Fighting Corporate Land Grabs With Nonviolence

Peaceful protest in defense of the land in Uganda.

We all know what land grabs look like, even here in the US. Rich companies seek with local governments to declare eminent domain, by maintaining that the next shopping center is in the public interest and call it a town center. I'm not saying that every project that has the words "town center" in it came about this way. But it is an example of how it occurs in the US.

Of course the same happens in other countries. Let's focus on the third world country of Uganda. Frequently in the areas where these land grabs occur, the people can bare eke out a living from the land and they have a feeling of powerlessness. Giant corporations utilize that to their advantage and ply the country's government with sweetened deals. When the government stays in power for many years, as in Uganda, the average person may see very few options.



Add an activist, Suzan Abong Wilmot and her husband, Phil Wilmot, into the picture, and you get grassroots organizing. They built an organization, SOLIDARITY UGANDA, which helps to give the people a voice and also trains them in techniques of organizing. The team from Solidarity Uganda is all volunteer and they advocate nonviolent protest. The focus is the Amaru District, where the government and large corporations have their eyes on 100,000 acres of land for a huge sugarcane plantation. Now, you know where this would be going if the government claims the land for itself and its corporate sponsors, the locals no longer have the land as a source of income, and the huge plantation needs workers. It's not likely that working conditions would follow humane standards, either.

One of the issues that Solidarity Uganda noted was that the electricity grid isn't always reliable. Since the group is trying to keep its lines of communication open, that presented a problem. Modern communication networks rely upon power grids. But where there is a will, there is a way. And the group decided to take their power needs off the grid by utilizing solar power. The group was able to raise enough money from grants to buy several small solar panels and five smartphones. Now that the phones are hooked up with a reliable power source, they are utilized by key team members to receive and pass on information about any violence planned in regard to the land grab issue. That way they can coordinate an appropriate response, and also be better prepared with organizational structure.

Fencing for the use of local farmers.

Maintaining communication via solar power coordinates well with one of Solidarity Uganda's other projects, which seeks to utilize the land in an environmentally sustainable way. In fact, preserving the land and the natural heritage is diametrically opposed to what the land grab scheme represents - tearing down the forest to build what amounts to a huge factory plantation. The story has yet to be written about the outcome of this conflict in usages, but I am definitely rooting for Solidarity Uganda.

A great way to support Solidarity Uganda and score a t-shirt.

Thanks to this article from Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/suzan-wilmot-solidarity-uganda/; and the above link.

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