In April of 2002 there was a coup, financed in considerable part by the United States, and Chavez was deposed. The people returned him to power in two days. Now the chanting and singing continues for three hours before the speech begins. No one is impatient. Everyone is happy. After Chavez comes to the stage there is an opening speech by a priest. He calls for more love in the world and invites us to embrace the person in the next chair. A woman from Ecuador throws her arms around me. For good measure, so does her husband. I don't speak Spanish but communication is not a problem.
In this environment the full meaning of the slogan, "Another World Is Possible" becomes clear. The slogan is not, "We Want Change," or merely "Change Would be Desirable." Another world is possible. Actually, within our grasp. Cuba is a reality. To share the fruits of their revolution, they send 27,000 medical personnel to work in 48 different countries. Chavez will win the November elections in Venezuela and begin another seven-year term. With Cuban assistance the Chavistas have taught 1.5 million Venezuelans to read in just two years. An indigenous person, Evo Morales, is the President of Bolivia. Michelle Bachelet, once a victim of imprisonment and torture, is the first woman President of Chile and a socialist. Brazil and Argentina have paid in full their entire debt to the International Monetary Fund, amounting to $15.46 and $9.6 billion respectively. The countries made the payments early in order to free themselves from IMF neo-liberal requirements and demands that impede independent development.
As we in the United States consider our own political actions, are we informed by a belief that "another world is possible?" Are we trapped by our own cynicism and resigned to accept the two-party system forever? Are we actively working to develop an alternative? Must we endure the war on terror until the president thinks it has gone on long enough, or can we end it?
At the moment in the United States it is the radical right that has moved toward creating "another world." One in which the United States is the only imperial power and international law has no meaning, where an imperial president leads an Executive Department that is the only branch of government with meaningful power, and where this empire is nakedly employed in the service of corporate interests.
We on the left in this country must believe in our power to create another world. One in which US aggression is halted, our country's military bases around the world are closed, we replace the World Bank with the people of the southern nations as the real creditor to whom the external debt of their countries is owed, and we stop treating water, food, housing, health care, education, communications facilities and other necessities as commodities and treat them as human rights.
Hugo Chavez closed his speech at the World Social Forum with the defiant shout, "Socialism o muerte!" The response of thousands of voices, "socialism o muerte," thundered down from the rafters. Chavez's words were not merely a brave vow to risk death for socialism. The thesis of the speech was that time is short. Chavez argued, "If we do not change the world now, there may be no 22nd century for humanity. Capitalism has destroyed the ecological equilibrium of the earth. It is now or never!" Another world is possible, and also necessary.
Attending the World Social Forum was a transformative experience. It is one thing to read about the winds of change that are howling across Latin America. It is something else when you are surrounded by revolutionaries and social activists and the gusts lift you up and blow you away. One of the social prophets of our own movement urged us decades ago to recognize change that was blowing in the wind. As we look south today, we must embrace the faith that "Otro mundo es posible." And we have to act on that faith.
Michael Avery is President of the National Lawyers Guild.
