International
farmers movement
Movimiento
campesino internacional
Mouvement
paysan international
secretaria
operativa/operative secretariat:
Jin. Mampang Prapatan
XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Indonesia
__________________________________________________________________________________
Geneva, Switzerland Geneva contact list and numbers at bottom.
17 October 2005
CPE and Via Campesina
excluded from a meeting with Pascal Lamy
Today, a delegation from CPE/Via Campesina comprised of Carlos Marentes, Ingeborg Tangeraas and Young-Soo Lee arrived at the WTO headquarters in Geneva to participate in a planned meeting with the Director General of WTO, Pascal Lamy. The meeting had been coordinated by Worldwide Wildlife Federation International with an expected participation of around 20 people. Almost all the other participants who planned to meet with Director Lamy were representing development and environmental non-governmental organizations.
Young-Soo Lee was not allowed to enter the WTO building ‘for security reasons’; they said that his name and his translator’s were not on the registration list. LaVia Campesina delegation then decided to boycott the meeting if Mr. Lee was denied access. However, the non-governmental organizations decided to enter the meeting. Also representatives of a fisherfolk organization did not manage to enter the talks.
A group of LaVia Campesina members waited outside the building until the meeting was over, so they could express their anger to the NGOs which have appointed themselves to speak to the international institutions and governments on behalf of the poor and on behalf of the peasants of the world. This incident is one more concrete example of the tense relations that exist between La Vía Campesina and some NGOs and movements regarding the roles they play, the issues that should be given priority and the best strategy to follow when representing the interests of peasants in the world. One of the key issues at the meeting was agriculture, but no farmers were represented.
La Via
Campesina is a legitimate voice of small farmers, indigenous peasants
and migrant rural workers. For many years, La Via Campesina members
have been impacted by the decisions made by the WTO, were confronted
with WTO positions, and have listened to the statements of
negotiators. Today presented an opportunity for Director Lamy to hear
from three representatives of the worldwide peasant movement on
issues as migration, starvation and the increasing gap between rich
and poor people. We also wanted to urge Lamy not to buy out small
countries to get access to their market and to respect the lack of
agreement in Geneva. However, Mr. Lamy did not meet with us and did
not get this information from the millions of peasants of the world.
La Via
Campesina will have a strong presence in Hong Kong and will mobilize
with the goal to stop the WTO negotiating process. The impacts and
consequences of ten years of WTO should be carefully and fully
analyzed, and WTO should not be allowed to continue this proven
failed direction.
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To arrange an interview with these folks please call the Via Campesina office at 0041 022 756 3598 or Nico Verhagen at 079 369 0891 or Jean Marc Desfilhes at 0033 685 679
*ICC: International Coordination Committee of Via Campesina
NB:
All organizations listed are members of Via Campesina