Over the past five months, the “Stop Gaza Starvation” campaign led by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees has reached 96,975 beneficiaries in the Gaza Strip, despite severe bombardments and challenges. Essential aid delivered includes food parcels, hygiene and sanitary products, mattresses, blankets, and firewood, addressing critical needs amidst gas shortages.
Media and Publications
To celebrate March 8, women from the Landless Workers’ Movement will mobilize across Brazil
This Wednesday (6) marks the beginning of the National Day of Struggle of Landless Women 2024, which ends on Friday, March 8, the International Women’s Day of Struggle. The MST women will come out in defense of rural and urban workers working for agrarian reform and also call for a continuous mobilization for social justice.
2024 | February Newswrap: Updates from Member Organizations Worldwide
February was marked by a series of major mobilisations by trade unions and farmers’ movements in Europe and Asia. Members of La Via Campesina were remarkably engaged in these peasant struggles and their presence was forceful, vigorously opposing the WTO, free trade agreements and European policies aimed at destroying our food systems.
Agroecology in the 8th LVC International Conference: Reflections of the agrarian movements in Colombia
The agroecology is part of the food sovereignty as a principle of the political struggle for the LVC. It is part of the plan of action in the different continents because it is the answer to the peasants’ need to promote their ancient model of production against the agribusiness that has moved forward fiercely, displacing and forcing the peasants, the communities and the indigenous peoples.
Globalising Hope – The courageous journey of La Via Campesina
La Via Campesina took shape in a political context where neoliberalism was rapidly expanding across continents, threatening to destabilise and even disappear small-scale agriculture. ‘A Growing Culture’ joined the 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina, held in December 2023 in Bogotá. Here is a report.
In defense of peasants’ rights and popular peasant feminism: Voices from around the world
In this video, produced by Capire and the Defending Peasants’ Rights Team, peasant women and community organizers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, who attended the 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina in Bogota, articulate the significance of the UN Declaration on Peasants’ Rights.
Colombia: New agrarian courts raise hopes for end to land conflicts
The first five agrarian courts will open in May in the cities of Cartagena, Quibdó, Popayán, Pasto and Tunja, with 65 more to come. Peasant farmers, or campesinos, have long struggled for recognition by the state. Another effort by President Petro to resolve the unequal land divide is a promise to redistribute more than 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land.
Treaties and Tractors: The protests in Europe against free trade agreements, WTO at the root of it all
To find the roots of the problems that are now flourishing in the form of discontent in the countryside, one needs to point to the beginning of the establishment of international trade rules in this latest era of globalization. The WTO has become a space where the Rule of Might prevails, with a few developed countries determining the course of world trade.
Publication: A new wave of land grabs strikes Tanzania
Tanzania is pursuing another round of foreign agribusiness investment. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands are being turned into block farms to produce export crops, whose increasing demand is setting the stage for another wave of land grabs. With China looking to Tanzania as a new supply source for soybeans, the stage could be set for another wave of land grabs.
2024 | January Newswrap: Highlights from La Via Campesina Member Organizations Worldwide
January witnessed global mobilizations to defend peasant rights against corporate food systems and Free Trade Agreements. Peasant-farmers’ dissatisfaction spurred mobilization in Germany, France, Belgium, and Spain. This edition also brings updates from Palestine, East Africa, alongside ongoing struggles in Latin America and Asia.