IPS participated in the International Council of the World Social Forum in Montreal, looking forward to the distributed calendar of geographic and thematic social forums that will take place throughout 2010. Events include a 10 year reflection seminar in Porto Alegre, a thematic forum on the crisis of civilisation and its alternatives in Salvador, Bahia that will bring together African and Latin American civil society and heads of state, the US Social Forum in Detroit “where capitalism began and ended” as well as forums in Istanbul for Europe, in Asuncion for the Americas and in Iraq, to name a few.

To accompany the process in 2010 IPS is planning a permanent TerraViva online window on the World Social Forum, providing ongoing reporting in many languages from as many of the events as possible. This continues the IPS and TerraViva engagement with the WSF since its inception in Porto Alegre in 2001. With the 10th anniversary, emphasis is being put on collecting and sharing the memory of the process to date, with the TerraViva newspaper archive providing a rich contribution.

The International Council struggled with how to better seize the moment of the global crises and keep open the window of opportunity to put social movements actions, realities and visions forward as alternatives. The longstanding slogan of the Forum “Another World is Possible” may be updated or expanded to convey this sense of urgency and provide one common thread for the distributed 2010 events.

The meeting, hosted by Alternatives, took place immediately preceding the Quebec Social Forum: Un autre Quebec est en marche. Many of the IC members stayed to contribute international dimensions to the Quebec event.

In 2011 the WSF will return to Africa, to Dakar, Senegal for a global edition and the International Council heard from the African representatives in Montreal about the planning process to date.