‘Assange case, an examination of the democratic health of the free world’ will bring together Stella Assange, lawyer and partner of Julian Assange, and activist Alessandro Di Battista on August 19.
The dialogue between rapper Arkano and cultural journalist Ana Mansergas on the potential of the arts to build utopias will open the Social Forum, which will also include the world expert on neuro-rights Álvaro Pascual-Leone, who has arrived expressly from Harvard.
It changes location, but maintains its essence and challenges: to collectively and interactively address relevant issues in the national and international current affairs scenario. The Rototom Sunsplash Social Forum unveils its agenda for the edition ‘The Power of Utopia’, which makes the leap from the Concert venue to the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim to share the cultural activity of the festival with new audiences and further strengthen ties with the town that has hosted the reggae event for 15 years.
The lawyer Stella Assange, partner of Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikileaks, who was unable to participate in last year’s Forum for personal reasons; Álvaro Pascual-Leone, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation and neuro-rights; Artificial Intelligence reference Andrés Pedreño; Professor Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO; and rapper Arkano are part of the diverse cast that will guide the agenda of debates and dialogues of the 2024 Social Forum.
An agenda that will address, among other issues, the role of culture as a driver of social change or the potential of the arts to build utopias; the challenge of decarbonization; the state of health of the media; the ethical limits of science and technology or the migratory emergency. “Once again we will do it from different points of view to generate thought, debate and personal growth of the public. We need to open minds and share ideas to forge a better world,” says the organization, the Rototom Exodus Cultural Association.
The Social Forum will have five sessions. All of them with free access, until full capacity, and in the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim as stage. They will be held from August 17 to 21 at 5:30 pm.
The first day, on August 17, is linked to the role of culture as a driver of social change and will analyze how different artistic languages can contribute to rebuilding bridges in which aesthetics and ethics intertwine to form the architecture of a new utopia “that preserves us from the dystopias that threaten the future”. Under the title ‘Music, art and utopia: inspirations to transform society’, Arkano, rapper and Guinness World Record holder in the category of Longest Rap Marathon, and Ana Mansergas, cultural journalist at SER and president of the NGO One Day Yes, will be in dialogue. They will be accompanied as moderator by Susana Golf, a journalist specializing in design and fashion and former editor of the weekly magazine ‘Urban’.
The day on August 18 will address one of the major issues challenging humanity: scheduling the end of oil dependence and moving towards decarbonization. A key challenge of the 2030 Agenda on which experts such as Héctor Dominguis, Materials Engineer, CEO of the GDES group and president of the Lab Mediterráneo Foundation; and Andreu Escrivà, PhD in Biodiversity, environmentalist and project technician in climate change, will provide their views and alternatives to ensure sustainable development and the preservation of the planet. Patrici Calvo, professor and PhD in Moral Philosophy at the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló, will present the session: ‘The paths to decarbonization: living in the countdown’.
The third proposal of the 2024 Social Forum will focus on the independence of the media and the freedom to express oneself on August 19: ‘Assange case: checkmate to freedom of expression’. An issue that challenges “the very ethical conscience of democracies,” says Exodus. The case of Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikileaks, is one of the most transcendent examples at a global level. Their process constitutes, they say, “a true test of the democratic health of the so-called free world”. Leading the debate will be Stella Assange, a lawyer specializing in humanitarian law and Julian Assange’s partner, and Alessandro Di Battista, journalist, writer, activist and former Italian MP and expert on international issues, with the presentation of journalist Javier Gallego, director of the independent radio program ‘Carne Cruda’ in carnecruda.es and eldiario.es.
Release from prison: latest update on Assange case
Julian Assange has just this Tuesday been released from the UK’s maximum security prison after 62 months of detention. The WikiLeaks co-founder reportedly reached a deal with the US in exchange for his freedom. The Social Forum organization welcomes the news of his release and will follow with interest the evolution of the case.
The fourth day – August 20 – will focus on the dilemma ‘People vs. machines: the last frontier of rights’. A session to discuss the ethical limits of science and technology in the face of the vertiginous evolution of Artificial Intelligence, which has generated the alert of scientists and humanists about the threats it can unleash for the human condition itself. With the aim of generating the collective awareness necessary to guide the future of AI with criteria of equity and transparency, to claim new human rights in step with the development of this techno-scientific revolution and to protect and incorporate neuro-rights as a guarantee to defend freedom in that last frontier of human dignity that is the brain, this fourth session will invite two experts in the field. Presented by Ana Noguera, PhD in Philosophy and member of the Consell Valencià de Cultura, the debate will bring together Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and world leader in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation and neuro-rights Álvaro Pascual-Leone; and AI expert Andrés Pedreño, Professor of Applied Economics, honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University and former Chancellor of the University of Alicante.
The Social Forum 2024 will bring the curtain down on August 21, the last day of the Rototom Sunsplash festival, with ’21st Century: value or price? The utopia of a single humanity’. A suggestive title to put the focus on another emergency that is sweeping the world, the migratory emergency. “Millions of people are condemned to move in search of a supposedly better life, but many only find desolation or death in a world that, beyond racism and xenophobia, what it really fears and rejects is the poor and disinherited. In the face of aporophobia: Can we constitute ourselves as a single humanity? Can we build the utopia of a world without borders?”, the Social Forum appeals. To this end, it will feature the voices of Adela Cortina, Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Political Philosophy, Director of the ETNOR Foundation for the Ethics of Business and Organizations and Doctor Honoris Causa from various national and international universities, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Professor of Biochemistry, co-founder of the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology, former Minister of Science and Education, former Director General of UNESCO and President of the Culture and Peace Foundation. Domingo García Marzà, Professor of Ethics and Moral Philosophy at the UJI, will moderate this closing session of the Social Forum 2024. An encounter with ‘The Power of Utopia’, at the Teatre Municipal de Benicàssim.