Via Campesina: Challenges for complete Agrarian Reform
07/12/2004
- Opinión
We are members of the " Via Campesina International
Organization", which represents over 160 millions of
peasants and indigenous peoples. We are participating in
the World Forum on Agrarian Reform (WFAR) with 120
delegates from America , Asia, Africa and Europe. We
emphasise the importance of this forum in order to create a
great alliance to improve and strengthen the way to
Agrarian Reform, understanding this as a process to erase
poverty and hunger, guarantee Food Sovereignty and develop
our potential.
At this Forum, we report the Neoliberal politics imposed by
the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Trade Organization (WTO), who are serving the
capital and the transnational enterprises, which generate
the following consequences:
– The commercialization of the land in all the countries,
except Cuba and Venezuela, increases the land area of a
few owners, principally the big capitalist enterprises.
This happens more intensively in poor countries but it is
also happening in more and more in the rich countries. For
us, land is a vital element for our work and to indigenous
peoples it is the Mother Earth, the "Pachamama", and not a
merchandise with which to make business.
– The systematic seizing of the ancestral territory of the
indigenous peoples to exploit and use indiscriminately
their wealth.
– The high migration from the countryside to the cities,
mainly of women and young people, is dividing families,
which is putting at risk the continuity of life,
tradition, indigenous and peasant cultures, and rural
development. Migrant people suffer the consequences of
abuse, racial discrimination and humiliation in large
cities.
– The strengthening of the agro-export model, which is
based on the intensive use of the capital, the
"latifundio" (concentration of landholdings), the
destruction of natural resources, and the elimination and
subordination of farmers and indigenous peoples to their
production model.
– The increase of the violence against the Indians and
peasants organizations all over the world. Capital wants
to eliminate the fights and guarantee its economic
interest.
– The increase in violence against organizations of
peasants and indigenous peoples all over the world. The
capital seeks to silence people's fights and to guarantee
its own economic interests.
– The increate of world poverty. Although, theoretically,
the policies of these institutions are aimed at fighting
against poverty, in practice they are fighting against the
poor, particularly against peasants and indigenous
peoples.
These perverse politics and activities have not managed to
silence our voices, nor to destroy us. We keep resisting.
The movements of peasants and indigenous peoples are more
and more organized and united every day; we develop our own
life and work alternatives, which are based on cultural
diversity, the respect and preservation of natural
resources, and ancestral knowledge.
In Vía Campesina we have great expectations that this Forum
will consolidate the bonds of solidarity between the
organisations of peasants, indigenous people, societies,
NGOs and others, so that we can advance united in common
agendas, with the aim of strenghtening the fight to achieve
Social Justice, Food Sovereignty, and the erradication of
hunger and poverty in the world. With these objectives, we
reiterate our pledge to continue promoting the World
Campaign for a Complete Agrarian Reform, together with the
Worldwide Seed Campaign: a Patrimony of the People in
Service of Humanity.
Agrarian Reform now!
Valencia, Spain, 7 december 2004
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/110998