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2 December 2009 | News | Geneva against the WTO | Resisting neoliberalism
WTO “Out of Agriculture”
Interview with Yudhvir Singh, spokesperson for La Via Campesina International in Geneva
7:03 minutes
Download: MP3 (3.2 Mb)
“We are in Geneva during the 7th Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) because what is being decided here is a question of life and death for us”, stated the Chair of the Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movement, Yudhvir Singh, spokesperson for La Via Campesina in the Swiss city.
In an interview with Real World Radio, Singh said that the ministers aim to decide on the future of the people, among them farmers, but that the social movements will not allow it. “They have no power to decide for us”, he stated.
In India, agriculture is a fundamental part of the culture of the people, of their way of living. Singh said that the WTO policies will destroy climate, water sources and agriculture. “We will not tolerate this” he stated.
Also, he explained that the negotiation being held within the WTO these days is not for the economically poorest people of the world, but for the interests of big transnational corporations, which want to take over the agricultural sector and finish with farmers, murdering them, he said.
Finally, he said that farmers are in Geneva to tell the ministers that they will not accept any negotiation on agriculture. He added that the demand of peasants is simply to leave the WTO “out of agriculture”.
Photo: Radio Mundo Real
