Standing room only, unanimous vote against 'corporate personhood': Money is not free speech
Thanks to ground work by the U.S. Green Party, the wave of Occupy Wall Street empowerment and Human Rights Alert, today, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to vote against corporate personhood and call for a Constitutional Amendment asserting corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not free speech. The vote was unanimous.
The unanimous vote was witnessed in Council chambers packed by a standing room only crowd of hundreds of people as well as an overflow room filled to capacity by enthusiastic supporters.
Showing posts with label Victory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victory. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Indigenous Protests Stop Road Through National Park
Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday agreed not to build a road through an Amazon reserve amid pressure from Indians who had marched for 66 days to La Paz to protest the plan.
Morales made the announcement a little over an hour after protest leaders had gathered outside the presidential palace in hopes of holding talks with him, saying that he would submit a bill to Congress that addressed their demand.
The socialist president, who had insisted for months on the need for the Brazilian-funded road, said the bill will state that neither “the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos highway, nor any other, will traverse the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Tipnis).”
Morales announced that the proposed legislation also will ensure that the Amazon Indians are shielded from the encroachment of outside groups of settlers.
The Tipnis residents have accused Morales of promoting the road project to give indigenous coca farmers in the Chapare region, which borders the reserve and is the president’s political stronghold, more acreage for growing the leaf, the raw material of cocaine.
Bolivia, like neighboring Peru, permits cultivation of coca in limited amounts for use in teas, folk medicine and Andean religious rites. Morales has combined stepped-up seizures of cocaine with efforts to develop additional legal applications for coca.
Protest leader Rafael Quispe, like Morales an Aymara Indian, said the bill was a “good sign” but he added the Tipnis inhabitants still have a list of 15 demands they want to discuss with the president.
Morales made the announcement a little over an hour after protest leaders had gathered outside the presidential palace in hopes of holding talks with him, saying that he would submit a bill to Congress that addressed their demand.
The socialist president, who had insisted for months on the need for the Brazilian-funded road, said the bill will state that neither “the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos highway, nor any other, will traverse the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Tipnis).”
Morales announced that the proposed legislation also will ensure that the Amazon Indians are shielded from the encroachment of outside groups of settlers.
The Tipnis residents have accused Morales of promoting the road project to give indigenous coca farmers in the Chapare region, which borders the reserve and is the president’s political stronghold, more acreage for growing the leaf, the raw material of cocaine.
Bolivia, like neighboring Peru, permits cultivation of coca in limited amounts for use in teas, folk medicine and Andean religious rites. Morales has combined stepped-up seizures of cocaine with efforts to develop additional legal applications for coca.
Protest leader Rafael Quispe, like Morales an Aymara Indian, said the bill was a “good sign” but he added the Tipnis inhabitants still have a list of 15 demands they want to discuss with the president.
Ecuador Uses Referendum To STOP Minining Projects
Canadian mining company Iamgold’s Quimsacocha gold mining project, high in the Andes of southern Ecuador is going nowhere fast. On October 2, the mining project was the latest one to fall victim to the community referendums that have defeated mining projects in Peru, Guatemala and Argentina.
It doesn’t matter that the government, predictably, said that the referendum, which overwhelmingly rejected mining by a more than 20 to 1 margin (92% vs. 4%), is invalid because it was not “authorized” by its institutions. However, it is legitimate in the eyes of most of the public and, more importantly, in the eyes of community members from the two communities where the project is located, and who stood the most to suffer from the proposed gold mine. In light of governmental failure to uphold community and human rights over business interests, local referendums are emerging into a powerful tool to address the unbalance of power.
CONAIE, Ecuador’s most powerful indigenous umbrella organization, not only actively supported the referendum, but made it clear that it should be replicated wherever communities are affected by mining. This could be the start of a grass-roots movement to use Constitution guarantees directly by communities to protect their basic rights.
The twin highland communities are not the only ones pushing back against large-scale mining. Responding to the aggressive intervention by government and mining companies pushing the mining agenda, the Provincial and County governments of the Azuay Province, home to Quimsacocha, Rio Blanco and several other mining projects, recently called for a total ban of mining activities within their jurisdictions. Two themes stand out in this unusual and strong anti-mining stance by local governments: the threat that mining poses to Cuenca’s water supply, the Province’s largest town, but it also entails basic Constitutional questions regarding the rights of local governments to control land use, regulate industries, and protect citizen’s health.
The referendum, the first of its kind in Ecuador, will very likely provoke IAMGOLD, and other transnationals, to increase their green-washing campaign. Since it fears that the strategy will spread to other mining areas, the referendum will also undoubtedly motivate the national government to conduct its own “legitimate” one. They will risk doing so only after a large-scale green-washing propaganda campaign aimed at convincing most of the voters of mining’s economic benefits, its safety, and its low environmental impact.
The promise of new infrastructure projects- such as roads- and more rents for local governments will undoubtedly play a big part in the campaign. However, it shouldn’t alter the grass-roots opposition, which is well aware of mining impacts on their lives, their environment and their communities, and who has received major support from Ecuador’s civil society as well as international groups. Thus, trying to undo the October 2nd outcome, while a central focus of both the government and the company, is likely to fail.
The government was obviously caught off-guard by the referendum and the crushing setback for its mining program. Right now they are spending all their energy in damage control, but it’s too late. The opposition to mining has never been so publicly and clearly stated, and the little referendum in the highlands of Ecuador has seriously upset the government’s mining plans, and sent a very clear message to all of Ecuador’s mining companies.
It doesn’t matter that the government, predictably, said that the referendum, which overwhelmingly rejected mining by a more than 20 to 1 margin (92% vs. 4%), is invalid because it was not “authorized” by its institutions. However, it is legitimate in the eyes of most of the public and, more importantly, in the eyes of community members from the two communities where the project is located, and who stood the most to suffer from the proposed gold mine. In light of governmental failure to uphold community and human rights over business interests, local referendums are emerging into a powerful tool to address the unbalance of power.
CONAIE, Ecuador’s most powerful indigenous umbrella organization, not only actively supported the referendum, but made it clear that it should be replicated wherever communities are affected by mining. This could be the start of a grass-roots movement to use Constitution guarantees directly by communities to protect their basic rights.
The twin highland communities are not the only ones pushing back against large-scale mining. Responding to the aggressive intervention by government and mining companies pushing the mining agenda, the Provincial and County governments of the Azuay Province, home to Quimsacocha, Rio Blanco and several other mining projects, recently called for a total ban of mining activities within their jurisdictions. Two themes stand out in this unusual and strong anti-mining stance by local governments: the threat that mining poses to Cuenca’s water supply, the Province’s largest town, but it also entails basic Constitutional questions regarding the rights of local governments to control land use, regulate industries, and protect citizen’s health.
The referendum, the first of its kind in Ecuador, will very likely provoke IAMGOLD, and other transnationals, to increase their green-washing campaign. Since it fears that the strategy will spread to other mining areas, the referendum will also undoubtedly motivate the national government to conduct its own “legitimate” one. They will risk doing so only after a large-scale green-washing propaganda campaign aimed at convincing most of the voters of mining’s economic benefits, its safety, and its low environmental impact.
The promise of new infrastructure projects- such as roads- and more rents for local governments will undoubtedly play a big part in the campaign. However, it shouldn’t alter the grass-roots opposition, which is well aware of mining impacts on their lives, their environment and their communities, and who has received major support from Ecuador’s civil society as well as international groups. Thus, trying to undo the October 2nd outcome, while a central focus of both the government and the company, is likely to fail.
The government was obviously caught off-guard by the referendum and the crushing setback for its mining program. Right now they are spending all their energy in damage control, but it’s too late. The opposition to mining has never been so publicly and clearly stated, and the little referendum in the highlands of Ecuador has seriously upset the government’s mining plans, and sent a very clear message to all of Ecuador’s mining companies.
Trans Texas Corridor Dead~For The Moment
Rep. Kolkhorst has introduced legislation to repeal the TTC for the last three sessions. This year, it finally passed. The pie-in-the-sky, 4,000-mile, 1,200 foot wide network of toll roads, rail, utilities, telecommunications, etc. that would confiscate 580,000 acres and displace 1 million Texans on TTC-35 alone is DEAD. However, in SB 1420, 14 Texas road projects remain eligible for P3s that will cost urban commuters dearly, 75 cents per mile, and still pose sovereignty, eminent domain, and monopoly concerns.
Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) noted, "So taking a line from the movie Princess Bride, the Trans Texas Corridor is 'mostly dead.' Regardless of the final status, the TTC has been officially repealed, which is cause for our celebration today. We put the proponents in serious retreat, yet we will remain vigilant."
Hall pointed out that by its own admission, the highway department (TxDOT) plans to break-up the TTC in smaller pieces and do the project using the original road or loop name like, SH 130, and Loop 9 around DFW. However, the size and scale will be greatly diminished, which Hall thinks is a tremendous victory for property rights and Texas landowners.
Kolkhorst teared up as she listened to Hall recount the stories that lead up to the repeal of the TTC. As she accepted her award she remarked, "How could we even think of selling off our infrastructure to foreign companies? Shame on us, shame on us for thinking about it. I will fight any Republican, any Democrat, anyone who wants to take our state from us."
"I don't know how you did it. The deck was so stacked against you...You inspire me, you will inspire other generations. God bless Texas and may it always stand as a free and sovereign nation," Kolkhorst concluded at the end of her emotional speech.
Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) noted, "So taking a line from the movie Princess Bride, the Trans Texas Corridor is 'mostly dead.' Regardless of the final status, the TTC has been officially repealed, which is cause for our celebration today. We put the proponents in serious retreat, yet we will remain vigilant."
Hall pointed out that by its own admission, the highway department (TxDOT) plans to break-up the TTC in smaller pieces and do the project using the original road or loop name like, SH 130, and Loop 9 around DFW. However, the size and scale will be greatly diminished, which Hall thinks is a tremendous victory for property rights and Texas landowners.
Kolkhorst teared up as she listened to Hall recount the stories that lead up to the repeal of the TTC. As she accepted her award she remarked, "How could we even think of selling off our infrastructure to foreign companies? Shame on us, shame on us for thinking about it. I will fight any Republican, any Democrat, anyone who wants to take our state from us."
"I don't know how you did it. The deck was so stacked against you...You inspire me, you will inspire other generations. God bless Texas and may it always stand as a free and sovereign nation," Kolkhorst concluded at the end of her emotional speech.
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