Showing posts from Category: Statements

As we close our commemoration for the Day of the Landless 2019, we call our members, networks, and fellow food sovereignty advocates to condemn the crackdown against the farmers in Cambodia and express our solidarity to the affected communities. Let our support strengthen global rural peoples’ struggle for land and life.

March 29 is the DAY OF THE LANDLESS. It marks the founding anniversary of the Asian Peasant Coalition and the launching of the No Land, No Life! campaign. One hundred twenty-seven organizations composed of 20 global and regional groups and networks and 109 national and local organizations from 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe are issuing the following statement to commemorate this important date in the struggle of rural communities around the world for land and resources.

Women play an indispensable role as leaders and trailblazers in our collective struggle for land and life. The rural women, particularly, have continued to resist gender discrimination along with the exploitation of feudal landlords and corporations toward achieving our universal right to safe, nutritious, affordable, and culturally-appropriate food. Breaking the boundaries of patriarchal standards is part and parcel of our fight for food sovereignty, for freedom from all kinds of oppression is one of its key principles.

The Coalition shares the joy of SPFT for marking this milestone. Its land occupation campaigns in the past decade are an inspiration to the rural peoples’ movement in Asia and all over the world. SPFT lives on to champion the rights of the poor and landless in Thailand in the face of corporate-driven development aggression and state-sponsored repression.

We demand Thammakaset and the Thai authorities to drop all the charges against Sutharee, Nan, and the rest of the Burmese workers involved in this issue. Moreover, we urge the Thai government to look into the alleged unlawful labor practices of Thammakaset and other such companies. The complaints – low wages, extensive yet unpaid working hours, and confiscation of identity documents – are serious offenses that warrant liability if proven true. We challenge the company to submit itself to the investigation, no holds barred, if it were truly innocent.

Historically, fascism has always been anti-farmer, anti-poor, anti-environment and anti-people wherever it rears its ugly head. The Bolsonaro regime is but the latest in addition to the indisputable rise of right-wing fascists inclined to implement neoliberal policies under a strongman banner. In less than a month, Bolsonaro has shown itself in league with other contemporary fascists in praising Trump and previous dictatorships in Latin America.