Feminist International Radio Endeavour -FIRE
World Social Forum
 February  2002

The FIREPLACE in the World Social Forum

From February 1^st to the 5^th, 2002, Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) will organize FIREPLACE webcasts during the 2002 World Social Forum in Puerto Alegre, Brazil.

The World Social Forum is an open meeting space designed for in-depth reflection, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and planning of effective action among entities and movements of civil society that oppose neoliberalism and that are engaged in building a planetary society centered on the human being.

Featuring women from around the world talking in Spanish, Portuguese and English about all issues related to the topic of the Forum "A NEW World is Possible", FIREPLACE broadcasts will be beamed to the world via internet every day of the Forum.The FIREPLACE will be a joint endeavour with women radio producers from the region, including CEMINA in Brazil, the Latin American and Caribbean Women´s Network of the World Association of Community Radios (AMARC) and Women´s International News Gathering Service (WINGS) for an international audience and for re-broadcast in community radios and commercial radios in the region.

Besides being featured in its own web radio at www.fire.or.cr,

FIREPLACE programs will also be featured in

• CIRANDA initiative at www.ciranda.net,

• INDYMEDIA at www.indymedia.org,

• AMARC webpage and radio at www.amarc.org.

Look for the webcast schedules at any of the webpages.

Precedents:

The first edition of the World Social Forum was held in Porto Alegre from January 25 to 30, 2001, on the same dates as the World Economic Forum in Davos. However, this perople´s forum had its own place in time and space. From then on, based on the certainty proclaimed in Porto Alegre that "a different world is possible," it will become a permanent process of seeking out and constructing alternatives, supported by editions of the Forum held in other countries. Yet, these events are not the only elements of the World Social Forum. It is a worldwide process.

The alternatives proposed at the different editions of the World Social Forum counteract a process of globalization headed by huge international corporations and by governments and international institutions that serve their interests. These alternatives aim to bring about a new era in world history and propagate a kind of communitarian globalization that observes universal human rights for men and women throughout all nations and protects the environment, backed by international democratic systems and institutions serving social justice, equality and the sovereignty of the people.

The 2002 FIREPLACE project al Porto Alegre in being funded by the permanent support by Genveive Vaughan of Feminists for the Gift Economy, and the support of HIVOS.