Brussels, 26/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - “We, farmers, gathered in General Assembly in Rome this 24 and 25 of April, express our support and solidarity to all people struggling for the preservation of land, the access to land and to the profession. We are opposing the wave of privatisation of public land.” This declaration was made by the European Coordination Via Campesina, which brings together 27 trade unions, organisations and movements of family farmers and other agricultural and rural workers from 17 countries. The organisation defends food sovereignty as a priority in agricultural and food policies.
According to Via Campesina the wave of land privatisation has mainly occurred in Andalusia where, since the beginning of March, peasants and landless agricultural labourers have occupied a public farm of 400 ha that had been subject to a speculative sale. In France, two farmers and political representative are on hunger strike in opposition to expulsions provoked by the building of an airport at Notre-Dame des Landes. In Italy in the Souza Valley, farmers have resisted forced expropriation of land due to the building of the Lyon-Turin TGV line. In Mali, farmers have been arrested for having cultivated land from which they had been expelled. In Honduras, 1200 ha of land have been occupied since 17 April.
These battles are in addition to those that have been fought in Romania, Austria and other countries for many years. Via Campesina said: “Everywhere in Europe, access to land is an obstacle to food sovereignty. Land is a common good that belongs to the men and women who cultivate it, and no-one should be able to appropriate it for their own benefit.” (LC/transl.fl)