Caravan Blog 2: Lille, France

We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...

One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.

As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.

Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo Resources. On Sunday, we received the news that one of the indigenous leaders in the struggle had been killed. This brings the death toll of indigenous leaders in the region to five. These deaths are happening purely because the local populations are refusing to cooperate with the multinationals and government paramilitaries who are expelling them from their land.

What’s more, José himself received a fax from the paramilitaries, stating that he and his organisation are now considered a “military objective”. Jose has already had paramilitaries torture him in his own home. Now he knows his life is even more seriously in danger.

It was decided on the bus that we would need to act on this information immediately; a press release and interview with Jose has been uploaded to the climate caravan blog, and we planned a visit to the Canadian Embassy in Brussels for the next day.

The Canadian government is passing a free trade agreement with Colombia, which is opening up the economy to large multinationals such as Cosigo Resources. As José described in his interview, “I think that this free trade agreement has brought all the problems we’re facing, such as the paramilitaries’ actions to expel us from our territory.”

Of course, as well as facing forced expulsion from their lands, many indigenous communities are now experiencing rapid and devastating changes to their communities because of climate change. José spoke about how these environmental impacts are also threatening communities in his country, even though these communities are least responsible for climate change:
“We want northern governments to pay the ecological debt that they have to the south and to take action to reduce the emissions that are producing global warming. I think that we need unity in the struggle in order to avoid climate change. Our struggle is also a collective one, to protect the environment that the multinationals are destroying. These multinationals not only affect local people, but those of the whole world.

"Indigenous people are conservationists of our environment. It’s the government and multinationals who are intent on destroying this social model. Our hopes for our community are that we all unite to defend the global environment and to stop the multinationals from entering our environment and communities.”

After a fully charged few hours on the bus, we arrived at the Confederation Paysanne (a confederation of rural inhabitants and farmers) in Lille. The confederation has been amazingly active and dedicated in the struggle against genetically modified crops in France, and has long defended local food production systems in France. This has included taking direct action against GM crop trials in France (by destroying GM fields), and actions against Nestlé aimed at highlighting the exploitation of farmers by large multinationals.

The members of the confederation were therefore keen to make the link between the struggles which many members of the caravan were facing, and those that many farmers face in Europe. Once again, the feeling of solidarity was incredibly powerful, and we spent the evening discussing the damaging impacts of free trade agreements, of the power that the multinationals have over food production and therefore food prices, and the damage that can be wrought by GM crops.

Alphonsene Nguba Ngiengo, Copaco/PRP (Confederation Paysanne du Congo/Principal Regroupement des Paysans), Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Alphonsene is the president of the organisation Copaco/PRP, which is a part of La Via Campesina. The aim of her organisation is to help rural producers and communities to better understand and fight against the problems which they face. This includes environmental threats brought about by climate change, or GM crops, and the dangers of trade liberalisation policies being pursued by the WTO, as well
as what such policies mean for people in developing countries.

Alphonsene was keen to talk about the ways in which a changing climate has been wreaking havoc on her country. She spoke to me about how the dry season now lasts for longer than ever before. This has meant that, in recent years, local people have found it more and more difficult to judge when the seasons will come. They sow crops at the same time of year that they`ve always sown them, but the rains don't come when they expect, therefore their seeds die.

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