Lisa Monique Söderlindh

STOCKHOLM, Sep 28 2006 (IPS) — Chico Whitaker Ferreira, a driving force behind the creation of the World Social Forum was announced winner of an ‘alternative’ Nobel Prize in Stockholm Thursday.

Legendary U.S. whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and Indian Dalit champion Ruth Manorama were also named winners.

Chico Whitaker Ferreira, a Roman Catholic activist from Brazil, won the honorary award “for a lifetime’s dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World Social Forum, WSF, showing that ‘another world is possible’.”

The 2006 Right Livelihood Awards, often referred to as the alternative Nobel Prizes, honour pioneers for justice, truth and peace-building from North America, South America and Asia.

The recipients of the Right Livelihood Awards, founded in 1980 and presented annually in the Swedish Parliament, were announced at a press conference in Stockholm by their founder Jacob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German professional philatelist and former member of the European parliament.

“The recipients demonstrate how individual courage, even in the face of powerful interests and repression, can bring about remarkable changes,” Uexkull told the conference.

The first WSF, an annual meeting of members and groups involved in the alternative globalisation movement, was held in Porto Alegre in Brazil in 2001. In 2006 it was held in different cities around the world, including Caracas in Venezuela, Bamako in Mali and Karachi in Pakistan.

“The prize indicates that the work around the WSF is necessary, and it is an encouragement for me and others that engage in the same kind of work,” Ferreira told IPS.

Working his entire life for the democratisation of Brazil and against corruption, Ferreira said that once preoccupied in such struggle it impossible to stop. “When you really see and encounter the injustice, the social inequalities and the economic situation in Brazil, it is not possible to continue life as usual,” he said.

The prize money of two million Swedish Kronors (275,00 dollars/220,000 euro) will be shared between three recipients who were elected amongst a total of 73 nominated candidates from 40 countries.

Daniel Ellsberg, a Pentagon official who leaked secret information in 1971 that revealed how the U.S. government misled the public about the Vietnam War – the so-called Pentagon Papers – was awarded for “putting peace and truth first, at considerable personal risk, and dedicating his life to inspiring others to follow his example.”

Following Ellsberg’s ‘whistleblowing’ that helped end the Vietnam War, he was arrested and indicted on 12 counts of felony, though the courts dismissed the case in 1973.

“It is wonderful to have this recognition – 35 years after I was recognised by my government with an indictment,” Ellsberg told IPS. “This will enable me to go on with my work on the Truth-Telling Project.”

Ellsberg founded the Truth-Telling Project, which started with an op-ed in The New York Times in the run-up to the Iraq War. It was launched in September 2003 with a letter signed by 11 former officials. It was a “call to patriotic whistleblowing” and has given rise to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, which now includes more than 60 former officials from national security agencies.

“Even 40 years ago, at a rather intermediate government level, I might have averted the Vietnam War by simply telling people what I knew, but I did not do that at the time,” Ellsberg said. He added that he hoped that the recognition of his engagement will encourage people to do what he wished he had done much earlier, “to tell the truth in a more timely way, before a war or before a great catastrophe is launched by my government, and thereby save many lives.”

“I live on a rather thin diet of hope, but I believe that we have a chance to avert a catastrophe before it is too late,” said Ellsberg. And he raised concern over a possible U.S.-led attack on Iran.

“I believe that there are people in the government right now, that have the capability at the risk of their careers, and even at the risk of prison, of averting this particular great catastrophe.”

Amongst the recipients were also Indian Ruth Manorama, honoured as the “sub-continent’s most effective organiser of and advocate for Dalit women of India.”

Manorama, a Dalit herself, told IPS she has spent many decades working to achieve equality for Dalit women in India, also sometimes referred to as the “untouchables”. She said the prize will help her build greater international awareness about their deplorable conditions and dehumanising situation.

“The Dalit women are by all means the poorest among the poorest, the lowest among the lowest of castes. The world needs to see the gravity of their problems and intensify the work for these women’s cause,” said Manorama.

Dalit women in India, constituting half of the approximtely 200 million Dalit population, and 16.3 percent of the total Indian female population, not only suffer from oppression as a result of class and caste, but from gender inequalities resulting from patriarchy, Manorama said.

“These injustices really make me want to work for their rights and freedom,” said Manorama, who plays a number of regional and international roles.

The prize money was also shared by the well known poetry festival, the Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellín, which has helped build peace in the Columbian city Medellín, one of the most violent cities in the world.

“For some years now, we have been giving the prize to cultural recipients,” member of the jury Marianne Andersson told IPS. “We think that culture is one very important tool to build peace and agreement, to empower people and to give them dignity and hope..”

Starting primarily as an environmental award, the awards today “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.” Over the last 20 years the laureates activities cover a broad range of areas including social transformation, human and civil rights, peace and conflict resolution, and development.

“These awards have often been called projects of hope and I think that they are more important than ever,” Uexkull told IPS. “Today people feel that if we continue on the same path, we are heading for a disaster and social and environmental collapse. The awards show that there are solutions.”

However, “we are not pretending that we have the solutions, but at least we have tried to create a balance, to honour people that are doing very important work, but that are not getting the kind of global recognition that they deserve,” said Uexkull.

A press conference with the recipients will be held in Stockholm Dec. 6 and the award presentation ceremony will take place in the Swedish Parliament Dec. 8.

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