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Throughout the world, solutions to some of the greatest challenges of the day are either nascent or fully thriving. Organized people's movements - sometimes with help from supportive government - are changing the structures which cause violence, poverty, inequality, and environmental destruction.

Indigenous Territory & Resource Rights

chiapas arco irisWith the world’s supply of natural resources increasingly depleted or polluted, the carefully protected repository on indigenous lands is now a target of big business.  Globalization has increased the risks for indigenous peoples living on lands that contain such strategic resources as water, oil, gas, forests, minerals, and biodiversity.  All this - not to mention knowledge, plants, animals, and human genetic information - are subject to privatization by government and to sale on the stock market.

Indigenous Territory & Resource Rights

URGENT ACTION: Ensure the Safety of Honduran Afro-Indigenous Community in Resistance

Submitted by admin on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 11:10

Please take a few minutes to take action to help our Garifuna brothers and sisters on the coast of Honduras working to reclaim their land, which for them is their life. OFRANEH, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, has organized the peaceful occupation. Send an email (see text you can copy into email below) or make a call (Spanish speakers). Learn more about the on-going Afro-indigenous Garifuna's Land Reclamation Campaign.  

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URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Violent repression against campesino right-to-land movement in Honduras

Submitted by admin on Tue, 09/11/2012 - 10:04

Thirty-four people, including children and pregnant women, have been arrested and twenty-five more have gone missing in the heart of the land struggle in Bajo Aguán. The Permanent International Human Rights Observatory of Bajo Aguán put out an urgent request for international support on September 10, specifically asking for our help through calls and emails to the Honduran military, police, and government. They are also asking for on-the-ground accompaniment from international human rights observers.

Learn more about the land struggle in Bajo Aguán here from leader, Consuelo Castilla.

The Dark Side of the “Green Economy”

Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/03/2012 - 17:00
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Cross-posted from YES! Magazine.

Why some indigenous groups and environmentalists are saying no to the “green economy.”

by Jeff Conant
posted Aug 23, 2012
 

Everywhere you look these days, things are turning green. In Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous farmers are being paid to protect the last vast stretch of rainforest in Mesoamerica. In the Brazilian Amazon, peasant families are given a monthly “green basket” of basic food staples to allow them to get by without cutting down trees. In Kenya, small farmers who plant climate-hardy trees and protect green zones are promised payment for their part in the fight to reduce global warming. In Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest nations, fully 19 percent of the country’s surface is leased to a British capital firm that pays families to reforest.

Not on Our Land: Land Recovery Campaign Kicks Off in Honduras

Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 11:09

 

August 28, 2012
Carla Garcia

Introduction by Beverly Bell and Lauren Elliott


In what many indigenous people call a “second coming of Columbus,” globalization and its twin offspring of resource exploitation and mega development threaten the survival of indigenous and small-farming communities all over our world. But as widespread as the threat is the response by organized peoples. The strategies for stopping the destruction of their land, claiming their rights to it, and protecting their way of life are diverse - land occupations, protests, and legal claims. Though movements are challenged at every step and are still on the defensive, victories in their own communities dot the world map. Meanwhile, they are gathering strength through cross-border alliances.

Garifuna People of Honduras Launch Land Recovery Campaign

Submitted by admin on Thu, 08/23/2012 - 11:24

 
From our friends at OFRANEH in Honduras:

Garifuna People of Honduras Launch Land Recovery Campaign

Campaign Opposes Land Grabs of Traditional Territories in Honduras by Elites and Foreign Investors

NEW YORK, NY, AUGUST 23, 2012 – On August 27th, 300 leaders of the afro-indigenous Garifuna people and their allies will occupy, reclaim, and protect their land in the village of Vallecito, along the northern coast of Honduras. Vallecito is the largest contiguous landholding of the Garifuna people, who have land titles to almost 2,500 acres, but it is currently targeted by real estate developers for tourist developments. Over the last 18 years, 86% of the Garifuna people’s land has been grabbed by non-Garifuna persons.  OFRANEH, the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras, is a widely respected Garifuna human rights organization launching this campaign to reclaim their land rights.

Brazil: Belo Monte dam stopped

Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/21/2012 - 13:59

 Cross-posted from Salva la Selva.

16/08/2012

"It's a historic victory for the country and people of the river, "said Antonia Melo, spokesperson for the motion Xingu Forever Living.

Judge Souza Prudente ordered on Tuesday 1 August 4 halting the construction of the Belo Monte dam at the request of the state of Pará. The reason is that the construction company Northern Energy did not consult the project with affected indigenous groups before starting the work, and informed them sufficiently about the consequences. This contradicts both the Brazilian law and the rights of minorities, recognized internationally. If, despite the judge's order continuing the work, to pay fines of 200,000 euros per day.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY TO BE ANTI-SYSTEM?

Submitted by admin on Fri, 08/10/2012 - 12:28

ALTER-NATOS 1. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY TO BE ANTI-SYSTEM?Check out this inspiring new report from Otros Mundos, our sister organization in Chiapas, Mexico.

by Gustavo Castro Soto

In general, we find that in social movements, two words keep recurring in the vernacular, in discussions and in the shouts, in the slogans and the declarations: “lucha” (meaning “struggle”) and “contra” (meaning “against”), the Capitalist System, a system of domination, patriarchy, exploitation, etc. We always seem first to be “anti” prior to being “alter”, that is proposing alternatives. Or rather, we could call this position one of “Alter-Nates.” But to know against what we are struggling and from what we seek emancipation, it is important to know what the capitalist system is. Even prior to that, we must understand what a “system” is, and then understand what is Capitalism. In this way, we can diagnose what stage of its existence this system of Capitalism is at, and what the real possibilities of maintaining its momentum are. We can pinpoint any roads that involve anti-capitalism strategies and/or anti-system initiatives, as well as the best strategies to employ in creating an experience or reality that is truly anti-system.

Reclaiming the Forests and the Right to Feel Safe

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/06/2012 - 13:39


Re-posted from the New York Times.

By Karla Zabludovsky
August 2, 2012

CHERÁN, Mexico — The woman’s exhausted eyes reflected the flames dancing in front of her. A 38-year-old grandmother, she is also a leader of the civilian insurgency that has taken over this mountain town in the state of Michoacán, 310 miles west of Mexico City. Sixteen months of cold and sleepless nights at Bonfire No. 17, one of a number of permanent burning barricades set up here, have taken their toll.

Afro-Indigenous Hondurans Reclaiming Stolen Land Call for Our Support Now!

Submitted by admin on Wed, 07/11/2012 - 20:42
The Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) calls for international support as it plans to reclaim communal lands stolen from them. Specifically they request financial support for their planned Land Recovery campaign. Funds raised will go directly to OFRANEH to use for legal accompaniment and communications during and after the campaign. See below for an open letter by Agricultural Missions, a US-based ally helping raise funds for OFRANEH. 
 
Checks made out to Agricultural Missions (with the word Garifuna in memo line) can be sent to AMI, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 810, New York, NY 10115 or you can go to our website and contribute using  Paypal:  www.agriculturalmissions.org

Paraguay: Weaving Peoples Resistance Against Corporate Occupation

Submitted by admin on Mon, 07/09/2012 - 13:09

Our allies in Paraguay have issued this important letter regarding the recent coup in their country. See the original text in Spanish, and list of signatories, on the website of Cxhab Wala Kiwe, Territorio del Gran Pueblo.

Paraguay: Weaving Peoples Resistance

Against Corporate Occupation


The undersigning organizations, collectives and individuals working towards a coordinated initiative of popular resistance from and with the peoples of Paraguay clearly and unequivocally declare:

We believe it to be an urgent priority to accompany and support the Frente Unido para la Defensa de la Democracia (United Front for the Defence of Democracy or FDD) and the expressed desires of the people of Paraguay to develop and implement their agenda of autonomous resistance to the occupation through the recent Coup d’Etat.