Press release Turin, 4^th of February 2010

The Working group “seasonal workers, migrations and agriculture” of the European Coordination Via Campesina met on the 29^th and 30^th of January 2010 in Turin, 15 days after the events in Rosarno.

The working group agreed that:

• The Common Agricultural Policy has supported the concentration and industrialization of the European agricultural production leading to the impoverishment and disappearance of many peasants and has increased the exploitation of workers.

• The events of Rosarno form part of a migratory policy indifferent to respect for human rights, a practice unfortunately widespread throughout Europe and generated by a globalisation of economic exchanges to the detriment of populations and a just distribution of common goods.

21/23 January, 2010

Introduction

From the very moment that the earthquake occurred on January 12 in Haiti, organizations, media and other sectors of the Dominican Republic had access and threw the alarm, even without detailed information, stating that it had been a disaster, some said "a tsunami" of unintended consequences.

Statement of Climate Justice Now! on the COP 15

Corrupt Copenhagen ‘accord’ exposes gulf between peoples demands and elite interests

The highly anticipated UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen ended with a fraudulent agreement, engineered by the United States and dropped into the conference at the last moment. The "agreement" was not adopted. Instead, it was "noted" in an absurd parliamentary invention designed to accommodate the United States and permit Ban Ki-moon to utter the ridiculous pronouncement "We have a deal."

Dear colleagues and friends:

Through this letter, we communicate our deepest sympathy and solidarity with the Haitian people who are now dealing with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that caused thousands of deaths, wounded and missing. We share our sorrow over the disaster and send an embrace of solidarity to the Haitian people, and especially our friends of La Via Campesina in Haiti. We hope that they will overcome this terrible situation. Referring to history we recall the strength and determination of the people of Haiti who were the first in America to abolish slavery in a definite way.

The destroyed office of MPP and MPNKP, farmers organisations members of Via Campesina 

Pursuant to its statutes, the World Trade Organisation must hold an assembly with all its members every two years. Practice is quite far from statutes. Indeed, due to the difficulties encountered by negotiations to successfully accomplish the Doha Round, there has not been a meeting of all the WTO members since the last WTO conference took place in December 2005. In order to convene a plenary meeting without running the risk of a new negotiations setback, the Director-General of the WTO had called up the representatives of the 153 countries members of the WTO and the 56 countries having the status of observers not for a negotiation session but a discussion meeting and assessment of multilateral negotiations.

Free the climate prisoners!

The climate talks ended up in a failure due to the selfish approach of governments who have turned the climate disaster into a business opportunity. Meanwhile, the streets and halls of Copenhagen saw unprecedented mobilizations of social movements and very diverse organizations from around the world demanding climate justice and proposing ways to achieve it.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Press Release – Via Campesina – 16 December 2009