Carol Schachet's blog

Members of the Via Campesina gathered in Thailand to discuss, strategize and coordinate about one of the mainstays of farmers across the globe: Seeds.

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

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.

The issue of land grabs remains a critical threat to human rights, forcing millions of people off the land to make way for large-scale industrial farms. Land grabs in Ethiopia are not only threatening to dislocate farmers but are doing so with significant financial aid from the United States. Take a moment to read the information below provided by our colleagues at the Oakland Institute and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia and take action.

Among the speakers was Jim Goodman, from the Family Farmer Defenders in Wisconsin – a Grassroots International grantee and ally, and a member of the Via Campesina. Earlier in the year, Jim and Family Farm Defenders helped organize the Tractorcade to Madison, Wisconsin to show support for organized labor and the right of unions to collective bargaining.  Here, he outlines the problems posed by industrial agriculture and the solution of food sovereignty in his first "mic check" speech.

The United Nations declared November 29 to be the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People some 63 years ago.