Upstream Journal (archive)

For the most recent publications, consult www.upstreamjournal.org

The Upstream Journal appears five times per year. One finds in its 16 pages much information on human rights, international development and a particular emphasis on Central America and Mexico and on global economic injustice. The Upstream Journal is a free publication of the Social Justice Committee. It is available by mail, at SJC events and in many locations around Montreal. It is one of many educational resources which we offer concerning human rights and development. We continue our work courtesy of donations, which are tax deductible and which help support our educational programs.

To join our mailing list, email editor@upstreamjournal.org or call1 514 933-6797 and ask to speak to Derek MacCuish, editor.

Jan 2005

All 16 pages in PDF format - click here

• Special focus on Guatemala - indigenous communities respond to gold mine, seek consultation
• Wal-Mart builds on ancient Mexican historical site
• Electronic surveillance in China on the rise, Canadian company involved
• Wealthy countries arm the conflict in Sudan
• "Eye on the World Bank and IMF"- behind the scenes on debt relief, Canada not willing to push for poor country 'voice,' choosing the new World Bank president
• "The New Conquistadors"- Ernie Schibli's opinion on Guatemala gold mining

Sept/Oct 2004

Click here

• Special focus on food sovereignty, plus:
• Fighting dams in India
• Canadian company takes heat in US
• Zambians struggle to overcome poverty, disease
• "Eye on the World Bank and IMF" becomes regular feature. This issue: World Bank lending and poor country debt going up - what about poor country voice in decision making?

Summer 2004

Full text All 16 pages ready to print out, in PDF format (Adobe Reader). Articles include:

• Child soldiers in Uganda - One woman's effort to bring about change
• Improving programs to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers
• Indigenous peoples in Costa Rica fight dam construction
• Guatemala community groups fight water privatization, dams
• Changing the World Bank - A focus on environmental and social standards
• Media - journalists under attack

Winter 2004 Full text

• Trying to save Tibet's culture
• The movement for democracy in Burma: Canadian connections
• Guatemalan police evict farmers
• Many other articles on economic, social and cultural rights, plus updates on two new Social Justice Committee research papers on economic adjustments in Senegal and Guyana and the price people pay for the reforms.

Nov/Dec 2003 issue Full text.

Articles:

• We are all Bolivians - Somos todos Bolivianos
• During the popular uprising in Bolivia in September and October, Marcela Olivera of the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (La Coordinadora) in Cochabamba wrote to the Social Justice Committee to describe why people were protesting.
• Africa: The struggle against privatization
• Bricks Mokolo speaks about the impacts, and the resistance, to water privatization in hiscommunity, a South Africa township. Related article: Orange Farm says no to water meters
• "Empowerment" - The SJC talks with the World Bank about what it means
• Videoconference, with SJC, Concordia University, World Bank participation.
• Togo - comment sortir de l'impasse?
• Local communities pay the price of illegal logging in Honduras - Opponents face death threats
• Guyana water company launches cut-off campaign in quest of cost recovery
• Poverty and the role of the private sector - what will be the Paul Martin approach?

Summer 2003 issue Full text.

April 2003 issue Full text

Articles:

• Mexican farmers speak out about land rights, trade deals and the harsh impacts of globalization
• Montes Azules evictions begin
• Where the "Heavily Indebted Poor Country" Initiative for debt cancellation is failing
• Dialogue with the IMF

Jan/Feb 2003 All 16 pages in PDF format

Articles:

• Crisis in rural Mexico - Campesinos demand a renegotiation of NAFTA and a new agricultural policy
• Dialogue and incongruity - Meeting with the World Bank and IMF
• The voices of the campesino protesters
• The failure of World Bank and IMF policies in Senegal (interview)
• News from Guatemala - A personal letter of reflection
• "Social justice"?
• Book review: Globalization and its Discontents, by Joseph E, Stiglitz

Upstream Journal Published in 2002

Nov/Dec 2002 issue     – All 16 pages in PDF format

Articles:

• Fighting the privatization of health care in El Salvador  

• Privatizing peanuts – No debt relief without it  

• Guatemalan visitor describes his community's efforts to become self sufficient and provide a decent standard of living  

• Strange opinions on debt relief  

• Table: Heavily Indebted Poor Country debts and payments to the World Bank  

• Student activist visitor to Montreal speaks about social repression in Guerrero, Mexico  

• October 12th 2002, "Dia de la Raza" - Colombus Day becomes day of action against recolonization via FTAA and Plan Puebla Panama  

Sept/Oct 2002 issue   All 16 pages in PDF format

Articles:

• Rolling out the red carpet for the corporations in Central America and Mexico  

• Déjà vu in Guatemala – The return of brutality and oppression to the haunted land  

• Supreme Court of Mexico upholds flawed law on indigenous rights  

• Harassment a feature of daily life in Chiapas  

• Interview: Fighting water privatization in Pakistan  

June/July 2002

Articles:

• G8 meeting in Kananaskis fails to deliver  

• Southern activists speak to the SJC about their struggles – see Economic Justice  

• Three empires and a "kin–dome" – a commentary by Ernie Schibli  

April/May 2002   

Articles:

• Farms vs. factories Planning the future for the "under–exploited" of Mexico and Central America - Plan Puebla Panama by Wendy Call  

• "The Symbol of Stability" – NAFTA reaches into the lives of farmers in Southern Mexico by Jamie Wilson  

• Four Central American countries fighting hunger amid drought and flooding, by Mia Gewertz  

• Let us defend human rights defenders – remembering Monsignor Juan Gerardi, by Gloria Pereira–Papenburg 

• Privatization – solution to poverty, or another burden?, by Derek MacCuish  

• Hunger rising in Malawi, Zambia, by Hayley Coristine  

Jan/Feb 2002   

Articles:

• El Salvador riot police crack down on anti–privatization unions

• Need versus greed? The Bujagali Falls dam project gets go–ahead from World Bank despite criticism

• Privatization in Zambia– An SJC interview with an anti–privatization activist in Zambia  

• The School of the Americas – Higher Learning for Terrorists?  

• Personal reflections on the "war on terrorism" by Pete Henriot, S.J., Zambia  

Upstream Journal published in 2000

Nov/Dec 2000

Articles:

• Displaced Colombians defend their community's right to peace – a brief history of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia.

• Social Justice Committee supports Rigoberta Menchú Foundation lawsuit.

• A neo–liberal government takes shape in Mexico, raises doubts about socio–economic rights

Sept/Oct 2000

Articles:

• Wanted: A show of strength. Human rights in Guatemala.

• At the centre of hope. Community action in El Salvador.

• Get your hand out of my pocket: How a privileged minority take the wealth of the world.

July/Aug 2000

Articles:

• Urgent Action Network Report on Mexico – 1999. Report to the Canadian Government by the Canada–Central America/Mexico Urgent Action Network (excerpts)

• Indigenous campesinos confront issues of the environment and human rights in Mexico

March/April 2000

Articles:

• Riot police storm hospital in El Salvador to break strike against privatisation

• "Contradictions" – The SJC's Ernie Schibli in Honduras

• Jubilee campaign to cancel Third World debt is "whimsical" and could "screw up the market", according to World Bank president James Wolfensohn

• Progressive politics, populism or personal power? The new president of Guatemala

• Impunity in Guatemala

• Inequalities in Guatemala worsen

• Human rights and the environment – people from Central America and Mexico share their knowledge and perspectives at Montreal conference

• Indigenous women from Oaxaca bring their protest to Mexico City