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Every vote counts

As of Friday morning, Joe Biden had secured 253 electoral votes of the 270 needed to win the Electoral College, with Donald Trump at 214. But in the last few hours, Trump turned to the courts to stop the vote count, tweeting "Stop the Count" and refusing to acknowledge his electoral defeat. Meanwhile, the major media cut off the livestream…

Assessment of the sixth round of negotiations for the UN Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights

The Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group that is negotiating a Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council ended its sixth round of negotiations on 30 October in Geneva, Switzerland. According to the social movements and organizations from all continents that are working for its adoption, the Binding Treaty should seek to ensure access to justice…

Costa Rica: Government environmentalism deepens crisis

This first article, of a series of three, analyzes the current sociopolitical situation. We will share our vision of what kind of environmental management is proposed by the current government. In a second article, we will analyze some of the proposals and policies that the government has followed or put into practice. Finally, the third article will talk about real…

Social victory in Sweden: Oil company Preem drops plans to expand oil refinery

“I'm absolutely sure that our resistance was one of the big factors that made them realise that this was not going to happen” said activist Lena Maloney from Friends of the Earth Sweden in an interview with Real World Radio. “They might have been able to expand their oil refinery if there had been less uproar,” added the environmental activist…

UN resumes negotiations for urgently needed binding treaty

This was the title of a virtual press conference held on Tuesday which urged States to engage to put an end to the impunity of transnational corporations. The press conference (a recording of which is available below) - hosted by the  Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity - took place after the start of…

Goodbye to the Pinochet-era Constitution

With 78% of votes, the Chilean people have opted to change the current Constitution, which has been in force since 1980 under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. The same percentage of people supported doing this through a Constituent Convention (instead of a mixed convention), whose candidates will be elected on 11 April 2021. From that moment on, the convention will have almost…

Democracy restored in Bolivia

After the coup d´Etat against Evo Morales' re-election in November 2019, there were high hopes that these presidential elections in October 2020 would reinstate democracy in Bolivia. 48 hours before the vote, the Argentinian delegation that traveled to Bolivia to act as international observers denounced the illegal detention of lawmaker Federico Fagioli and the generalised violence they received from officials…

Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation led by Jubilee South Americas network

“Financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund still determine and influence major decisions in our countries and the direction of our public policies, through how they allocate resources and loans,” warned Martha Flores, General Coordinator of the Jubilee South Americas network. "We are seeing our states get back in to debt because of this pandemic,…

Agroecology in dispute: What’s behind the “transition towards sustainable agriculture” narrative?

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the Transnational Institute of the Netherlands (TNI) and the Crocevia International Centre launched a publication entitled: “Junk Agroecology: The corporate capture of agroecology for a partial ecological transition without social justice.” The aim of the report is to “influence the just ecological transition debate in a way that ensures that we don´t end up…

India: Ongoing repercussions and demands after massive fire in oil well

On 13 September, almost four months after the explosion and oil spill in the Indian town of Baghjan (Tinsukia district, Assam state), experts from the company in charge of  the oil well (Oil India Limited) and international engineers managed to control the fire. Four days earlier, an engineer from the company had died on site. He was the third employee…