The International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina met at the Bochica camp in Santandercito, Colombia from May 1-5, 2023. The main topic of this meeting was the preparation of the 8th Conference to be held from December 01-08, 2023 in Bogota, Colombia, with the representation of the 182 peasant member organizations of La Via Campesina from all continents.

This conference will certainly be one of the most important in our history, mainly because we have the task of making a contextual analysis that effectively represents today’s world, to know our challenges and build tactics in line with the problems facing the world today.

The context analysis points to the fact that in the coming years humanity will experience difficult times. We overcame the pandemic that in the last 3 years resulted in the death of thousands and the mutilation of millions of people around the world, due to Covid 19 but also due to the irresponsibility of some governments. The post-Covid world is bleak. It has left us with a deep economic crisis, which is the worsening of the structural crisis of the capitalist model of production that sweeps away workers’ rights and increases the cost of living to maintain its capacity of accumulation.

We find ourselves in a world at war: civil war in Africa, permanent attack on Palestinian territory, economic blockade of Cuba, coup d’état in Peru, war in Ukraine, militarization of Asia Pacific and the permanent intervention in Haiti, among others. The violent, prejudiced, and racist extreme right is gaining political space, spreading hatred among the poorest population.

Life in the entire planet is affected by a climate crisis that alters the agricultural calendar, generating increasingly violent and destructive natural disasters. They are a consequence of this aggressive development model that promotes forest fires, loss of water sources and wildlife, and causes imbalances in nature.

In its 30 years of history, La Via Campesina continues to promote agroecology, as ratified in the Declaration of the Rights of Peasants. Agrarian Reform is an indispensable condition to solve the problem of global hunger. Strengthening our organizations and acknowledging the fundamental role of peasants in the production and supply of healthy food are necessary steps to build Food Sovereignty and consolidate peace.

We call on everyone who is part of La Via Campesina to build our 8th Conference. We urge the organizations to call their social bases and members to study the preparatory documents, the support material, attend to the logistical conditions and prepare symbols of their region that will serve for the integration among peasants in the mistica.

Towards the 8th Conference!
Gobalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope!

#8ConfLVC

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