Unión de Asambleas Ciudadanias in Jujuy

The decision to go to the 10th UAC proved to be a very good one. I met a lot of interesting people, got a practical example of how it is possible to organize activists, and performed several interviews. The whole event started with a march under the same heading as the UAC – “Against the looting of our natural goods and contamination, and for food sovereignty and life”. Approximately 1000 people from different organizations marched the streets of San Salvador de Jujuy, handing out flyers, and not one single wall was left untouched by the spray cans and the slogans “water is worth more than gold”, “food sovereignty now”, “Agrarian reform now” and “Against agro business”. The march finished in front of the Provincial governmental building where a communication was handed over which questions the productive model that has resulted in contaminating mining business and monocultivation of sugar cane and soy beans. The communication further proposed that the Ordenamiento Territorial Participativo (OTP) [The Participatory Territorial Regulation] should be carried out properly.

The march was followed by a panel discussion on “Mega mining business, Agro business and Food sovereignty” at the old train station of Jujuy which now hosts a cultural centre. We had to endure the coldest day of the year, not the ultimate conditions for deliberation. But the message from the panellists was clear – the mining industry which uses cyanide and the monocultivation of soy beans and sugar cane, have to be replaced by alternatives. As in many other similar contexts that I have been observing the production model was questioned.

The following two days of discussions within the UAC was mainly performed in smaller groups of approximately 10 people. The aim of the discussions was to give practical input to how to improve the organization of the encounters, and to give proposals to the environmental problems. However, within the group that I participated in an important matter seemed to be the exchange of ideas and experiences between the different representatives from different organizations from varying provinces. Through the discussions the group decided to draw two trees to illustrate the suggestions and description of the problems. The concepts common resources, diversity, solidarity, organization, territoriality and critical education were used to symbolize the alternative to the current production model; a production model where foreign companies, neo-capitalism and mass media govern, with resulting poverty and environmental destruction.

In the evening of the first day of the encounter a spontaneous candle march was organized to the house of the owner of the local factory LEDESMA, Blakier. LEDESMA was recognized for the repressive labour policies, and the environmentally destructive practices with sugar cane production. I have to admit that I missed the march, which was a great shame of course. When leaving the town after the meeting was over I could hardly not see anything but sugar cane being grown on the fields, and I could not help but ponder on the relevance of rewriting the book by Sidney Mintz Sweetness and Power, from 1985. The book has got a renewed importance, not because of increased use of sugar in our diet, but because of the belief in sugar cane as a more environmentally friendly alternative when transformed into ethanol, than other fuels. In that sense it has a continuous colonial taint since the demand comes from European environmental policies. So the need to question the production model seems adequate.