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April 17 – International Day of Peasants’ Struggle

By: Carol Schachet | April 14, 2009

Since 1996 April 17 has been declared by La Via Campesina "International Day of Peasants' Struggles." This day commemorates the slaughter by the Brazilian police of 19 peasants of the landless movement (MST) while they mobilized to get access to some land. Thirteen years later, the struggle for recognition of peasant rights remains a priority of the Via Campesina, one of Grassroots International's partners.

According to the Via Campesina's press release,
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ESCR-Net International Strategy Meeting and Nairobi Declaration on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

By: Nikhil Aziz | April 10, 2009

Last December, I had the good fortune to be able to attend and participate in the 2nd international strategy meeting of the Economic, Social, & Cultural Rights Network - ESCR-Net, which is a global coalition of movements and NGOs that are struggling for or working on economic, social and cultural rights. The four day meeting took place in Nairobi, Kenya, in conjunction with a special gathering of social movements and grassroots groups.
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Food Security and Fair Trade Coffee

By: Lilian Autler | April 9, 2009

The Oaxaca State Coffee Producers Network (CEPCO), one of Grassroots International's partners in Mexico, works with largely indigenous coffee-growing families to fortify their economic wellbeing. CEPCO has been instrumental in strengthening organic coffee production among members and in diversifying the local economic base in an effort to ensure that local indigenous communities can stay on their traditional collectively owned land.
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Celebrating the United Nations Right to Food Day

By: Maria Aguiar | April 7, 2009

Since late spring of 2008 I have been playing an active role in the work of the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis. This broad network of farmer, fisher, farmworker, labor, faith, food and hunger and policy advocacy organizations has echoed the call of global social movements and civil society to implement a clear and simple set of principles included in the findings of the 2008 International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) and join the community of nations supporting the right to food.
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G20 – Where’s the Rest?

By: Nikhil Aziz | April 2, 2009

The G20 meetings in London are drawing a lot of attention in the media and around the world. Typically, much of the mainstream media attention is focused either on the pomp sideshow (the Queen and Michelle Obama's hug) or the small portion of the protestors that broke windows and equipment in the RBS offices (which bolsters mainstream media's emphasis on sensationalism and their ability to dismiss genuine global protest against the destructive policies of governments and multilateral institutions).
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Palestinians Commemorate Land Day

By: Carol Schachet | March 31, 2009

Sunday marked Land Day in Palestine and around the world. Land Day is an annual commemoration of the events of March 30, 1976, when the Israeli army and police killed six unarmed Palestinian protesters and injured 96 others during a peaceful protest in the Galilee. More than 300 people were also arrested in the demonstration opposing the Israeli authorities' seizure of 5,500 acres as "closed military zones."
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Finding Words

By: Carol Schachet | March 26, 2009

Since returning from Gaza where I went on a Grassroots International program trip that coincided with the International Women's Delegation co-sponsored by Code Pink, Grassroots International and others, I am finding it very difficult to write. I sit at night staring blankly at my more than a hundred pages of notes and find the personal testimonies from the War too horrific to have actually happened or to exist between the pages of my beat-up notebooks. I spend hours sorting through thousands of photographs and stop every now and then to remind myself that the images are part of my recent experience and responsibility now and not some archives from Sabra or Shatila or Jenin or Beirut that somehow made their way onto my hard drive.
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Who does the World Water Forum speak for?

By: Nikhil Aziz | March 26, 2009

Not for the world's people for sure. And especially not for the increasingly thirsty billions who lack acess to clean and safe water for drinking, cooking, and growing food; or for those that have been displaced by huge mega dam projects or suffered from water diversions for agribusinesses and bottled water corporations. This was amply evident when the World Water Forum (WWF) denied permission to the United Nations General Assembly President, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (from Nicaragua) to speak at its 5th gathering in Istanbul, Turkey this past week.
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Impressions from the Middle East: Updates from Our Partners in Palestine: Part III

By: Marie Kennedy | March 25, 2009

Grassroots International Board Member Marie Kennedy and staff member Salena Tramel visited partners and allies in the West Bank and Israel prior to joining a delegation to Gaza, co-sponsored by Code Pink. This entry is from Marie's notes from her meetings in the West Bank.

March 1, 2009 – A Conversation with Rula Al-Khateeb of the Palestinian Farmer's Union (PFU)

Rula Al-Khateeb, delegate at Via Campesina's 5^th International Conference in Maputo, Mozambique last October, and Public Relations Coordinator of the Palestinian Farmer's Union met with us to discuss the PFU and its progress in becoming a Via Campesina member organization.
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Impressions from the Middle East: Updates from Our Partners in Palestine: Part II

By: Marie Kennedy | March 24, 2009

Grassroots International Board Member Marie Kennedy and staff member Salena Tramel visited partners and allies in the West Bank and Israel prior to joining a delegation to Gaza, co-sponsored by Code Pink. This entry is from Marie's notes from her meetings in the West Bank.

Feb 27^th– Stop the Wall Campaign Members Tell Their Stories
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Local is Global – Defenders of water rights and justice in your municipalities, your cities, your parliaments

By: Nikhil Aziz | March 23, 2009

By Nikhil Aziz.
Nikhil is reporting from the World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.

One of the events organized by civil society during the corporate-driven World Water Forum in Istanbul was "International Day" on March 19^th. Various members of the anti-privatization sector of the global water justice movement organized this in collaboration with Turkish civil society representatives. For example, Our Water Commons, the Trans National Institute, Food & Water Watch, and regional networks like Red Vida (Latin America) and the African Water Network.
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Impressions from the Middle East: Updates from Our Partners in Palestine: Part I

By: Marie Kennedy | March 23, 2009

Grassroots International Board Member Marie Kennedy and staff member Salena Tramel visited partners and allies in the West Bank and Israel prior to joining a delegation to Gaza, co-sponsored by Code Pink. This entry is from Marie's notes from her meetings in the West Bank.

Feb 26^th, 2009 – Meeting with the Union of Agriculture Work Committees (UAWC)
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Water Wars, and Warriors, in Istanbul

By: Nikhil Aziz | March 19, 2009

The opening day of the World Water Forum (WWF) in Istanbul was emblematic of the undemocratic and unaccountable nature of the WWF. The WWF, like the World Economic Forum, is a virtual country club. Dominated by multinational corporations like Veolia and Suez, international financial institutions like the World Bank, and governments, it is run by an unelected body, the World Water Council (WWC), which charges exorbitant entry fees and goes further to silence opposition by nefarious means.
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Landless Protests Spread Across Brazil

By: Carol Schachet | March 13, 2009

A longtime partner of Grassroots International, Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST) is Latin America's largest popular movement. The MST has been at the forefront of social action for just land distribution for 25 years. Through the MST's efforts, close to 350,000 families have been settled and another 150,000 families are living in encampments, awaiting title to their land.
The MST is also a member of the Via Campesina, a powerful global network of more than 150,000 million small producers. On International Women's Day, the MST and the Via Campesina demonstrated throughout Brazil, demanding agrarian reform and rights for small farmers and women.
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Updates from Women’s Delegation to Gaza – Alice Walker Speaks Out

By: Carol Schachet | March 9, 2009

For a Grassroots International staff member and Board member, this International Women's Day offered a real glimpse at global solidarity. The two women, along with 58 other activists, writers and thinkers stepped across the rarely penetrable border into Gaza. Delegates hope to meet with their counterparts, including a number of Grassroots International partners, visit to the urban gardens of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), and meet with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), whose building was severely damaged during the Israeli attack.
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The Developing World is Too Big to Fail

By: Carol Schachet | March 6, 2009

As the economic crisis spreads deeper and wider, so too do calls for various bailouts. The federal government has provided billions of dollars to rescue banks, car producers, insurance companies and other industries. Why not, then, bail out developing countries as well? So asks Kevin Gallagher of our colleague the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts university in an article from the Guardian. After all, if being "too big to fail" is the litmus test, then surely the Global South passes. He writes, "If the world's developing countries aren't part of a comprehensive global response to the crisis we will all be worse off.
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Lessons from Northeast Brazil: “You can’t fight the environment”

By: Grassroots International | March 2, 2009

I believe peasants from Northeast Brazil have a few important things to tell us about climate justice. For starters, the majority of the Northeastern region is dry. And it has been dry since the last glacial period. Also, the Northeast region where I come from is the largest and most populated semi-arid region on the planet, home to 20.5 million people mostly of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian descent.

Because of droughts and lack of water in the past, masses of hungry peasants were forced to migrate to other regions in Brazil.
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Via Campesina calls for Peasant Rights

By: Grassroots International | March 2, 2009

On February 23, Grassroots International partner, the Via Campesina met with representatives of the United Nations in New York City to discuss ways to address the chronic problems faced by peasant communities around the globe.

The growing violation of resources rights of peasants by development policies - especially mega-projects whose main goal is to speed up the extraction and export of resources for corporate profits - is an issue that demands immediate attention.
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Interview with Paul Nicholson of the Basque Country’s EHNE

By: Carol Schachet | February 27, 2009

While attending the Via Campesina's Vth International Conference, publisher and author Nic Paget-Clarke caught up with Paul Nicholson.

Nicholson is a member of EHNE (Euskal Herriko Nekazarien Elkartasuna), the Basque Farmers Union in the Basque Country, and a member of the International Coordinating Committee in Via Campesina. EHNE is part of the Spanish COAG (Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos), which is part of the European Coordination-Via Campesina, a Via Campesina organization in Europe.
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A Glimpse of the Peasant and Small Farmer Association Movement in Mozambique

By: Carol Schachet | February 27, 2009

While attending the Via Campesina's Vth International Conference, publisher and author Nic Paget-Clarke sat down with members of a peasant and small farmers' association in Mozambique in an attempt to learn more about the reality of their situation.

Paget-Clarke's piece was published In Motion Magazine. We are also providing a PDF version of the article, which has been formatted for printing.
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