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.
Morgan Ody, the General Coordinator of La Via Campesina and a small-scale vegetable farmers from Brittany France, who is a member of the ECVC and the French Peasant Union Confederation Paysanne delivers a fiery speech at a Conference in the European Parliament held parallel to the EU-CELAC summit.
The National Farmers’ Union of Canada has called on the French government to cease its violations of human rights, in particular the rights of farmers and peasants recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Rural Workers (UNDROP).
Speaking at a meeting of the Youth Peasants’ Association of Nepal (a sister organisation of ANPFa and a member of La Via Campesina), Nepal’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Development hinted at a national food sovereignty law that could soon become a reality.
Jessie explains how UNDROP has been used in Canada, a country which abstained from voting in 2018 when the Peasants’ Rights Declaration was adopted, highlighting the opportunities and challenges of implementation.
The European Commission is looking to abolish the traceability of GMOs resulting from “new genomic techniques”and remove labelling requirements for foods derived from these GMOs. The aim of this proposal is quite simply to sacrifice GM-free, peasant and organic farming.
