Emergency appeal: La Via Campesina on the road to WTO ministerial in Hong Kong

The next WTO meeting is in Hong Kong this December. This is the meeting after Cancun, Mexico, after Doha, Qatar, and after Seattle. As you know, free trade policies, like those being negotiated in the WTO, are driving  family farmers, peasants and indigenous people off the land, around the world, North and South, East and West. As a result, farmers, peasants, the landless, farm workers, women, forest people and indigenous people around the world have come together in the Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org ), and are demanding "WTO Out of Agriculture" and have put forth the alternative of "peoples food sovereignty."
At the last Ministerial Conference of the WTO, in Cancun, we were able to prevent any new agreement thanks in large part to the thousands of Mexican peasants and indigenous people in the streets, and to the presence of peasant and family farm leaders from around the world. This was possible thanks to hundreds of people who gave money through the internet to support the mobilizations.

Among those in Cancun was Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean peasant leader gave his life as a sacrifice for peasants all over the world, coining the slogan "WTO Kills Farmers"  (http://americas.irc-online.org/columns/amprog/2003/0309lee_body.html ).

After our strong mobilizations in Seattle and Cancun, we are now heading for Hong Kong, for the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference. The Via Campesina will have a strong mobilization with many peasants and farmers from Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico. We already have some resources to bring people to Hong Kong, but we need your help to strengthen our numbers, especially from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and from Africa.

Alberto Gomez from UNORCA in Mexico, who led the Cancun mobilization, explained: "It’s urgent we mobilize our forces again to stop the WTO. We have to try to defeat WTO in Hong Kong. We were able to raise our voice in Cancun and we have to do so the same in Hong Kong."
Young Soo Lee, from the Korean Peasants League (KPL) said: "We cannot trade away our lives. The WTO killed Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae in Cancun, and it is killing many farmers across the world. The WTO will have to face our strong opposition in Hong Kong."
Ingeborg Tangeraas from the European Farmer’s Coordination (CPE) in says: "We need to stop the current negotiations and demand an analysis of the impacts of global trade under the WTO. 10 years of the WTO is enough!"

It is critical for all people who are concerned about the undemocratic nature and very negative impact of the WTO and other neo-liberal "free" trade agreements like CAFTA, FTAA etc on our lives, that as many peasants delegates as possible can get to Hong Kong this December.
We need your help now, in solidarity with farmers, peasants, workers, indigenous people, women, men, and children, and the environment, around the world, who are suffering the terrible consequences of out-of-control free trade policies.
Please support the peasant mobilization in Hong Kong with your donation.

Simply click on the menu "Donate Now!" in this website,
Go to http://www.viacampesina.org/hongkong , or
Directly to our secure web site: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589

To contact us: write to viacampesina@viacampesina.org
If you are in the United States (and/or have US dollar denominated checks or money orders), and want to donate by mail:
Please make your check out to "Via Campesina/CENSA"
and mail it to:
CENSA/Via Campesina
2288 Fulton Street, suite 103
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA

If you want to make a bank wire transfer you can wire funds to the bank account of  La Via Campesina in Indonesia where our international secretariat is located:
Name of Bank: Bank Mandiri, Branch Zaenul Arifin, Medan, Indonesia
Bank Full address: Jl. Zaenul Arifin, No. 16 D,  Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Account number: 105 0004663443
SWIFT code: BEIIIDJA
Name of the beneficiary/Account Holder: FEDERASI SERIKAT PETANI INDONESIA (FSPI)
Please put communication: For Hong Kong mobilisation