La Via Campesina demands an end to the blockade against Cuba and denounces the destabilization campaign
by La Via Campesina
As stated by National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) "the losses
that the blockade has caused to Cuban agriculture in these 62 years are
enormous. But it has also demonstrated the capacity of farmers in the
search for alternatives and solutions to the problems caused by the
blockade imposed on Cuba".
CUBA HAS WORKED NON-STOP TO IMPLEMENT POLICIES TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
AND FOOD SECURITY WHICH HAVE EVEN BEEN DESCRIBED AS ADVANCED PROGRAMS BY
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE FAO. In the midst of the complex
epidemiological situation that the country is going through, the call
for sabotage, vandalism and violence is nothing more than a vile act of
opportunism and intervention.
As La Via Campesina we join the international community in demanding an
end to the immoral blockade against Cuba, and we call on our member
organizations, friends and allies to mobilize in solidarity and to
remain alert to any kind of interference and attack against the
sovereignty of Cuba.
Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples!
Read the Full Statement [1]
Links:
------
[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-demands-an-end-to-the-blocka...
3 years, 5 months
La Via Campesina denounces Israeli military raid on UAWC headquarters
by La Via Campesina
LA VIA CAMPESINA DENOUNCES ISRAELI MILITARY RAID ON UAWC HEADQUARTERS
11 JULY 2021 INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY [1]
(Harare, 10 July 2021) La Via Campesina condemns the Israeli military
raid, the damage done to the headquarters of its member organisation,
Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) on Wednesday 7 July. The
Israeli military ordered the office to be closed for six months. We
denounce the continued persecution and harassment of UAWC in attempt to
disrupt their work. The raid and closure order represents a provocative
assault on Palestinian sovereignty, considering the fact that UAWC
headquarters are located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the
jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli military raid and closure order is part of a well planned
aggressive defamation and defunding campaign against not only UAWC but
the Palestinian civil society at large. It is aimed at neutralizing any
form of peaceful organization of the Palestinian people. UAWC is not
only one of the most active organizations in Palestine, but also
spearheads the struggle for food sovereignty and peasant rights in the
Arab region and North Africa (ArNa). It also coordinates La Via
Campesina's regional articulation process of peasant movements the
region. Through its work in and across rural Palestine, UAWC has made
extremely valuable and life-changing contributions to the lives of
thousands of smallholder peasants, fishers, herders and agricultural
workers. Following the recent military attacks against Gaza in May which
damaged many infrastructures, UAWC is actively involved in rebuilding
the livelihoods of the affected communities.
In response to UAWC success, Israeli entities continuously engage in
sustained and brutal incitement campaign against the organisation as it
provides peaceful and rightful agricultural support to Palestinian
peasants, especially those in area "C"- an area facing accelerated
Israeli occupation through land grabbing and annexation.
We call on our members, as well as allied organizations, to raise
awareness on the Palestinian situation, and increase their voices in
denouncing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and call for an end in
violence against the Palestinian people.
We also call on the international community and human rights
organisations to demand that the necessary measures be taken to stop the
violence and advance in the construction of peace.
In solidarity with the Palestinian people, we increase our call to
strengthen the BDS movement to undermine the terrible policy of
apartheid that our Palestinian sisters and brothers suffer today. This
is urgent, it cannot wait any longer! Lets join and commit to the
Boycott Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign [2] in order to end Israeli
Apartheid and its war crimes. First and foremost, join BDS now [3]! The
boycott is economic, academic and cultural [4]!
La Via Campesina stands in solidarity with Palestinian people and their
legitimate organizations as they resist the oppressor!
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!
GLOBALIZE HOPE!
Links:
------
[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-for/international-solida...
[2] https://bdsmovement.net/
[3] https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved
[4] https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/join-a-bds-campaign
3 years, 6 months
UAWC Statement after Israeli military raid on headquarters
by La Via Campesina
UAWC STATEMENT AFTER ISRAELI MILITARY RAID ON HEADQUARTERS
9 JULY 2021 INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY [1]
9 July 2021 (Download PDF UAWC statement [2])
On Wednesday 7 July 2021 at around 3:00 am, Israeli occupation forces
raided the headquarters of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees
(UAWC) in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, leaving behind a standard military order
dictating the closure of our main office for 6 months.
When invading, the Israeli occupation forces demolished our entrance
door, caused a mess in the office and damaged part of our furniture (see
photos and this video [3]posted on twitter). In addition, they stole
five hard drives, one laptop, a digital video recorder, as well as
several books and documents.
UAWC condemns the Israeli raid, the damage done to our office and the
military closure order in the strongest terms. This order is
illegitimate and clearly politically-motivated. It targets our
headquarters in order to disrupt our organization as a whole.
The raid and closure order represents a particularly provocative assault
on Palestinian sovereignty, considering the fact that our headquarters
are located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under full control of
the Palestinian Authority, to which we respond.
We have moved to another office, where we are continuing our work with
high determination to fulfil our obligations and commitments towards
thousands of vulnerable Palestinian farmers and their families in Area
C.
The Israeli raid and closure order cannot be seen detached from the
aggressive defamation and defunding campaign by the Israeli government
and organizations affiliated with it, directed at UAWC and Palestinian
civil society at large. These campaigns have been documented [4]by
international NGOs and been recognized [5]and condemned [6]by the UN.
More specifically, the Israeli raid on our headquarters cannot be seen
in isolation from the 'review' the Dutch government has launched last
year into UAWC, in response to pressure from the Israeli government and
organizations affiliated with it. This investigation has had a
catalysing effect on the defamation and defunding campaign UAWC has been
exposed [7]to for years, to disrupt our work in Area C.
While UAWC has cooperated with the Dutch review, we cannot ignore it has
already done tremendous damage to our organization, partners and and
beneficiaries - without any wrongdoing or neglect on UAWC's part having
been established so far.
We call on our partners and donors, and the Dutch government in
particular, to condemn the Israeli raid and closure order against UAWC
and to pressure the Israeli authorities to retract that order, so we can
restore our organizational capacity.
Doing so is also relevant to protecting Palestinian civil society at
large against the escalating Israeli campaigns and measures, aimed at
entrenching the Israeli occupation and annexation of Palestine and at
defeating the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom, human rights
and dignity.
Following the Israeli raid on and closure of our headquarters, we have
received countless solidarity calls and e-mails from local and
international civil society organizations and diplomatic missions.
We are most grateful for these heartening expressions of support for
UAWC.
In addition, we warmly welcome all international solidarity and
fundraising campaigns (see La Via Campesina Fundraising Campaign [8]) in
support of UAWC - they are essential at this critical hour.
_UAWC headquarters in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, after Israeli military raid on
7 July 2021 around 3:00am:_
--
Links:
------
[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-for/international-solida...
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/2021-07-09...
[3] https://twitter.com/RZabaneh/status/1412678967467913217?s=20
[4]
https://target-locked-obs-defenders.org/IMG/pdf/obs_palestine2021ang-1.pdf
[5]
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21279&a...
[6]
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-operations-undermined-delegi...
[7] https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-funding-uawc-israel-lobby/
[8]
https://viacampesina.org/en/act-now-to-support-gazas-farmers-farmworkers-...
3 years, 6 months
LGBTQIA+ Peasants in Struggle: Free Our Land, Free Our Bodies
by La Via Campesina
Umut Vedat, La Via Campesina
LGBTQIA+ PEASANTS IN STRUGGLE: FREE OUR LAND, FREE OUR BODIES
BUILDING PRACTICES FOR LIBERATION AND TACKLING LGBTQIA-PHOBIA IN RURAL
AREAS ARE ONGOING PROCESSES IN LA VIA CAMPESINA.
By Capire
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual. June 28th is
International LGBTQIA+ Pride Day. The LGBTQIA+ struggle is diverse and
faces different challenges in different parts of the world. The LGBTQIA+
grassroots feminist peasant struggle encompasses and transcends the
sense of pride one feels in their own existence--it's about the action
of a collective will to promote change toward a world without the fences
that control the land and without those that control bodies and
sexualities. But this peasant struggle is usually hidden behind
hegemonic discourses about who LGBTQIA+ subjects are, as if this were an
urban or individual issue. CAPIRE spoke with Paula Gioia, Yeva Swart,
Cony Oviedo, and Alessandro Mariano, members of La Via Campesina in
Europe and South America, about the participation and the contributions
of LGBTQIA+ people to the collective political knowledge of the peasant
movement.
Paula Gioia is a Brazilian migrant apiarist in Germany, a member of the
Association for Peasant Agriculture (_Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche
Landwirtschaft--_AbL), and a representative for Europe in the
International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina. Yeva Swart is
a Dutch sheepherder in France and a member of Farmers for the Future
_(T__oekomstboeren)_. Cony Oviedo is an educator, communicator, poet,
and member of the National Coordination of Indigenous and Rural Women
Workers' Organization (_Coordinadora Nacional de Organización __de
Mujeres __Trabajadoras Rurales __e Indígenas_--CONAMURI) in Paraguay.
Alessandro Mariano is an educator and a member of the National LGBT
Collective of the Landless Workers' Movement (_Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra--_MST) in Brazil.
THE REAL LIVES OF LGBTQIA+ PEASANTS
In the world we live, coming out as gender nonconforming often means
feeling lonely. Gender binarism and heteronormative family standards
often become obstacles to experiencing diversity, a control that can
lead to silence, violence, depression, and alienation. The media and
religious sectors promote prejudicial stereotypes that dictate what an
LGBTQIA+ person "looks like" or "doesn't look like." "There is an
association with an image of someone who likes to have fun, and not
someone who can be disciplined or have a life project," Cony Oviedo
says.
> When people find out you are a lesbian, they say, "you don't look like it"
In several parts of the world, people leave rural territories to escape
precarious wage work and conflicts with destructive megaprojects imposed
by big corporations, pursuing promises of a "better life" in the city.
Additionally, family traditions and moral standards in the countryside
are also reasons that lead LGBTQIA+ peasants to leave rural areas.
"Although in Europe there is not the same level of violence that LGBT
people face in other countries, rural areas are often still not a
welcoming place for gender diverse people," Paula Gioia says. "It's
important to understand and highlight that, when you don't need to worry
about hiding yourself, your sexuality, and gender identity, you can
contribute much more to our common struggle towards food sovereignty
[1]." Especially after the hardships that emerged during the pandemic,
many young people are willing to return to the countryside. Organizing
communities is a possible strategy to come back stronger and promote
mutual support. "Building and living as communities is already such a
queer way of living and working together."
> For fear of the stigma, many sisters and comrades hide themselves and will only say "I'm lesbian," "I'm bisexual," when they are in spaces they trust... In the communities, there is a culture that passes on from generation to generation. We must promote a cultural change in our behaviors and roles and formulate ways to stop seeing these commands that seem right as if they were natural. Cony Oviedo
_Laís Alann, MST, Brasil_
Rural areas are diverse and vast [2], although this is often
invisibilized. Indigenous communities, people from traditional Black
communities, peoples from forests and waters, small farmers, herders,
fishers, beekeepers, migrants, and seasonal workers, who have such
diverse ways of living and forms of experiencing their sexuality. In the
global South, these multiple possibilities have been and continue to be
obstructed by colonial, slave-like, imperialist interventions. "How does
the violence imposed against our ancestors' bodies continue to this day
against our bodies as well?" Alessandro Mariano asks.
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND FREEDOM TO BE AND LOVE THE WAY WE WANT
LGBTQIA+ people are struggling to continue to live in rural areas,
resisting agribusiness [3] and producing healthy food and healthy
relationships. "Between capitalism and patriarchy, they want to tell us
it's all divided, that we are not one," Cony says. For La Via Campesina,
these are not different fronts, and separating them into different
"boxes" leads to fragmentation that blocks change. The peasant,
feminist, Black, Indigenous, migrant, and LGBTQIA+ struggle is a
comprehensive struggle for the liberation and self-determination of
_body-territories_ and _land-territories._
There is a direct relationship of solidarity between those who produce
food and struggle for food sovereignty and the people who need food the
most. Yeva Swart says, "often the rhetoric around LGBTQ people is about
love, and I think it is much more than that. LGBT struggles and food
sovereignty is also about questioning certain powers." Paula adds, "the
problems that we have are based on patriarchy and power relations, not
on what nature actually offers."
MST Brasil
THE LGBTQIA+ STRUGGLE IS FEMINIST AND ANTI-PATRIARCHAL
For many years, La Via Campesina has been building grassroots peasant
feminism [4] as a tool for women's struggle and organizing [5]. In
Europe, the movement is also working on the concept of queer feminism,
fighting the binary model of patriarchy. By promoting a feminist
conversation and practices that are rooted in their territories, the
women in the movement face violence and the sexual division of labor,
while playing a key role in food sovereignty, producing food, protecting
seeds, and sustaining life.
According to Cony Oviedo, "La Via Campesina's grassroots peasant
feminism is built from the needs of our sisters. It's feminism from
everyday life, struggling against agribusiness, mining, and extractivist
companies, and it carries the flag for agroecology [6] and food
sovereignty." "We live in a binary world where genders overlap.
Transsexuality disrupts that, including nonbinary," Alessandro Mariano
adds. Sexual and gender diversity is not just about being able to love
whoever you want, but also about being able to exist as you are: trans,
homosexual, bisexual, intersexual, or asexual.
The struggles waged by women and LGBTQIA+ people come together as they
challenge the control and violence perpetrated by racist and
heteropatriarchal capitalism against bodies and territories. They also
come together in the desire to promote change toward an equal and free
society.
> Peasant feminism is actively fighting against intersectional prejudices faced in today's society. The core of it is that LGBT people and women are questioning gender roles, and the imposed division of work Yeva Swart
Grassroots organizations are tasked to radically change society, and
this includes building relationships of camaraderie, respect, and
parity. This way, organizing spaces can be territories that are free
from inequality, exploitation, and discrimination. "In the
long-established tradition of the peasant struggle, which is deep-rooted
in the idea of male leaders, there is a process of expanding this
struggle to include women and all this diversity. More women, more
trans, lesbian, and bisexual people," Alessandro says about the
challenges facing La Via Campesina.
The experience in Europe also points to the need to change the bases of
patriarchal relationships. "The roles for male and female on the farms
are often very strict. There are a lot of similarities in the different
European countries and the discussion that we launched in the European
Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) was important to realize and
understand that each of us is not alone and, secondly, to start
developing strategies to strengthen ourselves and our contributions to
the movement as well," Paula says.
European Coordination Via Campesina [7] (ECVC), 2018
GRASSROOTS PRACTICES IN EVERYDAY LIFE TO FACE LGBTQIA-PHOBIA
Around 2015, different organizations with La Via Campesina started to
discuss an LGBTQIA agenda and organization [8]. It took courage and
sensitivity to conduct this process, considering the cultural, age, and
regional diversity of La Via Campesina across the 81 countries where it
is present.
In Europe, the conversations about these topics started during the 2015
Women's Assembly in the framework of the ECVC General Assembly, where
the debate really started to get traction. "One of our member
organizations, _Sindicato Labrego Galego _[Galician Peasants' Union],
immediately adopted this agenda to their work and, as they usually say,
'they came out as an organization,'" Paula says. In 2017, the Basque
Country hosted the 7th International Conference of La Via Campesina,
which became a milestone as the starting point for building the LGBTQIA+
struggle on an international level within the organization [9].
Paula explains that "gender diversity was not part of the official
agenda of the conference. We managed to prepare, previously to the
conference, some actions for the conference. We organized an exhibition
with pictures, articles, and materials from different regions. People
were walking around the conference with stickers and pins with the
rainbow flag. Our strategy was to start bringing this agenda in
'homeopathic doses' to the movement."
This process eventually led to the 1stLGBTIQ Meeting of the European
Coordination Via Campesina [10], in 2018, dedicated to building spaces
for sexual and gender diversity within peasant organizing. On June 28th,
La Via Campesina Europe takes the opportunity on International LGBTQIA+
Pride Day to launch the publication _Embracing Rural Diversity: Genders
and Sexualities in the Peasant Movement_ [11],in Spanish, English, and
French, featuring militants' political stories about their personal and
collective experiences and reflections.
The seed of the LGBT collective of La Via Campesina Brazil [12] was
planted in 2015, when it started to organize seminars and meetings. The
collective was effectively established in 2020, with the participation
of ten organizations, holding monthly meetings and formulating a
synthesis that was organized in a publication [13].
In Paraguay, the CONAMURI started to collectively build a process in
2016 to tackle LGBTQIA-phobia, inspired by the Brazilian experience.
That same year, the _Aireana_collective, an organization of lesbian
peasant women, proposed that the CONAMURI should organize a landless
LGBTI meeting in Paraguay. Later, in 2017, the CONAMURI also became
closer to the Panamby collective of trans women who create art
interventions. The exchanges and activities were fundamental for the
national coordination of the CONAMURI to take on the topic as part of
its agenda.
Today, the militants of the two countries are organizing to build a
regional effort of LGBTQIA+ people with La Via Campesina in South
America. This way, LGBTQIA+ peasants feel more welcomed by the
organization, because their existence is no longer defended just
individually, but by the entire movement. In May this year, in Brazil,
the MST lost Lindolfo Kosmaski, a militant, peasant, teacher, and gay
man who was killed in his own community. For militants, the murder of
Lindolfo is a consequence of the hate resulting from the rise of
conservatism.
> Patriarchy destroys, capitalism wages war, LGBT blood is landless blood too! MST
According to Yeva, talking about gender diversity is the right thing to
do in face of the current political situation. "There is a growing
right-wing in Europe with a lot of anti-LGBT laws being adopted. People
are struggling against patriarchy and religious ideas as well about
gender and about sexuality. From the situation of women or LGBT people,
the same issues arise when it comes to peasants' rights, for example
regarding access to land and inheritance."
About this international movement building, Paula recalls that, "in some
countries where we have membership, being homosexual or transexual is
still reason for you to go to jail. In some places it's so prohibited
that people are killed." This is why the struggle is not homogeneous.
Paying attention to specific aspects that are different in every place
is a powerful way to build a multiple and diverse organization of
LGBTQIA+ peasants, who are political actors fighting for food
sovereignty. "That's why it is so important for us to build very strong
regional processes of discussion. Once we have different strong regional
processes we can build it at the international level. We are working in
that direction and the work from some regions can serve as inspiration
to other regions."
_Manon Roland illustration on "Embracing Rural Diversity," 2021_
Words by Helena Zelic and Bianca Pessoa
Translated from Portuguese by Aline Scátola
Original languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and English
Links:
------
[1] https://capiremov.org/en/tag/food-sovereignty/
[2]
https://capiremov.org/en/multimedia/gallery/peasant-struggles-and-food-so...
[3]
https://capiremov.org/en/analysis/the-struggle-for-food-sovereignty-is-th...
[4]
https://capiremov.org/en/interview/pancha-rodriguez-food-sovereignty-is-a...
[5] https://capiremov.org/en/analysis/popular-peasant-feminism/
[6]
https://capiremov.org/en/experience/peasant-women-nurturing-feminism-and-...
[7] https://www.facebook.com/ECVC1/?__tn__=-UC*F
[8]
https://viacampesina.org/en/gender-diversity-in-the-peasant-movement/
[9]
https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-peasants-initiate-debate-gen...
[10]
https://viacampesina.org/en/peasants-and-farm-workers-in-europe-call-it-t...
[11]
https://www.eurovia.org/embracing-rural-diversity-genders-and-sexualities...
[12]
https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/videos/543765863171822
[13]
https://www.cptnacional.org.br/attachments/article/5462/PDF_CARTILHA_LGBT...
3 years, 6 months