A plea from Food First!

Peter Rosset -- Food First
September 18, 2003

Dear Friends:

I have just returned from 2 weeks in Mexico, this last week spent in Cancun. I was invited by UNORCA, the National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations (http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/index.html) and by Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org), to help with preparations to "welcome" the WTO to Cancun this September.

We visited many Mayan indigenous peasant communities over about a 5 hour radius from Cancun, giving workshops on the WTO. People are really angry at how free trade has driven down crop prices - pushing them further into poverty - and how the WTO would also remove forestry subsidies they get from the Mexican government for tree planting (because it would be "unfair" competition for big transnational timber companies!).

They REALLY WANT to go to Cancun to be heard. But they are poor, poor, poor, and just cannot afford the very expensive bus fares and cost of food for a week there, and their organizations, aso poor, and cannot afford to rent buses. In just one rural area, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, it would cost more than $70,000 for renting buses to get everyone who wants to get to Cancun to actually get there.

Local groups have raised over US $30,000 so far, but they need more, URGENTLY. Food First has set up a secure credit card server for people to donate money on-line to UNORCA for renting buses. You can send checks, or wire funds directly to Mexico. This is REALLY important. See details below.

Thanks for helping out!!!!!

Peter Rosset
Food First

Dear Friend of Farmer and Peasant Organizations:
Dear Opponents of the WTO and Free Trade Policies:

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!

The next WTO meeting is in Cancun, Mexico, this September. This is the meeting after Doha, Qatar, and after Seattle. As you know, free trade policies, like those being negotiated in the WTO, are driving family farmers, peasants and indigenous people off the land, around the world, North and South, East and West. As a result, farmers, peasants, the landless, farm workers, women, forest people and indigenous people around the world have come together in the Via Campesina http://www.viacampesina.org, and are demanding "WTO Out of Agriculture" and have put forth the alternative of "peoples food sovereignty."

The Mexican National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations, UNORCA
(http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/in
gles/index.html) -- one of the Mexican members of Via Campesina - has the responsibility to organize and host an INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM and Farmers' Encampment in Cancun, on behalf of Via Campesina. This Forum is a very important opportunity for farmer organizations worldwide to come together to work on alternatives to free trade policies, and to protest the WTO.

It is critical for all people who are concerned about the undemocratic nature and very negative impact of the WTO and other neo-liberal "free" trade agreements like FTAA and NAFTA on our lives, that as many Mexican peasants delegates as want to protest in Cancun can actually get there (internal travel by bus in Mexico is not cheap, and Cancun is in a remote location, more than 20 hours from the capital). Our minimum aim is to bring 10,000 delegates! It is critical that the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM be a success.

We need your support for the transportation costs of people to the remote Cancun location. Cancun is the most expensive location in Mexico, and UNORCA cannot pull this off without financial support.

If you want to help Mexican rural social movements get to Cancun, please sponsor delegates to the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM, Farmers' Encampment and WTO protests.

Average estimated costs for each delegate are:

transport US $48 (chartered buses)
food (3 meals) US 10 per day
lodging (encampment) US 12
Support for the Farmer Support Center:

US 25 per day

You will receive a special thank you from the community your support goes to when you sponsor a whole bus for $500 from nearby states

HOW TO DONATE:

The easiest way to donate is to go to our web site at http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ing les/index.html and give using your credit card at our secure server now, or send a U.S. check or dollar-denominated international money order to Food First, who is receiving the money and transferring it to UNORCA in Mexico. Make the check or money order out to:

"FOOD FIRST, Unorca project",

and mail it to Food First/UNORCA, 398 60th Street. Oakland, California, 94618, USA. Donations are tax deductible in the U.S.

QUESTIONS:

If you have questions, contact UNORCA at forocampesino@laneta.apc.org and/or Food First at foodfirst@foodfirst.org.

Thank for your support to make ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE!

The farmers, peasants and indigenous people of UNORCA

Alberto Gómez Flores, National Coordinator
National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations (UNORCA)