17 April:
Faced with global
crises, we build
food sovereignty to
ensure a future for
humanity!
17
April 2023 Food
Sovereignty
Press
Release | Bagnolet
17/04/23
Today, April
17th, 2023, as we
remember the “Eldorado
dos Carajás Massacre”
that took place 27
years ago in Brazil,
and our many struggles
in other places, we,
La Via Campesina,
raise our fists high
in hope, knowing that
food sovereignty,
peasant agroecology,
comprehensive popular
agrarian reforms,
popular peasant
feminism and the
implementation of
United Nations
Declaration of the
Rights of Peasants and
other People Working
in Rural Areas
(UNDROP) will ensure a
future for humanity
and the planet.
Solidarity
urgently needed!
Global protests
are increasing due to
the climate and
environmental crisis,
food crisis, and
conflicts caused by
shifting geopolitical
contours. Social
unrest has been
observed in over 60
countries due to
economic inequalities
deepened by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
These crises expose
the flaws in the
dominant capitalist
model, as capitalist
interests destroy
territories and
threaten every life
system worldwide.
Governments have
responded to protests
with repression and
persecution, including
killings and
assassinations, to
intimidate and subdue
movements. Social
movements in various
countries in Brazil,
Palestine, Paraguay,
Colombia, Mali,
Ecuador, France,
Spain, Germany,
Netherlands, United
Kingdom, Thailand, Sri
Lanka, Indonesia,
South Korea, Kenya,
Canada, Haiti,
Guatemala and Peru,
among others, have
alerted the world
about the violations
of workers’ and
peasants’ rights,
where civil unrest is
high due to the high
cost of living, and
government policies
that are further
increasing social and
economic inequalities.
Most
governments are
failing to keep up
with the demand for
better public
services, leaving many
citizens living
precariously. For
instance, in Europe,
which until recently
enjoyed much stability
after the Second World
War driven by
unprecedented growth
in production and the
distribution of some
of the wealth to the
majority of the
population, some
countries face social
instability as social
achievements regress.
In this new context of
crisis, most
governments prioritize
the enrichment of the
richest and the
accumulation of
capital, placing the
burden of restrictions
on the majority of the
population.
Governments are
choosing capitalism at
all costs, even
breaking away from the
framework of liberal
democracy and the rule
of law that has
prevailed until now,
with the so-called
‘defense of Western
values’ being
shattered.
La Via
Campesina (LVC) stands
in and is also
committed to building
solidarity with those
who are being
victimized by the
criminalization of
social protest on all
continents. It is time
to build a more
fraternal world based
on solidarity among
peoples. We call for
an immediate and
unconditional end to
the persecution of
peasant movements and
their leaders.
Grabbing and
commodification of
commons for profits
continues unabated
The industrial
food system continues
to make super profits
while trampling upon
the lives and
livelihoods of farming
families and rural
people, whose lands,
water and territories
are being grabbed for
export land uses amid
a worsening global
food and economic
crises. Water grabbing
is on the rise to make
money for a few and to
grow export crops as
the climate crisis
worsens – climate
change related
droughts are now
extensive and
frequent.
We emphasize
the need to inform,
educate, organize, and
articulate to build a
social force that can
stop the
tendency to convert
the climate crisis
into business
opportunities.
LVC denounces the
government’s
indifference to the
warming of the planet
and the debate over
speculative financial
business, the new
green and blue
economy, and the
privatisation of the
commons, calling for
political changes to
cool it. LVC calls for
redoubling of efforts
to defend the commons
and stop their
commodification and
demand the fair
sharing of rights to
use the commons.
Migrant crisis:
result of an inhumane
system of exploitation
and repression
The crises has
forced, mostly rural
populations from the
South, to migrate
mostly to the Northern
countries in search of
better livelihoods.
Instead of better
lives, most migrants
have been subjected to
inhumane system of
exploitation and
repression. Thus
struggles of migrant
farm labor are also a
fundamental part of
the April 17 Day of
Peasant Struggle.
Over a billion
people work in
agriculture fields,
most of whom are
peasants displaced
from their lands due
to neoliberal policies
that favor
agribusiness capital.
Landless women make up
almost 50% of this
population. The loss
of peasant lands in
rural areas continues,
leading to an increase
in migrant workers
seeking employment in
agriculture in
northern countries to
support their
impoverished families.
These workers face
unsustainable working
conditions and receive
the lowest wages in
the labor sector. From
Brazil to the US and
Europe, migrant
farm-workers are
demanding their rights
and standing against
the exploitation of
agribusiness capital.
The full
recognition of full
rights for migrant and
refugee peoples
constantly
criminalised and
murdered at the
borders of our nations
is also part of our
struggle towards the
full achievement of
food sovereignty. We
call on societies,
social movements, and
all people of good
will, both North and
South, to join our
Global Pact of
Solidarity in defense
of the lives and human
rights of all migrants
and refugees
everywhere.
Our solutions
to the crises
Peasant
organizations have
a critical role to
play in ensuring
the future of
humanity and the
planet by
resisting the
hydro-agro-extractivism
of transnational
mega-corporations,
which threaten the
lands of peasants,
indigenous
peoples, and other
rural inhabitants.
This struggle for
justice and
dignity is
significant as we
celebrate the Day
of Peasant
Struggle on April
17. On this day,
La Via Campesina
reaffirms the
central elements
for a political
project to ensure
a future for
humanity. These
elements include
food sovereignty,
agrarian reform,
peasant
agroecology,
demand for a UN
Special Procedure
on the UNDROP, and
peasant and
popular feminism:
- Food
sovereignty offers
an alternative to
the current crises
of hunger,
climate, and ecology
by transforming the
industrial model and
creating local food
systems that link
rural and urban
areas. It prohibits
speculation in food
futures contracts
and addresses two
significant sources
of greenhouse gas
emissions:
long-distance
transportation of
food and
industrialized
agriculture.
Principles of Food
Sovereignty can
provide us the
framework for a new
global trade
framework that can
end the dominance of
the World Trade
Organization (WTO),
which currently is
attempting to
legitimise its work
through creation of
a space for civil
society in its
structure and Free
Trade Agreements
(FTAs).
- Agrarian
reform is
necessary
to ensure fair
sharing of rights to
use commons and
democratize
ownership of
territories, which
is currently being
concentrated by
elites.
- Peasant
agroecology is a
means of
resistance to an
economic system
that prioritizes
profit over life
and is responsible
for deforestation,
water contamination,
and acidification of
oceans. It offers an
essential
alternative to
industrial food
production and
transforms the way
we produce and
consume food.
- Demand
for a UN Special
Procedure on the
UNDROP will
allow for effective
implementation at
the international
level.
- Peasant
and popular
feminism
cultivates defense
of relationships
based on respect
and care
for others and
rejects modes of
relationship based
on violence,
domination, and
control of others.
Towards the
Eighth International
Conference (#8ConfLVC)
In November
this year, La Via
Campesina will convene
its 8th International
Conference in
Nicaragua. And as we
gather our proposals
towards this important
event, our rallying
call to unite and
build a new society is
well expressed in the
8th Conference slogan:
“Faced with the Global
Crises, we build Food
Sovereignty to ensure
a Future for
Humanity!” We will
exchange and build a
collective vision for
the future based on
these existing
alternatives that are
being practiced in our
communities.
Globalise the
struggle! Globalise
hope!
For more
information write to press@viacampesina.org
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