Brazil beach party pinko

ENOR

The first big event of the year for the global left will be—lucky them—taking place in lovely (and politically progressive) Porto Alegre, Brazil. The second annual World Social Forum, an alternative summit to the annual Davos World Economic Forum (held this year only in New York), will run from Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, and will gather an estimated 60,000 union members, NGO types, women’s groups reps, ecologists, environmentalists, pacifists and other like-minded fellow travellers. Themes of discussion: production of wealth; access to wealth and sustainability; civil society and the public realm; and power, politics and ethics. The host city, run for the past 12 years by a workers’ party government, is a direct sponsor.
“The Davos Forum [gathering leading global politicians, industrialists, economists and others] has seen economic interests surfacing strongly and has pushed states out of local legislation,” says Alexandra Guité, coordinator of the Comité Québécois du forum social mondial de Porto Alegre. “We want to show that other choices can be made other than economic choices. If we say we want a world where not only capital rules, we have to ask ourselves what can we build?”
The Comité hopes to send eight delegates to Porto Alegre, and will be holding a fundraiser at the Medley (1170 St-Denis) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Music, film clips, speeches and dancers, all with a Brazilian theme, are on the bill. Tix are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $12 for students and unemployed. :

—Patrick Lejtenyi