,
Joseph: Former
World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist between 1997 and 2000.
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD).
Suniti
Namjoshi: Research
Fellow at the Centre for Women's Studies at Exeter University, England. Born in
Bombay in 1941, a Canadian citizen and resident of England, her work draws
several cultural traditions together. Her work is touched by autobiographical
elements such as her gender, sexual orientation, politics, and her Hindu
background. She has worked as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service
and taught in the Department of English at Toronto University.
Tandon,
Yash: (Uganda) On
the main outspoken critics in the South of the western-led global development
agenda. His main focus in recent years has been debt and trade relations as
seen from a southern perspective. He was formerly director of the International
South Group Network (ISGN) and he is editing the SEATINI-Bulletin.
Taroor,
Shashi: Indian
writer. Since 1 June 2002 he is Under-Secretary-General for Communications and
Public Information of the United Nations. www.shashitaroor.com.
Vanaik,
Achin: Independent
Indian journalist writing regularly for various national newspapers and
formerly the assistant editor of the Times in India. He is also a nuclear
specialist and written extensively on India’s nuclear policy. In 1998, in the
wake of the India-Pakistan nuclear tests, Vanaik co-founded the Movement in
India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), and South Asians Against Nukes. His
latest publication is New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament,
co-written with Praful Bidwai (Interlink 1999). Singh, V.P. (1931-),
PM of India (Nov 1989-90) heading the National Front govt. with outside support
of the BJP. Elected President UP Cong. Sept 1984, Union Finance Minister
(1984-86), Minister for Defence 1996, the Whip, Congress Legislative Party
(1970-71); MP (LS) (1971-74); Union Minister of Commerce (1974-77); MP (LS)
(January-July 1980), CM UP (1980-82); Member, Legislative Council, UP
(1980-81); MLA, UP (1981-83). MP (RS) July 1983; elected President, UP Cong on
September 1, 1984, became the Union Finance Minister on December 31, 1984. He
announced implementation of the Mandal Commission Report on Reservations for
lower castes people and became a 'messiah' of the downtrodden.
Wagle,
Nikhil : Indian
journalist.
Wallgren,
Thomas: Professor
of Philosophy at the Helsingfors Universitet (Finland).
Whitaker,
Chico: (or
Francisco Whitaker Ferreira, Brazil) He is a leading social activist and one of
the founding figures of the World Social Forum (WSF). Currently, he is
Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Committee of Justice and Peace, which is
an organization working on human rights issues. He is associated with the
Catholic Church in Brazil and what is popularly known as the “radical theory” movement
which holds that true religion, especially Christianity, basically means
working for the upliftment of the poors. He is has also been active in the
Workers Party (PT in Portuguese).
Zharikov,
Alexander: General
Secretary of WFTU ( World Federation of Trade Unions) or FSM (Fédération
Syndicale Mondiale).
Pour des
corrections et des ajouts, veuillez écrire à vmagritte@hotmail.com.