WSF: SEMINAR ON CHINA
After a giant opening march on Tuesday August 9th with more than 20 000 participants the World Social Forum (WSF) in Montreal/ Canada started Wednesday with its seminars and conferences. I attended an interesting seminar with the title „Mapping China today with a peoples perspective“.
Three female professors from Chinese universities (Beijing and Hongkong) gave a critical description of the actual situation in China. They mentioned the enourmous economic, social and ecological problems and tensions which the country is facing after the „opening process“ in the last decades.
Their main answer on the present situation was „recovery of the countryside“. They reported about the „countryside recovery movement“ and gave concrete examples for this movement to which they belong: educational and cultural projects, studies, international contacts. The famous social scientist Amir Samir attended one of their conferences.
In the discussion I raised two points: 1) The „enormous expanding of capitalism“ (original words the 3 professors used) is done by a party which calls itself communist- this contradiction should be analyzed deeper. 2) The improvement of the countryside is absolutly necessary- but what is their strategy for the „cities“ and the country as a whole?
To say the truth: the answers were weak. The first question was bypassed. The second one was answered in a very limited way: yes contacts are necessary to the „floating people“ ( the hundred millions of workers in the cities who are coming from the countryside), there exists a museum of these workers, some of them are even poets etc.
But in no way a strategy was formulated which is COMBINING the activities and fights in the countryside and in the towns.
Hermann Dworczak
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