Intervention by IFG allies in Climate Justice Now! at UN climate talks in Bonn, Aug 2, 2010 pdf
Urge US Support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
The Indian Law Resource Center has asked IFG to contact our allies to urge their support for the Unites States’ immediate adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Please click on the links below to send a letter to the White House today. The deadline for comments to the State Department is October 2010. Thanks for helping to protect the rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples!
State Department Consultations on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
US Ambassador Susan Rice announced in April that the US was formally reviewing its position and solicited comments; only the US and Canada have yet to adopt UNDRIP, and some believe the US wants to do this before the UNFCCC’s December 2010 COP 16 in Cancun. Message from the Office of the Spokesman, July 7, 2010
July 7, 2010: Tribal Leaders Consultation
1 pm, Department of State, Washington, DC
July 8, 2010: Meeting with Nongovernmental Organizations
10 am, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
Current negotiations are dismantling the global climate regime and risk a 4 degree C rise in global temperatures. (More)
IFG and Allies Rally for "New Deal or No Deal" at TPP Talks in SF More photos
President Obama’s trade representative hosted trade talks from June 14-18 in San Francisco to advance the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a new framework among eight (8) nations: Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. (More on TPP)
IFG and Allies Look
Back to Seattle and Forward to Copenhagen
On Monday, November
23rd, 2009, IFG organized a public evening at the First
Unitarian Universalist Center in San Francisco. The forum's
speakers reflected back on the 10th anniversary of the
historic WTO shutdown in Seattle, Washington, in November
1999, and looked forward to the growing peoples' movement
on climate justice about to converge in December of this
year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event featured activists
involved in organizing around the connections between
them both through local actions taking place across the
US on November 30th and December 7th.
Entitled "From Seattle
to Copenhagen," the San Francisco event drew 200
participants who entered into dialogue with 10 speakers:
Jerry Mander, Victor Menotti, and Claire Greensfelder
from IFG Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute Paul Hawken,
David Solnit, and Rebecca Solnit, local author-activists,
Jia Ching Chen, youth-of-color organizer, Kevin Danaher,
Global Exchange and Tim Robertson, California Fair
Trade Coalition.
Click for more information
on Climate Justice Actions in November and December 2009.
The
evening opened with a wonderful video of "Seattle
Flashbacks" - 17 minutes of excerpts from Shaya
Mercer's excellent documentary on the landmark WTO meeting.
The video includes historic speeches and clips from the
famous IFG Teach-In at Benaroya Hall on November 26th
and 27th, 1999 - words that are still totally relevant
today.
Derailing Doha And The Pathway To A New Paradigm (read
the pdf) -By Victor Menotti
From Seattle to
Copenhagen (audio)
Click the play button to start/pause
"IFG's Claire
Greensfelder & Ben Margolis of Global Campaign
for Climate Action Preview Copenhagen Climate Talks" -
KPFA Morning Show: 19 Nov 09 (listen
to the show online)
IFG supports call for
indigenous rights in Brazil. Xavante people are on the frontline
of soy expansion into Amazonia, and defending their land
rights is a global imperative for protecting human rights
and countering climate change. Read
more...
Small islands of forest
dot the landscape of farms and ranches, fulfilling
regulations to maintain percentages of native
forest on agricultural properties. Driven by
profits derived from fertile soil, the region's
dense forests have been aggressively cleared
over the past decade, and Mato Grosso is now
Brazil's leading producer of soy, corn and cattle,
exported across the globe by multinational companies.
Environmentalists
hope UN talks tough on climate change - CNN.com
Source: edition.cnn.com
You're probably not thinking about what you
would like for Christmas yet. But ask any environmentalist
for their ideal gift and you'll get a version of this answer:
a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen this December that is strong enough to match the
science.
The Honorable Hillary R. Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20520
Simon Maina/Agence France-Presse — Getty
Images
Dear Secretary Clinton,
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals,
write to express our appreciation for your upcoming visit
to Africa. As social justice advocates, we are anxious that
the broad vision outlined by President Obama in Ghana be
translated into concrete and specific policies, and programs.
As a first step in facilitating this, we highlight
several of the President's Accra pronouncements and register
our policy expectations.
"WE MUST SUPPORT STRONG AND SUSTAINABLE
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS." To foster democracy across
Africa, we must invest in comprehensive, multilateral solutions,
creating a stronger foundation for a mutually beneficial
relationship. As President Obama noted, these solutions must
be African-led. Success means that we are "partners
in building the capacity for transformational change," not "a
source of perpetual aid that helps people scrape by."
In the spirit of mutual respect, the U.S. should:
A) contribute its fair share to multilateral agencies; B)
recommit to the universally agreed-upon Millennium Development
Goals, C) integrate U.S. funded development programs into
regional and bilateral cooperation frameworks, and D) ensure
that U.S. policy toward Africa is transparent and accessible
to civil society and policy analysts around the globe.
"WE MUST SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT THAT PROVIDES
OPPORTUNITY FOR MORE PEOPLE." President Obama recognized
that progress requires a multilateral approach, and that
America can, and should, do more. We urge the administration
to reform structures for economic recovery to reflect interdependence
and cooperation rather than blind reliance on market forces.
Mobilization for Climate
Justice - The Battle Against Chevron
It's difficult for me to express how excited
I was when I read several minutes ago that on July 2nd, 2009,
a county judge ordered Chevron to halt construction on the
expansion of its Richmond oil refinery.
IFG Executive Director,
Victor Menotti, and Board Member, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz,
in The Guardian
"We
are fighting for our lives and our dignity" Amazonwatch.org
Across the globe, as mining and oil firms race
for dwindling resources, indigenous peoples are battling
to defend their lands – often paying the ultimate price...
Shell
to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case Reuters
June 8, 2009, NYTimes.com: Royal Dutch Shell,
the big oil company, agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle
a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in
the Niger Delta in the early 1990s, a striking sum given that
the company has denied any wrongdoing.
Oil
Industry Braces for Trial on Rights Abuses Charles Miller/Associated
Press
May 21, 2009, NYTimes.com: Royal Dutch Shell will face
charges of
crimes against humanity in connection with Nigerian activists'
deaths.
Hundreds Killed; Thousands
at Risk in Niger Delta
Civil Society Groups call for Immediate Ceasefire
May 21, 2009, Washington, DC: On the eighth
day of full-scale military assault in Nigeria's Niger Delta,
civil society groups around the United States are urging
lawmakers and the Obama Administration to intervene and bring
a halt to the violence and allowing humanitarian supplies
to be brought into the region.
Tell
Congress not to Force GE Crops on other Countries
An effort to fight global poverty and hunger
may become a Trojan horse to force genetically engineered
crops on countries and farmers that do not want them. In
the Senate, Senators Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)
introduced the Global Food Security Act, which increases
funding for agricultural research in the developing world,
and a companion bill in the House of Representatives is expected
to be introduced soon. While the bill recognizes the desperate
need to increase funding for agricultural development and
food security, it also requires that foreign agricultural
development aid include investment in genetically engineered
(GE) crops.
The New Zealand Government
says it may endorse the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Justice Minister Simon
Power said that Prime Minister John Key is keen to review
the declaration, as long as New Zealand's current framework
for indigenous rights cannot be compromised.
Obama Urged to Sign Native Rights
Declaration By Haider Rizvi, May 2009
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 (IPS) -
The United States is considering whether to endorse a
major U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for the
recognition of the rights of the world's 370 million
indigenous peoples over their lands and resources. (Read
Story by IPS)
Shell
Guilty Campaign
Shell must come clean:
* Stop gas flaring in Nigeria, a practice devastating to
the environment and human health, and a significant contributor
to global warming.
* Disclose its role in the abuses committed against the Ogoni
people in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa
and the Ogoni 9.
Maude Barlow,
IFG Board Member, Addresses the UN on Water and Human Rights,
April 22, 2009
Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow
will make her first address to the United Nations General
Assembly on the morning of April 22 to support the Bolivian
call for an annual “International Mother Earth Day” celebration.
Her speech will be a call to action to implement the human
right to water. According to Barlow, this means the world
will have to abandon the “hard path” of large-scale
technology -dams, diversion and desalination - in favor of
the “soft path” of conservation, rainwater and
storm water harvesting, recycling, alternative energy use,
municipal infrastructure investment and local, sustainable
food production.
Barlow’s speech comes at a time when the quest for
a formal right to water instrument is gathering strength
both at the UN and within countries. She is hopeful that
it is only a matter of time before the “blue covenant” she
will call for in her speech will be a reality. “The
problem is that we humans have seen the Earth and its water
resources as something that exists for our benefit and economic
advancement rather than as a living ecological system that
needs to be safeguarded if it is to survive,” Barlow
will say in her remarks. “The human water footprint
surpasses all others and endangers life on Earth itself.”
Barlow, who was appointed last year as Senior Advisor on
Water to the President of the UN General Assembly, will also
participate in an afternoon program with Bolivian President
Evo Morales, Brazilian writer-theologian Leonardo Boff, and
UN President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann. Barlow will
also be briefing more than 35 countries and meeting with
key UN agencies on this visit as part of her ongoing commitment
to the human right to water.
“Water must be seen as a commons that belongs to the Earth and all species
alike. It must be declared a public trust that belongs to the people, the ecosystem
and the future and preserved for all time and practice in law. Clean water
must be delivered as a public service, not a profitable commodity,” Barlow
is to say. “We need to assert once and for all that access to clean,
affordable water is a fundamental human right that must be codified in nation-state
law and as a full covenant at the United Nations.”
“Watersheds must be protected from plunder and we must revitalize wounded
water systems with widespread watershed restoration programs. Simply put, we
must leave enough water in aquifers, rivers and lakes for their ecological
health. This must be the priority: the precautionary principle of ecosystem
protection must take precedence over commercial demands on these waters,” Barlow
will urge.
Book now available now at Amazon.com ..............................................................
BOOK SUMMARY:
Bay Area author Jerry Mander, director
of the International Forum on Globalization, joins
with Hawaii activist and film-maker Koohan Paik, for
this riveting report on the successful local uprising
in Hawaii against a corrupt global corporate-military
scheme with devastating environmental impacts. Partly
investigative journalism, partly cultural-political
history of militarization in the Pacific, partly an
account of an inspiring popular resistance, the book
is a searing indictment of a project illegally pushed
by Republican governor Linda Lingle in support of powerful
right wing NY military financier, John Lehman, whose
company owns and operates the gigantic catamaran. A
prominent neocon, former Navy Secretary under
Ronald Reagan, public advocate of "winnable nuclear
war," Lehman and his colleagues promoted the Superferry
as a neighborly inter-island transport service, but
the project clearly seems to have far more to do with
U.S. military aspirations in the Pacific. The local
heroes are the people of Kauai, led by surfers into
a spectacular demonstration of mass opposition, leaping
into the waters to block the environmentally disastrous
juggernaut. Critic Gar Smith: "This is great,
it’s like Battle of Seattle meets Baywatch."
“Dive into a story of almost
allegoric proportions. Let it embolden you to stand
up for our Earth, its beauty and its creatures, including
ourselves.”
---Frances Moore Lappe, author Diet
for a Small Planet and Hope’s Edge
“The idea of boats to connect
the Hawaiian Islands is so natural and lovely that
it makes one doubly mad to read how in this case
it’s been perverted into yet one more sad scheme
for our paranoid future. Good for you—people
of Hawaii—who’ve raised the alarm, and
to these authors for pulling back the curtain.” ---Bill McKibben, author Deep
Economy
"I applaud the authors for
bringing the voices of the grassroots to the foreground.
The people make history, and the people of Kaua’I
have made us proud. Kauli’i makou, nui ke aloha
no ka ‘aina. (‘We are small in numbers,
but our love for our land is great.’)"
---Ikaika Hussey, Publisher, The
Hawaii Independent
“In every era, simple events
become symbols of greater forces that shape
human history. The “Superferry Chronicles” brings
one such moment alive. This book captures the spirit
of that defining event and reveals the corporate
manipulation, political bullying, corruption, and
deceit that lay behind the Hawaii Superferry.” ----Lucienne de Naie,
Chair, Sierra Club Hawaii
"(The authors) offer the
world a wide interpretation of indigenous sensibility.
We in Hawaii are grateful and stand ready for more
effective collaboration. It’s time to save
this planet! I mua ka lahui o Hawaii-nui-akua. (‘Let
us all move forward, all people of the world.’)"
---Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer, Hawaiian
practitioner and educator
Jerry Mander is director of the International
Forum on Globalization, and author of the best sellers: Four
Arguments for the Elimination of Television, In the
Absence of the Sacred, and the Case Against
the Global Economy. The New York Times has called
Mander, "The patriarch of the anti-globalization
movement."
Co-author Koohan Paik, is an award-winning
Hawaii filmmaker and social and environmental activist.
Her most recent films include the feature length re-enactment
of the life of the most famous Hawaiian resistance
leader of the 1800s, The True Story of Kaluaikoolau," as
well as very popular YouTube videos including, "Greensumption" and "Discover
Kauai."
Report Release - Searching for a Miracle - Net Energy Limits and the Fate of Industrial Societypdf
Poznan, Poland. Over 160 Citizen Groups from Dozens
of Countries
Endorse UN Global Climate Fund:
International Call for Fund Outside World Bank, Dec 11, 2008pdf
Global Climate Fund Statement and Signatures, December
2008pdf
New
Scientific Report to be Released at Washington, DC Teach-In
Challenges Industrial Biofuels as Greenhouse Gas Solution, September
14, 2007pdf
International
Coalition of NGOs Calls for Adoption of the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 29, 2007pdf
FIRST WASHINGTON,
DC PUBLIC TEACH-IN ON GLOBAL TRIPLE CRISIS, August
21, 2007pdf
The
Rise and Predictable Fall of Globalized Industrial Agriculture (download
the report), April 18, 2007 pdf
Five-Years
After the "Battle of Seattle," Preeminent Global Scholars
Present Real Alternatives to Economic Globalization and
Declare A Better World is Possible! November 16,
2004link
DOWNLOAD
THE ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION: A BETTER
WORLD IS POSSIBLE (2nd edition, October 2004)
PRESS RELEASE FROM PUBLISHER BERRETT-KOEHLER pdf
Media Packets From
Past Events
Alternatives
to Globalization and the World Trade Organization 9-14
September 2003, Cancun, Mexico link
World
Summit on Sustainable Development, August 24 - September
4 2002; Johannesburg, South Africa pdf
USDA
Conference on Science, Technology
& Ecology, June 23-25, 2003; Sacramento, CA link
"We
are fighting for our lives and our dignity"
Tell
Congress not to Force GE Crops on other Countries
