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Call for April 17: International Peasant's struggle DayThursday, 29 March 2007 The 17th of April is the International Peasant's Struggle Day, establishedafter the massacre of 19 landless peasants belonging to the Landless Movement(MST) in Brazil on the 17th of April 1996 during the second conference ofLaVia Campesina in Tlaxcala Mexico. In commemoration of the International Peasant's Struggle Day, La Via Campesinaand its allies are organizing activities and actions all over the world.Peasants and friends will rally around the following demands: 1.The WTO negotiations should not resume. Challenging the Doha Development Agenda, peasants, fisher folks, (Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturallyappropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods,and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It putsthose who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systemsand policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers astrategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime,and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determinedby local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economiesand markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal - fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just income to allpeoples and the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression andinequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes andgenerations. We call peasants organizations and other social movements to discuss withtheir 2.Stop Free Frade Agreements (FTAs) and Economic Partnership Agreements(EPAs) in food and agriculture. Bilateral agreements and partnerships should be made between peasants andordinary people based on the principle of solidarity. People to peoplerelations in solidarity will create brotherhood and sisterhood, while FTAwill pave the way for transnational corporations to destroy people'seconomies. 3.End with the colonial model of monoculture. Until today, agriculture systems based on monocultures keep exploiting humanbeings and the environment. They create overproduction, which in turndestroys the peasants' economy because of the dumping of agriculturalproduces. We urge all governments to phase out from monoculture farming and to develop asustainable agriculture based on family farms that respects the ecology oragro-ecology and produces healthy and nutritious food. 4.Oppose the World Bank policies on land and rural development The World Bank has been imposing policies leading to privatisation of land,water, public services, seeds, etc. As a consequence, farmers and ruralcommunities are kicked out of the land and are loosing their livelihood,while big corporations are Those policies are even implemented under the name of "agrarian reform" (theMarket Assisted Land Reform of the World Bank). Instead of listening to the World Bank and IMF's advice, governments shouldwork with their people towards social justice. 5.Reject the G8 domination! A few months before the G8 summit in June in Germany, we are denouncing thepolicies put forward by the G8 governments in order to maintain their powerand to protect the interests of the big companies, at the expense of thegreat majority of the world population. JOIN THE ACTIONS FOR APRIL 17 !- More on www.viacampesina.org 1.Organize public debates, workshops, discussions, seminars, culturalevents, and rallies on food sovereignty as the alternative to the neoliberalmodel. You can use the results of Nyeleni 2007, the Forum for foodsovereignty (Mali, February 2.Take part in the global action and activities on 19th of April to stopEU-ACP EPAs. 3.Join the campaign against green deserts! 4.La Via Campesina, together with many other social movements, will takepart in the mobilizations against the G8 in Rostock, Germany, June 2 and 3 toshow that alternative policies are possible. We call people to go to Rostockfor the mobilizations against the G8. La Via Campesina calls all its member organizations in the world to prepareand organize activities, events and actions in commemoration of 17 April. Weinvite all Via Campesina members to commemorate this event in their farmlandswith their communities and organisations in their villages, provinces andcountries. We also call other social movements to celebrate this event. Please inform us about the activities you are planning. We will publish allactions and activities in our website. If you want to get more information please contact: International Operative Secretariat of La Via Campesina (Contact Person: Tejo Pramono) Or contact our regional staffs that are close to where you live: South-East and East Asia (Irma Yanni) Caribbean (Francisca Peguero) Europe (Morgan Ody) Central America (Wendy Cruz) South America (Rita Zanotto) North America(Jessica Roe) South Asia (Gayathri Girrish) |
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