Farmers and citizens united in protest organise a mobilisation for the fundamental human rights of all of us on 2 March 2024 in Piazza dei Santi Apostoli in Rome.
The right to healthy food and a decent income, to freedom of association and demonstration, to peace and assistance. Against a repressive policy that favours the oligarchies and their extra-profits.
1) Farmers and citizens united, a protest for dignity
Farmers and breeders who have been occupying the streets and squares of Italy with tractors for 40 days are fighting for the survival of family and farm businesses that continue to close, squeezed between skyrocketing production costs and selling prices that are not enough to cover them.
Customers are victims of the same speculation, orchestrated by Coldiretti together with the members of its Filiera Italia including Conad, Italy’s largest organised large-scale distribution (GDO) group, and Carrefour. (1) And so:
– oranges paid to farmers €0,20/kg are made to citizens pay 10 times as much
– large-scale retail trade chooses fruit and vegetables based solely on price. North Africa and Spain at the top
– citizens suffer ‘inflation speculation’ and are also deprived of choice (2,3).
2) Peace and rights
The population in Italy and Europe it has paid and continues to pay an unbearable cost for a war that could and must be resolved through diplomatic channels as soon as possible. (4) The boomerang effect of the sanctions on Russia and the sabotage of the North Stream caused the most serious socio-economic crisis ever experienced since the Second World War.
Public spending earmarked for sustainable agriculture, schooling and healthcare, employment and social welfare is being diverted entirely to the arms production imposed on Europe by Washington, London and Berlin. (5) But ‘the war that will come is not the first. There have been other wars before.
At the end of the last one there were winners and losers.
Among the vanquished the poor people were starving.
Among the victors, the poor people were equally hungry. (Bertolt Brecht).
3) Freedom of association and demonstration
In Brussels at the moment, the police are smothering with tear gas the protest of French and Belgian farmers who are fighting for the dignity of the #fairprice, the ban on #belowcost sales, direct aid for the ecological transition (6,7,8). So also in Spain, Poland, Greece.
Coldiretti claims to be on the side of Italian farmers, who are instead protesting against its ‘boss of bosses’ Vincenzo Gesmundo and its president Ettore Prandini, who have sold out family and peasant agriculture to finance for their own millionaire personal gain (9,10).
In Rome the #AgricoltoriUniti claim freedom of association and the cancellation of a decree that would like to bind them to the Coldiretti noose in order to receive the EU aid to which they are entitled. (11) Citizens at their side claim the right to fair wages, healthy food from short supply chains, peace and prosperity instead of war that starves everyone.
Everyone in Rome!
Saturday March 2 2024 at 12 in Rome in Piazza dei Santi Apostoli, next to Piazza Venezia, for a peaceful and vibrant protest! Fresh fruit for everyone, truncheons not welcome.
#CleanSpades, #Égalité!
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Dario Dongo. Unfair commercial practices, double-discount supply chain agreement. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.3.21
(2) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Greedflation, the super profits of corporations and supermarkets in the UK with the excuse of inflation. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 17.3.23
(3) Marta Strinati. Italy is sad. Consumption and mood of Italians in the 2023 Coop Report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.9.23
(4) Dario Dongo. Peace in Europe, appeal to Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Petition. Égalité. 4.5.22
(5) Giuseppe Masala. Germany: because we are in year zero. The Antidiplomatico. 21.2.24 http://tinyurl.com/ycyzxxuc
(6) Dario Dongo. Sales below costs, farmers protest in France. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 21.1.24 https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/sottocosto-protesta-degli-agricoltori-in-francia/
(7) Dario Dongo. Confédération paysanne and LiberiAgricoltori, the reasons for the protest. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 29.1.24
(8) Dario Dongo. Farmers, the protest reaches Belgium. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 30.1.24
(9) Dario Dongo. Italy, farmers protest against Coldiretti. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 26.1.24
(10) See paragraph 8 (The golden caste) of Dario Dongo’s article. Farmers in protest, the viral deception of Coldiretti & Co. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.2.24
(11) Dario Dongo. CAA reform, new costs and bureaucracy for farmers. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 18.2.24
(12) Dario Dongo. Farmers’ protest, the reaction of the strong powers. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 13.2.24
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
