On November 25 - Peasant men and women say ‘End Violence against Women!’
by La Via Campesina
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:
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[1] https://tv.viacampesina.org/Post-cards-to-End-violence-againts
[2] https://tv.viacampesina.org/La-Via-Campesina-End-violence?lang=en
[3]
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[4] http://www.viacampesina.org/
[5] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL
[6] https://twitter.com/via_campesina
7 years, 1 month
La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | Oct 2017
by La Via Campesina
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
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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.
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[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
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7 years, 1 month
“WTO, Out! Building Alternatives”: La Via Campesina to organise Peoples’ Summit during WTO’s XI Ministerial Conference in Argentina
by La Via Campesina
_"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!
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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
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Links:
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[1]
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[2] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/
[3] https://twitter.com/via_campesina
[4] https://twitter.com/via_campesinaSP
[5] https://twitter.com/viacampesinaFR
7 years, 1 month
Press Release: La Via Campesina responds to COP23 calling for Peasant Agroecology
by La Via Campesina
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."
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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]
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Follow the updates on Twitter and Facebook using hashtag:
#COP23 #NoToFalseSolutions #FoodSovereigntyRealSolution
For photos and videos, please visit https://tv.viacampesina.org/
7 years, 2 months