Nikhil Aziz, Author at Grassroots International

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« Pourquoi la campagne »: Via Campesina Africa launches Campaign to End Violence against Women at 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar

By: Nikhil Aziz | février 23, 2011

In 2008, I was privileged to attend the 5^th international conference of Grassroots International partner the Via Campesina, in Matola, Mozambique. The Via, a global movement representing over 150 million peasants and other small producers on 5 continents, has been the leading voice for the rights of small farmers and farmworkers as well as other small producers and has led global campaigns for agrarian reform, against free trade and for climate justice. At its 2008 conference, however, it launched another global campaign that a lot of people don’t yet know about. This is the Global Campaign to End Violence against Women.
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New Scramble for Africa

By: Nikhil Aziz | février 16, 2011

It is the tradition at World Social Forums (WSF) to focus a considerable amount of time, energy, resources and attention on issues faced by people in the host region and country. The 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal that I had the privilege of attending was no different. Africa and African issues suffused the WSF throughout the forum.

One of these issues was the massive land grabs that are taking place all across the continent. Appropriately called the New Scramble for Africa, it is eerily similar to the mad rush by European colonial powers during the last quarter of the 19^th century to divide Africa up among them.
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Rural Women (and Men) Lead the Way in Ending Violence against Women

By: Nikhil Aziz | novembre 25, 2010

Today, November 25^th, is observed around the world as the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women. Grassroots International joins women and men everywhere in calling for an end to all violence – interpersonal and structural – against women and girls.
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US Food Sovereignty Alliance Launches in New Orleans

By: Nikhil Aziz | octobre 19, 2010

Grassroots International’s global partners like the Via Campesina have frequently told us: “You have to work hard to change things in the U.S. for our hard work to bear real fruit.” In other words, for another world to be possible, another U.S. is necessary.
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Pakistan Floods: Secular, Liberal & Progressive Organizations doing Flood Relief need Your support

By: Nikhil Aziz | août 19, 2010

The recent monsoonal floods in Pakistan have devastated nearly a third of the country’s landmass – by some estimates area the size of Italy. More than 20 million people have been directly impacted by the rising waters of the Indus and other rivers in three of Pakistan’s four major provinces – Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Punjab (Pakistan’s bread-basket) and Sindh.
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Grassroots International Condemns Attack on Gaza Humanitarian Flotilla

By: Nikhil Aziz | juin 1, 2010

Grassroots International joins our partners in Palestine and Israel – and indeed non-violent activists worldwide – in the condemnation of Israel’s attack on the Free Gaza flotilla bound for Gaza. When Israeli forces stormed a multinational humanitarian fleet on its way to Gaza – in international waters – to deliver medicines, medical equipment, building materials and food they also assaulted Nobel laureates, holocaust survivors and civilians from 40 nations.
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“System Change, Not Climate Change”

By: Nikhil Aziz | mai 17, 2010

Last month, I traveled to Cochabamba, Bolivia for a number of reasons. The main one was to attend the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Many of Grassroots International’s partners from Latin America, Asia and Africa were also there – some of whom we supported to attend – and it was a great opportunity for me to meet with them and with many of our allies in one central location. They were all at the conference because for them the climate crisis is immediate in its impact and not some theoretical scenario for the future.
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System Change, Not Climate Change

By: Nikhil Aziz | mai 17, 2010

Last month, I traveled to Cochabamba, Bolivia for a number of reasons. The main one was to attend the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Many of Grassroots Internationals partners from Latin America, Asia and Africa were also there some of whom we supported to attend and it was a great opportunity for me to meet with them and with many of our allies in one central location. They were all at the conference because for them the climate crisis is immediate in its impact and not some theoretical scenario for the future.
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Water Rights — What’s Wrong?

By: Nikhil Aziz | mars 22, 2010

Frankly, a lot! Here's just three factoids to think about (and there are many more)

• One out of 6 people globally does not have access to clean water.

• Nearly half the world’s population — that’s 2.5 billion people — does not have access to basic sanitation facilities.

• Large-scale corporate agricultural production consumes 70% of the world’s fresh water.

You see, for us at Grassroots International water is a political lens through which we can see the injustice in the world: who has it, who controls it, who profits from it; and who never has enough, and doesn’t control nor profit from it
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International Day of Action for Rivers

By: Nikhil Aziz | mars 14, 2010

Cultures in different parts of our planet have long held rivers to be life-giving. Early human civilizations are even known by their connection to the river systems whose banks they arose from like the Indus-Ganga, the Nile and the Yangtze Kiang-Huang He. But today human actions and inaction have literally throttled our rivers through industrial pollution, mega dams, diversification, deforestation and the list goes on.... But people are fighting back -- especially those most directly impacted. In my home country India, numerous popular movements have emerged like the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA-Save the Narmada Movement) and the Ganga Mukti Andolan (GMA-Free the Ganga Movement).
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Via Campesina calls for End to Violence against Women

By: Nikhil Aziz | mars 8, 2010

Grassroots International partner La Via Campesina celebrated international women's day, March 8, 2010 with a re-affirmation of their global campaign to end violence against women. Last November 25th, on the occasion of International Day against Gender Violence, the Via called for an end to all forms of violence against women and called on its members to work with their ally, the World March of Women to coordinate actions against gender violence. The Via launched its campaign to end violence against women at its fifth international congress in 2008, in Maputo, Mozambique.
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Women on the March until we are All Free!

By: Nikhil Aziz | mars 8, 2010

Grassroots International ally the World March of Women has launched a Call to Action on the occasion of International Women's Day, March 8, 2010. The World March of Women is also a close ally of many Grassroots International partners such as La Via Campesina. Grassroots supports and joins the WMW call to action and celebrates International Women's Day with them and our partners and allies across the globe.
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In the News

Feeding Dependency, Starving Democracy… Still

By: Nikhil Aziz | mars 2, 2010

Some of the advice for how Haiti ought to rebuild after the earthquake sounds hauntingly familiar, echoing the same bad development advice that Haiti has received for decades -- even before the nation faced its current devastating situation. To avoid repeating the past failures, we would be wise to review how previous aid models led down the wrong path.
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Don’t Deny Peaceful Protests in West Bank

By: Nikhil Aziz | février 18, 2010

Former Grassroots International Board member and current Board member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Bill Fletcher Jr. recently blogged on CNN.com about the "frequent tendency to misrepresent the lessons of [the U.S. black freedom] movement and apply them to other social movements overseas in a way that misses the mark.
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In the News

Water for All, Not for Profit

By: Nikhil Aziz | février 17, 2010

Last month I went to Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin for a meeting of water funders (mainly foundations funding freshwater conservation) where I’d been asked to be on a panel addressing issues of Equity, Rights and the Commons as a frame for water funders. The panel, moderated by Harriet Barlow of the HKH Foundation included besides me, Jon Jensen of the Park Foundation and Sam Passmore of the C.S. Mott Foundation.
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Haiti: Roots of Liberty — Roots of Disaster

By: Nikhil Aziz | janvier 21, 2010

Grassroots International ally Food First's executive director Eric Holt-Jimenez wrote recently -- on HuffPost -- on the long roots of the disaster in Haiti. His point about the "historic bleeding of Haiti's economy and the systematic undermining of its political institutions" being at the root of the disaster as much as the "tectonics that leveled Port-au-Prince" is right on the mark. Grassroots' partners and allies in Haiti have long struggled against that bleeding and undermining, and fought for better Haitian and international policies on agriculture, trade, and food that would sustain their people, and their land.
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Via Campesina calls for Solidarity with Haiti including Haitian peasant movements in aftermath of earthquake

By: Nikhil Aziz | janvier 18, 2010

Grassroots International partner La Via Campesina, a global network of peasant, family farmer and small producer movements more than 100 million strong, and with members in Haiti issued this call for solidarity with Haitians including the peasant population.
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Ten Things the United States Can and Should Do for Haiti

By: Nikhil Aziz | janvier 16, 2010

Bill Quigley of our ally the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote recently on what he thought the US can and should do for Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake.
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Judge Goldstone Refutes Allegations in Congressional Resolution

By: Nikhil Aziz | novembre 2, 2009

On Tuesday, November 3, a bipartisan resolution (HR 867) cosponsored by Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in the House will be likely voted on that condemns the Goldstone report released in September by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
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350 or Toast! « There is no Planet B »

By: Nikhil Aziz | octobre 24, 2009

And, the answer is...350. That is 350 parts per million of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere, the upper limit for sustainability of life, human life anyway. The question, however, is why are more -- not less -- Americans not convinced about the dangers of global warming and climate change in 2009 than in 2006? A new poll by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press released yesterday, found some alarming downward trends. Only 35 percent of Americans see global warming as a serious problem, and about 57 percent believe there is solid evidence that the earth is getting warmer.
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