World Social Forum

There is a ton of interesting stuff coming out of the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India.

One frequent theme is the harm that corporations are perpetrating throughout the world. For example, Coca-Cola's operations in:

"... Colombia, where company-paid paramilitaries have been killing union leaders and activists at the Coca-Cola bottling plants, and India, where the company has not only bought up most of the major local brands but is mining so much water that local residents don't have anything left in their wells."
—Daina Green in Mumbai: hot and dusty, colourful and busy.

Arundahti Roy is cited as calling for a campaign targeted at the corporations (Haliburton, Enron, etc.) that are engaged in the pillaging of Iraq's economy. Proposed actions include occupations and shut-downs of corporate offices around the world - but especially in the U.S.

Another big focus coming out of Mumbai is Iraq. There is apparently a lot of connecting and discussion going on there amongst peace activists from around the world.

Interesting, too, is the ways in which the extreme diversity of participants is being supported. At least 13 languages are being supported through a network of translators supported by low-cost, open-source based, computer systems.