General Context and Reasoning
The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP-16) on climate change convened by the United Nations will take place this year between the 29th of November and the 10th of December in Cancun, Mexico. The predecessor to this meeting was the COP15 in Copenhagen where talks failed due to the lack of agreement between countries on the mater of climate politics for the reduction of greenhouse gasses.
Before these summits, and especially leading up to the COP15 in Copenhagen, an enormous mobilization process was generated, further strengthening and articulating an comprehensive movement for environmental justice all over the world, comprised of a range of diverse organizations, amongst which are those that have come-out against market-driven solutions governments would like to implement, such as carbon exchanges or clean development mechanisms. Much of these voices have called for system change not climate change. Furthermore, as demonstrated by governments, climate change is seen as a terrain for accumulation and the marketing of life, not as an impetus to change the model of production and consumption whose unsustainability and unviability for the reproduction of human and non-human life has become more and more evident.
Following Mexico’s acceptance to host the COP16, at the beginning of 2010, diverse organizations have been in search of modes of coordination to generate a comprehensive organizing and mobilizing process for the summit.
Amongst the diverse spaces on route to Cancun is the International Anti-C@P Space (Anti-Capitalist/Anti-COP) (
anticapcop.wordpress.com), formed in August of 2010 as a convergence of collectives, organizations and social-environmental struggles working to shape a movement for climate justice and in search for just and effective solutions to the climate crisis. A university organizing space has also been initiated since September which has been convened principally by student collectives from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
WHO WE ARE?
The organizations that make this project are part of the International Anti-C@P space and the UNAM student space. Below we present a synthesis of some of the different organizations we belong to:
Peoples Front in Defense of Land - Atenco - Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT)
Campesino organization that arose in 2001 with the objective of preventing the expropriation of 5 million hectares from their communities earmarked for the construction of a new airport serving Mexico City. After succeeding in backing off the Fox administration, the FPDT has been involved in diverse social movements. Recently, members who were incarcerated since 2006 have been released and today they are struggling against a new project of land acquisition headed by CONAGUA.
Youth in Alternative Resistance (Jóvenes en Resistencia Alternativa)
In Youth in Alternative Resistance we construct a youth space inclusive, alternative and antagonistic to mechanisms of “participation”, and the usual political domination of states and capitalism. We seek organized and political participation of youth in local, national and international social struggles, for liberty, equality, justice, democracy, peace, respect for cultures and dignity of human beings; against exploitation, domination, and the inherent exclusion of the capitalist System. We are an organization of the radical left which does not seek state power, that is committed to autonomous organization, self-management, networked and converged efforts, and for the strengthening of horizontality and inward democracy as both the means and the end of our organization.
Rising Tide Mexico(Marea Creciente)
A network of organizations and activists committed to the fight against the causes of Anthropogenic Climate Change. We believe in real, horizontal and community-based solutions in the struggle against global warming and are against false solutions. We see climate justice as a central axis of our struggle. We belong to the International Rising Tide Network which has a presence in three continents.
Self-Managed Direct Action - Acción Directa Autogestiva (ADA)
A small collective whose members live in Puebla and Mexico City which has driven some of the effort and articulation for the protests against the conference of the parties (COP16) which will take place in December in Cancun, as part of different local, regional, national and international networks on the subject of climate justice and environmental struggle. As part of their line of work they have launched an independent and autonomous cultural space in Puebla.
Regional Autonomous Counsil of the Coastal Zone of Chiapas - Consejo Autónomo Regional de la Zona Costa de Chiapas
Fisherman from the municipality of Pijijiapan met in 2004 as an assembly in order to make the decision to not pay the CFE, given that in the southeast of Mexico, the state company (Federal Electricity Commission-CFE) which provides the electricity for the whole region has unleashed a growing conflict with hundreds of towns and poor communities, as they have imposed extremely high rates for domestic energy consumption , which ranges from a bimonthly cost of US$50 to up to US$250, which is simply unpayable for vast sectors of the population. With this a stuggle has emerged in resistance against the high rates in various states, and especially in Chiapas. Since then, a movement has grown connecting more than 15 communities and barrios in the coastal region of Chiapas, and especially in the municipalities of Tonalá and Pijijiapan, where the technicians from the CFE that come to disconnect service are greeted by the women who douse them with buckets of water.
Today this struggle has expanded beyond the fight against the high electricity rates and various projects of self-manegement/sufficiency (autogestion)have been developed, including an autonomous tortilleria, in the PDCH neighborhood of the municipality of Tonalá, that sets a “fair price.” This struggle has not been easy, and several members are facing prison sentences, in addition to the constant harrassment by the authorities.
Broad Front of Opposition against the San Xavier Mine - Frente Amplio Opositor contra la Minera San Xavier
Space of convergence for communal land holders, neighbors and residents from Cerro de San Pedro which together with organizations, collectives and individuals from the city of San Luis Potosi have struggled since the mid 90s against the exploitation of the open pit mine San Xavier, a subsidiary of the Canadian corporation Metallica Resource
Association Leap of Life - Agrupación un Salto de Vida
Territory and community organization of residents from Salto, the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara, Jalisco, that have been coming together since the mid 90s to undertake actions against the health effects and environmental damage that has been caused by the polluting of Rio Santiago. The polluting of Rio Santiago since the 70s up until now has brought terrible consequences by residual and industrial discharge put into it.
Anáhuac People’s Front - Frente de Pueblos de Anáhuac (FPA)
FPA is an organization of communal land and small property owners and neighbors principally from San Francisco Tllatenco and San Pedro Tláhuac , located in the southeast of Mexico City. Confronting the clearing of land for a station and work relating to line 12 of the metro, construction of roads, and development of other services and infrastructure in farm and conservation zones.
OBJECTIVES
The organizations that endorse this project are looking to achieve two aims:
1. To construct a process of information, deliberation and awareness for youth and students about the problematic of the environmental crises and the decisions that governments would like to take at the COP16, and especially regarding the politics the Mexican Federal government would like to push for the environment. This process has as one of it’s central tenets a call to be part of the mobilizations that will take place during the COP16 summit.
2. To generate a process of mobilization arising from the center of the country, in particular from Mexico city in order to go to Cancun and participate in protest actions against the COP16.
PLAN OF ACTION
For these proposals we are proposing the following plan of action:
• Distribution in universities of two informative newspapers:
The first will be a treatment of the environmental and climate crisis, carbon markets and the COP16, Socio-environmental struggles in defense of the earth, territory, natural commons, and the collective management of nature.
The second will be about environmental disputes of plundering and privatization of the most important common properties and its relation to climate change: water, the agroindustrial system, forests, open pit mining, damns and infrastructure development.
• Organizing of the second climate convergence to take place in the Municipality of Atenco, in the State of Mexico with the People’s Front in Defense of Land, on the 5th, 6th and 7th of November.
This initiative proposes to generate a space of discussion, information and deliberation about the COP16 and the alternatives that are being generated by social movements in order to resist the advances of capitalism and the environmental crisis. During the days of the climate convergence there will be forums, thematic sessions, conferences, projection of videos and will include participation from academics, and social-environmental struggles from around the country. We expect those who converge will mostly come from youth and students from the center of the country.
• Participation in the massmarch on 30th of November
Different caravans of social organizations and socio-environmental struggles arriving from San Luis Potosi, Acapulco and Guadalajara to Mexico City will participate in this march before leaving for Cancun.
• Organization registration, logistics and transportation of caravans from Mexico City to Cancun.
As part of this final point of action we are considering that those who are coming together for this project can drive an organizational process prior to the summit beyond those described above in order to organize at least one bus per each organization mentioned above.
The financial support we are seeking is mainly to reduce the cost of renting busses to travel form Mexico City to Cancunspecifically in two aspects.
a. Prioritize the covering the complete fare of representatives or delegates from indigenous organizations, campesinos and communities.
b. Subsidizing the fare of students and youth who require it.
• Organizing of forums, panels and discussions and protests in Cancun.
Schedule of Activities
Activities
October
November
December
Week 4
(25-31)
Week 1
(1-7)
Week 4
(22-30)
Week 1 y&2
(1-12)
Distribution of the newspaper to schools and universities
First Newspaper
Second Newspaper
Climate Convergence in Atenco
5,6 y 7
Mexico City Demo
30
Departure to Cancun
1-2
Mobilizations in Cancun
3-9
Budget:
Item
Cost
Land transport for 42 people
$50,000 mexican pesos ($4000USD)
You can donate through the Paypal account of Rising Tide Mexico:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=PHYSB32SG4QM6
Please also let us know at
anticapcop@gmail.com of your donation and/or if you would like to make a direct bank deposit or would like to make a tax-deductible donation (US).
In case you require paperwork for accounting or other purposes, we can put you in contact with Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz, AC.
Links: http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2010/02/16/marea-creciente-mexico-confronting-the-root-causes-of-climate-change/
