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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.

 

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. At the same time, they are creating better quality of life in their communities.  In other instances, people are preserving ancient cultures where individuals live in relative equity and harmony with other life and their communities, and without expectation of profit. 

Join us to learn more and become a part of this inspiring movement:

  • Check out Other Worlds' newest book and food sovereignty tool, Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agriculture in the Americas, which explores the growing movement to reclaim the food system from multinational agribusiness and put it back into the hands of people. Accompanying the book is a popular education curriculum called Sowing Seeds, and a weekly blog series! And, find more resources and action steps on the Harvesting Justice website.

  • More than three years after the devastating 2010 earthquake, read about how Haitian grassroots movements are continuing the struggle for a just reconstruction on our Another Haiti is Possible blog. And, find out how you can support the Under Tents campaign for the right to housing for nearly 400,000 who are still living under tarps and tents.

  • Visit our blog, below, of articles by and about our allies building grassroots alternatives around the world (click here for full blog history).

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Alternatives Blog

SMALL FARMS FIGHT BACK: FOOD AND COMMUNITY SELF-GOVERNANCE

Submitted by admin on Sun, 04/14/2013 - 09:45

By Tory Field and Beverly Bell

Heather Retberg stood on the steps of the Blue Hill, Maine town hall surrounded by 200 people. “We are farmers,” she told the crowd, “who are supported by our friends and our neighbors who know us and trust us, and want to ensure that they maintain access to their chosen food supply.”

Blue Hill is one of a handful of small Maine towns that have been taking bold steps to protect their local food system. In 2011, they passed an ordinance exempting their local farmers and food producers from federal and state licensure requirements when these farmers sell directly to customers.

Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agricultural Systems in the Americas

We know you care about what you eat, how it was produced, and who was harmed or who benefited in the process. Everywhere, people like you are reclaiming the food system from multinational agribusiness and putting it back in the hands of small farmers, low-income families, farmworkers, guardians of Native culture, and health-conscious communities. Read about these efforts in Other Worlds’ new 140-page book, Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agricultural Alternatives in the Americas. The result of five years of research and interviews from throughout the hemisphere, the book describes strategies to win food justice and food sovereignty. An appendix and popular education curriculum offer hundreds of concrete ways to learn more and get involved.

Haitian farmers call for 'food sovereignty'

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 20:51

Re-posted from Global Post

Hundreds of small farmers have converged on the central Haitian city of Hinche to demand more space to grow their own crops in a country that imports more than half of its food.

"Yes to land reform. Yes to environmentally-friendly agriculture," chanted the 300-some farmers gathered for the 40th anniversary of the Papaye Peasant Movement, a group aiming to promote "food sovereignty for the people."

"Forty years of struggle for social change. We want true land reform."

Response to Cholera in Haiti Impossible Without Cuba, Says the UN

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 20:42

Re-posted from acn Cuban News Agency

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 1 (acn) UN Under-Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan highlighted on Monday in Ecuador that, without Cuban physicians, it would have been impossible to respond to the cholera epidemics in Haiti. She pointed out that the medical aid from neighboring nation was already present in Haiti before the January 2010 earthquake.

“LOSING HAITI, THAT IS SOMETHING ELSE”: HAITIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ORGANIZE

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 12:58


By Beverly Bell

“Why is Haiti so poor?” That’s what deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez asked, over and over, in a video shown at a recent memorial at the State University of Haiti. In the courtyard of the School of Social Sciences, a repository of radical intelligentsia and organizers, professors and students took the stage to sing, drum, and recite poetry, and to make impassioned speeches about Chávez’s opposition to privatization and the US empire.

Tunis 2013: If we rely on corporate seed, we lose food sovereignty

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 08:45

Cross-posted from La Via Campesina

By La Via Campesina World Social Forum

It has become crucial to defend seeds. In the past 20 or 30 years, what was once seen as normal – peasant farmers growing, selecting, saving and exchanging seeds – has come under attack from corporations seeking to control and commodify the very basis of agriculture.

India Strikes Blow Against Big Pharma

Submitted by admin on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 15:30

Cross-posted from Truthout

By Dean Baker

Last week, India's Supreme Court rejected the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis' patent on the cancer drug Gleevec. While the immediate issue was the ability of Novartis to charge its patent-protected price for the drug in India, the decision will have an enormous impact on the future of public health not only in India, but around the world.

Haitian Sweatshops: Made in the U.S.A.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 14:55

Re-posted from In These Times

By Fran Quigley

When the shift changes in the late afternoon, thousands of Haitians stream out from under an arched entrance labeled “Parc Industriel Metropolitain” toward the traffic-choked streets of Port-au-Prince. Among them is David, a thin 32-year-old man in a short-sleeve dress shirt and slacks, who works at one of the many garment assembly factories here, sewing pants for export to the United States. Through a Creole interpreter, David says the way he and his co-workers are treated is pa bon—not right. 

The People’s Camp Party, with the Collective Mobilization to Compensate Victims of Cholera

Submitted by admin on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 14:32

A Note of Protest Against the Immoral Decision of the United Nations to Not Compensate Victims of MINUSTAH’s Cholera

The news came like a bomb that the imperialist powers are used to dropping on little countries. Thursday, February 21st, 2013, a spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the U.N. told the press that he had called President Michel Martelly to announce the U.N.’s decision to not compensate victims of MINUSTAH’s cholera, under Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Afterwards, President Martelly never said if the United Nations had in fact called to inform him of their decision. The question we must now ask ourselves is this: what moral right does the international community have to speak to use about human rights and democracy?

The Mondragon Experiment: Documentary on the Spanish Cooperative Corporation

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 13:26

 

The MONDRAGON Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Euskadi. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters.

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