Description
Every January, the world's billionaires, corporate executives and heads of state convene in Davos at the World Economic Forum. In Davos, elites strenghten the power of corporations in our lives, cementing a deeply unequal, environmentally destrcutive, and to many people fatal world economy. Movements from Switzerland and Europe are organising yearly critique and protests, including recent colourful protest hikes through the mountains to Davos. Yet critique and protests remain much more limited compared to the early 2000s and protests have for a long time been mostly involved local organisations, partly disconnected from global social movements. At the same time, the World Social Forum - born precisely as a counter-space to Davos, as a Forum from the bottom up for civil society - has shifted away from its original confrontational impulse and its connection with the struggles against the World Economic Forum. There are many valid historical reasons for this disconnection. However, in 2026, organisers of the World Social Forum and the protests against the World Economic Forum restarted coordination.In this light, this workshop proposes to internationalise the protests against the World Economic Forum and reconnect it with the World Social Forum.
Together we will:
- Examine the World Economic Forum's role in reproducing capitalist and colonial power relations — from corporate power, to autoritarianism, worker's exploitation and extractivism (Presentiation)
- Share and analyse experiences from recent protests against the World Economic Forum, including the protest hikes in recent years. (Presentation and Questions)
- Discuss how to build genuinely international networks of protest that centre voices from the communities most harmed by companies taking part and the economy shaped by the World Economic Forum (Discussion)
- Develop shared strategies and a roadmap for coordinating international pressure around future World Economic Forum annual meetings - including: International Coordination, Participation in Protests in Davos, Organising of Decentral Protests, International Joint Statement, Banner Writing (Working Groups and Group Presentation)
After the workshop we want to:
--> have collected interested groups to build an international alliance against the World Economic Forum. Proposed is to further develop and validate, sign and promote a joint international civil society statement against the World Economic Forum 2027.
--> have gathered key critiques of the World Economic Forum and demands from participants that should be carried to the World Economic Forum 2027. Anyone interested is invited to write and draw slogans or demands on banners after the Workshop, which will then be carried by activists to Davos in January 2027 during protests against the World Economic Forum.
The World Economic Forum in Davos does not represent a spirit of dialogue and solidarity — it represents the organised interests of those who have benefited most from centuries of colonial and capitalist extraction. It is time to confront it with a truly global counter-power, rooted in the movements that gave birth to the World Social Forum. Come to this workshop if you want to contribute to turning local protest against the World Economic Forum into international resistance and reconsidering the connection with the World Social Forum.