Twenty-Five Years of peasants’ struggles in bringing Food Sovereignty to reality
by La Via Campesina
Twenty-Five Years of peasants' struggles in bringing Food Sovereignty
to reality
CALL FOR MOBILISATION
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HARARE, MARCH 26, 2021: At the 1996 World Food Summit La Via Campesina
put words to its vision to oppose the destructive capitalist industrial
model that is causing hunger, inequality, and the climate crisis by
defining "food sovereignty". Food sovereignty is the right of people to
autonomously produce healthy, nutritious, climatically, and culturally
appropriate food, using local resources and through agroecological
means, primarily to address the local food needs of their communities.
Food sovereignty is also necessary to guarantee food security.
Since its launch 25 years ago in Rome, food sovereignty has had
far-reaching implications on public policies, picked up by many
organizations and institutions such as the United Nations bodies (Food
and Agriculture Organisation, International Fund for Agricultural
Development, Human Rights Council, etc.). Some governments such as
Ecuador, Venezuela, Mali, Bolivia, Nepal, and Senegal, etc have included
it in their policies and some in constitutions. The Adoption of UNDROP
by the UN General Assembly in 2018 and FAO recognition of agroecology in
2015 are a testament to broader recognition and acceptance of Peoples'
Food Sovereignty by some organisations, multilateral institutions and
governments.
Despite these successes, the corporates work tirelessly to stall and
roll back further entrenchment of food sovereignty and agroecology in
public policies in various UN bodies (Human Rights Council, Committee on
World Food Security etc). The recent attempt, the UN Food System Summit,
is a clear example that corporate capture is in overdrive, using the
COVID-19 pandemic and the increased food insecurity to push for their
profit-driven interests. On our side, we believe that on the contrary,
the current COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance and the
resilience of local food systems that have kept many people from hunger
and starvation. Thus, we continue to push for a radical transformation
strategy towards a fair and decent food system for all, which recognizes
peoples' needs, accords dignity and respects nature.
This year, we celebrate 25 years of building food sovereignty. It is
indeed an opportunity to give visibility to all successes and
achievements. But more than that it is a moment to re-strengthen our
collective efforts to obtain the realization of food sovereignty during
the upcoming 25 years.
As we mark 25 years of peasants' struggle for Food Sovereignty, let's
make this anniversary a strong moment of solidarity and building
together what we mean by food sovereignty and why we think it is more
accurate and relevant than ever - showing all the dimensions of food
sovereignty as an alternative to capitalistic food system.
We, La Via Campesina, will make 2021 a year of festival of food
sovereignty and more particularly on our International days of global
actions and mobilisations: April 17 (International day of peasant
struggles[1] [1]), October 16 (International day of action for food
sovereignty of the people and against transnationals), November 25
(International day against violence against women), December 3 (Day of
action against agrotoxics and for life).
THIS #17APRIL2021, WE CALL ALL OUR MEMBERS, ALLIES AND FRIENDS TO
HIGHLIGHT A DIMENSION OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY THAT REFLECTS THE REALITY OF
THE LOCAL CONTEXT.
* Organize events to protect life and promote peasant seeds, peasants'
rights, migrant workers' rights, local food, agroecology, public
policies for food sovereignty etc.
* Symbolic actions of solidarity, film screenings, public debates,
open air community kitchen, farmers' markets and, food donation in the
cities or in the communities, are some of the proposed actions.
AROUND #17APRIL2021, WE CALL ESPECIALLY FOR CONCRETE ACTIONS OF
SOLIDARITY WITH ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLES.
The repression of peasant and citizen struggles has increased again. All
over the world, the list of threatened, killed or imprisoned social
movements' leaders is inexorably growing. We call on our members and
allies to mobilize against this increased repression and
criminalization.
IN MEMORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT KILLED ON APRIL
17, 1996 AND IN SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THOSE WHO ARE EXPERIENCING VIOLENT
REPRESSION AND CRIMINALISATION OF THEIR STRUGGLES TODAY, WE WILL PROPOSE
A GLOBAL CANDLE VIGIL SOLIDARITY ACTION AROUND APRIL 17. MORE DETAILS
WILL BE GIVEN LATER.
Let's show the world that solidarity is our strength.
Send us your photos, statements, articles, videos, posters and
mobilization actions to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org we will link all these
actions together to assemble and give life and visibility to this
collective struggle for food sovereignty.
CRIMES AND VIOLENCE AGAINST THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY MUST
STOP!
"WE FEED THE WORLD AND BUILD FOOD SOVEREIGNTY"
#17APRIL2021 #FUTUREISFOODSOVEREIGNTY
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[1] [2] On April 17th, 1996, 19 peasants were
killed when military police in the Amazonian State of Pará in Brazil
attacked a large number of members of the Landless Workers Movement
(MST) who were blockading a highway in order to demand agrarian reform.
Two more people died from their injuries several days later, and
hundreds of others were so seriously injured that they could not go on
working in agriculture. La Via Campesina, which was then in the midst of
holding its second international conference at Tlaxcala in Mexico,
declared April 17th to be the International Day of Farmers' and
Peasants' Struggle
Links:
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[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/twenty-five-years-of-peasants-struggles-in-br...
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/en/twenty-five-years-of-peasants-struggles-in-br...
3 years, 9 months
Nyéléni Newsletter: Food sovereignty in a time of pandemic
by La Via Campesina
When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public
Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, few
imagined the scale of the devastation that the disease would wreak
across the world, or for how long it would last. As COVID-19 swung from
country to country on its deadly course, it became clear that
governmental actions or inactions, and social-economic-political
contexts were as responsible as the virus for triggering impacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic is far from abating: infections continue to spike
in numerous countries with the emergence of new, more contagious strains
of the SARS-COV-2 virus. The long awaited vaccines have started to be
rolled out but may well be out of reach for majority of the world for
several months or even years due to "vaccine apartheid."
Despite the limited availability of vaccines due to the time needed for
production and testing, many wealthy nations have purchased sufficient
vaccine supplies to immunize their own populations at least twice, and
are backing monopolistic control over vaccines by pharmaceutical
companies through legally enforceable intellectual property rights in
the World Trade Organization.
This edition of the Nyéléni newsletter presents excerpts from some of
the documentation and research conducted by practitioners and advocates
of food sovereignty, particularly, Voices from the ground, From COVID-19
to radical transformation of our food systems, prepared by the Civil
Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism to Committee on World Food
Security. Links to the full reports/ papers are provided with each
excerpt.
DOWNLOAD NOW [1]
Farm Workers -Vegetable and Fruit Pickers -
Essential Worker Portrait #6 by Carolyn Olson, http://carolynolson.net
Links:
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[1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=155
3 years, 9 months
La Via Campesina: For the Right of all the people, to free and quality Public Health Care!
by La Via Campesina
FOR THE RIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE, TO FREE AND QUALITY PUBLIC HEALTH CARE!
"Physical Distancing, Yes; Social Isolation, Never! Collective care to
prevent the virus spread, Yes; Demobilized and Silent, Never".
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(HARARE, FEBRUARY 2021): We are more than a year into the crisis caused
by the COVID19 pandemic around the world. This health crisis has caused
the death of approximately two million people, and, according to
official reports, more than 77 million have been infected so far.
However, taking into account unofficial figures, this number could be
even higher. Those infected face the possibility of lifelong physical
and mental health consequences.
The set of simultaneous economic, political, health and environmental
crises that our societies are undergoing has led to a profound social
crisis - with severe setbacks in rights, unemployment, corruption,
misery, hunger, and violence throughout the world; more so in the
economically disadvantaged countries.
Though necessary, the pandemic-related lockdown with its suddenness and
lack of proper planning had grave consequences for the working class.
Few countries have responded to the issues their people faced with
economic and social support policies. In most countries, workers were
laid off, others saw their wages halved. A vast majority of those who
depend on informal work to earn an income and support their families, be
they migrant workers in the fields, peasant families on their plots or
fishers in their territories, had to bear the brunt of this crisis
without complementary income policies that would enable their families
to stay at home. Neglect of rural areas continued. Agricultural workers
- forced to work under dangerous conditions to survive - and despite
being the ones who feed the world, have no policy to protect them from
the virus or provide them with decent access to health care.
Some governments, especially those with authoritarian and pro-Corporate
leanings, have even adopted measures that allow big businesses to work
with minor restrictions. Doing this has significantly put at risk the
health of workers.
RIGHT TO FREE AND PUBLIC HEALTH – INCLUDING PREVENTION, VACCINATION AND
LONG-TERM TREATMENT!
As La Via Campesina, we demand the Right to public and free health care
for all peoples, including the processes of prevention, vaccination and
long-term treatment.
We fight for health to be recognized as a human right, especially in
this global crisis.
We demand that governments honour their obligation to protect their
populations and ensure that everyone has access to preventive, curative
and quality health care. This is also recognized by the Article 23 of
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP),
adopted by governments in 2018, which states the Right to have access in
rural areas to health services and necessary treatment.
However, most of the treatments and vaccines are under the control of
large companies and states, which in a non-transparent way, with a lot
of corruption, speculate with life and seek to increase profits. They
are distributing the available vaccines mainly among rich countries,
leading to competition between these governments, making the vaccine
available to the highest bidder. Likewise, some rich governments are
hoarding vaccines, buying doses up to five times their population, while
in dozens of poor and exploited countries, vaccines have not yet
arrived.
The commodification and politicization of vaccines will create a huge
gap between the populations of rich countries and those of poor
countries who cannot afford them. These people are entirely dependent on
the availability of the market and the willingness and ability of
governments to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. These are the
same multinational companies that dominate the markets and have the
technology to manufacture vaccines; they control the market for
equipment, medical supplies and the logistics for vaccine
transportation, storage and distribution.
AS LA VIA CAMPESINA WE AFFIRM THAT SCIENCE MUST BE AT THE SERVICE OF
HUMANITY
All members of society must have access to information and be able to
evaluate the treatments offered. We also demand the recognition of
intercultural and popular health, ancestral knowledge present in our
societies, that has a holistic view of health and has sustained
communities during the pandemic. We affirm that health care must begin
with a healthy, sustainable diet that strengthens the immune system, as
proposed by Food Sovereignty, a way of caring for the well-being of both
people and the environment.
It is unacceptable that vaccines are patented, leaving them under the
control of large transnational corporations and the market with its
constant attempts to commodify life. We demand an end to patents and to
reinstate the Right to information and public control.
Today the pandemic is a global problem, and all societies must mobilize
so that the UN, through the WHO (World Health Organization), and the
governments guarantee free public vaccination for the entire world
population. As La Via Campesina, we affirm the Right to free public
health and timely access to prevention, vaccination and treatment in
every country in the world.
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LET'S FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO A DIGNIFIED AND HEALTHY LIFE! GLOBALIZE THE
STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE!
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3 years, 10 months