It's somewhat odd that the North American left are only really geared up to support the World Social Forum this January, since many of its Brazilian organizers saw it as a natural sequel to 'Seattle', their short form for the destructive riots in that city against the World Trade Organization in 1999. Wanting to continue the struggle, Brazilian anti-trade activists teamed up early in 2000 with a prominent French leftist, Bernard Cassen, to help organize a conference. Cassen was an experienced anti-globalization activist, as both the director of the publication Le Monde Diplomatique and the leader of France's branch of ATTAC, a group favoring increased taxation on international financial transactions. He was enthusiastic, and together they attempted to take the 'next step' in their socialist program - instead of simply opposing, they wanted to hold a conference that would make specific, creative proposals, as the first step in achieving a system they could support. Through feverish activity, institutional support from the Brazilian left, and participation in a number of European and Latin American protests throughout 2000, the organizers succeeded beyond their expectations. They claimed approximately fifteen thousand people from over one hundred and twenty countries attended their first conference in January 2001, and while leftists often inflate attendance figures at meetings and protests, there's no doubt that the 2002 and 2003 conferences were bigger still. In 2002, attendence was estimated at 60,000; at the 2003 conference, over one hundred thousand people attended.
