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La Via Campesina International condemns Marcinho’s murder, demands justice!
by La Via Campesina 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

LA VIA CAMPESINA INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS MARCINHO'S MURDER AND DEMANDS THAT THE CULPRITS BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE! JANUARY 26, 2018: La Via Campesina strongly condemns the murder of comrade Márcio Matos (Marcinho) leader of the MST in the state of Bahia in Brazil, on January 24, outside his home, in the Boa Sorte camp, in Iramaia falling in the Chapada Diamantina region. Marcinho, 33, who was a prominent MST leader in the peasant struggle in Bahia, was murdered in front of his son with three gun shots to his head. The death of Marcinho is adding to a long list of peasant leaders and social activists, many of them members of the MST, who have been killed for their tireless struggle to reclaim and take land for the dispossessed families and the landless. Criminalisation of the peasant movements and social struggles, followed by attacks, arrests and imprisonment including the murder of the peasant leaders and human rights defenders are now widespread. These are part of a violent and repressive policy, which aims to contain the movement for an agrarian and popular reform that can put agriculture at the service of the people instead of turning it into a tool to generate profits for a handful of corporations. In this backdrop, La Via Campesina strongly condemns the murder of Marcinho and demands that the perpetrators be brought to trial. We urge all members of La Via Campesina to be aware of this call for justice for Marcinho and his family, since the crimes against peasant leaders and social activists are taking place in an environment of impunity and violence promoted by the criminal State. Finally, we extend to MST - our sister organization, an unconditional solidarity and we place ourselves at your disposal to support your of struggle for justice for Marcinho and his family. That the murder of Marcinho serve to inspire us and to strength our commitment to continue fighting for the rights of the peasants and against this system of death and violence. For Marcinho, not just a minute of silence but a whole life of struggle! _ MARCINHO LIVES, THE FIGHT CONTINUES!_ _ MARCINHO LIVES, THE FIGHT CONTINUES!_ _ MARCINHO LIVES, THE FIGHT CONTINUES!_ _ LET'S GLOBALIZE THE FIGHT, GLOBALISE THE HOPE!_

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La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | Jan, 2018
by La Via Campesina 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | Jan 2018 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] Onward to 2018! #LaViaCampesina [3] #2018 - The creation of La Via Campesina was principally founded on actions of solidarity, the urgency of mobilizing solidarity as a fundamental value in light of the evictions, repression, detentions and even massacres that peasants, men and women, were facing (and are still facing) in various parts of the world. Accordingly we highlight this call, just as we received the XV Navarre International Prize 2017 for Solidarity: "Globalizing the struggle also means globalizing solidarity, and the hope of the peoples of the world". We feed the people and we build the movement to change the world! To read the full text of our acceptance speech, follow this link: http://bit.ly/Navarra-ViaCampesina FEATURED ARTICLES [DEC '17 & JAN '18] CELEBRATING THE FAILURE OF WTO NEGOTIATION IN ARGENTINA" With the outcomes of the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) considered a "total failure", La Via Campesina celebrates this impasse while calling on all movements to remain vigilant at the same time. Read More [4] ARGENTINA: FINAL STATEMENT OF THE PEOPLES' SUMMIT The WTO and FTAs hide behind the mask of "green alternatives" while ultimately and solely supporting the extractivist model, especially mining and the extraction of fossil fuels. Read More [5] OPEN-LETTER TO EU COMMISSION: DON'T ALLOW PATENTS ON PLANTS & ANIMALS Open letter addressed to European Commissioners (DG Growth, Agri and Sante) by ECVC, alerting them on the dangers of patents on plants and animals. Read More [6] THE SHAMELESS FRAUD IN THE HONDURAS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS We reaffirm our support for the Honduran people, and we support their struggles in defense of their self-determination, and the peasant organizations that are filling the streets of the country. R [7]ead More [8] THREE PEASANTS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY THE SECURITY FORCES IN MALI; EIGHT OTHERS ARE IN PRISON Since 2011, there has been a terrible conflict over land ownership in seven villages in the Cercle de San in Mali.. R [7]ead More [8] "WTO OUT – BUILDING SOVEREIGNTY" Read the full text of the Declaration by over 300 attendees of the Forum on Food Sovereignty from more than 30 countries in 4 continents - denounce first of all the violence of Free Trade. Read More [9] ANTI-WTO PROTESTS SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD. Social movements around the world protested the devastating effects of WTO on world's people, just as MC 11 was underway in Argentina. Read about the protests in Indonesia, [10] statements by Indian farmers [11] , position paper by Korean peasants. [12] FORCED EVICTIONS OF MST MEMBERS IN NORTHERN BRAZIL An aggressive attack is being waged against landless farmers in the northern state of Pará, Brazil, according to a statement released by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in December. Read More [13] A YEAR AFTER SIGNING OF PEACE AGREEMENTS: European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) reports on the implementation of the peace agreements between the FARC EP and the Colombian government. Read More [14] LEGALLY BINDING TREATY ON TNCS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: ATTEMPT AT SABOTAGE IN NEW YORK! The European Union aims to Eliminate the Financing of the United Nations Intergovernmental Working Group Entrusted with Drafting a Legally Binding Treaty on TNCs and Human Rights Read More [15] FEATURED PUBLICATIONS Nyéléni Newsletter no 32 - Climate Justice Download your copy here [16] FEATURED VIDEOS [17] "WTO Kills Farmers", La Via Campesina protest during 11th Ministerial Conference of WTO Watch Video [17] [18] WTO Out! Building Sovereignty: A video report of the La Via Campesina delegtaion in Argentina Watch Video [19] [20] What is food sovereignty? Watch Video [21] YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE AUTONOMY OF OUR MOVEMENT ------------------------- 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. You can renew your contribution to La Via Campesina by clicking here [1]. [22] [23] Twitter [23] [24] Facebook [24] [25] Vimeo [25] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [2] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [26] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [27] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [2] Links: ------ [1] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [2] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [3] https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/laviacampesina [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/wto-mc11-talks-collapse-celebrating-failure-wto… [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/viith-session-international-seed-treaty-lets-no… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/open-letter-eu-commission-dont-allow-patents-pl… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/in-solidarity-with-all-climate-change-affected-… [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-denounces-shameless-fraud-hond… [9] https://viacampesina.org/en/declaration-forum-food-sovereignty-territories-… [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/wto-destroys-lives-indonesian-peasant-fisher-co… [11] https://viacampesina.org/en/indian-farmers-attending-world-trade-organizati… [12] https://viacampesina.org/en/neoliberalism-now-time-build-new-society-korean… [13] https://viacampesina.org/en/urgent-call-solidarity-forced-evictions-mst-mem… [14] https://viacampesina.org/en/1-year-signing-peace-agreements-report-european… [15] https://viacampesina.org/en/binding-treaty-tncs-human-rights/ [16] https://viacampesina.org/en/newsletter-no-32-climate-justice/ [17] https://vimeo.com/247270359 [18] https://vimeo.com/247812438 [19] https://tv.viacampesina.org/La-Via-Campesina-en-Cumbre-de-los?lang=en [20] https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=l_2tEQWn3Jc [21] https://tv.viacampesina.org/What-is-food-sovereignty-1172?lang=en [22] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [23] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [24] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [25] https://vimeo.com/viacampesina [26] http://www.viacampesina.org [27] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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Latest edition of Nyéléni Newsletter on Climate Justice is out!
by La Via Campesina 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER NO 32 – CLIMATE JUSTICE Oh! Oh! Nature mourns, Humanity perishes! Why? Seasons have changed Now unpredictable and unreliable! Hotter, drier and shorter! Winds and storms harsher and destructive Mother Earth mourns, the land is barren. Women, men and children, plants and animals perish! Capitalist industrial agriculture, what have you done? Everywhere, Mother Earth crumbles As toxics and harmful GMO seeds swell her belly. Heavy machines trample her belly Their dark plumes polluting the sky, A new baby, Climate Change, is conceived and born! Oh! What is all this? Ecological niches shrink Biodiversity fast disappears Greater uncertainty hovers everywhere Heightened risks for us the food producers Traditional agriculture knowledge is fast eroding What and who shall save us? Climate change knows no peace, Hungers only for destruction! Greed for profits feeds him! Extreme, extreme, extreme weather phenomena are your fruits! Environmental and humanitarian disasters! Floods, droughts, landslides, diseases! Humanity cries: No Food! Nature cries: Inhabitable! Inhabitable! Is there a remedy? Yes but we hear only false solutions! Free Markets, REDD, Climate Smart agriculture, Green economy, Agrofuels, Carbon trading, land grabbing, more industrial farming, Massive use of herbicides, inorganic fertilizers and More GMOs! Oh Lord! All to grow climate change! Why? Profits! Profits! More profits! Cries Capitalism, his father! But hope looms in the horizon Food sovereignty, our hope! Comes to restore social justice to humanity, Ecological sustainability to nature Biodiversity and cultural diversity to all peoples of Mother Earth! Arise ye peoples, women and men, the landless, peasants, indigenous farmers, forest and fisherfolks, Let your hope be heard in all the corners of the earth! Peasant Agroecology for Climate Justice NOW! Globalise Struggle! Globalise Hope! _ZIMBABWEAN PEASANT MOVEMENT_ ------------------------- DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER HERE [1] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/Nyeleni_News…

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Press Release: “WTO Kills Peasants! 21 Years is Enough!! WTO Out of Agriculture!!!” | La Via Campesina to step up its resistance at MC11
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '17

10 Dec '17

"WTO KILLS PEASANTS! 21 YEARS IS ENOUGH!! WTO OUT OF AGRICULTURE!!!" LA VIA CAMPESINA TO STEP UP ITS RESISTANCE DURING THE XI MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE: 10 DECEMBER 2017: A large delegation of La Via Campesina comprising peasants, rural workers, indigenous peoples, women and youth from around the world will converge outside the venue of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which is scheduled to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the 10th to13th December. During the week of the conference, La Via Campesina (LVC) will mobilise, organise and join social movements and allies to expose the devastative effects that WTO has had on peasant agriculture and to reiterate our long-standing demand of 21 years, to oust the multilateral trade body from any discussions and decisions regarding agriculture. La Via Campesina, a global peasant movement with more than 180 member organisations from 79 countries, has consistently demanded to take agriculture out of the WTO's scope. Instead it has demanded a systemic change that brings about food sovereignty to the worlds peoples. Once again the rallying call from the global peasants' movement is _"FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, WTO OUT OF AGRICULTURE!"._ 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 globalise 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. In this context, with help from governments that have been co-opted, the world's largest transnational corporations (TNCs) continue to expand globally and are blatantly undermining democracy and all of the institutional instruments that are meant to defend the lives, the territories, and the food and agricultural ecosystems of the world's peoples. Through AoA (Agreement on Agriculture) regulated in the WTO, peasant communities become the most disadvantaged because they have minimal capital resources and little or no protection from national governments as WTO prohibits any protection that stand in the way of market liberalisation. Its role was replaced and eroded by corporations with large capital resources, slowly forming a monopoly scheme. As a result, peasants have to deal with dangerous implications such as land grabbing, criminalization, environmental pollution and the importation of agricultural products. 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 stock-holding 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. In the 11th Ministerial Conference the WTO wants to return to the subject of agriculture in relation to public stock-holding, 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 the developed countries, 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 21 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. Our resistance to market liberalisation under this neo-liberal 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 [1] - and up to Bali (2013) and Nairobi (2015). This week, our delegation in Buenos Aires will join the Peoples' Summit "WTO Out! Build Sovereignty [2]' and 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 will talk about the peasants who died due to the WTO and expose to the people of the world that hundreds of millions of people have died of starvation and poverty due to its free trade polices. The WTO is nothing more than an interest group of transnational monopoly capital and sympathetic governments colluding with it. The various agreements and treaties of the WTO have driven peasants and small farmers who have been producing food in rural areas. It has destroyed rural communities and has caused food crises and food contamination. We demand that the WTO cease all discussions on agriculture and stop the its attempts to suppress peoples' food sovereignty. Food is the universal right of everyone. Food sovereignty is the right of all peoples to define their own food system and puts food producers in the centre of it. Our alternatives for food sovereignty will save Mother Earth and our communities. To this end, the La Via Campesina will keep fighting. We will organise, resist and conduct solidarity events across the world with the participation of our members and the support of allies, demanding that national governments reject WTO and take agriculture out of its scope. ------------------------- FOR PRESS ENQUIRIES * Francés: Claude Girod - Confederación Campesina, La Vía Campesina, Francia. (54) 91121824509 * Inglés: Kim Jeong Yeol - Asociación de Mujeres Campesinas de Korea - Comisión Coordinadora Internacional - La Vía Campesina, Korea. (54) 91138781935 * Español: Deolinda Carrizo - Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indígena - Cloc - Vía Campesina, Argentina. (54) 91133489316 * Nury Martínez - Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria - Fensuagro - Comisión Coordinadora Internacional - La Vía Campesina, Colombia. (54) 91133489316 FOR MORE INFORMATION viacampesina.org | facebook.com/viacampesinaofficial [3] | @via_campesina [4] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/take-agriculture-out-of-the-wto-farmer-lee-kyun… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/event/peoples-summit-wto-building-sovereignty/ [3] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [4] https://twitter.com/via_campesina

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On November 25 - Peasant men and women say ‘End Violence against Women!’
by La Via Campesina 25 Nov '17

25 Nov '17

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: ------ [1] https://tv.viacampesina.org/Post-cards-to-End-violence-againts [2] https://tv.viacampesina.org/La-Via-Campesina-End-violence?lang=en [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/10/Cartilha-VCS… [4] http://www.viacampesina.org/ [5] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL [6] https://twitter.com/via_campesina

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La Via Campesina | e-newsletter | Oct 2017
by La Via Campesina 19 Nov '17

19 Nov '17

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 ------------------------- 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. You can renew your contribution to La Via Campesina by clicking here [1]. [15] [16] Twitter [16] [17] Facebook [17] [18] Vimeo [18] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [2] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [19] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [20] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [2] Links: ------ [1] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [2] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wto-building-alternatives-la-via-campesina-orga… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/human-rights-above-interests-transnational-corp… [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/viith-session-international-seed-treaty-lets-no… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/fifth-international-encounter-of-migrations-and… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/in-solidarity-with-all-climate-change-affected-… [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/affected-world-unite/ [9] https://viacampesina.org/en/ceta-the-wrong-deal-people-says-national-farmer… [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/report-la-via-campesinas-african-continental-en… [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 [15] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [16] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [17] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [18] https://vimeo.com/viacampesina [19] http://www.viacampesina.org [20] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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“WTO, Out! Building Alternatives”: La Via Campesina to organise Peoples’ Summit during WTO’s XI Ministerial Conference in Argentina
by La Via Campesina 17 Nov '17

17 Nov '17

_"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! ------------------------- 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 ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/es/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/Programa-pre… [2] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [3] https://twitter.com/via_campesina [4] https://twitter.com/via_campesinaSP [5] https://twitter.com/viacampesinaFR

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Press Release: La Via Campesina responds to COP23 calling for Peasant Agroecology
by La Via Campesina 09 Nov '17

09 Nov '17

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." ------------------------- 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] ------------------------- Follow the updates on Twitter and Facebook using hashtag: #COP23 #NoToFalseSolutions #FoodSovereigntyRealSolution For photos and videos, please visit https://tv.viacampesina.org/

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International Seed Treaty: Let’s Not Sweep Peasants’ Rights to Seeds Under the Carpet
by La Via Campesina 30 Oct '17

30 Oct '17

VIITH SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SEED TREATY : LET'S NOT SWEEP PEASANTS' RIGHTS TO SEEDS UNDER THE CARPET _ 30 October 2017 | Press Release_ KIGALI, OCTOBER 30, 2017: The 7th meeting of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) begins today in Kigali (Rwanda). At a time when patents on genetic information have been alarmingly eased by new genetic technologies, the risk that this Treaty be entirely overturned is major. Delegations from La Via Campesina and the IPC (The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty*) have traveled to Kigali to incite government representatives in taking the right decisions and actions if the current Treaty is to be saved from obliteration. Indifferent to the fact that peasants contribute enormously to reproducing and increasing seed diversity each year, these patents currently allow the privatization of all gene bank-saved seeds as well as those on the farm. This is contrary to the objectives of the Treaty, that aim to make seeds available to ensure healthy, adequate and local food production and to face global challenges prompted by climate change, the needed phasing out of toxic pesticides, social-economic crisis and wars. 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. ------------------------- La Via Campesina Delegation in Kigali - Rwanda To reach the delegation please contact : Marciano Silva (ES, PT) +55 49 99199 5595 or Stefano Mori: (EN, FR, ES) +39 347 596 6424 ------------------------- _* The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty is an autonomous and self-organised global platform of small-scale food producers and rural workers organizations and grass root/community based social movements to advance the Food Sovereignty agenda at the global and regional level. The organizations participating at the international level to the IPC are: La Via Campesina (LVC), World Forum of Fishers People (WFFP), World Forum of Fish Harvesters & Fish Workers (WFF), World Alliance Mobile Indigenous People (WAMIP), Mouvement International de la Jeunesse Agricole et Rurale Catholique (MIJARC), {The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations - (IUF)}, URGENCI, International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), Habitat International Coalition (HIC), World March of Womens and International Federation of Rural Adult Catholic Movements (FIMARC)._

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The solution to the climate crisis is in our peasant struggle for Food and Energy Sovereignty!
by La Via Campesina 27 Oct '17

27 Oct '17

THE SOLUTION TO THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS IN OUR PEASANT STRUGGLE FOR FOOD AND ENERGY SOVEREIGNTY! LA VIA CAMPESINA – CALL TO ACTION _click here for German version_ [1] The next United Nations conference on climate change will take place from the 6th to 17th of November in Bonn, Germany 2017 - with Mother Earth heating up dramatically and humanity plagued by unprecedented adverse weather and rising sea levels. The capitalist system, fuelled by the profit greed, is not capable of addressing the current climate crisis. Even the COP21 Paris Agreement and its inadequate proposals to keep temperature increases below 2 degrees celsius is in limbo, with the recent pull out by U.S. President Donald Trump. This year we witnessed the increased impacts of climate change both in scale and intensity: hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Maria, etc.), floods (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, etc.), storms, droughts, heat waves and more. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced, thousands killed, and total disappearance of some island territories. In many cases, peoples have lost all the resources needed for living. The most affected: peasants, poor people, rural workers, the indigenous, the fisherfolk. We know the cause of this climate crisis: the global industrial food system is responsible for over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions through intensive use of agrochemicals, toxins, fossil energy, freight land grabbing and forest degradation through plantations, mining, logging etc. Perpetrators of the crisis, using their "monetary muscle", now lobby and push for false solutions: "climate-smart" agriculture, GMOs, REDD and REDD+, "blue carbon", and all other green economy schemes that seek the financialization of nature and its services. Multinationals pollute the climate negotiations and make them the place of economic and financial power over peoples, to the detriment of our rights. As the COP23 draws nearer, we reaffirm the importance of struggling for public policies that promote and support agroecology, local community-controlled energy systems and collective action for a just transition away from fossil fuels and against the false energy solutions that encourage corporate capture of our natural resources. Our peasant agroecology feeds the soil with organic matter, conserves and recovers biodiversity, using the knowledge of our peoples and our Mother Earth to feed us. We reject any attempt by agribusiness to co-opt agroecology and commit ourselves to defending and promoting our peasant agroecology! For Vía Campesina, our lands, our knowledge, our seeds, our rights are not negotiable! We call for the strengthening of all mobilizations against this system that engenders the current and future climate crimes. We must fight against all free trade agreements and disastrous oil, gas and mining projects as well as all exclusionary mega projects (dams, highways, airports, plantations, etc). We must urgently transform the financial, social and ecological production systems, as well as the sharing of labor and wealth, the preservation of common goods such as water, land, flora and fauna. We call upon our allies, friends and social movements to mobilize together with the civil society outside the UN climate talks in Bonn, spreading our voice and our true solutions. LET US MOBILIZE AT COP23 FOR THE CONVERGENCE OF STRUGGLES! FOR PEASANT AGROECOLOGY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY! Links: ------ [1] http://www.eurovia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DE-COP23-Call-to-Action-D…

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