Here's something that ought to give the free trade crowd something to chew on. Free trade in rice and the subsequent dumping of cheap rice into rice-growing economies hurts rice farmers, who aren't terribly well off to begin with. I believe the technical term for this observation is "No, duh". ... read more »

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Posted on 9 November, 2007 - 05:25

Here's something from the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, covering the intimidation and violence suffered by farmworkers (and their union organisers) in Mexico and the US.

Santiago Rafael Cruz, Labor Oranizer For U.S. Union, Killed In Mexico

By Dan La Botz

Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) based in Toledo, Ohio, was murdered in Monterrey, Mexico on April 9. Cruz was found bound and beaten to death in the union offices; there had been no forced entry and there was no robbery. Baldemar Velasquez, president of FLOC, believes that he may have been murdered because the union had disturbed the operations of corrupt individuals involved in labor contracting operations in Mexico. ... read more »

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Posted on 3 May, 2007 - 20:12

My friend Walden Bello has been characteristically busy. He has just announced his intention to run for parliament in the Philippines (check out his site here, which is already gathering vast numbers of endorsements from the global left). Part of the reason so many regard him so highly is that he's an unusually lucid and clear thinker. A couple of days ago, he wrote this excellent and readable review of the plight of farmers struggling against international trade. Check it out, and see why he concludes that

As environmental crises multiply and the social dysfunctions of urban-industrial life pile up, the farmers' movement has relevance not only to peasants but to everyone who is threatened by the catastrophic consequences of obsolete modernist paradigms for organizing production, community, and life. ... read more »

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Posted on 1 May, 2007 - 18:34

One of the best organisations of its kind anywhere on the planet, Focus on the Global South manages to straddle the difficult worlds of providing analytical rigour, and concrete support to mass-based social movements. According to its website

Focus’s overall goals are to: dismantle oppressive economic and political structures and institutions; to create liberating structures and institutions; to promote demilitarisation and peace-building, instead of conflict. These three goals are brought together in the paradigm of deglobalisation. This term describes the transformation of the global economy from one centred around the needs of transnational corporations to one that focuses on the needs of people, communities and nations and in which the capacities of local and national economies are strengthened. ... read more »

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Posted on 12 January, 2007 - 20:40