Victories! Winning Campaigns

U’wa Overcome Oxy: How a Small Colombian Indigenous Group and Global Solidarity Movement Defeated An Oil Giant, and the Struggles Ahead

by Atossa Soltani and Kevin Koenig

In the spring of 2001, high in the Andean cloudforests of northeastern Colombia, a collection of indigenous U"wa werjayas (elders) and karekas (medicine people) secluded themselves for a three-month period, fasting, meditating, singing and praying. Their aim was to "hide" what had been estimated as over a billion barrels of high-grade Colombian crude from the diamond drill bits of Los Angeles based-Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). The country's largest discovery in decades was allegedly situated beneath U"wa ancestral territory. The planned oil project thrust the U"wa onto the frontlines of resistance to corporate globalization's quest for oil deep in the frontier ecosystems and indigenous lands of South America. MORE>>

Controlling Big Tobacco The Winning Campaign for a Global Tobacco Control Treaty

by Anna White

Of the thousands of international treaties in force, virtually none address global health issues. That made the 2003 adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty designed to stem the global epidemic of tobacco-related death and disease, all the more remarkable.

Conceived originally by a couple of public health activists, the concept of an anti-smoking treaty was eventually embraced by the World Health Organization (WHO) under the leadership of former Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland. MORE>>

Out of Burma Grassroots Activism Forces Multinationals to End Ties with the Burmese Dictatorship

by Jeff Shaw

In Burma, 50 million people live under a brutal veil of government surveillance and violence. The Burmese population, the vast majority of whom voted overwhelmingly for democracy a decade ago, live under the thumb of one of the most repressive governments on the planet.

The brutality of the ruling military junta, the elegance of the Burmese democratic movement and the strategic savvy of an international solidarity movement have spurred a multinational corporate procession out of the country, and away from support for or association with the governing dictatorship. The economic and financial pressure on the regime represents one of the most successful international pressure campaigns ever run. MORE>>

Dousing the Flames Communities Unite Globally to Lock Out the Incinerator Industry

by Monica Wilson

Trash is political. That's the conclusion of a growing number of communities around the world that are examining conventional notions of waste. They are demanding -- and winning -- rules to reduce waste creation and to mandate safer handling of waste that is generated.

A growing global network of activists is opposing incineration of waste, pointing out that incineration releases dioxin, mercury, lead, PCBs and other pollutants that endanger public health. Advocates for non-incineration approaches also emphasize the high cost of incinerators when compared to waste prevention, composting and recycling.

The global movement for alternatives to incineration has registered victories that range from defeating incinerators for chemical weapons, hazardous industrial waste, municipal waste and medical waste, to forcing the adoption of safer, sustainable approaches that contribute to local economic development. MORE>>