Chico Whitaker. Photo: Right Livelihood Awards

Chico Whitaker is a recipient of the 2006 Right Livelihood Award [6] "…for a lifetime's dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World Social Forum." He is a Roman Catholic activist, who has worked for democracy and against corruption throughout his life, both at home and in exile.

You have worked your entire life for the democratization of Brazil. Are you hopeful about the situation today?

We have lived, in the last century in Brazil, through two long periods of dictatorship: from 1930 to 1945 and from 1964 to 1980. Each time, when we have again a period of democracy, we must re-learn how it functions. Many distortions remain, and it takes people time to believe in the possibility of solving our problems through the democratic institutions. And we have a lot of problems to solve. Our country is champion in social inequality. And democratization is not only guaranteeing political rights, elections, etc., but especially the right for all to live with dignity. Nearly half of the Brazilians are still half-citizens: the Constitution guarantees to them all these rights but they don't even know they have these rights.

Democratization is really a long process. In between new problems appear, like now, for example, with a big corrosion in the credibility of the parliament because of corruption scandals. I am nevertheless hopeful because we are progressing. Slowly, but progressing. If political parties are in crisis, civil society begins to emerge as a political actor with more autonomy. We have very much to do, but there are many more people than we can imagine wanting to change things.

You quit the Workers' Party (PT) earlier this year. Why?

This is also a long history. When I returned from exile in 1981 the PT was starting to get organized, with people having many dreams. It was really a new type of party, in its way of functioning and in its composition. It effectively attracted the poor of the country, giving them the opportunity to play a political role in the fight for equality and justice. A respect for ethical principles was also essential in its practice, in a country where corruption is nearly endemic and enters everywhere. But as the party entered into the electoral process and began to gain positions in the administration, pragmatism -- "all means are good to gain power" -- became dominant. As the party won the Presidency of the Republic, these distortions exploded, changing it entirely. Many of us -- nearly half of the members -- decided to work on the re-foundation of the party. Myself, I thought I could be more useful outside any party.

You were with Oded Grajew [7] when he conceived the idea of the World Social Forum in January 2000. What did it take to make this idea become real?

Returning to Brazil, we presented the idea to others, coming from various types of work in society. A group of us -- from eight different organizations -- decided to face the challenge. From then on we had no more time to stop or to think about what to do. The first Forum was a big surprise for us. We were expecting 2500 participants and there were 20,000. We then wrote our Charter of Principles, based on the reasons we identified for this success. The WSF was a real political invention.

The slogan of the World Social Forum is "Another world is possible." What does this world look like?

I always say to those who ask the question: You know it. The "other" world we would work to build is the utopia of all human beings: peace, justice, dignity of life for all, cooperation and not competition as the rule of life, solidarity as a main value, no kind of oppression, respect for diversity, no more wars or violence between human beings, respect for nature to protect our planet and concern for future generations.

What is the impact of the World Social Forum?

The first big impact is the perspective of hope the Forum opened, encouraging people to rise up to work for a new world. When they return home after having experienced the openness and horizontality of the event -- when it functions according to our Charter of Principles -- they continue their work enriched with the experiences of others they have gotten to know during the Forum, the convergences they have discovered with the struggles of others, the articulations they were able to build to initiate new action. All this makes people feel happy because they discover that it is possible to do politics without having to fight for power, and build a type of unity based on friendship, solidarity, and cooperation.

But the deepest impact of the Forum will appear in many more years, as its process expands all over the world, rooting itself in all countries and continents, through the regional, national, and local forums that are already multiplying everywhere.