Déclaration de la société civile africaine : appel pour une interdiction des OGM

(Please distribute and sign at www.acbio.org.za/activist)

Introduction
Nous soussignées, organisations de la société civile de l’ensemble du continent africain, appelons par la présente à une interdiction immédiate et totale de la culture, de l’importation et de l’exportation d’organismes génétiquement modifiés (OGM) sur le continent africain.

Nous exhortons les gouvernements d’Afrique à prendre les mesures nécessaires à la protection de la santé de leurs populations, en soutenant le présent appel et en s’engageant à mener à bien, sur le long terme, des études indépendantes et faisant autorité en matière de sécurité alimentaire.

Nous appelons également les gouvernements d’Afrique à bien vouloir prendre note de nos objections supplémentaires concernant les OGM. Celles-ci concernent le brevetage du vivant et la privatisation de l’agriculture, qui a plongé les paysans, les communautés rurales et les peuples autochtones dans la dépendance vis-à-vis du monopole des entreprises semencières privées. Nous sommes par ailleurs extrêmement préoccupés par les impacts négatifs sur la biodiversité et les changements climatiques de l’agriculture industrielle basée sur la technique transgénique.

UNAC statement on the ProSavana Programme

We, peasants of the Provincial Nucleus of Peasants in Nampula, the Provincial Nucleus of Peasants in Zambezia, the Provincial Peasants Union of Niassa and the Provincial Union of Peasants of Cabo Delgado, and who are all members of the National Peasants' Union (UNAC), met on the 11^th of October 2012, in the town of Nampula with the aim of discussing and analyzing the ProSavana Programme.

The ProSavana Programme is a triangular project between the Republic of Mozambique, the Federal Republic of Brazil and Japan, for the development of large-scale agriculture in the Nacala Development Corridor, affecting 14 districts in the provinces of Niassa, Nampula and Zambezia, covering an area of approximately 14 million hectares. The project was inspired by an earlier agricultural development project implemented by the Brazilian and Japanese governments in the Brazilian Cerrado (savannah), where large-scale industrial farming of monocrops (mainly soybeans) is now practiced. This Brazilian project led to a degradation of the environment and the near extinction of indigenous communities living in the affected areas. 

La Via Campesina International: Interview with Elizabeth Mpofu, Via Campesina Africa

La Via Campesina International: Interview with Food Sovereignty Campaign,South Africa

Via Campesina debate racismo

Neste vídeo de 21 minutos, a Via Campesina discute a questão do racismo, um fenómeno segregacionista inventado pelo homem branco (ocidental), segundo o qual,  pessoas com características físicas externas diferentes das suas (tom de pele, cabelos, etc) eram inferiores a ele. A palestrante do video mostra que muitas pessoas manifestam, nos dias actuais, tendências racistas, mesmo que de forma inconsciente. O vídeo foi gravado durante o Acampamento Nacional pela reforma agrária, no Brasil, em 2009.

Land Grab compromises Food Sovereignty in Southern Africa

The ongoing rush to African land by national and transnational investors was a dominant theme at the People’s Dialogue and Summit being held at Mumemo in Maputo.

From Mozambique to Swaziland, passing through Angola, South Africa, Malawi, Namibia and Lesotho, the voices and experiences of the people have expressed mounting concerns about the increasing enclosure of land to promote large-scale investments that seriously affect the fundamental rights of the local population and compromise efforts to achieve food sovereignty.

‘Everyone knows the problem of the land. It is a complete invasion’, says Renaldo Chingore, a leader of the National farmers Union in Mozambique, UNAC.

Farmers Organizations and other Civil Societies: Strengthening Social Movements and Building resistance in SADC

The People’s Dialogue brought together rural activists, mining activists, women’s movements and small-scale farmers from around the region on the 13 and 14 August to analyse the multi-dimensional global crisis and the response by our governments. It is evident that the governments’ of the region are continuously favouring corporate and investors’ interest over the people and the environment.

Key areas discussed at the meeting were on food sovereignty, the extractive industry, energy and mega projects, land and water grabs, ecological justice and alternative religionalism. But more importantly participants deliberated on alternatives to the dominant capitalist model that keeps this region locked into natural resource exploitation dependency for export led economic growth. The analysis, problems, demands and actions were fed into the Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN), which took place on the 15 and 16 August in Momemo Centre, Maracuence District, Maputo under theme “Reclaiming SADC for People’s Development – A People’s SADC Myth or Reality? Social Movements activists, civil society organisations came from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, DRC and Mozambique.

South Africa: forestry communities in the Western Cape adress demands to the government

MEMORANDUM OF DEMANDS OF EIGHT FORESTRY COMMUNITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE

To: the President and government of South Africa

From: Seven forestry communities in the Western Cape

Date: 12 July 2012

We are members and representatives of the following forestry communities: Nuweberg, Meerlust, La Motte, Wemmershoek, Waterval, Hawequa, Lebanon and Jonkershoek. Seventeen similar communities have declared their solidarity but cannot be here today. We are desperate; we have travelled a long way to be here and at great cost. We did not come here to claim special favours. We are here for what we believe is rightfully ours. 

The purpose of this memorandum is to give a brief overview of our problems and demands. We do not think this is news to government, as we have been communicating these things to government departments and officials for sixteen years. 

Join the Forestry Communities in the Western Cape and Food Sovereignty Campaign for a month of Action

A CALL TO ACTION
3 July 2012


Starting with a March to Parliament and Occupation.

We forestry communities can no longer tolerate silence and continued discrimination. Now we are taking action.

We the households and residents of isolated forestry towns in the mountain areas of the Western Cape (such as Hawequa, Nuweberg, Meerlust, Wemmershoek, Lamotte, Limietberg Lebanon amongst others) continue to be rejected and oppressed by our own government. We live under the yoke of oppression despite our well intentioned constitution, policies and laws that are supposed to improve the living conditions of all South Africans, including ours – the poor, landless, destitute and homeless.

We simply cannot afford to give up our precious time by leaving our places of work and families to go to Cape Town to remind the government of its constitutional responsibilities. We have no other choice but to mobilise and march, because we are experiencing continous  discrimination. We are tired of phoning, writing, faxing, emailing, reminding and begging the government to listen to us. We are tired of lies and empty promises. We are angry and inflamed.

Mozambique : Carbon Trading and REDD+: farmers ‘grow’ carbon for the benefit of polluters

(To read the full article with pictures here)

Maputo, 18 June 2012 (Via Campesina Africa News) – Food production and people's sovereignty in Africa could be seriously compromised by carbon capture projects and the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) mechanism. They can exacerbate food insecurity on the continent and could result in the loss of control over land and forest resources for African farmers.

This scenario could become a reality in the near future in Mozambique, as the country has offered its land to serve as a “model” for carbon capture projects and REDD+.

17 April: More than 250 actions around the world for the International Day of Peasant's Struggle

(Jakarta, 16 April 2012) Small scale farmers and their allies are celebrating the International Day ofPeasant's Struggle tomorrow, 17th of April 2012, organising more than 250 actions and manifestations allover the globe.
This event commemorates the massacre of 19 landless farmers demanding access to land and justice in1996 in Brazil (1). A full list of actions, ranging from university lectures to land occupations is available onthe website www.viacampesina.org

The international farmers movement La Via Campesina is mobilising this year to oppose the currentoffensive by some states and large corporations at international level to grab land from the farmers, women and men, who have been cultivating it for centuries. Small farmers' demand is simple: they need access toland to grow food for their communities. When land is grabbed by transnational companies, hugemonoculture plantations for export are developed. This only leads to increased hunger, social unrest andenvironmental devastation, including the current climate chaos.

17th of April Celebration, 2012 - Actions around the world - Célébration de 17 avril dans le monde, 2012

See the map of actions

Send us your event to viacampesina@viacampesina.org

See the list of all actions here

Regardez la liste des actions ici.

Call for April 17: International Day of Peasant Struggle

Stop Land Grabbing – land to the tillers!  

Use the poster attached!

 (Jakarta, 2 March 2012) April 17 is the International Day of Peasant Struggle, commemorating the massacre of 19 peasants struggling for land and justice in Brazil in 1996. Every year on that day actions take place around the world in defence of peasants and small-scale farmers struggling for their rights.
In recent years, we have suffered from the implementation of new policies and of a new development model based on land expansion and land expropriation, commonly known as land grabbing. Land grabbing is a global phenomenon led by local, national and transnational elites and investors, with the participation of governments and local authorities, in order to control the world's most precious resources.

La Via Campesina and the International Women’s Day

March 8th International Women’s Day, is the day upon which we honour the memory of the many women workers, both rural and urban, who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for their rights, for justice and to put an end to all discrimination and the social, economic and political inequities that have given sustenance to global capitalist development. It is also a day for celebration because of the important progress that has been achieved in women’s struggles for emancipation.

March 8th is a day of mobilisation and reaffirmation of the relentless commitment to not rest in the struggle to end the patriarchal capitalist system that is more oppressive to women, regardless of their place in society all over the world. . This hugely important struggle continues to drive reflections on the part of of both men and women in La Via Campesina on how best to progress with the urgent struggle to for social change toward the kind of system we want. We must design the type of society that we wish to build, with a new balance of power in social relationships between men and women and where men and women shall have equal opportunities, rights and duties.

Mozambique: Manifestation de rejet et d’indignation face aux actions violentes de VALE contre la communauté de Cateme

Le 10 janvier 2012, la population de la province de Tete (Mozambique), district de Moatize, quartier de Cateme, constituée par différents groupe d’âges de paysans et paysannes déplacés de leurs terres d’origine, a empêché l’acheminement du charbon de Moatize par voie ferroviaire, comme manière de manifester son indignation face au non respect des nombreuses promesses faites par la compagnie VALE pendant les consultations communautaires. Cet acte se produit après d’infructueuses tentatives de dialogue avec la compagnie minière brésilienne VALE (qui exploite le charbon minéral à Tete), ainsi qu’avec la représentation locale du gouvernement et du parti Frelimo. A la suite de cette manifestation, il a été fait un usage brutal et aveugle de la violence par les agents de la police contre la population innocente et sans défense, avec pour résultat des blessures et des arrestations pour une partie de cette dernière.