Social forum activists denounce corporate greed

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Leftists in Brazil for a week of protests against capitalism denounced corporate greed on the second day of the World Social Forum, saying Tuesday that big companies humbled by the global meltdown must be prevented from controlling natural resources and harming the environment.
In Peru, for example, foreign and domestic miners are vying for government concessions to explore for gold, silver and zinc on traditional Indian lands where tribe members eke out a living from small farms threatened by contamination, said Carlos Candiotti, leader of an anti-mining group."These companies come into our territory without our approval, but the state must recognize our rights because we're the owners, with ancestral rights to the land where we live," Candiotti said.
Now in its 10th year, the social forum is the annual counterpoint to the World Economic Forum starting Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, and leftist leaders are gleefully criticizing the bankers and business titans hit hard by the financial crisis.
"Capitalism's unsustainability has never been so obvious," said Brazilian philosopher and sociologist Candido Grzybowsky, one of the forum's leaders. "We need to create a system based on social and environmental justice."
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Picture Left:A woman shouts during a women's march at a youth camp during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010.(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)