Call to Action 2016: Citizen’s Tribunals and People’s Assemblies Across the World

Hundreds of People’s Assemblies have formed all over the world to coincide with the Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly of The Hague, Netherlands, that will take place from 14th to 16th October 2016. People’s Assemblies for the Future of our Food and Future of Our Planet are self-organised events aiming to place criminal corporations threatening people’s livelihoods under public trial. People’s Assemblies also aim at planning at a local level and laying out a collective vision towards a future that is GMO free, poison free, fossil fuel free, patent free, “free trade“free, and free of corporate control. A network of almost 1000 international organizations are participating.

Across the world movements against Monsanto have grown rapidly. Monsanto is the most visible part of the Poison Cartel that has been engaged in a century of ecocide and genocide. Aggressive mega-mergers of the grain and chemical cartels have now become the norm. The Monsanto and Bayer $66 billion merger is just the latest, following both the Dow/Dupont and Syngenta/Chem-China mergers. The bigger and more powerful these corporations, the more harm they cause, with seemingly a lessening of accountability and liability. GMOs were introduced into agriculture as the means through which corporations are able to patent seed and collect royalties. Countries have upheld their sovereign right to excluded seed and plants from patentability. Nonetheless, Monsanto has been fighting governments from India to Argentina to impose its illegitimate claims to royalty collection.

The main People’s Assembly at The Hague will be the gathering of social movements, seed savers, seed defenders, farmers, growers and civilians to address the crimes against nature and against humanity perpetrated by chemical and biotechnology corporations. Prominent participants include Vandana Shiva, Andre Leu, Ronnie Cummins, Hans Herren, Percy Schmeiser, and many more leading figures. We invite people and communities everywhere – seed savers, gardeners, farmers, mothers, chefs, schools, universities, local authorities, doctors, lawyers, citizens, etc… to organize a local People’s Assembly anywhere – gardens, farms, a field, town halls, public squares, community facility, church yards, school, college, university… – and involve, by inviting as many friends and families, movements and institutions to attend as possible.

While looking at how the World Trade Organisation and ‘Free trade’ policies introduced patents on seed and opened the door to the GMO invasion, the People’s Assembly will also look at the new ‘free trade’ agreements such as the TTIP and the TPP. “Through the experience of ecocide and genocide of the last century, we will chart the road to a future based on Seed Freedom and Food Freedom, agroecology and farmers rights, on our commons and on economies of sharing and on the rights of nature and Earth Democracy” (Vandana Shiva, Navdanya).

Resources for journalists

www.peoplesassembly.net

www.monsanto-tribunal.org

www.seedfreedom.info

For more information, please contact

Navdanya International

press@peoplesassembly.net

what’s app: 0039 328 6334318 – 0039 329 8622125

Editor’s notes:

To participate, create a workshop, and put up a stand, email info@peoplesassembly.net

Twitter: #PeoplesAssembly

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