Today, a civil court in Israel issued a verdict in the 2003 death of Rachel Corrie. Judge Oded Gershon of Haifa District Court concluded that Rachel’s death was not caused by the negligence of the Israeli state or army. Rachel, a nonviolent 23-year-old activist, was killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer while trying to physically protect Palestinian homes in the Gaza strip from destruction by Israeli Defense Forces.
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.
Today [August 9] is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. The United Nations pronounced this day to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. Today also gives us an opportunity to celebrate and recognize the achievements and contributions that indigenous people have made to improve world issues.
Grassroots International proudly supports indigenous organizations from Mexico to Brazil to Mozambique to Indonesia – groups engaged in ongoing organizing to protect their rights and the rights of Mother Earth.
This summer, a group of Grassroots International supporters and allies participated in a delegation to Pernambuco, Brazil. There they saw first-hand the resilient and powerful work of the Landless Workers Movement, the Movement of People Affected by Dams, and the Via Campesina. Along the way, delegates talked with with small farmers, families living in encampments waiting for land, and indigenous communities working to protect their ancestral lands from the incursion of impending dams.
Below is a blog from Peggy Newell, one of the delegates and a Grassroots International supporter, offering her reflections on the journey.
Traveling to Not That Brazil, by Peggy Newell
Article 22 of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution guarantees adequate housing to all Haitians, yet hundreds of thousands of Haitians are languishing in makeshift tents two and a half years after the January 2010 earthquake.
Two weeks ago, Haitian President Michel Martelly toured Caracol Industrial Park in the Northeast Department with stops at the Park’s power plant and future employee housing site. He also used his visit as an opportunity to urge the project’s construction workers to “give the best of themselves in building this new Haiti.”
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...
For Haitian peasants July 23, 1986, will always be remembered with sadness and renewed conviction. On that day at least 139 peasants were killed in Jean-Rabel, located in the Northwest of the country, by Tonton Macoutes following orders from local landowners. Most of the peasants killed were advocating for land reform by contesting local landowners’ claims to State-owned land. The massacre took place at a turbulent time in Haitian history, a mere few months after a popular struggle led to Jean-Claude Duvalier’s ouster, which in turn led to a power vacuum immediately filled by a bloody military junta. The junta remained in place until the democratic election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991.
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...
Things are not going well for Caterpillar or Elbit Systems’ stocks.
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.
The Palestinian situation is complex, but underlying that complexity is a basic struggle for land and water. No one knows that more intimately than Palestinian farmers and the people who work with them. In a recent interview while attending Rio...
The Palestinian situation is complex, but underlying that complexity is a basic struggle for land and water. No one knows that more intimately than Palestinian farmers and the people who work with them. In a recent interview while attending Rio...
The Separation Wall is now 10 years old. The Israeli government has not reversed course despite protests, a UN General Assembly resolution (ES-10/13), an International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion, and almost unanimous international condemnation.
Se Ra, Se Ta!-- Later is too late” was the resounding cry of people in Haiti on November 25, 2011, in the various actions held in honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This affirmation also acknowledged that in the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 earthquake, the devastating effects of other forms of violence, such as crime, disease, economic and structural violence have been equally traumatic to the people of Haiti.
A close friend of mine in Fairfax, Virginia, is expecting her first child. By the time this baby girl turns 60, she’ll live in a world that’s warmer than it’s ever been since humans began walking the Earth 2.5 million...
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.
The day-to-day struggle in Palestine centers on access to and control of land and water. Not only are these vital resources critical to self-determination, but they are necessary for life. And in Gaza, the five-year Israeli-imposed blockade and unrepaired destruction from Operation Cast Lead have pushed the population into dangerous health and sanitary conditions.
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.
In anticipation of World Environment Day today, June 5, 2012, Haiti’s Minister of Environment, Joseph Ronald Toussaint, and the Martelly government proclaimed June Environment Month in Haiti. The theme for this year’s month-long celebration is, “A Green Economy for an Environmentally Viable, Sustainable, and Just Haitian Society.” As part of Environment Month, a member of the ministry’s cabinet indicated that the ministry would like to hold a general State of the Environment Conference with stakeholders on June 7-8, 2012.
