Issue 177 – April 2012

On April 17, 1996, 19 landless rural workers were brutally murdered by the police during a peaceful demonstration for agrarian reform in the state of Pará, in Brazil's Amazon region. If you visit the site of the massacre today, you will find a circle of 19 burnt Brazil nut tree trunks, which form a small forest. As well as serving as a memorial to the workers who lost their lives and the violence unleashed against them, the burnt trunks also symbolize the people's resistance and struggle against the violation of their rights, as well as the rainforest's resistance against deforestation.

La Via Campesina is gathering information on actions organized around the world against land grabbing and in support of agrarian reform, food sovereignty and other demands in the framework of the International Day of Peasant Struggle, April 17. Information should be sent to viacampesina@viacampesina.org, and all activities will be recorded on the map available at: http://viacampesina.org/map/17april/map.html

Numerous social organizations from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) met together with local and traditional authorities in the province of North Kivu on March 23-24 to consider the impacts of oil exploration and drilling by the multinational oil company SOCO in Virunga National Park.

Chinese lawyer Yang Zaixin has been imprisoned in Beihai, Southern China since June 2011. We urge you to support a petition that demands that the Finnish government and company Stora Enso take action to end his unjust imprisonment. Finnish-Swedish company Stora Enso is planning to build massive board and pulp mills in Beihai city in Guangxi, Southern China. The project began in 2002 and has been surrounded by controversy and accusations of misconduct.The tree plantation and pulp mill project has displaced local people of their lands without their free and prior consent. Thousands of people's access to vital resources such as farmland and water has been restricted.

A number of international civil society organizations and social movements have joined together to issue a statement against what they call the “corporate capture” of Rio+20: the zero draft of the conference declaration highlights the role of business as promoter of the so-called “green economy”, while failing to hold business accountable for its role in creating the financial, climate, food and other crises. Instead of discussing measures that serve the public interest, the UN and its members merely formulate proposals that benefit certain companies and business sectors, and push for public policy reforms that place profits above the rights of peoples.

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 22-25, the International Committee for Food Sovereignty-Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean (CIP-ALC) organized the Third Special Conference for Food Sovereignty, Rights and Life. The meeting was attended by representatives of social organizations in 20 countries. Its objectives included the strengthening and expanding of strategic alliances and the formulation of proposals and recommendations for the 32nd FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, and specifically for the drafting of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security.

There is a great deal of talk about the crises facing the planet: the climate crisis, energy crisis, food crisis, financial crisis, loss of biodiversity, and so on. Without a doubt, these are dramatic situations whose worst repercussions will be suffered by the most vulnerable and dispossessed sectors of the population. But at this point we know very well that these crises are not the result of natural or random phenomena. They are manifestations of the current capitalist system and its dynamic of permanent expansion. They are also functional for capitalism, because they allow for its renovation and recycling. When bubbles burst they create new business opportunities. Investments grow as old markets are expanded and new ones are created.

What kind of development is this? If the government cares about development, they should take the people along so that we can own the development and what comes out of it. But in this type of development, people lose everything.  (From a discussion with village residents affected by the Pheapimex concession in Krakor district in Pursat, Cambodia. March, 2010) In Cambodia and the Lao PDR (Laos), rapid and intense exploitation of land and natural resources by state and private investors is increasing land insecurity, landlessness, environmental destruction, distress migration and poverty.

How far would you go to protect your forest? Villagers from Pollo community in South Central Timor regency in Indonesia have set a remarkable example, weathering years of bureaucratic indifference, enduring violence from thugs and embarking on an odyssey across their country's archipelago in search of support for their defence of local trees and land.

The interest of foreign investors in natural resources, and especially land, has grown significantly in recent years throughout Africa, and Mozambique is no exception. It is in the northern region of the country that foreign investment projects have come to occupy the largest areas of land in Mozambique, primarily for the establishment of monoculture plantations of eucalyptus, pine, jatropha and sugarcane. The implementation of these projects has been closely linked to land grabbing because, in the majority of cases, local communities have been evicted from their territories to make way for them.

Throughout history, rural areas have been occupied two different ways in Brazil. One of them is the colonial, capitalist and entrepreneurial way, which is nothing new, but has recently gained new momentum and adopted new methods. The other way of occupying rural land, which dates back to before the capitalist production model, is that of peasant agriculture, based on the way of life of indigenous peoples and traditional communities