Watch President Evo Morales live at Via Campesina!

Via Campesina: A hero's welcome for a grassroots president


Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photos Philippe Revelli/La Via Campesina.
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CANCUN -- It was a hero's welcome, with all flags flying for Bolivian President Evo Morales. With jubilant music -- farmers, laborers, workers, Indigenous Peoples, mothers and migrants -- welcomed their hero, a hero of the people.
Flanked by rows of television cameras, musicians and climate marchers, President Morales was honored by thousands -- thousands of people at La Via Campesina! who were barred from attending the official UN Conference on Climate Change.
President Morales is the only Indian leader in the world to press for protection of Mother Earth, reduction in greenhouse gases and the establishment of a climate court of justice.
When Morales arrived at La Via Campesina on Thursday afternoon, a double rainbow appeared in the sky.
"We were continuing our solidarity with President Morales to continue on, to continue for our survival and the future of Mother Earth," said Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, who served as cochair of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples at the Cochabamba Climate Summit.
"We needed to hear his strength. As grassroots people, we needed to hear that strength in his voice. The strength of the people was confirmed by the double full rainbow when President Morales arrived."
Sarah James, one spokesperson for the Gwich'in Nation, from Arctic Village, Alaska, appreciated President Morales' focus on sovereign rights to protect Mother Earth.
"As a sovereign nation, we have sovereign rights with our Earth. President Morales spoke on sovereign rights. Sovereign rights are our very own given to us by the Creator," James said in an interview.
"Climate change and global warming are very real and rapid in the Arctic. We have a right to speak, to stop climate change, because of our human rights, birthrights and sovereign rights," she said.
Surrounded by a delegation of dignitaries, President Morales spoke of the challenges of bringing about change in the official negotiations. Morales said the official negotiators are unwilling to address the real causes of the climate crisis: Capitalism.
"They don't want to change the causes of climate change," Morales said.
"They want to privatize nature," Morales said, describing the carbon market schemes that offer dollars to small countries. "They are bringing more problems with their solutions."
Morales said capitalism is the cause of the climate crisis and the other crisis: The financial, food and energy crisis. Without water, he said, there is no solution to the food crisis. Water, he said, can not be produced from the World Bank's dollars and neither can the food which depends on water.
Morales also described the United States' efforts to spy on, and destabilize the governments of Bolivia, Ecuador and Honduras.
Ultimately, Morales called for a new movement for the protection of Mother Earth and a new form of socialism.
Speaking to waving flags, cheers and applause, Morales spoke to the heart of the people, as some Indigenous Peoples sat silently or tears fell from their faces.
"The leaders of the world do not suffer what we suffer, they do not feel the pain we feel," Morales told the people.
Before Morales spoke, the Declaration of Via Campesina was read, denouncing the predatory system of capitalist countries. Calling for a halt to the destruction of Mother Earth, Bolivia was recognized for the courage of its resistance.
With chants of "No REDD and Si! Cochabamba!" one speaker from Nigeria's Friends of the Earth pointed out that the official negotiators have been meeting "on the moon, and do not know what is going on, on Planet Earth." Referring to the two-week official negotiations at the Moon Palace, he pointed out that it took only three days in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for the people to create the Peoples Agreement for the Protection of Mother Earth.
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Note: The Red Road Cancun video of President Morales' talk will be reposted after Govinda/Earthcycles breaks the 3-hour broadcast into smaller videos. Check back for the link.

In the news:

Photo: Indigenous prepare for Climate Hero President Evo Morales

At La Via Campesina, Indigenous from Bolivia, help prepare the welcome for President Evo Morales, who will speak here at 3 pm. Photo and video copyrights Brenda Norrell.
Bolivian says climate talks may commit 'ecocide'
(AP) – 10 am Central time, Thursday
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — Bolivia's President Evo Morales says the Cancun climate conference will be committing "ecocide" if it fails to take decisive action to halt global warming.
The Bolivian leader spoke Thursday on the next-to-last day of an annual two-week U.N. negotiating session that will fail once again to achieve a sweeping, mandatory pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In a passionate, 20-minute speech, Morales cited families deprived of water because of warming and drought, and islanders facing the loss of homes from seas rising from global warming. He said if governments move away from strong emissions reductions, "then we will be responsible for 'ecocide,' which is equivalent to genocide because this would be an affront to mankind as a whole." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1DwzHImwkv_R7-YfAsPz6srGomg?docId=
Video at La Via Campesina, preparing for President Evo Morales' arrival:

Democracy Now! Tom Goldtooth blocked from UN Climate Talks

http://www.democracynow.org/

Prominent Indigenous Environmental Activist Blocked from U.N. Climate Talks
One of the most prominent North American indigenous activists attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún was blocked from entering the summit on Wednesday, one day after he publicly criticized the U.N. process. Tom Goldtooth, the executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, who had received credentials from the United Nations, was denied entry and then removed from the summit grounds.

Seeds of change: Cancun summit is microcosm of the world

Love and unity is the message of solidarity at La Via Campesina, as the grassroots people are locked out of official negotiations

By Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photos copyright Brenda Norrell: Photo 1: Bolivian at work at La Via Campesina Photo 2: Leonardo Boff (far left) speaking at La Via Campesina.

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CANCUN, Mexico -- The power of love and unity, and the promise of hope, was the message at La Via Campesina. As speakers pointed out that the majority of the world's wealth is held by a few, the farmers and Indigenous Peoples here pointed out that the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP 16, is a microcosm of the world. The climate summit reflects the imbalance of the haves and have-nots, since most people here have been kept out of the official negotiations at the Moon Palace.

Leonardo Boff, human rights activist from Brazil, said three people have more money than 45 countries in the world. A few people have more money than the majority of the people in the world.
“We have to hope we can get past this crisis," Boff said, during his address to farmers and Indigenous Peoples at La Via Campesina on Wednesday night.
Boff said there are now 60 million climate refugees because of the loss of water, land and crops. This number is expected to increase to 100 to 150 million climate refugees due to water scarcity.
Boff said there must be solidarity from the most vulnerable. He said to bring about change there must be solidarity from the grassroots, combined with pressure and articulation, along with the peoples claims and declarations.
Civil society’s face must be shown on the global scale, he said.
“The People of the earth, not the rich, the tribes of the earth, must come together, and insist on another world where all can fit.”
Boff said the world must not continue where some have so much and others have nothing.
But he stressed the hope of light and life.
“Life is stronger than death. We have the seed, we have to believe in the power of this seed. We are the carriers of this seed.”
Boff said sustainability must be brought to our production systems.
“We need to live in a way that all can move forward and survive. That is the meaning of a human being.”
But, he said, consumers have deviated from this, developing a systematic war to exploit the earth, to accumulate with no sense of justice and with no perspective of solidarity with the generations that come later.
“We have to come from the earth. We have to unite. We have to join forces, hold hands to complete this mission to rescue the health of the earth. We have to do this.”
“I am really afraid, honestly afraid, our children and grandchildren will come back to us and curse us, and say to us, you knew the seriousness of the situation and you did nothing."
Boff said our children and grandchildren will look at the contaminated air, poisoned water and genetic foods.
“And they will criticize us harshly.”
“We don’t want them to curse us in the future.”
“We have the earth loaned to us for a while. When we die, the earth goes on. Our children and grandchildren have rights to live well on this earth."
Boff said our relationship with the Earth must be one based on love, the same love as we have with our mothers.
“We have to go back to the original people, the Andes and other places, who have always treated the Earth as a Pachamama, the Great Mother. We have to value this knowledge of the mothers and grandmothers."
“You all have to maintain this consciousness. This is the way of the future.”
Speaking during roars of applause under the canopy in downtown Cancun, Boff praised those gathered here from so many countries and stressed the necessity of the work.
“Economy has to be at the service of people and Mother Earth.”

Thousands of people marched on Tuesday, demanding climate justice, Indigenous rights and workers rights. Meanwhile, climate dialogues and workshops continued throughout Cancun.

The Indigenous Environmental Network, with Earthcycles webstreaming and a team of Native youth broadcasters, continued its two week live webstream: http://www.redroadcancun.com

As the official negotiations ready for the final two days of the climate summit, Bolivian President Evo Morales plans to speak at La Via Campesina on Thursday at 3 pm.

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