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Call for Global Solidarity Actions | #17April2022 | International Day of Peasant Struggles
by La Via Campesina 01 Apr '22

01 Apr '22

THIRTY YEARS OF OUR COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE, PEACE, LIFE AND DIGNITY! CALL FOR GLOBAL SOLIDARITY ACTIONS | BAGNOLET | 01 APRIL 2022 [2] ------------------------- 17 April is the International Day of Peasant Struggles, commemorated by La Via Campesina every year to remember the Eldorado do Carajás massacre [3] in 1996 and to highlight the continued criminalization, oppression and repression of peasants, workers, and indigenous people communities worldwide. This year also marks a special milestone in the life of La Via Campesina. We are entering the fourth decade of our collective struggles for food sovereignty, popular agrarian reform and dignity. Peasant and indigenous peoples' organizations sowed the first seeds of the global movement at a gathering in Managua in 1992. La Via Campesina took its formal birth in 1993 at the first international conference in Mons, Belgium. The world is in a difficult place at the moment. The food crisis continues to deepen while hunger and social injustices worsen each day, further aggravated by a COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, conflicts, wars, and financial speculations. It highlights the absolute failure of the transnational capital and agribusiness system enabled by free trade agreements and industrialized monoculture soaked in toxic agro-inputs. This industrial system displaces peasants and degrades the environment and productive resources while supplying our countries with expensive, imported and unhealthy foods. Rising global food prices and costs of farm inputs push peasant communities everywhere deeper into hunger, poverty and debt. We, La Via Campesina - the peasants, indigenous peoples, rural populations, agricultural workers, and youth in urban and rural areas, propose and promote Food Sovereignty as a solution to build the national productive capacity. Food Sovereignty is a principle rooted in the peasant and family farm sector through supportive public policies, guaranteed prices, credits, and other support forms--including direct marketing between producers and consumers and genuine agrarian reform. _Peasant Agroecology and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in the Rural Areas (UNDROP) are tools to build better societies with justice. _Our local food production, self-determination with dignity, peace, feminism, and people's sovereignty are possible only with these tools. There is no future without food sovereignty! THIS 17 APRIL, AS WE ARE LAUNCHING OUR THIRTY-YEAR CELEBRATIONS, LET US MAKE THIS MOMENT TO REMIND AND TAKE PRIDE IN THE LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY THUS FAR. On this road to justice, we have also lost our people to repression and criminalization. It is essential to keep alive their memories, struggle for their freedom and highlight the victories inspired by our historical struggles. NOW IS THE TIME TO GIVE VISIBILITY TO THE TRIUMPHS, THE SACRIFICES, THE ALTERNATIVES, THE BIG AND SMALL TRANSFORMATIONS THAT WE AFFECTED AND HOW WE GREW TO BE PRESENT AND ORGANIZED IN 81 COUNTRIES. It is time to advance our #25YearsOfFoodSovereignty struggles and convince the people, governments and policymakers how this vision can solve the multiple crises and build better and healthier societies with justice, dignity, peace, and people's sovereignty. ------------------------- MOBILIZATION PLANS, STARTING FROM APRIL 2022: * MAIN SLOGAN:_ 30 years of collective struggle, hope and solidarity._ * MAIN HASHTAGS: * #LVC30YEARS #17APRIL2022 * _#NoFutureWithoutFoodSovereignty #FoodSovereigntyNOW_ * OFFICIAL POSTER: La Via Campesina has released an Official Poster for all our members and allies to mark our 30th anniversary. DOWNLOAD THE FILES HERE [4] * UNIFYING ACTION IN APRIL: Throughout April, we call upon all our members and allies to PLANT NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS TREES in your farm, neighbourhood, backyard or garden - as a symbol of our collective existence, persistence and resistance. > * Do share the details of the trees you plant and the images/video messages on social media with the hashtag #LVC30YEARS and tag La Via Campesina on Facebook (@ViaCampesinaOfficial), Twitter (@via_campesina) and Instagram (@la_via_campesina_official). * SEEDS FAIRS AND MORE: Starting 17 April and through the next 18 months, we encourage all our members and allies everywhere to hold events, food donations, workshops, seed fairs, film festivals, music festivals that promote Food Sovereignty, Solidarity and Peasant Feminism. > * You can email the schedule of these local events to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org, and we will plot it on a global map of events. Please mention the title of the event, location/date/time, event banner and contact details of the organizers. Alternatively, you can also add the information to this ONLINE FORM [1]. * PREMIERE OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ANIMATION FILM: La Via Campesina will also release a short animation film on Food Sovereignty on 17 April 2022, premiere on the official Facebook page [5] in English, Spanish and French. We encourage all our members to save the date, watch this film together, share it widely and spread the message of Food Sovereignty. * USE OUR TRAINING MODULES: La Via Campesina has already launched a series of training kits on UNDROP [6], Peasant Seeds [7] and Peasant Feminism [8]. There are also a SET OF POSTCARDS [9] that define the different elements of our struggle for Food Sovereignty. We encourage all our members and allies to use these materials and adapt, translate, and disseminate them among all movement members. * VIDEO LIBRARY: Visit La Via Campesina's VIDEO ARCHIVES ON VIMEO [10], curate your collections and screen local film festivals to spread the message of agroecology and food sovereignty. * REGIONAL ACTIONS AND AMPLIFICATION: La Via Campesina also encourages all our members and regional secretariats to use the national and regional social media pages, instant messaging groups, blogs and websites to highlight the history of struggles in each region. * BLANK VERSION OF POSTERS: We are also RELEASING BLANK VERSIONS OF POPULAR POSTERS FROM THE PAST [11] that members and allies could re-use if they wish to during these celebrations. ------------------------- _30 YEARS OF COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE, HOPE AND SOLIDARITY – VIVA LA VIA CAMPESINA! _ #LVC30Years #17April2022 _#NoFutureWithoutFoodSovereignty #FoodSovereigntyNOW_ ------------------------- _ _ Links: ------ [1] https://forms.gle/Ae5jnLxK6fpaR1sbA [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/thirty-years-of-our-collective-struggle-for-jus… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/massacre-at-eldorado-do-carajas-24-years-ago-a-… [4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/xKo729tfezAdYKd [5] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/ [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/training-modules-un-declaration-on-rights-of-pe… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/lvc-seed-modules/ [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/graphic-book-the-path-of-peasant-and-popular-fe… [9] https://viacampesina.org/en/the-1996-rome-food-sovereignty-declaration-in-p… [10] https://vimeo.com/viacampesina [11] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/sfz9HzR7fNdNmFr

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Small-scale fishers: Struggles and Mobilizations | Nyeleni Newsletter
by La Via Campesina 21 Mar '22

21 Mar '22

The United Nations has declared 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) to highlight the importance of artisanal fishing and aquaculture. Over the past ten years, and even more so since the pandemic, blue economy initiatives have been blooming. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit advanced the notion of "Blue Foods", which first and foremost means aquaculture. In 2021, the FAO Committee on Fisheries took unprecedented steps to advance aquaculture, giving birth to the "Shanghai Declaration [1]" drafted by WorldFish, industry players, and other stakeholders. IYAFA is now also showcasing artisanal fishing. Some prefer the term small-scale fishing, but regardless of the term used, it is always about the way of life that provides food and income for over a hundred million people globally. However, fisher people's territories and resources are increasingly being grabbed: the entire blue economy agenda spanning from displacing people in the name of conservation (Marine Protected Areas -MPAs), to massive-scale investments for fish farming, to expanding ports to facilitate more global trade, and to unprecedented sound blasting and drilling for oil and gas, are examples of contemporary development that have and continue to dispossess fishing communities. We hope IYAFA will become the year for fisher people all over the world to scale up resistance and mobilise masses in demands for restitution and regeneration of nature. Download the EN newsletter [2] Links: ------ [1] https://aquaculture2020.org/declaration/ [2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=174

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Colombia Peace Agreement Monitor | Newsletter #5
by La Via Campesina 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* This newsletter is the result of La Via Campesina's collective effort to make visible and accompany the implementation of the Peace Accords in Colombia. To subscribe click here [1] SNAIL PACE OF PEACE: "AT THIS RATE, IT WILL TAKE 26 YEARS TO REALISE THE COLOMBIAN PEACE ACCORD" Three years ago, Ivan Duque came to the presidency as a candidate for a party promising to "tear to shreds" the Peace Agreement. The sentences of the Constitutional Court, the pressure from the international community and the citizen mobilization prevented the president and the government party from dismantling the Accord, yet Duque's mandate delayed the implementation process and led the country in a serious security crisis. read the full press release [2] of La Vía Campesina. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN COLOMBIA CONTINUES TO RISE Political violence in Colombia is a persistent phenomenon despite the Peace Agreement. The assassination of community leaders, ex-combatants and their relatives continues to increase, as well as the various forms of human rights violations suffered by peasant, indigenous communities, and afro-descendants during the territorial reconfiguration of the armed conflict. READ MORE... [3] COLOMBIA: MILLIONS FORCED TO MIGRATE DUE TO CONFLICTS, AND THREATS FROM MINING FIRMS Considerable forms of violence have been suffered by rural communities in the context of the armed conflict, one of the most serious being the forced displacement by stripping peasant communities, indigenous people, and Afro-descendants of a fundamental element of their identity and their existence: the land. This phenomenon, causing 8 million victims during the whole armed conflict, has not stopped with the signing of the Peace Agreement, on the contrary, it continues to rise. READ MORE... [4] COLOMBIA PEACE AGREEMENT: GENDER JUSTICE MARRED BY LACK OF POLITICAL WILL In Colombia, there are over 6 million rural women, many of whom have had limited access to land due to conflict and structural policies that have historically concentrated the property of land in the hands of men. The signing of the Peace Agreement raised hopes to make this situation change, yet nothing is being accomplished. READ MORE... [5] COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NATIONAL STRIKE What initially was a call to protest the regressive Tributary Reform presented by the Duque government, has turned into a social explosion triggered by the upsurge in violence, the assassination of community leaders, the government's failings regarding the Peace Agreement, increased poverty, precarious working conditions, and measures adopted by the government to deal with the crisis generated by the pandemic. READ MORE... [6] COLOMBIA: DESPITE ATTEMPTS TO CURB IT, THE PROCESS OF FINDING THE TRUTH MOVES FORWARD The truth is an indispensable element in peace and reconciliation processes. Its importance remains in the need for the creation of a collective memory, the fight against oblivion and the guaranteeing of the rights of victims and society to know what happened in the context of the armed conflict. The process of obtaining truth, justice and reparation in Colombia is progressing little by little, despite attempts by the far right to curb it. READ MORE... [7] [8] Omar Moreno, life and peasant struggle [9] HYMN OF THE INDIGENOUS GUARD 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 [10]. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [1] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [16] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [17] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [1] Links: ------ [1] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/snail-pace-of-peace-at-this-rate-it-will-take-2… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/human-rights-violation-in-colombia-continues-to… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-millions-forced-to-migrate-due-to-conf… [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-peace-agreement-gender-justice-marred-… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/socia-l-organizations-denounce-limitations-on-p… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-despite-attempts-to-curb-it-the-proces… [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOgyaHgiJc [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwR6VgQ1mOE [10] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [11] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [12] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL [13] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [14] https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/ [15] https://viacampesina.org/ [16] http://www.viacampesina.org [17] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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Training Modules: UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)
by La Via Campesina 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

On the third anniversary of the formal adoption of the UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), La Via Campesina and FIAN International are launching the first booklet in a five-part training kit of popular education materials. ------------------------- STRENGTHENING THE IMPLEMENTATION, ASSERTION AND ADVANCEMENT OF PEASANT RIGHTS This 17 December, we celebrate the third anniversary of the international recognition of the human rights of peasants and other people in rural areas. In 2018, on this day, the UN General Assembly had adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) [1]. The backdrop to this anniversary is undoubtedly bleak. Big businesses continue to violate, with impunity, the rights of peasants and other rural people. Any form of resistance or advocacy to protect these rights is met with blatant criminalizationcriminalization of the social movements leading it. This past year, agribusiness corporations also persisted with their false solutions and Big Tech Reforms in agriculture, despite the worsening COVID-19 pandemic and climate crises. Working hand in glove with the UN Secretary-General, the World Economic Forum, and mega-philanthropies, Transnational Corporations continued to champion an agribusiness free-market narrative at several global policy spaces. The latest in this series is the UN Food System Summit (UNFSS), held in September 2021 and marred by opaqueness and exclusionary processes [2]. UNFSS outcomes are attempting to shape international narratives and policies on responding to the multiple crises facing humanity and Mother Earth. Recently, COP26 saw the announcement of many public-private partnerships pledging to fast-track agriculture innovation, financed by the same agribusiness corporations that promoted the Green Revolution, and now masquerading many of their practices under the garb of 'climate-smart agriculture. And these are not disparate events but an inter-connected attempt, to preserve the dominance of translational agribusiness firms. In many ways, what big corporates have been brewing in Davos [3] over the years as the "template" of a digitalized, high tech future food system [4] became a reality at the UNFSS. All these recent events and actions indicate that we will continue to witness even more concentration of resources, productive chains and infrastructure among a few corporations. Democratic governance spaces will shrink further [5], and violate the rights of peasants and workers will worsen. But what gives hope is also the emergence of organized resistance from affected communities. There is a growing recognition among people that these violations are being carried out with impunity and often in connivance with the local authorities and officials. We cannot discount the relevance and significance of the UN Declaration (UNDROP) in this context. It is a fantastic tool to shield us from profit-driven corporate agenda and roll back the tide of neoliberalism. These training modules offer a practical tool to initiate transformation and take our power back from transnational agribusinesses. The UNDROP Introductory Booklet is the first in a five-part toolkit of popular education materials. [6]It is crucial to reconnect the UNDROP to the small-scale food producers worldwide - the same people who inspired its content, who worked on its development and whose Rights to dignified lives and livelihoods continues to be violated. This training toolkit will help us to effectively use the UNDROP in our struggles to assert and advance our collective and individual rights. The purpose of this toolkit is to create broader awareness, promote deeper understanding and enhance capacities (through training) of rural people's movements. We should use this booklet as a foundational tool to ensure that the UNDROP will be respected, implemented and promoted at all levels, from local to international, from community customs to policymaking mechanisms. This popular education toolkit is context-based and will empower peasants to improve their livelihoods in rural areas. It will reinforce food sovereignty and agroecology, strengthen the fight against climate change. It recognizes peasants' rights to conserve, use, exchange and sell their seeds. It defends people's right to protect blatant attempts to grab land, rivers and oceans. In short, using this toolkit will bring UNDROP to life, turning it into an effective tool for our struggles. It is crucial that working-class people, rights holders, peasants, and people living or working in rural areas incorporate the UNDROP in their daily struggles and understand how their rights are violated. To achieve this, the Basic Booklet and the forthcoming four Thematic Booklets have focused on specific articles adopted in UNDROP and how affected people can apply it in legal and advocacy spaces. All peasants must understand their rights for the implementation to be effective, so these booklets are part of a crucial popular education campaign. For La Via Campesina, the adoption of this Declaration by the UN in December 2018 was only a battle half won. It is now crucial to see this Declaration fully implemented in letter and spirit in every country, everywhere. UNDROP can help us overcome structural discrimination and violence and promote our rural ways of life to respond to the current political, economic, social and ecological crises._ _Let's mobilize ourselves with this toolkit to implement our UNDROP! Globalise the Struggle, Globalise Hope! DOWNLOAD NOW Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/finally-un-general-assembly-adopts-peasant-righ… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/position-paper-a-summit-under-siege-corporate-c… [3] https://www3.weforum.org/docs/IP/2016/NVA/NVAGuidetoCountryLevelAction.pdf [4] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/the-time-to-reinstate-food-systems-i… [5] https://www.tni.org/es/node/22742 [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Bookl…

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Training modules on Peasant Seeds from La Via Campesina:
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '21

10 Dec '21

LA VIA CAMPESINA LAUNCHES TRAINING MODULES ON PEASANT SEEDS ------------------------- La Via Campesina joyfully announces the launching of a series of training modules called "LA VIA CAMPESINA: CONSTRUCTION OF SHARED KNOWLEDGE ON PEASANT SEEDS". These are 5 pedagogical documents that seek to deepen the study of the global struggle for peasant seeds, their situation and context and connection with other struggles for Food Sovereignty. The modules have been built within the Agroecology, Seeds and Biodiversity Collective of La Via Campesina. It will strengthen the GLOBAL CAMPAIGN – _"SEEDS: PEOPLES' HERITAGE AT THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY"_. Each of these modules explores lived realities, reflections, victories and struggles and have been systematically collected and synthesised for the activists of the movement, its organizations, institutions, and anyone interested in training on such issues. THE FIRST MODULE IN THIS FIVE-PART MONTHLY SERIES, "FOOD SOVEREIGNTY BORN OF PEASANT SEEDS" IS NOW ONLINE and is available in ENGLISH [1], SPANISH [2] AND FRENCH [3]. The subsequent editions will also be available on the website of La Via Campesina. [4] We encourage activists, organizations to use this tool and a crucial resource in your training programs and to spread this knowledge in communities. The module comes embedded with a "Virtua Shigra" that points to additional and useful resources on the topic. May it be of much benefit and revolution! If you have comments or queries, please write to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-launches-training-modules-on-p… [2] https://viacampesina.org/es/la-via-campesina-lanza-modulos-de-formacion-sob… [3] https://viacampesina.org/fr/la-via-campesina-lance-des-modules-de-formation… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/lvc-seed-modules/

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Latest Edition | Nyéléni Newsletter: Message of pastoralist communities, a voice from the land
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '21

10 Dec '21

NYELENI : INTRODUCING THE MESSAGE OF PASTORALIST COMMUNITIES, A VOICE FROM THE LAND THE NEW EDITION OF THE NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER IS ONLINE! ------------------------- The latest edition of the Nyéléni newsletter throws light on the lives and lived realities of pastoralist communities around the world. More than half of the Earth's surface is made up of grasslands and rangelands. For thousands of years pastoralist communities have domesticated animals and managed ecosystems in a sustainable way, producing a diversity of cultures and food systems that are adapted and resilient. Associated biodiversity has always co-existed with pastoralism. Pastoralism is based on the extensive use of territory, sometimes grasslands but also forests or cropland after harvests, marginal lands and other spaces that very often are not suitable for agriculture. Pastoralism is practised by between 200 and 500 million people worldwide in highly variable environments in nearly every country of the world from the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic Circle. But today pastoralism is threatened as never before by the forced industrialization of livestock farming. DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER FOR MORE: ENGLISH [1] SPANISH [2] FRENCH [3] Illustration by Fernando Garcia Dory/European Shepard Network / WAMIP ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=171 [2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=172 [3] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=173

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Illustrated Book: “The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina”
by La Via Campesina 02 Dec '21

02 Dec '21

On 25th November 2021, La Via Campesina's global campaign to eliminate gender-based violence published an illustrated book that traces _THE PATH OF PEASANT & POPULAR FEMINISM _in the movement. During the month of November, members of LVC in all continents, amplified our global solidarity actions that called for an end to violence against women and girls. The launch of this book coincided with these actions, and echoes all our demands and our collective critique and condemnation of a capitalist and patriarchal system that perpetuates these violations. As La Via Campesina, we demand justice and dignity for those affected by the violence and condemn the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. It is time to say "_enough!_" to gender-based violence experienced by women, girls and non-binary genders. The book is a vital political-pedagogical tool in our struggle, aiding our training processes at the grassroots, regions and continents. Organized by the Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina and beautifully illustrated by the _FemGarabat Feminist Collective_ of the Basque Country, this book synthesis the historical struggle of peasant and indigenous women around the world. The artists who worked on the book also expressed their support and respect for these struggles when they said, _"As a feminist graphic collective, we use illustrations as a tool for transmitting ideas that we believe in and value. Through our work we had the opportunity to learn about women's struggles from all over the world and, in that sense, working with La Vía Campesina has been a very enriching experience. It has been a pleasure to visually illustrate these diverse struggles, those in which Femgarabat firmly believes"_ Twenty-eight pages of stunning graphic work reveal the role of women in the global fight for Food Sovereignty and their centrality in promoting Peasant and Popular Feminism in their territories and organizations. It also offers several testimonies of peasant leaders from across continents in implementing the 'Global Campaign to End Violence Against Women' promoted by LVC since 2008. ------------------------- GET YOUR COPY TODAY AND SHARE IT WIDELY WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION, REGION AND AMONG FRIENDS AND ALLIES. THE PUBLICATION IS AVAILABLE IN ES [1], FR [2] AND EN [3]. YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A VERSION IN YOUR LOCAL LANGUAGE HERE [4]. ------------------------- NOTE: This illustrated book draws its inspiration from a handbook [5] that La Via Campesina had launched early this year. Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/es/nueva-publicacion-grafica-el-caminar-del-femini… [2] https://viacampesina.org/fr/nouvelle-publication-litineraire-du-feminisme-p… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/VIA-CAMPESIN… [4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/jmyLf2Rbwci23w2 [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Peasant-and-…

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News: La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe
by La Via Campesina 01 Dec '21

01 Dec '21

La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe. AFTER ELIZABETH MPOFU, MORGAN ODY BECOMES THE GENERAL COORDINATOR OF LVC. ------------------------- BAGNOLET, FRANCE | 01 DECEMBER 2021: The International Operative Secretariat of La Via Campesina, the global movement that represents around 200 million peasant farmers worldwide, moved this week to Bagnolet, France, hosted by European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) and its member organisation La Confédération Paysanne, in line with the organisation's principle of geographical rotation between the continents. With this step, Morgan Ody - a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France, assumes the General Coordination of La Via Campesina from Elizabeth Mpofu (Harare, Zimbabwe). In the context of the current climate, biodiversity and resource crises, this responsibility can help underline that the defence of peasant agriculture and food sovereignty is essential to promote climate, economic and social justice and establish sustainable and fair food chains. For the past 25 years, small and medium-scale farmers from La Via Campesina have fought for peasants' rights, agrarian reform and food sovereignty, i.e. the right of peoples to decide how and by whom food is produced. We have worked tirelessly to feed the population and ensure that past, present and future generations have healthy, fresh and culturally appropriate food. However, as peasants, we are under constant attack. Peasant Agroecology, the solution we offer to climate and food issues is not only ignored but actively destroyed by incoherent policies, industrial monopolies and neo-liberal capitalism. Continuing the struggle against industrial agriculture and the power of transnational companies, the member organisations of LVC are committed and determined to defend peasant agriculture. Our solidarity is our strength! At present, the world finds itself at a crucial crossroads, and in this context, the arrival of the secretariat of a global movement so strongly committed to agroecology and food sovereignty in Europe is an opportunity to ensure the truly sustainable solutions of small-scale farmers are reflected in the policies implemented at an international, European and national levels. As Morgan Ody commented during the Secretariat transition ceremony held in Bagnolet on 30 November 2021, peasant farmers are key to building a future based on social justice: fair prices for producers and fair wages for rural workers, harmony with the natural environment, international solidarity, equality and dignity. > _"We, the peasants, the indigenous peoples, the rural women, the agricultural workers, the youth of our rural areas, produce while reviving biodiversity and emitting very few greenhouse gases: mixed farming and livestock farming, like pastoralism or traditional agro-forestry, are models of energy saving, carbon capture and maintenance of environments rich in wild and cultivated diversity. Thus, with our know-how and skills, peasant agriculture f__eeds__ o__ver __70% of world's population with less than 30% of the productive resources__[2]__."_ Across all levels, united in our vision of food sovereignty, the regions and members of La Via Campesina will continue to work to ensure that the human rights of all those who live and work in rural areas are respected, for the good of the planet and its population. ------------------------- FOR MEDIA QUERIES, CONTACT: PRESS[AT]VIACAMPESINA[DOT]ORG ------------------------- NOTES [1] United Nations Declaration of Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas [1] [2] Who will feed us? [2], ETC group, 2017 [3] LVC Organizational Brochure, edition 2021 [3] [4] Link to the Transition Ceremony [4] Links: ------ [1] https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1650694?ln=en [2] https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/etc-whowillfeed… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Broch… [4] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/videos/1135134243920612

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October Newsletter | Special Edition - 25 Years of Struggle for Food Sovereignty!
by La Via Campesina 23 Nov '21

23 Nov '21

SPECIAL EDITION DONATE [1] 25 YEARS OF OUR COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY This October, La Via Campesina together with allies in the gobal movement for food sovereignty celebrated 25 years of peasant-led efforts and campaign to bring food sovereignty to reality. FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR HIGHLIGHTS. [2] FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, A MANIFESTO FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET | OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM LA VIA CAMPESINA [3] WEBINARS & WORKSHOPS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS WHO ARE PART OF THE STRUGGLES FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY HELD WEBINARS, FORUMS, WORKSHOPS AND VIRTUAL ACTIONS. CATCH UP ON ALL VIRTUAL EVENTS HERE. [4] REGIONAL ACTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF LA VIA CAMPESINA HELD SEVERAL ACTIONS. _CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE GALLERY OF EVENTS. [5]_ PRESS RELEASE & MORE OUR HISTORIC TASK IS TO ENSURE THAT NO HUMAN BEING GOES HUNGRY. _READ THE PRESS RELEASE [6]. _ To read a collection of articles and announcements celebrating our collective struggles, FOLLOW THIS LINK. [7] POSTCARDS & POSTERS This month, we are also releasing a series of postcards which capture the vision of Food Sovereignty that La Via Campesina had put forth in 1996. Check them all out here. [8] To download the communciation kit, follow this link. [9] YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL! 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]. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [15] For questions or comments, email lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Website: www.viacampesina.org [14] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [16] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [15] Links: ------ [1] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/celebrating-food-sovereignty-highlights-of-soli… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [4] https://linktr.ee/laviacampesina [5] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6157626800974506&type=3 [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/16oct-our-historic-task-is-to-ensure-that-no-hu… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/25-years-of-food-sovereignty/ [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/the-1996-rome-food-sovereignty-declaration-in-p… [9] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/E9y4r2Sy5pS88Y6 [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [11] http://www.facebook.com/ViaCampesinaOfficial [12] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [13] http://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official [14] http://www.viacampesina.org [15] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [16] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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Call to Action | 25 Nov | Peasant Women Fighting for their Rights and against Hunger and Violence!
by La Via Campesina 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

NOVEMBER 25, 2021, IS THE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. LA VIA CAMPESINA CALLS UPON ITS MEMBERS AND ALLIES TO ORGANIZE ACTIVITIES TO RAISE AWARENESS, GIVE VISIBILITY, STAND IN SOLIDARITY AND DENOUNCE THE ALARMING LEVELS OF VIOLENCE EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN, CHILDREN AND LGBTQIA* PEOPLE WORLDWIDE; A VIOLENCE THAT HAS ONLY WORSENED WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. SOCIETY CANNOT IGNORE THESE MULTIPLE FORMS OF VIOLENCE IMPACT MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION. WE REQUIRE PUBLIC POLICIES THAT GUARANTEE THEIR RIGHTS AND ASSURE DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR WOMEN AND COMMUNITIES. The world is confronting multiple structural crises on the social, economic and political fronts. Hunger has been on the rise since 2015, disproportionately affecting women and children. Neo-liberal financial packages pushed by IMF and other institutions pave the way for further loss of rights, with high rates for poverty, unemployment, forced migration, exclusion and shamefully high femicide rates. For these reasons, we demand that human rights be guaranteed for all. Ensuring the right to food must be the goal that guides urgent actions and decision-making processes, and public policies to achieve Food Sovereignty. Agrarian Reform and Peasant Agroecology are necessary conditions to achieve food sovereignty. Our collective struggles are to ensure access to health services and education in rural areas, fair prices and markets based on solidarity, healthy food for rural and urban areas, taking care of water and forests. Our primary task is to ensure no one dies of starvation! HUNGER AND POVERTY, THE CONSEQUENCE OF A GLOBAL CRISIS Oxfam had estimated that 11 people die every minute [1] due to hunger, higher even than the mortality rate for COVID-19! Hunger and inequality are born of a failed but dominant economic, social and political system. The crisis of starvation and malnutrition is a sign of this failure. Let us be reminded that hunger is caused not due to insufficient production but because of a free-market logic that treats food as a commodity that only those who can afford it can buy. We are witnessing a real-life version of "the hunger games", disregarding the fundamental right to lead a dignified life. Just as the ECLAC (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) announced in 2020, extreme poverty in rural areas could reach 42%, a completely unprecedented figure. According to these estimates, 10 million rural inhabitants - almost 6 million of them women- could face the situation of not having an income enough to cover even the most basic of nutritional needs. Despite this gloom, during the pandemic, peasant families, fisherfolk, indigenous people, rural workers, seasonal workers and farmworkers working in the fields carried on with their historic task of feeding the people. They continued doing their productive labour, promoting agroecology, solidarity and denouncing the systemic failures that impeded their efforts. They rose to the challenge of meeting the demand for food from the cities, rural communities, and their own families. AN URGENT CALL FOR THE RESPECT OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND DIVERSITIES La Via Campesina demands to ensure all rights of women and peasant communities urgently. It is impossible to keep producing food while amid gross inequalities and terrible working conditions, informal labour, instability, migration, the burden of unpaid housework and care-giving tasks, aside from the difficulty of having fundamental access to land, water, management of natural resources, financing, insurance and training. Peasant women must exercise their fundamental rights and freedom as established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. In this sense, we call on everyone to remain on high alert against the serious setbacks experienced by both women and gender non-conforming communities in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Palestine, the Philippines, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kurdistan and Mexico. We also salute and celebrate the struggle and organization of women fighting for their rights worldwide. It is estimated that 87,000 women were victims of femicides committed by partners or family members - 137 women every day. In Latin America, a woman is murdered every two hours simply for being a woman. "Today more than ever, Food Sovereignty with Peasant Agroecology is our most urgent task. Women and members of the LGBTQIA* community are active on all organizational fronts, but we need our rights ensured to fight against hunger. In Europe, the price of electricity is surpassing that of gold while multinationals selling 'green energy' as a solution engage in extensive land grabbing. They do this to install large industrial parks with solar panels and huge windmills that produce energy to be sold at unaffordable prices," states Sonia Vidal from the Galician Peasant Union, ECVC and the International Women Articulation of La Via Campesina. "These companies prevent peasants from having access to lands that small-scale food producers would use to produce healthy food to fight against hunger, a need more urgent than ever. Those of us who are producers see our costs skyrocket. And the healthier the food (produced using agroecological methods), the more expensive it is to produce and sell. Food Sovereignty, based on peasant agroecology, is vital to fight hunger," adds Vidal. La Via Campesina reaffirms the urgency to protect those who produce food, women, children, and members of the LGBTQIA* community; to preserve our ways of life, customs, traditions, and ancestral knowledge; our territories, food, and food the access to common goods. Societies should demand from the states to stop corporate capture, criminalization, plundering and violence; to stop all processes that make it possible that companies and powerful agents be the ones making decisions when it comes to food. To stop all violence and inequality, we need to change the capitalist system and work towards diverse food systems with Food Sovereignty, social and environmental justice. We call on everyone from each territory to continue steadfast in the struggle to STOP all violence against women, against gender non-conforming people and the working class. Join the hundreds of decentralized actions worldwide, watch our Virtual Festival: "Peasant women fighting for rights, against hunger and violence!" on November 23 on our social networks. DOWNLOAD THE COMMUNICATION KIT [2] ------------------------- PEASANT WOMEN ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND AGAINST HUNGER AND VIOLENCE! #StopViolenceAgainstWomen #FOODSOVEREIGNTYNOW GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE! Links: ------ [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/9/every-minute-11-people-die-of-hunge… [2] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/F96MY7Zt8keqwKs

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