Their economic privilege in mind, rich countries and corporations are thwarting hopes for a fair and progressive deal in Copenhagen. But outside the negotiation halls, people have moved far ahead with their solutions for the climate and visions for a just planet.

In December 2009, leaders from 192 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to determine the fate of the climate, the planet, and its six billion inhabitants. The summit is the 15th Conference of Parties (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

For the first time in history, the number of people in the world experiencing hunger has exceeded one billion this year, up by 115 million since 2007. Every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. One out of four children–roughly 146 million–in developing countries is underweight.[1][

Migration and remittances have become very significant for many economies and been hailed as offering new opportunities for economic development. And certainly migration is a right for people in their pursuit of decent work and livelihoods for themselves and their families. In particular much attention has been given to how remittances increase incomes of receiving households and how these have become an increasingly large part of financial flows to developing countries.

One hundred years ago, the women of the world were burdened with oppression. And one hundred years ago, they found the value of talking to each other, organizing themselves, and fighting for their rights. Then, a National Women’s Day was born in the United States, a first step towards women realizing their potential as powerful citizens of their nations and of the world. The day was February 28 1909. The now defunct Socialist Party of America was in celebration. The context, a time of turbulence and change, of ideological battles and injustice.