This is a CTP of initiative: La Via Campesina/ANAMURI (Chile)
This CTP refers to the realization of the first national congress of ANAMURI, eight years after its creation. The referents of the organization remark that this decision was taken to generate a space to reflect collectively on how to face the new challenges that the organization had to assume.
The First Congress of ANAMURI was developed during a year of work with regional congresses throughout the country where the central problems faced by the peasant women of Chile and future challenges were defined. The final event, held in March 2007, brought together about 2000 peasants women from all over the country who participated in different activities such as discussion tables and workshops.
So in the last stage developed in Santiago, they discussed key issues for the national debate. These are: the importance of Peasant and Indigenous Agriculture; Food Sovereignty; Labor rights in the forest and agropecuarian sector; Neoliberalism and Free Trade Agreements; Problems and Opportunities of Peasant and Indigenous Youth; Gender Discrimination and strengthening of Sexual and Reproductive Rights; Organization Structure and Policies of the Organization. The concretion of this national congress was a great achievement for the leaders of ANAMURI. In particular, because it was an idea that they had been working on for many years (since 2002), but it had not been possible. The main referents of ANAMURI stated that it could not be done before because the organization was not yet mature to advance in this challenge.
In addition, this Congress was very important because it allowed to give a great visibility to the Association and the activities that it develops. But specially, the congress made visible the problems and struggles of the indigenous peasant movement in Chile. During the Congress, rural women voted for their proposals to be presented to government members for consideration, and with this act, they were building "our strategic and programmatic lines that will guide our organization in the coming years". It was the first time that they got all the demands together.
ANAMURI's first national congress was the product of a long process of consolidation of the organization. In that process, the development of some activities among which was undoubtedly highlighted the participation of ANAMURI in the International Seed Campaign promoted since 2003.
That was directly linked to ANAMURI's participation in international networks such as the Latin American Coordinator of Rural Organizations (CLOC, in its spanish initials) and Via Campesina. Being part of these networks allowed the leaders of the organization to participate in different conferences and international meetings that served as inspiration.
On the other hand, ANAMURI members identify a process of co-production that articulated the advance of commercial agriculture based on the use of transgenics and the consolidation of peasant, indigenous and environmentalist movements. The gender issue had a central influence in that process that coincided with the election, for the first time in the history of Chile, of a woman as president of the country.
The international relations developed since its creation in 1998, allowed ANAMURI to obtain financial support to carry out the congress and its complementary activities. The Catalonian Government provided financial resources for the Congress to have the international support for CLOC-Vía Campesina's participation in the congress. In the congress there were also specific workshops that were facilitated by technicians from other institutions such as the School of Arts and Crafts conducted by the local NGO CET Sur, the Seminar on Health and Sexual and Reproductive Rights, held in conjunction with the organizations they represent The organized women movement and the Seminar to know the public policies of the Ministry of Agriculture, for the small farmers with the authorities of the Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP, in its spanish initials).
The first National Congress of ANAMURI was the result of a long work carried out by the organization since its creation in 1998. Since its inception, ANAMURI was an active part of the international network Vía Campesina, which among its main activities holds international conferences in different countries of the world. ANAMURI members had participated in the last two conferences held in Bangalore (2000) and Sao Paulo (2004) and had perceived the potential of these events to make the peasant organizations and their claims visible.
It is for this reason that in the annual Assembly of the year 2002 it was proposed to realize the congress. However, the proposal had to wait since it was considered that the organization was not mature enough.
The relevance of ANAMURI at national level was growing from different actions and campaigns developed in those years. Above all, participation in the International Seed Campaign promoted by Vía Campesina since 2003. This campaign allowed ANAMURI to achieve public notoriety at national level and establish different contacts with other organizations and NGOs.
Another fact related to the realization of the first congress was the election as president of Chile of Michelle Bachelet. This fact was relevant because for the first time in the history of the country, a woman acceded to the position of president. In this way, gender issues gained influence in public opinion benefiting ANAMURI as a women's organization. Finally, the national Congress held in Santiago de Chile in March 2007 was preceded by many local and regional congresses held throughout 2006. These activities were the prelude to what finally happened at the 2007 Congress.
The organization of the first ANAMURI congress represented a huge challenge for the association, because gathering 2000 peasant women from throughout the country was a very ambitious task. For the organizers it was essential to achieve this to reach real visibility of the movement to give legitimacy to the proposals that arose. One of the central objectives of the congress was to collect the various proposals made by rural women in local, communal and regional congresses for the preparation of a political proposal and a five-year action plan.
The congress allowed to compile a significant number of problems and claims that challenge the state and the dominant socio-economic system:
"We do not have access to the land we need, because land is increasingly concentrated in the agribusiness, even transnational corporations. We have less and less access to water, because water is totally privatized, even the water that flows through our territories. We are being forced to register our wells, opening up the possibility that we limit even drinking water."
"Today, they want us to work for the productive chain. That is, we produce under contract as a cheap raw material, so that the transnational agribusiness export. Contract agriculture has never been beneficial to the small or medium-sized farmer, but today we are being forced to accept it. Agricultural policies are increasingly being designed by businessmen, who sit on all advisory committees of state institutions."
The ANAMURI referents recognize that the methodology used in the Congress allowed to generate a gradual process of reflection from the local to the regional. Particularly noteworthy is the fact of having started with a work from the smaller towns, to reach the organizations of the communes, and to continue advancing at the interprovincial level and finally to conclude in the regional space. In all cases, the diagnosis emerged, allowing progress to be made from the analysis of local and particular problems, to the more general and global ones.
"We evaluated positively, the achievement obtained through a slow process and not exempt of problems, the strengthening of organizations with little trajectory. In other cases, the need to create new organizations was generated, as well as to recreate and strengthen existing organizations. In general, it was possible to forget the personal problems to identify those of a more collective and priority nature in the regions. This capacity demonstrates a significant maturity of the regional leaders of ANAMURI.”
The possibility of meeting with women from other organizations and from other provinces greatly enriched the process, especially as they realized the existence of common problems, which should be addressed in a coordinated manner, which makes it very important to maintain support networks, both for the handover Of information as well as for the articulation of provincial, regional and national strategies of action.
Based on the work carried out, it is considered necessary to prepare and empower peasant women to participate in instances of dialogue with authorities or local and regional negotiation bodies, to achieve a more global vision of social processes and problem solving. In productive terms, Congress allowed the collective evaluation of the limitations of state technical assistance programs:
"The technical assistance we receive is usually inadequate. Many of our families have borrowed money that has been very difficult to pay off, and even lost their land by direct effect, to embark on poorly thought out and ill-founded productive ventures. They say that we must leave the food production, that we must produce biofuels. That is, crops that will become fuel for cars. That will only mean more monocultures, more pollution, less food "
For the referents of the organization, the greatest learning that promoted the congress was the revaluation of their own capacities of peasant women:
"We also know that we are immensely capable. Especially rural, peasant and indigenous women, we still feed an important part of humanity, we are the ones who maintain knowledge, cultures, seeds and medicine. We are able to give and take care of life, to maintain solidarity, to build hope. Above all, we are able to fight and keep fighting. While capitalism destroys or attempts to destroy, we continue to build "
The national congress of ANAMURI was a long anticipated activity. The peasant organization was interested in develop an event of this characteristics since 2002. On the other hand, the international conferences of Via Campesina had served as a background and model of what was intended to be done in the Chilean case.
In relation to the concrete results of the congress, the experience of the local and regional congresses made it possible to anticipate the predominant problems and the level of commitment that the participants had shown. Also, the great capacity demonstrated by ANAMURI to carry out the organization of the event and the great call obtained had already been demonstrated during the international seed campaign.
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