In this episode we speak to Attila Szocs of Ecoruralis, a 14,000 member-strong peasant farmer’s organization in Romania that is part of La Via Campesina Europe. The first part of this episode explores the work of Ecoruralis at the community level: their seed house, peasant-to-peasant knowledge exchanges, local production and distribution networks, Ecoruralis' approach to agroecology and organization, and the horizon for strengthening rural feminism.

The second part of this episode is dedicated to the broader dynamics of land grabs and how they affect peasants, triggering dynamics of displacement and migration as well as campaigns against the financialization of land and for the defense of agricultural land. We learn of Ecoruralis' ways of slowly building collective power and amplifying the voice of peasants, in the complex historical and social context of Romania, rich in peasant knowledge and practice.

links:
Ecoruralis https://www.ecoruralis.ro/
Gute Arbeit für Alle in Krisenzeiten - Nyeleni spring event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5lmeUkYB0g
Romania’s small farmers continue to fight for their rights https://www.arc2020.eu/romanias-small-farmers-continue-to-fight-for-their-rights/
Access to Land: Romania profile https://www.accesstoland.eu/-Romania-

Episode 2: Peasant Farmers Organisation and Land in Romania: Ecoruralis

This episode features a conversation with Rosemary Rojas, from the Border Agricultural Workers Project and The Border Women’s Project in El Paso, Texas. Since 1994, the project has supported and assisted agricultural workers crossing the US/Mexico border and their families,  and is part of La Via Campesina. We speak to Rosemary about workers and feminist struggles in the region, and the efforts to ensure safe working conditions during the pandemic.

Links:
Centro de Trabajadorxs Fronterizxs - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ctaf.sinfronteras
Donation link: http://goo.gl/UMHEv6
A history of the Border Agricultural Workers project: https://www.farmworkers.org/centreng.html
“The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina”: graphic book (shorturl.at/fxDI0), report (shorturl.at/dAFM7)
Migrant Border Health Initiative: http://www.migranthealth.utep.edu/
El Paso drought problems: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/20/1041307/el-paso-drought-climate-change/
Channeling the Forces of Reproduction course: http://commonecologies.net/courses/forcesreproduction/

Episode 7: Peasant Feminism and Workers Organising in the US/MX Borderlands

The space of political imagination and action that has emerged in this era of multiple crises needs to be harnessed towards a better and just world. Indeed, a radical transition is needed: If the common denominator of the multiple crises is extractive capitalism, then the question is how ‘we,’ whoever we are, could reclaim the economy and rebuild everything from within networks of solidarity, cooperation, and, ultimately, care. Mobilizing lessons from past and present, the challenge is to forge truly planetary caring economies.

Responding to this challenge, Katarina Kušić, Andrea Vetter, and Manuela Zechner gave talks on the second evening of the “After Extractivism” conference hosted by Stoyo Tetevenski. Recorded at Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte, you can listen to them by pressing the play-button above.

More info: https://after-extractivism.berlinergazette.de

Caring Economies

This is an episode that features two German struggles for access to land: the ABL (Association of Peasant Farmers in Germany) and Ackersyndikat (Field Syndicate - a platform for collective farm ownership and operation). Part of an emergent movement for land rights and socialization, these two initiatives share many synergies: when it comes to fighting for socio-ecologically just farming practices, developing campaigns and new legal-technical models, generating alternative infrastructures and bottom-up representation, and pushing for cultural change through the commons. Tune in to listen to Anne (ABL) and Jost (Ackersyndikat), and follow their campaigns and work via the links below (links mostly in German, podcast in English!).

The ABL https://www.abl-ev.de/start

The Ackersyndikat https://ackersyndikat.org/

The ABL's campaign for pubic land to be leased for the common good: https://www.abl-mitteldeutschland.de/mitmachen/gemeinwohlkampagne and it's catalogue of criteria https://www.abl-ev.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/AbL_ev/Publikationen/2022_AbL_Gemeinwohlverpachtung.pdf

The Access to Land platform https://www.accesstoland.eu/

Eichberg field occupation - Acker Bleibt https://greifswa.uber.space/grav-admin/de

Deutsche Wohnen&Co Enteignen campaign & referendum https://www.darumenteignen.de/en/

About the fight against the enclosures https://climateandcapitalism.com/2022/01/15/against-enclosure-the-commoners-fight-back/

End to privatization of remaining public land in East Germany https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/politik/bund-verkauf-ackerflaechen-ostdeutschland-100.html

Fieldcast

12. Fighting for Access to Land! The ABL and Ackersyndikat (DE)

In 2014, neighbours and agrarian activists occupied a large municipally owned, but abandoned agricultural estate south of Florence, Italy. Since then, the 200 hectares have been as a commons, with land tended to by neighbours and the people who moved into the abandoned buildings. The commons are run on principles of self-government, agroecology and solidarity, and offers an important meeting point between urban and rural movements.

In this episode we talk to Isabella Troisi from Mondeggi Bene Commune about giving life to abandoned land, about building urban-rural solidarities, and about the dilemmas and opportunities faced in regularizing the occupation through an important legal innovation: the concession of public land for "civic land use".

13. Between Squatting and Civic Land Use - Mondeggi Commons

A conversation with Association A4 in France, a network of migrants working with farmers and activists to create good work opportunities in peasant and solidarity farming as well as artisan production. A4 stands for Associacion d' Acceuil en Agriculture et Artisanat (association for the hosting of agriculture and crafts activities). As Habib and Alitzel tell us in this episode, they work to build fair conditions for undocumented farmhands, build pathways of access to papers, foster mutual aid and solidarity across people in diverse situations, and valorize the agricultural knowledges that so many migrants bring. Agriculture can learn so much from those who crossed the seas, when it comes to building community, adapting farming to global heating and imagining ways out of the toxic industrial food system we're currently stuck within.

Links

Asso A4 https://a4asso.org/

D'égal à égal: documentary about A4 (English subs coming july 2023) https://vimeo.com/770515263

Ways to support A4: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/a4-association-d-accueil-en-agriculture-et-en-artisanat

English newsletter about launch of A4 https://crabgrass.riseup.net/assets/824420/A4+Newsletter+01+august+2022+eng.pdf

Article about A4 (French) https://www.socialter.fr/produit/hors-serie-numero-15

Common Ecologies' Toolkit of Tactics for Agroecological Transition (course of spring 2023, Pdf and poster forthcoming autumn 2023) http://commonecologies.net/

14. Valorizing migrant agricultural work and knowledges - Association A4 in France

Territorio Doméstico somos un colectivo feminista y mestizo, os presentamos nuestro disco "Porque sin nosotras no se mueve el mundo" que recoge los cantos que desde hace más de diez años llevamos a la calle para reivindicar con alegría nuestras luchas por la dignificación del empleo de hogar y la visibilización del trabajo de los cuidados, fundamentales para sostener la vida.

Álbum desconocido (31/12/2018 9:51:00)

10. Porque sin nosotras no se mueve el mundo

3. A la calle empoderadas

2. Deja ya los miedos

1. Todas somos Adelita

In her keynote Sujatha Byravan (India) highlighted the notion that the ones who are already feeling the consequences of global warming (sea level rise, extreme weather events, etc.) are those who have contributed least to the emission of greenhouse gases. In her response Harsha Walia (Canada) spoke out against hypocritical policies of the North such as the UN global compact that ostensibly work against climate change but in fact are mere covers for keeping people in the Global South or forcing them into labor migration. The closing discussion of the conference showed that climate justice means addressing the connectedness of climate displacement with all forms of migration.

Moderated by Jennifer Kamau (Kenia/Germany), this talk was part of the Berliner Gazette’s 20th anniversary initiative MORE WORLD. Info here: https://more-world.berlinergazette.de

MORE WORLD: Sujatha Byravan, Harsha Walia, Jennifer Kamau

As we are sliding from crises of social reproduction into crises of planetary ecology, this podcast looks at our collective struggles for existence and care. From agroecology, feminist strikes and climate justice to care commons and movement infrastructures — this fieldcast tunes into ways of building autonomy and interdependence at the same time.

We listen in to the life-sustaining backwaters that produce our food, reproduce our bodies and fight to defend our common worlds and singular territories. Those are the real-but-invisible frontlines of our struggles for a desirable world — one that can hold us all and one we can hold dear. A world that allows us to mind our interdependencies and look after one another, as well as to build forms of collective power.

In this fieldcast, we learn about world-making from those who care for territories and ecosystems, look after bodies and communities, build movement infrastructures, and blockade, occupy and strike for earth and care.. We listen into tactics and strategies in the struggle against the destruction of social and natural ecologies, and learn about infrastructures and networks that enable movements to learn, care and resist.

Episode 2: Peasant Farmers Organisation and Land in Romania: Ecoruralis

Earthcare Fieldcast

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