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[Info EN] La Via Campesina extremely concerned about Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp situation
by La Vía Campesina 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

La Via Campesina extremely concerned about Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp situation [1] Published on Tuesday, 07 April 2015 17:45 LA VIA CAMPESINA RELEASE, APRIL 7TH, 2015 _La Via Campesina is extremely concerned about the situation in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in southern Damascus_ La Via Campesina has been watching recent reports of the invasion of the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk by extremist armed forces with great concern. It comes at a time when the camp is suffering from a two-year siege on it. We are extremely worried about the well being of our friends and partners in the food sovereignty projects on the ground, who have been targeted by armed forces. The recent targeted execution of civil society activist Firas Al Naji--a founder of food sovereignty projects in Yarmouk (which aim to ease the suffering of a community living with severe malnutrition due to the siege), among other initiatives--is a dark example of the grave situation that civil society faces. We are also deeply concerned for the safety of Abdullah Al Khateeb and other human rights rights defenders targeted by militant groups. The threat against all of these active members of civil society is massive, and we do not want to stand quietly aside while they and their community are targeted. As Palestinian refugees--thus declared stateless persons by many nations--they are not granted the protection they should rightfully have in their host countries. As Palestinian refugees in Syria, being displaced yet again, their rights as stateless persons have deteriorated even further. In the case of Yarmouk, which is a southern suburb of the Syrian capital, the UN body that is meant to maintain and provide relief services to the Palestinian community, UNWRA, has not been able to fulfill its basic obligations to the camp's Palestinian residents. This has been the case for almost two years, ever since the regime-enforced siege was imposed on the camp. Meanwhile the entire population of the area--not only Palestinians--is left isolated and without any relief from the international community. This two-year siege prevents people from entering or leaving the camp, and prevents access to food and medical care. Since September 2014 a drought situation was created inside the camp by turning off the water supply. Thus the humanitarian situation has grown extremely dire for the camp's remaining 18,000 inhabitants. This siege is completely illegal according to international humanitarian law and has to be considered a war crime. As a peasants' movement and a movement for food sovereignty rights, we are deeply concerned about this continued violation of the rights of Syrians, all of them, facing the criminal strategy of "starve or surrender" in many areas around Syria. With almost 200 deaths caused by starvation, Yarmouk is one of the most strikingly outrageous examples of this method to try to break entire communities. We reject the use of hunger and food as a weapon against people, by any armed forces. In light of the new developments inside Yarmouk, with the invasion of the "Islamic State" and its attacks against Yarmouk's residents making the humanitarian situation even more dire, we call on the international community and especially the UNWRA to do everything they can to protect the people in Yarmouk. We urgently call for: * Safe passage for all of Yarmouk's residents in and out of the camp without facing the danger of arrest by forces on the ground, * Full protection for all those leaving the country, a protection which includes the right to leave and open-border-policies by other states, * That the UNWRA will bring immediate supplies of food, water and medical aid for besieged southern Damascus residents, * That all Palestinian parties make a collective effort to defend the rights of those trapped in and around Syria, * That the International Committee of the Red Cross support entry of medical supplies and food to all residents of the area, restore functioning hospitals that due to the siege have almost collapsed, and to ensure safe passage! Organize protests in your cities for solidarity with the people in Yarmouk and to demand that the international community, UNWRA and the International Committee of the Red Cross use their mandate and do anything they can to protect the people in the Yarmouk camp. Please write to: - UNWRA, go to http://www.unrwa.org/contact [2] - The International Committee of the Red Cross: Fax: +41 22 733 20 57, or go tohttps://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/contacts/index.jsp [3] Download PDF Yarmouk Camp Release for circulation here [4] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/human-rights-m… [2] http://www.unrwa.org/contact [3] https://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/contacts/index.jsp [4] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/pdf/2015-04-07%20Release%20on%20Y…

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[Info EN] La Via Campesina Declaration on Migration and Rural Workers
by La Vía Campesina 04 Apr '15

04 Apr '15

La Via Campesina Declaration on Migration and Rural Workers [1] Published on Thursday, 02 April 2015 15:28 [2]MARCH 25, 2015 – WORLD SOCIAL FORUM TUNIS 2015 The migration of peoples across arbitrary barriers is an integral part of human history. Rooted in the search for better living conditions, this movement of peoples from one place to another was later transformed into a social, economic, and political process that has largely served to benefit ruling elites - the slave traders of the past and the multinationals of the present. Today, as capital demands exceptional freedoms for itself - combined with greater restrictions on the poor - wars, social exclusion, economic injustice, and the global climate crisis are forcing millions of human beings to seek refuge across internationally imposed boundaries. As financial capital and agribusiness concentrates its power and holdings - diminishing opportunities for diversified and sustainable smallholder farming - precarious livelihoods continue to aggressively push a growing number of rural people off their farms and into the city. Neoliberal policies, free trade agreements, the development of industrial agriculture, the concentration of production areas… all have destructive effects on the environment, biodiversity, the climate and local, especially peasant, economies. These aggressive policies that impose a development model based on the exploitation of resources, the grabbing of the commons, the stealing of agricultural lands and the exploitation of peasants as well as that of women and men who work the land, have a particularly harsh effect on peasant communities. Ruined people have no other option to leave family, land and community to seek the means of survival some place else, in the big cities or in any countries. Once urbanized, our people are unlikely to find opportunities in our countries and soon become the migrants of today, the cheap labor of the corporate interests. In the most telling of cases, peasant farmers leave family farming only to become the low-paid agricultural workers of corporate giants Monsanto, Cargill, and DuPont. This occurs both internally - within Mexico or Palestine for example - as well as externally, as we cross borders to work for those who forced us off our lands. We of La Via Campesina, the world's largest social movement with millions of peasants, women, youth, indigenous peoples, afro-descendants, fisherfolk and - very often due to involuntary displacement - migrants and rural workers, denounce the fact that we, the poor majorities, are those who suffer most as climate change provokes extreme climatic events across our territories. The term "climate refugee" is now being used to describe those of us forced from our lands by the global climate crisis, by an industrialized food and social system that blames its victims and pardons its culprits. To advance the struggle for Food Sovereignty and help bring an end to the corporate control of the global food system, we declare that it is necessary to: * End all violence and repression against migrants perpetrated in the context of the so-called "War on Terror". Remove the issue of migration from the rhetoric around "threats" to national (or domestic) security since these are different questions altogether; * Stop the separation of undocumented migrant families, which has provoked a crisis in childhood migration. Halt the confinement of migrant children in detention centers, in unhealthy and inhumane conditions that violate their most elementary rights. End the deportation of all unprotected children; * Protect all refugees through international institutions (such as the UN) and NGOs of recognized moral authority (such as Amnesty International), safeguarding their rights as refugees and providing protection for all those living in refugee camps; * Halt and revoke all policies that criminalize migrants, policies that increase persecution, detentions, expulsions, and physical attacks. States should be obliged to respect international agreements and, if they have yet to do so, adhere to the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Modify all local and national legislation so as to comply with said agreements; * Legalize "clandestine" migration so as to combat criminalization; * Allow (or guarantee) to migrants access to the labor market under conditions equivalent to workers 'national'. * Oppose all temporary worker programs, which serve only to divide the working class and weaken our organizations and struggles. With respect to temporary agricultural workers (braceros, guest workers, contratados de origen, etc.), these agreements serve only to benefit industrial agricultural by providing it with cheap and docile farm labor; * Organize all migrants, strengthening our rights to bargain collectively and to strike. Practice solidarity on an ongoing, permanent basis, firmly adopting the principle that "an injury to one is an injury to all"; * Dismantle all free trade agreements, especially those with the greatest impacts on collective resources, rural communities, and indigenous peoples. Implement Food Sovereignty, in direct contrast and in dispute with the corporate-controlled food system; * Challenge the capitalist model of economic growth and so-called "green" development, which does not address the causes of the climate crisis, a crisis that is exacerbating the migration crisis. The results of the climate crisis - extensive droughts, floods, avalanches, earthquakes, tidal waves, etc., which are ever more frequent, are now responsible for 25% of all involuntary migration worldwide, now estimated at 210 million people [according to the International Organization for Migration (www.iom.int [3])]; * Recognize the corporate causes of the global climate crisis and force transnational corporations and their governments in the industrialized nations to accept their responsibility in the surge of climate refugees. At the national level, incorporate the victims of environmental displacement into social development strategies that help to organize and empower these peoples; * Develop action plans with specific timeframes into national policies of research and development, giving priority to sustainable peasant agriculture as a viable option to combat the climate crisis and reduce the impacts of environmental displacement; * Bring Down All Walls: Mexico-USA, Melilla, Ceuta, Palestine (West Bank), Western Sahara, etc., because they not only represent a barbaric aggression against humanity, separating peoples, but also represent an affront to nature. While existing geographic borders already contribute to ecological disasters, new dividing walls only worsen the situation; * End all wars of territorial occupation, the extraction of wealth and the enslavement of indigenous peoples. We are here in the World Social Forum 2015 in Tunis to let everybody know, that this is our commitment and that we are ready to unite with all the social and popular movements to build an international alliance of peasants, migrant workers, indigenous peoples and social fighters for a more humane, dignify and better world. Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/migrations-and… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/migrants2o15.jpg [3] http://www.iom.int/

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[Info EN] Correct logo: On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements
by La Vía Campesina 31 Mar '15

31 Mar '15

On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements [1] Published on Monday, 30 March 2015 15:04 17 APRIL 2015: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEASANT AND FARMER STRUGGLE AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS (Zimbabwe, Harare, March 30, 2015) La Via Campesina declared April 17th as the International Day of Peasant Struggle in order to highlight the struggle and to denounce the criminalization of protests. Peasant and farmers are persecuted and suffer violence on a daily basis as a result of the actions of agribusiness and the implementation of neoliberal policies in the countryside. For the International Peasant and Farmer Movement, it is urgent to speed up the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in rural areas. The Declaration will be a tool to support the struggle for life and dignity in the countryside. This April 17th 2015, La Via Campesina will focus its mobilizations on the impacts of Transnational Corporations and Free Trade Agreements on peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sovereignty. We are calling for the further strengthening of social struggle and of the world-wide organization of peoples, in order to demand a genuine agrarian reform and to assert the ancestral right to lands and territories, a central element of Peasant Agriculture and Peoples' Food Sovereignty. Since 1996 - in honour of the 19 landless peasants massacred in Brazil - the International Peasant Movement has celebrated this global day of action and mobilization. It is a day to celebrate and strengthen people's solidarity and resistance, and to deepen the alliance between city and countryside in support of a societal project based on social justice and the dignity of peoples. We, the women and men peasants and small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, afro-descendants, and landless people of the world are struggling to build a model of production based on peasant and small-scale agriculture and food sovereignty. Free Trade Agreements run counter to this project; they further increase the displacement, expulsion, and disappearance of peasants by promoting a capitalist industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals. These agreements are negotiated under the influence, and for the interests, of a handful of transnational corporations; the voice of the people is excluded. For La Via Campesina, policies that aim to open up and deregulate markets only serve the interests of transnational corporations. These commercial and trade agreements - be they multi- or bi-lateral - basically seek to protect foreign companies by establishing a set of conditions, measures, and rules to protect their investments. Meanwhile, the liberalization of markets has severe social and economic impacts on peasants and farmers in the North and in the South. Free Trade Agreements put the rights of commerce over all other rights and concerns. To provide just one example, the European Union, the United States, and Canada are currently negotiating the most significant Free Trade Agreements in history. Those agreements will liberalize trade and investment markets. They will have a global impact and define, in a way that is favourable to business, the new rules by which transnational companies can operate. If passed, these agreements will provide corporations with the new tools that they need to manipulate regulations, norms, and public policies in order to increase their profits, namely the Investor-State Dispute Resolution and the Regulatory Cooperation Council. As a result, states, regions and communities will lose the power to protect their own citizens and environments. In this context, we denounce the "arbitration" mechanism being used by these transnational companies to globalize, transnationalize, and privatize the world's judicial systems. Private corporations are being allowed to write the laws and to pursue a strategy aimed at weakening states and national sovereignty. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently trying to re-invent itself and has launched a new offensive against national food production, distribution, and reserve systems, which is aimed at weakening the public systems that protect the people. On this Global Day of Action, La Via Campesina calls on its member organizations, friends and allies to take action in their countries and regions to strengthen our international struggle. These actions can be mobilizations, land occupations, seed exchanges, food sovereignty fairs, forums, cultural events, etc. You can register these actions and send us information about the planned events by sending a mail to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Please also send us pictures, videos, posters, flyers We will publish a map of all actions on www.viacampesina.org [2] GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE! FOR PEOPLE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FTAS! Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-apri… [2] http://viacampesina.org/

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[Info EN] On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements
by La Vía Campesina 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements [1] Published on Monday, 30 March 2015 14:04 17 APRIL 2015: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEASANT AND FARMER STRUGGLE AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS (Zimbabwe, Harare, March 30, 2015) La Via Campesina declared April 17th as the International Day of Peasant Struggle in order to highlight the struggle and to denounce the criminalization of protests. Peasant and farmers are persecuted and suffer violence on a daily basis as a result of the actions of agribusiness and the implementation of neoliberal policies in the countryside. For the International Peasant and Farmer Movement, it is urgent to speed up the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in rural areas. The Declaration will be a tool to support the struggle for life and dignity in the countryside. This April 17th 2015, La Via Campesina will focus its mobilizations on the impacts of Transnational Corporations and Free Trade Agreements on peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sovereignty. We are calling for the further strengthening of social struggle and of the world-wide organization of peoples, in order to demand a genuine agrarian reform and to assert the ancestral right to lands and territories, a central element of Peasant Agriculture and Peoples' Food Sovereignty. Since 1996 - in honour of the 19 landless peasants massacred in Brazil - the International Peasant Movement has celebrated this global day of action and mobilization. It is a day to celebrate and strengthen people's solidarity and resistance, and to deepen the alliance between city and countryside in support of a societal project based on social justice and the dignity of peoples. We, the women and men peasants and small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, afro-descendants, and landless people of the world are struggling to build a model of production based on peasant and small-scale agriculture and food sovereignty. Free Trade Agreements run counter to this project; they further increase the displacement, expulsion, and disappearance of peasants by promoting a capitalist industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals. These agreements are negotiated under the influence, and for the interests, of a handful of transnational corporations; the voice of the people is excluded. For La Via Campesina, policies that aim to open up and deregulate markets only serve the interests of transnational corporations. These commercial and trade agreements - be they multi- or bi-lateral - basically seek to protect foreign companies by establishing a set of conditions, measures, and rules to protect their investments. Meanwhile, the liberalization of markets has severe social and economic impacts on peasants and farmers in the North and in the South. Free Trade Agreements put the rights of commerce over all other rights and concerns. To provide just one example, the European Union, the United States, and Canada are currently negotiating the most significant Free Trade Agreements in history. Those agreements will liberalize trade and investment markets. They will have a global impact and define, in a way that is favourable to business, the new rules by which transnational companies can operate. If passed, these agreements will provide corporations with the new tools that they need to manipulate regulations, norms, and public policies in order to increase their profits, namely the Investor-State Dispute Resolution and the Regulatory Cooperation Council. As a result, states, regions and communities will lose the power to protect their own citizens and environments. In this context, we denounce the "arbitration" mechanism being used by these transnational companies to globalize, transnationalize, and privatize the world's judicial systems. Private corporations are being allowed to write the laws and to pursue a strategy aimed at weakening states and national sovereignty. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently trying to re-invent itself and has launched a new offensive against national food production, distribution, and reserve systems, which is aimed at weakening the public systems that protect the people. On this Global Day of Action, La Via Campesina calls on its member organizations, friends and allies to take action in their countries and regions to strengthen our international struggle. These actions can be mobilizations, land occupations, seed exchanges, food sovereignty fairs, forums, cultural events, etc. You can register these actions and send us information about the planned events by sending a mail to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Please also send us pictures, videos, posters, flyers We will publish a map of all actions on www.viacampesina.org [2] GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE! FOR PEOPLE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FTAS! Links: ------ [1] http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-… [2] http://viacampesina.org/

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[Info EN] New edition of the Nyéléni Newsletter is now available online!
by La Vía Campesina 27 Mar '15

27 Mar '15

Rights to Natural Resources Published on Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:41 [1]NEW EDITION OF THE NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! As the world lurches from crisis to crisis, the value of land, water, forests, minerals and other natural resources as sources of wealth creation continues to rise. For those with long-standing ties to land, water and territories, nature's greatest wealth and value is life itself, and these crises simply confirm the necessity for humans to live symbiotically with nature. However for many, natural resources are things that can be parceled, packaged, changed, bought, sold and traded in markets far away from the original location of the resource. In this edition of Nyéléni learn more how peoples across the world are fighting to secure and defend their rights to natural resources and the rights of nature. Click here to download the english edition [2] or read it directly from www.nyeleni.org [3]! Links: ------ [1] http://www.viacampesina.org/en/images/2015-nyeleni-newsletter-natural%20res… [2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=65 [3] http://www.nyeleni.org/

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[Info EN] La Via Campesina - Newsletter March 2015
by La Vía Campesina 26 Mar '15

26 Mar '15

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[Info EN] LVC-La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty
by La Vía Campesina 26 Mar '15

26 Mar '15

La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty [1] Published on Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:29 [2]Harare, 15 March, 2015 - La Via Campesina, an International Peasant Movement, will be represented at the World Social Forum in Tunis as from March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of fifty delegates, made up of peasant (men and women), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of the global regions, with a particular focus of the Arabic world delegates. La Via Campesina considers this as an important space for mobilization opportunity around alternatives and proposals in favor of Food sovereignty as well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies and other social movements, mainly the Maghreb and Mashreq ones. In fact, the 2015 WSF will be held at a crucial moment at which the social movement are seeking for justice, freedom and solidarity. The set goals and orientations do take into consideration the political, social and economic changes in Maghreb-Mashreq, and as well in the African continent, with regard to the ecological and economical crisis around the entire globe. The identified objectives are indications of a better solution to all these crucial issues, and promote the convergences and alternative construction. According to N'Diakhate Fall, a CNCR Peasant leader in Senegal, and a member of the International Coordination Committee of la Via Campesina, « Food sovereignty is an alternative, if well implemented, can solve in major part the crisis being lived by humanity, mainly the food and climate crisis». In Tunis, La Via Campesina will take part in many self-directed activities, and will be part of the Land and Water Global Convergence, the Resistance Global Convergence to the rhythm of the Transnational cooperation and a workshop to restore the local food systems withURGENCI, HIC and RIPESS. The complete agenda of la Via Campesina in Tunis is available here. A press conference is scheduled on March 26th at 11h30 in a venue to be confirmed. CONTACT FOR PRESS Lamine COULIBALY, laminezie(a)gmail.com +216 41293663 Boaventura MONJANE, boa.monjane(a)viacampesina.org +216 41293767 http://viacampesina.org/ [3] http://tv.viacampesina.org/ [4] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/1768-la… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/2015-Tunis%20%20press%20release.jpg [3] http://viacampesina.org/ [4] http://tv.viacampesina.org/

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[Info EN] La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty
by La Vía Campesina 26 Mar '15

26 Mar '15

La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty Harare, 15 March, 2015 - La Via Campesina, an International Peasant Movement, will be represented at the World Social Forum in Tunis as from March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of fifty delegates, made up of peasant (men and women), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of the global regions, with a particular focus of the Arabic world delegates. La Via Campesina considers this as an important space for mobilization opportunity around alternatives and proposals in favor of Food sovereignty as well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies and other social movements, mainly the Maghreb and Mashreq ones. In fact, the 2015 WSF will be held at a crucial moment at which the social movement are seeking for justice, freedom and solidarity. The set goals and orientations do take into consideration the political, social and economic changes in Maghreb-Mashreq, and as well in the African continent, with regard to the ecological and economical crisis around the entire globe. The identified objectives are indications of a better solution to all these crucial issues, and promote the convergences and alternative construction. According to N'Diakhate Fall, a CNCR Peasant leader in Senegal, and a member of the International Coordination Committee of la Via Campesina, « Food sovereignty is an alternative, if well implemented, can solve in major part the crisis being lived by humanity, mainly the food and climate crisis». In Tunis, La Via Campesina will take part in many self-directed activities, and will be part of the Land and Water Global Convergence, the Resistance Global Convergence to the rhythm of the Transnational cooperation and a workshop to restore the local food systems with URGENCI, HIC and RIPESS. The complete agenda of la Via Campesina in Tunis is available here. A press conference is scheduled on March 26th at 11h30 in a venue to be confirmed. Contact presse Lamine COULIBALY, laminezie(a)gmail.com +216 41293663 Boaventura MONJANE, boa.monjane(a)viacampesina.org +216 41293767 http://viacampesina.org/ [1] http://tv.viacampesina.org/ [2] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/ [2] http://tv.viacampesina.org/

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[Info EN] New peoples' declaration brings common understanding of agroecology
by La Vía Campesina 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

New peoples' declaration brings common understanding of agroecology [1] Published on Friday, 20 March 2015 17:51 [2]LVC, MAB, MAELA, ROPPA, WFF, WFFP, WAMIP, IPC FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Zimbabwe, Harare, 18 March 2015 - "Agroecology is political; it requires us to challenge and transform structures of power in society. We need to put the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture and the commons in the hands of the peoples who feed the world," according to the declaration [3] of the International Forum of Agroecology. More than 200 people took part in the forum, held in Nyéléni, Mali, from February 23 to 27, representing organizations of peasants, indigenous people, agricultural workers, artisanal fisherfolks, and nomadic pastoralists, as well as consumers and other urban people. They met to develop joint strategies to promote agroecology and defend it from corporate co-optation. The declaration, available in English [3], Spanish [4] and French [5], calls for an immediate transformation based on truly agroecological food production by peasants, artisanal fishers, urban farmers etc. "Agroecology was always essential to humanity, because it builds autonomy for the food producers and provides a strong base for food sovereignty," says the document. The participants warn that "agroecology is at a crossroads." They note that "many multilateral institutions, governments, universities and research centers, some NGOs, corporations and others, [have] finally recognized agroecology. "But, they continue, "they have tried to redefine it as a narrow set of technologies, to offer some tools that appear to ease the sustainability crisis of industrial food production, while the existing structures of power remain unchallenged." They call this the "co-optation of agroecology to fine-tune the industrial food system, while paying lip service to the environmental discourse", and note that this has various names, including "climate smart agriculture", "sustainable-" or "ecological-intensification", industrial monoculture production of "organic" food, etc. For them, "these are not agroecology: we reject them, and we will fight to expose and block this insidious appropriation of agroecology." In the declaration they go on to say that: "The real solutions to the crises of the climate, malnutrition, etc., will not come from _conforming_ to the industrial model. We must_transform_ it and build our own local food systems that create new rural-urban links, based on truly agroecological food production by peasants, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, urban farmers, etc. We cannot allow agroecology to be a tool of the industrial food production model: we see it as the essential _alternative_ to that model, and as the means of _transforming_ how we produce and consume food into something better for humanity and our Mother Earth." According to Andrea Ferrante, from the Italian Association of Biological Farmers [6] (AIAB) and La Via Campesina, the answer to feeding the world lies with agroecology. "We want a model that is based on our knowledge, our way of living, not on petrol and fake answers from the industrial world. We are looking at the future of our children," he said. Participants of the forum worked out a strategy plan with nine main targets and several sub-goals to support the political, social and economic issues of food producers. The action plan clearly places women at the centre, as fighting gender-based inequality is essential for agroecology. For Maria Noel, from Movimiento Agroecológico de America Latina y el Caribe [7](MAELA) agroecology has been practiced for centuries and it represents more than just a system of production. "It was a way of being, a way of life that respects the environment, provides a livelihood and income to the majority of food producers and in which women have always played great role," she said. The action plan also includes the building of local economies, sharing knowledge and building alliances between diverse constituencies. These constituencies claim their legitimacy to lead it into the future, as "policy makers cannot move forward on agroecology without us. They must respect and support our agroecological processes rather than continuing to support the forces that destroy us". They also call on peoples to join them in the collective task of jointly constructing agroecology as part of popular struggles to build a better world, a world based on mutual respect, social justice, equity, solidarity and harmony with our Mother Earth. FOR MORE INFORMATION Ibrahima Coulibaly, CNOP-LVC, + 22366761126, i_ibracoul(a)yahoo.fr (French and English) María Noel Salgado, MAELA, +59899762883, maria.noel.salgado(a)gmail.com (Spanish) Andreas Ferrante, AIAB-LVC, +393480189221, a.ferrante(a)aiab.it (English, Spanish, French and Italian) Judith Hitchman, Urgenci, +33 680600391, hitchman(a)club-internet.fr (English and French) WEBSITES http://www.foodsovereignty.org/ [8] http://www.viacampesina.org [9] see photos http://tv.viacampesina.org/Mali-Agroecology-is-in-our-hands [10] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-pe… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/Nyeleni%20agroecolgy%2043.jpg [3] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-pe… [4] http://viacampesina.org/es/index.php/temas-principales-mainmenu-27/agricult… [5] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/les-grands-ths-mainmenu-27/agriculture… [6] http://www.aiab.it/ [7] http://maela-agroecologia.org/ [8] http://www.foodsovereignty.org/ [9] http://viacampesina.org/ [10] http://tv.viacampesina.org/Mali-Agroecology-is-in-our-hands-669?lang=en

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[Info EN] La Via Campesina Program at the World Social Forum in Tunis 2015
by La Vía Campesina 19 Mar '15

19 Mar '15

LA VIA CAMPESINA PROGRAM AT THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN TUNIS 2015 [1] DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM IN PDF HERE. [2] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/world-s… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/pdf/lvc-program-tunis.pdf

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