Say "No!" to Corporate Control of Agriculture and Food. This Saturday the member organisations of the European Coordination Via Campesina will be organizing many activities and demonstrations to commemorate the international day of peasant's struggle.
On April 17th 1996, nineteen landless Brazilian peasants who were defending their right to produce food by demanding access to land were massacred by the military police. Since the massacre at El Dorado dos Carajas, every year on this date actions are organised around the world by farmers’ organisations, communities, student groups, non-governmental organizations and activists, in order to demand food sovereignty and peasants’ rights to produce food.
As every year, in order to mark the 17th of April 2010, La Via Campesina organizes an international day of activities and demonstrations. This year, the theme is the fight against transnational corporations (TNCs), which seek complete control over food and agriculture systems around the world.
Different activities are organized in many European countries for the 17th of April:
- In Spain civil society organisations including the peasant union COAG have organized a week of actions culminating in a state-wide demonstration “For an Agriculture Free of GMOs” on Saturday 17th April.
- In France, the Confeeration Paysanne are organizing peasant picnics, debates, peasant’s markets in Mirepoix, Clermont-l’Hérault, Bonnieux, Mende,Rodez, Questembert, about peasants’ struggles and the fight against supermarkets and the mass market.
- In Switzerland, Uniterre and L’autre Syndicat call to “Say no to the agrobusiness and the grip of mass-market retailers in the food industry”, and organize movie projections, roundtables and debates about these subjects.
- In Turkey, Ciftci-SEN is organizing a peasant demonstration against the neoliberal transformation of Tea Laws.
- In Roma, the Italian Association for Biological Agriculture (AIAB), with the Italian Friends of the MST are organizing a press conference about food sovereignty and GMOs, and are launching a project on organic, sustainable and fair sugar produced by a brazilian cooperative.
- In Portugal, the Platform against GMOs organizes demonstrations in Porto and Lisboa.
Many other demonstrations and activities will take place throughout the day in different european cities.
Gobalize struggle, globalize hope.