FMST and Agricultural Missions
September 9, 2002

Salete and local hosts will be meeting with interested folks in North Carolina and New York City.

Salete will be in Chapel Hill, NC from Sept 10-12. On September 14th at noon, local Friends of the MST will be meeting with Salete in New York City. Please contact Dawn for more information at 415.255.0795 or dawn@mstbrazil.org.

*Education for Rural Justice Tour (September 18- October 11, 2002)

"Grassroots Globalization of Solidarity for Local Sufficiency Event: Toward a sustainable, local agricultural economy and practices"

Together, we will look at the common ground between struggles in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the U.S. in the context of corporate-led globalization.

Coordinated by Agricultural Missions Staff, Stephen Bartlett, with representatives of: - Landless Farmers Movement of Brazil (MST) - Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) the Rural Peoples of Mexico - Rural and Urban U.S. Communities

A Participatory Event with Some Small Group Interaction. Presenters include:

Salete Carollo. Veteran activist and organizer of the Movimento Sem Terra (MST), she will be speaking about the achievements and on-going challenges faced by one of the foremost social movements in Latin America, 1.5 million strong. In a country with one of the most unequal land distributions in the world, 300,000 families belonging to the MST have struggled for and won access to productive land to feed and house themselves, while nearly 100,000 organize and wait in camps for the opportunity to do the same. Bringing the rural struggle to the cities and to the international globalization debate, the MST analysis and practice both inspire and instruct.

Estuardo Remache. President of ECUARUNARI, a Kichua indigenous movement in Ecuador, Estuardo represents an organization involved in an historic process of confrontation (through massive civil disobedience) of unjust economic policies imposed by the IMF, World Bank, WTO and the related US-led militarization of the region. Working in broad coalitions that include most sectors of society, the indigenous movement in Ecuador in 2000 succeeded in ousting a corrupt president and in 2001 in forcing the successor government to cancel structural adjustments which would have cut back public support for basic human needs. Based in the indigenous "Ecosmovision" and community organizations, Ecuarunari is now in the process of planning actions to respond to the next meeting of the Ministers of Finance of all the nations of the Hemisphere planned for late October. A humble man with a dynamic message.

Antonio Valenzuela.(to be confirmed) A Yaqui indigenous activist from Chihuahua State, Mexico and member of Mexico's National Indigenous Congress(CNI), Tony will address the relationship of 7 years under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to rural and small business impoverishment and migration, and discuss the Mexican people's struggle against a concrete manifestation of the globalization agenda in Mexico: the infamous Plan Puebla-Panama.

Co-Sponsors Include (so far): Agricultural Missions, Inc., The Rural Coalition, Grassroots International, Hunger Program/ Presbyterian Church USA, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Women, Food and Agriculture Network, Community Farm Alliance (Kentucky), Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce on Latin America and the Caribbean, Friends of the MST, Virginia Organizing Project, Church World Service, Economic Justice Office/Women's Division/United Methodist Church.

For more information, contact Latin America Liaison for Agricultural Missions Stephen (Esteban) Bartlett: (502) 894-9308 or (212) 870-2553, stephen@ncccusa.org Sustainable Agriculture Tour:

Tentative Schedule

Sept 16-17: Arrival of delegates in New York. Car rental at airport.

Sept 18-19 a.m., New York City area meetings, National Council of Churhes, Church World Service, University of the Poor

Sept 19 p.m.-Sept 22 a.m.: Upstate New York, Boston (United Church of Christ churches), Vermont (Rural Vermont, ACERCA)

Sept 22 p.m.: Delegation flies to Louisville, KY

Sept 23-24: Lexington, Kentucky (Community Farm Alliance, Univ. of Kentucky event, with local churches, KITLAC event in Louisville on 24th, Univ of Louisville.

Sept 25-26: Antioch College, Kenyon College in Ohio

Sept 27: Normal, Illinois, Labor and Social justice event.

Sept 27-28: Wisconsin events, in rural communities (3)

Sept 29 p.m.- Sept 30: Center for Theology and Land, Wartburg Seminary, in Dubuque,

Oct 1-2: Iowa, Women Food and Agriculture, National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), Iowa State Univ., farmers'

Oct 3-4: Missouri (Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Rural Church Network), Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, St. Louis

Oct 6: Highlander Center, Nashville, Tennessee and in (Knoxville, TN) (TIRN)

Oct 7-9: Virginia (Virginia Organizing Project)

October 10-11: Departure from U.S. Possible meeting with EPICA in D.C.