As a young activist one of the first things I notice in social justice circles is the significant absence of an understanding of the necessity to link the struggle for social justice with that of environmental justice. There is also an overinsistence on political change with insufficient weight granted to the subsequent need for economic change. It is unrealistic to expect political progress without first targeting capitalism for what it is; a system based on capital, money, and profits. And, it is equally as impossible to weaken that foundation of capital and profits, without first seriously questioning and altering our consumption habits in western society. How can we claim to be activists without first changing the most basic and fundamental elements of our lives? These fundamental aspects of our lives, such as the products we buy, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat must necesarily be the starting point. Before we change the world, we must first change ourselves, change our lives, and change the habits that define us as uninformed and unconcerned consumers.
These two factors, the environmental emphasis, and the necessary focus on our consumption habits, bring the question of fair trade into context. Fair Trade is a form of commercial exchange where the buyer goes directly to the producer, offers a fair and much higher price for the product than traditional corporate buyers, in a context where both sides seek to build a relationship based on equality instead of exploitation. But Fair Trade doesn't stop there. It encourages social exchange and solidarity between the producer and consumer communities, most often an international connection, including ongoing contributions for the building of strong production and manufacturing capability for the southern producers and/or farmers, self-sufficiency and food sovereignty on both sides, and all around community building. In many cases, fair trade entrepreneurs even go as far as helping southern communities set up their own schools and hospitals. And, perhaps most important of all, fair trade demands a necessity to create awareness and to provide education to northern consumers of the what, where, why, when, and how of what they are consuming.
Supporting and understanding fair trade here in North America can generate a lot of personal happiness and satisfaction in living a non-corporate, and sustainability oriented lifestyle. It is not just a matter of figthing against the system, but of rejecting the most basic elements that bind us to it. On a daily basis, if we are drinking Tim Horton's or Starbucks coffee, or handing out plastic bottled water at solidarity events, then we are simply not identifying the problem at its roots. By keeping our corporate life habits unchecked and unchanged we are supporting NAFTA, we are supporting free trade, we are behaving hypocritically as our indifference and disregard continues to feed the system of consumption that perpetuates the very injustices we are fighting against in the first place.
Part of our political position must be a staunch opposition to free trade, and fair trade is the exact opposite, the direct alternative to free trade. Fair trade, however, more than a poltical philosophy, is a lifestyle choice, almost a spiritual choice. And so because our alternative lifestyle choices are relevant at such a personal level, whether that be buying fairtrade, living green and sustainable, boycotting corporate products, or even making the move to being vegan or vegetarian, they allow us an opportunity to be proud about the way we live, and to be happy in the struggle. Being an activist, fighting for social justice of any kind, or simply living a progressive lifestyle often requires a lot of discipline and sacrifice, and sometimes that level of committment can be very difficult. But our dedication to social justice should not be a committment beyond recognition of our happiness, and it is not selfish to want things for ourselves, as long as they are not ignorant or detriment to the greater good. Being happy is the first step, first and foremost because it is human nature to desire it, and because happiness is humanity's most valuable gift, but also because we can never be fully effective in the struggle without it. We have to fight for what we believe in with dedication, but we have to attain fulfillment while doing it.
A very important characteristic of the sustainable movement is its strength in existing through a collective identity and orientation. People love to, and want to feel like they belong to a greater common entity. That is why we must talk to neighbours, we must discuss with our co-workers, friends, and family on a daily basis, we must exchange ideas, stories, and solutions to help broaden the fabric of our social project. All of our social justice, environmental, sustainable living, anti-corporate initiatives, etc., must be based on complete and uncompromised inclusion. Fair trade is about creating a link between northern consumers and marginalized southern producers, but we also need to emphasize the more simple connection from people to people, the action of an equal, reciprocal exchange. We must be a people of community and togetherness who complement the growth of each other's livelihoods in tangible and positive ways. These actions for a communitarian way of life, are proof that a smaller-scale, grassroots, and symbiotic economy can not only sustain, but enhance the collective threads of our human community. The sustainable movement, while creating a very profound and deep-rooted sense of belonging, participation, and community, allows us to become the living agents of what we believe in.
By and large, the only people within capitalism, within right-wing ideology who are political, are politicians, the rest are just consumers. The industrialization of the food system and of nearly everything we consume dictates, for example, our easy and convenient consumption of Tim Hortons's, our drinking bottled water and burning away plastic daily, feeding the petroleum dependency in the process. When we buy our groceries from supermarkets and megastores and continue to bolster the control of agribusiness and corporate food giants, we are propeling mass manufacturing, environmentally destructive packaging, and processed foods, consequently fueling the needless and irresponsible depletion of our natural resources, and spurring the ever flowing and ever growing government subsidies for corn and soy monoculture which continues to exacerbate the international food crisis to dangerous limits. Therefore, when we are unionists, or grassroots activists, environmentalists, or simply concerned citizens or families, even if we have altered our political consciousness, and we continue to allow our consumption habits to go unchanged, greedy, heedless, and completely unsustainable consumption habits, then we are only going halfway, only considering 50 % of the equation, and we fail to identify the crux of the problem, we fail to identify it as the affliction that it is.
You can make a difference by not buying corporate and processed foods as much as possible, by rejecting genetically modified vegetables, by reducing on plastic and packaging of all kinds. You can make a difference by reusing, by bringing your own bags and containers to do groceries, by eating only foods that grow from the earth, as much as possible if not entirely, and by buying local products, and supporting local organic farmers and sustainable community initiatives. We are not advocating drastic sacrifices or commitments, simply small and gradual changes in our daily habits.
You cannot force people to be right-wing free-market ideologists, but everyone has to eat, everyone has to wear clothing, everyone has to consume in some capacity. Good humans have their political and moral values, but capitalists own the system. That is what they have over us, that is how they hold us by the tail, but our consumption is our choice, and we absolutely have to take back that tactical advantage.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
More Galeano Quotes from We Say No
"I am a writer who would like to imagine the future rather than accept it: a hunter of scattered voices, lost and true."
"When Black slaves escaped from the plantations of Surinam in the seventeenth century, the women filled their luxurious tresses with seeds. When they arrived in the jungle, they shook their heads to fertilize the free land."
"The dry grass will set fire to the damp grass." - Ancient African proverb.
"After all, community, the community-based mode of production and life, stubbornly heralds another possible America. This prophetic voice speaks from the most ancient of times, and still resounds despite five centuries of attempts to impose an obligatory silence. Community is the oldest and the most obstinate of all American traditions. As much as it pains those who decry socialism as a foreign notion, our deepest roots are in community: communal property, communal labor, shared lives, lives based on solidarity. Private property, on the other hand, a way of life and work based on greed and selfishness, is indeed an import, brought by the conquistadores since 1492."
"Our collective memory remains stubbornly alive: a thousand times slain, a thousand times reborn in the hiding places where she licks her wounds."
Eduardo Galeano.
"When Black slaves escaped from the plantations of Surinam in the seventeenth century, the women filled their luxurious tresses with seeds. When they arrived in the jungle, they shook their heads to fertilize the free land."
"The dry grass will set fire to the damp grass." - Ancient African proverb.
"After all, community, the community-based mode of production and life, stubbornly heralds another possible America. This prophetic voice speaks from the most ancient of times, and still resounds despite five centuries of attempts to impose an obligatory silence. Community is the oldest and the most obstinate of all American traditions. As much as it pains those who decry socialism as a foreign notion, our deepest roots are in community: communal property, communal labor, shared lives, lives based on solidarity. Private property, on the other hand, a way of life and work based on greed and selfishness, is indeed an import, brought by the conquistadores since 1492."
"Our collective memory remains stubbornly alive: a thousand times slain, a thousand times reborn in the hiding places where she licks her wounds."
Eduardo Galeano.
Quote of the Day - March 17th, 2010
"We say no to the neutrality of the human word. We say no to those who invite us to wash our hands of the crucifixions we witness daily." - Eduardo Galeano.
"Progress to those who see the light, charity to those who tremble at its rays." - Jose Marti.
"Progress to those who see the light, charity to those who tremble at its rays." - Jose Marti.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Second Brainstorm for the Chico Mendes Justice and Sustainability Tour!
A great example occurred to me the other day as I was watching the news on Democracy Now! An Iraqi artist/activist named Waafa Bilal has tattooed his back with the names of Iraqi cities, 5000 red dots representing dead American soldiers, and 100,000 dots in invisible ink representing dead Iraqis. He has done this in an attempt to display the devastation in human life caused by war, in this case the Iraq War, but war in general yields the same results.
I can relate to this, I love what he is doing, to make sacrifices, to carry out an action with some fanatical passion, which is often a good thing, to put on a manifestation loaded with emotional and ideological significance, with nothing to hide, nothing to colorcast in moderation, and everything to expose. We have to express the part of ourselves that makes us want to martyr ourselves. Only negative people wrongly assume that extreme actions are always bad. When people don't listen, it helps to do something tremendous to get their attention. Its also a matter of personal contribution, its not enough for me to do average deeds. I have a need, in my life, to do something epic and extreme to get a point across. This will be my masterpiece of expression and contribution to the struggle for social justice and Revolutionary change.
---------------------------------
A small detail which I can add to the tour itself is that I would welcome friends and companeros to join me for the tour, in its entirety or in parts.
The fundraising and awareness work will take place in large part before departure, building links for endorsements and sponsors will be carried out in the next year to year and a half. Sponsors will eventually figure important, but the first order of business will be to get as many endorsers on board as possible to strengthen the campaign.
After departure, fundraising and hopefully awareness events also will continue with a domestic administration team charged with making sure that everything is running smoothly and positively on the North America end of things.
Perhaps a lot of these ideas right now seem broad and unpolished, but that is the goal of the brainstorms, to keep on building and perfecting the campaign. No more ideas for the immediate. The next steps will be to begin networking for endorsements.
The various countries I will be going through, the various stops, and various communities will cumulatively add as a collection of experiences to the weight and momentum of the tour.
I can relate to this, I love what he is doing, to make sacrifices, to carry out an action with some fanatical passion, which is often a good thing, to put on a manifestation loaded with emotional and ideological significance, with nothing to hide, nothing to colorcast in moderation, and everything to expose. We have to express the part of ourselves that makes us want to martyr ourselves. Only negative people wrongly assume that extreme actions are always bad. When people don't listen, it helps to do something tremendous to get their attention. Its also a matter of personal contribution, its not enough for me to do average deeds. I have a need, in my life, to do something epic and extreme to get a point across. This will be my masterpiece of expression and contribution to the struggle for social justice and Revolutionary change.
---------------------------------
A small detail which I can add to the tour itself is that I would welcome friends and companeros to join me for the tour, in its entirety or in parts.
The fundraising and awareness work will take place in large part before departure, building links for endorsements and sponsors will be carried out in the next year to year and a half. Sponsors will eventually figure important, but the first order of business will be to get as many endorsers on board as possible to strengthen the campaign.
After departure, fundraising and hopefully awareness events also will continue with a domestic administration team charged with making sure that everything is running smoothly and positively on the North America end of things.
Perhaps a lot of these ideas right now seem broad and unpolished, but that is the goal of the brainstorms, to keep on building and perfecting the campaign. No more ideas for the immediate. The next steps will be to begin networking for endorsements.
The various countries I will be going through, the various stops, and various communities will cumulatively add as a collection of experiences to the weight and momentum of the tour.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Expansion of Mexico's Neoliberal Sphere
First published in America Latina Community Newspaper March 2010.
On the night of October 10th, 2009, a joint force of military and police hopped the walls and seized the buildings of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (Central Light and Power). Luz y Fuerza is the public company which has provided electricity to 25 million people for decades in Mexico City and surrounding areas in the center of the country. A few hours later the Electrical Workers Union (SME) in charge of Luz Y Fuerza, one of Mexico’s most independent, democratic, and militant was abruptly liquidated by decree in the middle of the night.
Simultaneously, 44,000 workers, most of whom belonged to the SME, amidst one of the worst economic crises in Mexican history, were put out of work. Mexico, along with Colombia and Peru, is one of the countries in Latin American most adherent to Washington’s wishes, and this decree is right in line with the neoliberal policies of the PAN (National Action Party) government of Felipe Calderon and predecessor Vincente Fox. This brazen neoliberal attack to overtake a public resource by military force, was quite simply a move to replace a democratic, progressive union, with a bureaucratic, conservative one, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) which for years has made gradual moves towards privatization. In Latin America there is a strong history of neoliberal policies leading to mass privatization to go along with mainly U.S. brokered free trade agreements.
In Mexico, a country where unions are notably strong and represent significant political leverage, the SME has a rich history of community involvement and solidarity with popular organizations and social movements, and for years has generated challenges for right-wing governments. Amongst other initiatives and campaigns, the SME installed power lines for Zapatista communities in the jungle state of Chiapas in the 1990s, in the 1980s they helped earthquake victims with rebuilding efforts in the working-class communities of Mexico City, and shut off power in the city in support of striking university students. They have also done various other types of solidarity work with campesino organizations and student groups, and have exchanged reciprocal support with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).
But even aside from its extracurricular solidarity work, the SME’s biggest crime may have been simply being a fully democratic, effective union, winning living wages and job security for its employees through strong collective-bargaining negotiations, resisting privatization, and not being aligned with the ruling political class.
Now nearly five months removed from the initial events the people of Mexico City have decided to fight back. As early as January and February a campaign has been launched in the capital entitled the No Pague!, Do Not Pay!, where consumers have pledged to withhold payment on their electrical bills until the 18,000 or so SME workers who have not accepted severance packages are rehired. Secondly the campaign demands a freeze on electricity rates, and lastly and very importantly, a halt to the privatization of all energy resources. Typically public services after privatization tend to see ludicrous price hikes and a significant drop off in consistency and quality of service. This has definitely been the case since the takeover of Luz Y Fuerza, especially with service and repairs neglected in working-class neighborhoods, and consumers have no contract legally binding them to payment of services with the CFE. Rates have more than doubled since October under CFE management.
Customarily, the justification or pretext for the takeover of public companies such as this one, is that they allegedly suffer from inefficient management or production, and the aims are clear; to charge more for services, and to maximize returns by outsourcing to private contractors staffed by low-wage, non-union workers, which is also the case with Luz Y Fuerza which is now being dissected in similar fashion.
What has transpired in Mexico City with this generous, progressive, and benevolent union is not a minor occurrence that can be allowed to be forgotten quickly or easily, it is a very blatant and serious violation on the democratic rights of workers and families. As much as the resistance efforts in Mexico, it is also the responsibility of the Latin American Solidarity and Labor community here in Canada to make sure that the truth is revealed about the agenda, and values of the ruling politicians in Mexico City.
On the night of October 10th, 2009, a joint force of military and police hopped the walls and seized the buildings of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (Central Light and Power). Luz y Fuerza is the public company which has provided electricity to 25 million people for decades in Mexico City and surrounding areas in the center of the country. A few hours later the Electrical Workers Union (SME) in charge of Luz Y Fuerza, one of Mexico’s most independent, democratic, and militant was abruptly liquidated by decree in the middle of the night.
Simultaneously, 44,000 workers, most of whom belonged to the SME, amidst one of the worst economic crises in Mexican history, were put out of work. Mexico, along with Colombia and Peru, is one of the countries in Latin American most adherent to Washington’s wishes, and this decree is right in line with the neoliberal policies of the PAN (National Action Party) government of Felipe Calderon and predecessor Vincente Fox. This brazen neoliberal attack to overtake a public resource by military force, was quite simply a move to replace a democratic, progressive union, with a bureaucratic, conservative one, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) which for years has made gradual moves towards privatization. In Latin America there is a strong history of neoliberal policies leading to mass privatization to go along with mainly U.S. brokered free trade agreements.
In Mexico, a country where unions are notably strong and represent significant political leverage, the SME has a rich history of community involvement and solidarity with popular organizations and social movements, and for years has generated challenges for right-wing governments. Amongst other initiatives and campaigns, the SME installed power lines for Zapatista communities in the jungle state of Chiapas in the 1990s, in the 1980s they helped earthquake victims with rebuilding efforts in the working-class communities of Mexico City, and shut off power in the city in support of striking university students. They have also done various other types of solidarity work with campesino organizations and student groups, and have exchanged reciprocal support with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).
But even aside from its extracurricular solidarity work, the SME’s biggest crime may have been simply being a fully democratic, effective union, winning living wages and job security for its employees through strong collective-bargaining negotiations, resisting privatization, and not being aligned with the ruling political class.
Now nearly five months removed from the initial events the people of Mexico City have decided to fight back. As early as January and February a campaign has been launched in the capital entitled the No Pague!, Do Not Pay!, where consumers have pledged to withhold payment on their electrical bills until the 18,000 or so SME workers who have not accepted severance packages are rehired. Secondly the campaign demands a freeze on electricity rates, and lastly and very importantly, a halt to the privatization of all energy resources. Typically public services after privatization tend to see ludicrous price hikes and a significant drop off in consistency and quality of service. This has definitely been the case since the takeover of Luz Y Fuerza, especially with service and repairs neglected in working-class neighborhoods, and consumers have no contract legally binding them to payment of services with the CFE. Rates have more than doubled since October under CFE management.
Customarily, the justification or pretext for the takeover of public companies such as this one, is that they allegedly suffer from inefficient management or production, and the aims are clear; to charge more for services, and to maximize returns by outsourcing to private contractors staffed by low-wage, non-union workers, which is also the case with Luz Y Fuerza which is now being dissected in similar fashion.
What has transpired in Mexico City with this generous, progressive, and benevolent union is not a minor occurrence that can be allowed to be forgotten quickly or easily, it is a very blatant and serious violation on the democratic rights of workers and families. As much as the resistance efforts in Mexico, it is also the responsibility of the Latin American Solidarity and Labor community here in Canada to make sure that the truth is revealed about the agenda, and values of the ruling politicians in Mexico City.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Power Quotes
Another quote from Eduardo Galeano, who is inspiring me lately, he has such incredible ability in lucidity at explaining humanity's struggle. These quotes are also very relevant and appropriate for the upcoming Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights taking place in Bolivia from April 19th to 22nd of this year.
"Its out of hope, not nostalgia, that we must recover a community-based mode of production and way of life, founded not on greed, but on solidarity, age-old freedoms, and identity between human beings and nature. I believe there is no better way to honor the Indians, the first Americans, who from the Arctic to Tierra Del Fuego have kept their identity and message alive through successive campaigns of extermination. Today they still hold out vital keys to memory and prophecy for all America, not just our Latin America. Simultaneously, they bear witness to the past and cast the light of fresh fires on the path ahead. If the values they embody were only of archaeological interest, the Indians would no longer be objects of bloody repression, nor would the powerful be so anxious to separate them from the class struggle and from the People's Liberation Movements."
"I am applauding the fact that America can find its most youthful energies in the most ancient sources; the past tells us things that are important to the future. A system lethal to the world and its inhabitants, that putrefies the water, annihilates the land, and poisons the air and the soil, is in violent contradiction with cultures that hold the earth to be sacred because we, its children, are sacred. Those cultures, scorned and denied, treat the earth as their mother and not as a raw material and source of income. Against the capitalist law of profit, they propose the life of sharing, reciprocity, mutual aid...... which today helps us discover the American face of socialism, whose deepest roots lie in the tradition of community." - Eduardo Galeano.
"Banging on the system,
Fighting my kind of War,
Loud as a Whisper,
Quiet as a Lion's Roar!"
- Talib Kweli.
"Its out of hope, not nostalgia, that we must recover a community-based mode of production and way of life, founded not on greed, but on solidarity, age-old freedoms, and identity between human beings and nature. I believe there is no better way to honor the Indians, the first Americans, who from the Arctic to Tierra Del Fuego have kept their identity and message alive through successive campaigns of extermination. Today they still hold out vital keys to memory and prophecy for all America, not just our Latin America. Simultaneously, they bear witness to the past and cast the light of fresh fires on the path ahead. If the values they embody were only of archaeological interest, the Indians would no longer be objects of bloody repression, nor would the powerful be so anxious to separate them from the class struggle and from the People's Liberation Movements."
"I am applauding the fact that America can find its most youthful energies in the most ancient sources; the past tells us things that are important to the future. A system lethal to the world and its inhabitants, that putrefies the water, annihilates the land, and poisons the air and the soil, is in violent contradiction with cultures that hold the earth to be sacred because we, its children, are sacred. Those cultures, scorned and denied, treat the earth as their mother and not as a raw material and source of income. Against the capitalist law of profit, they propose the life of sharing, reciprocity, mutual aid...... which today helps us discover the American face of socialism, whose deepest roots lie in the tradition of community." - Eduardo Galeano.
"Banging on the system,
Fighting my kind of War,
Loud as a Whisper,
Quiet as a Lion's Roar!"
- Talib Kweli.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Social Spending Freeze, War Spending Increase
This is what Obama and the United States of Aggression have been up to. Late last week they announced a freeze on government spending for three years, not applying to medicaide, medicare, or, of course, "national security" as Obama puts it, or war spending to be more accurate. This is in part due to the multi billion dollar bail-out of wall street, the U.S coffers now are stretched out and struggling, and as a result they have prioritize spending on what is most important, military efforts.
On Monday Feb.1, President Obama unveiled a record setting $ 3.8 trillion budget that cuts social spending and increases funding for war. Under the plan the Pentagon budget would grow by 3% with separate funding for the Iraq and afghan wars, for a total of $ 741 billion. This budget request also seeks a $ 5 billion increase in nuclear spending demonstrating clearly that the U.S' pledge to being committed in reducing nuclear arsenals is pure whitewash.
On Monday Feb.1, President Obama unveiled a record setting $ 3.8 trillion budget that cuts social spending and increases funding for war. Under the plan the Pentagon budget would grow by 3% with separate funding for the Iraq and afghan wars, for a total of $ 741 billion. This budget request also seeks a $ 5 billion increase in nuclear spending demonstrating clearly that the U.S' pledge to being committed in reducing nuclear arsenals is pure whitewash.
Friday, January 29, 2010
First Brainstorm for The Chico Mendes Justice and Sustainability Tour
So here is the first blog installment of an idea I had about 7, 8 months ago, to tour across Latin America from Mexico to the end of Argentina on my bicycle, kind of like the Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granados tour in 1952, only in reverse and with no motor on my wheels. The tour would be to raise funds for three causes, three important elements of Social Justice.
The first being alternative media, with the funds raised for that chapter most likely going to Democracy Now (democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report), in my opinion the world leader in alternative news and reporting the Truth. Alternative Media as one of my choices because information is the newest religion. The world is so devastated to a large extent because of the control and manipulation of information, The universal System of the Lie, as Eduardo Galeano puts it, and the majority of people, at least from the wealthy North, are reliant on mainstream media which delivers only duplicity, slander, and lies, or are simply not interested in knowing whats going on. If we don't first manage to address the problem of deceit and disinformation, and if Alternative Media does not flourish, social injustice will remain. Truth is one of the main pillars of our struggle.
The second element I have chosen, the second chapter of the fundraising tour would be Fair Trade. I have not yet decided which organization would receive funds for the Fair Trade chapter, and this will most likely be decided by my friend, companero, and colleague Kenny Porter who is more educated than I am with the topic of Fair Trade. Fair Trade because it appropriates or takes back resources, production, and market share from free trade, open markets, capitalism. It allows the economy to restructure itself into a smaller-scale, locally oriented, equitable, ecological, and sustainable system of production, trade, and consumption. Fair Trade encompasses elements such cooperatives, democratic workers' control and decision making, participatory management and budgeting, and in general, equality and stability with employment.
The third Chapter would be Campesino and Indigenous Movements. Both can be either owners of territory, often struggling to retain their traditional lands, or can be completely landless, either poor dating back decades, or recently chased from their lands by neoliberal displacement. The recipient organization for the Campesino/Indigenous chapter of the fundraiser would be possibly the Movimiento Sem Terra (MST, Movement Without Land) of Brazil, or any other Latin American affiliate member organizations of the Via Campesina. The Via Campesina is the world's largest genuine, militant Peasant and Indigenous organization which comprises dozens of social movements from all over the world. Organizations such as the Via Campesina and social movements such as the MST fight against neoliberalism and the global corporatization of agriculture, and for fair, organic, and sustainable farming, while maintaining a "harmonious relationship between community and the biosphere based on smallholder agriculture."
Fair Trade and a communitarian agrarian system together will eventually yield self-sufficiency and food sovereignty for all peoples of the world.
Information, Economy, and Food. If we can reclaim control over all three, then the Communitarian Future of the 21st Century
will begin to take shape.
I will finish giving details of the project, mainly on the fundraising and structure of the tour in a second blog installment to be posted soon.
The first being alternative media, with the funds raised for that chapter most likely going to Democracy Now (democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report), in my opinion the world leader in alternative news and reporting the Truth. Alternative Media as one of my choices because information is the newest religion. The world is so devastated to a large extent because of the control and manipulation of information, The universal System of the Lie, as Eduardo Galeano puts it, and the majority of people, at least from the wealthy North, are reliant on mainstream media which delivers only duplicity, slander, and lies, or are simply not interested in knowing whats going on. If we don't first manage to address the problem of deceit and disinformation, and if Alternative Media does not flourish, social injustice will remain. Truth is one of the main pillars of our struggle.
The second element I have chosen, the second chapter of the fundraising tour would be Fair Trade. I have not yet decided which organization would receive funds for the Fair Trade chapter, and this will most likely be decided by my friend, companero, and colleague Kenny Porter who is more educated than I am with the topic of Fair Trade. Fair Trade because it appropriates or takes back resources, production, and market share from free trade, open markets, capitalism. It allows the economy to restructure itself into a smaller-scale, locally oriented, equitable, ecological, and sustainable system of production, trade, and consumption. Fair Trade encompasses elements such cooperatives, democratic workers' control and decision making, participatory management and budgeting, and in general, equality and stability with employment.
The third Chapter would be Campesino and Indigenous Movements. Both can be either owners of territory, often struggling to retain their traditional lands, or can be completely landless, either poor dating back decades, or recently chased from their lands by neoliberal displacement. The recipient organization for the Campesino/Indigenous chapter of the fundraiser would be possibly the Movimiento Sem Terra (MST, Movement Without Land) of Brazil, or any other Latin American affiliate member organizations of the Via Campesina. The Via Campesina is the world's largest genuine, militant Peasant and Indigenous organization which comprises dozens of social movements from all over the world. Organizations such as the Via Campesina and social movements such as the MST fight against neoliberalism and the global corporatization of agriculture, and for fair, organic, and sustainable farming, while maintaining a "harmonious relationship between community and the biosphere based on smallholder agriculture."
Fair Trade and a communitarian agrarian system together will eventually yield self-sufficiency and food sovereignty for all peoples of the world.
Information, Economy, and Food. If we can reclaim control over all three, then the Communitarian Future of the 21st Century
will begin to take shape.
I will finish giving details of the project, mainly on the fundraising and structure of the tour in a second blog installment to be posted soon.
Verse of the Week - Jan.29.2010
More or Less
"More franchising less sanitizing,
More Uprising less downsizing,
More enterprising less sympathizing,
More building less destroying,
More jobs less unemployment,
Lets give the Devil less enjoyment,
More originality less bittin off Pac and Big,
More community activism less pigs,
More blacksmithin, Def Chucks, less Geffen then the rest,
Cause the West sucks, they got this shit all messed up,
More Marijuana less coke,
More accountability for politicians,
Before we shopping lets vote,
More schools less prisons,
More freestyles less written,
More serious shit and less kidding,
More history less mystery,
More Beyonce less Britney,
More happiness less misery,
More victory less losses,
More workers, We all bosses,
Of course its Reflection."
- Talib Kweli.
"More franchising less sanitizing,
More Uprising less downsizing,
More enterprising less sympathizing,
More building less destroying,
More jobs less unemployment,
Lets give the Devil less enjoyment,
More originality less bittin off Pac and Big,
More community activism less pigs,
More blacksmithin, Def Chucks, less Geffen then the rest,
Cause the West sucks, they got this shit all messed up,
More Marijuana less coke,
More accountability for politicians,
Before we shopping lets vote,
More schools less prisons,
More freestyles less written,
More serious shit and less kidding,
More history less mystery,
More Beyonce less Britney,
More happiness less misery,
More victory less losses,
More workers, We all bosses,
Of course its Reflection."
- Talib Kweli.
Passage of the Week Jan.29.2010
"Everything that happens on the planet gets translated in the centers of power, translated into the language of the Universal System of the Lie, and then returned to the world converted into sounds and images for mass consumption. Objectivity? We distrust an objectivity that reduces us to objects. The misery of the Third World is turned into a commodity. The wealthy nations consume it from time to time as a way of congratulating themselves on how well life has treated them. The universal system of the lie practices amnesia. The North behaves as if it had won the lottery. Its wealth, however, is not the result of good fortune, but of a long, very long historical process of usurpation, which goes back to colonial times and has been greatly intensified by today's modern and sophisticated techniques of pillage. The more resonant the speeches in international forums extolling justice and equality, the more prices of Southern products fall on the world market, and the higher the interest climbs on Northern money, which loans with one hand and steals with the other. These techniques of pillage force the South to pay the bill for what the North squanders, including the broken dishes at the end of every party: the crises of the system's centers are unloaded onto the backs of the outskirts." - Eduardo Galeano.
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