What is the WSFM?
It is an event which follows the line of the World Social Forums which have been evolving since 2001 presenting a diversity of formats under the coordination of an International Council. These encompass Global Forums, Regional Forums and Thematic Forums.

The WSFM can be categorized as one of the Thematic Forums being the third held on a global level and which will be held in September 2008 in the municipality of Rivas Vaciamadrid (Madrid, Spain). The WSFM provides a space for democratic debates on ideas, for reflection, for the formulation of proposals and for the interchange of ideas. It provides articulation of social movements, networks, NGO’s, and other organizations in the civil society who oppose the neo-liberal globalization lead by the big co-operations who serve their interests and the consequences of their dominance, amongst other things, the restriction of citizen recognition, and of the civil, social, political and cultural rights, due to a free circulation of capital which is not accompanied by the free circulation of people. It is a process which seeks the construction of another possible world, of a planetary society orientated on a fertile relationship between human beings and the land on which they walk, consolidating a solidarity globalization in which the rights of the displaced – and their integration into their new country – are recognized. After the first global meeting in Porto Alegre (Brazil), held in 2005, the Forum was configured in a global permanent process seeking solutions on an international scale.

The WSFM is also characterized for its plurality and its diversity, and it has a non-confessional, non-governmental and non-biased character. It is envisaged to facilitate the articulation, in a decentralized way and through networks, of entities and movements in concrete actions, local and international, so that the conditions of the displaced – those of refugees as well as immigrants and those who have been left without a country – will improve.

The WSFM guided by the WSF Charter of principles