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The World Social Forum, a movement established to counter what are seen as the negative effects of globalization, is analyzing the Argentine crisis here in a meeting proclaiming that "Another World Is Possible."

The "dream" of a united Latin America, without neoliberal influences and far removed from capitalistic ideas will be the central theme of the four-day meeting, which was inaugurated on Thursday with a march through downtown Buenos Aires by some 10,000 people. "We are here today because these dreams are once again floating around Latin America," said the chairwoman of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line, Nora Corti as, to the cheers of the march participants.

The ceremony took place in a public square in downtown Buenos Aires, to which the demonstrators had marched from the Plaza de Mayo. The crowd was addressed by the president of the Brazilian Workers Center, Joao Felicio, and Bolivian coca producers leader Evo Morales. The speakers harshly criticized U.S. policies in Latin America and condemned the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and neoliberalism in general.

"We don't want a bloodthirsty (U.S. President George W.) Bush telling us what to do in Latin America," Felicio said, urging Latin Americans to follow "the path of daring and rebellion" to put an end to the dictates of globalization. The union leader insisted that Latin Americans "did not deserve the governments they have had in recent times," publicly expressing his hope that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would win the upcoming presidential election in Brazil.

Evo Morales, for his part, asked the crowd, "Until when will the natural resources of the Latin American remain in the hands of transnational companies?" adding that if the companies do not change the situation of their own accord, "the people of the region will retake them." "We are accused of being terrorists, but the true terrorists are those who seize our savings and those who impose the policies of hunger and misery, such as the IMF and the World Bank," he stressed.

Morales blamed neoliberalism for devising "plans to exterminate the Indians and the national majorities of Latin America who demand the return of their land, because their natural resources are contained in it." Forum organizers, who included Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, pointed to Argentina as an example of the failure of the neoliberal model, choosing the slogan "Another World is Possible" for the forum.

Until Sunday, the Argentine capital will be the venue for 270 workshops and activities to be conducted by various Argentine and foreign organizations. The forum was organized by the Argentine Mobilization Committee of the World Social Forum, to continue the debate which was begun two years ago in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in response to the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The forum organizing committee includes more than 600 humanitarian, social, student, business, union and social groups. Forum participants will discuss subjects such as U.S. hegemony in Latin America, popular power and forms of civil disobedience and "a new Americas for a new world."

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