STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Walter Lippmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: CubaNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 3:00 AM Subject: [CubaNews] Food cannot be subjected to the market GRANMA July 3, 2001 Food cannot be subjected to the savage laws of the market 1st World Forum on Food Sovereignty, an alternative parallel to the Rome + 5 Summit, to be celebrated in Cuba BY RAISA PAGES (Granma International staff writer) THE leaders of the world movement against neoliberal globalization who confronted police repression in Davos, Seattle, Bangkok, Prague, Porto Alegre and Quebec have now chosen a very different stage for battling the burning question of food sovereignty, at a time when the number of hungry people exceeds 800 million globally. Early in the month of September, the 1st World Forum on Food Sovereignty will take place in Cuba. According to the organizers, Cuba has been chosen because - as a consequence of the U.S. blockade - it is one of the nations which most suffers the most aggressions against its possibilities to produce and import food. In an autonomous and open manner, and sponsored by 16 non-governmental organizations, the forum will take place on September 3-7, at the International Conference Center in Havana, with the participation of 300 delegates from 100 nations. In 1996, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) sponsored a World Food Summit in Rome, in which government representatives and multilateral organizations participated. The agreement that came out of that meeting was to reduce by 50%, the number of underfed people on the planet, which was then estimated to be nearly 800 million. Now, as the Rome + 5 Summit approaches, the number of starving people, far from diminishing, is growing. The organization of a forum in Havana, alternative to the government forum which will take place in Europe, responds to an idea that emerged from the World Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, last January. Eleven social organizations are sponsoring the world meeting in Cuba, with the addition of 15 NGOs, whose members have been protagonists of the latest massive protests against neoliberal globalization. The executive committee of the forum is made up of Cuban Gilberto Zayas of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP); Spaniard Vicente Garcés of the Center for Rural Studies and International Agriculture; Brazilian Francisco Meneses of the Inter-American Network on Agriculture and Democracy; Frenchman Pierre Vuarin of the APM world network; and Honduran Rafael Alegría of Vía Campesina, an international organization of landless men and women. "There is no political will on the part of many governments to discuss the agreements signed in Rome," affirmed Meneses. In a public statement, the executive committee underlined that it defends those who suffer from the commercialization of land, the savage opening of borders, the privatization of life and the increase in poverty and inequalities. FOOD IS NOT A COMMODITY For campesino leader Rafael Alegría, food cannot be considered a commodity, nor can it be subject to the illogical laws of the market. Alegría pointed out that the world of today is an example of the implantation of an exclusive, inhumane and imperialist economic model which is neoliberalism. "We are denied access to land. Agrarian reforms have either been paralyzed or reversed. Forests, seeds and natural resources are being privatized. They are taking away the campesino's historic right to guarantee food security," he indicated. This Honduran campesino spoke about the demonstrations planned in Geneva and in other countries, to coincide with the next meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Qatar. He explained that they planned to rent a ship which will leave from Italy with international press aboard, in order to get close to the island where the WTO executives will be meeting. The WTO is considered by some as a tool in the democratization process, and by others as an instrument of the large transnational corporations. "Since they will not allow us to land, we will send a call to the world conscience from the sea," the representative of Via Campesina pointed out. "In Seattle we said that we would follow them wherever they went, and we will," he assured. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
