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Farmer's, Rural Women and Mining Impacted Communities at the 2014 SADC
Peoples Summit to propose People Based Regionalism

Media Advisory for Immediate Release

Via Campesina, Rural Women Assembly, Peoples Dialogue and WoMin

Harare, 08 August 2014 – Hundreds of people from grassroots organizations,
including small-scale farmers, rural women, farm workers and members of
mining impacted communities from Southern African countries will be at the
2014 SADC Peoples Summit. The summit takes place in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from
14 to 16 August, 2014. Members of Via Campesina Africa, the Rural Women’s
Assembly (RWA), WoMin and the People’s Dialogue will be strongly present in
Bulawayo, to build alternatives and propose a regionalism that prioritizes
people, not corporations.

Caravans of African farmers, rural women and mining impacted communities
from Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Lesotho, the DRC, Malawi
and other countries will unite with Zimbabwean organisations and movements
in Bulawayo to demand social and economic justice, based on the people´s
perspectives.

The southern African region is faced with ongoing challenges and deepening
crisis as a direct consequence of neo-liberal economic policies.
Transnational corporate capture and control of people’s basic means of
production (land, water, seed, etc.) is escalating, with the complicity of
political and government elites. Natural resources are increasingly being
privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements our governments have
entered into with corporations, western governments and the “newcomer”
emerging economies, like the BRICS.

Land has been grabbed at a significant scale in almost all SADC countries
and the agribusiness model is destroying peasant-family agriculture, the
only proven sustainable and ecologically friendly model that produces most
of the food for SADC countries. Extractives corporations are grabbing land
and water, and polluting the soil, air and water that rural farmers rely on
to grow food and sustain livelihoods.

Ana Paula Tauacale, a farmer and leader of Mozambique Union of Famers, UNAC
– member of Via Campesina - said that in the case of Mozambique, “land is
being given away to foreigners to grow crops for export in the expense of
dispossession of local small-scale farmers. This is the case of the
ProSavana in Nacala Corridor”, a programme to increase crop output by
bringing in large-scale agribusinesses. Ana Paula added saying that “we
need to defend small-scale and family based agriculture in our countries
since we have proven that we can feed the world”.

Seeds, our common heritage, are now also within the radar of corporate
control and under threat from the proposed seed protocols under the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC). The former seek to ease the flow and
marketing of commercial seeds in the eastern and southern African regional
markets and the latter, to harmonize the SADC region seed policy on Plant
Variety Protection (PVP) basis respectively. These new laws will, with
time, open up the whole region to transgenic seeds (GMOs), which have found
space in South Africa and recently in Malawi. Traditional seeds will be
pushed out and smallholder farmers’ use and exchange of such seeds will be
criminalized.

Mercia Andrews from the Rural Women’s Assembly added: “we need to fight for
peoples’ livelihoods, which will benefit the home market, organically
linked to agriculture and manufacturing industries. This will create jobs
not only for the urbanites but also for the rural communities and allow an
equitable development within the SADC countries. The SADC people need to be
free to self determine their destiny in all spheres of life (social,
political and economic)”.

Samantha Hargreaves from WoMin said “we call for a just transition to an
alternative development model, which protects and defends the land and
natural resources upon which rural communities depend, which is based on a
transformed renewable energy system, and in which decisions to extract are
made by the people and not by the transnational corporations and their
lackeys in our governments”.

In Bulawayo, Via Campesina, the RWA, the People’s Dialogue and WoMin will
have self-organized events addressing important themes, such as Public
Policies for Food Sovereignty in SADC, Tax justice to stem the illicit flow
of funds by crooked transnational corporations, and Alternative development
paths to address the devastating environmental and social impacts of
extractives industries. Solidarity exchanges to local communities will be
undertaken, and the Southern Africa People’s Tribunal on transnational
corporations will also be launched. These activities will help build a
consciousness within a broader constituency, which will be the locomotive
of our struggle for popular sovereignty, popular livelihoods and popular
democracy.
View the article at La Via Campesina Website:
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/news-from-the-regions-mainmenu-29/1647-farmers-rural-women-and-mining-impacted-communities-at-the-2014-sadc-people-s-summit-to-propose-people-based-regionalism

*Contacts for press (for more information and phone **interviews)**:*

Boaventura Monjane, Via Campesina - Email:
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boa.monjane at gmail.com - Phone: +263 782049558 (From August 11)

Nyoni Ndabezinhle, Via Campesina - Email:
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nyoni.ndabezinhle at viacampesina.org - Phone: +263 772 441 909

Thandiwe Chidavarume, Women and Land Zimbabwe - Email:
<%20%3Cscript%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20var%20prefix%20=%20%27ma%27%20+%20%27il%27%20+%20%27to%27;%20var%20path%20=%20%27hr%27%20+%20%27ef%27%20+%20%27=%27;%20var%20addy91870%20=%20%27wlz%27%20+%20%27@%27;%20addy91870%20=%20addy91870%20+%20%27mweb%27%20+%20%27.%27%20+%20%27co%27%20+%20%27.%27%20+%20%27zw%27;%20document.write%28%27%3Ca%20%27%20+%20path%20+%20%27%5C%27%27%20+%20prefix%20+%20%27:%27%20+%20addy91870%20+%20%27%5C%27%3E%27%29;%20document.write%28addy91870%29;%20document.write%28%27%3C%5C/a%3E%27%29;%20//--%3E%5Cn%20%3C/script%3E%3Cscript%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20document.write%28%27%3Cspan%20style=%5C%27display:%20none;%5C%27%3E%27%29;%20//--%3E%20%3C/script%3EThis%20email%20address%20is%20being%20protected%20from%20spambots.%20You%20need%20JavaScript%20enabled%20to%20view%20it.%20%3Cscript%20type=%27text/javascript%27%3E%20%3C%21--%20document.write%28%27%3C/%27%29;%20document.write%28%27span%3E%27%29;%20//--%3E%20%3C/script%3E>
wlz at mweb.co.zw - Phone: +263 77 328 9764
Dawn Morrison,

Research Associate, Indigenous Community Engagement
Southwest BC Bioregional Food Systems Design and Plan
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Office: 604.599.2569
Email: dawn.morrison at kpu.ca
Website: http://www.kpu.ca/isfs

Indigenous Food Systems Network
C/O 555 East 55th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C, V5X 1N6
Mobile: 778.879.5106
Email: dmo6842 at gmail.com
Website: www.indigenousfoodsystems.org
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