STATEMENT FROM THE MAGHREBIAN SOCIAL FORUM’S STEERING COMMITTEE ABOUT THE NEXT WORLD SOCIAL FORUM 2013, IN TUNISIA

Oujda, the 7th of October 2012 / 20 Dhou Al-Qi’da 1433

The WSF 2013 will take place in Tunis from the 26th to the 30th of March. This decision, taken after several consultations among social movements from Tunisia and from the other Maghrebian countries, is confirming and specifying the International Council’s decision taken in Paris (France) and iterated in Monastir (Tunisia) in July 2012. The public authorities have been informed of this decision.

The Tunisian Secretariat of the World Social Forum 2013, made up of UGTT, FTDES, LTDH, ATFD, Raid-Attac, the Tunisian Union of Unemployed University Graduates, AFTURD, CNLT and the Tunisian Bar, was deployed to prepare the Monastir meeting, to start negotiations with the Tunisian authorities and to make efforts to involve new social movements, to broaden the process in thematic as well as in geographical terms, despite the ongoing difficulties in Tunisia and in the whole Maghreb and Machrek region barely two years after the events that have shaken the region.

The WSF 2013 Tunisian Secretariat has set up a number of commissions which have been working for several months ; it presented the planning which was endorsed by the Maghrebian Social Forum’s Steering Committee, and which is the following :
– 15 October : Launching of the WSF 2013 website and of the registration process for organizations and proposals of activities
– 1 December 2012 : End of the phase dedicated to proposals of activities, and publication of the proposals, including the contacts to get in touch with their promoters
– 2 -15 January 2013 : Merging process
– 16-31 January 2013 : Registration of the demands for assemblies and distribution of the rooms and spaces.
– 1-28 February : Production of the final program, translation into the main WSF working languages
– 1-20 March 2013 : Logistical setting up, printing of the program and organization of the WSF physical space.
– 26-30 March : WSF 2013
– 30 March 2013 : Closing March
– 31 March – 1 April : Meeting of the WSF International Council in Tunis

The Maghrebian Social Forum’s Steering Committee and the WSF 2013 Tunisian Secretariat are inviting movements, unions, organizations and groups of activists of civil society from Tunisia, Maghreb, Machrek, Africa, from the Mediterranean region and from around the world to make a success of this important step : the organization of and the participation in the 12th World Social Forum.

As in previous social forums, the WSF 2013 will enable encounters between all the women and the men who fight, in their communities and their basic activities, against the neoliberal management of economy, the financial markets’ diktats, social fragmentation, and who struggle to build democracy, equality for all, solidarity, justice and peace, to protect the environment and commons.

To make the WSF 2013 a success, we call all social movements to participate, together, in the setting up of the process, to contribute to the internationalisation of the preparatory commissions (methodology, logistics, finances, communication, mobilization, youth, women, culture…). More particularly, we call on you to seek the human and financial means that will foster the broadest participation in the Tunis Forum.

The Maghrebian Social Forum’s Steering Committee and the WSF 2013 Tunisian Secretariat are endorsing the fact that the WSF 2013 will have an « extended » form. This « extended » form will allow organizations, networks and movements from civil societies that wish to do so, to actively participate in the WSF 2013 wherever they will be in the world, and whatever the size of the delegation they can send to Tunis.

The Maghrebian Social Forum’s Steering Committee and the WSF 2013 Tunisian Secretariat are engaging, from today on, a broad consultation to put in place an open and inclusive steering committee where unions, organizations and new movements, from the national, regional, continental and global level, will get involved, with the aim to enable a wide participation and make the WSF 2013 a success.

We are committing, all together, to ensure the success of this 12th World Social Forum in Tunis, from the 26-30 March 2013, for another Tunisia, for another Maghreb-Machrek, another Africa and another world!
To make the spring fruits blossom, to make another world possible!

For the Tunisian Secretariat,
For the Maghrebian Social Forum steering Committee,
Abderrahman Hedhili
Tel : 00 216- 97456541
Mail : secretariat@fsm2013.org

Statement read in front of the 460 participants in the 2nd Maghrebian Social Forum on migrations, held in Oujda (Maroc) the 6th and 7th of October 2012.

15 oct., 2012
Posted in Actualités