Nationalisms disturb WSF opening : IMC-SA

On the level of grassroots and NGOs it always was said to be easier to develop a global perspective of solidarity than on the level of heads of state. The expressions of Moroccan and West-saharian nationalism during the demostrations, where flags of both nations were all over the place showed how idealist this claim is. The reality of the open space approach of the social forum allows instead for national conflicts to be much less diplomaticly displayed. For ongoing hot national conflicts like it is in the palestinian-israeli case, the forum becomes a space of open confrontation. This must not be bad. The chance for members of both civil-societies to meet up is great and even if the delegates and participants will bring their differing perspectives, the debates and get togethers could offer a space for some movement and thoughts towards peaceful solutions of conflicts. But this needs some willingness to be at least partly open to listen to each other. The pictures of today's clashes and the displays of utter nationalism were not encouraging, that a place like the forum can bring conflicting people closer (unless it is for a well placed insult)

But what is the storry between Morocco and Westsahara?
While West-saharians claim, their contry was colonised by the Moroccan in 1975, just after the Spanish colonisers left, considers Morocco the West-Sahara as its proper province.
NGOs in Morocco tend to avoid the issue, but some also claim, that the lasting Sahauri (West-Saharans people) population in resistance is a tool of Algerian forgein policy to put pressure on its neighbor, ultimatively because they want to control the aera. In 1975 also the Mauretaniens tryed to occupy the vacuum the Spanish left in their former colony. But Morocco defeated Mauretania fastly and started a colonising program, called the Green March, which was meant to make Moroccans settle in the aera. In recent years tax-advantages, sure governement jobs and good infrastructure proved to be a more convincing lure for Moroccans than national fevor.
For the West-Saharas, the story was slightly different. They tryed to resist the Moroccan occupation in a guerilla war that lead to a cease fire and a mined and walled borderline in the middle of the desert. Behind the sahauri lines, there are also refugee camps, mainly around the algerian city of Tindouf. From there the rebellion of the Polisario Front slowly changed from military to awareness strategies. Since 1990 the ceasefire is guarded by UN troups and theoretically there should be a referendum in Western Sahara about independence, but someone the moroccans managed to have this postponed into the unknown.
The UN considers the claims of the sahauris justifed and offical maps of the world will always show the former border which really doesn't seem to exist anymore, when you move arcoss it.
Morocco claims today that the Polisario are merely smugglers while most of the sahauris were happy to live as Moroccans. This is certainly not true for the remaining refugees in Tinduf who are merely tolerated by the Algerians and live of the UN. What puts more doubt to the Moroccan side of the story is that they haven't realised a referendum yet.
Though the conflict might have been present at other Social Forums, the level of influence both groups have in a WSF near by is certainly larger then it was in Porto Alegre or in Mumbai. It will be a challenge for the WSF to deal with this conflict in the coming days.