April 17 commemorates this day in 1996, when 19 members of the Brazilian MST (Landless Workers’ Movement) were killed, and dozens of others wounded by state military police whilst exercising their democratic rights and freedoms. This is a day to remember their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of thousands and thousands of other peasant and small farmers worldwide, in theirs struggles for a more just and equal world.

Read the Via Campesina media statement: Press Release LVC 17 April 2012 – and see the hundreds of actions taking place around the world.