CONFÉDÉRATION PAYSANNE BLOCKS LACTALIS HEADQUARTERS

Around 200 farmers invaded and blocked the Lactalis group's head office in Laval for several hours. This is the first time the group's head office has been occupied by a farmers' union. The Confédération Paysanne is denouncing a lacto-cide and demanding a meeting with the three sole shareholders of Lactalis, namely CEO Emmanuel Besnier, his brother and his sister, to demand :

  • an immediate review of dairy contracts,
  • a ban on transactions below cost price for milk.

Lactalis is France's leading food company and the world's leading cheese maker, and its CEO is France's 6th richest man. This discreet multinational exerts colossal pressure on small-scale producers. Benefiting from a virtual monopoly, farmers are forced to sell at a loss, entering a spiral of despair from which some never escape. The "ogre" Lactalis' CV: pollution of multiple rivers, health scandals, concealment of information, large-scale tax evasion, whistleblower hunting, monopolization of entire villages...

Soulèvements de la Terre Facebook page

For further information:

https://www.facebook.com/100078030375280/posts/407060311904978/

"FOR A SERIOUS DIALOGUE BETWEEN LEADERS AND THE POPULATION AT ALL LEVELS" IN MADAGASCAR

Some fifty Malagasy civil society organizations, including the Collectif Tany, a member of the FLT Steering Committee, have issued a press release highlighting two points.

While "access to land for peasant producers should be facilitated and increased" with the aim of working for the sovereignty and living conditions of the population, the General State Policy (PGE) published on January 17, 2024 seems to show an intention to allocate land on a large scale to investors in various sectors. The signatory organizations are calling for clarification of their intentions through this law, and to listen more closely to civil society through the organization of a workshop.

Far from being against development or against the State's leaders, the signatory organizations recall that they wish to be part of and contribute to the country's democratic space, and that 3 years ago they submitted a bill to the National Assembly on the protection of the rights of human rights defenders, which for the time being has not been put on the chamber's agenda.

Read the full press release in French and Malagasy:


Rural workers and family farmers in Maranhão mobilize against a law facilitating land grabs

The Federation of Rural Workers and Family Farmers of the State of Maranhão (FETAEMA) has taken a clear stance against Maranhão State Law No. 12,169 of December 19, 2023, which deals with land grabs. The Federation, as well as its affiliated unions and civil society organizations, underline the harmfulness of the law, which promotes and rewards land grabbing practices, particularly through the use of violence. It also prohibits quilombolas, coconut breakers and other traditional communities from accessing public land in Maranhao. The waterfalls, lakes, fields and mines of Baixada Maranhense are also privatized. In general, the law facilitates real estate speculation to the detriment of public assets, increasing land concentration. Poverty and inequality, as well as agrarian and environmental conflicts, are set to grow as a result.

A note from the Department of Agrarian Conflict Mediation and Conciliation, published by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, acknowledges the law's flaws and its dangerousness: "The aforementioned law does not establish any conditions regarding land obtained through documentary fraud, which also encourages and rewards land-grabbing practices. The ambiguous wording of Article 18, by establishing that territories traditionally occupied by traditional peoples and communities will not be subject to regularization, does not fully and unquestionably guarantee the rights of these peoples over their territories. The law establishes no guidelines for the subsequent sale of public lands obtained through regularization, favoring real estate speculation to the detriment of public property and land deconcentration."


Members of the LUSUD association killed in Madagascar

The FLT has learned of the tragic death of three people fighting against the attacks on their land and their health in Madagascar. They were members of the LUSUD association, set up in 2023 to combat the environmental and health damage caused by the RIO TINTO QMM mining company in Tolagnaro-Fort-Dauphin, Madagascar. For over 10 years, the company has been pouring its untreated wastewater into rivers and lakes whose water is used daily by the population, including for drinking. Experts report high levels of aluminum, uranium and cadmium, as well as radioactive elements. In response to this threat to their lives, local residents have staged a number of blockades and demonstrations. In January 2023, an agreement on compensation and financial indemnification was signed between the mining company and 5,511 fishermen and usufructuaries. A large number of local residents denounced the compensation as being far below the losses and damage suffered, particularly in terms of the environment and health. The company emphasizes its innocence and the fact that it directly employs 2,000 people. In March 2022, dozens of fish were found dead on the surface of the weir, and the Minister for Water denounced the company's responsibility. The fight then intensified even further.

This rejection of the agreement led to the creation of the LUSUD association, which is calling for the suspension of the company's socio-environmental permit and operating license. It has filed a petition with the government, signed by more than 15,000 local residents, listing the serious environmental and human rights violations committed by the company. As Laurent Manjary, the association's general secretary, summed up, "We cannot exchange our lives for money".

This citizens' association has been severely repressed, with over 100 demonstrators arrested in July and some given suspended prison sentences of several months, without receiving any response from the government or regional authorities. On October 20, the demonstrators identified a policeman in civilian clothes who had infiltrated the association's members gathered in a private estate on the road leading to the RIO TINTO QMM site, and refused, in the face of some of his colleagues, to let him leave without explaining his presence among the members and the lack of response to their demands. The police then fired live ammunition. Mr. DAMY and Ms. RASOLONIRINA Françia died as a result, while the association's spokesman, Mr. ANDRIAMAMONJY, was arrested and ordered to crawl on the asphalt before being taken to the military hospital in the late afternoon, where he died during the night. Several people were also injured. Five people were arrested. 

We join the Collectif TANY in calling for justice for the victims of this violence, for those responsible at various levels to be held to account, and for the demands of the demonstrators to be met. 

Sources: 

http://terresmalgaches.info/

L' express de Madagascar: ANOSY -an association demands suspension of QMM's operating license (by Miangaly Ralitera, April 17, 2023)

Midi-Madagascar: QMM: Arrest warrants for two LUSUD executives (July 4, 2023)

http://agter.asso.fr/article1334_fr.html (et l’ensemble des articles consacrés à Madagascar)

An FLT delegation attended the 51st session of the Committee on World Food Security in Rome.

A delegation from the Forum des Luttes pour la Terre took part in the 51st session of the FAO's Committee on World Food Security in Rome. ROPPA, Ekta Parishad, COPROFAM, CERAI and AGTER were represented to make the voice of peasant organizations heard.

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS)

The CFS was created in 1974 as the leading intergovernmental and international platform for working together to eliminate hunger and ensure food security and nutrition for all. It issues policy recommendations on issues affecting food security and nutrition, and provides a forum for dialogue between the actors involved (government, NGOs, private sector, research institutes, international financial institutions and United Nations organizations).

The FAO

Created in 1945, the FAO is the United Nations agency dedicated to the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Today, the FAO's priorities include building more productive and sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as reducing rural poverty. 

The FLT was co-organizer of two Side-Events, during which it defended peasant agriculture, demonstrated the importance of struggles for political power and presented the Rencontre Mondiale des Luttes pour la Terre. 

During Side-Event #30 "Just transition or green grab? Land-intensive climate action and the protection of sustainable food systems for indigenous peoples and local communities" Fanny Métrat, a farmer, member of the Confédération Paysanne and member of the FLT Steering Committee, denounced the financialization of nature and the carbon and biodiversity markets with their offsetting systems, which enable the most polluting companies to continue to pollute with a clear conscience, and reaffirmed that a sustainable solution to social and environmental challenges will necessarily involve livestock farming and peasant agriculture.

On the occasion of Side Event #33 "Land security for all: Arguments for local and global action to advance implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security", Ramesh Sharma, National Coordinator of Ekta Parishad and member of the FLT Steering Committee, pointed to a structural and institutional failure to recognize the landless poor and small farmers, calling for a legal framework to be developed by 2028 (MDG 5) and enabling half the world to strengthen family farming, which is the key to ending inequality and hunger. He further stressed the importance of strengthening family farming, which is essential to counter the local impacts of the climate crisis, and encouraged the ministerial meeting to discuss and agree on a new framework and commitment to address the issue of generational justice for millions of landless poor and marginal farmers.

Throughout the many discussions held by its delegation at Side Events and bilateral meetings, the Forum des Luttes pour la Terre took the opportunity of its participation in the CFS to reaffirm the need to continue the fight against land grabbing, and to reiterate the urgency of explicitly favoring agro-ecology and family and peasant farming over capitalist agriculture. We need to go further than the Voluntary Guidelines, implement binding measures and resolutely favor peasant farming.

You can watch the FLT representatives' speeches here.

Fanny Metrat - Confédération paysanne - Side Event 30 :

Ramesh Sharma - Ekta Parishad - Side Event 33 :



Launch of "LE SAIS-TU?" digital campaign

FEDIA-TOGO, SAFE and CGLTE-OA unite against violence against young girls through a hard-hitting digital campaign: "LE SAIS-TU?"

This initiative aims to raise awareness of violence, support victims and break impunity by encouraging them to denounce perpetrators and bring them to justice.

"DID YOU KNOW?" reminds the public and abusers of criminal law provisions, encourages and supports victims to break the silence and reduce this violence and abuse, which undermines human rights and is a major obstacle to development.

The campaign will feature hard-hitting messages and poignant posters to inform and mobilize the public, calling for action with the hashtag #LESAISTU? Together, let's break the silence and take action for a future without violence against girls.



Brasilia hosts the 7th Daisy March: A historic gathering of over 100,000 women in search of justice and equality

Brasilia, August 15 and 16, 2023 - In an impressive gathering, over 100,000 women from all over Brazil and beyond converged on Brasilia to take part in the 7th Daisy March. The march, the largest collective action of women workers in Latin America, provided a platform for rural women to demand their rights and advocate for agro-ecology, education, and the right to land and water.

The route, completed with enthusiasm and determination, covered a distance of 6 kilometers, inspired by the figure of Margarita Maria Alves. This trade unionist from the state of Paraíba had been assassinated in 1983 by a hitman acting on the orders of the region's large landowners. The Daisy March, coordinated by the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG), brought together 27 state federations and over 400 affiliated unions, as well as numerous feminist movements, central trade unions and international organizations. After a period marked by the rollback of women's rights, family farming and the environment under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the March's slogan looked to the future: "For the reconstruction of Brazil and good living". Following the presentation of an agenda of proposals to the Brazilian government led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, participants in the march received concrete commitments, including the introduction of tools to combat violence, the relaunch of agrarian reform, measures to encourage women to enter the agricultural sector, and encouragement for agroecology to produce healthy food that preserves the environment.

Once again, the Daisy March was a huge success, demonstrating the vitality of the mobilization in favor of women and family farming in Brazil, and laying the foundations for a promising future for women's rights and environmental protection in the country, provided the political responses are up to scratch.

For more information: https: //ww2.contag.org.br/


UACDDDD continues to support village communities.

The UACDDDD has supported women's and youth groups in the San area in their efforts to claim the 15% of developed land from the Office, as part of the land security program in Mali supported by the German NGO Pain Pour le Monde (PPLM).

This activity took place on Tuesday August 29, 2023. It brought together women and young people from the communes of Djéguèna and N'goa. The training was divided into 3 sessions

  • learn about women's land rights under the French Agricultural Orientation Law, the Agricultural Land Policy and the Agricultural Land Law and its implementing decree.
  • getting involved in implementation
  • Defend your rights in various community and institutional bodies

The exchanges were fruitful and helped strengthen the women's capacity to deal with these laws.

Long live women in the informal sector! Together for Law and Justice!


For a better understanding of the law on agricultural land tenure, the UACDDDD organized on Wednesday August 30, 2023 in the meeting room of the rural commune of Dougabougou the village assembly around the presentation of the said law and the interactive process of setting up COFOV in 10 steps by the UACDDDD, placed within the framework of the project Support for securing land and forest tenure of communities by the village land commission in Mali supported by Tenure Foncière. The meeting brought together village chiefs or their representatives from the 8 villages in the commune of La Dite, plus women's and youth representatives. The discussions enabled participants to deepen their knowledge of the law and to sign up to the project to secure their agricultural land through the COFOVs.


On the road for the 2023 caravan - CGLTE OA

The fight against climate change will be at the heart of the 4th edition of the West African caravan "Droit à la terre, à l'eau et à l'agroecologie paysanne: une lutte commune!"
Scheduled from October 25 to November 20, 2023. It will be launched in Burkina Faso, then travel to Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Mauritania. It will criss-cross the remotest corners of the 5 itinerary countries to meet communities and authorities in order to make a significant contribution to behavior change and to the implementation of policies adapted to the needs of communities to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Under the banner of the climate emergency, the general aim of this edition is to contribute to strengthening the fight against climate change phenomena by raising awareness and promoting peasant agroecology as an alternative to false solutions, through advocacy with communities and authorities with a view to guaranteeing food sovereignty in particular.

This year's innovations include, among others, :

  • A meeting of West African traditional and customary chiefs with the participation of academics on climate change;
  • The Communities' Cop : as a prelude to COP 28, a major climate mobilization will be organized with the participation of communities and local and national authorities to share the vision of the CGLTE-AO on climate and recommendations for better policy decisions.
  • Forum on the Right to Housing and Land.