Between 27 January and 1 February, around 93,000. met in Belém, the gateway to the Brazilian Amazon, for the eighth World Social Forum (WSF). Associations, unions and other movements from more than 150 countries – from threatened indigenous peoples to vegetarians via the Hare Krishnas – gathered together to promote a new world order. This annual meeting was first organised in 2001 by two Brazilian activists and Bernard Cassen, president of ATTAC-France, the French Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens.