Author Archives: doc

On June 14, the first general strike against social security reforms by the current government was called in Brazil1. The strike, which took place 5 and a half months after the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro’s government2, was convened by two major trade union centers in Brazil (Central Única de Trabalhadores (CUT) y la Força Sindical), which announced it on May 1st. The social security reform that the government intends to approve, which does not yet have the necessary support, seeks … Read more

We have just finished Ende Gelände’s action which, for the fifth year in a row, is being carried out in Germany through a great civil disobedience action. Its purpose is to denounce the urgency of putting an end to the use of fossil fuels. After the various meetings and trainings that took place in the temporary camp installed near the RWE mine, finally on Friday, June 21, 4,000 activists left the camp in Viersen to block the mining fields in … Read more

Early on June 22, as part of the “gold finger”, we started our way under German police escort. Together alongside more than 2,000 activists, we crossed the town of Hochneukirch towards Garzweiller, with the goal of blocking the opencast mine, property of RWE. Garzweiler, which covers 48 square kilometres, supplies lignite to power stations in the region. According to a 2014 study conducted by Carbon Market Data, RWE is responsible for 0.5 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. The … Read more

One more year we are approaching Rhineland (Germany), next to the Rhine, to put a brake on fossil fuels. Every year, it becomes more urgent to make the coal remain underground, that’s why we are going to shout out loudly “Ende Gelände, stop the coal, protect the climate!” In the top 10 of the most polluting companies of 2018 in the EU, Germany carries the jackpot with 7 lignite power plants. Despite the increasingly urgent need to curb CO2 emissions, … Read more

On May 7, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an published a leak of a new peace plan for Palestine and Israel prepared by the US government1. This plan is custom-made to Israel and does not recognize the borders that the Palestinian State had in 1967 after the Six Day War. Among other proposals, it should be noted that the text does not contemplate the dismantling of Jewish settlements, the partition of Jerusalem, or the existence of Palestinian weapons or armies. The … Read more

On May 21, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced that during the first quarter of 2019, world tourism grew by 4% compared to 2018, when some 1,400 million travelers were reached around the world1,2. As indicated in its infographic, the income derived from chemical products, fuels or automobiles are very important, these sectors being major causes of environmental problems. Despite the fact that 4 out of 5 tourists travel within their own region, almost all of them use more or … Read more

“Overextraction, drainage of wetlands and swamps, deforestation, many irrigation projects and poorly drained land, pesticide and fertilizer leaks, pollution from industry spills and households that were not properly treated or that were not treated at all, the widespread construction of large reservoirs, the increasing exploitation of underground aquifers, the channeling of navigable waterways, the plans for water transfer between watersheds and the ravages of climate change induced by fossil fuels, disturbed hydrological cycles in various ways and created conditions of … Read more

During the last couple of months the Extinction Rebellion movement has been carrying out acts of non-violent civil disobedience throughout the world1,2 , mainly in the United Kingdom, in order to achieve a radical change in the management of the planet’s environmental policies. The aim is to minimize the risk of human extinction and the ecological collapse3. The movement, which emerged in London by the end of 2018 and is spreading every day throughout more states, is organized into small … Read more

On April 11, 2019, Julian Assange was arrested by the British police at the Embassy of Ecuador in London1, where was received after the concession of the Ecuadorian nationality (now denied) by the previous government of that country. He is accused of violating the provisional freedom that had been granted in 20122. In addition, there is an extradition request issued by the US authorities (a country where he could even be executed3)4. The UN confirms that the detention of Assange … Read more

All over the planet, but especially in impoverished countries, the quality of life of rural people is getting worse every day. The neoliberal model prevents farmers from developing a basic economy since it destroys the countryside and makes the subsistence of smallholdings, cultivated in a traditional and artisanal way, unfeasible. This model, which only understands the countryside as a resource to exploit, is one of the main causes of climate change, hindering sustainable agriculture, causing the depopulation and abandonment of … Read more