Information is power

Onécimo Hidalgo of CIEPAC works with rural indigenous communities in Southern Mexico. [CAFOD]

CAFOD partner CIEPAC provides one of the few sources of reliable information and analysis on trade issues in southern Mexico - a region on the frontline of free trade expansion

Information is power and down in the south of Mexico, poor communities are demanding more information about international trade agreements that could adversely affect their lives.

With that knowledge, people at the grassroots can campaign for alternative trade policies that provide social and environmental safety nets.

Miguel Pickard, CIEPAC’s investigator, explained how so many indigenous people in southern Mexico are excluded from social, economic and political power.

"Information is power. Yet poor isolated communities usually have no access to newspapers and only get to listen to state-controlled radio stations.

"So how do people make informed decisions about anything that’s affecting their lives?"

Miguel and other co-workers set up the Centre for Economic and Political Research for Community Action (CIEPAC) in 1998. CAFOD was the first international organisation to support them, providing vital start-up funding for research and workshops with local indigenous groups.

Miguel and the rest of his team regularly visit communities, on an invitation-only basis, and run workshops with lively materials including posters, songs and radio-theatre.

Saying no to Coca Cola

Miguel explains that CIEPAC did not "aspire to lead the movement or take up banners" but could make a useful input through providing information.

"People have made simple changes in their lives, which almost sound trivial, like blocking the entrance to their villages from Coca Cola trucks.

"But through this action they are saying no to a multinational corporation and their expensive drink which is unhealthy and takes the place of their own drinks which they have been making for centuries.

"There’s so much need at the grass roots level and I think that’s what made me decide to be where I am today."

He urged people in Britain to take up the challenge to help create a more just world by taking action.

A challenge to the North

"How can we make this a fairer world? That’s going to require people in the North to make very important decisions about their lifestyles and about how their governments are working to preserve their interests rather than the interests of the majority of the world.

"It goes beyond just drinking fair trade coffee, though it may start there.

"Campaigns like Make Poverty History required people to become more involved and to realise they want to change the structures which cause injustice.

"People in the North have an obligation because of the overwhelming power and influence of a tiny group of very rich countries where they live. We believe in the South that fundamental questions are going to have to be asked and resolved in the North."

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