Mobilisations are starting ahead of the Summit on Climate Change in Mexico
(Mexico City, 28 November 2010) With its six caravans, La Via Campesina and its allies will propose alternatives to the climate crisis and to the lack of responsible agreement between governements. The caravans will stop at various places of peasant, social and environmental struggles, as well as at the world alternative Forum and for a large demonstration taking place in Cancun as well as in the rest of the world, on December 7 th .
More than three thousand people are expected at the peasant and indigenous camp “For Life and environmental and social Justice” that La Via Campesina will set up in Cancun from December 2 nd . This gathering will also include 70 international members of La Via Campesina travelling from other American countries, Africa, Asia and Europe.
The international caravans “For Life and environmental and social Justice” started their journey on Sunday 28 th of November. Movements such as the National Assembly of People Affected by the Environment, the National Liberation Movement and the Mexican Electrician Union will also be part of the caravans.
The caravans will leave from three different regions of the Mexican Republic heading for the Federal District, with the aim of showcasing a map of the social and environmental destruction in the country while spreading the message that peasant agriculture can feed the world population and contribute in cooling down the planet.
The first Caravan will leave from Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosi, state in the center of Mexico, where Canadian mining companies operate illegal open-cast mining operations. The tour also includes the towns of Dolores Hidalgo, Pachuca and Ecatepec where the health of the population has deteriorated due to contaminated rivers, overexploitation of aquifers, and rampant urbanization.
The second caravan will start in El Salto, Jalisco, a community with serious problems of water contamination, because of industrial effluence from Guadalajara. In Morelia, Tupextepac, and Toluca, stages of the trip, a group of dissident teachers and the Mexican Union of Electricians will join the caravan. The union has been fighting for a year against redundancies of 44.000 members and the arbitrary closures of their places of work .
The third Caravan will leave from Acapulco harbour, in the southern state of Guerrero, on the Pacific coast. It will go to Agua Caliente, where people are fighting against the construction of a massive hydroelectric scheme which threatens the ecosystems of the region. The caravan will travel through towns such as Chilpacingo, Alpuyeca, and Cuernavaca, where peasant and environmental activists have been involved in crucial struggles.
The three caravans will arrive to Mexico City on November 29th. The following day, at 11.00 am, they will attend the Forum against Environmental Destruction, where Paul Nicholson, Tom Goldtooth, and Ana de Ita and many others will speak. In the afternoon, an International March "For Life and social and environmental Justice" will be organised from the Angel of Independence to the Zocalo.
On December 1st, the fourth Caravan will leave Mexico City for Cancun along with the two caravans from Oaxaca and Chiapas. They will arrive at the Via Campesina Camp on December 3rd in the afternoon.
There, the international peasant movement and their allies will express their rejection of the false solutions that only seek to profit from the environmental crisis, such as geo-engineering, agrofuels, REDD and the carbon market, the so-called clean development mechanisms and the World Bank intervention.
Finally, La Via Campesina will continue demanding that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopt the resolutions of the World Conference of the People on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia.