Indigenous People Take Over a Pipeline Station in the Peruvian Amazon

Peoples Dispatch Since October 4, more than 200 Indigenous people from the Peruvian Amazon have taken over a pipeline station to demand social and environmental support for the region. Photo: Petroperú The Indigenous people of the Loreto region in the Peruvian Amazon are demanding environmental remediation against numerous oil spills. They also seek infrastructure guaranteeing…

How a US Lawyer’s Attempt to Make Chevron Pay for Pollution in Ecuador Landed Him a Jail Sentence

Anish R M Steven Donziger addressing media and supporters after receiving his sentencing from district judge Loretta Preska in New York. Photo: Steven Donziger/Twitter Lawyer Steven Donziger was sentenced to jail by a federal judge despite a UN working group having found his detention to be in violation of international law Steven Donziger, a United…

Marikana: The Struggle for Breath and Dignity

Bonile Bam 31 July 2021: Former mine employee Bongani Mpofu says life in Marikana is hard for its impoverished residents. (Photographs by Bonile Bam) The Marikana area in North West province may be rich in platinum group metals, but the profits from mining them do not benefit residents, who have little hope of improving their…

Argentina: Fracking is Killing Water and Land

Carlos Aznarez In recent days, fracking in the province of Neuquén has once again become a topic of discussion. Community members of the Mapuche people together with social organizations have carried out roadblocks and blockades, warning about the lack of water and its contamination. The protest is related to the green light given by the…

U.S. Military in Okinawa Devastates the Local Environment

Pat Elder Map: The red “X” shows “locations where firefighting water that contains organo-fluorine compound (PFAS) is believed to have flowed.” The spot marked with four characters above is “Tengan Pier.” [Source: ryukyushimpo.jp] On June 10, 2021, 2,400 liters of “firefighting water” containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were accidentally released from the U.S. Army…

Evo Morales’ Earth Day Message

Kawsachun News President of Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism, Evo Morales, issued a message on the anniversary of the International Day of Mother Earth, a date recognized by the United Nations following a motion proposed by Bolivia during Evo’s presidency in 2009. The statement was read live on Radio Kawsachun Coca. In this message, Evo proposes…

Letter to World Leaders on the Occasion of the Leaders’ Summit on Climate

International People’s Assembly It is common knowledge that we are at a decisive moment for human survival and for the biodiversity of our planet. There is a serious environmental and public health crisis, caused by crimes committed continuously by the greed for profit. The research and scientific data are more and more evident, which you…

Militarising the Amazon

Ramona Wadi Despite the centrality of indigenous peoples to sustainable environments, governments and corporations are doing the utmost to ensure indigenous erasure. While research has indicated the importance of indigenous conservation of land, the G7 countries are driving deforestation worldwide through consumption patterns targeting less developed countries. Tropical forests remain among the most targeted areas,…

Argentina. The Cancer of Extractivism

Carlos Aznarez Federico Soria is a great environmental fighter and a connoisseur of the tricks employed by extractivism to promote its theories. Soria currently lives in Mendoza, where he is a militant in the Uspallata Assembly, but he is also familiar with what has been happening in Patagonia with the wave of fires that recently…

What’s Their Endgame?

Sreve Lalla Image source: [link] Invariably, in a conversation about environmental destruction, war in the Middle East, or the pandemic, someone eventually asks the question: “Yes, but what’s their endgame?” Behind this question is the assumption that an elite cabal of capitalist overseers controls everything and foresees the outcome of all their decisions — that…

Canada: Controversial Legislation Targets Environmental, Indigenous Activists

Brendan Devlin A man waves a Mohawk Warrior flag on the Pat Bay Highway during a blockade in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, February 2020. Photo by Wolf Depner/Black Press Media. Critical infrastructure protection: Dangerous politics in Manitoba, Alberta and beyond At the close of last year’s fall legislative session, Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government introduced…

Guatemala: A Dead Country

Ilka Oliva Corado Photo: Bill Hackwell We should have a minimum of shame, since we have no courage. A minimum of indignation that takes us out of the social networks that puts up with everything and take to the streets that are witnesses of the country’s history. The convenience of a social network is beautiful,…

Agroecology and Post-COVID Plunder

Colin Todhunter Contingent on World Bank aid to be given to poorer countries in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns, agrifood conglomerates will aim to further expand their influence. These firms have been integral to the consolidation of a global food regime that has emerged in recent decades based on chemical- and proprietary-input-dependent agriculture which incurs…

While Part of Central America is Drowning, Another Part of South America is Dying of Thirst

Ollantay Itzamná Campur village before and after the flood. “My house has been left under water… With my family we took refuge in a neighboring community that gave us a little place, but there where we settled down a water birth appeared. So, once again we are looking for a place to stay…” This is…

The Venezuelan Conuquera Seed Signifies a Struggle for Identity and Resistance

Eder Peña The conuco as a system and concept brings with it the care and multiplication of seeds of traditional and new items. Life, culture, knowledge, health, traditional agricultural systems and even the questions of the people and communities are based on native and Creole seeds, which are their common heritage. Their free circulation is…

El Conuco: Against the Global Environmental Crisis

Eder Peña The notion of “conuquera” is based on an ecosystemic vision in which everyone and everything is interrelated, and a culture that seeks to bring together what capital fragments. Not only is it opposed to capitalism because it is not part of its controlling and concentrating logic, but also, against all odds, the conuco…

SARS-CoV-2: A Virus “Made in” Capitalism

Misión Verdad “Wetiko” is the term Native Americans use to describe the ”virus” of selfishness: Liana Buszka What the new coronavirus pandemic has made very clear is that the drive for profit in the capitalist system can be fatal. Of course, this multi-layered crisis triggered by Covid-19 will have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups,…

Africa’s Exploding Plastic Nightmare

Sharon Lerner A woman takes a break from collecting waste to read the newspaper at the Dandora municipal dump site in Nairobi, Kenya, on Feb. 15, 2020.Photo: Khadija Farah for The Intercept Rosemary Nyambura spends her weekends collecting plastic with her aunt Miriam in the Dandora dump in Nairobi. Because the bottles they sell to…