Description
Since its founding in 1993, La Via Campesina has built an
internationalism rooted in the daily struggles, realities, and
aspirations of peasants, agricultural and rural workers, Indigenous
Peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, women, and youth. This peasant
internationalism, from below, is through solidarity, mutual learning,
collective action, and a shared commitment to social justice, food
sovereignty, and dignity for all. Peasant internationalism is one of
the defining political principles of La Via Campesina.
Today, humanity faces deep and
interconnected political, economic, social, and ecological crises.
Land grabbing, corporate control of food systems, free trade
agreements, climate change, militarization, extractivism,
authoritarianism, and financial speculation transcend national
borders, profoundly affecting how peasants and rural communities live
and organize. While peasant struggles are rooted in local realities,
the forces shaping those struggles are increasingly global. Our
resistance must therefore also be international.
These realities raise important
questions for La Via Campesina, such as what does peasant
internationalism mean in the current context; how to strengthen
solidarity and collective action and ensure that peasant voices
influence debates about the future of food systems, climate justice,
peace, trade, and development?
La Via Campesina will self-organise
activities at the World Social Forum under the theme “Building
Peasant Internationalism” to stimulate debate on these
questions and contribute to the renewal of peasant internationalism
as a strategic pillar of our movement while advancing food
sovereignty, agrarian reform, peace, and social justice.
Proposed Objectives
Reaffirm peasant internationalism
as a core political principle of La Via Campesina.
Assess how current geopolitical,
economic, and environmental changes are affecting peasants and rural
communities.
Strengthen alliances with social
movements, trade unions, Indigenous Peoples, feminist organisations,
environmental justice movements, and other progressive forces to
build a stronger international movement capable of confronting
corporate power, imperialism, and authoritarianism.
BUILDING AN ALTERNATIVE TRADE
FRAMEWORK-MARKET REGULATION AND TRADE – AUGUST 7, 2026
Neoliberalism and neoliberal economic
policies have promoted cross-border trade based on free-market
competition and the idea of comparative advantage. Under this model,
countries become specialized producers of a limited range of export
commodities. For example, Burkina Faso has often been tied to cotton
for export rather than to crops intended to feed its own people, just
as Argentina and Brazil have emphasized export-oriented production
rather than domestic food needs. This competition and comparative
advantage also shape how land, water, and territories are used,
frequently for large-scale chemical-intensive monocultures,
plantations, livestock farms, or industrial aquaculture. This has
serious consequences for peasant families, fisherfolk, and Indigenous
Peoples who depend on these land, water, and territories, and it also
harms biodiversity and the environment. As international trade
currently functions under this neoliberal logic of specialization and
competition, it makes it harder for countries to shift toward peasant
agroecological production, where the primary goal is to use land and
territories to feed people first with healthy, locally produced food.
Therefore, it is important to break this neoliberal logic. The
proposed Alternative Trade Framework, now under construction, is one
step in that direction by giving primacy to food sovereignty while
carrying out international agricultural trade.