September 10 is recognized by La Via Campesina and its allies worldwide as an International Day of Action against the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreements. On this day in 2003, Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae sacrificed his life outside the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, to protest against the devastating effects of opening national borders to free trade. At the time of his martyrdom, Lee wore a sign around his neck that read: “WTO is killing farmers.”
21 years later, as we commemorate his sacrifice, the world is facing a polycrisis consisting of hunger, climate disasters, genocide, extreme inequality, rising public debt, inflation and migration. And yet all we see is a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo, to carry on as before, and systematic efforts to divert attention from the root causes of these crises by stoking racism, provincialism, patriarchy and xenophobia.
Since its founding, La Via Campesina has warned that free-market globalization—which promotes disinvestment, privatization, and the dismantling of national regulatory networks—would lead to increased concentration of power among political and economic elites, particularly through transnational corporations, with devastating consequences for the world’s rural communities and urban workers. Today, nearly every country in the world is experiencing growing anger among rural and urban working classes who have been systematically marginalized and rendered invisible by an economic system that expanded with the blessing of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.
It is high time that the world adopted a different economic course, one that is significantly different from the prevailing model based on neoliberal principles. We are living in a geopolitical moment in which a multipolar order is emerging, challenging the hegemony of the old colonial powers. Yet even within this reordering, there is little effort to rethink the exploitative economic model that has brought us to the situation we are in today, and the power of transnational corporations continues to grow.
La Via Campesina calls on all our allies in social movements around the world to organize and advocate for a new economic framework for the world. We need an alternative to the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture. The free market logic that has governed international trade and driven cross-border capital expansion must be ended and replaced by a new framework that respects solidarity, internationalism, feminism, equality, social justice, and the protection of local economies and food sovereignty.
Since 2022, La Via Campesina has been conducting consultations to build an alternative international framework for global agricultural trade that promotes food sovereignty. is in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) and promotes cross-border cooperation rather than competition. This year we will broaden this consultation process to include our allies, friends in academia, governments and diplomats.
We call on all our members and allies to use the month of September to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis in their communities and to demand public policies that increase transparency in national and international trade, guarantee the food sovereignty of our peoples and ensure fair prices for our products.
We, the peasants and smallholders, still feed 70% of the world’s population, despite barely being able to cover our own production costs and feed our families. We are the cornerstone of food sovereignty, and any government serious about ending hunger and malnutrition and building robust rural economies must guarantee that we have access to and control over all means of production, that our commons are protected, and that we are fairly rewarded and paid for our work, alongside social protection and healthcare for our communities.
Free trade fuels hunger! The WTO kills! A new trade framework, NOW!
Send us details of your mobilization plans in September to [email protected] and we will put them on a world map. You can also tag us on our social networks and use the hashtag. #WTOKills #NewTradeFrameworkNOW
