More from Cochabamba

Too much to summarize here, but for a participant's view of the Feria Internacional del Agua and Conferencia Mundial de los Pueblos sobre el Cambio Climatico y los Derechose de la Madre Tierra/World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, read these posts by Ruth Caplan at her Cochabamba Rising blog.

Some highlights:

...It was on the last day of our water gathering in Cochabamba that the real meaning of "Feria", the "Water Fair," became clear. Indigenous local communities from the south of Cochabamba which helped to lead the water war against Bechtel have been self-organizing to provide water for their neighborhoods. All around a large field next to the labor center, booths had been set up showing the neighborhoods and what they were doing to provide water for their households. The grounds were filled with people and vendors selling food, ices, and drinks. It was truly a celebration of the people´s local control of water. But there is still much to be done to ensure that this water is clean since contamination of the water by industry in this part of Cochabamba is a serious problem....

...Defending Water held two sessions at the World Conference. Emily Posner presented on "Lessons Learned from the Climate Disaster in the U.S.," describing with words and slides what happened in New Orleans when Katrina and Rita hit the coast and the city. Property was protected while people from the 9th Ward were blocked from getting to dry land. Some African-Americans crossing through the Algiers white neighborhood to get to the evacuation location were shot. When a crisis hits again, is this the way we will behave or will we have learned to act together when the next climate or othr crisis strikes? Some workshop participants reported that in Oakland CA they are trying now to build a cooperative strategy so that they will be prepared if (when?) the next earthquake strikes.

Thursday morning, we led a session on Building a Movement for the International Declaration of Mother Earth Rights. It was good to sit in a circle rather than have presentations from the podium. Brent Patterson from the Council of Canadians talked about how local organizing to stop the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) led to stopping the trade agreement that would have given corporations and investors unbridled rights. (This was also the first major campaign of the Alliance for Democracy). Emily spoke about our work in Maine. Mari Margil with Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) explained the history and significance of rights-based organizing. Finally, Maria Lauron from IBON in the Phillipines spoke about their success in getting the Supreme Court to put the rights of nature into their law. But, even though people are given the power to enforce the law, she made clear that this would not be an easy route in the Phillipines, where 43 community health workers have been arrested and are now in jail on a hunger strike...

...What is hard to convey are the tears. The tears of Susanna, an Athabascan from Alberta Province in Canada, who lost 13 family members in one month. Multinational corporations such as BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and even the Norwegian government produce oil from tar sands from mines covering an area as large as New York State and pollute the native lands causing countless cancers and poisoning the fish. One 8 year old boy is afraid to eat the food or drink the water. The land is crying along with the people...