The report commissioned was one with teeth, it had decision making powers on the bid by Vedanta to open-cast mine incredible amounts of bauxite from the Niyamgiri range in Orissa.

121,000 trees were going to be felled, a seven square kilometre scar would be inflicted on the Niyamgiri wildlife sanctuary and the habitats of Deer, Antelope and a rare lizard, the Golden Gekko, were threatened with complete destruction.... read more

UK based corporate villains Vedanta got a kick in the teeth yesterday when a committee set up by India’s Environment Minister delivered a scathing report condemning the companies illegal activity and operating with "total contempt for the Law".

Among a number of blows delivered, the report unequivocally condemned the company for falsifying records documenting their criminality, infringing environmental laws and violating Indigenous Peoples rights by stealing their forest and agricultural lands.

The report concluded: "The committee is of the firm view that allowing mining in the proposed mining lease area by depriving two primitive tribal groups - Kutia and Dongaria Kondh - of their rights over the proposed mining site in order to benefit a private company would shake the faith of tribal people in the laws of the land."

The report has now been delivered to the Environment ministry, who will ultimately make the final decision on Vedanta's future in the area this Friday.... read more

The mining corporation, Vedanta, has been aiming to annihilate some of the biggest mountains in the south of Odisha (previously known as Orissa) in its plans for extracting bauxite, the ore for aluminium. There's been a campaign to stop Vedanta for many years, stemming from the grassroots campaign which grew up amongst the Dongria Kond people, the people who have lived amongst the mountains in question for generations and generations.

There's a price tag on these mountains - roughly $2 trillion.... read more

For it's fourth event, Mutiny is putting the Media on Trial.

Starting with the splendidly innovative 'speed debating', and following with sessions on
* The impact of the media
* Hegemony and the media and
* Activism and blogging

With contributions from Financial Times journalists, through a Big Brother contestant to activists and bloggers the evening will be fast paced, friendly and will close with live music.

The Media on Trial opens at 6pm on Wednesday 21st July at the Resistance Gallery, 265 Poyser Street, London E2.... read more

Don't believe corporate media hype. The streets of Toronto were full of thousands of informed individuals who care about the lack of legitimacy of the G20, their undemocratic backroom deals, their instance on continuing to privatize the commons and socialize risk.... read more

As Bangkok residents came out in full force to help clean up the Silom and Ratchprasong areas so that their lives can get back to normal, the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva is also issuing arrest warrants for the remaining Red Shirt leaders and sympathizers to keep them off the streets.... read more

"Today, our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger. If global warming increases by more than 2 degrees Celsius, a situation that the “Copenhagen Accord” could lead to, there is a 50% probability that the damages caused to our Mother Earth will be completely irreversible.... read more

A longer report of the final day and the conclusions from the working groups is coming, but as I have limited time before coming back to the UK here is a set of images from the last day which ended with a rally of around 40,000 people who heard Hugo Chavez warn the choice facing humanity was Socialism or Barbarism, and Evo Morales conclude that we must kill Capitalism before it kills the planet.

In yesterdays inauguration rally Evo Morales called for communitarian socialism to replace the failing and destructive Capitalist system, today we found out that despite thousands of activists from Northern Europe and elsewhere not being able to attend the summit because of the Volcano eruption in Iceland, a huge 31,000 people from more than 135 countries have began the enormous task of making such a vision possible.

Even the optimistic predictions for the summit thought attendance would be around 15,000 so it's a sign of how the social movements are picking up momentum again, after a lull at the end of the 00's, that so many have made the effort to be here.... read more

Leaving Britain to the dull echoes of the live television election 'debate' between the main political party leaders, where each boring man in a suit and coloured tie tried to out do each other in avoiding talking about any of the pressing issues that confront humanity couldn't be a sharper contrast to the experience of this mornings inauguration rally in the Esteban Ramirez Ecological Stadium, Tiquipaya.... read more

LiNKS:

http://www.youtube.com/globaliseresistance

Videos of the Summit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globaliseresistance/

A flickr photo show of the summit

Voices of the Summit (more to come)

http://www.youtube.com/globaliseresistance

Here in Cochabamba, activists from across the globe are gathering as the Climate Conference starts Tuesday morning with a rally led by Bolivian President and host Evo Morales.

The Conference is being held at a University just outside the city in a town called Tiquipaya, which from the visit I made to it today to get registered has certainly never seen or had to deal with a gathering of this scale before!

The Programme for the conference is available here, reposted below is the introduction to the programme which outlines the philosophy behind the event.... read more

Here in a sunny Cochabamba, the week leading up to the climate conference called by Evo Morales after the disaster that was the UN climate summit has been preceeded by the 10th anniversary celebrations of what the Bolivians call 'The Water War', the immense, successful mass struggle against water privatisation that came between the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999 and the G8 in Genoa 2001 and showed how it is possible to resist Corporate Globalisation through militant mass movements, it was a beacon of hope to all of us around the World struggling against the same Neo-Liberal policies and Cochabamba was it's heart.

Ten Years Later

Fast forward ten years and the political result of that struggle and many others means Bolivia has it's first indigenous president, a new constitution and is leading the charge alongside other South American countries to make 'Another World' Possible.
Over the week we'll be posting reports, pics and video from the conference so check back regularly to get the GR view on the events–it's going to be an interesting week!

10 years ago, in November 1999 an alliance of direct action activists, environmentalists and trade unionists shut down the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, stopping the next trade round of Capitalist Globalisation. In the process they sparked a Movement of Movements right across the globe its slogan became ‘Another World is Possible’.

This November exactly 10 years from that momentous demonstration, and with most of the predictions of the movements rapidly coming true what with the crisis of the economy, a permanent state of war and the collapse of our eco-system wrecking lives across the planet, the rich and powerful meet again in Copenhagen to discuss the next Climate treaty after Kyoto, yet again activists are preparing to challenge the idea that the Market can solve the problems of the world, and take another step toward that possible world after Capitalism.

Signs of Revolt is an exhibition that weaves together the story of the past decades social movements, drawing out the influences and connections between and across the movements against Capitalism, War and Climate Change.... read more

LiNKS:

http://signsofrevolt.net

website

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid;=152633464034

Facebook Group

http://signsofrevolt.net/?page_id=41

Info for the 'Festival of Radical Communication' talks