Sow the seeds of struggle and resistance, and cultivate our rights! – #TimeToTransform
Let the principles of food sovereignty take roots everywhere! Its #TimeToTransform
The world is currently living through a different and intense context and historical moment, with a much-accelerated change in the balance of forces and the political struggle.
Taking into account the peculiarity of each country or territory, as the working-class and peasants in the countryside, we face two great enemies of the people; (i) A visible enemy like Covid-19, (however invisible the causative virus), and the consequences of the pandemic, which causes fear, tension, pain, suffering, low esteem, stress, shock, deaths, and terror. It demands of the society and of the powers of the State: executive, legislative and judicial; to put life, to save lives, first. Defending life, in these times of a pandemic, must be above all. (ii) An enemy, also common to all the people, is Capitalism. Capitalism is a parasitic system that takes advantage of these moments of crisis and social upheaval, to suck the State, society and nature, to follow its course and lead to a higher concentration of wealth, income and profits.
We cannot go back to business as usual. It is time to usher in a social transformation. #TimeToTransform
La Via Campesina has concrete proposals in this regard. They include among many others; (i) implementing agrarian reform; (ii) promoting agroecology; (iii) recognizing peasant solutions to bring about climate justice; (iv) guaranteeing peasants’ rights and control over seeds; (v) building robust local peasant markets as the backbone of rural economies. Such proposals based on our experiences in our territories should be accepted and implemented by all nations if we have to achieve food sovereignty. Food Sovereignty is our concrete answer to hunger, food, economic, and environmental crises. The Declaration on the Rights of the Peasants (UNDROP) is a tool alongside many other international instruments, that put forth the demand for our rights vis-à-vis the States, to achieve Food Sovereignty (and Emergency Policies) and dignified life in the fields and cities.
Francisco Daniel from MST painted this beautiful, hopeful image of our collective future. Share it. Give voice to this vision for a new society that we urgently need, one that is rooted in people’s rights, where solidarity and social justice define every aspect of our social, cultural, political, and economic life. Let the principles of food sovereignty take root everywhere! Its #TimeToTransform