Bello and Soentoro were among over 200 people from a broad range of Asian civil society groups -- including grassroots bodies, social movements, human rights and labor rights lobbies and NGOs -- who met in the Thai capital to map out a regional strategy to combat corporate-driven globalisation.
This gathering of the Asia-Pacific Social Movements (APSM) is part of the World Social Forum (WSF), a global movement that emerged in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in January 2001 to serve as a counterweight against the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The movement has grown since then, aiming to become a forum for an alternative model to that of corporate-driven globalisation.
The WSF attracted over 60,000 people from across the world to Porto Alegre in January this year, a significant show of force by individuals who wanted to drive home the point that "Another World is Possible", the theme of the 2002 gathering.
Among the issues that the activists here identified to agitate against ranged from the impact of land being privatised to the detriment of local communities, the manner in which mining companies are damaging the lives of tribal people, to the suppression of those voices critical of globalisation.
This gathering of the Asia-Pacific Social Movements (APSM) is part of the World Social Forum (WSF), a global movement that emerged in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in January 2001 to serve as a counterweight against the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The movement has grown since then, aiming to become a forum for an alternative model to that of corporate-driven globalisation.
The WSF attracted over 60,000 people from across the world to Porto Alegre in January this year, a significant show of force by individuals who wanted to drive home the point that "Another World is Possible", the theme of the 2002 gathering.
Among the issues that the activists here identified to agitate against ranged from the impact of land being privatised to the detriment of local communities, the manner in which mining companies are damaging the lives of tribal people, to the suppression of those voices critical of globalisation.