Chapter Three

Imagination has always been important to change but today more than ever.  I just finished teaching an intensive course on social movements that changed the world and realized that nothing I did opened the minds of my students more than documentaries.  Now in a struggle for survival of the planet a new film is in development that I think can open our minds and hearts to the kind of change we need and you can be part of helping it along

 The global battle on climate change is heating up in the build up to Cancun including here in Canada.  The statement below was written by a group of activists who met with Bolivian President Evo Morales at the end of September in New York City.  There are a number of activities planned in Toronto to build support for a new approach to climate justice including:

Building a World Movement for Climate Justice, Teach In Sat Nov 13, 100 St. George St.

Just got this historic document from Ben Powless who is secretary of this group and writing from Cochabamba

WORLD PEOPLES’ CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE
RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH
INDEGENOUS PEOPLES’ DECLARATION

It's Earth Day and I wish I was in Cochabamba, Bolivia. More than 15,000 people from 125 countries, including a significant delegation from Canada, is meeting there for the first world people’s conference on climate change.  The mostly Indigenous government of Bolivia is now playing a leading role in making proposals to save the planet from the scourges of greed. President Evo Morales is bringing two major proposals, first a global referendum on the measures needed to resolve climate change and second an international climate court to hold climate criminals accountable before world public opinion. But if my experience means anything, it will be the dynamic of the conference that will have most impact .

Today is the opening of the First World People's Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Called by President Evo Morales after the failure of UN climate talks in Copenhagen, the Summit has attracted more than 50 countries and more than 10,000 delegates.  Nevertheless it is likely the North American mainstream media will ignore it.  You can follow the Summit live on internet tv, on alternative media rabble.ca and Democracy Now and in European media Guardian UK.

Below is a statement from the Independent People's Tribunal on Land Acquisition, Resource Grab and Operation Green Hunt in India.  I reproduce it here because so many similar struggles of Indigneous peoples to defend the earth against corporate greed and government collaboration are happening here in Canada and in the Americas.

The mills take from our forest, and then give us back disease and sickness and death. Our people have suffered for 40 years from mercury poisoning, and now this sickness is being passed on to our children in the womb. We must stop the mills from destroying our forests, our water, and our culture for the survival of all.'  ”  Judy Da Silva, a grassroots mother and blockader from Grassy Narrows.

It is International Women’s Day 2010, forty years after the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. A generation has passed, my generation. In some ways, there has been a revolution in the status of women since that time. 

Yesterday when I heard that Stephen Harper was suddenly taken with a desire to promote maternal health as the key issue for the G8, I have to admit to being perplexed.  I don't think I've ever heard Harper talk about women's issues. Behind the scenes his government, which of course means him, has not only cut funding to most women's groups and the most progressive NGOs like Alternatives and Kairos but have eliminated the word "equality" from their women's bureau.  Harper is no doubt that most anti-feminist PM we have ever had.

With the horror in Haiti, we could all use some good news that we will not hear about from the mainstream media.  On Thursday January 21, Aymara elders and Indigenous people from across Bolivia and the Americas will gather at the inauguration of  Evo Morales as leader of Abya Yala, the Indigenous name meaning Our America.  On the following day, he will be inaugurated as President of Bolivia for the second time.   Up until Evo's regime, Bolivia was the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.