The UN Food System Summit was taglined as the “People’s Summit”. In fact, the opposite is true. From its onset, the UNFSS and its ongoing events have been led by those beholden to agrochemical corporations and economic forces that do not serve the interests of people and the planet.
With The Land is a celebration of the first ten years of the Landworkers’ Alliance and an invitation to join this collective endeavour towards food sovereignty, agroecology, and land justice. It links the past, present and future by bringing together voices from Land Workers’ Alliance members and beyond.
In these times of growing hunger and multiple crises, it is more urgent than ever that governments and the UN listen to us. We call on you: change direction, and support our demands and efforts for a food sovereign future based on human rights and the principles of agroecology, care, justice, diversity, solidarity and accountability.
The situation in Sfax, Tunisia, has reached a critical point since July 2023, with extreme tension surrounding migrants from various sub-Saharan African countries. Last week, thirteen migrants from the sub-Saharan region lost their lives at sea off the coast of Sfax, when their boat sank. Despite being a transit country for migrants on their way to Europe, Tunisia resolutely refuses to be seen as an alternative solution for migrants.
36 years ago, a tragedy struck Haitian peasantry when 139 peasants, members of the organization Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, lost their lives in one of the largest massacres ever seen in the country. The regime of Henry Nanphy, the Lucas family, the Poitvien family, and a faction of the Catholic Church in collusion with the American embassy in Haiti were responsible for this terrible atrocity. This massacre is one of the bloodiest episodes in the country’s history.
This year, KRRS members commemorated the 43rd Peasant Martyrs Day in Channarayapattana of Devanahalli, near Bangalore International Airport, where the farmers have been sitting on an indefinite protest strike for 473 days against the forceful acquisition of 1773 acres of fertile land. Farmers of 13 villages in Channarayapatna Hobli near Bengaluru have been protesting for over 15 months.
At a time when the Spanish government is taking over the presidency of the European Union, La Via Campesina, together with allied social movements, denounced the impunity of the Melilla massacre, in which dozens of migrants were killed while trying to cross the border fence from Morocco to Spain. La Via Campesina is commited to continue building the Global Pact of Solidarity for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees.
For nearly 40 years, Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has been fighting the concentration of landownership among the country’s elite through the direct occupation and settlement of fallow lands. Now a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission, which has been set up to investigate the activities of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), actually seeks to divert focus from illegal actions committed by agribusiness.
The Basic Law on Food, Agriculture, and Rural Areas in Japan, the most important legislation in the agricultural sector, is currently under review by the Japanese government. Alarmed at the threat to the country’s food sovereignty, the Japan Family Farmers Movement (Nouminren) has presented a proposal advocating for a departure from the neoliberal food and agricultural policies that have been in place.
The International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty’s (IPC) Working Group on Agrobiodiversity is in Rome this week to enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System, and to fight the private interests that try to get rid of their obligations as set by the FAO Plant Treaty 20 years ago.
