Agrarian reform via trade is not a solution: we need to start
processes of agrarian reform that allow farmers access to land, water
and seeds.

With a delegation of approximately a hundred people from all over the
world, the international movement of farmers ´Via Campesina´ is
participating in the World Forum for Agrarian Reform, inaugurated on
5th December in Valencia, Spain, continuing until the 8th of the month.
´Via Campesina´ hopes to give a strong message to international
opinion as well as to the participants in the Forum: agrarian reform
via trade is not a solution; we need to start processes of agrarian
reform that allow farmers access to land, water and seeds.

According to the Basque farmers´ representative, Paul Nicholson, the
World Forum for Agrarian Reform should develop ideas and strategies,
plus a plan of common action against the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organisation, together with clear
statements of criticism of current export/ import policy, against
violence, and the criminalisation of the protests of farmers (which is
extended not only throughout Latin America but also in Asia).

“The policies of the World Bank are destroying the culture of farming,
and the possibility of accessing fundamental resources like water,
land and seeds. For this multilateral organisation, the earth is a
market place like everything else, and for this reason it argues that
it should be trade which redistributes land; there is, therefore, a
process of land becoming concentrated in the hands of multinational
companies. These multinationals are now beginning to capture land,
water and seeds. Land now has a speculative and commercial worth not
related to agricultural value. There may be sectors which argue that
negotiations with the World Bank should be possible, but we think not,
because the World Bank is the principal instrument of liberalisation,
and its objective is not a fair and equal distribution, but to
privatise and concentrate land. Thinking that the World Bank will
change because we lobby it is not true; it is impossible,” stated
Nicholson.

Land, for ´Via Campesina,´ is much more than a factor of production,
it is a social posessión that should be preserved for future
generations. “Land is our identity as a group. Our farming culture is
based on the concept of a more autonomous economy, that depends on
natural resources and not on exportation, that looks at the needs of
society and not those of trade or of the great commerce of
agriculture. We are defending a model of agriculture connected to our
alimentary needs and to our environment; it is not the defence of an
agrarian corporation, but the defence of the role of agriculture in
our society,” emphasised Nicholson.

The farming ´mistica´

As is the normal practice, the delegates of ´Via Campesina´ opened the
Forum with the ´mistica,´ a symbolic act that puts ´soul, life and
sentiments into this struggle¨ and reinforces ¨our decision and
sentiments to continue fighting for the land and for agrarian reform,´
as manifested by the Chilean Francisca Rodriguez. Exhibiting their
flags, seeds and fruits of the earth, the indigenous people and
representatives of farming paid homage to ´Pacha Mama´ (Mother Earth),
because, ´in her we are born, we grow and we disappear.´ Those
attending the Forum applauded this public demonstration, and many
chanted the placards of the farmers, such as ´occupy, resist,
produce,´ ´agrarian reform now,´ ´globalise the struggle, globalise
the hope.´

Meeting with the Minister Miguel Rosseto.

At midday on Sunday 5 December, a delegation of ´Via Campesina´ met
with the Brasilian Minister for Agricultural Development, Miguel
Rosseto, who was attending the Forum. The delegates had the objective
of putting several problems to him, connected with the lack of
completion of the goals of agrarian reform, the issue of genetically
modified crops, the violence against farmers, and the position of
Brasil in relation to the agreements of free trade and the World Trade
Organisation.

Alter this meeting, Miguel Rosseto told the press that, in relation to
the World Trade Organisation, there could be points of contact with
the social movements. ´We have an open agenda,´ he added. ´Cancun
paralised a process, which was being consolidated, of a liberalising
agenda that loses legitimacy. We are in a period of transition; we now
need to avoid the consolidation of these processes of liberalisation,
and at the same time create a movement in poor countries.

´We are working on the second plan of agrarian reform. We have
established goals, directives and agreements, so that agrarian reform
will be more than access to land, so that it will be a space of
citizenship, equality of life, equality of production, equality of
environment. We are talking about technical assistance, and an agenda
that will ensure 400,000 families access to land, legalisation of
´quilombos´ (communities of Afro-Brasilians working land which does
not legally belong to them), and support for the process of
demarcation of indigenous areas´, emphasised the minister.

The director of ´Via Campesina,´ the Honduran Rafael Alegria, made the
following evaluation of the meeting with Rosseto: ´The minister was
quite frank in the sense that ´latifundio´ (the ownership of huge
tracts of land by one person or company) is very extended, there are
enormous international interests, and there has been a general strike
for three consecutive months in the very Institute of Agrarian Reform,
which has delayed processes.¨

Alegria added that, ´According to the minister, expectations for 2005
are that there will be improvements. We are very attentive of what is
happening in Brasil, and we expect that agrarian reform there will
advance; we are all watching Brasil, and what happens in that country
impacts on and resounds in the rest of Latin America and the rest of
the world.´