World Social Forum takes on Copenhagen´s failure 2/4/2010 Activists try to breathe new life into citizen´ mobilizations on forum´s 10th anniversary.

More than 35,000 delegates in the 10th annual World Social Forum rallied to mobilize citizens for action against climate change following the failed talks in Copenhagen last December for industrialized nations to cut carbon emissions.

Participants in the decade-old alternative forum, held every year parallel with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which gathers the powers that be, met Jan. 25-29 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre under the slogan: “Another world is possible”

“The environmental issue is a threat,” said Brazilian businessman Oded Grajew, considered the architect of the forum, which has previously been held in India, Venezuela and Kenya. “We should have another model of production and consumption and another kind of relationship with nature.”

Participants also discussed the impact of the financial crisis, US military presence in Latin America, the criminalization of social movements, the food crisis and other issues.

Twenty-seven smaller, themed summits will be held throughout the year.

Senegal will host next year´s World Social Forum. —Latinamerica Press.