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.