La Via Campesina Media Advisory
(Harare, December 9, 2015) Next week, starting on the 14th of December, a big delegation of farmers from the international peasants’ movement, La Via Campesina, will participate in various actions in struggle against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Nairobi, Kenya. This delegation comprising peasants from Asia (Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan), Africa (Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, etc), Europe and Americas will join other hundreds of people from other civil society organisations and grassroots movements from all over the world to oppose the 10th Ministerial Conference of WTO. In Nairobi, La Via Campesina will join hands with World March of Women Kenya, Center for Constitution Implementation and Bunge la Mwananchi for the events.
WTO seeks to force through “all aspects of the Bali Package”, the multilateral killer of farmers during this Ministerial Conference. Further liberalization of trade is not only on the agenda, it is the agenda, with corporate agribusiness looking to destroy the few public policies that still protect some national food systems.
For La Via Campesina this should not be allowed to happen in Nairobi. We, the peasants, men and women from around the world will organize to struggle for and achieve Food Sovereignty – in which national governments support rural communities, cultures, and livelihoods. This can only happen if the powerful voices of corporates and their lobbyists inside the WTO seeking to end the so-called “peace clause” are silenced and thus “allowing” national governments to protect their food and agricultural systems.
Various actions and activities are planned from December 14 to 17. These include activities at YMCA Central Hostels, Nairobi, such as a Seminar on the “20 years of WTO” on the 15 and 16th December, a street march and a mobilisation in memory of the Mr. Lee Kyun Hae, a Korean farmer, who having had his livelihood destroyed by WTO, sacrificed himself in 2003 to denounce it.
Let’s come together and mobilise struggles against the WTO and make this 10th WTO Ministerial Conference the last one.
For more information and interview requests please contact LVC support team:
Mateus Santos (lvc.mateus@gmail.com)
Ndabezinhle Nyoni (nyoni.ndabezinhle@viacampesina.org)
Local contact in Nairobi for media: Cidi Otieno (oticdesq@gmail.com; +254708566012)
NO MORE WTO! FOOD SOVEREIGNTY NOW! GLOBALIZE STRUGGLE! GLOBALIZE HOPE!
#EndWTO #MC10 #StopFTAs #FoodSovereignty
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Website http://viacampesina.org/en/
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