Day five: It's all happening now22 February 2007
There is so much happening that it is hard to capture.
Great speakers are sharing experiences of what threats they face to food sovereignty (PDF).
Singing from the same hymn sheet
Everyone is saying:
Watch out for the WTO being revived. Switch to campaigning on the even more harmful bilateral trade agreements such as Europe's Economic Partnership Agreements as well as other unfair trade deals, often pushed from Europe.
We all want solutions-based alternative work:
- promoting grassroots campaigns against unfair trade like food sovereignty
- supporting new trade rules through UN agencies
- championing new fair trade proposals from the Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Today I listened to trade campaigners from India and Iran to Uganda and Uruguay describing how their markets have been flooded with cheap, subsidised goods.
This unfair trade is destroying local markets and livelihoods and is a direct result of having their economies forced open to unfair competition from powerful European companies that we subsidise.
Cheap EU imports flooding local markets in Mali
This is why I'm a campaigner.
Our elected leaders are pushing policies that lead to the destruction of people's very way of life.
Kenya's being flooded with powdered milk from Europe - destroying dairy farmers' livelihoods, crushing the whole dairy sector - not to mention the impact on children's health.
There are endless trade absurdities of cheap, processed food from Europe being dumped on poor countries.
People in the South don't want to eat our rubbish, manufactured food - they want local, healthy food that they've been producing for generations.
'Misticas'
Malian performers
Every day there are 'misticas' or cultural events where people express their struggles through music and dance.
I sat in a marquee during the baking midday sun watching the indigenous Latin American groups having great fun practising traditional dance and singing routines with Indian, Korean and African groups.
These groups have combined their ancient traditions with their fights against injustice.
A unique space has been created - allowing these groups for the first time to share how they mobilise and resist without speech.
Joe Zacune, our Trade Campaigner, is sending daily updates from the World Forum for Food Sovereignty in Sélingué, Mali.
© Friends of the Earth
