Newsletter 18 April 2013

 Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe
European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) & Hands-Off The Land (HOTL) Alliance
New report reveals the hidden scandal of how just three per cent of landowners have come to control half of all farmed land in Europe. This massive concentration of land ownership and wealth is on a par with Brazil, Colombia and Philippines.

Guns, Debt and Corruption - Military spending and the EU crisis
Frank Slijper
High levels of military spending played a key role in the unfolding economic crisis in Europe and continues to undermine efforts to resolve it. See press release:EU military spending is 'elephant in the room' and key factor in European debt crisis, argues new report.

Protecting carbon to destroy forests - Land enclosures and REDD+
Carbon Trade Watch, FDCL, IGO and TNI
This paper provides historical background and reports of experiences on the ground to show how land and nature enclosures are central to REDD+, and why it therefore cannot be fixed.

"Sons and Daughters of the Earth":Indigenous communities and land grabs in Guatemala
Alberto Alonso-Fradejas
In the face of violent dispossession and exploitative labour conditions, indigenous peasant families in northern Guatemala are struggling to access land and defend their resources as the basis of their collective identity. Issue 1 of "Land & Sovereignty in the Americas" series, a collaboration of Food First and TNI.

Thatcher Legacy: Best Reflections from around the Web

Thatcher’s Voices in the Air
David Sogge (TNI)
There’s little doubt that the social life of ideas helps explain the astonishing persistence of ‘Thatcherism’.

A reversion to a Dickensian variety of capitalism
Jayati Ghosh

What Margaret Thatcher really meant for England and the World
Joe Conason

Why would anyone celebrate Margaret Thatcher's death: ask a Chilean
Dave Zirin

Thatcher, a woman? Not on my terms
Glenda Jackson

En español

Concentración y acaparamiento de tierras, y luchas populares en Europa
Coordinadora Europea Vía Campesina (ECVC) y Alianza Hands Off The Land (HOTL)
El acaparamiento de tierras se considera, por lo general, una realidad en el Sur Global. Sin embargo, un exhaustivo informe revela que este fenómeno también se está acentuando en Europa.

Declaración de la Asamblea de los Movimientos Sociales
Nosotras y nosotros, reunidos en la Asamblea de Movimientos Sociales, realizada en Tunis durante el Foro Social Mundial 2013, afirmamos el aporte fundamental de los pueblos del Magreb-Mashreck (desde la África del Norte hasta el Medio Oriente) en la construcción de la civilización humana.

Tras la publicación del informe "Cuando la injusticia es negocio" Cecilia Olivet, investigadora del TNI y una de las autoras del informe, ha ofrecido una serie de presentaciones en Ecuador, que han despertado una gran atención de los medios. Página|12 ha publicado un informe especial titulado "Árbitros Bomberos - Comunidad de negocios de multinacionales y estudios internacionales de abogados"

La noticia también ha sido cubierta por:

Los Tratados Bilaterales de Protección de Inversiones son 'piezas clave en el rompecabezas neoliberal'
La Opinión

Ante arbitraje internacional se impone respuesta regional
Prensa Latina

Tratados Bilaterales de Inversión son cheques en blanco para los suscriptores, afirma experta
El Ciudadano

Unasur tendrá su centro de arbitraje sobre inversiones en este mismo año
CMI

USD 94 millones en pagos por arbitrajes
El Comercio

Árbitros de los casos Oxy y Chevron litigaron un 55% de juicios del Ciadi
El Telégrafo

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Also by TNI

Arbitrators’ Role in the Recent Investment Arbitration Boom
Cecilia Olivet, Pia Eberhardt

Land grabbing through a food security lens
Gloria Pracucci

Networking against Fracking
Satoko Kishimoto

BRICS: Little sense of purpose
Praful Bidwai

Now also available in French: Tendances Politiques Divergentes dans la Gouvernance Globale de l’Accaparement des Terres (pdf, 637KB)

Now also available in French: La « Souveraineté Foncière », une Alternative? (pdf, 276KB)

Now also available in Chinese: Financing Dispossession - (Chinese, pdf, 4MB)
Satoko Kishimoto

De wankelende ‘Weense consensus’ over drugsbeleid
Martin Jelsma

Events

Land Grabbing: Insights from Romania
29 April 2013, Amsterdam
Public talk by Attila Scozs and Dan Cismas (EcoRuralis, Romania)

Rethinking labour in an age of networks and movements
7-9 May 2013, Amsterdam
International Seminar

Multinational Crimes: The Shell Case
6 June 2013, Amsterdam
Public lecture by Nnimmo Bassey

TNI in the media

Land 'grabs' expand to Europe as big business blocks entry to farming
The Guardian

Land grabbing anche in Europa, colossi frenano l'agricoltura
La Stampa

From local to global: prioritizing food security
The Broker

EU carbon price collapses: Carbon trading is not the solution to climate change
REDD-Monitor

Flagship carbon scheme in jeopardy?
BBC

Recommended

Inequality debate
The Broker

Exposing the Myths of Welfare
Class-Red Pepper

Dismantling Transnational Corporations
Occupy