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April 17: Farmers Mobilise Around the World Against Free Trade

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April 17: Farmers Mobilise Around the World Against Free Trade HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLE April 17: Farmers mobilise around the world against Free Trade Agreements and for food sovereignty Press Release—La Via Campesina (Zimbabwe, Harare, April 17, 2015) Today thousands of women and men farm- ers of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina mobilize world- wide against Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) which affect peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sov- ereignty. Since April 17, 1996*1+ La Via Campesina celebrates this day as a global day of action with allies and friends. Free Trade Agreements promote TNCs and a capitalist industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals. These have increased the dis- placement, expulsion, and disappearance of peasants. Free Trade Agreements put profit over all other rights and concerns. Currently, the most significant FTAs in history are being negotiated by the European Union, the United States, and Canada. These agreements, if finalised, will liberalize trade and invest- ment markets in favour of transnational companies (see tv.viacampesina.org/ April-17th). Read more ... ARTICLES FROM THE REGIONS New publication - Seed laws that criminal- La Via Campesina extremely concerned ise farmers: resistance and fightback about Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp La Via Campesina/GRAIN Media release - 8 April situation 2015 La Via Campesina is extremely concerned about the Peasant seeds – the situation in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp pillar of food produc- in southern Damascus tion – are under La Via Campesina Release, April 7th, 2015 attack everywhere. La Via Campesina has been watching recent reports Under corporate pres- of the invasion of the Palestinian refugee camp Yar- sure, laws in many mouk by extremist armed forces with great con- countries increasingly cern. It comes at a time when the camp is suffering limit what farmers can from a two-year siege on it. We are extremely wor- do with their seeds. ried about the wellbeing of our friends and part- Seed saving, which ners in the food sovereignty projects on the has been the basis of ground, who have been targeted by armed forces. farming for thousands The recent targeted execution of civil society activ- of years, is quickly be- ist Firas Al Naji—a founder of food sovereignty pro- ing criminalised. jects in Yarmouk (which aim to ease the suffering of What can we do? A a community living with severe malnutrition due to new booklet and poster from La Via Campesina and the siege), among other initiatives—is a dark exam- GRAIN documents how big business and govern- ple of the grave situation that civil society fac- ments are moving to stop farmers from saving and es. We are also deeply concerned for the safety of exchanging their seeds, and shows how farmers are Abdullah Al Khateeb and other human rights de- fighting back. fenders targeted by militant groups. The threat against all of these active members of civil society Control over seeds must remain in peasants' hands. is massive, and we do not want to stand quietly This is the principle, based in the production pro- aside while they and their community are targeted. cess that guarantees the food sovereignty of rural Read more ... communities and urban populations against multi- nationals and their enormous profits. Over centu- La Via Campesina at the World Social Fo- ries, peasant farmers have created the thousands of rum in order to promote Food Sovereignty varieties of crops that are the basis of the world's Harare, 15 food supply and diversified diets, says La Via Cam- March, pesina's Guy Kastler. 2015 - La Read more ... Via Cam- pesina, an Free trade agree- Internation- ments on the rise – al Peasant Movement, Intense negotiations will be represented at the World Social Forum in and growing re- Tunis as from March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of sistance fifty delegates, made up of peasant (men and wom- en), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of Article by Solidarity Sweden – Latin America the global regions, with a particular focus of the 2015 is a year of big—and perhaps irreversible— Arabic world delegates. changes due to the multiple processes of Free Trade La Via Campesina considers this as an important Agreements (FTAs) around the world. These deals space for mobilization opportunity around alterna- are being concretized without most people under- tives and proposals in favor of Food sovereignty as standing what they imply and how they affect citi- well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies zens all over the world. Therefore, as April 17th, and other social movements, mainly the Maghreb marks the International Day of Peasants’ Struggle, and Mashreq ones. Read more ... peasants themselves have dedicated the commem- oration as a time to fight against FTAs and corpo- Global Justice Movements Converge on rate power. We too, introduce the question of FTAs Revolutionary Ground to encourage awareness about what is at stake. Salena Tramel What is the origin of these agreements? What Collective adrenaline ran high as the World Social effects have they had where they are already imple- Forum opened on March 24 in Tunis. It had not yet mented? Who wins and who loses? Read more ... been five years since a peaceful revolution brought a dictatorship long backed by Western political su- Final declaration of perpowers to its knees and ignited the fire of the the 6th Congress of Arab Spring that burns to this day. And it had not CLOC Via Campesina yet been a week since shooters stormed the Bardo On the International Day Museum, killing 22, and retesting the resolve of a of Peasant Struggles and delicately budding democracy. after a march through Tens of thousands of delegates from across the Buenos Aires streets from globe converged in Tunis not only to show support the US Embassy, an impe- for Tunisian sovereignty, but also to share their rialistic symbol, to the Argentinean Rural Associa- own local struggles and solutions while advocating tion, a symbol of agribusiness in the country, the change in the face of interlinked systemic injustic- organizers shared the final statement of the 6th es. The opening march easily demonstrated the Congress of the Latin American Coordination of diversity of the constituency--bands of Tunisian Countryside Organizations (CLOC-Via Campesina) students in perfect stride with Latin American labor which you can read below. The document is a result organizers and Sub-Saharan African small-scale of eight days of debates and was read by represent- food producers, knit together by the unraveling atives of the Youth Assembly of CLOC. food, climate, energy, and financial crises. Read "Each person shines with his or her own light. No more ... two flames are alike. There are big flames and little flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames Declaration of the Global Convergence of are so still they don’t even flicker in the wind, while Land and Water others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Struggles Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but Rights to Water and others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t look Land, a Common at them without blinking, and if you approach you Struggle shine in the fire". Read more ... Dakar to Tunis: Dec- laration of the Glob- Argentina: Peasants gather for food sover- al Convergence of eignty Land and Water (Argentina, Struggles (Tunis, 28 March 2015) Buenos, April We, social movements, grassroots organizations 11, 2015) The and civil society organizations engaged in the de- IV Assembly of fence of the rights to land and water, gathered in Youth marked October 2014 in Dakar at the African Social Forum. the beginning We are fighting and protesting against natural re- of the VI Con- source grabbing, especially water and land grab- gress of the bing of our Commons, and against the systematic Latin American violations of the associated human rights. Sharing Coordination of Rural Organizations, CLOC-Via Cam- our ideas led to acknowledgement of the essential pesina in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The congress linkage between our struggles, given the inextrica- started on the 10th and will end on the 17th of April, ble nature of land and water grabbing. We met and will close with a massive march in commemora- again at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March tion of the International Day of Peasant's Struggle. 2015 to continue this dialogue with movements Over a thousand representatives of peasant move- and organizations from all over the world in order ments from the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe to broaden this convergence. Read more ... will attend this gathering, united by the slo- gan: Against Capitalism for the sovereignty of our La Via Campesina Declaration on Migration peoples: America is united and continues to strug- and Rural Workers gle. Diego Montón, representative of CLOC-VC’s March 25, 2015 – World Social Forum Tunis 2015 general secretariat said that “The congress is ar- The migration of ranged every four years in order to join forces in peoples across ar- the struggle against systematic human rights vio- bitrary barriers is lations to which our peasantry is exposed”. Read an integral part of more ... human history. Rooted in the African farmers unite against Transnational search for better Corporations living conditions, Caritas, Malhangalene, Maputo City this movement of Maputo, Mozambique, 20 February 2015 – We, peoples from one place to another was later trans- more than 40 farmers and members of civil society, formed into a social, economic, and political pro- women and men, from Mozambique, South Africa, cess that has largely served to benefit ruling elites – Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Ivory Coast, met in Mapu- the slave traders of the past and the multinationals to, Mozambique, from 17 to 20 February 2015 to of the present.
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