Interviews


The fight for Food Sovereignty: a battle against the fascist offensive

 “We will not achieve Food Sovereignty if we can't recover control over our communities and territories, if we can't take back control over food from the corporations”, warned peasant Carlos Marentes, a long-standing leader from La Vía Campesina. “This is a complicated struggle, it requires intense work. In the current political climate — of oligarchy and increasingly extreme conservatism, states…

India: the right to land and ownership of means of production at the center of the dispute against the capitalist system

In India there have been massive demonstrations against a new Citizenship Law that came into force in January, which grants nationality to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, except Muslims. In December, tens of people were murdered in the repression of mobilizations, and hundreds were arrested. Those who oppose the law affirm, among other things, that this is the first…

“They are using peoples’ feelings to promote a false protectionism”

Andoni García, a farmer from the Basque Country and member of the Coordination Committee of La Vía Campesina Europe (ECVC) warned in an interview with Real World Radio about the use of “nationalist sentiment” in right-wing political discourses as a feature of the rising conservatism and fascism on the continent. Contrary to other European countries, “the Spanish government does not…

The Right to Say NO

“We are the guardians of land, seeds, life and love" is the slogan of the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) of Southern Africa, a movement of rural women founded in 2009 with a membership of over 100 000 women, mainly farmers from South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Their focus is on the defense of the commons…

“We need national policies for people affected by dams”

14 March marks the Day of Struggle of people affected by dams. The Latin American Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAR) is growing and taking its motto to different places around the world: “Water and energy are not commodities! Water for Life, not for death!”. In the midst of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Real World Radio interviewed Diana Giraldo,…

8 March: We must march together

"We resist to live, we march to transform!" is the slogan for the 5th International Action by the World March of Women, set to begin on 8 March, 2020. Every five years, the World March of Women (WMW) prepares an international action which brings together women's movements, to take action against neoliberalism and  mobilize, connecting local struggles and organizations with…

“The hardest part is knowing that Vale continues operating”

During the march of people affected by mining company Vale in Brumadinho (Brazil) held by the Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) from 20-25 January, during the first anniversary of the worst socioenvironmental crime in this South American country, Real World Radio interviewed activist Leticia Paranhos, co-coordinator of the Economic Justice-Resisting Neoliberalism Program (EJRN) at Friends of the…

Brumadinho: one million people affected

“This is the second crime of this type. Brumadinho has been worse than Mariana. How many more crimes will it take to rethink the mining paradigm?” Moisés Borges, member of the National Coordination of the Movement of Peoples Affected by Dams (MAB) told Real World Radio.  The MAB is getting ready to host tens of activists from around the world…

La Via Campesina to hold Solidarity Mission in Venezuela

La Vía Campesina (LVC) will hold an International Solidarity Mission in Venezuela from 20-27 January, with the aim of showing the everyday life of Venezuelan people suffering from the impacts of the US blockade, and how they are facing this with creativity, solidarity and resistance. The Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Front (FNCEZ) of the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current will…

On the way to COP25: It’s not only a climate crisis, our present and future are at stake

The Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change—also known as COP25,—takes place from 2 to 13 December, 2019, in Madrid, Spain. The COP was originally scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile. But, when the announcement of more neoliberal economic and social measures sparked popular protests amounting to a “social crisis” in this South American country in October, the government…