Oxfam has an ongoing letter campaign in support of indigenous communities that border near the Prestea Mine in Southwest Ghana. The US-based company Golden Star Resources recently announced a plan to expand the mine. The plan jeopardizes the communities, and explicitly denies their right to free, prior, and informed consent.

There are also several injustices surrounding the mine which have yet to be adequately addressed, including two cyanide spills in 2004 and 2006, and a violent confrontation in 2005 between community members and security personnel guarding the mine. The guards shot seven people.

To …

Presently, State troopers from South Dakota are illegally occupying Yankton Sioux Lands. They began doing so on April 15, after Yankton Sioux Tribal Members began protesting a Hog Farm being constructed on their territory without their consent.

According to the Atlantic Free Press, the Sioux Protesters were “met immediately with illegal law enforcement presence and arrest[s]. To date twenty-two people have been arrested on trumped up charges and there has been a total over reaction of law enforcement numbering up to 52 SD Highway Patrol Cars with 22 more Highway Patrol cars waiting …

Over 200 organizations released a joint statement late last month, condemning the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS).

Made up of representatives from ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Shell, ABN Amro and the WWF, among others, the RTRS is currently gathered in Buenos Aries to develop policies that encourage “responsible soy,” a prospect they consider while ignoring “the very nature by which soy monoculture is produced, taking up vast swaths of land throughout South America, using massive amounts of water resources, depending upon chemical and synthetic fertilizers and pesticide inputs, and leaving a trail of contaminated and/or …

Mines and Communities has made a rather useful resource guide available on their website. Among other things, it provides a database on mining companies, their projects, and the names of the funders…

Now I imagine I don’t have to tell you the significance of having such a resource, so let me just ask you to help spread the word that this guide exists. At the moment it’s only mentioned on one other website.

Published by Nostromo Research, the guide is called From Money to Metals, and it can be downloaded in English and Spanish …

Mines and Communities reports that “one of the most vilified mining proposals of recent years has hit a major stumbling block, as its key financial backer suspends support. Early this month, in a statement to opponents of the Phulbari coal mine in Bangladesh, the director general of Asia Development Bank (ADB)’s Private Sector Operations Department declared that his agency would ‘decline the opportunity’ of investing in the project.”

Noted here in January, the Asian Development Bank was considering a plan to give a $100 million loan to GCM Resources, the UK company behind …

Produced by Wholesome Goodness, FED UP! is an open source documentary film that sets out to inform people about Genetic Engineering, Industrial Agriculture and Sustainable Alternatives. Below you can find the first of four 20 minute segments to Fed Up! and a link to download a high quality version of the film.

From the Producer’s website: “About 70% of the food we eat contains genetically modified ingredients and is not labeled. The biotechnology industry is spending $50 million a year to convince us that this technology is our only hope for feeding the world and saving the environment. Family farmers …

Some say California is where the American Dream was defined. That an accidental discovery near some river went on to inspire a new kind of lifestyle, one said to be entrepreneurial, wide-open, free.

“Gold Cletus, look I found me some gold! YEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWW!”

It wasn’t long before the rumors started, back in 1849, and not long before they were confirmed by President James K. Polk in his state of the union address later that year. Let the California Gold Rush begin…

At first it was like you see in the movies, you know, where you kneel by …

The Brazilian Supreme Court has suspended the police operation that sought to evict a group of rice farmers illegally occupying Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima.

The decision came last Wednesday (April 9), after the farmers began threatening and attacking the regions indigenous people, destroying bridges, and setting up roadblocks to resist their eviction.

According to the Associated Press,

The court blocked the eviction of farmers from the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation late Wednesday, saying protests by the settlers… could erupt into “a veritable civil war.”

Roraima …

“If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.”

These are the concluding remarks of a statement delivered earlier this week by the Lubicon Cree Nation at an Alberta Utilities Commission hearing in Edmonton. A Lubicon Press …

Roseau River First Nation has just started a video campaign to raise awareness about the issue of oil, poverty, land theft, and violence against indigenous People in Canada - compared to that of what happened to Iraqis when economic sanctions were imposed on them some ten years ago.

Below you will find a Press Release from Chief Terrance Nelson of Roseau River, along with the video itself. Please be advised, the video contains images of deceased persons

CA: Roseau River oil pipelines: Chief Terrance Nelson: Wake Up America!

Links to the videos
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyCeSgHbFbo
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUQqajcUCXI

Roseau River is serious …