22 April 2014 | Photo Galleries | Land grabbing | Food Sovereignty
Day of struggle for land in Belgium
Over a hundred mobilizations, actions and activities in general were carried out in different parts of the world to commemorate the International Day of Peasant Struggle. 17th of April was chosen in 1996 by La Via Campesina International to remember the 19 landless peasants murdered by the Brazilian Military Policy in what is known as the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas.
In Europe, peasant organizations organized tens of actions in different countries. In Brussels, capital of Belgium, over 60 organizations carried out activities to denounce the threats against agricultural lands and to demand the right to access land for food production. In addition to workshops, debates and the screening of documentaries, there was a direct action in one of the few lands in Haren that can be used for food production.
The action consisted in the collective cultivation of potatoes in a territory that the local government aims to set aside to build a large prison. Real World Radio interviewed Tiks Boloens of De Groentelaar, a small farmers organization.
Tijs believes one of the main obstacles for peasants to access lands to produce food is financial speculation: “land is seen as a commodity that you can buy and sell to make huge profits, and it is not seen as a space for the production of food”.
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