Via-info-en May 2023

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La Via Campesina responds to the WTO’s purported plans to set up a ‘Civil Society Council’
by La Via Campesina 30 May '23

30 May '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* La Via Campesina responds to the WTO’s purported plans to set up a ‘Civil Society Council’ 29 May 2023 Key Documents (WTO) <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>, World Trade Organisation <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> Recently, La Via Campesina received a request to participate in a civil society “council” to the WTO executive. After careful consideration, we decided to decline this invitation. *Through this open letter*, we wish to explain why we believe it is impossible to reform the WTO in a way that is favourable to peasants and, more generally, to the interests of the people. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Since 1995, the WTO has aimed to facilitate and increase the share of international trade in world production and consumption. Compared to the GATT, one of the main changes brought about by the creation of the WTO was to integrate agriculture into this logic of generalized free trade. As early as 1993, La Via Campesina, as a world peasant movement, was created against this logic of globalization and commodification of agriculture and food. The principles of free-market ideology and the legal frameworks that have governed international trade over the past three decades have deep roots in the history of colonialism. It was clear to the vast majority of peasant organizations around the world that giving priority to international trade over agricultural production for feeding local populations would only accentuate the marginalization of peasant populations, worsen hunger in the world and increase the power of transnational companies. The Agreement on Agriculture, which came into force in 1995 and was to be applied for a limited period of time, is so unfair that, since then, no agreement has ever been reached between the WTO member states on the agricultural issue. As the title of the late Jacques Berthelot’s book expresses it, “agriculture is the Achilles heel of globalization”, and therefore the eternal Achilles heel of the WTO. *This year, in 2023, we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragic death of our brother, friend and comrade Lee Kyung Hae from South Korea* who gave his life in Cancun in 2003 to denounce the WTO. In his memory, we call to finally end the WTO and build a new framework for fair international trade based on food sovereignty. An unfair agreement on agriculture The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is fundamentally unfair. It is the direct result of the 1992 Blair House agreement between the United States and the European Union, which sets out a common strategy for these two actors to the detriment of the other states of the world, and in particular against the interests of the countries of the Global South. Export subsidies are certainly limited in principle (although in reality they continue via various mechanisms), but replaced by direct support from the US and the EU to farmers. However, this direct aid, whose very purpose is to maintain the competitiveness of US and European production on international markets, is classified in the “green box” of so-called “non-distorting” support. Most countries in the South do not have the budgetary capacity to distribute such levels of public aid to farmers: the green box is reserved for rich countries that control international monetary production. On the contrary, market regulation tools and in particular agricultural price support measures (tariffs, supply management mechanisms, MSP minimum support prices, public stockholding, etc.), which are more accessible to poor countries, are classified in the amber box and are therefore subject to significant reductions. The AoA is an agreement tailored to the United States and the EU, against the countries of the South. African, Asian and Latin American countries have very good reasons to denounce this unfair agreement. From the point of view of peasants in the South and the North, this agreement has had disastrous consequences, as we predicted in 1993. All over the world, the power of transnational companies has increased and they have succeeded in increasing their margins to the detriment of the peasants, who have received only a minimal share of the value of their production. In the South, these companies have also grabbed more and more land, water sources and seeds, to the detriment of peasant communities and often in a violent way, based on the WTO agreements, but also on the structural adjustment programmes imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. In the North, farmers on small and medium-sized farms have received little or no direct aid (80% of farms in the EU are smaller than 10 hectares), but they have suffered from the fall and volatility of agricultural prices following the dismantling of market regulation tools (the end of milk quotas for example). They were put in competition with large farms that received tens of thousands of dollars or euros in public subsidies. More generally, the AoA has been a disaster for people and the environment. Food supply chains have become globalised: when major shocks occur on international markets and prices soar with financial speculation, indebted countries that have become dependent on imports to feed their populations are extremely vulnerable, as we saw at the time of the 2008 crisis, but also currently. Thus, far from the declarations of the 1996 food summit which promised to end hunger through international trade, the opposite is happening. Hunger is increasing, fuelled by poverty and social inequality. Rural populations are driven out of their territories by land grabbing and lack of agricultural income and migrate to cities or neighbouring countries. Agrarian countries are becoming poorer. Huge industrial monocultures for export are replacing the diverse mixed farming methods that used to produce healthy food for local populations. Pesticides, synthetic fertilisers and GMO seeds are proliferating and polluting the water, soil and air, seriously affecting the health of rural populations. This is the result of almost 30 years of AoA: green deserts, hunger and a dying countryside. *La Via Campesina’s historic struggles for food sovereignty* On the contrary, since 1996 we have affirmed the need to build and defend food sovereignty, i.e. the right of peoples to decide on their agricultural and food policies, without dumping on other peoples. Food sovereignty includes the right of peoples, and therefore of States, to distribute land and water use rights not according to a so-called “law of the market”, but according to the general interest. It includes the right of states to put in place public policies to regulate the market so as to guarantee agricultural production in line with the needs of the population and at stable prices. It considers the importance of production methods, and in particular agroecology, to protect the health of territories and populations. It gives priority to local production and consumption of food, not to exports of agricultural goods. It puts people, especially small-scale food producers, and in particular women and youth, at the centre, rather than the interests of transnational companies and financial actors. For years, we have seen that the WTO continues to be a powerful instrument for the destruction of people’s food sovereignty. The WTO is used by rich, agro-exporting countries to denounce and criminalise policies that aim to support peasant agriculture, regulate agricultural markets and stabilise food prices for people. For example, the constant denunciation via the WTO of public storage is a shame. In March 2022, we were given access to WTO documents that contained threats to use the dispute settlement body against Egypt, which expressed a pressing need to increase its public stocks to ensure food for its population in the face of the sudden rise in prices on international markets. Similarly, the group of African countries, India, China, South Africa, the G33 and the ACP group have been expressing the need to allow public storage to support their local food production and fight hunger for many years, and they are not being heard. Food sovereignty is not compatible with the AoA, nor with the very principles of the WTO. This is why we have always denounced the AoA and said “Down Down WTO”. *NO to a reform of the WTO, YES to multilateral negotiations outside the WTO to create an International trade framework based on food sovereignty* You invite us to participate in a council to “reform the WTO”. But food sovereignty can never be achieved by the WTO, whose very purpose, the globalisation of international trade and the accentuation of “free trade”, is contrary to food sovereignty. So we are obliged to refuse this invitation. Based on information gathered from multiple sources, La Via Campesina has come to understand that even within the WTO, there is resistance to the Director General’s (DG) unilateral establishment of such bodies, particularly from developing countries. It appears that this initiative by the DG is driven by business groups who have evident vested interests in a business advisory council. Consequently, it seems that the creation of a CSO council is merely a superficial gesture. We strongly reject it! The last time you invited us to the negotiation table (and we refused) was in 2005, following the failure of the negotiations in Hong Kong, in the face of an existential crisis of your organisation that since then has never been resolved. This crisis is now reaching a climax. You are trying to save your organisation by launching yet another reform process, but without ever calling into question the very philosophy of the WTO and the reason for your failure. Agriculture remains your “Achilles heel”. We, the global peasant movement, do not want to negotiate with the WTO. We want the Agreement on Agriculture repealed and we want the WTO to give us a breath : we want the WTO out of agriculture. The demise of the WTO is inevitable. Your organization has not only demonstrated its futility, but more importantly, its detrimental impact. Faced with the immense challenges facing humanity – world hunger, the climate crisis, wars, inflation, social inequalities, the collapse of biodiversity, pandemics, etc. – the responses you propose are making the crises worse. More and more states are realising that no solution will be found with the institutions that have been the Trojan horses of Western neo-liberalism, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, for it is these institutions that have led to the current disaster. However, these states have not yet found the means to set up alternative institutions to meet their needs. “The old world is dying, the new world is slow to appear” We fully understand the need for states not to be excluded from the possibility of participating in international trade. The situation of states that are subject to unilateral unjust sanctions excluding them from international trade shows the importance of a fair framework for agricultural trade in particular. La Via Campesina does not defend autarky, but food sovereignty. Thus, we call on states not to waste time in sterile negotiations at the WTO around a hypothetical “reform” that has never led to anything for more than 20 years. *We invite states, and in particular the countries of the Global South, to sit around the table to negotiate a new framework for fair and inclusive international trade based on food sovereignty. *These negotiations could take place in any space that respects genuine multilateralism where all states are truly equal and where the voice of civil society organisations and in particular small-scale food producers will be heard and taken into account, for example at the FAO or UNCTAD. We, La Via Campesina, commit ourselves to work for this new international framework, just as we did for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Rural Workers (UNDROP). We place ourselves under the good auspices of our brother, friend and comrade Lee Kyung Hae to carry out this necessary task. *Globalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope ! Faced with Global Crises, We Build Food Sovereignty, to Ensure a Future for Humanity !* *La Via Campesina 29 May 2023* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For press enquiries, write to *press(a)viacampesina.org* Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>WhatsApp <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>Telegram <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2…> Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fv…> Link <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%…> Website <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…> For questions or comments, email *lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org *TV:* www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…>

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Colombia: La Via Campesina’s International Solidarity Mission expresses hope, praises the political will to achieve peace.
by La Via Campesina 26 May '23

26 May '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Colombia: La Via Campesina’s International Solidarity Mission expresses hope, praises the political will to achieve peace. 11 May 2023 Colombia Peace Process <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> *Bogota, 11 May 2023* : An international delegation of La Via Campesina (LVC), the international peasant movement accompanying the implementation process of the Peace Agreement in Colombia expresses its satisfaction and hope, and praises the political will of the current Colombian government to implement the agreement. Following a visit to the */Sumapaz Campesino Reserve Zone /*(ZRC), the visiting delegates held a public forum and also met with Colombian government officials and other members of civil society to take stock of the implementation of the peace agreement. Although many of the accord’s commitments have yet to be fulfilled, La Via Campesina’s solidarity mission welcomed the Colombian government’s commitment to recognize peasants as political subjects and to harmonize policies derived from the peace accord with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). The movement also*issued a public statement on May 9 <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>*, recognizing the importance of agrarian justice measures to ensure the transition and expressing our full support for the creation of an Agrarian Court in Colombia. Nury Martinez, ICC LVC, FENSUAGRO, Colombia, who hosted the visiting delegation, stated, “Colombia is a diverse country. It needs a development plan that recognizes this diversity. The congressional labor reforms are a step in the right direction. The pension system for rural workers proposed in one of these reforms is something we welcome and value. The recognition of peasants as subjects with political rights, their protection as a constitutional right and the harmonization of all institutions and agencies at the regional level are central to this peace process. The Executive Orders should also be modified to prevent companies from taking advantage of legal loopholes to take more land from the people”. Federico Pacheco, ICC, LVC and SOC SAT Spain, reiterated LVC’s commitment to the process noting that: “Agrarian reform is central to the struggles of La Via Campesina. As LVC, we are very optimistic about the new government’s commitment to implement the peace agreement, including comprehensive agrarian reform.” Zainal Arifin Fuad, ICC LVC, Serikat Petani Indonesia, drew parallels with land reform plans in his country. “In Indonesia, SPI is also fighting for agrarian reform, through the creation of agricultural villages and food sovereignty zones, to offer an alternative to neoliberalism and achieve food sovereignty. We are working closely with the Indonesian government to implement this reform and also to harmonize the laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. It is good to see that the Colombian government is also taking these steps, and they are going in the right direction.” La Via Campesina’s delegation reaffirms its commitment to the implementation of the Agreement and the construction of Peace in Colombia, and will continue to develop its work as an international accompaniment in order to contribute to the development of Agrarian Reform in Colombia. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For queries write to press(a)viacampesina.org Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2…> Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fv…> Link <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%…> Website <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…> For questions or comments, email *lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org *TV:* www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…>

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La Via Campesina Denounces Israeli Aggression in Gaza and Stands in Solidarity with Palestine
by La Via Campesina 24 May '23

24 May '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* La Via Campesina Denounces Israeli Aggression in Gaza and Stands in Solidarity with Palestine 14 May 2023 International Solidarity <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> *Solidarity statement* The cessation of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip is an immediate necessity. Israel’s actions against the vulnerable Palestinian population should not go unaddressed. It is incumbent upon the global community to enforce restraining measures and hold Israel accountable for its transgressions against humanity. A multitude of farmers currently face Israeli bombardment, with many lives tragically lost. An extensive swath of agricultural lands and water resources are being decimated, a strategy seemingly designed to induce starvation among the Palestinians in Gaza. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *14/05/2023* | Bagnolet, France In the early hours of Tuesday, May 9, 2023, Israeli forces launched a severe assault on three residential complexes in the Gaza Strip. A squadron of 40 warplanes was deployed in this assault on the densely populated residences. The immediate consequence was the tragic loss of 13 Palestinian lives and numerous injuries, including 7 children and 3 women. With the initiation of this military operation in Gaza, the death toll has exceeded 30, with 24 women and children among the casualties, and many more left in shock and distress. The assault was initiated while the residents were sleeping, and no significant events preceded this devastating act. Entire families were obliterated in their sleep, a distressing act that underscores the severity of the atrocity committed against civilians. Israel justifies the assault by identifying the target as three activists involved with Islamic Jihad, disregarding the fact that these activists were residing with their families in residential buildings. This act is yet another in a series of transgressions committed by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people, who have been engaged in a struggle for their liberty for the past 75 years. This ongoing aggression, now in its fourth day, has also targeted farming communities and agricultural lands in the border areas and has persistently barred fishermen from venturing into the sea. From the onset of the assault, the Israeli forces have continuously bombarded thousands of acres of agricultural land, preventing farmers from accessing their fields. This has inflicted significant losses on the farming community, resulting in a critical shortage of food, particularly vegetables, on which the entire Gaza Strip is dependent. For the past four days, Israeli forces have relentlessly bombed residential areas throughout the Gaza Strip, showing an alarming disregard for the civilian population, primarily composed of women and children. The Gaza Strip has been under a severe blockade for over 16 years, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians due to a shortage of essential medicines and medical care. We, at La Via Campesina, vehemently condemn these brutal acts and we urge the free people of the world to actively support the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation in all possible ways. It is the duty of the international community to eliminate double standards in dealing with this occupation. *We demand the end of the occupation and freedom for the resilient Palestinian people.* Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2…> Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fv…> Link <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%…> Website <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…> For questions or comments, email *lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org *TV:* www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…>

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La Via Campesina Warns of Democratic Frailty in Ecuador
by La Via Campesina 22 May '23

22 May '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* La Via Campesina Warns of Democratic Frailty in Ecuador 20 May 2023 Food Sovereignty <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>, International Solidarity <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…>, Peasants' Rights <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> */Communiqué from La Vía Campesina denounces the dissolution of democratic institutions in Ecuador, coupled with a recent decree on terrorism and the military supporting the President./* (Bagnolet, May 20, 2023) The peasant, indigenous, landless, women and workers’ organizations that are part of the international movement La Via Campesina around the world warn with great concern about the current context in Ecuador, marked by a serious political crisis, accompanied by a deep economic and social crisis, with high levels of violence by criminal groups, the State and the sectors of power that continue looting the people. On Wednesday, May 17, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso signed executive decree <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fminka.presidencia.…> 741, which establishes the dissolution of the National Assembly. This in the midst of the political trial opened against him for accusations of embezzlement. The decree also calls for early general elections within 90 days. As La Via Campesina we are concerned about the fact that this mechanism known as “mutual death,” although included in the Constitution since 2008, received full support of the Armed Forces and the Police before there had been any official pronouncement from the Constitutional Court. On the other hand, we raise the alarm about a serious threat to democracy, because although the mechanism of “mutual death” is a constitutional tool, its implementation in a scenario of anti-democracy can be dangerous. As peasant organizations we demand that for as long as this process lasts, president Lasso refrains from deepening Neoliberalism, extractivism, the privatization of basic services, the handover of natural goods — oil, mining, the radio-electrical spectrum — to transnational corporations. We need decrees that address the urgent demands of working-class urban and rural sectors instead of catering to corporate groups. We strongly reject every type of consession and privatization of public assets. As a movement present worldwide, we call on our member organizations, allies and multilateral institutions to remain alert to the events in Ecuador. We must ensure transparent elections, stand in defense of democracy in the country and the continent, denounce the imperialist and interventionist practices of the US and demand all proceedings are executing according to the law. We call to: * Respond immediately to the serious social crisis that Ecuador is also facing, with high rates of hunger and malnutrition in children, poverty, migrations, unemployment of almost half of the population, lack of investment in health and education and an out of control level of violence and insecurity due to criminal gangs. * Pay special attention to the peasant sector, those who feed the country, the montubio people, Afro-descendants and indigenous people, as well as the artisanal fisher-folk who are indebted to the banks, slaves in their territories, who also suffer assault, kidnapping, extortion and assassinations, coupled with the complete disregard of the State. All the while, the corporate, agribusiness and banking sector, aligned with the Lasso administration and other political sectors, enjoy shamefully high profit rates as the main benefitiaries of the corruption that plagues Ecuador. * Respect the political rights of the progressive members of the National Assembly, acknowledge the militant and political trajectory of comrade José Agualsaca and offer him our support, as historic leader of the FEI (Ecuadorian Federation of Indians, member organization of CLOC – La Via Campesina), and current assembly member who already several months ago had offered his seat in defense of the governance of the country. * Endorse the democratic processes of indigenous, student and workers’ organizations, respecting the freedom of assembly and association to launch local assemblies, in the understanding that democracy is at its core the people, organized and fighting for their rights. * Ensure a transparent electoral process that does not censor the participation and candidacies of any sector; demand that the National Electoral Council restructure the Provincial Electoral Boards for a more democratic conformation and that intermediate, provincial and national computing centers are audited. * Coordinate a progressive and popular process of unity, engaging all the sectors of the left, parties, organizations and movements in Ecuador for the elections called for August 2023; a process able to address the most affected sectors of society as indicated in the 2008 Constitution and its humanistic and anti-capitalist spirit; a Constitution that also acknowledges the peasantry as a subject of rights, a priority in public policy, and Food Sovereignty as a strategic objective of the State for a true revolution in rural areas. *We call to join the national collective work to rebuild a multicultural, fair and sovereign Ecuador!* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Photographs National Strike Ecuador, June 2022. Edu León.* Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2…> Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fv…> Link <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%…> Website <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…> For questions or comments, email *lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org *TV:* www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…>

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Press release | From Mons to the World: La Via Campesina Celebrates 30 Years of globalizing peasant struggle and solidarity
by La Via Campesina 15 May '23

15 May '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Commemoration in Mons From Mons to the World: La Via Campesina Celebrates 30 Years of globalizing peasant struggle and solidarity *PRESS RELEASE* *14/05/2023* | Bagnolet, France On May 15, La Via Campesina will celebrate its 30th anniversary of the formal founding of global peasant movement. This celebration is a reflection of three decades of commitment to the realization of social justice, human dignity and food sovereignty through peasant agroecology, popular feminism and peasant rights. The history of La Via Campesina has an important stage in Mons, Belgium, in May 1993, when different peasant and land workers’ organizations from various continents met to concretize the strategies planned a year earlier in Managua, Nicaragua, and coordinate common actions at the international level. Thirty organizations established the movement we now recognize today, and since then its principles and convictions have been solidly grounded. The movement has grown to include 182 member organizations and over 200 million rural workers, and is now the world’s largest social movement with the slogan “globalize the struggle, globalize hope.” Over the years, La Via Campesina has played a pivotal role in supporting peasant emancipatory struggles at all levels and in recognizing their rights in the UN declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. Today, La Via Campesina brings a voice of hope to all societies in times of multidimensional crises. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the movement, we are excited to share that this November we are also organizing our eighth international conference in Colombia. This event will be a moment to continue building our proposals based on respect for the living, grassroots organization, diversity and solidarity, which are serving to build fair and equitable food systems, and from there, fair and equitable societies. 30 years of sharing struggles to sow hope To celebrate 30 years of globalizing struggles, La Via Campesina, in collaboration with the European Coordination Via Campesina and LVC’s Belgian member organizations: Boerenforum, FUGEA, MAP, is organizing a commemorative event on May 15, that will be divided into three sections. The first part will feature people who were present and involved in the founding, the second part will include former La Via Campesina general coordinators, and the third part will have current ICC representatives of La Via Campesina to look at the context of the movement today. The entire event program will be a enriching experience in itself, including a live music show, group readings of historical documents, audiovisual presentations, and a peasant-style meal accompanied by music and dance. La Via Campesina invites everyone to join the commemorative event on May 15 through their social networks to continue sharing struggles and sowing hope. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Globalize the struggle, globalize hope”. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For more information, please contact us at press(a)viacampesina.org Facebook <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2…> Twitter <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fv…> Link <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%…> Website <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org%2…> To unsubscribe from the mailing list click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…> If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to *viacampesina(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click here <https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.viacampesina.…>

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