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Resource Rights
Six Organizing Principles for a Sustainable Future
By Carol Schachet
July 27th, 2010
Some of the most important lessons I know about grassroots organizing come from the poet Wendell Berry, who advises, “Invest in the millennium; plant Sequoias.”
Resource Rights
Food, land and water are fundamental human rights guaranteed to everyone, rich or poor, no matter the color of his or her skin. Sadly, in the 21st century, access to and control of these and other essential resources are diminishing in communities around the world. Our partners use pioneering sustainable food production techniques and advocate to change policies that threaten their livelihoods, the environment and social justice. In Brazil, Haiti, Mesoamerica, the Middle East and around the world, they work for food sovereignty—the right of communities to decide what to grow and eat without being undermined by global trade rules, and of sustainable livelihoods and resource rights for all.
Food Sovereignty Explained in Simple Language in New Booklet
All people have the right to decide what they eat and to ensure that food in their community is healthy and accessible for everyone. This is the basic principle behind food sovereignty. If you want to support domestic food security through the production of healthy food at a fair price, and you believe that family farmers and fishers should have the first right to local and regional markets, then food sovereignty is for you.
Referendum on Land Holding Used to Educate about Landlessness, Agribusiness
By Saulo Araujo
August 24th, 2010
As part of a larger campaign to support the right to land, this week Grassroots International provided a $10,000 grant to boost education and organizing around a powerful national referendum in Brazil. The referendum, being organized by social movements for the first week of September, probes public opinion regarding the size of land holdings.
Pakistan Floods: Secular, Liberal & Progressive Organizations doing Flood Relief need Your support
The recent monsoonal floods in Pakistan have devastated nearly a third of the country’s landmass – by some estimates area the size of Italy. More than 20 million people have been directly impacted by the rising waters of the Indus and other rivers in three of Pakistan’s four major provinces – Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Punjab (Pakistan’s bread-basket) and Sindh.
Reimagining Israel’s Negev
Down south in the Negev desert, the sounds of jets fill wide-open spaces. Increasing militarization is constant -- at least 80% of the land there is used for military training purposes, including weaponry development. The Negev also contains the largest petrochemical processing center in the Middle East and Israel’s nuclear facilities. Bedouin communities who call the remaining land home are routinely -- and forcibly -- displaced.
UNOSJO and Indigenous Rights Featured in The Nation
UN to Vote on the Right to Water
On July 28, after years and years of grassroots pressure, the United Nations’ General Assembly will finally consider and debate a resolution supporting the right to "safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” Grassroots International embraces the human right to water and has signed on to an open letter supporting the resolution entitled “The human right to water and sanitation.
Maude Barlow, former senior advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly, described the denial of access to clean water as the
Brazilian Land Rights Activist in Boston
Grassroots International and U.S. Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (FMST) are delighted to host Ana Justo, from the Florestan Fernandes National School of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), a Grassroots International partner and a member of the Via Campesina. She will be speaking Thursday, July 8 at Encuentro 5 in Boston at 6 p.m. Click here for more information.
Honduran peasant freed after being unjustly prosecuted
What is the relationship between “green” energy and a peasant in jail? The answer lies at the heart of the struggle for resources rights, as the demand for land to produce agro-fuels for markets in the Global North generate land conflicts, rampant persecution and even deaths in peasant communities in the Global South.
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