10th September, 2003. Farmer Lee Kyung Hae stabbed a knife into his heart on top of police barricades in Cancun, Mexico. "WTO kills farmers!" were his last words. 10th September, 2004. We are back on the streets again.
[Statement]
Food is a Right! In the Spirit of Lee Kyung Hae, Stop WTO!
10th September, 2003. Farmer Lee Kyung Hae stabbed a knife into his heart on top of police barricades in Cancun, Mexico. "WTO kills farmers!" were his last words. 10th September, 2004. We are back on the streets again. Despite the desperate demands from people all round the world, WTO negotiations continue and the Korean government, while fulfilling its commitments to the WTO, continues to promote liberalization of the Korean rice market.
During the last ten years, the World Trade Organization(WTO) that appeared as a result of the Uruguay Rounds and the recently promoted FTAs are being driven forward towards one aim - to maximize profit of transnational capital by liberalizing agriculture and destroying food sovereignty, by driving millions of workers onto the streets, by selling off healthcare, education, culture, energy, water and other essential services to corporations, and by limiting access to medicines. The WTO and FTAs are not merely trade organizations or agreements - they have become neoliberal doctrines and transnational laws.
Despite the decade of misery and endangering of the planet, transnational capital and the WTO are still pushing their agendas forward. They are telling Korea, with a mere 25% food self-sufficiency, to open up our lifeline - our rice. Also, on 1st August, despite resistance from developing countries and peoples around the world, the WTO agreed upon the framework for the Doha Development Agenda. The Noh Moo Hyun government, in accordance with the trend, is also actively promoting FTAs with Singapore, Japan, ASEAN, EFTA and other numerous countries. In some ways, the last decade seems to have been a rehearsal for times to come.
The struggle to stop liberalization of rice and to protect food sovereignty is a struggle for farmers' livelihood and is at the same time, a struggle to protect our basic lifeline. The true meaning of food sovereignty is producing and consuming food according to our needs, to be able to decide what and how much we want to eat. Also, it is the task of all of us to stop the WTO from depriving us of our education, healthcare, culture, water and other essential services, and to maintain the public interest of services. Food and public services are a matter of life - they are our common assets as well as being our rights. They should not be objects of trade and commodification.
We remember the struggle, last year, of teachers and students against the submission of GATS offers, and also the struggle of peasants against the Korea-Chile FTA. And today is the one year anniversary of the Cancun struggle, in which 180 Korean workers, peasants and activists travelled all the way to Mexico to fight with our international comrades against the ministerial, and also in which Lee Kyung Hae sacrificed his life. Just as the struggle in Cancun became the struggle of today, let the struggle of today become a even stronger struggle of tomorrow.
10th September, 2004
Korean People's Action against FTA & WTO(KoPA)
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Food is a Right! In the Spirit of Lee Kyung Hae, Stop WTO!
