The morning haze cannot fully conceal the power of the sun in balmy Morelos. Hundreds of us stand, our numbers growing as more trickle in to witness that morning’s mystica. Mexica dancers move to a reverberating drum beat, the seedpods on their ankles rattling in rhythm. I feel the vibrations in my chest. The dancers move in a circular pattern around an offering of fruits, vegetables, campesino working tools like the machete, a shovel; flowers and medicinal herbs surround a lit bowl of copal. Extending from this altar in a radial pattern like petals are overlapping flags representing our many countries and organizations. Welcome to all of us willing to do the work, welcome to our ancestors who have brought us to where we are, welcome to the future generations who will take up where we leave off.
This December 1st – 10th marked the 8th Congress of CLOC (Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo) – LVC (La Via Campesina). I had the honor to be one of the seven delegates from North America to attend the conference, and know it as my responsibility to share my experience.
For some background, the CLOC is an organization made up of member organizations across Latin America, which represents small-scale farmers, campesinos (translated to English as “peasants”), indigenous folks and community members who live in rural territories. You can learn more at https://cloc-viacampesina.net/ (in Spanish). For more information on La Via Campesina, you can visit https://viacampesina.org/en/ (in English)
My name is Samson Srok, I’m a farmworker and a farm manager apprentice for a diversified veggie farm in Madison, Wisconsin. I see agriculture as an inherently political act and food sovereignty as the liberation tool. I was first exposed to LVC through FFD almost a decade ago and have been involved for two years. I learned my Spanish living in rural Ecuador for about nine months over a decade ago, living with campesinos.
I came to the Congress with open ears and an eager energy – ready to listen, bring back inspiration, to boster our struggles by learning from our comrades’ successes. To be quite frank, what a part of me was really craving were answers. Clear next steps. There must be some PowerPoint slides which detail, “this is what you do.” Unfortunately, this specific presentation was not held at the congress this year, or if it was I apologize as I must have slipped out for that portion.
When I am working in the field on a hot summer day, as well as when I’m in a room trying to make communal decisions with other passionate folks, I am reminded: doing the real work is hard, but with commitment and good strategy, it is possible.
First, to highlight the structure of the gathering itself. To bring together many individuals all active in their own territories to connect to one another and contemplate the global structural pieces which bind us is profound. Logistically, it’s also very cumbersome, and lacks a standard methodology to follow. Internationalism or true multiculturalism in a non-capitalist/non-imperialist context is uncharted waters for all of us.
A movement which has the power to transform oppressive systems must center the voices of those most oppressed. These are the identities to be placed in leadership roles. To build such a strong foundation is also the most difficult, those most marginalized are systematically disempowered, face the strongest tangible barriers to being in activism, and will be subject to criticism from both their oppressors as well as allies that haven’t unlearned sexist, racist, colonialist views. Creating a radical movement led by campesinos requires a slow pace. The drum beat of progress must allow us all to tune in to each other, and there’s a lot of us.
I was one of many individuals actively in formación, a Spanish word meaning training or formation, learning hands-on by making connections, asking questions and sharing context. The identities of those present spanned generations. Some grew up in rural communities, others in cities, from Patagonia up to Canada. How do so many different people begin to organize themselves to discuss systematic change together?
At the gathering, the structures elected to organize ourselves were primarily identity-based assemblies and issue-specific roundtables. The first four days of the gathering were these assemblies – the Assembly of Diversities (referring to gender and sexuality), the Assembly of Young People, and the Assembly of Women (two days).
Prioritizing these identities in the construction of a food sovereignty movement, ideally, roots feminism as a core foundation to the work and offers strong invitations to young people and queer people to join the movement.
An essential question that was asked loudly and visibly during the congress was why aren’t there assemblies for other oppressed identities whose perspectives are foundational to the movement – specifically for afro-descendent populations and indigenous people. If we recognize the utility of making intentional spaces for specific identities, why would this stop at just women, youth, and gender & sexuality diversity? More assemblies also mean more logistics to navigate and more work for regional coordinators – although what knowledge might we lose, what folks will we not draw in if we are not intentional about inviting them? I believe the CLOC’s further exploration of the question of additional assemblies will bring new insight into the purpose of these assemblies, and a deeper understanding of intersectionality in theory and practice.
This was the first ever assembly of diversities, thanks to many years of discussion, informal meetings, and petitioning of the CLOC leadership. As a queer and trans person myself, who was expecting to hear stories of intolerance and discrimination, I was still shocked to hear the violent transphobic and homophobic attacks that my kin experience in parts of Latin America still. Being attacked, killed, or forcibly displaced from my home for being queer are experiences I never expect to face in the United States, but this violence is still happening across our globe. It is radical for an organization which represents rural communities to uplift LGBTQIA+ voices. Similar to how feminist theory makes our entire movement stronger by having us question dominant structures, queer liberation theory can provide us similar tools.
The coalition who coordinated the diversities assemblies led with strong direction. Their declaration presented at the end of the gathering offered concrete action steps for bolstering the diversities collective, a strong beginning for what I hope will be an influential collective in the movement.
In the youth assembly, an overarching tone of our discussions was a pervasive sense of hopelessness felt in our communities.
At one point, a Haitian comrade sang a song about the feeling of futility in struggle,
this song coming from the same tradition of slave songs in the US south. The tone and repetition from the singer did not command us to shrivel in despair, but rather to experience catharsis. The melody providing a safe place to feel the depth of the pain and the space to process it into motivation for how we will fight against.
The night after the youth assembly, I had dinner with a Colombian comrade who had been displaced from her family’s land. Paramilitaries that had turned into armed gangs were violently changing the territory she had lived in for generations. But as this violence continued, the community didn’t just stand by to watch, instead forming local resistance. She spoke of how in the face of forced evictions, the whole community, hundreds of people, will come together to occupy the land and show a united front against their aggressors. This has allowed more community members to keep their land, and allowed all involved to feel some hope.
Over time in Colombia, many communities who understand their unity as their strength have banded together, creating el Congreso de los Pueblos, a national solidarity organization to protect land rights and provide a voice for neighbors that individually could not make a strong difference. In one region of the country, this organization sponsored a local legislator, who won the election and has been able to create and change laws to serve the people. This is systems change from grassroots organizations.
This perhaps is the other side of the hopelessness – the phenomenon that with more repression comes more resistance. Many stories I heard from delegates were tales of communities uniting and coalition offering ways forward to protect rights, gain ground, survive, and change tides. This is a crucial ethos we must cultivate in the United States in the face of rising fascism. Furthermore, the energy and imagination of young people is essential for such unity to rise up.
During the women’s assembly, a separate space was designated for the men to discuss masculinity in the context of a feminist movement. There is a connection between how feminism is presented in the mainstream with a disillusionment from men as they attempt to understand their role in a more equal world. I see us in an acute moment of needing to have more discussion with men to transform feelings of being pushed out and no longer useful into understanding that a world with more gender equality is liberating to every one of us.
As the four days of assemblies came to an end, we moved locations from Mexico City to Morelos and welcomed in hundreds more campesinos, small scale farmers, and citizens in the struggle for the four days of the congress. The topics that had caught my attention in the assemblies were further fleshed out in the congress, and the two I’d like to share on are migration and of the importance of growing political and class consciousness in our communities.
Migration was discussed at every day of the gathering, formally and informally. It is a direct consequence of the empire’s structure. Manufacturing global inequality to grow wealth in the Western World results in the reality that one is economically better off living in the Western world. The legacy of colonialism and US military and political invention to sabotage attempts at sovereignty has created the foundations for the corruption that plagues many of the Latin American countries present at the gathering, with campesinos and traditional ways of living being the most affected.
These things, I knew. However, to hear folks from across the continent speak on how this migration has personally touched them brought a new depth to my understanding. A man my age from the Dominican Republic shared that 70% of his peers have migrated from his community. To imagine even just seven of my ten closest friends seeing no option for their future other than to leave the United States, separate from family, and opt to enter a world of informal employment without legal status, put their life in danger with no assurance that they could someday return is harrowing.
The vast majority of the people I spoke with had stories of friends and children, especially, who had migrated. The reality of a separated family means missing the birth of children, the death of grandparents, being unable to celebrate or grieve together. An entire generation born outside of their homeland, wishing but unable to connect to their culture. An economic order which compels families to be torn apart is violent. And of course, the forced turn to individualism is exactly what the capitalist system wants.
The banking industry directly benefits from the money sent home in remittances, receiving a cut. Migration, a horror for the family and a draining of the future of rural communities, is a boon for the financial sector.
A newer layer to this issue is how the Trump administration employs the racist rhetoric to make migrants a scapegoat and distract from his ineffective governance. Vilifying the migrant population provides excuses to increase police and military presence in our communities to normalize their presence, increase their scope, insight fear, and discourage organizing. All these pieces serve to strengthen the rise of facism in our country.
I gained great insight into the phenomenon of migration as I learned how the many gears of the apparatus turn together to oppress communities at all levels. We need to popularize education about the systemic nature and scope of the violence of migration. International solidarity can empower US citizens to understand what is actually happening and encourages mobilization.
Growing political and class consciousness is a basis to stoke a mass movement. In Via, the Spanish word that synthesis this type of learning is called “formación” (translates as formation, training). The way that attending the congress enhanced my personal understanding of migration is an example of this. Hearing personal narratives and connecting these with the historical context and data I already knew motivates me in my activism. Formación is critical for our movement – learning how the mechanisms of the system works is the first step to changing those mechanisms.
The importance of formación and the struggles to facilitate it were repeated throughout the gathering. The difficulty of having individuals travel for a workshop, or lack of funds and resources to bring teachers to the community, the habit of having the same people attend the same events, a lack of strategy for outreach, the lack of experts in our communities to teach what we need to learn. Capitalism creates additional barriers that make attending popular education more difficult – you can’t join a weeknight class to learn about abolition if you have to work 50 hours a week just to make rent and feed your kids.
I hope to be involved with the committee for formación in the North American region of LVC. If you feel passionate about this, especially if you have experience to share and a want to help us form effective methodology, I implore you to join our region. While the result is communal, the effort comes from each individual willing to give their time and energy.
There is much more I have to share about what I learned at this gathering. I’ve only written about two of the seven issues selected for roundtable discussions during the conference, and there’s other connections and conversations I had outside of the formal gathering that were impactful to me. I will continue to write about these reflections as the year goes along. Make sure to sign up for our e-newsletter (link on our website) and follow our Facebook page if you’re interested in hearing more.
With this, I strongly encourage more individuals to join us. The North American region of La Via Campesina is still in the beginning stages of reconstruction, and our journey toward liberation, solidarity, and food sovereignty needs your talents. There are coming opportunities for farmer exchanges, learning in other parts of the world, and joining our official delegation. The best ways to get involved are to email familyfarmdefenders@yahoo.com to join our monthly international solidarity calls. You can also contact me personally at samsrok@gmail.com if you want to learn more.
