This is the trailer for the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, a documentary that explores the current and emerging world water crisis from an ecological, social, and political standpoint.

Through examining Court cases, U.N. conventions, local protests, and numerous situations where people are struggling for their basic right to water, Blue Gold reveals the breadth of what we face unless there are changes to the way the world’s water is managed.

As expressed on Facebook,

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level …

Thirty-six years of civil war in Guatemala brought the deaths of over 200,000 people, most of them from Indigenous Nations. In the wake of an amnesty signed in 1996, those who took part in armed struggle against the Guatemalan dictatorship were finally able to return to their lives.

It was at this time that one hundred and sixty people, a diverse group of Quiche, Q’eqchi, Mam, Ladino (mixed Spanish and indigenous) and others decided to continue to struggle by creating a self-sustaining agricultural cooperative; a community that could serve as a just and peaceful model for Guatemalan …

On Jan. 7, about 100 campesinos successfully blocked the spraying of pesticides on soy fields in the Ybypé community of the department of San Pedro, Paraguay. Riot police were mobilized to protect the fumigation tractors, but in a rare and inspiring turn, the campesinos convinced the officers of their right to resist the spraying. The police then refused to break up the blockade.

The Campesinos have so far resisted every attempt to fumigate these fields since the land was sold to Brazilian soy growers, who removed the previous life with …

Under the theme “Building an Indigenous Communications Agenda,” the 2nd Seminar for Indigenous Communicators began in Mexico yesterday, bringing together 60 communicators from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Russia and Nicaragua.

The seminar aims to discuss indigenous communicators issues and technology (community radio, film and video, the Internet); government policies and indigenous Peoples right to information and communication, and access to the media.

Aswell, perhaps most importantly, they are also working to develop strategies and coordinate action on issues of common interest., …

The Peoples’ Permanent Tribunal (PPT), an independent non-governmental body that examines and judges complaints regarding violations of human rights as submitted by the victims themselves (or their representatives)—recently held a hearing against the Oil Industry in Colombia.

On August 3rd and 4th, the Panel of 130 Judges gathered in Bogota, receiving testimony from nearly 400 People with regard to the actions of Repsol-YPF, Occidental and British Petroleum, and the Colombian state-owned oil company.

The Judges concluded: “The Tribunal –which is non-binding- believes that there are reasonable grounds to qualify a …

After reading the post “ways to begin gutting capitalism” Red Jenny recently brought up an important point on her blog, saying, “the first thing that I thought was yeah, but who has TIME for this. Neighbourhood associations, local currencies, growing my own food, it all sounds great, but geez, there’s practically no time to eat and sleep any more let alone adding all that face time with people.” (source)

I thought about this last night, while watching the tremendous lightning storm, and just finished writing up a response:

Hi Red Jenny. I’m glad you took the time to read …

The following is the concluding section of a paper titled “Development-induced Displacement,’ from the Center for Education and Documentation (CED) website. I think it is particularly useful in reference to my recent post about the Olympics.

Conclusion
Right to development as a human right was declared in 1986,123 however, was acknowledged in the Second UN World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 in Vienna integrating the economic social and cultural rights with the civil and political rights; it articulated an amalgamation of the two sets of human rights as an essential fore condition for the `right to opportunities for …

The following is around the first half of a recent article, titled Social Change and Building the Ties That Bind, by Raul Zibechi. I highly recommend you read the full article

“The question of power is not resolved by taking the government palace, which is easy and has been done many times, but rather by the building of new social relations,” said João Pedro Stedile, coordinator of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), at the 2005 World Social Forum. His comment reflects a new vision of social change, one that until recently was almost exclusively promoted by the Zapatistas of …

As promised a couple days ago, here’s the first of a number of writings I’ve found that offer critical insights, analysis, and alternatives to conventional organization and activism.

This one in particular, is an excerpt from a paper written by Paula X. Rojas, titled “Are the Cops in Our Heads and Hearts?” You can read the full version at the Zapagringo blog, or find it in the new book The revolution will not be funded.

Challenges to the Non-Profit System
These new organizing models pose some important challenges to the …

[translated for RA by Rosalind Gil. Links added by me. See here for the Declaration in Spanish]

Declaration of Durugubuti
Garífuna, Lenca and Vía Campesina representatives have come together as part of the Foro de Biodiversidad: Territorio y Cultura (Forum on Biodiversity: Lands and Culture) to declare that we honour the spirits of our ancestors who were massacred seventy years ago during the dictatorship of Tiburcio Crías and we declare that:

Faced with the offensive of the neo-liberal Plan Puebla-Panamá, a plan to reinforce neocolonialism amongst our peoples and to spread the powerful neo-liberal transport and maquila network, we …