English language media
Indian Telegraph
December 20, 2004
Smaller than Kumbh, twice the Asiad
The Mumbai Resistance charges that in these three years the WSF has come to look a bit like those it opposed in the first place …— Davos, MNCs, First World governments. It claims that the WSF is funded by agencies with covert globalisation on their agenda. “Attac believes in globalisation with a human face. It also enjoys the support of the Workers´ Party in Brazil. President Lula of Brazil of the Workers´ Party, who visited the last forum and expressed solidarity with the anti-imperialistic stance, hopped across to Davos to fall at the feet of the First World leaders,” says Mithiborwalla. “Most of the forum´s money comes from West European, France and German funding agencies. But how can we not know that France and Germany are no less imperialistic, though more sophisticated, than the US and the UK?”
www.telegraphindia.com/1031221/asp/frontpage/story_2703336.asp
The Economic Times / Times Nes Network, India
January 6, 2004
Anti-globalisation groups to raise a storm in Mumbai
However, the main challenge comes from the Left, with a cross-section of groups and movements …— extending from the Mahendra Singh Tikait-led Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and farmer leader Nadjunaswamy to the Peoples War Group …— forming the Mumbai Resistance Coalition (MR-2004). The anti-WSF coalition is holding a parallel session in Mumbai to be inaugurated by well-known writer Arundathi Roy on January 17. The MR-2004 was conceived by an international camp of radicals and peasant activists in Thessaloniki, Greece last year and denounces the WSF as “a kind of safety valve for globalisation and imperialism.”
http://www1.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/406957.cms
Mid-day, India
January 7, 2004
Graffiti on train: How secure are yards?
An unknown fringe group called Mumbai Resistance is suspected to have painted graffiti bearing communist slogans on a suburban train while it was parked in a Western Railway (WR) yard.
http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/city/2004/january/73153.htm
Indian Express
January 12, 2004
Left, far Left and extreme Left battle for space in Mumbai
…‘…‘No, we´re not splitting the anti-globalisation movement,´´ stresses G N Saibaba, general secretary of the all-India Committee of the All India People´s Resistance Forum (AIPRF). Surrounded by a couple of computers and piles of bedding, he says the WSF never claimed to be a force-unifier. …‘…‘Everybody who´s joined us from their fold says there´s no possibility of arriving at a joint resolution at the WSF, since it´s disallowed. So, where´s the question of splitting the struggle?´´ But the faultlines between WSF and MR are stark. For the 300 organisations supporting MR, a …‘…‘talkshop´´ such as the WSF is not only inherently flawed in structure and methodology, it even …‘…‘defuses´´ the anti-imperialist battle. The conspiracy theory? The WSF accepts money from …‘…‘imperialist funded´´ organisations like the Ford Foundation and Oxfam…—something the WSF denies…—and softens a raging anti-imperialist wave into fruitless intellectual sparring.
www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=39142
Reuters, USA
January 14, 2004
World Social Forum to Oppose US Forces in Iraq
But in Bombay the event is facing resistance from some leftist social groups and Muslim organisations who plan to hold a similar event close to the Forum`s venue. “The irony is their funds come from the countries they are opposed to, that is America and Britain” said Feroze Mithiborwala, spokesman for Mumbai Resistance 2004. “How do you expect any kind of change or transformation in this world?”
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0114-05.htm
Dawn, Pakistan
January 14, 2004
Contradictions rise around Mumbai conference
“I don`t need any forum to give me another explanation, or even a solution,” he remarked. Those flying into Mumbai airport this week from different countries to attend the WSF, a gathering of the world`s social movements, may catch a glimpse of Dharavi`s tin and cardboard constructions that seem to nibble away at the perimetre fencing and doubtless affirm faith in the movement`s catchy tagline – `Another World is Possible`.
Given such glaring contrasts, it is little wonder that the WSF in Mumbai is coming up against stiff resistance in the shape of a parallel movement called the Mumbai Resistance – 2004, whose stated intention is the seizure of the `anti-imperialism` banner away from what it says are the half-hearted leaders of the WSF.
www.dawn.com/2004/01/14/int9.htm
The Hindu, India
January 15, 2004
All set for World Social Forum meet
Literally across the road, a parallel and separate meet, `Mumbai Resistance 2004 Against Imperialist Globalisation and War,` has been organised by 300 organisations from India and abroad. The organisers were once a part of the WSF process but are now critical of it. They have chosen to hold a separate meeting on similar themes with many participants that are expected to attend both events.
www.hindu.com/2004/01/15/stories/2004011504721400.htm
OneWorld.net, India
January 16, 2004
Anti-World Social Forum movement gains momentum in India
A parallel meet of Indian groups accusing the organizers of the Jan 16-21 World Social Forum (WSF) of indulging in “doublespeak” while trying to spearhead a campaign against globalization, begins in Mumbai on Saturday.
The groups, under an umbrella body called Mumbai Resistance (MR) 2004, are holding their own meeting in the city to coincide with the WSF. “We want to sharpen the struggle against imperialist globalization and war,” says Rona Wilson, one of the organizers of MR.
www.oneworld.net/article/view/76902/1/
ABC-NEWS, Australia
January 17, 2004
Thousands head to Mumbai for anti-globalisation forum
On the sidelines of the WSF will be a smaller but more militant forum, Resistance 2004, due to be attended by far-left groups from around Asia and Europe. The organising statement of the Resistance 2004 said its seminars and street rallies would have a “clear and ambiguous anti-imperialist focus … unlike the amorphous `another world is possible` of the WSF”.
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1019933.htm
Aljazeera, Qatar
January 17, 2004
World Social Forum opens in Mumbai
Roy is scheduled to take part in the World Social Forum and a more militant gathering known as the Mumbai Resistance due to kick off on Saturday. The Mumbai Resistance was organised in four months by Indian leftists wary of increasing presence at the World Social Forums in Brazil of government officials and large Western non-governmental organisations. “Their view is that globalisation can be humanized. We say globalisation must be smashed,” said Mumbai Resistance organizer Darshan Pal.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BBA4787D-6F52-4806-A6E5-58ABC7B0B849.htm
The Hindu, India
January 18, 2004
Arundhati Roy continues anti-America tirade
Addressing delegates on the second day of Mumbai Resistance in suburban Goregaon, the Booker Prize winner said a joint session of WSF and MR should be held to identify major corporations that are profiting from the destruction of Iraq. “We could list every project they are involved in.” The six-day WSF meet began in Goregaon on January 16, while the MR conference started a day after. Both meets are being attended by delegates from across the globe.
www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/00118203075.htm
BBC
January 20, 2004
World Social Forum
Despite the broad agreement of the delegates on many issues, an alternative forum has already emerged. Mumbai Resistance 2004 has been set up opposite the forum by left-wing groups who feel the main forum is not left-wing enough.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3383737.stm
Suntimes, South Africa
January 21, 2004
Anti-globalisation movement protests rape
The Mumbai Resistance, which is dominated by Indian communists, closed Tuesday with a rally in a park in downtown Bombay where protesters chanted slogans against a wide spectrum of Indian leaders, accusing them of being in the pockets of international lending agencies.
www.suntimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimes/newsst/newsst1074679399.asp
New York Times, USA
January 22, 2004
The Loud Answer to Davos, in Bombay This Year, Is Antiwar
A splinter group of far left elements called for a violent movement against globalization and war. This group, calling itself Mumbai Resistance 2004 (using a common spelling of “Bombay”). was based just outside the forum and vehemently protested its acceptance of financing from “American multinationals.”
www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=9750
Frontline, India
January 31, 2004
A militant platform
Mumbai Resistance-2004, a platform of over 310 political movements organised parallel to the WSF, claims that the latter cannot provide a proper focus and orientation to the struggles against imperialist globalisation and war.
THE icons are the same – Marx, Mao, Lenin and Che Guevara. The slogans are the same – “American imperialism – Down, Down”. Yet there is no convergence between the World Social Forum and the Mumbai Resistance (MR)-2004. It is not just the busy Western Express highway in Mumbai`s northern suburb of Goregaon that keeps the two apart. Nor the fact that the WSF had more than one lakh participants on 40 acres (16 hectares) as opposed to the MR`s 5,000 on four acres. Essential differences that kept the two apart were the source of funding for the respective gatherings and the strategy and tactics necessary to achieve change.
www.flonnet.com/fl2103/stories/20040213004702200.htm
www.humanscapeindia.net, India
Beginning of February, 2004
Resisting when Bush comes to shove
Meena Menon visited the World Social Forum and Mumbai Resistance, 2004, and found varying viewpoints not just about issues raised, but about the forums themselves
