WTO Protesters Tear Down Fence After Farmer Commits Suicide (2003) Cancún, Mexico: Protesters tear down sections of wire barricades at the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Cancún, Mexico. Moments earlier a South Korean farmer, Lee Kyoung Hae, 56 years old and father of two, committed suicide by plunging a knife into his heart while atop of one of the wire barricades. His action called attention to the plight of many farmers across the world who are unable to make a living due to the WTO’s trade rules. The talks were overshadowed by this act and the slogan, “The WTO Kills Farmers,” and eventually collapsed. The failure of the Cancún talks was viewed as a victory for developing countries including Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and other nations.

Police Prepare to Fire Rubber Bullets on Crowd (2003) Miami, FL: Police prepare to fire rubber bullets at protesters in Miami, FL demonstrating against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) summit occurring there. Following a permitted mass-march on November 20, police clashed with protesters. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets, electronic tasers and other less-lethal weapons to attack the protesters. Many protesters and bystanders were injured. An estimated 20,000 or more marched that day in Miami against the FTAA. Trade ministers from 34 countries were negotiating a new neoliberal trade agreement that would stretch from Alaska to Chile encompassing all of the Americas, except for Cuba. After the demonstrations the FTAA deal broke apart.

Women have a leading role in Chile’s people’s uprising, including the Red Masks in Resistance movement (2019) In 1973, the U.S. helped bring the notorious and bloody Pinochet Dictatorship to Chile with the overthrow of the democratically elected Salvador Allende. The violent regime ushered in a neoliberal experiment where all public services in the country were privatized and land stolen from Indigenous Mapuche people and others for rich elites and large corporations. In late October of 2019, students in Chile rose up in reaction to a small increase in subway fares, triggering a months-long Peoples Uprising in cities across the country demanding an end to the neoliberal system that never went away even when democracy was re-established in Chile.

Anonymous musician heads to the front lines in Santiago, Chile (2019) The majority of the people confronting the Carabineros (Chilean National Police) on the front lines were youth. Youth were lauded as heroes by many for their fearlessness and their leadership role in the uprising. The direct actions of the youth were a major tool that helped fuel the momentum for the nation-wide movement for systemic change.

Indigenous Men from the Amazon (2009) Belém, Brazil: In January 2009, the ninth World Social Forum took place in the Brazilian city of Belém, the capital of the state of Pará and the northeastern gateway to the Amazon. The Amazon jungle is experiencing rampant resource exploitation, destroying biodiversity and endangering the lives and livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples that depend on the forest. Considered the people’s alternative to the World Economic Forum being held simultaneously in Davos, Switzerland, the 2009 World Social Forum had the global economic crisis and its effects, as well as environmental and climate crises high on the agenda. People and social movements from around the world attended, including 1,900 Indigenous peoples from 190 ethnic groups who came to raise awareness of the serious plights they face.

A-16 Blockade Against World Bank and IMF (2000) Washington, DC: Blockade during the April 16, 2000 (A16) protests of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. Created in 1944, the World Bank and IMF, two of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, are blamed by people in the Global South and elsewhere for destructive austerity programs that have impoverished millions and caused massive environmental destruction. This was the next U.S. mass-action protesting corporate globalization following the mass-shutdown of the WTO in Seattle in November 1999.

Speaking Out Against the World Bank and U.S. (1995) Washington, DC: Cecilia Rodriguez, U.S. representative of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), speaks at a rally in Washington, DC protesting the World Bank’s 50th anniversary and Mexico President Zedillo’s visit to the U.S. In her speech, she demanded suspension of U.S. military and technical assistance to Mexico for any purpose until human rights violations cease. While in southeastern Mexico two weeks later, Cecilia Rodriguez was brutally raped by Mexican paramilitary. The World Bank is known for offering high-interest development loans to poor countries and using them to coerce the countries into privatizing public services like healthcare and opening up natural resources to outside exploitation to pay back the loans.

Comandante Tacho, Rebel territory, Mexico (1996) Chiapas, Mexico—headquarters for the General Command of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation): On New Year’s Day 1994, the day NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) went into effect, the Zapatistas rose up against it for being “a death sentence for the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico” due to its elimination of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution. Article 27 guaranteed people rights to communal ejido lands in Mexico. It was an outcome of the revolution led by Emiliano Zapata–from whom the Zapatistas took their name–in the early part of the 20th century. But in order for NAFTA – the free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico– to be passed, Article 27 had to be eliminated. Its eradication was accomplished by Edward Krobaker, the Forestry Division Vice President and later CEO of International Paper. Most of Mexico’s forests were on ejido lands, which meant they could not easily be obtained or controlled by multinational corporations such as IP.

A Man Bearing a Burden (1996) San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico The graffiti on the wall bears a political message: Libertad a Presuntos Zapatistas (Liberty to Suspected Zapatistas), a reference to those imprisoned following the 1994 uprising.

Women Traditional Healers (2011) Amador Hernadez, Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas, Mexico: Women prepare traditional medicines, which they harvest from the jungle. The Mexican government wanted to relocate this community so they could sell its forests for “carbon offsets.” The community resisted so the government suspended medical support to the village. There are no roads to or from Amador Hernandez and horseback is one of the few ways to travel the fifteen kilometers out of the community. When this photo was taken, the Mexican military was scheduled to arrive in four days to forcibly remove the community. At the UN Climate Conference (UNFCCC) in Cancún, Mexico in 2010, California’s then-Governor Arnold Swarzenegger penned an agreement with Chiapas, Mexico’s Governor Juan Sabines and the head of Acre, Brazil to use the carbon stored by the forests of Mexico and Brazil to supposedly “offset” emissions from polluters in California. In order to ensure the carbon contained in the forests was “protected”, the people living in the forest had to be removed—by force if necessary. The people of Amador Hernandez refused to leave and were not relocated.

Life in the Balance (2008) Bonn, Germany: An Indigenous man watches UN decision-makers from the balcony at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Scholar, Historian and activist Vine Victor Deloria, Jr., said, “Progress is the absolute destruction of the real world in favor of a technology that creates a comfortable way of life for a few fortunately situated people. Within our lifetime, the differences between the Indian use of the land and the white use of the land will become crystal clear. The Indian lived with his land. The white man destroyed his land, he destroyed the planet Earth.”

Protest Against Climate Change (2011) Durban, South Africa: On 3 December 2011 thousands of people marched in protest of the 2011 United Nations Climate Conference in Durban. Nicknamed by activists “The Durban Disaster,” at one point it appeared that the climate talks might actually collapse, but a small cabal of countries held exclusive closed-door talks over the final days to create the Durban Platform. This platform was described by carbon analyst Matteo Mazzoni as “an agreement between parties to arrange another agreement.”

Woman in Monsanto Protest Holds Photo of Baby Sprayed with Agrotoxins (2014) Asunción, Paraguay: The technological approaches driven by the Green Revolution, including genetically modified seeds and pesticides, have caused widespread degradation of fertile lands, destruction of biodiversity and the indiscriminate use of toxic agrochemicals, also known as agrotoxins. Most of the soy grown in Paraguay is Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready GMO soy, engineered to survive inundations with the toxic chemical glyphosate (main ingredient in RoundUp). Other U.S. transnational corporations involved in the soy business are Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). GMO soy is heavily sprayed with RoundUp from the air, where it drifts into nearby communities causing sickness. In many cases, small-scale farmers have been displaced due to soy production and forced off the land to live in slums.

Arrests During Blockade of President Clinton’s Motorcade (1995) Burlington, VT: Hundreds gathered at the National Governor’s Association conference in July of 1995 to protest the scheduled execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an award-winning journalist and political prisoner. Militant protests spanned five days. Pennsylvania’s then-Governor, Thomas Ridge, had ordered Jamal to be executed on August 15, 1995. More protests for Mumia occurred throughout the U.S. His death warrant was rescinded, but he remained on death row until 2011, and is still is in prison. He continues his journalism behind bars.

92-Year-Old Dolly Watson, in Front of Her Home (1994) Claremont Road, East London, England: Dolly Watson was born, survived two wars, and lived in this home all of her life. Her home was scheduled to be demolished for a new motorway. She refused to move, vowing to stay to the end. She was affectionately called “Dolly: Queen of the Street” by anti-road protesters. Watson said of them, “they’re not dirty hippy squatters, they’re the grandchildren I never had.” When the Department of Transport came to evict her from her lifelong home, there was a bitter struggle. They took her away to the hospital and placed her in an ‘old people’s home,’ which she hated. She passed away soon after. The road was eventually built, and opened to traffic in 1999, but backlash against increased costs for management, as well as the policing of protesters, strengthened other anti-road campaigns in the United Kingdom, and contributed to several road projects being cancelled.

Wounded Veteran at Republican National Convention Protest (1972) Miami Beach, FL 1972: Wounded soldier from Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in a wheelchair during protests against the RNC. He was one of over 200,000 U.S. casualties in that war. Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, said about the 1972 protests: “There is no anti-war or even anti-establishment group in America with the psychic leverage of the VVAW. Not even those decadent swine on the foredeck of the Wild Rose can ignore the dues Ron Kovic and his buddies have paid. They are golems, come back to haunt us all…”

Man Sits and Listens (1998) Bosawas Rainforest, Nicaragua: An Indigenous man from the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) of Nicaragua listens as community members from his village discuss strategies to stop the illegal logging of the Bosawas World Heritage Reserve in 1998. Bullet marks, a reminder of the U.S.-backed Contra war, can be seen on the wall.

Elder Indigenous Woman with Calla Lilies (2003) San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico: An indigenous woman takes part in a march for world peace. The march was led by Bishop Felipe Arizmendi, days before the U.S. “Shock and Awe” bombing of Iraq began.

Cree Elder Woman (1993) Whapmagoostui (Great Whale), Cree Territory (Quebec, Canada): This photo was taken during a month-long documentary and fact-finding trip to the James Bay and Hudson Bay regions of Northern Quebec, Canada. The trip documented stories and experiences of Cree and Inuit people involved in the struggle against Hydro-Quebec’s plan to build a massive new hydroelectric dam project on the Great Whale river. Hydro-Quebec’s first hydroelectric dam, the La Grande Project, flooded thousands of hectares of Cree land, displacing Cree people into prefabricated houses in new towns away from people’s traditional lands and livelihoods. An untimely water release from this dam drowned 10,000 migrating caribou, and mercury, leached from the soil under the reservoirs left the fish too toxic to eat.

On the Rio Pis Pis (1997) Rio Pis Pis, Nicaragua: Indigenous Mayangna traveling by panga (dugout canoe) on the Rio Pis Pis in the Bosawas World Heritage Reserve in Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region. At the time, the Bosawas rainforest was the largest rainforest north of the Amazon Basin. Illegal logging has devastated the rainforest’s biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples. A 1997 action at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, DC to protest the illegal logging of the Bosawas was widely publicized in Nicaragua (including this photo) and led to the Nicaraguan government cancelling a 150,000 hectare illegal logging concession on Indigenous Mayangna land in the Bosawas. Illegal logging continues, and the indigenous peoples continue to resist.

Child with Mother After Hurricane Mitch (1999) Posoltega Refugee Camp, Nicaragua: Johana Medín and her baby boy were swept away in the torrent of a mudslide caused when the crater lake of the Las Casitas volcano collapsed during Hurricane Mitch and buried an entire village. The mother held on to her baby in the mudslide for two kilometers and saved his life. Some survivors were stuck in the mud for up to six days and had to have their limbs amputated. Others swallowed stomachs full of the mud and became sick. There were over 5,000 refugees. More than 2,500 people were buried alive by the mud. The environmental justice delegation which investigated this incident found that logging and climate change contributed to the disaster.

Hands of Standing Rock Spiritual Leader, Chief Arvol Looking Horse (2016) Buffalo, NY–Chief Arvol Looking Horse spoke to an audience about the peaceful encampment in Standing Rock, where thousands of Water Protectors were gathered to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. The peaceful resistance in Standing Rock was met by concussion grenades, fire hoses, rubber bullets, and beanbag guns. On one night, police fired fifteen canisters of tear gas in two minutes. They used fire hoses on peaceful protesters in twenty-degree weather. One elder went into cardiac arrest and a young woman almost lost her arm when she was hit by a concussion grenade.

School Teacher, Paz, [center] (2017) Deep in Wallmapu (Mapuche Territory, Chile): Paz, a school teacher, talks about the impacts caused by loss of water on her community. The monopolization of water for industrial plantations of pine and eucalyptus trees has caused a serious lack of water in rural Mapuche communities, and some communities have no water at all except what is brought in by truck. During the Peoples’ Uprising in 2019, Mapuche communities took back and re-occupied ancestral lands taken away for tree plantations.

Ayoreo Woman by Her Dwelling in “Displacement Camp” (2009) Campo Lorro, Chaco, Paraguay: The Ayoreo Indigenous people of the Chaco forest are in the way of development and many uncontacted people have been captured and confined to displacement camps. Campo Lorro is the largest of the detention camps. Much of the Chaco forest has been destroyed for cattle ranches. Before the displacement camps, the Ayoreo were shot and killed from a tower next to the road. There are still uncontacted Ayoreo that live in voluntary isolation in the Chaco forest that remains intact.

Boy Jumping (2005) Galdino dos Santos, Espirito Santo, Brazil: Young boy jumps in an MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – Landless Workers Movement) encampment called Galdino dos Santos, in Espirito Santo, Brazil. In 2005, the MST, whose mission is to give underutilized land back to landless peasants in Brazil, took over portion of a massive eucalyptus plantation owned by Aracruz Cellulose, cut down the non-native trees and used them to construct this encampment. They also dug a well, built a community space and instituted an elaborate system of non-hierarchical decision making. The camp was named Galdino dos Santos, for an Indigenous chief who was murdered two years earlier in a racist attack. Industrial tree plantations in Brazil have long been a target of the MST due to their many damaging impacts, including forced displacements, loss and contamination of water and soils, and massive deforestation.

All ages took part in the march against Lautaro’s “green incinerator” (2019) Mapuche women lead march in Temuco, Chile opposing a new trash incinerator on their traditional territory. The Mapuche Indigenous People want to retake their land. The community threatened with the trash incinerator is already impacted by a biomass incinerator.

Shut Out (2007) Bali, Indonesia: An Indigenous man with his mouth covered by a UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) gag protests the UN climate talks in Bali, Indonesia. The gag symbolized the systematic and forceful exclusion of Indigenous delegates from a meeting with the UNFCCC Executive Secretary the day before. They were also protesting being shut-out from the official negotiations even though it is their lands being targeted for unjust climate mitigation schemes like forest carbon offsets. “This process has become nothing but developed countries avoiding their responsibilities to cut emissions and pushing the responsibility onto developing countries … People are being relocated and even killed; my own people will soon be under water. The money from these projects is blood money.” - Fiu Mata’ese Elisara-Laula, O Le Siosiomaga Society, Samoa.

Judi Bari (center), Walks with Support of Two Friends (1994) Northern CA: Judi Bari was a North American environmentalist and labor leader, feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns to stop the logging of the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and ’90s. She also organized efforts through the Industrial Workers of the World to bring timber workers and environmentalists together to stop the unsustainable rates of logging in the region. On 24 May 1990, in Oakland, California, Bari’s car was blown up by a pipe bomb placed under her seat. While still in critical condition with a shattered pelvis and other major injuries, Bari was arrested by the FBI for allegedly transporting explosives. Many believe the bombing of Bari and her subsequent arrest was due to her successful work to unite environmentalists and loggers. The false arrests and illegal search warrants became the basis of a civil rights suit filed against the FBI in 1991 but not decided until 2002, five years after her death, when her estate was awarded $4 million in damages.

Mapuche boy practices blowing the traditional horn in Quilape López (2019) At the same time that the Peoples Uprising in Chile was occurring, Mapuche people, in Quilape López and elsewhere were re-occupying 1500 ha of ancestral lands stolen under the Pinochet dictatorship. Elders celebrate the youth and encourage them to take leadership roles in their communities.