Via-info-en August 2023

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Call to Action: 10 September 2023 – International Day of Action Against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements
by La Via Campesina 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Call to Action: 10 September 2023 – International Day of Action Against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements 21 August 2023 World Trade Organisation <https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-against/capitalism-and-fre…> * This article is available in * Español <https://viacampesina.org/es/llamado-a-la-accion-global-dia-internacional-de…> * Français <https://viacampesina.org/fr/appel-a-laction-10-septembre-2023-journee-inter…> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20 Years since Cancun: Lee Lives On! We Are All Lee, in this struggle against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It has been twenty years since the World Trade Organization’s imperialist, neoliberal and neo-colonial free trade policies led to the sacrifice of one of our peasant leaders at the gates of the Ministerial meeting venue in Cancun, Mexico. Lee Kyung Hae, a small-scale farmer from Korea, took the drastic step of sacrificing himself to *protest against <https://viacampesina.org/en/take-agriculture-out-of-the-wto-farmer-lee-kyun…>* the dire situation that thousands of peasants found themselves in after their country embraced the WTO’s free trade policies. In his final moments, he wore a banner around his neck with the words */“WTO Kills Farmers.”/* Lee’s sacrifice brought to the spotlight the plight of all peasants everywhere; the hyper-globalization of the 80s and 90s had a devastating impact on rural communities worldwide, stripping them of their land, livelihoods, and local markets. Lee Kyung Hae gave his life to voice the concerns of millions of peasants like him, who saw their lives upended as their countries opened up under the banner of market reforms, only to be overwhelmed by fierce international competition from affluent nations flooding their markets with cheap imports, often produced in massive factories and large-scale industrial farms. The WTO spearheaded these efforts to expand and find new markets for transnational corporations and agribusinesses centered in the wealthy cities of the global north. Two decades have passed since that tragic day in Cancun, and things have only worsened for both people and the planet. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which forms the core of the WTO’s food and agriculture trade policies, continues to *wreak havoc* <https://viacampesina.org/en/freedom-from-hunger-poverty-debt-and-death-free…> on people’s lives. Over the past 30 years, La Via Campesina has consistently highlighted the negative and devastating effects of WTO policies on both people and the planet. Whenever the WTO convened its ministerial meetings to advance these harmful policies, La Via Campesina’s organized peasant groups took to the streets to expose its falsehoods and deceit. As the World Trade Organization subsequently entered a state of limbo, numerous regional and bilateral free trade agreements began to proliferate, with many of them resembling the highly detrimental Agreement on Agriculture. Thus, whether with or without the WTO, global trade remains entangled in these opaque agreements, frequently negotiated behind closed doors without public consultation or debates. During the last Ministerial meeting in Geneva in 2022, La Via Campesina declared that the time had come to dismantle the WTO, discard the Agreement on Agriculture, put an end to harmful free trade agreements and *establish a new trade framework for global agricultural trade based on principles of food sovereignty <https://viacampesina.org/en/geneva-end-wto-build-international-trade-based-…>, *solidarity, and internationalism. A new framework that respects and upholds the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)! It called on World Trade Organization member states, particularly those from the Global South, to lead the charge in creating this framework and establishing it as the bedrock of global trade. The global food crisis, resulting in increasing global hunger, exacerbated by speculative commodity trading practices, pandemics, conflicts and wars, is glaring evidence of a flawed global food system that primarily benefits transnational agribusiness. Numerous reports have highlighted how, even in the face of growing global hunger, a handful of large agribusiness corporations continued to accumulate profits through speculative practices. *The Agreement on Agriculture serves as a pact to secure perpetual profits for agribusinesses <https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-responds-to-the-wtos-purported…>*, disregarding the suffering of peasants, individuals, and the environment. For this reason, as we commemorate the International Day of Action against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements on September 10th, La Via Campesina will intensify this struggle for an alternative. We will lead the effort to construct this new framework through direct involvement of peasants and numerous other small-scale food producers. We will collaborate with our governments and civil society partners to generate political pressure in support of this new paradigm. *As members of La Via Campesina prepare for the 8th International Conference scheduled for December 2023 in Bogota <https://viacampesina.org/en/8th-international-conference-of-la-via-campesin…>, we call upon all our members to express solidarity with Lee Kyung Hae and his sacrifice. *We encourage our members to organize exhibitions, public discussions, protests, and to formulate ideas for an alternative global trade framework. During the 8th International Conference in Bogota, we will commemorate Lee with a mistica, celebrating his courage and defiance and honoring the endeavors and sacrifices of millions of peasants around the world who persist in nourishing the planet and feeding the people, despite mounting challenges. COMMUNICATION KIT: In the next few days, we will be releasing an official poster that can be adapted and used in your local and regional mobilizations and actions. *The official poster and other materials, will soon be available in this link. <https://comms.viacampesina.org/s/qnHLEC3XnT3TmLs> *Check back in a few days. For queries and press interviews, write topress(a)viacampesina.org <https://viacampesina.org/en/call-to-action-10-september-2023-international-…> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Faced with Global Crises, We build Food Sovereignty for the Future of Humanity! We are all Lee! WTO Kills Farmers! A New Trade Framework is Urgent and Vital!* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /#WeAreAllLEE #EndWTO #8ConfLVC #NewTradeFrameworkNOW/ Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL> Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina> Link <https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/> Website <https://viacampesina.org/> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-es> 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://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-es>

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Download the Communication Kit: 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina
by La Via Campesina 17 Aug '23

17 Aug '23

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina The global peasant movement La Vía Campesina is convening its 8th International Conference in Bogotá, Colombia, from 1 to 8 December 2023, under the slogan "Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity". Download the Communication Kit [1] The International Conferences serve as the most important collective decision-making, analysis, evaluation and planning space for the 182 national organisations articulated by regions around the world, representing the landless, women, rural workers, migrants, fishermen, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and diversities in 82 countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia, at national, regional and continental levels. During these international conferences, attended by almost 500 delegates from 10 different regions, different issues affecting the diversity of rural areas are discussed and analysed as a whole. It is here that La Via Campesina defines, updates and refines its strategic lines of action, as well as examining and ratifying new member organisations, discussing internal functioning and launching new campaigns. In the 30 years that La Vía Campesina has been organising, seven international conferences have taken place. The first was held in Mons, Belgium, in 1993, where for the first time the strength and solidarity of peasant struggles from the global North and South were successfully united, proposing food sovereignty as a concrete defence of peasant agriculture against agribusiness. During the 1996 conference in Mexico, the movement gave a strong response against free trade agreements and the World Trade Organisation. At the conference in India in 2000, the role and political participation of women was realised when the first International Women's Assembly was celebrated, sowing the seeds of peasant and popular feminism. At the 2004 conference in Brazil, the African continent joined La Via Campesina, organising itself into two regions. Africa brought a diversity of struggles and forms of organisation, strengthening the struggle for environmental justice and against extractivism, colonialism and racism. At the Mozambique conference in 2008, we launched the International Campaign - 'Stop Violence Against Women' - as a pedagogical tool within our organisations and also to dialogue with societies in our struggle against patriarchy and all forms of violence. This campaign has been adopted by the whole movement. In 2013, in Indonesia, the conference highlighted the broad participation of youth in different tasks and structures within the movement. In 2017, in Derio, for the first time, a group of 50 delegates from our member organisations met alongside the conference to discuss sexual and gender diversity. In 2023, we will officially launch our tenth region, the Arab and North African Region (ARNA), bringing together different organisations from Palestine, Morocco and Tunisia to highlight the struggles of Arab peoples resisting contexts of war and hunger. As part of the 8th International Conference, the V Youth Assembly and the VI International Women's Assembly will be held. These are important spaces for debate, exchange, training and for the construction of common strategies of resistance. The role of women and youth has been vital for a movement with 30 years of history, it has strengthened it and has brought important challenges as well. La Via Campesina is today a key movement in the struggle for public policies that recognize peasants as subjects of rights and the importance of Food Sovereignty, agrarian reform, peasant agroecological production, peasant seed systems and peasant and popular feminism. These pillars are in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), recognised in 2018, which is a major achievement resulting from the struggles and organisation of the peasant movement. After the pandemic, La Via Campesina reaffirms food sovereignty as the only real alternative to hunger, wars, climate and health crises.T oday more than ever we emphasize the importance of recognizing the peasantry and all its diversity as a subject of rights and transformations. Their role is crucial in societies striving for social and climate justice in their territories, providing healthy and accessible food for the working class. We believe that it is possible to live with dignity in rural areas by cultivating humanistic values, healing and caring for the land, and fighting to put life before profit. COMMUNICATION KIT: Our conference is a living space, from communication and training, we seek to create dialogues, meetings, debates and build collective proposals. Help us to make visible the national, regional and international process to reach our Conference in Bogota, Colombia. Download the Communication Kit [1]. Use these materials with your organizations, in assemblies, mobilizations, trainings, with our militants and allies. We encourage you to translate the official poster into your local language, use our blank version to adapt it! To unsubscribe from the distribution list, questions or comments, write to viacampesina(a)viacampesina.org Website: www.viacampesina.org TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [2] Links: ------ [1] https://comms.viacampesina.org/s/XNANmRcfMsQk5Zw [2] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en

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Via-info-en August 2023