17 April – International Day of Peasant Struggles

Resist repression! Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity!

The International Day of Peasant Struggles is commemorated by La Via Campesina every year on 17 April to remember the Eldorado do Carajás massacre in 1996, where the State machinery, in cohorts with agribusiness interests, murdered 19 peasants who were defending their right to land. On this day, we also highlight and denounce the continued criminalization, oppression, and repression of peasants, workers, migrants, and indigenous people communities worldwide.

This call is for all members of La Via Campesina to gather together this April and make ourselves seen and heard. Here is how we can do it:

• Organize public demonstrations and forums against the ongoing acts of criminalization in your territories. We are releasing a poster for you to adapt it, translate it, and share it in our communities. You can find it here and in its canva version.

• Share the news and updates from these actions on social media

• Use the hashtags #PeasantResistance #StopKillingUs #StopTheRepression, and actively share photos, videos, and posters of your public actions, forums, and meetings.

• Express our collective intent to exist, survive, and build a new society. Take our official slogan of the 8^th Conference: “Faced with the Global Crises, we build Food Sovereignty to ensure a Future for Humanity!” Transmit it, translate it, and adapt it through communication materials, press statements, and public actions.

• Use the hashtag #8ConfLVC to highlight our efforts towards the 8th International Conference.

• A promotional video for our upcoming 8th International Conference – our moment to gather and build our alternatives – will be released on Monday the 20th.

• Follow the La Via Campesina website and social media handles for videos and more! We will also replug a series of illustrated educational materials on UNDROP popular educational materials, Peasant Seeds, and Peasant Feminism.

• Email the details of your actions and events to communications@viacampesina.org We will be adding the details to a global map that plots all solidarity actions.

This post is also available in Español and Français.