Participants of a World Social Forum applaud after a speech by Spanish semiologist Ignacio Ramonet, director of Le Monde Diplomatique, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005. Ramonet participated on a table discussion with writers Jose Saramago, from Portugal; Eduardo Galeano, from Uruguay, Spanish Federico Mayor and Victoria Malvar, Roberto Savio, Italian communications expert, and Luiz Dulci, Brazilian cabinet minister. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- Anti-globalization activists gathering at the World Social Forum decried the plight of 27 million people working in slave-like conditions across the world, while Iraq war opponents also made their voices heard during the annual meeting.

Groups at the fifth WSF in this southern Brazilian city have been protesting globalization and unfettered capitalism in a meeting billed as an antipode to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the world's political, financial and business heavyweights are gathering.

A network of organizations working to eradicate forced labor estimated that 27 million people, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, were working like slaves.

The group also voiced concern over child labor, citing International Labor Organization figures showing that 352 million children under 16 years old were working around the globe. Among them, 187 million are between five and 14 years old.

Eight million children are also sexually exploited, the group said.

The group praised Brazil's endeavor to eliminate the exploitation of workers, saying it was the only government successful in its efforts.

"The Brazilian model in fighting forced labor is exportable," said Luis Carlos Moro, of the Latin American Association of Labor Attorneys, which is part of the anti-forced labor network.

Brazilian ILO delegate Patricia Audi said Brazil, South America's largest nation, rescued in 2003 a record 5,100 people who were working in slave-liked conditions in the rural sector.

In Mexico, forced labor was found in both the rural and industrial sectors, especially in the south, but President Vicente Fox "is no interested in fighting this problem," said ALAL's Mexican delegate, Ignacio Contreras.

Children play in front of a huge inflatable ball with a map of the world on it in the Guaiba river at the World Social Forum site in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Friday, Jan. 28, 2005. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

About 40,000 people work in forced labor in Brazil, the Brazilian Labor Ministry estimates.

Bolivia, the rural sector is plagued with a feudal system in which a landowner gives a small piece of land to a farmer who in exchange must work all day in the landowner's farms, said ALAL's Bolivian vice president, Ivan Campero.

On Thursday, the WSF urged people around the world to press for adherence to the UN Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut poverty by half by 2015.

While WSF organizers had said Iraq would not dominate the annual gathering's agenda, the war shared center stage Friday with two days before Iraq's elections.

Stop the War, a British-based group that includes dozens of anti-war groups worldwide, asked forum participants to join a worldwide mobilization on March 20 to mark the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

"The situation now is as grave as that of the 1970s, during the Vietnam war, because the Middle East is of much more strategic importance than Southeast Asia," said spokesman Chris Nineham.

"Since the re-election of George W. Bush, many feel the need for a large protest on March 20."

Meanwhile, a hundred environmental groups, from Greenpeace to Brazil's Landless Peasant Movement, demonstrated against genetically modified foods in front of the Porto Alegre office of American agribusiness giant Monsanto.

Protesters chanted and carried a banner saying, "Monsanto: Don't play with our food and future."

© Copyright 2005 AFP

###