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Latin America Week 2006

22th April- 28th April

DRAINING AWAY OUR WEALTH
Ownership of Natural Resources in Latin America & Ireland

A range of conferences, meetings, workshops and cultural events around Ireland, focusing on the issue of ownership of natural resources. From the Bolivian Water & Gas wars to the Shell to Sea campaign, there is a growing global concern about who benefits from the exploitation of our natural resources. How can we ensure that the earth's wealth is directed democratically and sustainable to the good of its people?
Have your say and meet Latin Americans involved in this struggle….

Click here for more information about Natural Resources in Latin America and Ireland!

Who are the Latin America speakers?

Tania Quiroz is from a Bolivian social movement which has been prominent in the water and gas wars, the 'Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida'.
Personal Details: A journalist and social activist, Tania has since 1998 supported the Federación de Fabriles de Cochabamba (the Cochabamba Manufacturing Federation) in its struggle for awareness of the work exploitation of male and female workers, in the new employment conditions developed between the 1980s and 1990s, the period of implantation of neoliberalism in Bolivia. Since 2000 she has taken on the commitment with a group of activists of extending the voice of social movements, among them the Coordinator of the Defense of Water and Life, through various printed and virtual media: reviews, pamphlets, manifestos and web pages. And in recent years she has been supporting awareness and the organisation of the domestic workers of La Paz, Cochabamba and Riberalta-Beni, who are particularly women who work with families in conditions of sub-contracting, working on their own behalf, those who day after day battle in the employment and merchandise markets.
Coordinator of the Defence of Water and Life: The Coordinator is a social movement which emerged as a response to the loss of credibility of institutions such as the Civic Committee, the Federation of Neighbourhood Boards and political parties. The Coordinator is not a political party, nor does it seek to become one. We do not accept the rules of play that have been imposed upon us. Apart from the parliament we have experienced true democracy in our assemblies and town halls. The Coordinator is a space where people deliberate, that is, provide opinions, discuss, decide and execute the actions to be pursued. The Coordinator is the conscience of the people, undertaking public and private acts. The Coordinator is the authority that has been capable of interpreting and deciphering the life demands of the population. The Coordinator is a place where simple working people have proven that only through organisation, solidarity, mutual trust and the loss of fear, is it possible to transform our situation, our reality. The Coordinator has the following agenda as the collective horizon of the struggles:
Reappropriation of all of our communal wealth (communal goods: water, petroleum, land,...), fundamentally the nationalisation of hydrocarbons. Constituent Assembly: popular, native and without partisan tutelage. Agrarian reform to eliminate latifundia accumulated by landowners linked to political power. Responsibility judgements of murderers and traitors. These are the objectives for which the people of Bolivia have fought and died in the last six years.

Ricardo Buitrón is from one of main Ecuadorian environmental organisation Acción Ecológica, which campaigned against Texaco in the Amazon and is now looking at the water crisis.
Personal Details: Member of Acción Ecológica. Qualifications in sociology and natural resource management. He works on the issue of the privatisation of water, drinking water, irrigation and water-producing zones. Research into geopolitical strategies for the natural resources of Latin America.
Acción Ecológica (Ecological Action) is an activist organisation which defends the group and environmental rights of Ecuador. We have been working for 20 years and we support projects of resistance against activities of extraction of natural resources such as petroleum and minerals. We have campaigns in defence of forests and mangrove swamps, against the Free Trade Treaty, for the defence of self-sufficiency in food, of biodiversity, for an Ecuador free of GM foods, an urban campaign against the contamination and privatisation of public spaces.
Acción Ecológica Website

Belisario Nieto is a Colombian and works for Progressio, an Irish and international development agency working for justice and the eradication of poverty. He will speak on illegal logging in Honduras.
Progressio Website

Who is organising Latin America Week?

The Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC), which is an initiative for cultural promotion, development education and campaigning solidarity, linking Ireland and Latin America. Partners for LAW 2006 include Progressio, Sustainable Ireland, Friends of the Earth, Gaffer Productions, Shell to Sea campaign, Maize Dreams Galway Zapatista Support Project, The University of Limerick, NIPSA (the Northern Ireland trade union for public services), Galway One World Centre and various others.

Contact and more information:
rachel@lasc.ie or phone 01 6760435

Events Calendar LAW 2006

Events in Belfast, Contact Jonathan Stephenson, 0044(0) 2890661831
Events in Dingle, Contact Cearbhuil Ni Fhionnghusa 086 0554665
Events in Galway, Contact Brenda Kelleher 0876942937
Events in Limerick, Contact Nancy Serrano on 061 202192
Events in Mayo, Contact Maura Harrington 087 9591474

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