globaljusticenow.org

The Student Trade Justice Campaign (STJC) (www.tradejusticecampaign.org) is a national network of students engaging our campuses and communities through education and informed advocacy, committed to achieving responsible, sustainable and equitable trade.

Global Justice (www.globaljusticenow.org), STJC’s parent organization, mobilizes a powerful movement of students and young people in the U.S., in partnership with youth internationally, to promote solutions to the world’s most pressing social problems. Other campaigns include the Student Global AIDS Campaign and Student Campaign for Child Survival.

Global Justice is hiring a National Organizer, based in Washington, DC, to work with the Student Trade Justice Campaign. The position pays $28,000 per year (negotiable, based on experience) along with full health and dental insurance and several opportunities for advanced organizing training. This is a full time position which cannot be filled by a current student and will require both travel and evening/weekend work. The duration of this position is subject to funding constraints from grant money and will be discussed during the hiring process.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the STJC Steering Committee to achieve both internal (chapter development, training, etc.) and external (policy change, partnerships) goals;
• Serve as a member of the Global Justice staff and demonstrate a commitment to team building;
• Will report to the Global Justice Executive Director and STJC Steering Committee;
• Maintain regular contact with national team members and campus groups;
• Support the work of the National Team including tasks ranging from arranging travel and conference calls to providing research on policy issues;
• Facilitate effective organizing campaigns including developing national and campus leaders, creating strategy, and helping student leaders take action;
• Develop and disseminate chapter development and advocacy materials;
• Travel to campuses to conduct issue and organizing-skills trainings;
• Plan conferences and campaign events;
• Assist with writing reports, newsletters, and grant proposals for campaigns;
• Supervise campaign intern(s).
• Perform routine maintenance and updates of the STJC website (a plus, but not absolutely necessary)

Qualifications:

• BA/BS or equivalent experience;
• Experience with student organizing across multiple campuses, experience with GJ campaigns a plus;
• Basic knowledge of issues surrounding economic development and the global economy;
• Commitment to the vision of Global Justice and STJC (please see the website);
• Strong communication skills, comfort with high use of phone and email for communication;
• Strong organizational skills and ability to work in a team;
• Public speaking and workshops facilitation experience.

People of color, those from the global South, LGBT people, and women especially encouraged to apply. US work authorization required.

Applications will be accepted and evaluated on a rolling basis until November 26th, 2008.
Please send resume and cover letter to stjcjobs (at) tradejusticecampaign.org or fax them 202-296-6728.

A new report by Friends of the Earth International reveals the real price of agrofuels in Latin America. “Fuelling Destruction in Latin America” takes a look at the escalating agrofuel production in countries in South and Central America that aim to meet domestic and, increasingly, export demand to supply diesel and gasoline to the United States and Europe.

You can download the report from the European Friends of the Earth website at the following link.

http://www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/fuellingdestruction.html

We have some more info for you all on Leticia’s upcoming speaking tour. Below you’ll find some confirmed event locations and times as well as flyers available for download and distribution.

We can’t wait to hit the road. Thanks to all who have made this tour possible.

Loyola University
Chicago, IL
Tuesday, September 23rd @ 8pm
Download Flyer

Just Food Co-Op
Northfield, MN
Friday, September 26th @ 7-8:30pm
Download Flyer

American University
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, September 30th @ 12pm *
Download Flyer

Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, September 30th @ 7-8:30pm
Download Flyer

Cuny Graduate Center
New York City, NY
Wednesday, October 1 @ 6pm
Download Flyer

* Updated - Sorry everyone, the date was incorrect, but it has now been fixed.

STJC is proud to announce our sponsorship of an upcoming multi-city speaking tour.

Soybean Wars: Militarization, Agribusiness Exploitation and Community Resistance in Paraguay.

Come hear directly from Leticia Galeano, an inspiring young leader form the Movimiento Agrario y Popular (a peasant organization in the department of Caaguazú) and university student in Asuncion, Paraguay.

Leticia will speak about militarization in Paraguay, criminalization of social movements, local resistance to soy expansion and about the role of U.S. agribusiness giants like ADM, Bunge and Cargill in the soybean wars. She will be joined by additional speakers at each event.

The following are the cities and tour dates:

• Chicago: September 20-23
• Minneapolis: September 24-26
• Washington D.C.: September 27-30
• New York City: October 1-2
• Burlington, Vermont: October 3-5
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: October 6-7

If you are interested in sponsoring this and/or hosting an event in one of these cities, please contact our very own tireless campaigner, Lorena Rodriguez, who has been spearheading this tour: Lorena (at) tradejusticecampaign.org

We are co-sponsoring these events with Georgetown University, Rainforest Action Network, School of Americas Watch, Institute for Policy Studies, International Labor Rights Fund, and the Washington Office on Latin America. More details will be forthcoming.

In addition to the struggles of workers’ rights, farmers and food security, the rights of indigenous and afro communities, massive internal displacement and the controversy of parapolitics which have until now truncated a Free Trade Deal with Colombia, we must keep an eye on the intention of turning Colombia into an “agrofuel exporting power.”

A combination of government policies, interests of a handful of multinational corporations, and international investors are dangerously and increasingly advocating for oil palm as “a genuine alternative for the occupation of territory and for the creation of employment in conflict areas.”

Colombia: Oil Palm grows by the force of violence

http://www.wrm.org.uy/index.html
Since the beginning of the decade, all the areas of expansion of oil palm plantations have coincided geographically with areas of paramilitary presence and expansion, to the extent that some of the new plantations being developed have been financed as farming projects for the same demobilised paramilitary from the AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – United Self-Defence Force of Colombia) who had previously made incursions into these very areas.

This strategy of territorial control through the expansion of oil palm is reinforced by government policies supporting and providing incentives for the planting of oil palms, also clearly in a quest for economic, political and military control of large areas of Colombia currently outside state control.

These state policies are reinforced by the investment strategies of international bodies. An analysis of the investment plans of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) illustrates this: “For the IDB, medium and long-term crops have greater export potential, a greater capacity for surviving in an open economy, yield greater benefits in terms of the pacification process and generate sustained growth of the agricultural sector, thereby overcoming the problems of long-term financing of farming. (…) And in accordance with the Country Document (IDB), the programme focuses its activities on the zones and important projects from the perspective of pacification efforts. In general, the IDB regards investment in medium and long-term crops as strategies for governability or territorial control in the face of problems such as guerrilla conflict, political violence, common criminality and drug crops. Extensive farming provides a genuine alternative for the occupation of territory and for the creation of employment in conflict areas.”

Ultimately, all these policies share the idea that oil palm cultivation is a type of economic development useful in the pacification of the country. This confluence of illegal and criminal acts, government policies and international investment forms the Colombian oil palm model.

This model can be described as having 5 phases:

1. Attacks or conquest of territory by paramilitaries.

2. Illegal appropriation of the land. Theft or purchase with armed intimidation.

3. Sowing of oil palm.

4. Palm Complex = Plantations + Extraction Plants.

5a. Flow of oil towards national and/or international markets.

5b. Territorial control.

This description is a summary of the different processes being developed in the oil palm-growing regions of the country, but in its entirety (phases 1 through to 5) it is particularly applicable to the new plantations developed since the beginning of the decade.

In previous processes such as in Santander or Tumaco, the model began with the oil palm complexes already established (4), the palm companies being the ones who formed or invited and financed paramilitary groups as private security corps, in response to the guerrillas. In contrast in Casanare, the palm plantations expanded at the same rate as paramilitary activity, both expansions overlapping each other. The case which perfectly fits the model is that of plantations in the Chocó where it was the paramilitaries themselves who invited the oil palm companies to establish themselves in areas under their control.

The Attorney’s office itself states that, “the appropriation, illegal seizure and theft of land by paramilitary groups (33%), guerrillas (17%), drugs traffickers, emerald traders, large landowners, some palm-producers and other actors has been described by analysts and the media as the ‘agrarian counter-reform’ and ‘paramilitary agrarian reform’”.

Of the estimated 2.6 to 6.8 million hectares, many are now planted with oil palm. This ‘agrarian counter-reform’ denounced by different analysts and the media has been denounced for a long time by the victims themselves, as in the case of the communities of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó affected by oil palm plantations.

The incursions, attacks or subsequent takeover of territory has taken a grim toll in Colombia’s rural areas. The murders or massacres, the forced disappearances, the threats, the kidnappings, the torture and other types of persecution are causing the forced displacement – collective and/or individual – of the inhabitants of the land which is to be seized.

The statistics on forced displacement in Colombia are alarming. According to different records it is estimated that between 1,874,917 and 3,832,525 people have been displaced by violence in Colombia. Of this high number, two out of three displaced people owned land at the time of displacement. (Excerpted and adapted from: “The flow of palm oil Colombia- Belgium/Europe. A study from a human rights perspective”)

Complaints continue: the Colombian organization Salva la Selva denounced that the community leaders opposing oil palm plantations and those supporting displaced communities possessing legal land tenure deeds to return to the locations they were displaced from, have been receiving death threats. Other people in the area have been attacked by members of paramilitary and military forces. In September 2007, two people received bullet wounds from men whom are believed to be members of a paramilitary group. The threats to the communities that have already returned to their lands also continue.

Since 2001, 113 murders and 13 forced displacements have taken place and many death threats and illegal land occupations have been reported. Last December the Attorney General of the Nation filed a claim against 23 representatives of oil palm companies, although this has not led to any real efforts to halt the expansion of oil palm or of cattle ranching on community lands.

Last May, members of the Caracoli community, collective territory of Curvaradó, Jair Barrera, Jonny Barrera and Devis Salas and the Human Rights defenders of the Justice and Peace Commission, Elizabeth Gomez and Luz Marina Arroyabe were illegally arrested by the police, with accusations aimed at incriminating them. They were later subject to cruelty, torture and threats. The police action was accompanied by beneficiaries of paramilitary groups and oil palm growers (see http://www.salvalaselva.org/protestaktion.php?id=255)

For its part, the National Council for Economic and Social Policy (CONPES) announced new policies increasing Government support to the expansion of agrofuels with the intention of turning Colombia into an agrofuel exporting power.

The violation of Human Rights in the Choco and other locations and the accelerated destruction of tropical forests and other vital and biologically diverse systems are the direct result of these government policies.

Article based on: “The flow of palm oil Colombia- Belgium/Europe. A study from a human rights perspective”, Fidel Mingorance, Conducted by HREV for the Coordination Belge pour la Colombia, http://www.cbc.collectifs.net/doc/informe_en_v3-1.pdf; “Colombia: agrocombustibles destruyen comunidades y biodiversidad”, Salva la Selva, http://www.salvalaselva.org/protestaktion.php?id=255

Source: WRM’s bulletin Nº 132, July 2008

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at [the] global financial body.

Secret Report: Biofuel Caused Food Crisis

It’s hard to come to grips with the fact that agrofuel policies of the north could have such a dramatic impact on the price of food around the world, but this what the World Bank report has found. This report has all but confirmed one of our key talking points for a long time now: the connection agrofuels and the world food crisis. The news of this secret document needs to be spread far and wide. We need to build a movement to stop this insanity as millions of lives hang in the balance.

In late January, Student Trade Justice Campaign activists joined our allies at a press conference calling attention to the dark side of biofuels. The ideal of clean, green energy is increasingly becoming the latest public justification for global agribusiness’ practice of en-masse monoculture and its consequences: deforestation, soil damage, water contamination and loss of biodiversity, as well as profound violations of the economic, social, and cultural rights of the peoples to whom that land historically belongs. A video of the event was recorded, and a transcript of STJC’s portion of the statement is available:

Today, the greenwashing of this harsh reality continues through the World Wildlife Fund’s ‘Round Tables for Sustainable Business.’ Rural, indigenous, urban, and social justice movements from across the world, especially in Latin America, have repudiated the illusion of ‘corporate social responsibility’ that these meetings encourage, and repeatedly affirmed that “responsible, sustainable GM soy monoculture” is a dangerously incongruous notion on its face. But these testaments have not received the attention they merit, and so the roundtables are continuing this week on April 23 and 24 in Buenos Aires, Argentina with the Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS).

STJC views these roundtables manufacturing acceptance of the ongoing trend towards corporate control of our food systems, and all that comes with it: global loss of food sovereignty, environmental destruction and the violation of human rights. They also exemplify how our international trade and economic system is content to concern itself only with the rights and freedoms of the powerful. Consequently, STJC is renewing its call for a moratorium on agrofuels, and calls for a sober and critical look at the only guaranteed outcomes of these roundtables: ongoing marginalization of people and destruction of their lands and livelihoods.

See the full declaration for more information, and to sign on yourself.

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2008

Rainforest Action Network and Social Justice Groups
Call for Moratorium on Agrofuels
Citing environmental and human rights abuses linked to industrial biofuels production, groups announce opposition to federal agrofuels targets and incentives

SAN FRANCISCO – Representatives from Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Student Trade Justice Campaign, Food First and Grassroots International today called for a moratorium on all incentives and renewable fuels targets for agrofuels in pending federal energy legislation until standards can be developed to ensure that plant-based fuels such as biodiesel show significant environmental benefits over fossil fuels, and that they do not contribute to world hunger or human rights abuses.

The announcement, made at a press conference in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) San Francisco office, signaled the first formal opposition to the federal government’s push for agrofuels as a solution to the climate crisis. Also supporting the moratorium was Rafael Alegría, former president of Via Campesina, the largest family farmers’ organization in the world. More than 35 organizations around the world have signed on to the call for a U.S. moratorium.

As demand for agrofuels has grown in recent years, large-scale production has led to deforestation of the world’s rainforests, higher food prices, and widespread human rights abuses. Producing palm oil, one of the most popular sources of biodiesel, entails so much deforestation that, over its lifecycle, palm-based biodiesel can emit up to 10 times more carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline. As industrial agrofuels plantations expand, they also displace subsistence farms and Indigenous communities. The United Nations has predicted that as many as 5 million Indigenous people worldwide could be adversely affected by the continued expansion of agrofuels. In recent weeks, the United Nations and the European Union have expressed reservations about widespread use of agrofuels.

Agribusiness giants ADM and Cargill have lobbied aggressively for government targets and subsidies for agrofuels. An ADM subsidiary, the Wilmar Group, is the largest producer of palm-based biodiesel in the world and is clearing tropical rainforests in Indonesia that are among the last remaining habitats of the endangered orangutan. Cargill is pushing palm oil production into Papua New Guinea, home of the world’s third largest intact rainforest. Cargill also operates an illegal soy port in the Brazilian city of Santarem, in the heart of the Amazon. Deforestation rates have doubled in the region since the port opened. Soy is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon, and ADM, Cargill and U.S. agribusiness Bunge account for 60 percent of its funding.

SUPPORTING STATEMENTS:

Mike Brune, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, said: “Politicians paint agrofuels as the fuels of the future. But the fuels of the future shouldn’t emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline, degrade priceless ecosystems, and force people off their land. The future demands better solutions.”

Eric Holt Gimenez, Executive Director of Food First, said: “The side effects of biofuels—the rise in food costs, shrinking water tables, deforestation and displacement of rural people—are rarely discussed. The question is not whether ethanol and biodiesel have a place in our future, but whether or not we allow a handful of global corporations to transform our food and fuel systems, destroy the planet’s biodiversity and impoverish the countryside.”

Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International, said: “This new ‘green rush’ is a reckless race towards disaster – one that endangers food security for millions, while doing little to help stem the negative impacts of climate change. We have the science and the resources needed for real solutions, we just need the politicians to climb their way out of corporate pockets.”

Lorena Rodriguez organizer with the Student Trade Justice Campaign, said: “We support this moratorium because we believe that industrial agriculture, core to the agenda in free trade and investment agreements continue to serve the interest of large agribusinesses at the expense of the livelihoods of small farmers and indigenous people throughout the world.”

Rachel Smolker of the Global Justice Ecology Project said: “Proponents of biofuels claim that the problems created by using food crops will be solved when the next generation of cellulosic technologies becomes viable, but as the chair of our House Agriculture Committee stated just a few days ago, that may not happen for 10 years, if ever. Those technologies depend heavily on biotechnology like genetically engineered trees, which could contaminate native forests with unpredictable and irreversible consequences.”

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What are you doing on January 26th?

Take Action on Food Sovereignty on January 26th - International Day of Action!

Join Via Campesina and other organizations worldwide in demanding Food Sovereignty and an end to the corporate control of our food system by global agribusiness

On January 26 people from all around the world will take creative action in their community. This will manifest in many ways, from nonviolent direct action, civil disobedience, street theater, convergences, teach-ins and other activities and events. Grassroots movements around the world are making their voices heard and saying “Another World is Possible” in coordination with the World Social Forum.

In solidarity with global farmer’s movement Via Campesina who has called for action on this day, the Student Trade Justice Campaign, the Rainforest Action Network and Rising Tide North America are calling for individuals and grassroots groups to take action to demand food sovereignty by rejecting the industrialized food system controlled by international institutions and global agribusinesses and promoting the transition to sustainable, small-scale, decentralized local food systems.

Why are we calling for this? Because people’s lives depend on it!! Our globalized food system, and the increasing push for industrial-scale agrofuels are pushing people off their lands around the world and depriving small farmers, Indigenous communities, and millions of people everywhere from access to land and resources to grow their own food. While this may seem archaic to many people in the US who buy their food at the supermarket, 70% of the world population make a living though producing food.

Transitioning to local food systems is a direct response to fighting climate change, preserving forests, and other ecosystems that are critical to the earth’s carbon cycling capacity as well as standing in solidarity with farmers, Indigenous communities and landless people worldwide.

This transition is necessary to prepare ourselves for the changing climate by taking back control and local ownership of land, seeds, biodiversity, water and where and how we produce our food.

You can TAKE ACTION in a variety of ways. Some ideas include: organizing a demonstration at a supermarket chain, or a large-scale agrofuels refinery that isn’t community based, or finding out what agribusiness facilities are located in your town and take action against them using non-violent direct action, civil disobedience, banner hangs, flyering, and creative street theater. If action isn’t your cup of tea you can organize a local foods dinner to bring farmers and eaters together in your community and facilitate a discussion about what food sovereignty looks like in your community.

Why take action on food sovereignty?

Check out our two pager on the importance of community based food systems.

We suggest gathering with your friends to organizing actions outside key supermarket chains in your community. Using some of our materials, you can pass out flyers with information about why we should demand food sovereignty and challenge the corporate control over our food system as well as promote the transition to sustainable, small-scale, decentralized local food networks.

Here are 20 additional ways in which you can promote local food sovereignty.

To find out more contact lorena(_AT_)tradejusticecampaign.org

Sign up here if you are planning on taking action in your local community: http://wsf2008.net/eng

Are you in the Bay Area?

Then join the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign and send your PHOTO MESSAGES to the CEO’s of ADM, Bunge, and Cargill. Fore more information go to: http://understory.ran.org/2008/01/17/take-action-for-food-soverignty-on-jan-26th/