ACTIONS AND EVENTS
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Upcoming and Ongoing Actions and Events

Accompaniment work in Colombia - Espacio members are engaged in on-going accompaniment work (being sort of unarmed body guards whilst getting involved with practical volunteering work) with social organisations in Colombia.  For reports see our home page and for more info see our get involved page.

On the weekend of 19th-20th July 2008 we are holding another weekend training workshop for people interested in doing accompaniment in Colombia, following the success of the last one.  Contact us for more details.

Sembrando Desarraigo (Sowing Displacement). Our travelling photo exhibition is currently on display in the Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at Bristol Uni. Details here. The exhibition has so far been a big success at Cafe Kino in Bristol and the Leatherhead Theatre in London.

From July 16 - August 15 an international encuentro of the Red de Hermandad is taking place in Colombia. This is the first gathering of all groups in this network we are part of. In previous years separate annual meetings have taken place in Europe and Colombia. This year Colombian, European and other Latin American groups will be gathering together. The Final Session of the Permanent People's Tribunal into multinationals' responsibility into crimes against humanity from July 21-23 forms part of this. Contact us for more details.

Some Recent Events and Actions

On 16 April 2008 we hosted a a talk by Teofila Acuna, one of the leaders of the organization that Frog Lover is working with.

On 15 April 2008 together with Bristol Rising Tide we took part in an international day of action against biofuels to highlight the catastrophic impact of biofuel monocultures on communities in Colombia and across the world. From April 15 all petrol stations were required by law to sell only fuel which is blended with 2.5% agrofuel. EU targets are set to increase to 10% by 2020. This law is being introduced despite research which shows that producing agrofuels causes greater global warming emissions than the equivalent for fossil fuels. The action at Eastville Tesco attracted interest from passers by.

On 6 March 2008, we took part in an international mobilization in memory of the victims of state crimes in Colombia.  Espacio and Colombia Solidarity did some street threatre in Bristol, while Espacio members in Bogota marched alongside displaced campesinos.

On 16th-17th Feb 08 there was a two-day training workshop for people who are interested in doing international accompaniment in Colombia, working with the Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia (Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia). For more information please read our press-release, which will tell you all you need to know.

Delegation to BP's oil exploration zone in Casanare, Colombia, July-August 2007. We helped organise this delegation of international and Colombian organisations in response to the on-going humanitarian crisis in the region. More details and the delegation's report are available here.

"BP's Corporate Social Responsibility? Stories from the Frontline in Colombia "
28th June 2007, University of Bristol (joint event with Colombia Solidarity Campaign).
"Since the arrival of bp in the oil-producing region of Casanare, Colombia in the early 1990's, hundreds of peasant farmers have been killed, "disappeared" or forced off their land by the Colombian army and far-right paramilitaries. bp workers have been terrorized for attempts to organize a union and the surrounding environment has been ruined. Off the back of this, bp made profits of £347 million in 2006. Come and hear from key Colombian witnesses in the case against bp:
Manuel Vega Vargas, the President of COSPACC a social organisation formed by rural community members who had been forcibly displaced from BP's exploration zone in Colomia.
Edgar Mojica from the Human Rights Commission of the Colombian Oilworkers' Union, USO."

Trip to Neath and Trebanos, 29 June 2007. Espacio also took Manuel and Edgar to meet communities in South Wales who are resisting the construction of a high-pressure gas pipeline. The Welsh community members were some of the first people to sign up to twin with threatened Colombians in BP's oil exploration zone in Casanare.

Sembrando desarraigo/sowing displacement photo exhibition lauch party and speaker event 15 April 2007, Cafe Kino, 3 Ninetree Hill. "In colombia the interests of transnational corporations are imposed through violence. state-linked paramilitaries drive communities from their land to clear the ground for mega-projects, and attack unionised workers whose insistience on decent conditions constrains the
unfettered pursuit of profit. meanwhiole, the police repress student protests and attempt to clear land occupations of people already displaced by the violence.
despite this repression, people continue to resist and to engage in a creative pursuit of alternatives to corporate globalisation, peasant farmers refuse to cede control over food production to transnational corporations, whilst urban communities insist on access to public services like health, education and drinking water."

Faces removed from the pictures in BP's National Portraits Awards 14 April 2007.
"BP's controversial sponsorship of the National Portrait Awards is today under the spotlight here in Bristol. People from Bristol Rising Tide and Espacio Bristol-Colombia are today holding a vigil faces at the Royal West of England Academy in memory of the people who have been killed as a consequence of BP's activities in Colombia and worldwide."

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368045.html

http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/newswire.php?story_id=26164&topic=corporations