#April17 – United against imperialism, neocolonialism, the criminalization of our struggles, and the dispossession of our territories
International Day of Peasant Struggles – Call to action
Bagnolet, March 24, 2026 | This April 17, 2026, International Day of Peasant Struggles, we mobilize to commemorate 30 years since the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre, when in 1996, 21 landless workers were killed by the Military Police in Brazil while occupying land as a legitimate action1 within the struggle for agrarian reform. From this event, the International Day of Peasant Struggles was born, and for 30 years this day of action has continued in the face of ongoing violence in our territories. We reaffirm that Agrarian Reform is essential for just societies, promoting land democratization, food sovereignty, and challenging the extreme concentration of land ownership worldwide. The legacy of those who came before us forms the foundation of a struggle that cannot stop, as violence, neocolonialism, and agribusiness continue to advance—militarizing rural and Indigenous communities, restricting access to land, and attacking our ways of life and collective organization.
The current U.S administration has unleashed an intensified offensive of imperialism and the advance of neofascism across all regions of the world, threatening the peace and self-determination of our peoples. Together with their ally Israel, they are waging a neocolonial campaign that currently has Iran and other countries in the Arab region on edge.
We are facing a system in decay that, through its governments and in its drive to maintain transnational economic power, becomes increasingly violent and brutal. Three decades later, the impunity of the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre remains an open wound with the perpatrators yet to be brought to justice. At the recently concluded Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CIRADR +20) in Cartagena, Colombia we remembered the martyrs of Eldorado do Carajás and also worldwide who have been, and continue to be, persecuted, criminalized as terrorists, and assassinated for defending Land, Water and Territories.
In addition, We are now marking 30 years since our global peasant movement internationalized the struggles for Food Sovereignty. One of our major achievements has been integrating Food Sovereignty right into international policy discussions and frameworks, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
This year, we also celebrate the International Year of Women Farmers, recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a historic moment to honor the vital role of women in producing food and defending their territories. It is an opportunity to make their work visible, resist the violence they face, and fight for public policies that truly support them.
Over the years, we have also organized three Global Nyéléni gatherings (2007, 2015, and 2025), bringing together social movements to address the multifaceted crises we all face while presenting a united front.
Even as we have made these advances, the capitalist and colonial system that represses and dispossesses our peoples continues unabated to this day, enabling land grabbing, protecting the elites, and criminalizing those who fight for the land through laws and selective judicial processes and other forms of persecution in Palestine, Congo, Peru, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, Honduras, Ecuador and other territories.
They do not come to save us or to “restore democracy.” They come to steal the land we cultivate, using the colonial myth of “unused land” to hand over our commons to agribusiness, poison us with agrotoxics, displace peasant agriculture that produces healthy, agroecological food, and transform our ecosystems into speculative assets for banks and pension funds.
We WARN that the capitalist and neocolonial offensive is not limited to direct violence: neoliberal trade policies are also deadly for rural life. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), such as Mercosur’s with the European Union and others, are instruments of submission that dismantle national sovereignty to favor transnationals. We reject treating food as a commodity and trade as a weapon; we demand that tariffs be legitimate tools to protect small producers from dumping, not levers of geopolitical coercion wielded by empire.
This is why we have pledged to mobilize in Cameroon during the 14th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference from March 24 to 30 to demand agriculture’s definitive exit from the WTO.
We DENOUNCE the fierce reactivation of the Monroe Doctrine. The United States seeks to turn many territories into its exclusive sphere of influence, imposing absolute military, political, economic, and ideological control.
ALERT IN THE CARIBBEAN AND THE AMERICAS! We denounce the presence of U.S. warships off the coast of Haiti, strategically positioned in front of Cuba. In the absence of a sovereign government capable of defending the interests and sovereignty of the Haitian people, this territory is being used to facilitate an invasion against the Cuban people through contracts with transnational mercenaries. We demand an end to the blockade and the economic and military pressures aimed at suffocating to Cuban people who are an example of dignity and solidarity. At the same time, we reject any action that seeks to undermine the sovereignty and self‑determination of the Venezuelan people and we demand full respect for their right to freely determine their future.
We WARN that this imperial claw is not limited to some regions. In Africa, sovereignty is under siege due to the fight over « rare minerals »2, the use of trade sanctions against South Africa, and military interventions under the pretext of counterterrorism in Nigeria and Congo.
In the Arab region, in addition to the genocide in Palestine, peasants face systematic violence that prevents them from accessing their land and crops. In southern Lebanon, bombings devastate farmland, displace thousands, and worsen food insecurity. In Iran, offensives and sanctions cause mass displacement and severe socioeconomic impacts on rural communities. In Syria, war and extreme drought reduce agricultural production and force peasants to abandon their lands.
In Asia, peasants are affected by aggressive trade policies and land conflicts. At the Cambodia-Thailand border, the territorial conflict directly impacts farmers from both countries, who cannot continue their agricultural activities, and many are forced to move as refugees. Similarly, in Myanmar, more than 3.5 million people have been displaced, and 16.7 million suffer from hunger due to the deliberate attacks by the military dictatorship on local food production, with peasants on the frontlines of the resistance. In Indonesia, hundreds of agrarian conflicts persist over land, forests, and plantations, affecting food security and rural livelihoods.
In Europe, technological and military dependence on the U.S., as well as unequal trade agreements, undermine the autonomy of peoples.
In Oceania, the control of transnational corporations over commons, unequal trade policies, and environmental pressures limit the sovereignty of peoples, affect local production, and weaken rural livelihoods.
THERE IS NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE, AND NO JUSTICE WITHOUT RESISTANCE AND COLLECTIVE ACTION!
As an international peasant movement, we call for permanent mobilization:
- JOIN to the solidarity initiatives and regional solidarity campaigns being led by our member organizations to extend solidarity to peoples whose sovereignty and right to self-determination are under threat. Add your initiative to our global actions wall.
- PARTICIPATE in flotillas, convoys, and brigades for Palestine, Cuba, Haiti, and other countries facing oppression and imperialist pressures, to put your commitment against injustice into action and carry a message of hope and solidarity.
- MOBILIZE massively this April 17, using our networks and our COMMUNICATION KIT to make our struggles visible and jointly denounce the criminalization we are facing. Organize marches, direct actions, forums, farmers’ markets, food donations, seed exchanges, film screenings and events in schools and universities.
- STRENGTHEN the unity of popular organizations against servile governments and the capital’s multinationals that grab our commons to enrich their elites.
- The ICARRD+20 has once again brought the agenda of popular agrarian reform, firmly on the international policy making agenda. Mobilize in your countries and regions and put pressure on your governments to take up these matters for discussions at the upcoming FAO and CFS meetings and build political pressure for the implementation of the Land tenure guidelines, UNDROP and UNDRIP through concrete national policies.
- Read La Via Campesina’s Briefing Note on Integral Agrarian Reform Click here
#April17 #PeasantStruggles #ResistCultivateTransform
Against land grabbing and the criminalization of our struggles for food sovereignty!
For the self-governance and dignity of our peoples : Resist, cultivate, transform !
Globalize the struggle, globalize hope!
1The 1988 Constitution of Brazil establishes that land ownership must fulfill a “social function.” Within this framework, the occupation of unproductive land by rural workers has historically been used as a legitimate form of political pressure to demand the implementation of agrarian reform.
2 Rare earth minerals are critical metals essential to modern technology, such as batteries, magnets, and displays. They are difficult to mine and are considered strategic resources, unlike common minerals like iron or gold. In Africa, their extraction often fuels conflict, labor exploitation, and the displacement of communities.
