The speech of Henry Saragih, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina

Presented in the opening ceremony of the V Conference of La Via Campesina
19 October 2008, Maputo, Mozambique

The honorable members of the ICC – leaders in La Via Campesina,
The delegations in La Via Campesina conference,
The leaders from UNAC,
The representatives of various social movements and the representatives of progressive governments,

I also specially express my grattitude to Sr. Armando Emilio Guebuza, the honorable President of Mozambique that is now with us in our important event

Ladies and gentlemen,

The V Conference that we are holding now is the highest assembly for La Via Campesina, the International peasants movement, in terms of making decisions and is being held once every four years. The respective conference is a very important and long-awaited meeting because in this conference we we will analyze how far is the development of our organization of struggle since the IV Conference which was being held on 2004 in Itaici, Sao Paolo, Brazil. in the IV Conference, we have established the strategy and the actions that we have to exercise.

My brothers and sisters,

Our conference in Mozambique now is reflecting both our political decision and our effort as La Via Campesina to extend and strengthen the struggle of the La Via Campesina and the peasants in Africa. Africa is very special for us. Up to today in Africa, majority of the people are living in the countryside and make their living from agriculture. We also know that our brothers and sisters in Africa, just like our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, are living in a very dangerous situation.

If we do not conduct integral and consistent changes, this condition will become worse in the future. This could be seen in the increase of the world famine level upon the last 20 years. The increasing famine level is a consequence of neoliberalism policies which are adopted and practiced in almost every countries of the world, and the peak of the famine is the food crisis which happened in the early 2008. We could see the long queue in order to acquire foods and food riots are almost everywhere. Many lives are lost all over the place because of the neverending crave for food.

My brothers and sisters, the saviours of life

Along the years of 2004-2008, we have made guidelines of our organization regarding to how to implement our strategy and programs, which comprise:
1.    Simultaneously strengthening our organization of struggle through various educations, peaceful actions, mysticas, building the solidarity among our members, creating a clearer division of tasks and responsibilities, drafting progressive internal ruling, and many more!
2.    Defining, practicing and campaigning various alternative concepts and the concrete examples on how to overcome problems in the world. We have produced various of life-saving concept such as agrarian reform, food sovereignty, biodiversity, gender equality, small peasant family based sustainable agriculture, and the rights of the peasants.
3.    Building a strong alliance with other social movements and practicing a dignified communication practice to the government and various international institutions.
4.    We have succeeded in positioning our organization in the frontline of the struggle against various policies and organizations practising neoliberal policies.

My brothers and sisters, the defender of justice

In terms of stregthening our organization, we have also succeeded! This could be seen from several results that we have achieved, namely:

•    The numbers of La Via Campesina members in Asia are increasing and the members of the respective region are very dynamic, giving a distinctive colour for the La Via Campesina during this period.
•    Our struggles in Europe are getting more well-consolidated and they are getting closer to each other in the international relations.
•    The companer@s in Latin America region are getting more creative, having a more concrete network of solidarity, and continuously able to inspire the struggle that is very valuable for the movements in other regions.
•    From our friendship with the comrades in North America, we finally know exactly that neoliberalism is also undermining the life of the rural people in America—especially the United States, we are getting to know better about what is happening now is not a confrontation between one society and other societies or between one country over another, but the confrontation is happening between people on one side and the opression of neoliberal regime on the other side.
•    In the africa, we are welcoming a new region of the La Via Campesina in the continent.
•    And besides the dynamics that are happening in the La Via Campesina regions, we also should not forget about the development in the West and Central Asia, where we already have heartful friends that are very enthusiastic to plant the seeds of the struggle, together with us, to save the life on earth. Welcome to this conference. I surely can not wait to see your contribution in giving more colours to our struggle in the near future.

Today and in the future, we have to build our organization continuously. we are certain of this because the youth have shown a great spirit, as we have seen in the last 3 days. Therefore, we must develop our program in building the schools for the youths, like what we have organized in Venezuela.

In order to strengthen the struggle and the organization, we have to continuously develop our capability to find dignified ways to achieve our goals. We have to try to find them in anything we do! haven’t we in hong kong—in the middle of concrete jungle which surely different from our home—developed and consistently held the 7 principles of our struggle action? Those principles are the key of success to our struggle! We are creating common principles and we are also able to uphold them! Viva La Via Campesina!

One of the power of our organization is the existence of a great solidarity amongst our members. We have endured the test upon the strength of our organization and the solidarity of our members so far! It was via a great solidarity during one of the most devastating natural disasters of the century: The tsunami! Together, we have also built the solidarity upon the violation of human rights.

In terms of the struggle, we are fighting for alternative ways to save the live upon the earth, and currently we have achieved the results which now make us proud.

In the agrarian reform struggle, we have succeeded in bringing the issue of back to the surface. This issue has been freezed for some time. Even in some countries agrarian reform is totally prohibited to be discussed. But now the condition has changed! Agrarian reform has become an agenda in the FAO which can be implemented by the FAO member states.

In the struggle of upholding the food sovereignty, right now the food sovereignty has become  an alternative and concrete solution in overcoming the current food crisis.

In the theme of the struggle on the rights of the peasants, the rights of the peasants have started to be acknowledged by many parties as a central struggle theme that has to be continuously struggled–in order to eradicate the violence against the peasants man and women. In this period, we have produced a Declaration on the Rights of the Peasants as the basis to an upcoming International Convention on the respective rights. Besides struggling for the rights to be institutionalized in a convention, with the spirit of the respective rights, we have been and will be holding solidarity actions regarding violations of the rights of the peasants.

In several themes of struggle, we are gaining progressive results as well, just like in the struggle to save the biodiversity and genetic resources, the struggles to achieve gender equality, in the struggles for small peasant family based sustainable agriculture, et cetera.

My brothers and sisters, the inhabitants of the earth!

We are fully aware that the key to the success of our struggle relies on building a vast alliance where we support each other. Alliances between us as the peasants on one side and the consumers, women movements, environmentalists, fisher folks, labours, human rights activists, migrant workers, journalists, academicians, doctors and with the students on the other side where we all dream to save the planet and create a world full of justice.

The alliance that we are building is not a nonsense. We could see the concrete example in the struggle for food sovereignty. We have started it on the beginning of the last year in Selingue, Mali, by holding the Nyeleni forum as a forum for the social movements in the world to uphold food sovereignty. We can do that because we have the experience in building a broad alliance: We have proven this in Rome by the creation of IPC and other alliance building that we have done, for example with the Our World Is Not For Sale), and the Climate Justice.

In this great opportunity, i would also like to express my sincere grattitude to the La Via CampesinaLa Via Campesina’s allies for your high level of trust in us, the small peasants and small landless farm labours, as your friends in the struggle. Once again, i really thank you all! Let us together change the world to be a better and a place full of justice.

My brothers and sisters, men and women with noble souls,

Thanks to the hard work that we have done, we have succeeded in placing our organization in the frontline on facing the neoliberal forces and institutions.

In this honorable opportunity, we have to have belief with all our heart, that we are the force of change. The existence of the WTO that was historically considered as a must, now we can see that the WTO is walking under the shadow of death. People used to be so obedient to implement the principles of Washington Consensus–but now we can see that the pillars of the consensus are falling apart with the financial institutions collapse throughout the world. We have succeeded to demoralize the WTO, and now the WTO has also collapsed.

Upon the World Bank and the IMF, we have succeeded to prove their fatal mistake and in inspiring various parties to create new alternatives, new hopes and a new world.

Our principle to stay in the frontline of the struggle against neoliberalism keeps our confidence high in conducting political communication with various parties in various levels.

In this period, several members of La Via CampesinaLa Via Campesina in some regions have extended the scope of their struggle by building political communication and cooperation with the governments who agree with our principles and sympathetic upon our movement. In some countries in Latin America, the conception of food sovereignty are starting to be implemented and the agrarian reform is starting to be exercised.

La Via Campesina right now is in the frontline position to fight neoliberalism, and of course we achieved that with extremely heavy efforts which require sacrifices. Therefore, to show our respect, we would like to pay our respect to the following parties:

1.    Brothers and sisters who have been struggling in Hong Kong who have fearlessly stated that the WTO has to go down! Although Mr. Lee Kyung-Hae is gone, his seeds of struggle grows with us, (applause please) Down down WTO!
2.    Brothers and sisters who have been struggling in Jakarta against the World Bank and the IMF (please give your applause)
3.    Brothers and sisters who have been struggling against the G8 in Hokkaido and Rostock, applause again! No more G8! G8 Iranai!
4.    My brothers and sisters who have been struggling in the Andean mountain struggling to defense the dignity of the indigenous people (please applause) Land, territory and dignity!
5.    My brothers and sisters in the depth of Brazil who are rejecting the green desert, and brothers and sisters in the other parts of America (applause please)
6.    My brothers and sisters, young and old that have been and is still struggling in Europe against the GMO which is destroying the earth and the humankind. Please applause for our friends in Europe!
7.    My brothers and sisters who have been living in one of the highest world’s civilization, in South Asia, who are continuously on a huge scale rejecting the free trade. Please give our appreciation to our comerades in South Asia!
8.    In this great oportunity, i also would like to express a very extraordinary thing, the La Via Campesina women movement! A movement that we must feel proud of. La lucha continua!
9.    I also express my greatest grattitude to the people who will continue the life upon the earth: the youth, male and female who have strong commitments to be peasants. Their faith is giving us all the optimism and the hope that we could save all the live on the planet. Please give applause for our youth, the next generation of La Via Campesina!

My brothers and sisters whom i am proud of,

In accordance to our slogan, we have to continuously globalize the struggle so that our brothers and sisters who are beginning to lose hope could arise against the opression and the impoverishing which are led by the current neoliberal regimes.

We have to continue struggling against the crisis in every sector which are being planted by the neoliberal regimes! We have to stop all of the nonsense: The neoliberal regime propaganda! Don’t be swayed away by their sweet but viscious words.

The peasant community has to say no loudly to all of the false projects under the banner of saving the earth: Say no to the falseness of agrofuel! Say no to the green revolution! Say no to the green desert! Say no to the market-friendly land reform! Say no to the sale of our life!

Our brothers and sisters who are walking in the path of salvation,

Therefore, this conference is one path to overcome all of the crises that are happening today. This conference is a conference that will ensure that the social transformation process will be done based on the principles of justice in life which we uphold in La Via Campesina. In accordance with the name of this organization: the path of peasants as the way of life. The path that leads to salvation.

I’m sure that this conference will be a succesful one, since i believe that the spirit of our brothers and sisters, the peasants of Mozambique, is living in our heart. The spirit of the people–the spirit of the peasant communities of Mozambique which fearlessly drove the colonization away from the land of the country. Of course such spirit against colonialism is still alive and it has to be fired-up continuously to drive the new forms of colonization that come to this country.
In this glorious chance, it is an obligation to express my greatest gratittude to all the ICC members of La Via Campesina 2004-2008 period, especially to my comrades Paul nicholson and Egidio Brunetto and to all parties involved which are impossible to be mentioned one by one in this opportunity. I express my grattitude! We are sure that our brothers and sisters will keep on struggling under the umbrella of La Via Campesina. We will also keep on remembering our leaders who have passed away, Prof. Swami, Hege Nerland, and lots of other La Via Campesina leaders that I could not mention here.

Before I end this opening speech,i would like to specifically propose to the government of Mozambique to implement the principles of food sovereignty! For Africa, we must also have a strong intention to overcome the current food crisis by struggling to realize the concept of food sovereignty in the level of public policy. Why? Because concretely in the level of peasant family and rural community, the concept of food sovereignty can really be applied. Therefore it should also be struggled in the conceptual level. We can not let the African leaders of to be swayed by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) project which we already knew has shown failures in overcoming famine in the continent. And it just not only failed, it also created new problems everywhere.

Therefore, we hope that a series of policies could be created to uphold the food sovereignty; organize the food import in a certain strong manner so that the national and local food system can be protected, ensure that the land produce healthy and nutritious foods through the hands of our peasants family, fertilize the Mozambican land through agroecology, support the peasants family cooperatives so that they can save the economy of the peasants, and of the Mozambique as a whole, and build the national character of the peasants and the Mozambican people  so that they could become a nation-state with dignity!

I also express my greatest thanks to the willingness of UNAC to become our host of the conference.

I am highly expecting the President of Mozambique to attend our conference and give his respective opening speech in the opening of this conference.

I hope our spirit to create a global justice is burning continuously.

GLOBALIZE THE HOPE, GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!

VIVA LA VIA CAMPESINA!