Two of the fiercest Native battles in the Americas today are closely connected. They are led by the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota and by the Lenca people in Honduras, organized through the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
Some of our partners and allies from Oaxaca, Mexico have written a letter of solidarity addressing the struggles happening here in the United States in the Sioux Nation's territories at Standing Rock, ND. Below is the full letter. The original version of this piece appeared in Espacio Estatal en Defensa del Maíz Nativo de Oaxaca.
Grassroots International and other Haitian groups are urging the international donor community to direct hurricane relief through Haitian-led organizations and networks.
Hurricane Matthew made a direct hit on Haiti on October 4, pounding the island nation with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. The first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in more than 50 years, the cyclone assaulted the precarious infrastructure and flooded the denuded countryside. As Rosnel Jean Baptiste from Tet Kole explains: "Haiti is a very vulnerable country -- and because of our vulnerability hurricanes do not pass by without doing terrible damage."
International Development Exchange (IDEX) and Grassroots International have teamed up to spread these practices among their grassroots grantee-partners in the Global South.
Grassroots International, a Boston-based foundation with longstanding partnerships in Haiti, is launching an emergency fund to support leading Haitian organizations in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
Residents of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North and South Dakota say they were never consulted about an oil pipeline. Now they’re fighting back.
This retreat will combine in-depth discussion with interactive presentations and trainings by leading thinkers, organizers, and innovators on ecological, economic, and social justice. Cosponsors include: Chorus Foundation, EDGE Funders Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, and Movement Generation Registration is currently...
Indigenous peoples, local communities – and likely the earth itself – are breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating a major victory. After years of organizing and a series of major environmental studies, São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam, the largest hydroelectric project planned for the Amazon, has been canceled.
With heavy hearts, Grassroots International mourns the death of Lesbia Yaneth Urquía Urquía, a member of COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), who was brutally killed on July 6, just 4 months after the assassination of Berta Cáceres. Lesbia Yaneth defended the rights of Indigenous communities and opposed the privatization of rivers in La Paz, Honduras. Since the 2009 military coup in Honduras, over 100 environmental activists (including Indigenous Peoples, peasant leaders, and more) have been killed, and thousands criminalized and jailed.
CJA is a collaborative of more than 35 community-based and movement support organizations uniting frontline communities. CJA is forging a scalable, and socio-economically just transition away from unsustainable energy towards local living economies to address the root causes of climate...
Sustaining Life, Building Power “As the world feels on the brink of a precipice, social movements are both sustaining life through their practices and building power to radically transform the very systems threatening life.” Over 2021, while continuing the essential...
When Ben Achtenberg and his wife Emily joined the Grassroots International delegation to Mexico, he brought his camera and an eye for picture-taking, along with a deep history of engagement with global movements and political activism. You can read more about Ben's observations on his blog (Caring for Survivors of Torture), starting with "Indigenous farmers are protecting a way of life and a vital resource for the future...."
Berta Cáceres – indigenous, environmental, and human rights defender and fierce feminist who was assassinated in Honduras on March 3rd, 2016 – was, among so many other things, a mother in resistance. She inherited this from her mother, who was an inspiration to her, and she passed this down to her own daughters and son.
Berta’s mother, Austra Bertha Flores Lopez, worked as a midwife and served as mayor of their town and then governor of their state. She taught her daughter about fighting for justice from the time she was a child. During the period of intense violence of the 1980s, Austra took in and cared for refugees from El Salvador, showing her children what real solidarity looks like.
April has been an exceptional month for Indigenous groups in Brazil.
On April 19th, which happens to be Indigenous people’s day in Brazil, Ibama, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, suspended the license of one of the biggest hydroelectric dam projects in Brazil, São Luiz do Tapajós in the Amazon, which was to be started this year. The company building the dam was planning on flooding about 7% of the Mundruku peoples land, which would be unconstitutional once the indigenous status of land is confirmed.
On this Earth Day and every day, Grassroots International is honored and humbled to stand together with the social movements around the world that are most impacted by ecological destruction, and that are at the forefront of struggles for ecological justice. As members of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and the Climate Justice Alliance, we are proud to share an important report released this week.
Earlier this month Grassroots International hosted a screening of the film This Changes Everything, a powerful documentary by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein about the connections between climate change and our current economic system. Based on Naomi Klein’s book (This Changes Everything: Climate vs. Capitalism), the documentary poses the question, “What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we’ll ever get to build a better world?”
For small farmers, climate change feels like “the sun is getting closer.” That’s what Ginette Hilaire says, and she goes on to describe the escalating droughts, floods and other climate events that she and her community are experiencing with new intensity. “The seasons have completely changed,” she added.
But Ginette and others in her Haitian community are not merely enduring these hardships. They are working to address the root causes, adapt to the changes and put forward workable solutions.
