English As landworkers, we cherish the diversity and richness of the world we live in. Every living thing brings something beautiful to the ecosystem, each bringing a distinctive ingredient that lets it thrive. A woodland is made up of much more than just trees – from the birds flitting from forest floor to canopy, to worms working their way through the soil and the underground mycelial networks spanning the whole forest with their fragile threads. We see this in our human communities as well – old and young, different heritages and histories, neurodiversities, skills and tendencies – how our differences come together to make something bigger and richer than any one of us alone.
And as we fight to safeguard the beautiful diversity of our ecosystems – local and global – we fight to defend the diversity of our human communities. In both our ecological and human communities, that diversity is the foundation of our strength and resilience – to our survival. Because of this, we stand proudly and firmly with trans people, recognising that the struggle of trans people for life, dignity and justice is our collective struggle to build the kind of world that we want to live in. As the Landworkers’ Alliance we strive to take a stand against all forms of oppression, and from this principle it follows that we stand up for the right of trans people to live in a world free from the violence, hatred, exclusion and bigotry that are currently commonplace. We particularly reject the transphobia targeting trans women that seeks to contaminate the communities and movements that are dedicated to fighting oppression.
To all landworkers who are trans, nonbinary and LGBTQIA+, we warmly welcome you as part of Landworkers’ Alliance community. We celebrate and value the presence of trans landworkers within the LWA, and strive to nurture allyship and solidarity among our cis-gendered members.
We also recognise that working for trans liberation is connected to fighting against all forms of oppression and domination – white supremacy, homophobia, sexism, colonialism, ableism, ageism. We are also on a journey with building this understanding- we have a lot of learning to do and we don’t always get it right. We strive to learn from our mistakes and not let the fear of getting things wrong prevent us from taking action.
LWA is a complex ecosystem in itself, and there is strength and beauty in the breadth and richness of our membership. We know that this statement doesn’t necessarily represent every single one of our members, and we are committed to having these conversations across our membership, to listening and building common ground, to respecting each other as fellow walkers on a path towards food sovereignty, even when we don’t see eye to eye on everything.
As we walk this path we will seek to centre the voices of those who are most impacted by the systems we are trying to dismantle, who have cultivated community, resistance and survival in its harsh, rocky soils. Within LWA, we will support our working group for LGBTQIA+ LWA members to create spaces, actions and analysis that centres the experiences and perspectives of queer and trans landworkers. Part of this work is the Cultivating Justice project, a partnership between the LGBTQIA+ working group, LION (Land in Our Names) and Farmerama podcast which will spotlight the stories of those most often marginalised and excluded from access to land and fair, dignified landwork.
So let’s return to that forest at the edge of a lovingly planted field of crops. Smell the ripening fruit, dig your toes into the soft moss of the forest floor, listen to the countless creatures that pollinate the blossoms and turn the remains of plants and animals into the rich soil that feeds us. Know that the world around us is teeming with life, and in its beauty, none of it fits into the rigid and lifeless categories that strangle the will to create, to explore, to survive. It’s from this forest that we send this statement, a love letter to all those who, both now and in times past, trespass against the borders erected around private property, class, gender, the right to call a place home and the ways that we love and move through the good earth that is our home.
Out On The Land (OOTL), is the newly renamed LGBTQIA+ organising group of the LWA. We come together build solidarity and raise the voices of queer and trans landworkers. We are an unabashedly trans-positive group and celebrate all the beautiful ways in which we can be Out On The Land! If you’d like to get involved with OOTL, email lgbtqia@landworkersalliance.
To learn more about trans landworkers we recommend these two resources:
https://www.eurovia.org/wp-
righttofoodandnutrition.org/
