A bit of follow-up on the post I made on shackdwellers attacked by a mob in South Africa. Many are still in hiding, and the vibrant movement that was built by South Africa’s poorest people has been damaged. But they’re still organising, democratically, for change. If you’d like to support them, the South Africa Development Fund is collecting checks. Please mark them ‘for Abahlali’, and send em to
The ever-excellent InterPress Service reports on a new UN report on whether it’s a good idea to privatise seeds. The answer: not if you want poor farmers to benefit. The report, written by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Food, is available here. Full disclosure: I advise the Rapporteur, but didn’t advise on this report. More below the fold.
Any Neruda fan will tell you that poetry can be political. But how about the other way around?
Pambazuka News has a fine article on how land-grabs in Africa are being driven by the biofuels bonanza in which the man who I idolised in the early 1980s, Bob Geldof, falls even further from his pedestal. More below the fold.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, Marie Trigona writes about Kraft’s union busting tactics. The moment you make use of your right to organise is the moment it’s taken away. Marie writes: Keep Reading »
Here’s a fine op-ed written be friends at The National Family Farm Coalition and the Pesticide Action Network on how the Obama administration is ensuring that the food system remains firmly in the hands of those who screw it up for everyone else. It’s a status quo we can all believe in.
African countries aren’t the only ones where you can see land grabs. If you live in Asia, the sport of the rich can also be seen there. In Pakistan, a new website Zamana tells of the larceny happening there, even though the country is already at extreme risk of hunger… Predictably, the World Bank and IMF are up to their necks in this mess. Important reading.
It has been a heartbreaking day. If you’ve only got a minute, please click on this link and sign the petition at the end of it. Normally, I think internet petitions are largely futile, but this time, I think it’s worth taking a moment to do. So, please click and sign, and I’ll explain why it’s worth doing below the fold.
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