The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the UN agency that oversees labour issues, shaping policies and programmes mainly related to labour standards for the protection of workers.
Bulletin articles
On April 17, 1996, 19 landless rural workers were brutally murdered by the police during a peaceful demonstration for agrarian reform in the state of Pará, in Brazil's Amazon region. If you visit the site of the massacre today, you will find a circle of 19 burnt Brazil nut tree trunks, which form a small forest. As well as serving as a memorial to the workers who lost their lives and the violence unleashed against them, the burnt trunks also symbolize the people's resistance and struggle against the violation of their rights, as well as the rainforest's resistance against deforestation.
There is a great deal of talk about the crises facing the planet: the climate crisis, energy crisis, food crisis, financial crisis, loss of biodiversity, and so on. Without a doubt, these are dramatic situations whose worst repercussions will be suffered by the most vulnerable and dispossessed sectors of the population.
What kind of development is this? If the government cares about development, they should take the people along so that we can own the development and what comes out of it. But in this type of development, people lose everything.
(From a discussion with village residents affected by the Pheapimex concession in Krakor district in Pursat, Cambodia. March, 2010)
How far would you go to protect your forest?
Villagers from Pollo community in South Central Timor regency in Indonesia have set a remarkable example, weathering years of bureaucratic indifference, enduring violence from thugs and embarking on an odyssey across their country's archipelago in search of support for their defence of local trees and land.
The interest of foreign investors in natural resources, and especially land, has grown significantly in recent years throughout Africa, and Mozambique is no exception. It is in the northern region of the country that foreign investment projects have come to occupy the largest areas of land in Mozambique, primarily for the establishment of monoculture plantations of eucalyptus, pine, jatropha and sugarcane.
Throughout history, rural areas have been occupied two different ways in Brazil. One of them is the colonial, capitalist and entrepreneurial way, which is nothing new, but has recently gained new momentum and adopted new methods. The other way of occupying rural land, which dates back to before the capitalist production model, is that of peasant agriculture, based on the way of life of indigenous peoples and traditional communities
All around the world there are women struggling every day of the year. Since the 20th century, however, International Women's Day has become a date on which their struggle is commemorated and highlighted. Women on every continent, urban, rural, indigenous, black, lesbian, among so many others, mark this date on the streets, raising their banners, which are countless, against gender inequalities that are manifested at the local and global levels.
Men and women peasant farmers in the Bajo Aguán valley in Honduras are suffering violent repression after organizing and taking action to regain control of their land, which had been granted to them as part of a thwarted agrarian reform process dating back to the early 1970s.
Business as usual dressed up in green
Humanity is moving along old paths in new clothes. The current civilization model, which is portrayed as hegemonic but actually corresponds to a small minority of the planet, is dragging it towards its limits, exposing it to multiple crises.
In view of the upcoming Rio+20 conference,(*) taking place this June, WRM would like to offer some background information on issues that will undoubtedly be at the top of the agenda of this international event. Among those issues are so-calledenvironmental services and related phenomena, such as payments for and trade in environmental services.
The term environmental services, also known as ecosystem services, includes the noun “service”, a term that is widely used in the capitalist market economy, in which companies and professionals provide and charge for a wide range of services. Therefore, environmental services suggests that there is, on the one hand, something or someone that offers or provides a service, and on the other, someone who receives or uses it. This logic also seems to apply to the case of environmental services and their “trade”.