A noisy and festive opening ceremony marked the beginning of the fourth World Social Forum taking place Mumbai, India. A noisy and festive opening ceremony marked the beginning of the fourth World Social Forum taking place Mumbai, India. The WSF have been held in Porto Alegre in Brazil three consecutive years since the start of the process in 2001. The choice to make the process travel over the world was implicit from the beginning, but it is easier said than done. The realities of most national social movements make it difficult to handle the task of welcoming the more than 100.000 expected participants, and also to handle the tricky political process it represents to mobilise the broadest possible range of the social movement to come onboard in the process. The choice of letting the process travel across the globe is the right one, and the choice of India is challenging and important. It has given impetus to a strengthened Asian regional social forum and mobilisation process. It has also encouraged Indian social movements to get mobilised across borders. And most importantly maybe - it brings new perspectives into the Alter-globalisation movement. This is necessary in order for the alter-globalisation process to be(- come) truly global. The political emphasis and perspectives differ depending on the context and challenges faced, and it is important to integrate this reality into the movement. If failing to do so, the global movement will risk to cause its own slow weakening, and no longer be able to provide a space where diverse movements will find their place to meet and gather strength. The opening ceremony on 16 January was a real celebration and gave visibility to the different parts of the social movement. It included the arrival of the Dalit march, and parades of hundreds of different international and Indian groupings. The Indian women's movement is strong. The fact that 'Patriarchy and Gender' is one of the 6 main themes in the Mumbai WSF is one proof of this, and the large presnence of different women's groups at the opening ceremony showed that women will take their space in the Forum. After the festive parades giving visibility to the many groupings, there was time left for music, and for the obligatory (?) speeches of course. As one can expect, people listened with different degrees of attention – many feeling that speaking to your neighbour from a different political movement, continent, or province, was just as important as listening to the 'stars' on stage. After all, the WSF is most of all just this – an enormous opportunity to meet and share your struggles, in order to build an ever stronger resistance to current dominant politics of 'security', war, nationalism, and oppression of women. * Malin Björk - Les Pénélopes