Thousands of Cancuns for climate justice!
La Via Campesina invites people's movements to mobilize around the world

Social movements from around the world are mobilizing for the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will take place in Cancun from 29 November to 10 December 2010.

The COP 15 in Copenhagen demonstrated governments' incapacity to tackle the root causes of the current climate chaos. At the very last moment, the US undemocratically pushed through the so called "Copenhagen accord", in an attempt to move the debate out of the UN and the Kyoto promises and to favor even more voluntarily free market solutions.

Climate negotiations have turned into a huge market place. Developed countries, historically responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions are inventing all possible tricks to avoid reducing their own emissions. For example, the "Clean Development Mechanism" (CDM) under the Kyoto protocol allows countries to continue polluting and consuming as usual, while paying low prices supposedly so that developing countries reduce their emissions. What actually occurs is that companies profit doubly: to contaminate and to sell false solutions.

In Maputo, Mozambique, on the occasion of the international seminar on building alliances for food sovereignty and against violence towards women held in Maputo from July 26 to 29, La Via Campesina worked together with World March of Women (WMW), Friends of the Earth Intenational (FoEI) and women of the countryside from Asia and Africa and shared our ideas to plan our work on women.

We are currently witnessing the upholding of ancient forms of violence against women and the reinforcement of new ones. For instance, when Ttransnational companies take over land for the expansion of monocultures, peasant families are driven away. Women become more vulnerable as they can no longer guarantee food for themselves and their families. They often migrate and find precarious jobs with no rights and exploitative conditions.

31 Climate Change workshops took place in 22 Sub-Districts under the 11 Districts. More than oneworkshop took place in some sub-districts. 

Bangladesh is one of the most victimized countries of the world due to the Climate Change. Northernbpart of Bangladesh is gradually going to be desert with continued drought. At the same time southern part of Bangladesh destroyed by cyclone and high tidal wave sinks in the saline water of the sea permanently. Six seasons of Bangladesh now turns three seasons- Summer, Rainy and Winter. But those three does not continue to function with as usual rules - during summer it is so hot, during winter it is unbearable cold. Cold is regularly breaking old record and making new records. There is possibility that people of Bangladesh will see snowing soon. There trend of long duration of the cold in winter and too warm in summer season. But rain is coming in undue time and most of the time it lasts for short time. All peoples know that last year rain came one and half month later. As a results; peasants start Amon paddy plant so late.

Click here to see the workshop's report

Last week saw massive protests and direct actions by members of the farmers organisation BKU in various parts of Uttar Pradesh. On the 22^nd and 21^st of July BKU carried out dharna’s, road blocks, gherao's and panchayats at collectorate offices and other spaces in Fatehpur, Lukhnow, Bijnaur, Mirzapur, Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar and Amroha and Saharanpur all at the same time.