Via-info-en November 2017

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On November 25 - Peasant men and women say ‘End Violence against Women!’
by La Via Campesina 25 Nov '17

25 Nov '17

PEASANT MEN AND WOMEN SAY 'END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!' PRESS RELEASE (Harare, November 25th, 2017) On the occasion of the International Day of Struggle against Violence towards Women, La Via Campesina calls on all its organizations to carry out actions across the world to denounce, confront and break silence about the structural violence that peasant women suffer due to a capitalist and patriarchal society that violates us, discriminates against us, exploits, oppresses and assassinates us on a daily basis. We are currently witnessing an imperialist offensive by capitalism, intrinsically related to the conservative and fascist patriarchy. They look to exploit our lands, territories and natural resources, in the same way that they want to exploit our work, our lives and our bodies. Peasant women have our rights violated every day in the countryside by transnational corporations. We are displaced, forced to immigrate due to social conflict and war, made vulnerable to prostitution, to human trafficking, sexual exploitation and also criminalized for resisting through our peasant movements. Added to this capitalist violence is the patriarchal violence in our homes, where peasant women suffer from physical, psychological and sexual aggression, often ending only with femicide, the rate of which grow exponentially from year to year. In the 5th Women's Assembly and in the 7th International Conference of La Via Campesina, in Bilbao in July of 2017, all the organizations of the peasant movement committed ourselves to implementing the Campaign Against Violence towards Women, which was created in 2008 at our 5th Conference in Maputo. The campaign has the objectives to make more visible the violence that rural women suffer, to denounce and, above all, to carry out actions in the effort to eradicate all forms of violence towards women that continues in our organizations and in the rural world. The campaign is a task of all of us peasants, women and men. We reaffirm our collective commitment, as a global peasant movement with a feminist character, to struggle for gender equality, for the promotion and guarantee of the political participation of women in all the leadership roles and decision-making spaces of our organizations and to take on, in our practical, collective and daily actions, beyond mere discourse, the conflict to put a definitive END to all forms of violence against peasant women! On this November 25th, we commit to carry out actions in the framework of the Campaign Against Violence towards Women and we reaffirm our central struggle against the capitalist and patriarchal system, the enemy of our construction of a new society truly fair, based on equality among men and women and the construction of human emancipation. NO MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!! Check out the new set of postcards of the campaign: print them and send them [1] More videos about Women in Via Campesina TV [2] Read the Brochure on the Campaign [3] Please send us messages, photos, videos and audio recordings to share on our website www.viacampesina.org [4] Follow us on social networks: Facebook [5], Twitter [6] Links: ------ [1] https://tv.viacampesina.org/Post-cards-to-End-violence-againts [2] https://tv.viacampesina.org/La-Via-Campesina-End-violence?lang=en [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/10/Cartilha-VCS… [4] http://www.viacampesina.org/ [5] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL [6] https://twitter.com/via_campesina

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La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | Oct 2017
by La Via Campesina 19 Nov '17

19 Nov '17

La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | October 2017 Donate [1] This edition of the newsletter is the result of a collective effort of organisations, which are part of_ La Via Campesina_ movement worldwide. To subscribe click here [2] _"WTO, OUT! BUILDING ALTERNATIVES"_: LA VIA CAMPESINA TO ORGANISE PEOPLES' SUMMIT DURING WTO'S XI MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN ARGENTINA La Via Campesina is calling upon social movements and civil society organisations of the world to mobilise and organise our resistances against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), build solidarity alliances and to participate in the People's Summit "WTO, Out! Building alternatives", from the 10-13 December coinciding with the XI WTO Ministerial in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Read More [3] FEATURED ARTICLES HUMAN RIGHTS MUST PREVAIL OVER CORPORATE INTERESTS: LA VIA CAMPESINA IN GENEVA >From 23 to 27 October, a delegation from La Via Campesina, comprising peasants from Asia, Africa, Americas and Europe, participated in the week-long mobilization of peoples, who were demanding a legally binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights. Read More [4] LET'S NOT SWEEP RIGHTS TO SEEDS OF PEASANTS UNDER THE CARPET La Via Campesina urges the ITPGRFA governing body to prohibit the patenting of genetic information - and of any other measure limiting the access and use of all plant genetic resources of the Multilateral System - as well as to fully implement peasants rights to save, use, exchange and sell seeds, as specified in the preamble and Article 9 of the Treaty. Read More [5] FIFTH INTERNATIONAL ENCOUNTER OF MIGRATIONS AND WAGE WORK, CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO Coming in from across Mexico, the United States, Canada, Nicaragua, Colombia, Haiti, Italy, and Spain, participants discussed everything from rural-urban to international migration, repression against those who resist capitalist exclusion by moving from one place to another, and the role of social movements such as La Vía Campesina in building a larger movement for migrants' rights. Read More [6] IN SOLIDARITY WITH ALL CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTED COMMUNITIES OF THE WORLD: LA VIA CAMPESINA We urgently call upon our allies, friends and social movements to galvanise their struggles towards a system change. We urgently need to mobilize together with the civil society to push for our true solutions based on food sovereignty and peasant agroecology. Read More [7] AFFECTED FROM THE WORLD, UNITE! MAB, a member of Via Campesina in Brazil and the Movimiento de Afectados por Represa in Latin America (MAR) had organised an International Seminar on Energy Transition for a Popular Energy Project, from October 6 to 8. Inspired from it, this article captures the constant violations of human rights and the exploitation of the affected populations. Read More [8] INDIAN FARMERS DENOUNCE UN SEED TREATY'S ATTEMPTS TO HAND OVER PEOPLE'S SEED HERITAGE TO PRIVATE COMPANIES The Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements (ICCFM) expressed concern over the proceedings of ITPGRFA in a letter submitted to the treaty's national focal point in India. Read More [9] LA VIA CAMPESINA'S AFRICAN CONTINENTAL ENCOUNTER OF AGROECOLOGY SCHOOLS At Selingue, the site of the historic International Forum for Food Sovereignty (2007) and following up on the Forum for Agroecology (2015), La Via Campesina's International Center for Training in Peasant Agroecology and Nyéléni recently hosted the 2017 African Continental Encounter of Agroecology Schools and Training Processes aimed at strengthening our organizational capacity to advance peasant agroecology across the continent through popular education and training processes. Read More [10] PRESS RELEASE: LA VIA CAMPESINA RESPONDS TO COP23 CALLING FOR PEASANT AGROECOLOGY La Via Campesina and their allies' proposals for addressing the climate crisis get to the root cause of the problem -- corporate control over decision-making and the resulting processes of land and water grabbing, peasant criminalization and human rights abuses in the transnational supply chains used to produce food. Read More [9] FEATURED VIDEOS [11] The end of Corporate Impunity is coming! Watch Video [12] [13] Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations: Tchenna Maso presenting the proposal by social movements Watch Video [14] YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE AUTONOMY OF OUR MOVEMENT ------------------------- As a supporter who has contributed financial resources to La Via Campesina, and as an activist who joins us on the streets and in the fields, your support is always welcome and put to good use. You can renew your contribution to La Via Campesina by clicking here [1]. [15] [16] Twitter [16] [17] Facebook [17] [18] Vimeo [18] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [2] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [19] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [20] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [2] Links: ------ [1] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [2] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wto-building-alternatives-la-via-campesina-orga… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/human-rights-above-interests-transnational-corp… [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/viith-session-international-seed-treaty-lets-no… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/fifth-international-encounter-of-migrations-and… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/in-solidarity-with-all-climate-change-affected-… [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/affected-world-unite/ [9] https://viacampesina.org/en/ceta-the-wrong-deal-people-says-national-farmer… [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/report-la-via-campesinas-african-continental-en… [11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJmeT-kEyRo [12] https://tv.viacampesina.org/The-End-of-Corporate-Impunity-is?lang=en [13] https://vimeo.com/240783710 [14] https://tv.viacampesina.org/Binding-Treaty-on-Transnational?lang=en [15] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [16] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [17] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [18] https://vimeo.com/viacampesina [19] http://www.viacampesina.org [20] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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“WTO, Out! Building Alternatives”: La Via Campesina to organise Peoples’ Summit during WTO’s XI Ministerial Conference in Argentina
by La Via Campesina 17 Nov '17

17 Nov '17

_"WTO, OUT! BUILDING ALTERNATIVES"_: LA VIA CAMPESINA TO ORGANISE PEOPLES' SUMMIT DURING WTO'S XI MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN ARGENTINA 15 November 2017: La Via Campesina is calling upon social movements and civil society organisations of the world to mobilise and organise our resistances against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), build solidarity alliances and to participate in the People's Summit "_WTO, OUT! BUILDING ALTERNATIVES_", from the 10-13 December coinciding with the XI WTO Misniterial in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A preliminary agenda of the summit is available here [1]. _As you may note, this is currently only available in Spanish. We will make the English version available shortly._ For the first time since its inception, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is planning to meet in Latin America. From the 10th to the 13th of December, Mauricio Macri's government will host the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Entrepreneurs, ministers, chancellors, and even presidents will be there. To do what? To demand more "freedom" for their companies, more "ease of doing business" for exploiting workers, peasants, indigenous people, and taking over land and territories. In other words, less "restrictions" on transnational wastage. Since its beginnings in 1995 as derivative of General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATTs), the World Trade Organization has promoted the most brutal form of capitalism, better known as trade liberalization. At successive Ministerial Conferences, the WTO has set out to globalize the liberalisation of national markets, promising economic prosperity at the cost of sovereignty. In more or less the same terms, by its "liberalization, deregulation and privatization", which is called Package of Neoliberalism, WTO has encouraged the multiplication of free trade agreements (FTAs) between countries and regional blocs, etc. On this basis and by making use of governments that have been co-opted, the world's largest transnational corporations (TNCs) are seeking to undermine democracy and all of the institutional instruments for defending the lives, the territories, and the food and agricultural ecosystems of the world's peoples. In the previous Ministerial Conference (MC) in Nairobi in 2015, WTO had made six decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to LDCs. The agricultural decisions cover commitment to abolish export subsidies for farm exports, public stockholding for food security purposes, a special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and measures related to cotton. Decisions were also made regarding preferential treatment for least developed countries (LDCs) in the area of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs may benefit from trade preferences. This year, with Macri Inc. in the Casa Rosada (Government House in Argentina), the coup leader Michel Temer in the Palacio del Planalto (the oficial workplace of the president of Brazil), and Brazilian Roberto Azevedo as its Director General, the WTO wants to return to the subject of agriculture, to put an end to small-scale fishing, and to make progress with multilateral agreements such as the misnamed General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Notwithstanding the misleading protectionist statements coming from Washington and London, the WTO will meet again to try to impose the interests of capital at the cost of Planet Earth, of the democratic aspirations of the world's peoples, and of life itself. During these 20+ years of struggle against the WTO, the world's peoples have resisted its attempt to globalize everything, including the food and agricultural systems, for the benefit of the TNCs. Our struggles have been the biggest impediment to the advance of the WTO, and there is no doubt that La Via Campesina has played a decisive part. Our resistance to market liberalisation under this neoliberal regime has continued since the Uruguay round conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Ever since, La Via Campesina has mobilised against almost all of the Ministerial Conferences since Seattle (1999) and Cancún (2003) - where our brother Lee Kyung Hae, holding a banner declaring that "The WTO kills peasants", sacrificed his own life - and up to Bali (2013) and Nairobi (2015). This year, from December 10 to 13, an international delegation of La Via Campesina will be in Buenos Aires to participate actively in multiple mobilisations, forums and debates of the organised people, at the Peoples' Summit "_WTO, OUT! – BUILDING ALTERNATIVES_". We will denounce the WTO as the criminal organization that it is and will raise our flag of Food Sovereignty. We will denounce all governments, which, after having understood that the WTO had been weakened, resorted to mega free trade agreements, bilateral and regional, that threaten to annihilate our food systems, just as the WTO has done in the last two decades. We are calling upon all of our member organisations - in each and every country - to mobilise during this Peoples' Summit, identifying the best moment, and best alliances, to denounce the WTO and the numerous bilateral and regional free trade agreements based on our own contexts. We insist that agriculture should not be part of any of the WTO negotiations! FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY WTO OUT OF AGRICULTURE! GLOBALISE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALISE HOPE! ------------------------- You can email the details of your solidarity actions to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org OR tag us on our official Facebook or Twitter pages facebook.com/viacampesinaOfficia [2]l Twitter: @via_campesina [3] / @via_campesinaES [4] / @viacampesinaFR [5] HASHTAGS: #WTOKills #FoodSovereigntyNOW #OutWTO ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/es/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/Programa-pre… [2] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [3] https://twitter.com/via_campesina [4] https://twitter.com/via_campesinaSP [5] https://twitter.com/viacampesinaFR

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Press Release: La Via Campesina responds to COP23 calling for Peasant Agroecology
by La Via Campesina 09 Nov '17

09 Nov '17

PRESS RELEASE: LA VIA CAMPESINA RESPONDS TO COP23 CALLING FOR PEASANT AGROECOLOGY 9 November 2017 BONN (GERMANY), NOVEMBER 9, 2017 : Peasants, small farmers and Indigenous peoples 'feed the world and cool the planet.' This is what the global peasant movement, La Via Campesina, has come to Bonn, Germany, to put onto the agenda at the COP23 climate meetings -- both in the official space and at the People's Climate Summit where social movements met to strategize for alternatives to capitalism and its climate crisis. According to ETC Group, peasants and Indigenous peoples are the sole food providers for 70 percent of the world's population, and they use only 30 percent of the earth's natural resources to get all of the food to the table. > "No chemical has ever touched our soil. We have held onto our traditional seeds which withstand many of the climate challenges we are facing", explained Michaelin Sibanda, a young peasant from Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF). "We know that, to have healthy food and healthy ecosystems, we need to have healthy soil." The principles of agroecology help to conserve water, soils and seeds. But, for La Via Campesina, agroecology is also political: "It is proven that there is resilience in agroecology, and resilience is also resistance -- it relates to the way we organize collectively and bring together concrete proposals for change that are sustained by work and struggle in our different territories," explained Jesús Vázquez, a young organizer and activist from the Organization Boricuá of Agroecology in Puerto Rico. In September 2017, Puerto Rico was devastated by two, back-to-back hurricanes which severely undermined all aspects of life on the island, including food production. Vázquez continued, > "In the context of these hurricanes, we have witnessed that agroecological practices are more resistant to extreme weather phenomena, they bring resilience. Many roots and tubers, have pulled through the disaster. Many peasants and farmers are already back in the fields planting and cultivating despite the fact that the Secretary of Agriculture says that agriculture is completely devastated throughout the island. We are here to remind governments that the change must be systemic." La Via Campesina and their allies' proposals for addressing the climate crisis get to the root cause of the problem -- corporate control over decision-making and the resulting processes of land and water grabbing, peasant criminalization and human rights abuses in the transnational supply chains used to produce food. "At the climate negotiations, governments are putting forward false solutions. We call them false because these proposals do not bring real change but, rather, bolster corporate profits," said Fanny Metrat, from the French peasant organization Confédération Paysanne. "Carbon markets, geoengineering, so-called climate smart agriculture are being promoted by the same people who are also promoting emission-intensive livestock production and an export-based industrial agriculture which requires massive amounts of fossil fuels. It is a big contradiction," she explained. At COP23, these contradictions are becoming clear. The German government, a big promoter of green economy, has positioned itself as spearheading efforts to address climate change while also expanding the production of coal--the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet. The international delegation of La Via Campesina members joined the over 4.000 people strong Ende Gelände ('Here, and No Further') march and civil disobedience action against Germany's largest mining company, KWE, strengthening the message that the most important action to address climate crisis is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Bernd Schmitz, from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL) the farmer member organization of La Via Campesina in Germany, underlined the need for changes in Germany. Speaking to journalists, Schmitz said, > "The consequences of global warming are felt all over the world. In Germany, we have had extreme droughts in some regions and extreme rains in others. This year, because of severe hailstorms, we lost nearly all fruit production in some areas of Germany! The government is too slow to respond to the problem. The AbL contends that smallholder agriculture, which includes a localized food chain and ecological food production, helps to solve the problem. This system uses less fossil energy, reducing the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases. Small farmers around the world urgently need support to feed people and maintain their livelihoods in the context of climate change." La Via Campesina has been joined by other frontline communities, including from within the It Takes Roots delegation of impacted communities based in the United States and also the fisherfolk and peasants within the Global Convergence for Land and Water Struggles. A representative of the West African contingent of the Convergence, Massa Koné, from Mali, was clear about the importance of working with allies to address climate change and multiple injustices: "As grassroots organizations, we have similar perspectives on the problems and what we need to do about them. La Via Campesina allows our communities to be heard. Our call for system change is urgent because the damage is growing. Commons, including land, forests and water, must be protected and restored to the people. We need to work together with our allies to be prepared for climate change." ------------------------- CONTACTS Bernd Schmitz : +49 17 73 56 55 59 [schmitz(a)abl-ev.de] Paula Gioia : +49 15 20 57 64 591 [paula.gioia(a)eurovia.org] ------------------------- Follow the updates on Twitter and Facebook using hashtag: #COP23 #NoToFalseSolutions #FoodSovereigntyRealSolution For photos and videos, please visit https://tv.viacampesina.org/

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Via-info-en November 2017