Land

Angry French Farmers Sow Chinese-Owned Field In Investor Protest

August 31, 2018 Staff, France24.com Resist! Farmers, Land, Protests

Mounted on tractors and wielding flares, angry farmers came from all corners of France to say to Chinese investors: get off our land. More than 100 farmers swarmed on a Chinese-owned field in the Indre region of central France on Wednesday, occupying it in protest at what they say is financial speculation. Waving the flag of France's Farmers' Confederation, they filled a seed drill with rye and sprayed grain in a demonstration they said symbolised the need to "take back the land for the farmers". "The land is there to provide for farmers' families and to produce food," said Laurent Pinatel, spokesman for the Farmers' Confederation. "The owners have come here to make a profit, to speculate on agriculture while monopolising the land."

Community Control Of Land And Housing

August 21, 2018 Staff, Democracycollaborative.org Create! Housing, Land, New Economy

A historical legacy of displacement and exclusion, firmly rooted in racism and discriminatory public policy, has fundamentally restricted access to land and housing and shaped ownership dynamics, particularly for people of color and low-income communities. Today, many communities across the country are facing new threats of instability, unaffordability, disempowerment, and displacement due to various economic, demographic, and cultural changes that are putting increased pressure on land and housing resources. As communities and policymakers alike consider ways to confront these threats—especially within the context of the urgent need for community and economic development—there is an emerging opportunity to develop strategies related to land and housing that can help create inclusive, participatory, and sustainable economies built on locally-rooted, broad-based ownership of place-based assets.

Why Native Americans Struggle To Protect Their Sacred Places

August 16, 2018 Rosalyn R. LaPier, theconversation.com Resist! Indigenous Peoples, Land, Trump Administration

Forty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected. This came after a 500-year-long history of conquest and coercive conversion to Christianity had forced Native Americans from their homelands. Today, their religious practice is threatened all over again. On Dec. 4, 2017, the Trump administration reduced the Bears Ears National Monument, an area sacred to Native Americans in Utah, by over 1 million acres. Bears Ears Monument is only one example of the conflict over places of religious value. Many other such sacred sites are being viewed as potential areas for development, threatening the free practice of Native American faith.

In Appalachia, Women Put Their Bodies On The Line For The Land

August 14, 2018 Ellee Achten, Rewire.news Resist! Appalachia, Land, Women

Women turn to environmental activism later in life due to health concerns, deep community investments, and, according to 75-year-old Peggy Gish, because they have "more freedom to get around, to have time—to get arrested!” Ollie Combs, a 61-year-old widow in Knott County, Kentucky, sat in front of bulldozers with her two sons at her side. It was 1965. Determined to not let the coal industry strip-mine her family land, she remained unmoved; officials were forced to physically carry her away—an image that drew national attention. So did, more recently, the story of Theresa “Red” Terry, a 61-year-old Roanoke County, Virginia, resident. In 2018, Terry lived in a “tree sit” alongside her grown daughter for more than a month, protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction through her private property.

Amazing Things Happened When 206 Ugly Vacant Lots In Philly Were Landscaped

July 31, 2018 Melissa Breyer, Treehugger.com Create! Community, Land, New Economy, Philadelphia

Almost one in five American adults report some form of mental illness; more than 16 million adults experience depression alone every year. Yet patient mental health services only account for an estimated 5 percent of total medical care spending in the United States. Noting that “spending time and living near green spaces have been associated with various improved mental health outcomes, including less depression, anxiety, and stress,” a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania set out to determine if by changing the places near where people live, they could affect change in mental health outcomes. Their conclusion may come as little surprise to those of who know the health benefits of green space: “Greening vacant urban land significantly reduces feelings of depression and improves overall mental health for the surrounding residents.”

Community Land Cooperatives Should Oversee Neighborhood Economic Development

June 27, 2018 Brandy Brooks and Joel Rothschild, Shelterforce.org Create! Cooperatives, Development, Land, New Economy

This nonprofit is organizing a real estate investment cooperative for the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, with the exclusive purpose of incubating, funding, and assisting “community land cooperatives.” Ecovillagers Alliance is a nonprofit initiative of educators, organizers, systems engineers, and storytellers. We came together from a crazy quilt of past attempts to establish community control of land and buildings by different models—co-ops, land trusts, co-housing, communes—none of which quite addressed the inhumane realities of modern urban real estate. So we went back to the drawing board to ask: what instrument of neighborhood real estate stewardship would be democratic, just, and sustainable? Now we are organizing a real estate investment cooperative for the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States...

Role Of Land-Grant Universities In Assessing And Ending Structural Racism In US Food System

June 13, 2018 Staff, Asi.ucdavis.edu Strategize! Food and Agriculture, Land, Racism, University

Nine members of INFAS—the Inter-Institutional Network for Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability—were among the 66 people across eight working groups invited to help co-author a report about how public universities in North America should contribute to global food security. When the groups began writing in early fall 2016, convened by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the report was provisionally titled The Challenge of Change: US Universities Feeding the World. One of the intended audiences, aside from universities themselves, was the incoming executive administration in the United States (US).

Gas Wells Not Allowed On Land Zoned For Homes Or Farms, High Court Rules

June 5, 2018 Don Hopey, Post-gazette.com Resist! Gas, Land, Oil Drilling, Pennsylvania, Supreme Court

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided Friday that drilling and operating multiple Marcellus Shale gas wells in a section of Fairfield Township, Lycoming County, that is zoned for residential and agricultural would not be a compatible land use. The case, Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township v. Inflection Energy, is important because of its potential application to, and influence on, shale gas development in non-industrially zoned areas throughout the state. “The decision means that shale gas development has to be recognized as an industrial land use that has impacts and must be located with other uses with which it is compatible,” said George Jugovic Jr., chief counsel for PennFuture who represented the four Fairfield Township residents that brought the case.

We Build Your Homes, But Have No Homes Ourselves: Diary Of A South African Land Occupation

May 19, 2018 Vijay Prashad, Newsclick.in Resist! Land, Occupation, South Africa

Talitha and Johanna work as maids. They earn R150 per day, which is the price of a gallon of milk, a pound of cheese, a loaf of bread and four oranges (1 Rand is about 5 Rupees). They could just about eat for a day, but that’s about it. They smile at me when I ask them how they manage to get by. Johanna says, ‘barely’. They live in Good Hope Settlement, a congested piece of land in Germiston – just outside Johannesburg (South Africa). Their homes are temporary, called ‘shacks’ in this part of the world. These shelters abut each other. They have no protection from the rain and offer no privacy. The lack of sanitation facilities means that sewage runs through their narrow lanes. It also means that illness is a constant worry.

Philly Neighborhood Achieves Inclusive Development And Control Through Community Land Trust

May 15, 2018 Steve Dubb, Nonprofitquarterly.org Create! Development, Land, New Economy, Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, the Community Justice Land Trust is helping preserve a community in the face of rising land values and speculation in the city’s Eastern North section, near Temple University, reports Patrick Sisson in Curbed. Sisson notes that a decade ago, the area, “near Temple University and largely lower income and [Latinx], was beginning to feel the influence of nearby developments, loft-to-condo conversions that had been a harbinger of rising rents and displacement in similar neighborhoods.” The formation of a community land trust has helped provide long-term permanently affordable housing for residents while also allowing for long-term community planning of development.

Brazil: ‘Free Land Camp’ Demand Indigenous Land Demarcation

April 25, 2018 Staff, Telesurtv.net Resist! Brazil, Indigenous Peoples, Land

The Free Land Camp is located in front of the Indigenous Peoples Memorial in Brazil's capital city of Brasilia. Indigenous representatives from more than 100 ethnicities are spending their second day encamped in Brasilia to demand the demarcation of their traditional lands by the Brazilian government, as well as increased investment in health services and education and vital areas for their survival. The camp, called the Free Land Camp, or ATL, was set up on Monday and is located in front of the Indigenous Peoples Memorial in Brazil's capital city. Mia Alberti, reporting for teleSUR at ATL Tuesday, said the Munduruku kicked off the day by protesting the construction of a dam in their territory. Alberti noted that the project would strip away seven percent of their land based in the Amazon.

‘This Land Is Your Land’: Reclaiming Public Land For Communities In Brooklyn

April 5, 2018 Staff, Shareable.net Create! Brooklyn, Land, Public

Here's the problem: Located primarily in areas of the city where low-income communities of color live today, more than a thousand vacant public lots languish behind fences, collecting garbage. One such lot was in Paula Segal's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. In 2010, she began talking to her neighbors about this lot. She gathered as much information as she could find about it and called a community meeting. That meeting led to more meetings, which led to Myrtle Village Green: an active, nearly 2-acre community space with garden beds, an outdoor movie screening area, a pumpkin patch, and an educational production and research farm. From then on, she thought, "How many more such lots are there in New York City?" She got access to city data and learned that, in 2001, 596 acres of public land were waiting for communities to transform them, and soon after, 596 Acres was born.

What Anti-Adani Protestors Can Learn From The Jabiluka Blockade

April 4, 2018 By Scott Ludlam, Theguardian.com Resist! Australia, Blockades, Land, Protests

Like anti-Adani protesters today, those who stood up at Jabiluka were attacked. It’s good to remember that people can prevail. One of Australia’s proudest land rights struggles is passing an important anniversary: it is 20 years since the establishment of the blockade camp at Jabiluka in Kakadu national park. This was the moment at which push would come to shove at one of the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits. The industry would push, and people power would shove right back. The blockade set up a confrontation between two very different kinds of power: on the one side, the campaign was grounded in the desire for self-determination by the Mirarr traditional Aboriginal owners, particularly the formidable senior traditional owner Yvonne Margarula. They were supported by a tiny handful of experienced paid staff and backed by an international network of environment advocates, volunteer activists and researchers.

Landowner Launches New Pipeline Protest In Roanoke County Tree

April 4, 2018 By Bianca Holman, Wdbj7.com Resist! Land, Pipelines, Protests, Virginia

A woman who lives on Bent Mountain says pipeline surveyors called police to her property Monday afternoon, after she climbed in a tree and refused to come down. The landowner, who goes by the name "Red," told WDBJ7 that she climbed into a tree around Monday and plans to stay put in an effort to prevent pipeline crews from tearing down trees on her property. "Red" said she observed surveyors, believed to be employed by the company intending to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline, planting blue ribbons to mark an access road and orange ribbons to mark the path of the pipeline on her Roanoke County property.. "Red" had already constructed a treehouse on her property, anticipating a standoff between herself and pipeline crews. When she saw them moving toward her treehouse, she climbed the ladder and launched her protest.

Federal Judge Rules In Favor Of Two Landowners In Atlantic Coast Pipeline Case

March 19, 2018 By Lisa Sorg, Pulse.ncpolicywatch.org Resist! Courts, Land, Pipelines

Marvin Winstead Jr.’s pine tree will survive another day. US District Court Judge Terence Boyle ruled today that Winstead and fellow defendant Ron Locke do not have to allow Atlantic Coast Pipeline contractors on their property to begin tree-cutting — at least for now. Earlier this week in Elizabeth City, Judge Boyle heard arguments from both attorneys for Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC, a company formed by co-owners Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, and lawyers for the landowners over tree-cutting and access to land. ACP, LLC had asked Boyle to force Winstead and Locke to allow them access to their properties, even though they had not yet negotiated payment for the condemned land. ACP wants to exercise eminent domain on 2.27 acres of Locke’s farm and more than 11 on Winstead’s — including the family’s 100-year-old pine tree that lies in the pipeline’s path.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 »

Daily movement news and resources