This is a trailer to the film Tambogrande (2003), the story of proud fruit growers from Peru’s northern coast who came together to defend their lands and culture from foreign (Canadian) mining interests.

Canadian-based Manhattan Minerals was granted concessions by the government in the 1990’s to extract an estimated US$1 billion in gold, silver, copper and zinc from beneath the streets of Tambogrande.

The people were at no point consulted about this; and even though Manhattan made some significant offers to them, it was just not worth …

Beneath the village of Rosia Montana, located in west-central Romania, there lies a massive deposit of gold ore–over 300 tonnes. The village has been living on top of it for over 2000 years now; but today the village, indeed the entire area is threatened. Canada’s own Gabriel Resources wants to turn it into Europe’s largest open-pit cyanide mine.

If all goes as planned, 2000 people will be relocated; and 5 mountains, 10 Churches, 12 Cemeteries and 958 farms will be destroyed. On top of that, a cyanide lake will be made of a valley neighboring Rosia Montana.

Some are welcoming the …

The following video is a speech delivered by Arundhati Roy on September 18, 2002 at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Among many other topics, Arundhati talks about the US war on terror, the illusions of contemporary society, the growing chasm between the rich and the poor, and the centuries-old struggles of the people.

If you’d like, you can read a transcript of Come September online….Here’s an excerpt:

Close to one year after the War Against Terror was officially flagged off in the ruins of Afghanistan, in country after country, freedoms are being curtailed in the name of protecting …

The Katkari are a people based in the Raigad and Thane Districts of Maharashtra, India. Never formally recognized by the state, the Katkari have for years found themselves in abject poverty, living as bonded laborers on their own land.

With no rights or freedoms, they are exploited and forced to work under sub-human conditions on the brick kilns. Sexual exploitation of Katkari women is common while men are often beaten up, and even killed.

Any sort of resistance is met with violence from the police—a fact common to many tribal Peoples in India—thanks no less to the foundation brought on by …

On September 14 there will be a protest in County Mayo, Ireland to highlight the ongoing community campaign against Shell and their proposed, highly controversial Corrib gas development—an onshore refinery and high pressure pipeline leading from the offshore Corrib gas field.

Since it was first proposed in 2000, local communities have been engaging in a steady campaign of opposition to this development, because:

1. Shell and the government plans to take land from local residents for the pipeline.
2. The pipeline will be going through boggy land with a history of …

Recently, the Enawene-Nawe, a people indigenous to the Juruena River basin in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil, invited Greenpeace to visit them and document their ways of life, which Greenpeace had previously expressed an interest in doing.

Greenpeace accepted, and set out, accompanied by OPAN (Native Amazon Operation) members and 2 european journalists. But upon arriving on August 20, 2007—farmers, land owners, and politicians of the Brazilian municipality of Juína (Mato Grosso state) ‘warned’ them that they will not be permitted to visit the Enawene-Nawe.

Maybe ‘warned’ is speaking too …

In 2004, the United States, with the complicity of France and Canada, forcibly removed democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office, bringing Haiti’s 10 year experience with democracy to a brutal end.

After the coup, 6,000 United Nations Peacekeepers came to Haiti to legitimize the ‘regime change’, and to purportedly help restore peace and democracy in Haiti, in part, by hunting down members of Lavalas, the popular movement that swept Aristide into office.

Since 2004, thousands of Lavalas members, so-called bandits, have been killed or driven into hiding.

please be advised that some of the links below contain images of deceased persons

More to …

This is an abbreviated version of the film “Our Land is Our Future”, a documentary about the the Taku River Tlingit people’s relationship with their traditional territory and their struggle to honor their land, sovereignty, and way of life.

“The Taku is a land abundant with life. Within its 18,000 square kilometers/4.5 million acres, the watershed encompasses seven biogeoclimatic zones, enriching the region with stunning diversity. It is the traditional territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), who maintain strong ties to this landscape. It is also home …

Guerrero is best known for the Mexican beach resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, but few know that it continues to be the site of the most blatant human and economic rights violations in the country. Although the Sierra Club and other international groups once made the persecution of environmental activists in Guerrero an international scandal, attention has waned as abuses continue.

Guerrero: La ruta al sol is a gritty plea from people in Guerrero for international pressure and solidarity to help stop human rights violations in Guerrero and throughout Mexico. Interviews with Mexican human rights workers, massacre and torture survivors, and …

Sweet Crude, a documentary now in post-production, tells the story of Nigeria’s Niger Delta and the struggle of the People in the region. For 50 years, the people in the region known as the ’south-south’ have lived a life of hopelessness and desperation as they watch the land become devastated, and their own lives become unsustainable—not just because of the 6,000 reported oil spills (less than 50% of which are cleaned) rampant gas flaring (2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day) and several major pipeline explosions that …