3pm SAT 14  NOV SOAS Climate Change And Multinationals - Colombia,  Bolivia Grassroots

3pm-6pm School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)  come to reception and ask for room

University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Isaac Marín in discussion with Cristian Domínguez, who has been at the forefront of environmental justice campaigns in Bolivia, opposing water privatisation and working for the nationalisation of natural resources.  The organisation he represents, the CSUTCB, is one of the main social movement organisations which brought president Evo Morales to power. 

Organised by Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Latin American Workers Association, Polo Democratico UK and Bolivia Solidarity Campaign.

‘CONSCIENTISATION' TOUR 10th - 15th November 2009

CLIMATE CHANGE AND MULTINATIONALS - A VIEW FROM THE GRASSROOTS IN COLOMBIA

Isaac Marín is a grass roots campesino leader from Eastern Colombia. His first organisational and political space was with the National Association of Peasant Farmers (ANUC), holding several positions at the regional level for a period of 12 years. He is a founder member of the group Corporación COS-PACC, a civil organisation with national reach since its inception into social and political life 7 years ago. From this space, they contribute to the construction of different political and organizational processes with rural communities, neighbourhoods, student groups, women's associations, environmentalists, trade unions and organizations defending human rights.

Alongside these movements COS-PACC work to defend their territory and the enforceability of political, social, cultural and environmental rights of the communities and the Colombian people.

World leaders and activists are preparing to descend on Copenhagen to discuss climate change, but have we fully understood its structural causes?  Colombian social movements argue that multinational oil and mining corporations, especially BP and other British based companies, have destroyed their environment, their human rights and social fabric. This raises vital questions linking environmental justice with international solidarity.

As Colombian communities struggle to defend their territories against corporate plunder, what can be done to build links with those affected by the seemingly unquenchable thirst for profit?  How can corporations like BP be made accountable? And how do we connect our common concern to stop climate disaster with the issue of the global North's ecological debt to the South?