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NEWS April 4th, 2005
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Following on from the WWF-hosted 'sustainable soya' round table in Brazil (see Corporate Watch news 26th January 2005 ), a counter conference of grassroots campaigns and peasants movements also convened at the same time, to declare its opposition to a world of agri-business and GM soya. Corporate Watch has translated the counter-conference's Final Declaration, which is printed below. Attendees of the conference included hundreds of South American green, union and campaigning organisations, such as the Brazilian landless movement ( MST - Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), as well as anti-GM campaigners from the UK, such as the Econexus group (http://www.econexus.info/), and prominent anti-GM scientist Mae Wan Ho, from the Institute of Science in Society. For more info on the conference (mostly in Spanish and Portugese) see http://www.iguazu.grr.org.ar In Europe, contact:
Final Document of the Iguazú Counter Conference on the Impacts of Soya and Monocultures We understand that the only way to change Latin America is by popular organised struggle. This is only possible through the unity of urban and rural groups. The fight against transgenic soya monoculture, and any other capitalist form of production, will be possible and we are committed to achieving it with the following proposals: * Spread the information and connections that we've gained from these three brilliant days of discussion and exchange at the counter summit. * Highlight the problems caused by transgenic soya and its impact on our forests and our health, and the eviction and extermination of rural and indigenous communities. Also spread the forms of resistance that various rural and urban groups are already using. * Fight for self-determination for the villages and their right to feed themselves ['food sovereignty']. * Fight for integrated agrarian reform that allows for access to the land, health, education, and other services and promotes a more egalitarian society. * Include agrarian reform in costitutional reform, knowing that agrarian reform is not possible without a struggle. (eg Brazil) * We want a holistic model of development that takes more than economics into account, unlike the current capitalist model of agrarian exportation. * Consolidate the areas of our collective struggle, broadening our base. * Spread the diversification of production, opposing capitalist monoculture. * Work with an awareness of the rights of the villages, rejuvinating popular culture. * Create communication networks and organisation between the groups who were at the counter summit. * Advance the popular struggle with concrete actions against large estates, monopolies and capitalism. * Create and support farmers' markets that show that another form of production and making a living is possible. * Break the 'information wall' around Paraguay, creating an alternative communication channel that will be a tool for paraguayan organisations. * Support social movements in Paraguay, aiming to bring together the different social change groups of Latin America (Forum of seeds). * Create appropriate technologies for rural and urban people. * Make a break with the 'consumption logic' imposed by capitalism that keeps us isolated and oppressed. * Encourage participation in local and national government (where possible), to acquaint them with our needs and struggles. * Carry out legal actions that legitimise access to land and popular rights. * Form a common agenda between the participants of the counter summit. FREEDOM TO PRODUCE FOR AND FEED OURSELVES WE ARE GLOBALLY UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE AND IN HOPE http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/notsuchacuddlypanda.htm
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