Appeal of the Peasants - International Day of Peasant Struggle

south west | protests | news report

Monday April 16, 2012 17:20

by The Green Finger

Come to the fountains in town tomorrow, Tuesday at 9am we will be raising awareness about the International day of Peasant Struggle.

Then we will make our way over to the Bristol County Court for 10:30, off Victoria st, BS16GR, for the appeal hearing of Protect the Wilderness vs Gloucester County Council at 11am. We have been fighting to keep this environmental education centre open and keep them from selling it off. The nature of our occupation has been to prevent misappropriation of land, to promote and defend environmantal education. We are evoking the spirit of peasant struggle here and around the world. Join us for talks on land rights and a celebration of peasanthood.

International Day of

Peasant Struggle

April 17th 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.

What is a peasant?

Peasant, Campesino, Paysan, , χωρικς, Rustico, Bauer, Nekazari, Köylü , Boer, Talionpoika, Chlop

A peasant is a man or woman of the land, who has a direct and special relationship with the land and nature through the production of food and/or other agricultural products. Peasants work the land themselves, rely above all on family labour and other small-scale forms of organizing labour. Peasants are traditionally embedded in their local communities and they take care of local landscapes and of agro-ecological systems.

The term peasant can apply to any person engaged in agriculture, cattle raising, pastoralism, handicrafts related to agriculture or a related occupation in a rural area. This includes Indigenous people working on the land.

La Via Campesina is an international grassroots mass movement working for the rights of peasants across the world. It brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. It defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity. It strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature.

La Via Campesina comprises about 150 local and national organizations in 70 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Altogether, it represents about 200 million farmers. It is an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent from any political, economic or other type of affiliation.

Reclaim the Fields is a constellation of people and collective projects willing to go back to the land and re-assume the control over food production. Active in the UK for just over a year it is a movement of concerned people who want to challenge the way land is distributed. The international day of peasant struggle is an opportunity to show our solidarity with the fight for economic self determination all over the world

We identify ourselves with the millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. We defend small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity, and oppose corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature.

Appeal Of The Peasants

Protect the Wilderness vs Gloucestershire County Council.

2pm - Tuesday

Bristol County Court

Protect the Wilderness are a group committed to ensuring that environmental education is based upon a social and cultural ecology that understands that the root cause of economic exploitation (both social and environmental) is the misappropriation of land. Through the occupation of the Wilderness Centre in the Forest of Dean we hope to be able to raise issues about land rights and access to land; the relation of trust and authority; the necessity of using ecology to inform the decision we make as a society. And above all ensuring that environmental education is central to our education system.

We share the same desire for economic self determination with peasants around the world. We want to initiate a movement towards a Home built upon the principles of economic autonomy and ecological sustainability. We believe that environmental education is essential to the realisation of a society that shares the principle of ecological sustainability.

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