September 10, The International Day of Action against WTO and FTAs
Today,
La Via Campesina is calling upon social movements and civil society
organisations of the world to mobilise and organise our resistances
against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements
(FTAs), build solidarity alliances and prepare for a worldwide week of
action in December, coinciding with the 11th International Ministerial
that is scheduled to take place in Argentina.
For
the first time since its inception, the World Trade Organization (WTO)
is planning to meet in Latin America. From the 10th to the 13th
of December, Mauricio Macri's government will host the WTO's 11th
Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Entrepreneurs,
ministers, chancellors, and even presidents will be there. To do what?
To demand more "freedom" for their companies, more "ease
of doing business" for exploiting workers, peasants, indigenous people,
and taking over land and territories. In other words, less
"restrictions" on transnational wastage.
Since
its beginnings in 1995 as derivative of General Agreement on Tariff and
Trade (GATTs), the World Trade Organization has promoted the
most brutal form of capitalism, better known as trade liberalization.
At successive Ministerial Conferences, the WTO has set out to globalize
the liberalisation of national markets, promising economic prosperity at
the cost of sovereignty. In more or less
the same terms, by its "liberalization, deregulation and
privatization", which is called Package of Neoliberalism, WTO has
encouraged the multiplication of free trade agreements (FTAs) between
countries and regional blocs, etc. On this basis and by making
use of governments that have been co-opted, the world's largest
transnational corporations (TNCs) are seeking to undermine democracy and
all of the institutional instruments for defending the lives, the
territories, and the food and agricultural ecosystems
of the world's peoples.
In
the previous Ministerial Conference (MC) in Nairobi in 2015, WTO had
made six decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to LDCs.
The agricultural decisions cover commitment to abolish export subsidies
for farm exports, public stockholding for food security purposes, a
special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and measures
related to cotton. Decisions were also made regarding
preferential treatment for least developed countries (LDCs) in the area
of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs
may benefit from trade preferences.
This
year, with Macri Inc. in the Casa Rosada (Government House in
Argentina), the coup leader Michel Temer in the Palacio del Planalto
(the
oficial workplace of the president of Brazil), and Brazilian Roberto
Azevedo as its Director General, the WTO wants to return to the subject
of agriculture, to put an end to small-scale fishing, and to make
progress with multilateral agreements such as the
misnamed General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Notwithstanding
the misleading protectionist statements coming from Washington and
London, the WTO will meet again to try to impose the interests of
capital at the cost of Planet Earth, of the democratic
aspirations of the world's peoples, and of life itself.
During
these 20+ years of struggle against the WTO, the world's peoples have
resisted its attempt to globalize everything, including the food
and agricultural systems, for the benefit of the TNCs. Our struggles
have been the biggest impediment to the advance of the WTO, and there is
no doubt that La Via Campesina has played a decisive part. Our
resistance to market liberalisation under this neoliberal
regime has continued since the Uruguay round conducted within the
framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Ever
since, La Via Campesina has mobilised against almost all of the
Ministerial Conferences since Seattle (1999) and Cancún
(2003) – where our brother Lee Kyung Hae, holding a banner declaring
that "The WTO kills peasants", sacrificed his own life – and up to Bali
(2013) and Nairobi (2015).
This
year, from the 8th to the 15th of December, a La Via Campesina
international delegation will be in Buenos Aires to take an active part
in the numerous civil society mobilisations, forums, and discussions.
We will be there to identify the WTO as the criminal organisation that
it is and to raise the flag of Food Sovereignty. We will call out all
the Governments, who after having realised the
weakening of WTO, have resorted to Bilateral and Regional Mega Free
Trade Agreements, that threaten to annihilate our food systems, just
like WTO has done it over the last two decades.
We
are calling upon all of our member organisations – in each and every
country – to mobilise during this "Week of Action Against the WTO"
(from the 8th to the 15th of December); within their social and
political contexts, they should find the right time and form the best
alliances in order to denounce the WTO and the numerous bilateral and
regional Free Trade Agreements.
We insist that agriculture should not be part of any of the WTO negotiations!
We say once again:
NO TO WTO!
NO TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS!
FOR THE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR PEOPLES!
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!
GLOBALIZE HOPE!
You can email the details of your solidarity actions to
lvcweb@viacampesina.org or tag us on
our official Facebook or Twitter pages
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