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Download the Publication Here Credits We want to heartily thank all the voluntary translators, designers and editors who have been working in the shadow since November 2007. Due to their enthusiastic work, this booklet now exists in 4 languages and is the result of a tremendous collective work. We hereby want to thank all of them for their great activism! Contacts : International Operational Secretariat (IOS) of La Via Campesina General Coordinator: Henry Saragih Address: Jl. Mampang Prapatan XIV No. 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790 Jakarta – Indonesia. Phone: +62 21 7991890, Fax: 62 21 7993426 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.viacampesina.org Jakarta, May 2009 LA VIA CAMPESINA POLICY DOCUMENTS 5th Conference Mozambique, 16th to 23rd October, 2008 La Via Campesina Policy Documents 2 Introduction I am happy to present this first broad compilation of background and policy documents which have been widely discussed within our movement and which were produced by members of Via Campesina and its leaders from around the world. The texts published in this book were either written collectively for a specific event over the past years or specifically drafted by some Via Campesina representatives. They were then published in two booklets. The first one, published in March 2008 was discussed during the regional meetings in the lead up to the 5th Conference of Via Campesina that took place in Maputo, Mozambique, from the 16th to the 23rd of October 2008. A second booklet was published just before the conference. All those documents were finally discussed at the Conference itself during various assemblies and workshops. Through this process some texts were amended, others were replaced, new texts came up and some were simply adopted as they were. This edition presents the result of this broad position-making and consultation process. Some of the documents in this book have already been published and used for our mobilisations around the world. This is the case for example of the position paper on climate change (“Small scale sustainable farmers are cooling down the earth”) that was defended by the Via Campesina delegation at the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Bali, in December 2007. But some others are new, such as the “Position on Agricultural Prices and Speculation” proposed by the Via Campesina Food Sovereignty Committee, and some are still on their early stage of development such as “World Bank – International Monetary Fund out of agriculture!” or “Corporate agriculture creates water crisis” . Those texts are by no means perfect. They emerged from our organisations, with all the complexity implied by debating and forging a common vision within such a diverse cultural and La Via Campesina Policy Documents 3 linguistic environment. However imperfect, this book represents a broad consensus within La Via Campesina member organisations at this stage and constitutes an important basis to go further and deeper into the building of a strong international peasant's voice. It is now published in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, and most of the texts were also translated into Japanese and Korean. We have realised that however diverse our bases are - from landless farmers in Bolivia to organic farmers in Canada, from plantation workers in Indonesia to milk producers in Spain or vegetable growers in Congo – we share a surprisingly common analysis of the causes of the long lasting crisis in agriculture: the ruthless policies and governance that put profit above all other considerations. Moreover by working on those joint documents, we felt that much more than just representing an economic sector we were defending certain values and a way of life in society based on justice, simplicity and sustainability. Via Campesina holds an international conference every four years, gathering representatives from all its member organisations to analyse the advances made and to define the main directions for the years to come. In October 2008, more than six hundred women and men gathered in Maputo for the 5th Conference, spending days and nights exchanging and discussing their different realities and opinions, their successes and failures and their dreams and victories. I hope that this publication will also help farmers and peasant's organisations around the world who were not with us in Maputo to strengthen their position. I sincerely wish as well that it will inspire other sectors of society, in the cities and in the countryside, to keep struggling with us towards food sovereignty. Henry Saragih, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina Jakarta, February 2009 4 La Via Campesina Policy Documents Table of Contents Credits ......................................................................................................1 Introduction ............................................................................................3 Table of Contents ....................................................................................5 A. Analysis of the international context Current international context and possible implications for the strategies of La Via Campesina ...........................................10 African Perspective: The Food crisis is not just about food....16 B. Evaluation of the work done by La Via Campesina Historical overview of La Via Campesina.................................40 A Look at La Via Campesina ......................................................45 Evaluation of the work done by La Via Campesina since 2004 .............................................................................................50 Vision and values of La Via Campesina....................................57 C. Position Documents on Specific Issues Climate changes: Small scale sustainable farmers are cooling down the earth .............................................................68 Agrofuels: Industrial agrofuels fuel hunger and poverty ........76 An answer to the global food crisis: Peasants and small farmers can feed the world........................................................82 Social movements and political change..................................93 The offensive of transnational corporations against agriculture...................................................................................99 La Via Campesina and alliance building within social movements .................................................................................108 La Via Campesina and indigenous peoples .............................115 World Bank – International Monetary Fund out of agriculture!..................................................................................118 Corporate agriculture creates water crisis ..............................123 La Via Campesina Policy Documents 5 D. Key political documents from working committees Agrarian Reform : For a Genuine, Comprehensive and participatory agrarian reform ...................................................130 Biodiversity and Genetic resources : Protocol on Biosecurity and the Convention on Biodiversity: No to the privatisation of biodiversity!......................................................134 Food sovereignty and trade : - Position on Free Trade Agreements .......................................142 - Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni 2007 ............................................................................................147 - Position on Agricultural Prices and Speculation...................152 Women : - La Via Campesina’s Global Campaign to end Violence against women ...........................................................................160 - Gender equity in La Via Campesina.......................................165 - Women's declaration on food sovereignty ............................171 Human Rights: Towards an international convention of the rights of peasants .......................................................................173 Education within La Via Campesina ........................................175 Peasant-based Sustainable agriculture: the future of the planet ..........................................................................................182 Migrations and agricultural workers: The migrations question ......................................................................................191 Additional Text Accelerating into disaster – when banks manage the food crisis ............................................................................................196 6 La Via Campesina Policy Documents La Via Campesina Policy Documents 7 Women belonging to a cooperative of the Mozambican Farmers Union (UNAC) in Aldea Comunal Samora Machel, Marracuene, at about 60 km from Maputo. The cooperative gathers small farmers' families to produce vegetables and sell them in the streets. 8 La Via Campesina Policy Documents A. Analysis of the International Context La Via Campesina Policy Documents 9 Current International Context And Possible Implications For The Strategies Of La Via Campesina ____________________ Several changes in the international context will have a significant effect on our strategies and possibilities for changes. Some may signify extra difficulties, other may create new opportunities to advance our agenda. New issues coming up The trade issues (World Trade Organisation, Free Trade Agreements, Economic Partnership Agreements) have appeared strongly in several countries (Costa Rica, Mexico, India, Peru, Colombia, South Korea…) and public resistance is growing. The new issue that sharpens
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