Today, 15 years to the day after the 1997 massacre at Acteal, the Zapatistas filled the streets of five Mexican towns in the state of Chiapas. According to La Jornada, around 6a.m. this morning, a large march of indigenous Zapatistas...
It is rare to see direct changes resulting from international solidarity. But it does happen. And while international solidarity alone doesn’t move governments to protect the land rights of landless peasants, when combined with and informed by actions on the...
Leaders of the Guarani Kaiowá boldly announced that the entire community would rather die in their land defending from businesses and corporations. Their assertion is more than a war declaration. For us, the buyers of “clean energy,” their pronouncement is a jarring wake-up call that the “Green Economy” actually promotes genocide of indigenous people and Afro-descendent communities –whether in the form of a slow die off of disposed peoples or a quicker resistance.
It is still dark outside when the farmers awaken. The cool air of the morning won’t last too long once the sun rises. When the sun slowly breaks the dawn, the sleepy bodies demand a cup of coffee. The flame...
Before becoming Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Roussef helped to engineer an ambitious development plan that would change the country. Known as the Accelerated Growth Plan and the Ten-year Energy Plan, it would build 134 dams by the year of 2020 in the Amazon alone. Among the losers in the plan: thousands of acres of forest; habitat for endangered species; and thousands of families unfortunate enough to have ancestors who chose to settle these lands. According to Grassroots International’s partner, the Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), the ambitious development plan failed to include any funding to offset hunger and unemployment, or to revamp public services for those displaced populations whose livelihoods will be wiped.
Yesterday, Grassroots International received the alarming news that our partner Rafael Alegria, a leader of La Via Campesina in Honduras, has been moved to a safe house in fear for his life, following the murder of his closest legal advisor, Antonio Trejo Cabrera.
This comes as the violence in Honduras against farmers and Afro-descendent leaders continues to escalate. Politically motivated killings, kidnappings and death threats have increased steadily since the 2009 coup in the country and the installation of a post-coup regime. In the Aguan Region alone, more than 65 landless farmers have been killed.
In the current context in which we see local food economies being encroached by a few corporations, food sovereignty is an ultimate goal for not only farmers, but consumers as well. This battle for the right to decide food and agriculture policies requires different tactics and strategies from the organization of community-led seminars, planting of every inch of vacant space to global actions. One of these local-global actions has been to design of new policy frameworks such as the Right to Food mechanism.
U.N. agencies, such as the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), are locked in the past. They resist accepting that the current food and agriculture policies have failed and will continue inflicting damage to thousands of families who face hunger....
During a visit of a delegation of US and Central American activists to Nicaragua this week, the Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega announced that his country will not send any Army personnel to Fort Benning, Georgia to be trained in combat,...
They left San Vicente searching for a peaceful place to live, free of the oppressive British colonial powers. Three thousand women, men and children sailing atop the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea were thirsty and hungry. The sun over their heads was abrasive. Many perished before reaching the island of Roatan, Honduras, their new home. Today, many of their Garifuna heirs, an Afro-descendant population in the Caribbean coast of Central America, are still struggling for days of peace, like their ancestors envisioned some 213 years ago.
They left San Vicente searching for a peaceful place to live, free of the oppressive British colonial powers. Three thousand women, men and children sailing atop the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea were thirsty and hungry. The sun over their heads was abrasive. Many perished before reaching the island of Roatan, Honduras, their new home. Today, many of their Garifuna heirs, an Afro-descendant population in the Caribbean coast of Central America, are still struggling for days of peace, like their ancestors envisioned some 213 years ago.
Women in indigenous communities in Sololá, Guatemala and, for that matter, throughout the Mesoamerica region as whole rely on each other for everything. They work collectively to plant their crops and perform other tasks. They depend on each other to...
The women in Sololá, Guatemala keep a very neat garden. The plumb straight fence protects the garden from chickens and other intruders. The seedlings pop out in straight lines, as the gardeners had used a GPS to plant them. In...
Two excellent pieces written recently about the intersection of the June 22 coup d’état in Paraguay and land issues offer a clear analysis of the core issues behind the power struggle in the South American nation.
In rural areas like Seu Lazaro’s community in the state of Goiás, Brazil, vendors of genetically modified seeds used to drop by with wide smiles and black suitcases full of samples and colorful catalogues. Their dusty cars, parked in the middle of the road, are a map of their sales route across miles of unpaved, bumpy roads. According to Seu Lazaro, these vendors (often trained agronomists) go from house to house trying to convince peasant farmers to buy seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides by promising lush crops and a good return in the investment.
Those promises convinced Seu Lazaro’s father to use GM seeds, who then convinced him.
Yesterday I spoke with two members of Brazil’s Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in Sao Paulo City. MAB is an inspiring organization formed by families who have been displaced by mega-dams in Brazil. Grassroots supports MAB in the organizing of displaced families, or atingidos, so they can collectively defend their land, water and food rights.
Here comes the mine, again. Or in Spanish, Otra Vez la Mina. In this short video by the same name, the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC) denounces the use of publically funded police forces that are protecting the operations of...
“Anytime a new wall is built, hundreds of acres of forest and fertile land for food production is flooded. Anytime a new wall is built, a river dies. The death of the rivers is the end of our livelihood” - José Josivaldo, Movement of People Affected by Dams, National Coordination body member The hugely profitable business of building dams has taken the Amazon region by storm. One hundred-forty new dams will be built in the Amazon in the next years. The lion’s share will be in Brazil, spurred on by its booming economy, but the Amazonian regions of Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guyana and Guyana are also targeted by the industry.
After a successful campaign to protect womens land rights, Nicaraguas peasant women achieved another policy milestone. Along with urban-based womens organizations, they lobbied the National Congress to pass a new womens rights legislation. And they won. The legislation, yet to be signed into law, received broad congressional approval 84 votes in favor out, just seven votes shy of unanimous. Grassroots International joins our Nicaraguan partners and allies in celebrating another step forward toward womens rights and dignity. Once signed, the new law will provide stronger legal support in cases of violence against women within both domestic and public spheres, as well as the violence generated by economic injustices.
