Dear friends of the MST
In the name of our commitment to the struggle against obscurantism and backwardness, two strong instruments of domination of the Brazilian elite, the MST has worked to ensure basic teaching for thousands of children, youth, and adults in rural areas in more than 1200 primary public schools and in dozens of secondary schools installed in our settlements. Besides this, in the name of the same struggle, the MST saw the need for a National School for activists from the popular movements, a project that culminated in the January 2005 inauguration of the Florestan Fernandes National School in the municipality of Guararema, in São Paulo state.
The main goal of our National School is to be a space for training in the most diverse areas of knowledge not only for MST activists but also for the activists of other rural and urban social movements, from Brazil and other countries in Latin America.
In the first year of activities, we held various courses at a superior level in the areas of Political Philosophy, Theory of Knowledge, Rural Sociology, Political Economy of Agriculture, Social History of Brazil, International Situation, Administration and Social Administration and Management (in partnership with the Faculty of Santo André), a course in specialization in Rural Education (in partnership with the University of Brasilia) and a course in Latin-American studies (in partnership with the Federal University of Juiz de Fora).
We have other partnerships for courses that are being administered at the universities themselves throughout Brazil. Besides this, the School offered numerous seminars, talks, and conferences held by professors from various universities and Brazilian faculties and by renowned intellectuals from other countries. To participate in these activities, the School received around 1500 students, activists from various social movements. The School also holds support activities for the community of the district of Paratei, where it is located, emphasizing in particular courses in computers and access to the Internet, offered to the poor youth of the area.
For a teaching philosophy, based on the need to preserve its subordination to the interests and decisions of the movements that are organizing the various courses, especially the MST, the School tries to preserve the maximum autonomy in relation to public and private institutions. For this reason, its activities are maintained thanks to the financial contribution of the movements that send students or the students themselves or thanks to the agreements with the universities or other teaching institutions. The great majority of the courses count on the voluntary unpaid donation of its teachers. As for the students, they take on all the tasks and internal service of the school such as cleaning, kitchen help, gardening, etc. In other words, the School is also a school of permanent solidarity involving the community that lives in it.
However, our permanent costs are high, which is the reason we depend on the solidarity of our friends. But the contribution to the projects with solidarity groups is not sufficient and we need your support. In general, our courses each function in stages of 3 to 4 weeks length. At the end of each stage, the students return to their places of origin, throughout the country, in a system of alternating theory and practice. At each stage, for train tickets alone, we pay an average of $R400 per student and about $R30 a day for food, lodging, and teaching material.
When we founded our School, we assumed that we could not continue hoping, generation after generation, that such a necessary change of policy of allocating public funds would finally come to change and improve, objectively and really, the living conditions for the great majority of our people. Of course for this majority to assume active and competent control of their own history, demanding that indispensable social changes be carried out, they need to appropriate the knowledge that is denied in the name of preservation and perpetuation of this unequal social order. That was what led us to take on the task of opening access to this knowledge to those who were excluded from it. It is such a giant task because of the misery in the Brazilian countryside. A task that demands all our courage and dedication of our dreams and ideals for justice and solidarity.
In the name of these dreams and ideals, we decided to ask for the solidarity of your help so that we can continue to teach these poor students – urban and rural workers – and their children.
Solidarity is the most beautiful human quality.
São Paulo, May 2006
Adelar Pizetta (General Coordinator of National School)
AlÃpio Freire (Friends of the School Committee)
Heloisa Fernandes (Group of volunteer teachers)
If you wish to contribute to the Florestan Fernandes National School, make your donation to the Friends of the MST online at www.mstbrazil.org and mark it for the school.
Brief news items
People’s Court put Aracruz on trial for environmental crimes
Aracruz Cellulose, a foreign-funded company for the monoculture of cellulose, was put on trial in the People’s Court of European Transnationals. Witnesses included an indigenous Guarani and a woman farmer from the MST. The event was held from May 10 – 13 as part of the second session of the Forum for Alternatives in Vienna, Austria. Aracruz was accused as the company responsible for the creation of the “green desert� of eucalyptus and pines and for its irregular performance in the country, including lack of respect for environmental laws and the toxic effects on biodiversity and water resources in the regions where it plants. The corporation is also responsible for the destruction of a good part of the Atlantic Forest, where 220 thousand hectares were used to plant eucalyptus, creating the “green desert�.
Sign the statement in support of the women of La Via Campesina
The women from La Via Campesina are being persecuted following the occupation of an area belonging to Aracruz Cellulose in Rio Grande do Sul. The goal of the mobilization was to denounce the social and environmental consequences of the “green desert� created by the monoculture of eucalyptus. The Barba Negra Ranch holds the main production unit for Aracruz saplings of eucalyptus and pines and includes a laboratory for the cloning of saplings. To sign the manifesto to be sent to the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, go to http://www.mst.org.br/interar/mural/mulheresmanifesto.htm
[11/03/06]
Dear Friends of the MST,
Now that the election has passed, the votes counted, and the winners and losers are known, the moment arrives to sum it up and to look ahead. Even more than counting the number of progressive congressmen and governors elected, we need to make an effort to analyze how we did and sum up the wins and challenges for the coming period.
For some time now, we have been noticing that the left was going to participate in these elections in a divided and fragmented way. There are many causes for this and certainly our understanding will be deepened and discussed in the coming months. Nevertheless two points deserve to be highlighted. The disappointment with the Lula government, which was incapable of breaking with the neoliberal policy carried out by previous governments; and the way in which some sectors of the left copied the bourgeois style of politics, which resulted in a series of accusations of cases of corruption and of electoral practices.
Faced with this scenario, the big question was how to position ourselves and what to get out of the electoral process. For us in the MST, we made the decision that by the end of this period we had to maintain our political unity and our autonomy relative to the political parties and to the governments.
The first round
The election campaign was completely de-politicized. There were no discussions of political projects and the parties of the left showed that they do not have any organizing, ideological, or political strategies. The Lula government, believing that it would win in the first round, prioritized publicity around its welfare policies and the establishment of a broad range of party alliances from the left to the right. As a result, social activism was not called on and the popular movements felt themselves shoved to the sides in the electoral campaign.
For some time now, various sectors of the left and of the social movements have analyzed that the democracy of the bourgeois state, which restricts popular participation only to the electoral periods, has been exhausted. For these political forces that do not disrespect the electoral process, the priority is to increase the levels of organization and consciousness of the population and promote the social struggle. These elements are essential for changing the correlation of forces with the bourgeoisie, promoting changes, and creating concrete mechanisms for direct popular participation in the legislative decisions and in the executive. For this reason, they indicate that political reform cannot restrict itself only to periodic changes but rather seek as a main goal to ensure that the people exercise power.
The strategy of the re-election of the Lula government, demonstrated by its campaign coordination, excluded discussion about strategic projects for the country and the defense of its class interests. This fact, added to the case of the attempt to buy the dossier, helped distance the activists and the popular forces that wanted to politicize the campaign. On the other hand, the right, without any scruples, used all its strength in the mass media to rally around the candidacy of Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB). In this way, they succeeded in taking the election to the second round and energizing the various right-wing candidates in the states.
The second round
In the second round, along with other social movements meeting in the Coordination of Social Movements (CMS) and in La Via Campesina Brazil, we evaluated that it was possible at the time to promote a real discussion of ideas, of political projects and of the class struggle. It was necessary to prevent the political forces gathered around the Alckmin campaign from winning this election. We did not share the idea that the two candidates were equal.
There were divergent class interests around each candidate. At a minimum, the victory of Lula would symbolically represent the victory of the working class, the maintenance of alliances in Latin America with progressive governments and respect for the social movements. This new positioning in the electoral process caused us to engage in the campaign for the re-election of Lula. This did not mean ignoring the errors and the weaknesses of the first round. Among them, the lack of a clear project to face the people’s structural problems by carrying out Agrarian Reform.
Besides seeking the politicization of the presidential election and showing that, independent of Lula’s government, we were in a class struggle, we evaluated that the second round of the elections could serve to make possible the participation of the people’s movements, seeking greater unity around the idea of building a popular project for the country. It’s undeniable that the decision was correct and victorious. The majority of the social movements took part in the discussions and in the campaign. But all this without illusions and with the ever-greater conviction that the transformations come from the actions of the people themselves. From there, the need for the people’s movements to have autonomy, theoretical elaboration, and capacity for mobilization.
The new term in office
With the Lula government assured of one more term, it’s time to demand political changes that serve the interests of the people. The President, in his first speeches after his re-election, highlighted the need to promote economic development associated with measures of distribution of wealth and income.
This statement cannot be limited to the enthusiasm of a person who electorally defeated the bourgeoisie. It’s necessary for it to be transformed into concrete actions. This requires a break with neoliberal political economy and above all a confrontation with the powerful interests of those who monopolize the rural and urban lands, communications, and the financial system.
It is also necessary for us to fight for the solidarity-based integration of the Latin-American countries to be strengthened, in a way which confronts U.S. imperialism and is counterpoised to the colonizing mentality of the Brazilian elite. Thus, we must charge even more the re-elected government to immediately withdraw the Brazilian military from Haiti and implement a policy of solidarity with the people of that country.
Political reform is necessary, but it needs to serve the interests of the people and not that of the politicians. It needs to create new mechanisms of participation, to implement assemblies and councils, participatory budgeting, plebiscites and popular referendums.
These are challenges that fall to the re-elected government. But they are also challenges to the social forces that want to build a country based on democracy, social justice, sovereignty, and in defense of the environment.
We in the MST and other social movements continue with our role of contributing to raise the consciousness and organization of the Brazilian people. To activate the social struggles and build new uniting forces around a new project for the country – this is the work that we have ahead of us!
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
[11/28/06]
Dear Friends of the MST,
Education is a basic right for everyone, not the privilege of a few. Since 1989, it is with this conviction that the MST has fought for land reform that includes the issue of free and quality public education for rural people and in rural areas. So far, the landless movement has achieved approximately 3,000 public schools in the encampments and settlements countrywide, opening the door to quality education for 200,000 children and teenagers.
For the MST, Education in the countryside is a process of humanization and a way to achieve dignity. Rural schools should not be ignored or marginalized as often occurs in much of the country. The education must be innovative, encouraging rural workers to appropriate their own history, turning them into people with the conscience and capacity to transform their social reality. It is about an education of the people, not for the people who live in the countryside, combining study with work, culture with community, agricultural cooperation and solidarity with urban workers. In sum, an education that goes back to socialist values.
The MST has many examples that illustrate the priority that education receives in the fight for land reform, such as the Mobile School, that for ten years has operated exclusively for children in encampments. Since the beginning, the movement has developed a philosophy of educating landless children and youth on roadsides, on occupied plantations, and in MST encampments. In seven states, it is now the norm that when the movement occupies a new area, a school is the first community building to be set up. This way, the children and youth must never leave school, even under adverse conditions.
The need for Mobile Schools came up because children in the encampments found it impossible to get transportation to schools in nearby cities. Often the schools did not have space available for MST children. And even when they did have space, the concepts covered in conventional schools were distant from the reality of the countryside.
Currently, Mobile Schools operate in Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Goiás, Alagoas, Pernambuco (pending approval), and in Piauí (also pending approval). Nationally, there are 45 schools in operation with more than 350 educators from the movement serving more than 4,000 students. Ten thousand students have already passed through these Mobile Schools.
Another example is Youth and Adult Education, which works to teach literacy to the landless with curriculum that is related to the reality of life in the countryside. The program started as The Campaign for Youth, Adult, and Elderly Education in 1991. Within five years, the program spread to 18 states, allowing the formation of 600 classes serving 8,000 students. The project was continued in partnership with the Ministries of Education and with state universities. The “Literate Brazil? project has taught literacy skills to 5,500 landless people over the past three years. That initiative began in 2003 and works in 23 states. Previously, up until 2002, only 16,000 rural people were literate. Today more than 50,000 people have learned to read and write.
More than 1,800 educators have also been trained, which is a very valuable step forward. An educator is someone who works to facilitate human development, whether in the school setting, in the family, at the community level, or in the entire social movement. These educators are integrated into the MST. They live in the settlements and encampments, which facilitates the collective learning process as teachers and students share the same everyday lifestyle and living conditions.
The people of the countryside want to study, learn, and strengthen their cultural traditions. That is why they fight for schools and organize education conferences, such as the one that was held from November 26th to 30th in Cascavel, Paraná. Close to 3,000 educators participated in the conference, which was entitled ‘All of the Landless in School.?
We demand that the Brazilian government fulfill its responsibility and make it possible to build more schools in the countryside. The challenge is to overcome the gap in education, as is already being done in the encampments and settlements of the MST, communities free of illiteracy. When we break down the fence of a plantation, we break down a fence of ignorance and wealth and we build there a new, more fraternal, and more human future.
Warm Regards,
The National Secretariat of the MST.
News Briefs
Tupinikim and Guarani are still waiting for the signature of the Justice Minister
The indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani are still waiting for the decision from the Justice Minister, Márcio Thomas Bastos, about the designation of 18,070 hectares in Espirito Santo. On September 12, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) initiated two requests for the Justice Minister to issue the demarcation regulations, but nothing was decided. Meanwhile, the Aracruz Cellulose Company continues exploiting the area. To contribute to the indigenous cause and demand a speedy outcome for the process of demarcation, write to gabinetemj@mj.gov.br
Actions demand nationalization of gas and oil reserves
Actions carried out in São Paulo (SP), Santos (SP) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) demanded the nationalization of Brazil’s reserves of gas and oil, against the Eighth Round of Bidding, which happened during the week of November 27. Petrobrás, which has the reserves, has 49.5% of its stock in the hands of foreign investors. Brazilian reserves have been sold off every year by means of auctions promoted by the National Petroleum Agency since the fall of the state oil monopoly in 1997, when former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed Constitutional Amendment n° 9. The situation was regulated with the Petroleum Law 9.478, which created the auctions.
Dear Friends of the MST:
In order to win a lot of victories in the coming year, the MST is planning struggles and mobilizations. They are forms of organized social pressure where we want to have fewer fast food restaurants on every corner and more libraries and bookstores; access to land to produce healthy and cheap food, jobs and a decent income for all families, quality free education, access to information, the preservation of popular culture and strengthening of health. For this to happen, it will be necessary to discuss in all possible spaces the building of an anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist, popular, and national project. The new model can only be made viable starting with grass-roots discussions that will gather energy, forces, and consensus around the ideas. No doubt it will be necessary for the mass movement to be strengthened in order to alter the current correlation of adverse forces. The struggle of the MST and the life of those who participate in it are dedicated to seeing this dream become reality in Brazil.
The year that passed was hard for rural and urban workers and for Land Reform. Fortunately, throughout 2005 the MST received much support and solidarity from society for the struggle of 160,000 families who are in encampments, under black plastic tarps alongside the highways or next to unproductive latifúndios and for the 350,000 families in settlements.
The MST considers it important to let people know about its evaluation of the past year and the challenges for the coming year. Together with other social movements, we have consistently shown concern about the seriousness of the Brazilian. The picture is dramatic. The crisis is not limited to a problem of political parties. It touches intensely on ideological questions, reflected in the absence of projects, and plunges Brazil into the social abyss. Unfortunately there is no strategic, long-term thinking focused on resolving the true structural problems of the country, which postpones these questions to the future.
The results of the economic policy that was adopted, along with barbaric interest rates, show up in unemployment. Happiness is the requisite of a select club that brings together bankers and international speculators. According to Professor Eduardo Fagnani of the University of Campinas, the payment of three days of interest on the external and internal debt consumes a one-year budget for Land Reform. The costs of 20 days of interest equal what was invested over 10 years in popular housing and basic sanitation. The MST has made an effort to build unity around the social movements in the countryside and in the city to collectively forge a popular alternative for Brazil. The results were felt over this period: 1) the Coordination of Social Movements carried out various protests and activities about changing the economic model in the states, demonstrating the capacity of the movements to think beyond the specific guidelines of demands; 2) the National Forum for Land Reform was consolidated as a space for meeting, reflection, and coming together of all the movements and groups that continue struggling around the commitments that we took on in the “Letter from the Land‿ of 2004; 3) the National Popular Assembly, together with the Fourth Brazilian Social Week/CNBB, united thousands of Brazilian men and women in the struggle for concrete proposals for changes in the country.
For our movement, 2005 was also a year of learning. The challenge of placing 12,000 marchers in movement for 17 days – in an organized and serious form – made the National March for Land Reform an unforgettable fact. The sacrifice of the march was brightened, on the one hand by the support of friends of the MST and on the other hand, by the moments for study and political education along the 200 kilometers that separate Goiânia from Brasília.
But if the March taught us about organization and solidarity, the government once more disappointed us: it did not fulfill the seven commitments it made when the march arrived in Brasília.
The MST resents the fact that Land Reform is not seen as a mechanism for democratizing the land (in our country only 1% of the landowners hold 46% of the land) and for creating and distributing wealth and income. It is seen as a mere policy for social compensation in an economy that prioritizes the export of grain for the rich countries while the people do not have easy access to the products in the basic food basket. The simple approval of a decree that brings up to date the productivity indexes according to the measurements calculated by the IBGE would have been sufficient to advance the cause of Land Reform. However, this decision, which did not involve expenditures and is exclusively up to the Executive Power, was not made. The political will was lacking. Land Reform continues slowly, despite the government boasting about nonexistent numbers. Rio Grande do Sul had only 100 families settled in three years. In Maranhão, a state that shows the greatest concentration of land, not a single family was settled. Inertia serves as a stimulus for the latifúndio.
The Joint Congressional Inquiry on Land (CPMI da Terra) lost an historical opportunity to unmask the land structure in our country and propose coherent measures. It preferred to subordinate itself to the Democratic Ruralist Union and reverse the roles. For the congressional members of the CPMI, to concentrate lands in a country with social problems is not heinous. That term is used to describe the struggle against hunger and inequality. The commission wanted to transform the victims into promoters of the violence. It simply ignored the 38 dead in rural conflicts throughout the year, 16 of them in Pará. Symbolically, on the day to vote on the report, a landless worker was killed by gunmen in Alagoas. The attempt to criminalize the social movements came to life while workers were living under a regime of slavery on the large ranches.
The MST does not believe in miracles. Without putting hope aside, it knows that this is a time for struggle. The change will not come from offices and palaces, but from a people who are organized and mobilized. The Movement is certain that the new project for the country will be a fruit of popular participation in the democratization of the land, of the riches and of the means of communication. We seek forces for this duty in the lessons of Apolônio de Carvalho, who left us last year. A few weeks before dying, Apolônio told us, with his tireless motivation, “It’s not worth just looking at reality and protesting against it. We want a world that is not only better but a world that is younger, more full of creativity, of abnegation, peace, justice, broad and pure human relations. The ideal of a new society, in which injustices and cruelties are gradually corrected, projecting the ideal in a horizon of more equality, fraternity, and solidarity.‿ The MST believes in the construction of this new reality.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
News Briefs
11 rural workers die from exploitation
According to the National Report for the Human Right to Work, in the last two years, 11 cane cutters died from deficient labor conditions in the sugar cane fields of Ribeirão Preto (SP). For Cândida Costa, the conditions in which the workers were working are analogous to slavery, with inadequate food, 10 hour work days, and a workload of 10 to 12 tons per day.
Ministry of Agriculture confirms farming of GMO corn in Rio Grande do Sul
After confirming the illegal sale of seed for GMO corn in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), the Ministry of Agriculture now confirms the planting of these grains in the state. The first accusation of this that was confirmed in the state was made by Via Campesina in November of last year. With the fear of losing important markets such as Europe, 21 cold-storage plants in RS will test for GMO in the corn that they furnish to their integrated aviaries starting with the harvest that begins in mid-January. The businesses want to ensure that the product is free of GMOs.
2005 had more indigenous people killed
According to a study done by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), 38 people were killed, 28 of those in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The total for 11 years of research is 240 killings, an average of 21 per year. In three years of the Lula government, only five lands were certified.
For the MST’s leadership, the challenge is to build unity among the country’s social movements.
Marches, mobilizations, land occupations. These are some of the actions the MST will continue to realize as the year begins. The objective is to pressure the federal government to take concrete measures to resolve the problem of Brazil’s land concentration. One of these measures is updating the productivity indices, an old commitment of the government to farmers’ organizations. This is the evaluation made by José Batista and Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva, part of the Movement’s national direction, for São Paulo and Maranhão, respectively.
“The revision of the indices is an obvious measure for Agrarian Reform policy,�? Batista evaluates. In an interview to the magazine Sem Terra (The Landless), the two leaders also speak about the relationship of the MST to the government, about the need to unify all movements to strengthen the social struggle, and also the Movement’s expectations with the realization of its fifth National Congress. Companheira Gilvânia, who works in Maranhao, talks a little about the struggle in the region with the largest agro-business companies.
Jornal Sem Terra – A large part of the areas expropriated for the creation of settlements have been public lands. This does not address the question of land concentration in Brazil. How does the MST face this fact?
José Batista – In the last period, our proposals about Agrarian Reform were concrete, as can be seen in the elaboration of the National Plan for Agrarian Reform. With the National March we also proposed effective measures to stimulate expropriations, focusing mainly on the implementation of the mechanisms the constitution foresees. We do not see a problem with appropriating public land for Agrarian Reform. However, the politics of agrarian democratization cannot be reduced to this. We also want agrarian reform in regions that have contradictions, unproductive lands, as in the case of the Southeast and South of the country. Therefore, we propose the update of productivity indices, a thing the government has still not had the courage to do. It has become urgent to revise these numbers that are more than 30 years old despite the increase in productive forces in Brazil.
JST –But until now the government has not fulfilled what it promised with relation to the indices.
JB - We will continue pressuring the government until it has a political commitment to Agrarian Reform. One sign of this is to revise the indices, strengthen and equip INCRA with tools that respond to the increased number of settled families. But this is not the only thing: access to public politics is also necessary. The revision of the indices is an obvious action for agrarian policy. A government that thinks that development policies generate income and increase employment and wants to resolve the profound social problems of Brazil should move forward with this. One of our main goals will be to pressure the public power through our actions, in order to clearly demonstrate our political point of view, our intention to resolve the problem of land concentration. We have no other alternative.
JST – But how should the movement proceed in order for Agrarian Reform to become a real priority of the federal government?
Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva - We understand that only through the occupation of land and public buildings, marches and mobilizations will we succeed in transforming this situation and changing the correlation of forces. There exists a very large institutional bureaucracy in INCRA and the Ministry of Agrarian Development. But the major impediment that we face is in the Judiciary Power that in many cases is protecting and encouraging the actions of large estate owners against landless families. This makes it so that INCRA does not have the force to fight for areas that many times had already been inspected before occupation. Currently, the judiciary is a great ally of the large estate owners, of the rural bankers and of agro-business.
JST – The financial and agrarian elite gained strength in Congress in the past elections. What will the Movement’s position be in light of this?
JB – For the MST, it brought to light a challenge that has long been present. International investors, large estate owners and multinational corporations are financing an ideology that has materialized in agribusiness, and it is fruit of the implementation of neoliberalism during the eight years of Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government. These sectors were supported and financed by the State, through institutions such as the National Bank of Social and Economic Development (BNDES - Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social). The situation became even more concrete in these past elections. Companies such as Aracruz, Gerdau and Monsanto financed politicians in the electoral campaigns. This reveals the need to confront this logic of capital in agriculture. We need to drive this point home together with the organization of Via Campesina. This shouldn’t be done in isolation, but rather together with all of society. We should intensify the struggle against this model that has not only materialized in agribusiness, but also manifest itself in others sectors of the country. One example is the monoculture of sugar cane. The multinational corporations are buying mills for three times the price that they are worth because this is a sector that is expanding; the same is happening with eucalyptus. We have determined that the strengthening of these sectors in Parliament is a mark of their strategy.
JST – Companheira, you are active in Maranhão. What is the expansion of agribusiness like there?
GFS – We have been able to get several occupations in the areas of the Ferro Gusa Carajás company, a company of eucalyptus cultivation, formerly the Celmar project. They want to construct a paper and cellulose factory with the promise to create 5,000 jobs directly and 15,000 indirectly. But this is a great lie, used to get supporters to rally around the project. Ferro Gusa Carajás has in its hands more than 120,000 hectares of land, in addition to that of the other companies that are part of the Vale do Rio Doce Company. These companies divide into several others, smaller and with different names, and they purchase the farms that are surrounding the settlements and they earn public financing, such is the case of a steel mill that is in the city of Açailândia which received, from the Banco do Nordeste, an incentive of eight million Reais. This steel mill deforested an area that had Brazilian Pepper (aroeira), Tabebuiaipê (ipê) and hardwood (madeira de lei) to plant eucalyptus and worse yet, received money from the government to do so.
JST – How does the CVRD (Vale do Rio Doce Company) work in this region?
GFS - The CVRD has 14 steel mills which create many problems: pollution of the air, the rivers, health problems in the community - a host of issues that public power doesn’t get involved with. In the Califórnia settlement, the community filed a report with the city’s Office of the Attorney General (Procuradoria Pública) denouncing that there was a large area of eucalyptus plantation with a charcoal production site (carvoaria) inside one of the farms, very near the settlement. At night the families weren’t able to sleep because of the smoke that came from there. The community got together, filed another complaint, but no steps were taken. Several settlements have become islands surrounded by eucalyptus plantations. Another concern is the issue of a hydroelectric power plant that will be built in the city of Estreito and that will flood a large part of the land. This is also a project of the CVRD and the construction company Carmargo Corrêa. The construction will flood several cities in the states of Maranhão e Tocantins which will become water reservoirs. These projects appear as being signs of progress, but they cause great problems for the environment and for the local population. Not to mention the charcoal production the use of child and slave labor, and women whose fertility is put at risk. These are issues that need to be debated by the Ministry of the Environment, Human Rights organizations, Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Ministry of Agrarian Development.
JST – What will be the tone of the social movements' relationship with Lula's government?
In the last elections social movements were organized to confront the Right and their politics. But we did not make any contract or agreement with Lula's government. The role of the organizations is to continue fighting and to mobilize society, unified around common goals. Protesting against the labor reform, resisting the attempts to hinder our achievements and diminish our rights is an issue that unifies the entire working class. Our fight is independent of the government. It is not against the government but against this established model. The advance of the financial and rural elite did not occur only in the Parliament but also in the Senate and in the states. There is an attempt from the Right to dominate with their neoliberal model, putting the public politicians at the service of their precincts. The big challenge of the social organizations is leaving corporativism and fighting for bigger issues. This is the task we are working on with the participation of the Coordination of Social Movements, in the construction of the Popular Assembly, and in work with urban youth. It is necessary to give society clear signals of our situation in proposing a profound structural transformation.
JST – This year marks the fifth MST Conference. What does the organization expect from this big event?
JB - This conference is the synthesis of the all of the MST's construction process in the last period. It will include all the activists who helped to build the Movement in recent years, people who had the opportunity to become politically educated and qualified, which was a priority for this period. The Conference is a sort of overview of the work we accomplished, such as education, development and inclusion of politics in the encampments. It will also be a moment to evaluate our position, our alliances, the experience of Lula's government and, above all, plan the strengthening of the Movement's organization, and prepare the activists for the project we believe in. We have many good expectations with relation to the Conference because it will also be the moment to go out into society and make our plans public. The conference is a synthesis of that, because in the preceding period we were already discussing and working. The conference is also a space for protest and a demonstration of our organizational capacity.
GFS - The plans for the fifth National Conference began last year. We are already discussing the agrarian program, our political tactics and strategies about how we will organize our proceedings for the next period. All this is intended to complete the goal of organizing more people, to raise awareness, to empower the people in the class struggle. It is necessary to bring more allied social figures into the construction of the popular project and the Agrarian Reform. In the activity that will have more than 15,000 delegates we will have a summary of the last years of this journey. We will see where we succeeded, where we misjudged, and plan the future of this battle and the fruits of our labors that we have harvested and will continue to harvest through our discussions.
Who they are:
José Batista was born in Itapeva, in the state of São Paulo. His family participated in the construction of the MST in the region. He began his activism in 1996. He passed through various sectors as the head of mass and production. Today he is part of the national coordination.
Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva was born in a rural community in Paraíba. She participated in the first occupation in the state, in 1989. She has worked in Maranhão since 1992. She has worked in the development and education sectors. Today she is a member of the National Administration.
More than 600 MST families occupied an abandoned farm, “Toca da Raposa? (“Fox’s Den?), in the early morning hours of Monday, January 29th. These same families had been the target of a violent operation carried out last week by the Military Police. Toca da Raposa is located in Planaltina, in Brazil’s Federal District, 30 km away from Brasilia. The families occupying the farm demanded the redistribution of its land, and the acceleration of the agrarian reform process throughout the state.
The farm includes 1200 hectacres of land, and is located on Highway BR-020, which links the Federal District to the state of Bahia. Over the last three years it has been occupied three times by rural workers. “It’s a giant plantation, according to the standards of the region where it’s located,? said MST member Flávio Silva.
The plantation-manager attempted to present a legal title to part of the farm, but his documents were declared invalid by the institute in charge of official surveys. The other part of the farm belongs to the agency that manages public lands in the state.
The 600 farmer families will stay on the farm until it is officially taken and used for the purposes of agrarian reform. The land belongs to the public authorities and was being used illegally by Mario Zinatto, the above-mentioned owner of the false documents.
The MST has requested a meeting with Jose Roberto Arruda, governor of the Federal District from the PFL Party, to discuss the redistribution of the land and the creation of a settlement there for rural workers. For more than two years, 80 families have lived in camps next to the farm, along the sides of the highway.
“The negotiations process with INCRA (the federal agency responsible for agrarian reform) didn’t make any progress during our meeting last week. So the workers will remain mobilized,? said Silva. During the last three years, INCRA (the National Institute for Settlements and Agrarian Reform) has not settled a single MST family in the region. More than 2,000 families are currently living in encampments in the Federal District.
Background
On Friday, January 26th, the MST families currently on the farm were attacked by 80 military police. Using violent means, the police invaded an encampment in the “Sete Rios? (“Seven Rivers?) farm, using violent means. The Sete Rios farm is located in the Flores de Goiás municipality, Santa Maria district.
The police arrived in 13 patrol cars, broke open the gate, and began firing over a wide area. Surprised, the men, women, and children of the encampment attempted to flee the violence.
The military police battalion involved in the incident did not have a judicial order to evict the families at the site. After the arrival of lawyers, the Agrarian Advocate, the regional INCRA management, and state parliamentary inspectors, the landless farmers were allowed to go free.
On Saturday, January 21st, the farm laborers were at the “Ilha Bela? (“Beautiful Island?) farm. They left to avoid a confrontation with police officers who had an eviction order. The MST also asks for the expropriation of that land, which measures approximately 3,700 hectacres and is currently abandoned and unproductive.
Encamped MST families in the municipality of Nonoai (RS) marched yesterday to the public prosecutor’s office with accusations of violence that had been carried out by gunmen of a ranch in front of the encampment. An agricultural plane belonging to the rancher Alberto Ângelo Tagliari, owner of the Real Ranch, was used to spray pesticide over the families while gunmen fired on their shacks. The MST handed over photos and bullets, proving the accusation.
The roughly 500 families who are camping alongside the highway (RS-040) for three months are asking the court to provide security. Marcelo José da Costa Petry, the prosecutor in the municipality, said that he was going to investigate the case and that there may be apprehension of the weapons and jail for those accused. The Military Police also advised that it would send a biochemist to the camp to investigate if there were traces of chemicals on the shacks. The ranch area has around 2800 thousand hectares and Tagliari has another 52 thousand hectares of land in the country.
Ivanir Loureiro of the MST encampment coordinating body says that the presence of the attempt against the encampment is a common fact in that region. “Here, in truth, this has been going on for a while. Gunmen terrorize families and children. Around 8:00 a.m., a plane began to spray poison on top of the shacks, with gunmen shooting at people from the top of a truck, he said yesterday. According to reports from another person in the encampment, Givanildo Poncio, around 15 gunmen, divided into two trucks, shot more than 100 times against the encampment.
However, according to the rancher’s lawyer, Mauro Machado, the plane was contracted to put “recommended non-poisonous defensive‿ on the planted area because the ranch employees were prevented from applying it with a spraying machine last Monday. The landless state that the plane had been spraying the area for an hour, including the encampment and flying low over the shacks. “This is not the only case; they are doing this a lot‿, emphasized Poncio. The people from the encampments are doing a survey to verify if there are people who were made ill by the poison. The son of a small farmer neighboring the ranch had to go to the hospital.
Reintegration
Besides what happened, the encampment is going through ownership re-integration, issued by the Department of Roads. The request had already been denied by Judge Lisiane Marques Pires, of Nonoai last year. On that occasion she also put together an agreement in a public hearing between the Landless, the government agencies and City Hall for water to be taken to the people in encampments that would suffer from evictions if they were displaced to another area. However, Lisiane went on vacation and the substitute judge, Eduardo Coelho Antonello Benites, went back and overthrew the agreement, specifying that ownership of the encampment area should be reintegrated.
For the MST legal staff, Coelho’s decision shows the relationship of the judge to the local ranchers. The slow pace of land reform also aggravates the situation. In 2005, fewer than 161 properties were targeted by the federal government for settlements of the state’s families.
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In Portuguese -
This article can be accessed in its original form by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1569.htm
Dear Friends of the MST,
In this edition we are promoting the 250-year anniversary celebrations of Sepé Tiaraju’s death, which will happen next week in São Gabriel (Rio Grande do Sul). The MST proudly follows the legacy of courage, struggle, dedication to a cause, a spirit of sacrifice and love of land left to us by Sepé and the Guarani people. Before dying in 1756, the indigenous warrior cried out to Brasil and the rest of the world that, “this land has an owner.‿ That owner is the people. We from the MST have a mission to keep the flame of national sovereignty burning for all Brasilians. Below, we share some words on the theme from Frei Sérgio Antônio Görgen, deputy of state for PT-RS.
Sepé and the living ruins
The 7th of February 2006 marks the 250th anniversary of the murder of Sepé Tiaraju, considered by the Portuguese army’s own accounts, “their greatest general‿. Three days after his death 1,500 Guarani from the Missiones region came to be martyrs in what is now the São Gabriel municipality during the ‘Massacre of Caiboaté’. Far from a legend, Sepé was a concrete figure in history. He was one of the key commanders in the Guarani resistance movement to implement the Treaty of Madrid in what is today Rio Grande do Sul. His personal virtues, and the confluence of factors that he was involved in together with the circumstances of his death made him much more than an ordinary individual. He transformed himself into the epitome of struggle, dreams, and heroic feats of a people. It is a founding myth that turned into a larger symbol of a project full of contradictions, of the properties of time, full of affirmations, conquests and values. It is enough to say that among the seven different types of people that inhabited
Misiones there were no slaves, something that sadly plagued almost all of the rest of the European Christian empire.
The civilisation in Misiones supported a society of equals. It was based on collective property, care for the young and elderly, and the land being worked by all. Basic education was accessible by all, and work was a joyous thing, with people singing to and from their daily place of work. There was a fertile cultural dialogue between the Guarani and the Jesuits, which resulted in democracy and popular participation in the election of leaders in Misiones cities. The period experienced fantastic development of arts, industry, agriculture, and economics.
The Portuguese lance and Spanish pistol interrupted this rich process of civilisation that had already begun to mature. After the massacre, sensing the significance of this defeat, the Guaranis took the initiative of setting the São Miguel cathedral on fire. The powerful ruins of that cathedral remain today as an historical scar, an ill-healed wound in the people’s history. It is a living symbol of deadly ruins. Sepé is the living symbol of living ruins, of excluded people, the poor, the exploited, the forgotten, the unappreciated, of those searching for their place in the sun, for a little plot of land to share, for decent work, a decent childhood, a respectful retirement and to have their dignity recognised. The rubble that marks these ruins are found in São Miguel das Missões. The ruins of these people are in the shanty towns, in the fields, farms, jungles, prisons, streets, underneath bridges, in the factories villas, and in the makeshift campsites, indigenous areas, riverbeds and pavements. The cathedral is a complete visual reminder of plastic beauty. Sepé is a memory of revolutionary dreams.
We still haven’t fully faced up to this illness in our civilisation. In our society’s collective subconscious there exists an unresolved sense of guilt. For that reason it is easier for many to say that Sepe is merely a mythical legend, than to recognise that we are only here because of the murder of a project of civilisation that was much better than ours.
The latifúndio was thrust into the land that belonged to everyone. Slavery and exploitation were thrust into work that was joyful. In place of bread on everyone’s tables, luxury on the table of some, hunger and misery in the homes of many. In place of dignity for all, humiliation of the great masses that need other people’s favor to survive.
Sepé died fighting. The Portugese general Gomes Freire won. The expansionist fury of the European empires, blessed by a Church that was allied with the powerful, made the weight of their swords felt. The brutal massacre destroyed millions of homes and millions of dreams. Over the destroyed remains of the Guarani civilization, barren lands were planted that caused injustice and inequality, hate, sorrow, and deaths to grow. This is the project that with adapations over time, rules up to today.
But from time to time the dream of a project of a world of brothers, a society of equals, a land of justice and a life of dignity is reborn from the womb of the earth in the organization and the struggles of the poor.
The ruins of stone are untouchable and they will remain as they are, if faithfully preserved. It’s a matter of visible proof of the destruction promoted by the European empires. The people’s ruins can continue to be stepped on, forgotten, offended, rejected, wounded, restrained, lacerated and destroyed but will always hold the possibility of rising up again. Until the day arrives in which the dream is transformed into living reality.
Guarani groups continue wandering through South America, blood heirs of this project, of those massacred in Caiboaté. The body is often swaying but the look is always firm and fixed on the horizon, sniffing out and intuiting the signs of utopia of one day building a world without evils.
So also the Brazilian people, meeting up again with their deepest roots, thrust into the fertile soil of Guarani civilization, will take up again the building of this project for a just and joyous society, which was interrupted by the cannon balls on the rolling prairies of Rio Grande do Sul in the fateful February of 1756.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
More information at: www.projetosepetiaraju.org.br
News briefs
Organizations and congresspeople denounce the criminalization of the MST in Pernambuco
Dozens of national and state human rights organizations, social movements, and congresspeople denounced the criminalization of MST activists in Gameleira (PE). On January 30, Judge Antonio Carlos dos Santos, accepting the judgement of prosector Hipólito Cavalcanti Guedes, ordered five MST activists jailed, accusing them of participating in a political demonstration. Central demands are to immediately revoke the jail sentences and the decree of reintegration of ownership of the land in question. In November 2005, INCRA obtained in Federal Court the decree of ownership of the property of 1.8 thousand hectares. However, the decree was temporarily suspended, argued today by the attorney general of INCRA in the Superior Court of Justice. The situation caused anger on the part of the landless families who carried out a protest in December 15, 2005.
In Rio Grande do Sul, pesticides and shooting at Landless
People in MST encampments in the municipality of Nonoai (RS) marched on Feb. 2 to the public prosecutor’s office with accusations of violence that had been carried out by gunmen of a ranch in front of the encampment. An agricultural plane belonging to the rancher Alberto Ângelo Tagliari, owner of the Real Ranch, was used to spray pesticide over the families while gunmen fired on their shacks. The MST handed over photos and bullets, proving the accusation.
Food security, poor farmers, and environmental impact are not often discussed when talking about bio-fuels.
By Daniel Cassol
The discussion around clean, renewable energy production is not new, but now it has become more urgent, especially after the beginning of February when the Intergovernmental Panel of Climatic Changes released its report about global warming. Faced with such a distressing alarm, the world seems like it is facing the fact that it must changes its sources of energy, adopting alternative ways to produce the energy it consumes.
At a meeting in France, a group of scientists announced that the Earth's temperature could increase by four degrees in this century due to the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere related to the use of fossil fuel. Currently, 80% of the world's energy source comes from fossil carbons, of which 36% comes from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 21% from natural gas.
In these times, one product is gaining more and more attention: bio-fuels. Energy production for use in transportation based on sugar cane or oily seeds, like soy, seems to be literally the salvation of agriculture. And Brazil is the likely hero, with 200 million hectares of fertile land, according to the National Plan of Agro-ergia, released by the federal government in 2006.
The principle argument used for betting on bio-fuels is that they are a renewable source of energy; that is, they don't drain the planet like petroleum does, for example. But in this case, are bio-fuels in fact an answer to the environmental collapse of the planet and an alternative for poor farmers, or are they part of the survival of agribusiness, and one that will generate environment impacts just as serious as fossil fuels? It is a debate for which there is little space, and few voices.
"Businesses and governments are waging an intense campaign to present bio-fuels as the alternative to combat climatic changes by substituting a part of petroleum consumption. But the real thought is not to abandon petroleum, nor change the standards of the consumption that produces global warming. Rather it is to bring together these forms of energy to create new sources of business, promoting and subsidizing the industrial production of plants to this end," writes Silvia Ribeiro, researcher for ETC**, in an article for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada. She further writes that all of the businesses that produce genetically-modified seeds, companies like Syngenta, Monsanto, Dupont, Dow, Bayer and Basf, have investments in the production of bio-fuels, like ethanol and bio-diesel.
Capitalist Logic.
The signs that world capitalism has a strategic plan to conquer the market for agro-energy is becoming more clear. On January 31, 2007, in his State of the Union address to the Congress of the United States, President George Bush announced his goal of reducing the consumption of gasoline by 20% by the year 2017, and producing 132.4 billion liters of alternative fuels, principally ethanol made from corn. The subject of bio-fuels was also one of the principle topics discussed at the World Economic Forum in January, in Davos, Switzerland.
The movement of wealthy countries and big multinationals around this subject has made analysts and social movements view with reluctance the entrance of developing nations in the production of bio-fuels. The environmental impact created by monoculture, the exploitation of poor farmers and rural workers, and the threat to food production are on the list of concerns. In Brazil, agribusiness is betting on sugar cane, and soy, transgenic of course.
"There are no government programs with criteria or established directives in the area of production that point to a new agricultural model. Besides this, the bio-diesel program is being handed over to a group of private companies who want to buy the farmers' grains without adequately compensating rural communities. They are encouraging monoculture once again," criticized Brother Seraglio Borden, a leader of Via Campesina of Brazil, a group which brings together social movements from all over the world, like the MST and the Movement of Small Farmers.
In accord with the federal government's National Program for Production and Use of Bio-diesel, Brazil--beginning in 2008--will make obligatory a 2% addition of vegetable oil-based diesel in petroleum-based diesel. This percentage will increase to 5% in 2013. If the bio-diesel market with 2% is one billion liters per year, with 5% this demand will grow to 2.7 billions of liters per year. The stars of the Brazil government are soy, seen as a lifesaver for big producers of transgenic seeds, and the castor-oil plant, which theoretically would benefit family farming.
Concerning ethanol, Brazil will once again prioritize sugar cane production. It is estimated that production will increase 50% in relation to the current production of 460 tons, according to the Union of Sugar Cane Agro-industry of São Paulo.
A new Pro-Alcohol?
In sum, faced with the real opportunity to change the model of agricultural production, Brazil is entering into the production of bio-fuels by reinforcing unsustainable practices in environmental and social terms. The rush into bio-fuels is benefiting big companies and tossing small farmers aside, not to mention harming the cultivation of foods for local consumption.
“There is a risk of repeating the experience of Pro-Alcohol in Brazil. You have a clean fuel, produced in a dirty way, besides being environmentally unsustainable in the process of production and socially perverse in the way that it treats its workers,�? says Frei Sergio. Created in the 1970s, the National Alcohol Program gave incentives to small and medium sized farmers, to install their own alcohol distillers. For political reasons, such as that it remained illegal to use your own home-made alcohol as a fuel, the Pro-Alcohol program ended up benefiting only big producers, whose labor practices including using slave labor in their cane processing and their considerable environmental impacts.
Close to 30 years later, the same risks are in place. The sugar industry is excited about the possibility of opening the market for Brazillian ethanol in the United States. For his part, president Luíz Ignacio Lula da Silva announces that “we’ll eat good soy, and we’ll make bio-diesel from transgenic soy,�? signaling the priority that is being given to the big farmers and multinational grain companies. The creation of H-Bio, a mix of vegetable oil and petroleum developed by Petrobras, is another way to favor world agribusiness and the oil industry.
The federal government thinks, however, that the creation of the Social Fuel Seal will be a sort of safeguard for the family farm. The program proposes incentives to industries that obtain oil-seeds produced by small farmers. “We see farmers interested in going back to growing cotton, sunflower, peanuts, sesame, and other oil-seeds. That way, the farmers will not fall in the monoculture trap. If the government had launched a biodiesel program without this incentive for family farms, surely it would be made up only of soy, which is the biggest Brazillian oil-seed,�? remarked the executive director of energy development at Petrobras, Mozart Schmitt de Queiróz. Even still, projects along the lines of Social Fuel present problems, most of all for betting on the monoculture of the castor oil seed in the South and Northeast of the country. Another problem is the direct buying of grains from the farmers, placing them in the chain of production together with the big companies. The milk and tobacco industries have similar chains of production and frequently report cases of the economic exploitation of small farmers.
Diversifying production
The organizations of family farmers are approaching the emergence of bio-fuels with a high level of distrust, but they are also certain that this is where the strategic debate between two opposing models of production will stop. For organizations like La Via Campesina, certain basic requirements exist before the farmers will enter into the production of bio-fuels so that they can avoid falling into a trap. They want to prioritize food production, mix energy crops with other crops, and avoid systems of where they are integrated with big companies, instead of participating in as many stages of the production of bio-fuels as possible.
“The small properties owned by family farmers do not have any way of making themselves viable in the midst of the monoculture model. The big advantage of small farms is their system of diversified production, which belongs to their Agro-ecology model. It is important to be able to produce both bio-fuels and food. It is also fundamental to take advantage of the waste product left over after the extraction of oils. With these wastes, small farms could increase their production of eggs, milk, and meat, making the small farm systems of production even more viable,�? explains the agronomist Alexandre Borscheild, who works with Cooperbio, a biodiesel cooperative formed by farmers linked to La Via Campesina in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
This is the direction that some projects created by branches of the Via Campesina in Brazil are going. Biodiesel will be made with multiple seeds, such as sunflower, peanut, and canola, whose residues will be used as animal feed or as organic fertilizer. Cooperatives of small farmers will be able to build their own seed-crushing facilities, sell the oil to companies, and keep the useful oil-seed waste products. “The conclusion that we are reaching is that the staple for the peasant farmer has to be oil-seeds that are perennial. In a small area, he will produce a large amount,�? explains Frei Sergião, citing the use of trees such as pinhão manso and the tungue, in the south, and dendê (palm oil), in the north. In the production of alcohol fuel, sugar cane can be accompanied by manioc and sweet potato. Just as with the making of biodiesel, the intention is to grow fuel crops mixed with food crops, and add value to the product before selling to the industries.
Transnationals vs small farmers
“The small farming system of production is more suitable because small farmers succeed in ensuring a very good combination between food and energy production, besides guaranteeing systems of polyculture, with products that can sustain the small farming production units. Large monoculture is not going to be efficient with sunflowers, castor-oil, peanuts, Barbados nuts, nor will they succeed in being efficient with the plants that have a large percentage of oil. Those plants adapt better to the small farming system. And small farming provides better conditions for resolving the equation between the production of energy and the production of food, Brother Sergio analyzes. In La Via Campesina leader’s opinion, Petrobras is one of the few channels within the federal government that opens the way for using the small farming method of agriculture in the production of biodiesel.
Mozart Queiroz pf Petrobras explains that the company acquires oil from the farmers and not seeds. “This motivates the cooperatives to set up their own extracting equipment. So family farming can keep a product and gain more value for their organization, managing a product that can be transformed into milk, eggs, meat. We are working to share the benefit of industrialization, for the farmer to be part of the chain of production at the extraction phase. At the same time, we are encouraging the growing of several oil-producing plants, trying to avoid monoculture,�? he says.
For the agronomist Alexandre Borscheid, the dispute between the market and the production model of bio-fuels has already begun and it looks like the field is wide open for the advance of the multinational agribusiness corporations. “If there is no intervention by the State to prioritize policies for family farming, the tendency is for the multinationals to take over this market, which promises to be very profitable. They are going to move into farm areas and this places family farming at risk. The farmers have to have autonomous production, with their own projects, in which they can ensure the production of liquid energy while preserving the production of food�?, he states.
The executive manager of Petrobras recognizes the risks of the race unleashed by the production of bio-fuels -- in the environmental impacts created by monoculture, in the damage to food sovereignty, and in the increase in economic exploitation of small farmers. According to him, before discussing these questions, humanity needs to rethink its model of energy consumption. “Even if the entire surface of the earth were used to produce bio-fuels, we would not succeed in keeping the consumption at the today’s level of fossil fuel consumption. It’s clear that it is urgent to rethink the world energy matrix�?, he concludes.
Bio-(agro)fuels
At the Forum on Food Sovereignty, which took place at the end of February in Mali, Africa, La Via Campesina International decided that the term “agro-fuels�? should be substituted for the term “bio-fuels�?. This is because the organization believes that the incentive for this type of fuel has led to the policies of monoculture (and not of small diversified production), threatening small farmers and food sovereignty. Since “bio�? means “life�? – the opposite of what is being practiced today, the group adopted the term “agro-fuel�?. La Via Campesina International, of which the MST is a part, brings together rural social movements from all over the world.
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*Fossil fues:
There are three big types of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. They were formed millions of years ago and result from a process of decomposition of plants and animals.
**Grupo ETC
International group that works with social movements, furnishing analyses and information about technologies of sustainable development.
***Cooperbio
The cooperative involves around 25 thousand families in 62 municipalities of the Northwest region of the state, producing 400 thousand liters of biofuels per day.
Letter from the Landless Mothers
We speak to the sons and daughters of the land from all nations. To those who were not invited to the banquet. To those who have been waiting in the queue of history for centuries. We will not be spectators at a film waiting for the light to go out. It’s time to believe in the possibility of defeating sorrow.
We are rising up with the mothers who are losing their sons and daughters in wars, in urban massacres, from the barrel of a rifle, in concentration camps, in acts of femicide and genocide, in domestic violence, in political persecutions, in armed sieges. We are rising up with the mothers who are losing their children because they don’t have milk, bread, land, or access to the knowledge accumulated by humanity. We are rising up with the mothers who are wandering with their sons and daughters, seeking a better world, We are rising up to call for social justice and dignity.
We raise our hands, our hoes, our scythes, and our consciences to call on all working women of the world to unite against those who exploit the land, life, the strength of our work and of our body.
We are directing ourselves to those who are said to be lords of the world. We don’t want and we aren’t asking for your permission to cut fences and to sow flowers and dreams. We will not hesitate to speak to you. We are struggling for land, for water, in defense of seeds and of biodiversity for the right to decide about our lives and our food, for the right to work, for our future and for solidarity among peoples.
“Development and modernity�? advance over the world and open wounds. In your name, laws are passed that put humanity at risk. Against the green desert and despair we break the silence and we denounce the dust that is thrown over dreams and the prison of flowers. Your modernity is darkness and hunger and for this reason, is not in our interest. Don’t you dare move ahead one step with your project of death!
The criminal manipulation of biogenetics, monoculture, agro-fuels, and agribusiness is an attempt to kill food sovereignty and the possibility of a ecologically correct and socially just world. We will not allow humanity to be destroyed. You should know that we will not accept that you kill our children through violence or for lack of food.
On this Mother’s Day we reaffirm our determination to transform the countryside into a space for hope, happiness, and above all, for struggle. In our project, everyone has the right to a dignified life, a decent standard of living, and the sweet smell of flowers. We want to transform the world so that it may be more just and more egalitarian, and that all who live in it may be respected.
We will continue sowing revolutionary unrest on behalf of agrarian reform, social justice, and sovereignty of food and peoples. This is our mission and thus it must be for all peasant mothers persecuted by the violence of agribusiness and water-business.
What’s left for the mothers of the world is to organize and struggle. We will struggle tirelessly against the neoliberal system that transforms food, water, land, people’s knowledge, and the bodies of women into commodities.
It’s time to demand justice and punishment for those responsible for exploitation, violence, genocide, and massacres.
It’s time to open up new passages, new men and new women.
It’s time to set our sights on the new horizon.
We are standing up, spending night and day sculpting the fertility and the rebellion that are being born in the womb of mother earth.
Long live Mother Earth! Long live the mothers of the earth!
May 2007
MST – Agrarian Reform: for Social Justice and Peoples’ Sovereignty
Dear Friends of the MST,
The fact that so many popular movements, unions, and student groups from all over the country have come together to build a Day of Struggle on May 23 shows that there is a revival of working class mobilizations. Since the People’s Plebiscite Against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americans in 2002, there has not been such unity of political movements around the same objective.
The National Plenary of the Popular Assembly in November 2006 was the starting point for a common calendar of struggles and the need to hold a national day of struggle in May 2007.
On March 25 of this year, a National Meeting Against the Reforms brought together more than 6 thousand activists from more than 20 states -- around 630 organizations -- reaffirming the need to organize a unified list of demands to confront the neoliberal policies of the Federal government.
Despite the tactical and strategic differences between the various groups on the left, the mobilization around May 23 to build a common list of demands shows a sign of maturity. And more than that, it shows that there is a high level of dissatisfaction among the working class that compels it to fight for changes.
The fact is that these changes can only be achieved by working together, overcoming the fragmentation of the forces that has been occurring since Lula first took office in 2003. But primarily it will take concrete struggles. The time has come to get into the streets! Shut down the factories, close off the streets and occupy the latifundios.
“Not a single giveaway!” will be the slogan for an agenda that rejects the government’s attempts to change the laws on labor and benefits and to limit public employees’ right to strike. But there will be other slogans: “For agrarian reform”, “For urban housing”, “For a job with a decent salary”, “Against the criminalization of social movements”, Against the economic policies of the federal government”, and many others will certainly be shouted out in the streets of the cities, in the countryside, and in the factories all over the country.
Around these slogans and banners, it was possible to unify the trade unions, the broad coalitions like the Coordination of Social Movements, and the Popular Assembly, incorporating the main groups and national movements like the MST, the UNE and Conam.
The MST understands that this is a unique moment for the Brazilian people and so we raise our banner alongside so many others with the view of struggling for a more just and fraternal society.
Agrarian Reform: For Social Justice and Peoples Sovereignty!
National leadership of the MST
Dear Friends of the MST,
We would like to share a portion of text below, written by the Benedictine monk Marcelo Barros for the Fifth Conference of Agroecology—Developing a Popular and Sovereign Project for Agriculture. The encounter occurred in Cascavel, Paraná on June 7-10, where it brought together more than 5,000 agriculturists from across the state to exchange experiences and discuss agroecological production and sustainable development. The complete document can be found on the MST website on the internet.
“In almost all presentations and discussions we have had here, we have seen that the economic model in place in Brazilian society and in a large part of the world today, the so-called neoliberal capitalism, or whatever you would like to call it, has sunk the world into social inequality that is more scandalous every day and that is responsible for ecological destruction that, if it continues on this path, will destroy the planet and make life on Earth impracticable. We all know that, etymologically speaking, the term ‘economy’ has the same prefix as ‘ecology.’ In the more profound sense, ‘economy’ means the administrative norm of the common household so that all can live in a dignified way. Today, the economy is exactly the opposite of this. For this reason, there is no possibility of an ethic of ecology and solidarity in this universe of an exculpatory market and a competitive economy.
As I am writing this text, in Xingu, hundreds of Indians are occupying the hydroelectric plant of Paranatinga II, on the Kuluene River in Mato Grosso. These construction sites had already been seized by the Federal Justice, but nevertheless they continue. The Indians say that this hydroelectric plant will do irreparable damage to the Kuluene River that runs through the Xingu Park, where 5,000 people of 15 ethnicities live. The dam will prevent the reproduction of many species of fish that need rapids and the uninterrupted length of the river to reproduce. This will affect the life and survival of many indigenous communities in a terrible way. They know that the plant is being built to guarantee large plantations of soy and pasture, destroying the forest and savanna. Furthermore, they are going to flood sacred territories of the Xingu people where the first Kuarup was celebrated in honor of the illustrious dead, a ceremony that is observed by many ethnicities there.*
There are two life philosophies that are at stake. It is not possible to maintain and contribute to the official lifestyle of profit and eke out an ethic of solidarity and ecology. However, we know that capitalism does not just sell products and merchandise. It sells dreams, it sells symbols. It dominates our imagination. It makes slaves of our fantasies. Besides destroying transgenic seeds, we have to stop transgenics of the soul, of our sensibilities, and of our feelings. And we have to, of course, occupy space. We must recreate a sensibility that makes our concept of life, managing relations, and living our way of cultivating and feeding ourselves more and more attractive and pleasurable.
Agroecology already has 30 years of experience. This is already the Fifth National Conference and there have been many regional encounters, principally here in the South. And what is beautiful and important is that we live Agroecology, not just reclaiming it as an ancient and traditional agriculturist technique that the Indians and our ancestors who worked the land knew. We learn from elders and indigenous communities that Agroecology is a way of life, a spirit with which we feel and see relations and life itself. Since we are not isolated on a distant island, we have to live with this system and even, whether we like it or not, participate in it: manage the earth and agriculture in accordance with rules that not just we make up, have access to programs and funding that can favor family agriculture, and so on and so forth.
But the challenge is that we do not want our products to become just another fashion label, a brand, an elitist thing. If we are convinced that life itself demands Agroecology and that this should be the common and normal way of production, then we have to fight so that it can become more accessible to everyone.
AGROECOLOGY BECOMES LIFE
The world has a heart just as we do. Human beings, men, women, young people, old people, and children, have the function of being the soul, the principle of zeal and love for the entire universe. Society has not only failed to prepare us for this, but on the contrary, it has made us think that each person lives just for him- or herself. For this reason, a permanent effort of converting and planting new sensibility every day is important.
Rural agroecology and the agroecology of our entire lives require more solid community structures. It is necessary for us to go against the grain of neoliberal individualist society and create new relations that belong to the community, are light, current, and can be reference points for today’s world, primarily for youth. With this community base, we can create an economy of reciprocity, of service to life, and not to accumulation and consumption. We must also recreate political structures that are more humanized and less vertical.?
(*) Cf. WASHINGTON NOVAES, O Xingu em pé de guerra, in O Popular, 5ª feira, 08/06/ 2006, p 8. (4) WANGARI MAATHAI, Brincando em volta das folhas de araruta, in Revista Eco 21, Dezembro 2004. (www.eco21.com.br).
News Briefs
Paraná begins to require the labeling of transgenics
Recognizing that consumers have the right to information, the government of Paraná began to demand that starting on June 19, all foods with at least 1% transgenic content be labelled when they go on sale in the state. The suppliers now are required to place on the package a design of a yellow triangle with the letter T inside, which identifies the genetically modified foods.
Aracruz Cellulose destroys the Atlantic Forest in operation in Espirito Santo
Aracruz Cellulose destroys an area of the Atlantic Forest
The Aracruz Cellulose Corporation is being accused of having deforested three hectares of native forest in an area of permanent preservation. The accusation was made by the community in the area of Jacutinga, in the interior of the municipality of Linhares (ES), and confirmed by inspectors of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and National Resources (IBAMA), which had forbade the activities. The deforestation began June 16 when the corporation put into operation 27 tractors to destroy the Atlantic Forest in an advanced stage of regeneration. Women, men, and children put themselves in front of the machines and succeeded in preventing further deforestation.
Dear Friends of the MST,
Two years of study and discussions led up to the 5th National Congress. For five days during the Congress, we studied the situation in agriculture, the political situation, and the challenges of the Brazilian people to build a sovereign, just nation. There was also time to strengthen ourselves through the mistica, to remember the comrades who could not be with us because of the savagery of the latifundio and of agribusiness, and to fraternize and celebrate our victories.
Besides defining our political lines and the tasks for the next few years, the 5th National Congress also approved our Agrarian Program, a set of measures that we consider necessary in order to transform the land structure and ensure that agriculture provides security and food sovereignty. We also approved the Letter/Proposal that was delivered to President Lula on April 17 and approved the Letter from the 5th Congress which brings together our tactics and priorities for struggle. Since the Program was defined, in the struggles and confrontations that we have had during the last period, we understand that it is impossible to struggle for Agrarian Reform without taking on the economic model that is imposed on society.
The way the countryside is structured today, there is no room for the small farmer. The countryside has been transformed into a place for the production of raw materials for export, based on large-scale monoculture, on intensive use of machinery and agro-toxins – on expelling manual labor and on worsening the environment – and financed by international finance capital. Agribusiness, as this model is called, is largely responsible for shackling Agrarian Reform which we in the MST and social movements of La Via Campesina are advocating.
To struggle against this model, we have to unify our forces. In this sense, we reaffirm that it is not possible to build a dignified future for people in cities without Agrarian Reform that produces healthy, high-quality food for the urban population, capable of halting and reversing the rural exodus and strengthening the internal market. We not only insist on the alliance between rural and urban workers in order to carry out Agrarian Reform, but we also know that without this unity it will not be possible to build a Popular Project for Brazil.
The slogan for our 5th Congress, “Agrarian Reform: for Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty” makes explicit the dream and the struggle of those who believe that there can only be social justice if there is a broad Agrarian Reform that makes possible the democratization of access to land and the elimination of poverty in the countryside. Besides this, for a people to be able to be sovereign, it must exercise control over its production of food and energy, for these to fulfill their social functions, in benefit of the people themselves – and not to create profits for a few shareholders of the large banks and multi-national corporations.
We also reaffirm the need to invest in education and in communication as tools in the struggle and to broaden the defense of sustainable development, capable of ensuring the survival of the environment and of those who live in it. We believe that the Brazilian people can decide the paths for their destiny. To discuss, give opinions, and decide about the issues that affect their lives and future generations. In this sense, the 5th Congress was important for the Brazilian workers struggle, not only for the size – there were almost 18,000 delegates from 24 Brazilian states, but also for the strength of the discussions which are moving us forward.
We know that the road is difficult. But we don’t lack motivation and living examples, such as Elizabeth Teixeira, leader of the Peasant Leagues, who was with us during the Congress to bring her experience and mistica. Or Senor Luiz Beltrame, 100 years old, an example of participation in two national marches. And many, many friends who were with us and left us with words and gestures of solidarity and commitment. As the poet Thiago de Mello teaches us in his verses:
“Starting right now,
freedom will be alive and transparent
as a fire or a river
and its home with always be
in the hearts of men”
Wishing all of us a good struggle,
National Leadership of the MST
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We would also like to share the following 'Carta do Congresso', which summarizes our commitments for the coming years:
LETTER TO THE PEOPLE FROM THE 5TH BRAZIL-MST NATIONAL CONGRESS
We, 17,500 Landless rural workers from 24 states in Brazil, 181 international delegates representing 21 peasant organizations from and friends from several movements and organizations, met in Brazilia from June 10th to 15th, 2007, for the 5th MST National Congress too discuss and analise the problems in our society to find alternative solutions.
We commit to go on helping in the organization of people, to be able to struggle for their rights and against inequelities and social injustices. And we commit to the following:
1.To network with all social sectors and their forms of organizationin to build a popular project to confront neo-liberalism, imperialism and the structural causes of the problems that affect Brazilian people.
2.To defend our rights against any policy that tries to remove rights already conquered.
3.To struggle against privatizations of public patrimony, the transposition of Rio São Francisco and for the reestatization of public companies that have been privatized.
4.To struggle for all latifundios* to be expropriated with priority to those owned by foreign capital and banks.
5.To fight against the logging anf burning of native forests for the expansion of latifundios.
6.To fight against transnational corporations that want to control seeds, Brazilian production and agricultural trade such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Bungue, ADM, Nestlé, Basf, Bayer, Aracruz, Stora Enso, among others. To stop them from further exployting our nature, our labour and our country.
7.Demand the end of slave labour, the super exploytation of labour and the punishment of the perpetrators. All latifundios that use any form of slave labour must be expropriated, without any compensation, as stated in the Project of Law already aproved in the Senate.
8.To fight against all forms of violence in the countryside, as well as the crimilization of Social Movements. Demand punishment for the murderers – those who hired and the executors – of all those fighting for the Agrarian Reform, which go unpunished or their law suits are paralised in the Judiciary System.
9.To struggle to limit the size of land ownership. For the legal recognition of the historical rights of indigenous peoples and afro-descendents to their land.
10.To fight for the production of agri-fuels to be under controll of peasants and rural workers, as part of the policulture, with environmental protection and seeking the energetic sovereignty of each region.
11.To defend native and creole seeds. To struggle against GMO seeds. Promote the practices of agro-ecology and agricultural techniques that respect the environment. Settlements and rural communities must give priority to produce foods without agro-chemicals for the internal market.
12.To defend fresh water springs, fountains and reservoirs. Water is a common good from Nature and it belongs to humanity. It cannot be privatized by any corporation.
13.To preserve forrests and promote the planting of native and fruit trees, in all settlement areas and rural communities, contributing for the environmental preservation and in the struggle against global warming.
14.To struggle for the working class to have access to basic, secondary and public higher education, of excellent quality and free.
15.To develop different ways of organising campaings and programmes to erradicate illiteracy in rural areas and in Brazilian society as whole, using transformative pedagogical guidelines.
16.Struggle for each settlement or community in the countryside to have their own popular media, such as, free community radio stations. Struggle for the democratization of all media in society contributing to create political awareness and the respect of popular culture.
17.To strengthen the network with rural social movements in Via Campesina Brazil, in all states and regions. To build alliances with all Social Movements and Popular Assemblies in counties, regions and states.
18.Contribute in the construction of all possible mechanisms for the popular integration in Latin-America, through ALBA – Bolivarian Alternativa the Peoples of the Americas. Exercise INTERNATIONAL solidarity with people who suffer the agressions of the empire, specially at the moment, the people in CUBA, HAITI, IRAQ and PALESTINE.
We call the Brazilian people to organise and struggle for a fair and igualitarian society, which will only be made possible with the mobilization of everyone. The great transformations are always the work of people organised. And, we from the MST, commit to never give up and always struggle.
*Latifundio – large land holding
AGRARIAN REFORM: For Social Justice and Popular Sovereingty!
Brasília, June 15th, 2007
What future do you prefer?
Dear MST friends,
The world's food supply is under threat. If one of the ten corporations
that control the sale of seeds in this planet decides to suspend the
marketing of rice, for example, this item would be missing from the
dining tables of Brazilians. We are talking about a 21 billion dollar
business that can be manipulated by its majority shareholders without any
regards for global food needs.
The main corporations are Monsanto and Dupont from the United States and
Syngenta from Switzerland. Syngenta is responsible for the worlds worst
proven case of illegal genetic pollution. For four years the corporation
marketed a prohibited variety of corn known as Bt10 and sold it as if it
were Bt11, an authorized variety. The seeds polluted the corn that was
exported to various countries.
In the same arbitrary manner, the aforementioned corporations decided to
implement genetically modified organisms throughout the world, regardless
of the lack of popular support. In 1996, this business involved 280
million dollars and in 2004 it increased to 4.7 billion dollars, meaning
that the money was 17 times larger after 9 years. Brazil is now the
third largest producer of GMOs, despite the fact that the government
approved its use only for very specific cases. Brazil is only trailing
the United States and Argentina.
Syngenta does not respect environmental laws. Along with its growing
seed business, the use of agro-toxics is also on the rise. According to
research done by scientist Charles Benbrook, the use of agro-toxics in
genetically modified plantations is growing annually. Since 1996, there
has been a 4.1% increase. Moreover, these modified seeds react to
specific herbicides (generally glifosate based) that are produced by the
same companies that produce the seeds.
In Brazil, the unfair dispute over land that cultivates GMOs was most
evident in Syngentas case in the state of Parana. As it did in the
United States, the corporation infringed upon Brazilian law. In March,
Syngenta was fined one million reais by Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the
Environment and of Renewable Natural Resources) for cultivating
genetically modified soy and corn in the Iguaçu National Park in Santa
Tereza do Oeste (PR). Out of 18 properties denounced and inspected, 14
were found to be cultivated four kilometers from the park.
Apart from the fact that the cultivation of GM corn is not allowed in
Brazil, the existing Biosecurity Law clearly prohibits the cultivation of
GMOs in parks and conservation units. According to law 11.105 of 2005,
such cultivation is prohibited in conservation units, indigenous lands,
protected spring areas with water that could be potentially used for
public supply, and areas declared to be priorities for the conservation
of biodiversity. The text also establishes a minimum strip of 10
kilometers of land surrounding these areas to protect them.
In order to denounce the illegal actions committed by the corporation
against biodiversity, around 600 members of Via Campesina occupied
Syngentas experimental field on March 14. The rural workers solicited
Ibamas inspection.
Currently, about 100 families are still camping on the 123 hectares of
land owned by the transnational and now has the name of Terra Livre (Free
Land). These people intend to transform the ex- GMO field into a field
of Creole seeds and of agro-ecologic production, as has already happened
in other parts of the country. Syngenta, in repudiation of the decision
made by the government of Paraná to maintain the families in the area,
declared that it would leave the country.
For the MST, the corporations exit is one more proof that today seed
control has no fatherland. When the company stops gaining profits and is
unable to continue exploiting the environment, it moves to another place
and continues with a similar exploitation process. For millions of
years, human beings have improved and selected the most interesting
varieties of various species. They have used them especially for
nutritional purposes, as well as cultural and religious, in a perennial
search for an abundant food source in nature. Historically, seeds are
the basis of human survival and for that reason should not be considered
a market product, but rather a heritage of humanity!
What future do you prefer: one of family agriculture that provides five
jobs per acre, or that of large companies, such as Aracruz Celulose, that
provides one job for every 185 acres? Do you prefer a country with 2,810
properties of 20 hectares that point all their production to the workers
table, or a country in which only one company controls 56.2 thousand
hectares and exports 97% of its production
News Briefs
Monsanto’s Profits grow by 119%
Responsible for 88% of the genetically modified seeds produced in the world, the U.S. corporation Monsanto registered a profit of $833 million in the first months of 2006. The result was up 119.2% over the same period last year, with an 18.6% rise in sales.
Dear Friends of the MST,
We would like to share with you the results of our 6th National Congress on Agroecology, which has been organized every year since 2002. This congress gathers social movements, public institutions, researchers and small rural producers to debate and exchange experiences about different forms of agroecological cultivation. In addition, it strengthens the combat against transnational corporations acting on Brazilian rural areas.
This year’s congress took place at the city of Cascavel, Paraná, between 11 and 14 July, with the participation of more than 5.000 rural workers. The Congress on Agroecology is a collective political congregation in direct opposition to capitalism as well as to its main expression in rural areas: the agribusiness. This model, reproduced through plantations, slave work, violence and export-oriented production is responsible for expelling families from rural areas, destabilizing food sovereignty in Brazil, destroying and contaminating nature, human beings, and transforming our food crops in biofuels.
Nowadays, one single transnational corporation controls a large share of the productive chain. Monsanto is an example of what the markets for food and agricultural technology became. Composed of 56 different firms, Monsanto is currently the largest producer of herbicides in the world. Aiming at maximizing its profits, Monsanto holds the control over seeds, fertilizers, machinery and even over medicines used by rural workers contaminated by the intensive use of chemical products in the agriculture.
For us from the MST and for the movements composing the Via Campesina, food sovereignty will only be possible when rural producers control their seeds and food. Therefore we combat the agribusiness, which merchandizes our food and, thus, life. We struggle to invert this logic. We struggle to build up a new model of rural development, prioritizing the supply of the national market, while assigning utmost importance to the environment, human life and, most importantly, future generations.
The 6th Congress on Agroecology plays an important role in the defense of food sovereignty, crop diversity in opposition to monocultures, and of small rural producers in contrast to agribusiness transnational corporations. Agroecological cultivation is an instrument of resistance against the model of “global-colonization” to which Brazil has been submitted. In this model, Brazil provides raw materials to sustain the consumption pattern of “developed” countries, regardless of the misery and starvation of its people.
Currently, state actions in support of peasant families practicing agroecology are only limited and dispersed initiatives. Those actions are uncoordinated and do not belong to any systematic policy, on a permanent and structural basis. Besides that the repayment of the largest share of the implementation costs for these actions has been imposed to rural families and their organizations.
We understand that the Brazilian state is accountable for planning and developing public policies, which should provide incentives for peasant and agroecological production, with subsidies and special rural credits to settlements created by the National Land Reform Program as well as to small rural producers. We know, though, that the consolidation of a model based on the agroecology will only be possible by means of land reform and through a broad process of education in rural areas. Having this in mind we signed the Final Letter of the 6th Congress on Agroecology, the commitments of which we summarize below:
1) Continue the struggle against genetically modified organisms and agrotoxics.
2) Combat all forms of life merchandizing, to make sure that land, water, seeds and the biodiversity are peoples’ patrimony at service of humankind.
3) Promote information campaigns about the harms caused by agrotoxics, request a general revision of their registration documents, and propose legislation to restrict their use.
4) Broaden people’s organization for the achievement of land reform, for acknowledging the rights of traditional peoples and their different forms of land use, as well as establishing a maximum size for a piece of property.
5) Strengthen and broaden the campaign “Seeds are People’s Patrimony at the Service of Humankind”, struggling for the right of all men and women working in rural areas to produce their own seeds, so as to preserve and make possible self-production and the guarantee of food sovereignty. By means of that, transnational corporations will be prevented from obtaining an oligopolistic control over seed production and trading.
6) Combat the privatization and merchandising of water resources; defend the sacred and biological value of water; implement proposals for the protection and recovering of rivers and springs; and denounce pollution, degradation and deforestation.
7) Promote a national and international campaign for the decriminalization of militants from social movements, who have been prosecuted by the transnationals Aracruz, Monsanto and Syngenta; achieve the condemnation of these firms for their crimes against the biodiversity and national sovereignty.
In this sense, we reaffirm our commitment with Agroecology, the protection of the land and life, the preservation of biodiversity and the assurance of food sovereignty. We work for a fairer, egalitarian and sovereign Brazilian nation.
Let’s go forward!
A great struggle for everyone!
National Directorate of the MST
La Vía Campesina will form an agro-ecological contingent in Latin America
Fausto Torrez
ATC, CLOC-Vía Campesina
An agreement of technical agrarian cooperation was signed by La Via Campesina -MST and the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela on September 26, 2005, in Sabaneta, which is in Alberto Arvelo Torrealba municipality of the state of Barinas, Venezuela.
President Hugo Chavez signed the agreement in the name of the Venezuelan government and João Pedro Stedile signed in the name of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) and La Via Campesina.
One of the points establishes the need to develop all possible efforts to defend the principles of food sovereignty of our peoples, of protection and multiplication of native seeds of all types of farm production and in valuing peasant farming, the strengthening of the internal market and the search for new agrarian techniques that do not harm the environment and provide high quality food for our peoples.
In applying this agreement, a group of leaders and professionals from Latin American organizations and authorities of the Bolivarian University and the Ministry of Higher Education are in the final phase of creating an Agro-Ecological Institute with a specialization in Peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant Studies.
Its purpose is to train qualified activists for the organization and the development of agro-ecology, supporting the relations between technicians and peasant, indigenous, and afro-descendent organizations with a new ethic for the building of a new paradigm in the countryside of Latin America.
Training in humanistic, holistic, and scientific values will give a new conception to the thousands of young men and women who will strengthen the social movement in the countryside in the future, and will end up promoting a technology that is enriched with traditional knowledge and returns to practice, strengthening the food sovereignty of the peoples.
The first 250 students (50% women) begin the course in this institute in the month of September 2006, in the municipality Alberto Arvelo of the state of Barinas. This center operates within the framework of the Bolivarian Alliance of the American and of the agreements described above. In its first stage, students from the whole region will participate with Venezuelan and foreign teachers who have a high professional caliber. Above all, the school will use a participatory method that that combines social practice with school time and community time during a five year period until the student attains a professional degree.
The pedagogical method puts a focus on the classics of science without omitting traditional knowledge and the socio-cultural cosmic vision of the Indigenous and Afro-descendents. The result should be that the political thought of pedagogy is committed to the social dynamic of the popular struggle, an education that Antón Makarenco enunciated: Each person should be useful to the cause of the working class.
The Institute is named after the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, universally known in the field of popular education, based on which each student is the subject of a social project. The ethical, political, moral, and ideological values are the basis for the building of a new focus, based on the premise that only knowledge frees us. The Institute has the support of the Bolivarian University and of the Ministry of Higher Education of Venezuela and the methodological contribution of organizations which have developed a training method throughout many years: the MST, the ATC, the ANAP, etc., in general all the accumulated experience of the Latin-American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC), La Via Campesina, and the indigenous and afro-descendent organizations, who themselves have received support from the Josué de Castro Educational Institute of Brazil.
Finally, the Institute will be under the central coordination of CLOC, La Via Campesina, indigenous and afro-descendant representatives, with a circular structure of leadership and a curriculum design based on the competencies necessary to make of Agro-ecology new spaces for productive and social coexistence of the new actor who demands socialism in the 21st century.
Globalize the Struggle! Globalize Hope!
Latin American Institute of Agro-ecology "Paulo Freire" of Peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendent Studies
Nicaragua, July 2006
Dear friends of the MST,
We are choosing to send another “MST Informa? this week because of the profound nature of the subject: while we read this text, more men, women, and children, both Palestinian and Lebanese, are becoming victims of the Israeli bombardment. In this incomprehensible moment in the history of humanity, the MST joins other social movements, organizations, and groups representing the Palestinian and Lebanese communities to demand an immediate ceasefire from Israel. We believe that peace will be built through solidarity among people.
Warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE HALT TO ISRAEL’S AGRESSION AGAINST THE PALESTINIAN AND LEBANESE PEOPLE!
The Middle East is going through a period of tremendous instability because of the growing imperialist aggression, which uses all means to achieve its objectives. The World Federation of Democratic Youth, the Coordination of Social Movements and the Arab Community of the Federal District express their opposition and vehemently condemn the attacks by Israel against Lebanon and Palestine, which are causing hundreds of deaths and wounded among the Lebanese and Palestinian people.
The Israeli war machine, supported by the United States and its allies, is committing massacres against the Lebanese and Palestinian people, killing innocent people, destroying their societies and economies and devastating their territories. These recent military actions only reaffirm the only just position: to condemn U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon and its attempts to provoke instability in the country and in the region to target Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and indirectly, Iran. They want to change the political and geographical map of the region and carry out their imperialist project of a Greater Middle East, under the guise of the struggle against terrorism, of dismantling the arsenals of weapons of mass destructions and of democratizing regimes.
For going through the long road of struggle headed by the people to have real democracies in many countries, we believe that the only way for a process of democratization must be that which comes from the free desire of the peoples and not from any imperialist intervention aimed only at exploiting the peoples and the natural resources of the region.
The latest news coming from Lebanon is extremely alarming. Israeli troops have massively destroyed the Lebanese infrastructure, reaching the airport, the bridges, the energy stations, public buildings and private property. Israel once more violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon, bombarding civilian targets and terrorizing the population of Beirut and of other regions, such as the south of the country. The destruction is cruel for the victims, especially for children.
At the same time, an aerial, sea, and land blockade was imposed with all the damages that this causes the people of Lebanon. Thousands of Lebanese and foreigners of various nationalities had to hurriedly flee the country to protect themselves from Israeli bombardment.
Such attacks, launched under the pretext of the capture of Israeli soldiers and supposedly aimed only at military targets, in truth hide that the Israeli attacks were way beyond that and the civilian populations are the main victims among whom are Brazilians, peaceful and innocent people, like thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians.
Furthermore it is not possible to forget that Israel maintains more than 10 thousand Palestinians, Lebanese, and other Arab prisoners in their prisons, clearly for political motives.
We express our profound solidarity with the sister Lebanese organizations, as with all the progressive and patriotic forces in Lebanon, trusting that – as was done in the past – it will be possible to resist aggression, defend and preserve independence, sovereignty, and territorial unity of the country.
We consider that all these years of Israeli aggression and occupation against the Palestinian people show that the user of force and aggression, the building of separation walls and the settlements are not the solution. We express our great apprehension for the continuous crimes against humanity promoted by state terrorism and the forces of Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, with the destruction of the civilian infrastructure and public buildings, the imprisonment of leaders and Palestinian representatives, including members of the government, which reflects a dangerous escalation with surprising aggression on the part of Israel.
We reiterate our position of support for the sister organizations in Palestine and the struggle of this people against Israeli occupation, for an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. We struggle for the immediate dismantling of the apartheid wall that Israel is building in the occupied territories of Palestine. We consider that all the steps to arrive at a solution should be based on the rights of the Palestinian People, based on the decisions made by the United Nations. FMJD believes that the path to peace and security for both peoples is the existence of two states for two peoples.
The recent declarations from the G-8 Summit which took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia, clearly reveal the imperialist intentions toward the Middle East. It’s clear that they are trying to involve Syria in the current situation with the goal of sending an international military force to the region, opening the way for the presence of U.S. and British troops on Lebanese soil, which had already been tried after the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri in Lebanon. The nonexistence of a clear condemnation of the Israeli attacks by the UN, particularly by the Security Council, for the positions of the U.S. – underlines the need for a true democratization of the UN, opposed to the intentions of the U.S. and allies to impose reforms that consolidate the use of this multilateral organization as an international tool of giving legitimacy to interventionist actions. On the contrary, we want it to fulfill its obligation to find a balance among nations, ensuring duties and equal rights and we struggle for the strengthening of the General Assembly.
In this serious and dangerous scenario it is also important to value the courage and the important role played by the sister organizations in Israel who alongside other progressive forces, all of whom love democracy and peace, strengthen our opposition to the occupation and the violence of the State of Israel that strikes at peace, at liberty, at independence, national sovereignty, and social progress of the peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.
And we also denounce the U.S. intentions of exporting this barbarism to South America, deliberately provoking lies and prejudices that can legitimize the installation of a Yankee military base in Paraguay, dominating the Guarani Aquifer and launching an offensive against the Arab community that lives peacefully on our subcontinent, fully integrated and deserving of the friendships of the populations of our countries because we are all Latin Americans.
We denounce the prejudice and the racist and cruel campaign of stigmatizing the Arab peoples, against any religion, even more so for the case of a more than a billion people who have faced defamation, armed attacks, systematic hostilities. Humanity is one, people are not enemies of other people, nor of religions. Imperialism may threaten humanity but it will not prevail. The people will win.
Organizations signing this Public Declaration:
World Federation of Democratic Youth
Coordination of Social Movements
Arab Community of the Federal District (Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians)
Dear Friends of the MST,
We want to ask for your solidarity. On August 20, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) will deliver the final report about the 18,000 hectares of indigenous lands in the north of Espirito Santo, today owned by Aracruz Cellulose. The area originally belonged to the Tupiniquim and Guarani peoples but in 1967, the company began to plant eucalyptus indiscriminately and evicted the villages from the region. Before the arrival of Aracruz, there were 40 indigenous villages in the state. Today there are only seven. At the same time, the company also entered the lands of more than 10 thousand afro-descendants and small farmers who lived as landowners in the state. One of those responsible for the extinction of the indigenous people, Aracruz wipes out cultures and human beings.
In the lands that were formerly productive, today biodiversity is practically nonexistent. Where before there was native forest, the vegetation is now all eucalyptus, which forms an actual green desert where birds and flowers cannot reproduce themselves and no food is produced. According to reports from the indigenous peoples, even water has already begun to disappear: one foot of eucalyptus of 15 meters high is capable of absorbing around 3.6 thousand liters of water per year, threatening the water table of the region.
As a study that ended this year pointed out, if the indigenous people were still on their lands, that would not happen. The study compared the deforestation within and outside the 121 indigenous Brazilian lands, 15 national parks, 10 rubber-extracting reserves and 18 national forests between 1997 and 2000. According to the report, the indigenous lands help prevent the deforestation as much as the conservation units of indirect use such as national parks.
Faced with this situation, the indigenous people mobilized to recover the lands and in 2005, occupied the area where one of their ancestral cemeteries is located. On January 20 of this year, Aracruz Cellulose mobilized helicopters, bombs, arms, tractors, and 120 agents of the Federal Police to destroy the two rebuilt villages and evict the native peoples. The eviction was violent and left marks on the bodies and in the memory of the communities.
After the violent eviction, the Justice Minister, Márcio Thomas Bastos, promised to sign the order limiting the area as soon as he received the process with the documents. The report, which will be delivered on the 20th, points out that the indigenous territory in the state is 18,070 hectares with 11,009 hectares still in the possession of Aracruz. Besides this, the technical studies concluded that those lands are essential for the physical and cultural survival of the indigenous peoples.
Warning about the arbitrariness that is accumulating and the perverse consequences for the indigenous peoples in Espírito Santo, we demand that this time the promise must be fulfilled and human rights take priority over the economic interests of the multinational eucalyptus corporation.
To ensure the demarcation of the lands, the indigenous began a campaign of sending emails to Minister Márcio Thomas Bastos. We in the MST support the initiative and we that in some measure the historic debt with these people can be repaid. We call on all in the name of the true owners of the Brazilian lands, to join this chain of solidarity.
To participate, address your emails to: gabinetemj@mj.gov.br
A warm embrace,
from the National Secretariat of the MSTBreves
Carajás: Indemnity for only 20 of the more than 70 who were wounded
Ten years after the Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás (PA), in which 19 landless workers were killed, none of those responsible for the crime is in prison. At the beginning of August, 20 survivors won an indemnity of $R1.2 million. The value is less than half of what had earlier been ordered by the Court, and will not be paid until 2008. According to Charles Trocate, member of the national leadership of the MST, it’s a small victory. The number of wounded is over 70 but only 20 have the necessary documentation to process the claim to the State.
The library of the Florestan Fernandes National School is inaugurated
On August 5, a large commemoration marked the official opening of the library of the Florestan Fernandes National School. Around 150 people were present, including Professor Emeritus of the University of São Paulo (USP), Antônio Cândido, Professor Heloísa Fernandes, also from USP, and João Pedro Stedile, member of the national coordinating body of the MST. During his presentation, Cândido highlighted the importance of books in the lives of human beings. The book kills hunger in the head, serves as instruction and for the imagination, rights as important as food, he stated.
Dear Friends of the MST,
In this bulletin we want to talk about a very important topic for Brazil: education. But it’s impossible to speak about education without engaging in an important discussion about the economic policy that the Brazilian state has put into practice. An increase in investment in public education is the basis for every transformation in teaching in the country, which begins by increasing the number of vacancies, with conditions for access and remaining in school until arriving at an improvement in the quality of teaching. Improving quality requires structure, an investment in research and valorizing educational professionals.
Currently only 3.5% of the Gross National Product is invested in education, half of the 7% that was the goal in the National Plan for Education, which passed in January 2001. With the lack of investment in education, Brazilian public education goes down a road without exit: condemned to be scrapped completely, held hostage by a logic of commodification, which subjugates knowledge to private interests.
To change this logic is to struggle for the State to retake its role as the provider of social rights, guaranteeing quality public education for all. And in this sense, we in the MST along with other movements in the educational sector, today, August 20, begin the National Campaign in Defense of Public Education. We want quality education based on humanistic values and not subjugated to the interests of the market.
Our role in this struggle is to organize the thousands of Landless throughout the country for a broad and organized demonstration of our dissatisfaction with the state of Brazilian public education. We want education to be a universal right for everyone, but we need specific public policies for the countryside, which today is excluded. We are struggling for public schools to be built in settlement areas and encampments to ensure education at all levels.
We uphold the right of universal access to basic education and we raise the demand for literacy programs. This demand we put into practice with the National Literacy Campaign in the MST – Every Landless Person Studying, whose objective is to build terrorities that are free from illiteracy. We also have a commitment to the demand for the democratization of knowledge and for this, in August we began the National Campaign for Solidarity with the MST Libraries, whose goal is to collect 150 thousand books for the libraries in settlements and encampments throughout Brazil and for the training centers in the states, including the Florestan Fernandes National School, located in Guararema (SP).
We struggle for the universal right to higher education. For this we join with other sectors of society to democratize access to the university, with affirmative action policies to enroll and keep students, for quality teaching, investment in research and the valorization of the trainees. Besides this, we continue in defense of public universities in the rural areas, with courses based on the reality of the Brazilian countryside, that can form citizens with the critical capacity to seek solutions for the problems of the people and not to serve the interests of the accumulation of wealth for the profits of the large corporations.
For all of this, we call on the landless and all those who are dissatisfied with the current state of Brazilian education, whose outrage propels them to struggle for universal quality public education that is socially relevant. We reproduce below the letter with the main demands that are the result of the struggle of the social movements and the groups that head up the Campaign for Education.
Good struggle to everyone!
Greetings!
National Secretariat of the MST
OUR DEMANDS – WE ARE MOBILIZING:
1. To eradicate illiteracy;
2. WE WANT TO STUDY: guaranteed access for the working class to quality, socially relevant public education at all levels;
3. Implentation of affirmative action policies that are capable of reversing the historical policies of exclusion, with scholarships and student assistance to guarantee that students can remain in school;
4. Increase the public investment in public education to a minimum of 7% of the Gross National Product;
5. An expansion of vacancies with a guarantee of quality and the opening of competitions for professors and technical administrators and an adequate infrastructure;
6. Autonomy for the universities in the face of interventions by the government and its defenders;
7. In defense of university training based on teaching, research, and expansion and against the commodification of education and making knowledge into a product;
8. For an institutional evaluation of socially relevant higher education, with the participation of students, education professionals, and social movements, without being productivist, based on meritocracy, or punitive.
9. Democratic management, with same-level participation of students, technical administrators and teachers at all levels of decision-making in the institutions and teaching systems;
10. Public control of private teaching at all levels. For a common model of quality in education. For the reduction of monthly fees and against punishing those who cannot pay;
11. A guarantee that unions and students can organize freely, especially in the private institutions. In defense of the right to strike.
12. For a national educational system that prevents fragmentation among the different levels and ensures that public middle school education is compulsory.
13. Against the privatization of public teaching and of the unversity hospitals either by means of private foundations or by the approval of the project to create state foundations;
14. For the guarantee of the rights won by professors and technical adminstrators in the public institutions, against the proposed bill PLP 01;
15. For free student transit passes financed by the profits of transportation companies;
16. In defense of a national wage floor for education workers calculated by the DIEESE for a 20 hour day;
17. For the overthrow of the vetos to the National Plan of Education 2001. For the collective building of a new National Plan by Brazilian soceity that serves the historic demands of the working class;
18. For the immediate implementation of Law 10.639 /2003 in all educational levels.
MST, Via Campesina, UNE, UBES, Andes, Conlute, CMP, CMS, CONLUTAS, CONSULTA POPULAR, CONTRAPONTO, CPT, ABONG, CÍRCULO PALMARINO, DCE/PUC-PR, DCE/UFBA, DCE/UFPR, DCE/UFSE, DCE/UNIBRASIL, DCE/Unicam, DCE USP, Educafro, Denem, Enecos, ENEF, ENEFAR, Enen/ Nutrição, Exneto/ Terapia Ocupacional, , FEAB, FEMEH, GAVIÕES DA FIEL, INTERSINDICAL, JULI-RP, LEVANTE POPULAR, MAB, MAIS-PT, MARCHA MUNDIAL DE MULHERES, MCL, MMC, MMM, MOVIMENTO CORRENTEZA, MOVIMENTO MUDANÇA, MPA, MSU, PJR, REPED, ROMPER O DIA, UJC, UJR, UJS, UEE. UEE-SP.
Dear Friends of the MST,
In early Spetember, several social movements issued a statement to question the auction of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce in 1997. The sale took place while President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was in office and was marked by peculiarities that have been going on since the transfer of the Companhia, sold for 3.3 billion reais (approximately 1.7 billion dollars) when its estimated value was 40 billion dollars, through illicit favoritism of groups. Today the Vale is valued at approximately 100 billion dollars.
The privatization of the Vale meant the privatization of Brazil's historic heritage. Some of Brazil’s natural resources, such as mineral reserves and large portions of our land, were sold along with the Companhia. The mineral reserve of Carajás alone had rights to 700 thousand hectares in the Amazon Rainforest. The Companhia also had rights to the three largest railroads in the country: one that connects Carajás to São Luiz; another from Belo Horizonte to Vitória; and one more from inland Sergipe to the coast. Further, the Companhia had rights to three large ports.
None of these were the property of the Companhia. They were constructed with public money from the government’s budget, and for this reason should not have been privatized. The Vale was not a commercial enterprise owned by the State, but instead was a public company belonging to all Brazilians. Because it belonged to the people, Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government did not have the right to sell it.
During the last 10 years, there has been an intense struggle in the courts to annul the sale of the Vale do Rio Doce. The questions surrounding the sale of the Companhia led to more than one hundred class action lawsuits, 69 of which are still unresolved. Even before the auction, many lawyers tried to prevent the sale. However, at the time the Superior Tribunal of Justice (STJ), as well as the Supreme Federal Tribunal(STF), were promoting the interests of FHC’s government, and the auction could only take place covertly.
In a meeting at the end of 2006, it became clear to the social movements that, in addition to the objecting the sale in the courts, it is necessary for the people to protest publicly. The people were not consulted about the sale of their own national property, and even Congress did not approve the sale of the Companhia. Thus, a basic principle of our Constitution, which guarantees the Brazilian people the power to make the decisions which will affect the future of the country, was not respected.
Besides the question on the Vale, the plebiscite also involves another three subjects: whether the government should continue to make payment on the interest of foreign and internal debt a priority; whether electric energy should continue to be exploited by private capital; and whether voters agree with a reform of the provision that withdraws rights of the workers. The idea is to make the Popular Plebiscite a civic action for the exercise of citizenship of the Brazilian people.
The Plebiscite is part of the National Campaign for Negating the Auction of Vale do Rio Doce, a campaign that is being organized by more than 60 entities and social movements. The vote has already begun. Across the country, ballot boxes are being distributed, in order to collect the votes from September 1st to the 7th, the “Semana da Pátria” or Week of the Homeland. The dates were chosen because of the “Grito dos Excluídos” (the Shout of Those Who’ve Been Excluded) which this year takes as a theme, "The Valley Is Ours – We Want Participation in the Destiny of the Nation.”
Our objective is to press for the nullification of the auction that privatized the Vale. We cannot permit the privatization of our resources such the soil, minerals, water and air. We cannot permit handing over our material inheritance. We cannot agree with neo-liberal premise that the high value attributed to the Company today, is a result of its privatization. To the contrary, we have concrete proof that it is possible for a public corporation to succeed, as in the case of Petrobras. Further, we are certain that profit is not the foremost objective of a state company. Its objective is the well-being of the population.
For all these reasons, we want to consult the people and gather every friend of the MST to also take on this fight. Vote on behalf of Brazil. The Vale is
ours, it is of the PEOPLE!
Good fight, one and all!
We salute you!
National Leadership of the MST
To learn how to participate and to see voting locations, access the page:
www.avaleenossa.org.br
>> Below, hear audio from the campaign:
http://www.mst.org.br/mst/vozes_pagina.php?cd=4024
>> Here, see how to organize the Plebescite: http://www.mst.org.br/mst/pagina.php?cd=4054
>> Watch the videos of the campaign: Video Part 01:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6oph1muCI
- Video Part 02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBEK1Wup0dw
- Video Part 03:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfwlYZeVjF4
Dear friends of the MST,
On October 23, Brazilian society will be called upon to decide if we should outlaw arms sales. The MST and the social movements that belong to Via Campesina Brasil said a long time ago that we are definitely in favor of outlawing sales of arms and weapons.
We decided this unanimously without any doubts and we made a great effort to convince the greatest number of people about the need to do this.
Brazilian society faces many social and economic problems. We have the problem of social marginalization, which results in many crimes. We have the problem of organized crime, with groups, gangs, narco-traffickers, and weapons and drug smugglers. In general, all have ties to the ruling classes with their huge well-guarded fortunes and advantages in the national and international financial system. These problems are very serious and only huge transformations in the social, political, and economic structures will be able to combat poverty, inequality and impunity of these joint groups with their ties to systems of power and of the state. The referendum does not deal with the two problems of social marginality and of criminality.
The roots of the referendum
But the referendum, by outlawing the sale of guns to ordinary people, can help to resolve the problem of 40 thousand deaths that happen in our society every year. In around 85% of the cases the victims know the agressors. The majority are young and poor. There are also many cases of agression against spouses and girlfriends, also many accidents.
The outlawing of gun sales will dramatically reduce this type of problem. To outlaw the sale of guns is a civilized attitude, to save lives. It’s a question of establishing less aggressive means to resolve social problems.
It’s very symptomatic that spokesmen and defenders of arms sales are primarily the manufacturers who think only about profits. Besides them are the so-called “bullet bench‿, those violent lawmakers tied to the UDR, the ruralist wing, and the ultra-right.
Very symptomatic that all the fascists, the UDR, and the TFP heartily defend weapons. Why? Because they start with a conception of the world in which they, the property owners, the bourgeoisie, the ruling class, have the right to defend their patrimony with arms. They have the right to decide on life, including the life of some poor robber. This goes back to the Middle Ages. It is up to the state, to judiciary, and to laws to defend the lives of citizens. To say that each one needs to defend himself is to return to primitive law.
Very symptomatic that the most right-wing columnists, Mr. Rosenfield, the lying Veja magazine, and some right-wing military people from Rio de Janeiro, responsible for 20 years of military dictatorship, have published their defense of arms sales.
They have no interest in discussing how to save lives, how to get out of poverty and social inequality. They reduce the problems of society to the right to defend their patrimony, their privileges, their material goods. And what’s worse: according to police specialists, having a gun at home does not provide security. On the contrary, it’s a risk to one’s own life, since the bandits are always better prepared to use arms.
For this reason the MST and the churches, social movements, and progressive forces from our society struggle for the prohibition of gun sales. And we call on all to participate in the campaign and help to get a YES vote next Sunday.
On the other hand, we are sorry that this important tool that is the referendum has been so poorly used in this campaign. The spirit of the referendum is to provoke discussion and the participation of everyone. Unfortunately we have seen the use of marketing, which transformed the discussion about such a fundamental topic into simply an advertising campaign on TV. But in every political struggle, there is something to learn and we hope that this referendum helps the people to find out that they have the true power of decision making and that they cannot and must not transfer to others the power to decide the destiny of the burning issues of our society.
National Secretariat of the MST
News Briefs
Conference marks exchange of experiences about Latin American reality
From October 13 to 17, participants including MST and Via Campesina activists, students and researchers, discussed the directions for the social movements and leftist thought at the International Conference on Thought and Social Movements in Latin America and the Caribbean: Imperialism and Resistance. The meeting was held at the Fluminense Federal University in Niteroi, RJ, and theoreticians such as Che Guevara, José Martí, Sandino, José Carlos Mariátegui, Florestan Fernandes and Rui Mauro Marini were presented and discussed with the objective of motivating more study of their work.
Brazilians do not consume meat
In the first half of this year, the Tribunal of Accounts of the Union held a hearing on the National Program for Eradication of Hoof and Mouth Disease (PNEFA) and pointed out the risk of a rise in the number of sicknesses in Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, and Bahia. According to the report, by June 2 the Ministry of Agriculture had spent only .41% of the total destined to PNEFA in the 2005 budget. This investment could have avoided the blockage of exports of Brazilian meat. 180 million cattle are affected. At the same time, our country has 170 million people and very few consume meat on a daily basis. At this moment of crisis, it is obvious that we are dependent on the external market, with the alternative being that the people begin to eat more meat instead of sending all the production outside the country.
Dear Friends of the MST,
We are closely following the current hunger strike against the transposition of the São Francisco River. In this edition, we would like to give our solidarity to Bishop Flavio Cappio for his courageous decision to risk his own life in a final attempt to save the life of the river. He is prepared to pay the ultimate consequence for his decision, as it came after a long period of careful thought and reflection. Will President Lula allow something like this to leave a mark upon his government? We sincerely hope that his conscience is touched by these events and that he reverses his decision.
On a hunger strike since the 26th of September in the small chapel of São Sebastiao, in Cabrobo, Pernambuco, the waters of the Sao Francisco River are the only nourishment for the Bishop.
Tomorrow, Bishop Luiz Flavio will turn 59, the same day designated to celebrate Saint Francis. “We’ve been defending the São Francisco River and its people for 12 years. When we realized that all of our arguments based on reason weren’t sufficient to dissuade the government from carrying out the transposition project, we thought it would be better to adopt a more radical position. Who knows, if we can’t convince them through reason, then we shall argue from our hearts‿, affirmed the cleric in a letter to the people of the Northeast.
Through his gesture of sacrifice, Bishop Luiz hopes the goverment will give up its tranposition project for the river, arguing that the project seriously lacks transparency. “If they really wanted to solve the problem of water for the poor, they would have proposed a plan basd on where the river currently flows, not try to alter the entire course of the river. And, even 500 meters away from the current margins of the river, people don’t have water. This project introduces the big business of water management in Brazil. It will benefit big companies, the creation of a shrimping industry, and big irrigation companies‿, he says.
According to the Bishop, the government should provide incentives for and invest in methods that are proven to provide better access to water for poor people, such as small-scale projects creating watering holes, dams, and ways to take advantage of rainwater and water in the subsoil. “There exist many more economical ways to solve the problem‿, he added.
The Bishop received a visit from a representative of the president, Selvino Rech. A letter from Lula insisted on the advantages of transposition, but opened up the possibility for dialogue. “After we are no longer haunted by the execution of this transposition project, we are fully open to a wide dialogue and national debate, truthful and transparent, to discuss alternative forms of existence with the semi-arid environment, and the possible benefits or lack thereof that transposition would provide‿, responded the Bishop.
“And if the President doesn’t change his mind about the project?‿, questioned a journalist. “If the president doesn’t change his thinking, then the people will give up their life‿, concluded the Bishop.
For the MST, we believe that the Brazilian populace should be heard via a popular plebiscite about this issue, for example, like the referendum on arms and munition sales and so many other subjects that affect the destiny of Brazil. We need to adopt direct democracy in our country.
To sign the manifesto in favor of Bishop Luiz Flavio and against the transposition of the Sao Francisco River, go to:
http://www.umavidapelavida.com.br
Yours truly,
National Secretariat of the MST
News Briefs
Solidarity and Volunteer Work Week
The MST is supporting Solidarity and Volunteer Work Week from Oct. 3-9 in all the counties with MST encampments and settlements. There will be donations of Agrarian Reform products for day-care centers, hospitals, asylums, schools, and health clinics. The rural workers will also clean up public plazas besides planting trees in honor of the fighter Ernesto Che Guevara, assasinated on Oct. 9th, 1967.
Agribusiness doesn’t produce or encourage industry
The earnings of the agricultural machinery industry toook a fall this year. Between January and August of 2005, the earnings were 34.7% lower than the same period a year ago. The sector’s imports and exports also diminished drastically, demonstrating the fallacy of investing in agribusiness.
Day of Struggles Mobilized the Landless All Over the Country
Between Sept. 26 and 30, the MST executed a series of activities in more than 20 states, including meetings with the government. The objective of the mobilization was to hold the government accountable to the seven terms agreed upon during the National March for Agrarian Reform held in May of this year. Thirty bulidings belonging to the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) were occupied, as well as 21 unused, unproductive estates, 10 funding agencies in Sao Paulo and one in Minas Gerais, 6 toll houses in Parana and interstate highways in 3 states.
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Amy Catelani
MST: new series of mobilizations
Landless workers organize protests and occupations to demand swift action from the government in agrarian reform and changes in economic policies.
by Igor Ojeda, from the editorial staff of Brasil de Fato
No one knows if President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reelected on October 29th, will fulfill campaign promises in his second term – such as those to not reduce rights of retired persons or to prioritize the poor.
What is certain is that Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) has already begun to fulfill theirs. Besides having supported Lula in the second round, facing the threat which the candidacy of PSDB's Geraldo Alckmin represented, the movement increased the pressure for agrarian reform.
Last week, the MST began another series of confrontations, with occupations, marches and protests throughout the country. Besides more general demands, such as swiftness in the federal government's agrarian reform, and changes in economic politics to make this possible, they are demanding:
– fulfillment of the goals established by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in the states;
– seizure of land whose owners are involved in drug trafficking and grilagem (illegal possession of an area through the use of falsified documents) or have debts with the government and carry out experiments with transgenic seeds;
– itinerant schools in the camps;
– infrastructure, technical assistance and credits for the camps;
– signing of ownership papers for areas already purchased by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA);
– and updates of productivity indexes.
According to the Law of the Summary Rite, the papers should be signed within 48 hours of the purchase. However, some judges take years to make the land seizures official. The productivity indexes utilized today by INCRA as parameters for the land seizures are from the 1970s. In other words, they are 30 years out of date. Despite reiterated promises, the government still has not updated them.
Mobilizations
In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the MST carried out protests in Arroio dos Ratos, Eldorado do Sul, Santana do Livramento, São Gabriel and São Borja. The movement requests from INCRA the completion of the settlement goal of 1,070 families in 2006. As of now, only 98 were settled. Furthermore, they are demanding the seizure of Guerra, Dragão and Southall farms, which would make possible the settlement of the 2,500 families camped in the state. Together, the three have an area of 23.5 thousand hectares. Each hectare is more or less equivalent to a soccer field.
According to a note from the MST state coordination of Rio Grande do Sul, in the early morning hours of the 14th, the Military Brigade, connected to the state government, once again psychologically tortured an occupation in São Borja. Car sirens were blared, the police officers screamed insults at the landless workers and, around 2:30, fired rounds of bullets above the huts. A similar event had already occurred in March, in Coqueiros do Sul.
In Paraná, Via Campesina, an entity in which the MST participates, occupied once more the farm of transnational Syngenta Seeds, in Santa Tereza do Oeste, on the 13th, the same day in which the state government confirmed having declared the seizure of the area due to the illegal implementation of transgenic experiments.
In the capital, Curitiba, approximately 600 landless workers camped out in front of the headquarters of the INCRA Regional Superintendent, demanding updates of the productivity indexes, changes in economic politics and the expansion of Itinerant Schools in the encampments. On the 14th, they marched to the Tribunal of Accounts of the Union (TCU) to resume the technical assistance agreement in the settlements. Approximately 8,000 families are camped in the state and only 3,000 were settled in the four years of Lula's government. The goal was 9,000.
Violence
In Ilha Solteira, in the northwest of the state of São Paulo, approximately 300 landless workers occupied a branch of Banco do Brasil on the 14th. 1,500 families are camped in the region. In the region of Pontal do Paranapanema, in the western region of the state, 170 families occupied two farms (one in Rosana, the other in Rancharia) on the 10th, already acquired by the Land Institute of São Paulo but not yet designated for settlement. On the 12th, the landless workers that occupied Porto Maria farm in Rosana were attacked by 20 guards at the orders of Miro Conti, “grileiro? (an owner who has taken illegal possession of an area through the use of falsified documents) of the area. Even women, children and elderly people were assaulted.
In Aracaju, the capital of Sergipe, members of the MST who study Agronomy in the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) occupied the INCRA headquarters on the 13th to demand an end to the withholding of resources necessary for the continuation of classes for the landless workers. On the 14th, INCRA guaranteed that it would release the funds, available since last year.
In the municipality of Sobradinho, in the Federal District, approximately 200 families occupied Sálvia farm, a grilagem area which rightfully belongs to the TCU, demanding its seizure.
original:
http://www.brasildefato.com.br/v01/agencia/nacional/news_item.2006-11-15.0575965099
Dear Friends of the MST,
In the last few days, the Congressional Committee of Inquiry on Land Issues was center stage on the national scene. There are two antagonistic sides in this confusion of information: on one side are the defenders of the implementation of Land Reform as a mechanism for national development. On the opposite side, the Congressmen tied to the Rural Democratic Union (UDR), agribusiness, and rural violence.
The accusations made by Congressmen on the right are related to the use of public funds. We emphasize that the MST, as a social movement, has no legal power to access public funds. The families in the rural settlements enjoy partnerships with groups committed to Land Reform. Among these numerous groups, some have agreements with the National Association of Farm Cooperation (ANCA), the National Confederation of Land Reform Cooperatives (CONCRAB) and the Technical Institute for Training and Research on Land Reform (ITERRA), which are being investigated. The MST is proud of the work carried out by these groups, which are capable and serious in their treatment of public matters. They help to fight illiteracy, build alternative health resources in rural areas and work to preserve the environment, among other initiatives. They develop rural life in practice, turning the countryside into a good place to live. They are partners and autonomous groups that respond with their actions and financial flows. Its history shows that the MST is a movement independent of any political party, NGO, group, union, or church and will maintain this independence as a political principle.
Our schools were also attacked in the report of the right-wingers, ignoring the advances won by the men and women rural workers: 60,000 landless have been taught to read and write in just the last two years. To place yourself against them is to place yourself against the cultural advancement of the people. This is exactly what the elite desire: for the rural poor to have no knowledge in order not to feel the chains that bind them, keeping them in ignorance.
The MST is in favor of transparency in the administration of all public funds and we support the investigations, regardless of who is involved. We do not agree about the use of the Commission on Land Issues as a stage for ideological struggle and attempts to criminalize the Movement. What is in question in this CMPI on Land is the necessity and importance of carrying out Land Reform in Brazil, indispensable for the consolidation of democracy and social justice.
We share below the special interview granted by Deputy João Alfredo (PSOL-CE), reporter of the Commission on Land Issues, who appointed the main questions raised by the Commission in two years of work. For him, “the first solution (for the question of land) is that the government has to fulfill its goal‿. The report was read in the Commission on Tuesday, November 22, when congressmen on the right asked to see it.
Did the Commission correspond to its initial proposals?
João Alfredo: I have always said that the challenges of this Commission on Land Issues and of this report were immense. First of all for handling the land question, that has not been resolved in Brazil for five centuries. The Commission would have to analyze our whole history and the size of the country. This is an immense challenge for two years.
Secondly, for the passion, interests, struggles, and debates on the land question. If Land Reform never happened in our country it’s because the strength of the large landowners was very great. To look at this question is to view an open wound: that of the concentration of land in the hands of the few. Today, 1.6% of the landowners have almost 50% of the properties in all of Brazil. It is the violence of the concentration of land, which added to physical violence, victimized almost 1,400 workers, lawyers, unionists, and religious in the last few years. Of these cases, only 70 were verified.
Besides the deaths, we also have impunity. In the period in which the Commission was working, we had the death of Sister Dorothy Stang, who gave testimony in the Commission and at that time told about the situation of extreme tension in Altamira (PA), where Anapu is located. We had the death of two inspectors from the Labor Ministry who were looking into the problem of slave labor in Unaí (MG) and the slaughter of Felisburgo (MG). Already at the end of the report, there were more deaths in Pernambuco and in Pará. It’s a very great challenge, even more in a Commission where the right-wing ruralists are in the majority and continue to invert the goal of the Commission to reach the social movements.
I tried to be faithful to the goals of the Commission, which were: 1. to diagnose the land issue, 2. to analyze the processes of Land Reform that had already taken place in Brazil and the problem of violence in the countryside and 3. the solutions for all of this. The land problem in Brazil is not an accounting problem, either of the MST or of the ruralist groups. Even when these received in the last few years $R 1 billion, while the groups linked to the workers received $R41 million. That’s not it. It’s a question of the root of the problem: of understanding the problem of land concentration, of land grabs, of knowing if there is land for Land Reform and that there is a demand of more than 3 million people for this. And we need to say that the governments did not have the political will to carry out Land Reform. The Cardoso government that expropriated much less than it bragged about, invested in a market-based Land Reform through farm credits, abandoning the settlements.
Many suggestions were given in the report. What were the most important?
J.A.: If we identify the main problems as land concentration, land grabs, rural violence, and slave labor, we can point to solutions. The first solution is for the government to fulfill its goal. There is less than a year until the end of the government’s term and only 45% of the settlement goals were fulfilled. This is very low. And more seriously: in next year’s budget, the funds for the payment of expropriations were cut by 40%. It’s also necessary to fulfill the goals in the other areas. On the question of giving titles to good-faith possessions of up to 100 hectares, only 1% was fulfilled. From the point of view of geo-referencing, which is carrying out registration for the problem of illegal occupancy after land grabs, especially in Pará, only 1% was fulfilled. The strengthening of INCRA is related to this.
We want to change the laws to make the expropriation process speedier, by changing the productivity indexes and the time periods for the expropriation transaction. If we look at the problem of land grabbing, a correction is needed in the notary offices, which are full of corruption, and we need the approval of a proposal for a constitutional amendment to make the notary offices a state function in Brazil.
On the question of rural violence, there are evidently proposals for indictments, such as that of the president of the Democratic Rural Union, which has initiated the formation of private militias, as well as other ruralist leading groups. A task force of the federal police is necessary to disband all these private militias and disarm them. We also need to set up agrarian hearings and mediation commissions in the states and we need changes in the legislation so that in collective conflicts the judges cannot return land that has been expropriated without first going to the site along with the prosecuting attorney. And the owner has to prove the social function of his land. This is fundamental because the evictions in the countryside are a source of more violence.
In regards to impunity, we want to approve agrarian judgeships within the Federal court system and work on the construction of a Court for Land Issues, just as there is for Labor. It will be a specialized court from the judge, to the courts for those who have been evicted, expropriations, collective questions linked to conflicts over land, possession and execution of Land Reform, the federal Court of Accounts, and also for 10 states that received concrete proposals.
We want to create in the Chamber of Deputies a Commission on Land Reform and Rural Justice because these questions of Land Reform and rural conflicts have no space in the commissions. Either they are handled in the Agriculture Commission, which is dominated by the right-wing landowners and ends up focusing on the interests of agribusiness or in the Commission on Human Rights, together with other topics related to this problem. We think that the land question is so important that it deserves its own commission.
Sincerely,
National Secretariat of the MST
NOTE: The Full Text of João Alfredo's Report (in Potuguese) can be accessed by visiting:
http://www.joaoalfredo.org.br/relatroriocpi.htm
News Briefs
Killers of Sister Dorothy will go on trial in December
Vitalmiro Bastos Moura, o Bida, Regivaldo Pereira Galvão e Rayfran Neves Sales, accussed of assassinating Sister Dorothy Stang in February 2005 will go on trial December 9 and 10. To send messages demanding justice in this crime, write to cptpa@conectus.com.br
It is the latifundio owners and their defenders who are heinous
By Marcos Rogério de Souza*
The Congressional Committee of Inquiry on Land Issues (CPMI) concluded its activities, approving a lateral report that criminalizes the MST’s activities and impedes progress for agrarian reform. The document is so reactionary that it ends up recommending the approval of two bills that classify the behavior of those who occupy land in order to pressure the government to make agrarian reform as "heinous and terrorist acts."
Prepared by rural deputy Abelardo Lupion, who is known in the Brazilian parliament as an intransigent defender of agricultural credit swindlers and rural landowners accused of raising private militias, the report dedicates more than 200 of its 365 pages to the MST. Two thirds of the remaining pages describe the activities of the CPMI and reproduce the TCU’s opinion on the super-invoicing in expropriation and other irregularities in the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform’s activities during the FHC administration (curiously, the text does not explore irregularities related to the previous administration).
The entire Brazilian agrarian problem, including the processes of agrarian reform and the juridical land order, is treated in less than forty pages. The document barely dedicates a single line to the analysis of violence in the countryside, to the existence of private militias, to illegal land appropriation, slave labor, or landowners’ movements. In regard to Pernambuco, for example, it lists only the death of a soldier of the military police, omitting that, from 2003 until today, 15 leaders of rural workers have been killed (three of these in the last two months). In regard to Pará, there is no mention of conflicts, illegal land appropriation, or even the death of Sister Dorothy Stang. The approved report’s authoritarian conception, both bigoted and fascist, is evident in the principal argument used for the purpose of criminalizing the landless, which is repeated to exhaustion: the MST is “a revolutionary movement of the left‿, “its goal is socialist revolution‿ and its philosophy “is leftist and revolutionary‿. Also, without any foundation, it states that the MST “does not hesitate to deviate resources, public or private.‿
Whatever similarity this has with the movement aimed at criminalizing the left, particularly the PT, which is being accomplished by the Brazilian right through the postal service, bingo houses, and the media, is not mere coincidence. The report is explicit in its proposal to eradicate the MST, the left, and socialists. It completely ignores that the Federal Constitution guarantees democracy, political pluralism, and the free manifestation of thought and is the reason that simply being socialist or possessing a leftist ideology does not constitute a crime.
The opinion is prepared by Deputy Abelardo Lupion and, in its classification of land occupation as a “heinous crime‿ and a “terrorist act‿, becomes the first official document of the Brazilian Congress to incorporate the “Bush doctrine‿ of “the war against terror‿. When it recommends without any basis the indictments of ANCA director Pedro Christofolli, of the former director José Trevisol, and of CONCRAB President Francisco Dalchiavon, all from organizations that work closely with the MST, the report shows its true colors: it is in itself a manifestation of the ruralists’ hate for landless workers.
What is curious is to know that the text was approved instead of a report presented by Deputy João Alfredo. The legitimate supervisor of the CPMI since its formation in December of 2003, João Alfredo participated in all of the trips and public hearings held by the Commission. His report, which includes more than 740 pages and 150 recommendations, reflects the objective for which the CPMI was created, which is to come up with “an ample diagnosis of the Brazilian agrarian structure, the processes of agrarian and urban reform, workers’ social movements, along with landowners’ movements‿. It analyzes agrarian structure; identifies causes of violence in the countryside; treats slave labor; examines workers’ and landowners’ social movements equally; analyzes agrarian reform processes; looks at land supply and demand; reflects on the legislation directed at agrarian reform processes, presenting proposals for its improvement; and dedicates more than 300 pages to the analysis of the agrarian question in the states. Aside from this, it analyzes the urban question, in particular the violent displacement of more than 14.000 families of the Sonho Real occupation in Goiânia.
By rejecting a substantial opinion that matched the agrarian reality and that offered proposals to support agrarian reform, the majority of the members of CPMI chose not to contribute to the guarantee of the rights of those workers fighting for land in the countryside and in cities. On the other hand, by approving a lateral report, this same majority chose the path of making ownership rights absolute and of placing the responsibility for the violence in the countryside in the hands of the victims. The approval of a report that is so incredibly reactionary shows that the ruralist faction continues to be one of the most influential interest groups in the National Congress.
The approved report really and truly is heinous. The document criminalizes social movements associated with land reform and favors unproductive large estates. It represents an ode to violence. Instead of contributing to a solution for the agrarian problem, it serves more as an obstacle in the path of the implementation of agrarian reform and of social justice in the Brazilian countryside.
* Marcos Rogério de Souza is mastering in law at UNESP – Franca Campus and Inspector of the Report of the Land CPMI of the National Congress
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Kristen Schlemmer
We live in a dominant economic system that for centuries has engaged in the unlimited exploitation of all ecosystems and their natural resources. This strategy has generated economic growth and, for some countries, what has been called "development," and has privileged the consumption and well-being of a small fraction of humanity. And, unfortunately, it has excluded the great majority of humanity from access to minimum conditions for survival.
The costs of this system of exploitation of nature and of human beings, and of uncontrolled consumerism, has been paid with the sacrifice of millions of poor working people, peasants, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and the poorer people in society, who give their lives every single day. And this is accompanied by on-going aggression against Nature, that has been and still is systematically devastating. The integrity and diversity of life forms, which are the basis of biodiversity, are under threat. Nature on our planet is threatened, as is human life, which depends on Nature. Even the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment conducted by the UN, and released in 2005, recognizes that, "human activities are fundamentally and irreversibly changing the diversity of life on planet Earth. These changes will only accelerate in the future." In this important recognition of the planetary crisis, it is critical that we recognize that it is not all human activity that is so damaging, but rather, above all, those actions guided by the uncontrolled drive for profit of transnational corporations.
Faced with this dramatic situation, we feel the need to affirm alternatives that can assure a hopeful future for life, for humanity, and for the Earth. We need to pass from an industrial production society, consumerist and individualistic, that sacrifices ecosystems and penalizes human beings, while destroying social and biological diversity, to a society that sustains life. This must be a society in motion toward a life that is socially just and ecologically sustainable, and that takes care of the community of life and protects the physio-chemical and ecological bases of support for all living systems, including that of human beings.
As inhabitants of the American continent we are conscious of our universal responsibility. Through us, also, passes the future of the Earth. The Amazonian and Andean countries, for example, like Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil, are mega-diverse countries. Not just because of the presence of very rich ecosystems, but also because of of the many indigenous peoples, peasants, quilombolas and other local communities, that over centuries and millennia have learned to co-exist with biological and cultural diversity. The Amazon forest in our countries makes up a third of all tropical forests in the world, and contains more than 50% of the biodiversity. In it there are at least 45,000 species of plants, 1,800 species of butterflies, 150 species of
bats, 1,300 species of freshwater fish, 163 species of amphibians, 305 species of reptiles, 311 species of mammals, and 1,000 species of birds.
Because of this richness, Latin America is the object of the greed of the "neoliberal global-colonizers," via the action of dozens of transnational corporations, principally companies from the Global North, who are shamelessly engaged in bio-piracy. If it once was the race for gold and silver, today it is the race to monopolize genetic and pharmacological resources and the traditional and local knowledge that accompanies them, which have become strategic resources for the future of business in the global market. And they want to impose upon us patent laws and protections for their windfall profits.
We want to confront, decisively, this process of exploitation and destruction. We propose consistent policies that:
1. Conserve the biological and cultural diversity of our ecosystems, including all the living organisms in their habitats, and protect the interdependencies among them, within the dynamic equilibrium that characterizes each ecological region, together with the socially and ecologically sustainable interaction with the peoples that inhabit each region.
2. Guarantee the integrity and beauty of ecosystems and of the peoples that conserve and depend on them. This implies preserving the features of ecosystems that assure their functioning and maintain the identity of living beings in their territorial, biological, social, cultural, landscape level, historic and monumental aspects. The preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and of the integrity and beauty of ecological systems, can assure the sustainability of the multiple environmental functions and benefits for human beings today and in future generations. Among these are: clean water, food, medicine, wood, fiber, climate regulation, and flood and disease prevention. At the same time they constitute the basis of recreation, esthetics, and of spirituality, while at the same time supporting the soil, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling, among other vital functions for all of humanity.
3. We oppose, decisively, the introduction of exotic species that are non-adaptive for our ecosystems, as has happened in many biomes with the promotion of homogeneous, industrial plantations of Eucalyptus, pine, etc., that destroy natural ecosystems and have severe, negative social impacts on the peoples that inhabit these areas. What they produce is profit for a few, dollars, cellulose, carbon, polluted water, a degraded environment, and poverty.
4. We strongly oppose the liberation of transgenic organisms in the environment, whether in farms, plantations, ranching or whatever other activity in the environment. Beyond being unnecessary, they are essentially useless for anything other than transnational corporate profits. They represent potential risks to human health and can cause irreversible damage to Nature and ecosystems. We emphatically oppose the introduction of transgenic trees, which represent an even grater danger, because, among other reasons, their pollen can be disseminated over many miles or kilometers, inevitably contaminating other forest species, including native species, and they can have multiple impacts on flora, insects and other components of fauna, and can undercut the basis of the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, peasants, quilombolas and other local communities.
5. We pledge to combat Terminator seeds because they put life itself -- and its reproduction -- at risk, as they are "suicide seeds" that only benefit the transnational corporations that control our seeds, imposing a position of dependence on farmers.
6. We oppose the attempt of the imperial government of the United States and its transnational corporations to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on us, as well as diverse bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), treaties to protect foreign investment, and agreements adopted in totally undemocratic manners at Summits and in the WTO. These agreements put our Nature, our agriculture, our services, and the living conditions of our populations at greater risk, and only prioritize guarantees in the interest of profits.
7. We express our support for, and recognition of, the peoples and communities who over centuries and millennia have developed our agricultural biodiversity, through the selection and conservation of the seeds that today are the basis of the world's agriculture and of humanity's food supply. To maintain this basis of our sustenance, this enormous richness of agricultural and culinary diversity, we must recognize and affirm the rights of peasants, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, quilombolas and others, to land, territory and to natural resources, so that they can continue to carry out the essential task for humanity of conserving diverse local seed varieties, which can only take place at the local level. We will fight those companies that seek control over our seeds, against the traditions of the peoples who are the stewards of our seeds, who always understood seeds as the source of life, which should never be turned into mere commodities.
Finally, we express our hope that these resolutions benefit our peoples and benefit our food sovereignty -- that is, the right of each and every people to produce their own food, in conditions of good health and social justice, and in balance with Nature. We defend those who work in the countryside, our farmers and peasants. We defend their right to live as farmers, and to thusly guarantee the sustenance of our populations. This peasant mode of production contributes decisively to the sustainability of our planet, and to integral, broad-based development, essential for the future of humanity.
April 20, 2006
Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana, Brazil, building an America free of GMOs and aggression against the environment.
1. Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela
2. Roberto Requião, Governor of Parana
3. Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate, Argentina
4. Eduardo Galeano, writer. Uruguay
5. Peter Rosset, food sovereignty researcher. USA/Mexico
6. Pat Mooney, ETC-Group, specialist in the impacts of GMOs and other new technologies, Canada
7. Silvia Ribeiro, researcher ETC-Group, Mexico
8. Noam Chosmki, linguist, MIT, USA
9. Atilio Boron, social scientist, CLACSO, Argentina
10. Violeta Menjivar, Mayor of San Salvador, El Salvador
11. Camille Chalmers, Jubilee South, HAITI
12. Ramon Grosfoguel, Puerto Rico
13. Doris Gutierrez, Congresswomen, Honduras
14. Monica Batoldano, ex-comandante Sandinista. Nicaragua
15. Ernesto Cardenal, poet, priest and ex-minister of culture, Nicaragua
16. Gioconda Belli, poet. Nicaragua
17. Raul Suarez, Baptist pastor and congressman. Cuba
18. Miguel Altieri, professor of agroecology, Univ. California, USA/CHILE
19. Fernando Lugo, Catholic bishop. Paraguay
20. Blanca Chancoso, Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, CONAIE - Ecuador
21. Hebe de Bonafini, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina
22. Aníbal Quijano, social scientist, Peru
23. Leonardo Boff, theologian and writer, Brazil
24. Beth Carvalho, cantautora. Brasil
25. Mons. Pedro Casaldaliga, Bishop and poet - Brazil
26. Mons Ladislau Biernaski, Catholic bishop, Curitiba. Brasil
27. Monja Coen, Buddhist nun, Brazil
28. João Pedro Stedile, leader of MST-Via Campesina-Brazil
29. Temistocles Marcelos Netto. Nat. Sec'ty Environmet, CUT. Brazil
30. Leticia Sabatela, actress, Artists Human Rights Movement, Brazil
31. Nalu Faria, World March of Women, Brazil
32. Pedro Ivo Batista. Eco-socialist Network. Brasil
Dear friends of the MST,
We are publishing this special edition of MST Informa in order to communicate with our comrades who are active in different peoples’ organizations. We want to speak to you all about the situation of Agrarian Reform in Brazil and also about the realization of the 5th National Congress of the Landless Workers Movement (MST).
Brazil is living in a complex moment in her history. We had an economic model of dependent industrialization that organized our economy for 50 years—and that, at least, made the economy grow. This model entered a crisis. The economy is practically paralyzed for 20 years. The Brazilian elites, more and more subordinated to the interests of foreign capital and the banks, are implementing a new model, based on this financial and international capital. It is called neoliberalism. But this model has just aggravated the problems of the people.
More Agrarian Reform does not fit with an economy that has at its center only exports, banks, and wealthy economic groups. About 200 businesses control the major part of the economy and 78% of all of the exports. Therefore, you all must hear the corporate press talk a lot about how Agrarian Reform is not acceptable.
Agrarian Reform is not only to seize the large plantation (latifúndio), divide it in lots and release it to the countryside’s poor to manage. Agrarian Reform remains more complex because foreign capital, transnational entities, wealthy economic groups control our agriculture to export raw materials, to produce cellulose and energy, for their mode of consumption. However, more than anything Agrarian Reform is necessary. A reorganization of not only the concentration of land in Brazil, but also the skills of production.
5th Congress
The MST is discussing with its bases (grassroots) and its allies a new program of Agrarian Reform. An Agrarian Reform that should begin with the democratization of landed property, but that also organizes a different form of production. Prioritizing the production of food for the internal market combined with an economic model that distributes income.
We want an Agrarian Reform that keeps people in the rural areas, combating the exodus from the countryside, and that guarantees the conditions of life for the people. With education at all levels, good housing and jobs for the youth.
These topics will be discussed in the 5th Congress, between June 11th and 15th, in Brasilia. It would be very good if you all could go to our Congress. Because it would be impossible to unite so many people, we are sending this LETRAVIVA in order to share what will be discussed there, between the approximately 17.5 thousand participants, including landless rural workers, international delegates and observers who are anticipating that this will be the largest Congress in the MST’s history.
Agrarian Reform is not only a problem of the landless, or the MST, or Via Campesina. It is a necessity for all of Brazilian society and, especially for the people, the 80% of the population that lives by their own work and that needs a new model of economic organization with incomes and jobs for all.
Certainly, we will continue in the struggle, together, in the construction of a society more just, fraternal and egalitarian, that is the dream of all honest, diligent Brazilians.
Agrarian Reform: For Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty!
National Leadership of the MST
Dear Friends of the MST
The political and social crisis that Brazil is facing is an opportunity for activists and society in general to discuss possible solutions. The MST, along with 45 organizations and movements, signed a DECLARATION TO THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE, that makes the following recommendations to the government:
1- Ministerial reform, suspending conservative and/or corrupt ministers
2- Changes to economic policy
3- Wide-sweeping political reform
4- Fulfillment of social rights guaranteed in the Brazilian Constitution, such as the right to work, land, housing, education and culture, which are kept out of reach by current economic policy.
5- Discussions with society regarding a new model of development, possible with the reemergence of mass movements.
Unfortunately, part of the bourgeois press refused to publish the social movements’ declaration and opted to misrepresent it as a show of support for Lula. To clarify the content of the declaration, the MST affirms that we will only overcome the crisis by adopting the five above measures. The solutions are not based in party politics, which would increase “governability‿, but not resolve the people’s problems, such as access to land, unemployment, hunger, the distribution of wealth and lack of popular participation in government decisions. To stimulate debate and reflection around this issue, we disseminate the following contribution of State Representative Father Sérgio Görgen (PT-RS).
The Political Reform that Brazil needs
By Father Sérgio Görgen
1. Direct Democracy: create permanent mechanisms for direct popular participation in political decisions.
2. Social Control over the State: popular participation via mechanisms to control the budget of all branches of government; popular participation in the auditing of the government and punishing all parties implicated in corruption; convocation of popular participation in whistle-blowing and testifying against corruption, while protecting their identity; the establishment of promoters who audit the State; ban on corrupt companies’ participation in any government contracts.
3. End the spoils system: an end to the individual congressional amendments, prohibition of public officials maintaining ties to companies that hold state contracts.
4. End of Career Politicians: prohibition on more than two consecutive terms, and a requirement that a four year pause precede election to a new office or appointment to a post.
5. Recall options: in addition to the already existing option of a recall referendum, recalls via judicial order or by party vote.
6. Limited Immunity: End of congressional immunity, except in cases related to the right to opine and complain or in functions that are directly related to the office held.
7. Direct Democracy: On-going convocation of plebiscites, referenda and consultations in important decisions.
8. Campaign Finance and Political Parties: public financing for political campaigns; strict laws banning private money, whether personal or from third parties.
9. Politicians’ wages: calculated as the average of the public servants’ wages in the district elected (federal congressmen, average of federal employees; state congressmen, average of state employees, etc.)
10. Party Loyalty: ban on changing parties for three years after election; party term, if official leaves their party, their position remains within the party; reversibility contingent on a democratic decision by the party in question.
11. Expanded Special Legislative Assemblies: deliberation and approval of budgets, budget guidelines and annual municipal, state and federal plans by expanded legislative assemblies of representatives elected for two year terms, to discuss and vote on the laws with candidates not only from political parties, but also labor unions, associations, social movements and student organizations.
12. Popular Initiatives: precedence for processing and voting on initiatives with a minimum number of verified signatures of voters.
13. Popular Municipal Assemblies: end of city councils as they currently exist, establishment of Popular Municipal Assemblies, with no fixed salary, and a per diem to offset costs for meetings; municipal assemblies with full-time city councils only in cities of more than 100,000 residents (in which there would be Popular Assemblies by neighborhood); access to representation in the Municipal Assemblies conferred by membership in political parties, associations, social movements, labor unions, student organizations, etc.
14. Representation by gender and historically excluded ethnic groups: minimum quotas in all municipal, state and federal legislative arenas for indigenous peoples (when applicable), blacks and women.
15. Executive offices (President, Governors, Mayors) of six years with no possibility of reelection: up until the fourth year of office, signatures of 30% of registered voters could justify a recall election and if they receive more than half of the votes could suspend the term of the executive and call new elections.
16. Unicameral National Congress: end of the Senate, and when a decision requires balance between the states, the votes of the state delegations in the Brazilian Congress will be weighed equally, regardless of the state’s population.
National Secretariat of the MST
NEWS BRIEFS
Via Campesina discusses the debt owed by ranchers in the Brazilian Congress
On June 27th, representatives of the Via Campesina, congressmen and small farmers discussed the debt owed by ranchers. Since 1980, latifundiários have postponed their debt payments and have still not paid them. Social movements ask that Lula propose the exchange of their debts for land, to be destined to Land Reform.
Pará Court pursues suit against landless
The most recent chapter of violence in the state of Pará is the largest displacement of landless camps carried out in Brazil to date. Judge Líbio Moura, of the Land Court of Marabá authorized the eviction of 48 landless camps. The court, created by the state government in 2003, was intended to mediate rural conflicts. Nearly 20,000 people will be homeless at the end of the operation.
MST supports plebiscite to prohibit arms sales in Brazil
The number of firearms deaths in Brazil in the last 10 years surpassed the number of victims in 26 armed conflicts around the world, including the Gulf War and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. During this period 325,551 people died from gun wounds, an average of 32,555 deaths per year. Statistics from UNESCO.
translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Lincoln Ellis
Dear Friends,
Today we are sharing the Manifesto of the Economists for a New Economic Policy, which was launched today during the events that marked the Day of the Rural Worker.
National Secretariat of the MST
:The Crisis of the Republic: Manifesto of the Economists for a New Economic Policy
Everyone agrees that the Republic is in crisis. We also believe that the crisis is deep. But what crisis are we talking about? We believe that the New Republic, born over the ashes of the dictatorship in 1985 promising a better country, finally succumbed before the interests of the country’s ruling classes and died. The current crisis – political, economic, social, and ethical -- can only be resolved if the pillars of the agreement that sustained the transition of the dictatorship to democracy and which were protected and nourished by all the following governments up to now, were substituted by a program that meets the most deeply-felt demands of the people and restores the national and popular sovereignty that every Republic worthy of the name must possess.
The economic strategy that chose to fight inflation as the main political objective is completely weakened and broken, despite still having many defenders inside and outside of government. After numerous plans, the people are even poorer: Brazil is not the country that has the highest concentration of income in the world because an African country (Sierra Leone) is worse. Only last year, the number of millionaires – people with assets of more than US$1 million, grew by 7%. Currently almost 100,000 people control 50% of the country’s wealth.
The economic and political program conceived and initially applied in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and which still rules the country, needs to be drastically and urgently replaced. This program – originally known as the Plano Real and that currently goes by the name of “economic stability‿ – not only created millions of poor people but continues compromising the future of generations to come by handing over our territory, increasing the national debt and worsening the country’s dependence.
The austerity applied to the people, with systematic cuts in social spending and increasing resources destined to the payment of the internal and external debts, deepens the parasitic and predatory relation of national and foreign entrepreneurs with the Brazilian state. The increase in taxes is to pay the interest on the debt and this ensures safe profits to all those who invest in bonds of the public debt: bankers, entrepreneurs, and rentists of every type.Corruption of political parties and politicians is only the most visible face of a deeper process that can only be effectively corrected if the State is strengthened and de-privatized. Privatization and the weakness of the State are the main sources of corruption in Brazil!
The owners of power claim that exports can save the country but the truth is that this option forgets the vitality of the internal market and keeps salaries low as a condition to compete in the world market. Technological dependency is growing and the measures taken throughout this year to strengthen exports only increase the external, productive, monetary, and financial vulnerability of the Brazilian state.
But our main enemy is that which affirms the idea that there are no alternatives. Listed below, we are proposing a group of measures that point to the beginning of a national and popular alternative for the current crisis. They can and should be taken at this time in which broad majorities still defend structural changes for our country and support with brave and intense mobilization a program of a popular nature. If applied, they would inaugurate a new era for the majorities that will join without hesitation a long struggle to build a democratic Republic, destined to strengthen national sovereignty and overcome underdevelopment once and for all.
1. Lower the real interest rates (Selic) to the same level as that in the US and in neighboring countries of South America, such as Venezuela and Argentina or around 2.5% per year and not the current 19.75%. Control the interest rates charged by the banks to tradesmen and consumers that come to more than 100% per year.
2. Change the current policy of the primary surplus in the Federal Budget that designates vast public funds just to pay interest on the foreign debt. Apply the $R 80 billion collected by the government this year to investments that create jobs in education, family farming, Land Reform, health, and housing.
3. Double the minimum wage and the increase in pensions to $R454/month this year (2005) and raise them to R$566 next year, aiming to distribute incoming and improve the living conditions for the poor, thus honoring the commitments of the Lula government made during the election campaign.
4. Restore government and public control over the Central Bank and monetary policy, preventing the autonomy of the Central Bank which is already being adopted by its directors in collusion with the interests of bankers and international finance capital.
5. Do not sign FTAA and do not accept the rules of the World Trade Organization that affect the Brazilian economy and the interest of the people.
6. Hold a public hearing on the foreign debt, as the Constitution specifies, and renegotiate its value, which has already been paid many times over. Use the resources sent outside the country to pay the foreign debt to invest in education and social rights instead.
7.Change the current rules of readjustment for the tariffs of basic public services such as electric energy, water, telephone, and public transport. Revise and reduce the current tariffs that are prohibitively high for all Brazilians and favor oligopolies that have come to dominate the sector after privatization.
8. Immediately freeze the rounds of auctions for exploration of oil areas. Change Law 9478/97 to ensure the nationalization of oil with exclusive exploration rights for Petrobras.
9. Guarantee the participation of representatives of Brazilian society and of workers in all administrative councils of public and autonomous businesses at all levels: federal, state, and municipal.
10. Adopt a policy that protects national wealth, fighting the sending of dollars outside the country through transfers, super-invoicing of transnational corporations, profits, royalties, etc., guaranteeing their application in Brazil. Promote the repatriation of resources sent in a legal way, however illegitimate. Adopt the measures that protect our economy from external vulnerability.
SIGNERS
1. Sidney Pascotto – President of the Federal Council on the Economy
2. João Pedro Stedile - MST, Via Campesina Brasil.
3. Reinaldo Gonçalves - Professor UFRJ and Council member of the regional Council on the Economy of the state Rio de Janeiro.
4. Paulo Passarinho - Coordenador Geral do Sindicato dos Economistas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
5. Nildo Ouriques - Universidade Federal Santa Catarina.
6. Dirlene Marques - President of the Syndicate of Economists of Minas Gerais and Coordination of the Minas Gerais Committee of the World Social Forum
7. Luiz Filgueiras - Professor of the Federal University of Bahia-UFBA.
8. Ronaldo Rangel – Council of COFECON.-Federal Council of economists
9. Caio R. M. Camargo - UNICAMP/post-graduate.
10. Prof. Dr. Edmilson Costa - PCB.
11. Krishna Mendes Monteiro - UNICAMP/Masters in Political Science/IFCH.
12. José Antônio Lutterbach - President of the Regional Council of Economy of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
13. João Manoel Gonçalves Barbosa - Vice-President of the Regional Council of Economy of the state of Rio de Janeiro
14. Wellington Leonardo da Silva - Director of the Syndicate of Economists of the state of Rio de Janeiro
15. Antônio Melki Júnior - Director of the Syndicate of Economists of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
16. Carlos Henrique Tibiriçá Miranda - Director of the Syndicate of Economists of RJ and Adviser of Corecon-RJ.
17. Maria Neusa Costa - Vice-President of the Syndicate of Economists of the state of Minas Gerais.
18. Concessa Vaz de Macedo – Professor of the Department of Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
19. Severo de Albuquerque Salles – Autonomous University of México.
20. Reinaldo A. Carcanholo - Professor of UFES.
21. Fábio Marvulle Bueno - Masters IE/UNICAMP.
22. Francisco Carneiro de Filippo - Masters IE/UNICAMP.
23. Luciane Bombach – Masters in Social Economy and Labor from Unicamp.
24. Fernando Henrique Lemos Rodrigues – Masters in Economy IE/UNICAMP
25. Angélica Soares Gusmão – Masters in Social Policy/UFES and Director of Administration and Planning for the City of Cariacica-ES.
26. José Bezerra de Araújo - Professor of Brazilian Economy of the Federal University of Campina Grande.
27. Ana Carla Magni – Masters in Social Economy and Labor at IE/UNICAMP, economist of DIEESE and Professor of the Faculties of Anhanguera Educacional. -SP
28. Rosa Marques- Professor PUC-SP
29. Carlos Eduardo Carvalho- Professor PUC-SP
30. Jose Juliano de Carvalho- Professor FEA-USP
31. Rafael da Cunha, President of the syndicate of economists of Rio Grande do Sul
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Charlotte Casey
The MST recently received another important demonstration of affection and recognition from Oscar Niemayer, one of the best, most internationally reknowned Brazilian architects. Niemayer, who the MST awarded their “Land Struggle Prize? in 2004 will give back to the movement by designing the Auditorium Building that will be part of the complex of the National Florestan Fernandes School outside Sao Paulo.
Dear friends of the MST,
We think it is important that you who are friends of the MST know what we are really thinking. Last month in a meeting of the national leadership of the Movement, with more than 250 comrades from every state and sector, we analyzed the current political situation and our position in relation to it. We are presenting here in a concise format the main political deliberations of our Movement, which orient our practical actions.
1. About corruption.
Corruption is an endemic method for the privileged classes to take control of public resources in a country that is lacking in democracy. We believe that illegal corruption exists, which generally benefits personal interests and is practiced with methods that are legal -- but immoral and illegitimate -- that involves the appropriation of public resources by an economic group, a specific sector of the ruling class or by all the wealthy. The interest rates in Brazil and the transfer of public resources to the banks, greater than $R100 billion per year are an unequivocal example of this. There is another important question: the media and the elites generally protect those who practice corruption and prevent us from identifying the ones who are truly guilty. Who are the owners of the millions of resources diverted for electoral campaigns? What interests are behind the millionaire investments made in political campaigns?
We think it is essential to demand punishment for all the corruption cases. And in particular we demand profound changes in the system of political and partisan representation: it is the only possibility to fight the systemic corruption that rules in the country.
2. About the Lula government.
The Brazilian people elected the Lula government to make changes. The people voted for a program based on his campaign promises, which were widely distributed throughout the country. The elected government committed itself as well, by means of a letter to the Brazilian people, to promote changes, despite maintaining its contracts with capital. The government frustrated everyone and distorted the will of the 53 million voters. A perverse composition of political forces, including conservatives and the right wing, took the important positions in the Central Bank, in the ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Development, and Industry and Commerce.
Last July, in the midst of a deep political crisis, the government promoted a ministerial reform that reinforced even more the alliance with conservative sectors. Based on that, we would say that this government has been distorted. We are not dealing any more with the same government that we elected in 2002. We do not have a government of the left, nor of the center-left. We have a centrist government, since the right controls economic policy. We can say goodbye to the Workers Party government and its historic commitments. We are suffering the consequences of an ambiguous government, composed of political forces in society that range from the right to the left and that has very little to offer. The government lost the opportunity throughout its mandate to consult with the people about strategic questions for our society such as the foreign debt, interest rates, GMOs, bingos, the autonomy of the Central Bank, the transposition of the San Francisco river, the Kandir Law, etc. And certainly the people would opt for changes would give support to the government that preferred to hear only the traditional politicians.
3. The government and Land Reform.
We believe that the victory of the Lula government represented a change in the correlation of forces and it would favor Land Reform. The National Plan for Land Reform was put together, which would have settled 400,000 families in a four-year period, besides administrative changes in the National Institute for Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA), training for settlement workers and the wedding of Land Reform and agro-industry. Two and a half years have passed and we can state that Land Reform is moving slower than a turtle. The government was incapable of implementing its own plan. It lacked the courage to confront the blocking points to Land Reform, which is not moving ahead because:
a) the state administration is organized against the poor, to serve only the rich;
b) the government believed in the false idea that agribusiness would be a solution to poverty in the countryside. But it benefits only the exporters and agricultural transnational corporations;
c) the government did not see that maintaining a neoliberal economic policy impedes the carrying out of any Land Reform program. The neoliberal policy cuts budgetary resources, concentrates income, and puts a priority on exports and unemployment. The policy that we defend distributes income, creates jobs, develops the internal market and establishes man in the rural environment. And Land Reform is only an instrument of this policy.
Discontented (with the government) we carried out the National March. For 17 days we brought together 12 thousand marchers around this demand. We succeeded in making the government renew seven commitments to us with the goal of speeding up Land Reform. Little has happened. The commitment to settle 115 thousand families this year was taken up again, until now, approximately 20 thousand. Another 120 thousand families remain in encampments, waiting in sub-human conditions. The promised regulation that changes the indexes of productivity to calculate expropriations has not yet been published. It’s a question of a simple administrative act by two Ministers. We are tired of hearing rulers speak about the lack of resources while the banks are swimming in billions of Reais transferred by the state.
The Lula government has an immense debt to the landless and with the Brazilian people on the question of Land Reform..
4. About the PT and the left
The MST will maintain its historical political line: it is autonomous both in relation to political parties and in relation to the government and the State. We will maintain our autonomy in this crisis as well.
Individually as citizens and social activists, the members of the Movement join with the Brazilians who are puzzled by the revelation of the methods used by the Workers Party to make policy. The electoral campaigns commercialized the vote. Campaigns that spent billions and were directed by hired consultants ended up becoming transformed. The corruption that is now denounced is only the fruit of the method that was used. What is striking is how the sectors of the Left made use of the same methods as the Right and put themselves on a par with the Right. That is the upshot of what we call politics.
For this reason, we defend the methods of the left to make policy, which is centered on the discussion of ideas, on the training of militans, on grassroots work and in the conscious organizing of the people, as the only force capable of making changes in our country.
5. About the nature of the crisis.
We believe that the crisis that we are living through is not restricted to corruption; it is much more serious. It is a case of a crisis of the economic model. The jobs created, many fewer than those promised during the campaign, are insufficient to meet the new demand of the youth who are entering the labor market. We confront a social crisis: the poor struggle only to survive and in various areas we are seeing symptoms of social barbarism, with a worsening of violence. We are suffering through a political crisis: the population cannot recognize itself in this system of representation, does not have political power, and cannot exercise what the Federal Constitution says: that all power emanates from the people. The people are angry at politicians and see them as being all alike. All this leads us to an ideological crisis, a result of the lack of discussion in society about a project for the country. We fear the prolonging of this apathy.
6. Who are the enemies of the people
We understand that the true enemies are the ruling classes who are continuously enriching themselves at the expense of the people. The enemies are the interests of foreign capital shown by the actions of the transnationals, of the foreign banks, the foreign debt, the transfer of weath outside the country. The enemies are the large Brazilian capitalists who subordinate themselves to those interests and turn their back on the people. And the national financial system is an enemy. The enemies also include the large estate owners who continue to accumulate lands and defend them in any way possible. Included as well is the policy of the Bush government that wants to consolidate Latin America only as a market for its US businesses and control our biodiversity and our seeds.
The Lula government can find an ally in the people to combat these enemies. But it needs to show what side it is on: either with the ruling classses or with the poor. Speeches won’t help. This choice is made through clear changes in the current economic and social policies.
7. About the way out of the crisis.
We understand that the way out of this serious crisis does not depend only on the government, on the president, on the political parties or on the 2006 election. It will depend on a massive coming together of all the social forces, organized to carry out a true grassroots discussion and construction of a new project for our country.
A development project for our country that puts popular sovereignty in first place. That organizes an economic policy focused on solving the main needs of the people such as jobs, income, housing, schools, and culture. A model that puts the highest priority on human life, building a society with less inequality and social injustices. We need a constitutional reform that changes the current political regime, that incorporates mechanisms for direct democracy. We need to have the right to convoke plebiscites, to carry out consultations with the people. We want to see the system of political parties and political representation democratized.
All this will be a long path. But it’s necessary to start soon. We have to stimulate the discussion in society, in all spaces. This is the only way the people will seize in its hands the conviction that social changes will be the result of organization and struggle.
We will continue to train activists and people who will struggle for the people, raising their level of consciousness and culture. We need to democratize the media, to build alternative means through community radio and TV stations so that the people have access to correct information.
8. Mobilization calendar.
Facing this evaluation of the crisis and of the current situation, we call on all MST activists and base members of Via Campesina and the urban social movements to join forces, mobilize, and get organized. We call on everyone, men and women, to participate in the initiatives that are going on during the month of August, which will culminate with a huge Independence Day -- September 7, where we are capable of emitting a true “cry of the excluded‿ in the largest number of Brazilian cities. Throughout September and October we will carry out popular state assemblies to discuss a new economic model, culminating with our national popular assembly: a grassroots effort for a new Brazil, to be held at the end of October in Brasilia.
Cordially,
National Secretariat of the MST
São Paulo, August 2005
News Briefs
The massacre of Corumbiara – more than 10 years of violence and impunity
August 9, 2005 marked 10 years since the massacre at the Santa Elina Ranch, in the town of Corumbiara, Rondônia. It involved 194 policemen, including 46 from the Special Operations Company and many other heavily armed gunmen and thugs. Three hundred and fifty five people were imprisoned and tortured for more than 24 hours and the camp was destroyed and burned down, with all the people’s belongings. The camp was attacked at dawn with tear gas that affected everyone, including the children. The shooting was deafening. On that day 11 people died, including little Vanessa, only 6 years old, whose small body was hit by a “stray‿ bullet. Read the article by Angélica de Mesquita on the MST web site: www.mst.org.br
United States has 70,000 people imprisoned outside the country
Amnesty International has issued an alert that the prison on the American base at Guantánamo is only the “tip of the iceberg‿ of a situation created by the U.S. in the last few years. According to a report published by AI, the US is keeping around 70,000 people detained on bases and secret prisons outside its own territory. In Guantánamo, the majority of the 500 detainees were captured during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and are held indefinitely and without trial.
Subscription campaign for MST Informa
If you wish to receive this twice-monthly “MST Informa‿ in Portuguese, send an email to semterra@mst.org.br with "cadastro letraviva" in the subject line.
translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Charlotte Casey
Dear friends of the MST,
The topic of corruption, which involves the current government and some of the political parties that support it, has seized the headlines. The media does not speak of anything else except “state corruption‿ as if it were an invention of the Workers Party government. This government is guilty precisely of continuing the bourgeois way of playing politics.
There are congressmen who discovered that some Congressional Inquiries give them enough space in the media to massage their personal vanities and launch their own campaigns for the 2006 elections. So we have a congress that instead of legislating is more concerned with investigating. All of them in their mediocrity try to appear to be efficient police investigators. And they still try to pose as paragons of public morality, of ethical transparency, and defenders of the interests of the Brazilian people. Even the nephew of ACM is preoccupied in discovering how corruption can be found in the entrails of government. If this were his real concern, a congressional order would not be necessary, it would be enough to stay home and talk to his grandfather.
We reaffirm the need to punish all those responsible for corruption, those corrupted and those who are corrupt. But we also think that the true fight against corruption goes beyond the creation of political instruments to really give powers to the people to participate in political decisions in the country and in the control of power in the state. Without this, the corrupt people of today and of yesterday would only continue to refine their methods of appropriating from the public patrimony and penalizing the people to benefit a small minority of the population. For this reason, we regret that Deputy Roberto Freire (PPS/PE) has shelved the bill proposed by attorney Fábio Konder Comparato that standardized popular participation, through plebiscites, in the important decisions of the country.
But just fighting corruption is not enough to resolve the problems that affect the Brazilian people. It is necessary to fight, without any truce or concessions, the economic policy of the Lula government that does not allow it to meet the people’s demands (for Land Reform, housing, public education, health, social insurance, job creation, etc.) and puts the highest priority on the enormous profits of national and international finance capital.
The performance of this government is shameful on the issue of Land Reform. During the National March for Land Reform, from the 1st to the `17th of May 2005, when 12 thousand marchers went from Goiânia (GO) to Brasília (DF), we presented a series of demands to speed up the process of Land Reform. Besides demanding that the goals set by the government itself for settling families be met, we asked for the restructuring of INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Land Reform), technical assistance, financial credits, support for the special education programs, for preservation of the environment and family farming and the immediate revision of the productivity indices. If they remain as they are now, these indices ensure that the huge rural properties will remain unproductive.
All these demands consist of the signed agreement with the government and its ministers. Some, such as the regulation that establishes new productivity indices, depend exclusively on President Lula. It has not yet been signed. Others are jammed up in the intrigues of the administrative bureaucracy or are lost in disputes between ministries, which characterize a government that has no political unity much less a strategic project for the country.
The failure of Land Reform of the Lula government is not because it did not meet the goals that Lula himself established in 2003 of settling 400 thousand families by the end of his term. By continuing the neoliberal policies of the Cardoso government, the Lula government reduced the National Plan for Land Reform to simple goals of settlements to be met by the Ministry of Agrarian Development. The government exempted itself from any responsibility for this historic commitment to the Brazilian people. And thus instead of confronting the latifúndio, the Lula government transferred the clash over Land Reform to within the government itself. So the Ministry of Agrarian Development fights with the Finance Ministry for major financial resources, the administrative bureaucracy is given responsibility for balking at the expropriations, or it’s a fight with the Agriculture Ministry, disputing over crumbs from the lavish funds and privileges destined for agribusiness. Everything except the confrontation with the latifúndio.
While the neoliberal policy continues, agro-exports will be of vital importance to maintaining the balance of trade and thus to drain the national wealth in never-ending interest payments to finance capital. In this model, there is no room for Land Reform.
The defeat of the neoliberal policy passes to the popular mobilizations in defense of Land Reform. In a document handed over to the federal government in September 2003, we defended Land Reform as a high-priority policy to resolve the serious problems of unemployment, hunger, and poverty in the rural area. We emphasized the popular character of Land Reform, demanding the expropriation of all the unproductive latifúndios as the Federal Constitution establishes. We defend the implementation of agribusiness with a program of education and a new technological model with technical assistance that is compatible with family and cooperative farming in the Land Reform areas. With three years of the Lula government having passed, he owes a great debt with these commitments to Land Reform. The debt is larger still when we recall Lula’s long-ago disposition to promote Land Reform as soon as he took office.
Thus we hope to defeat this neoliberal policy and the latifúndio with large popular mobilizations, promoting discussions about the urgency of a development project that meets the needs of the Brazilian people. The Lula government itself has validated once again that a policy that serves the needs of the rich does not serve the poor.
Forward to the struggle!
National Secretariat of the MST
News Briefs
Globalization accentuates the differences in the world
Globalization and the neo-liberal, pro-market reforms of the 1980s and 1990s increased inequality in the world. The topic, fully discussed among the social movements, is present in the report The Ambush of Inequalities, published on August 25 by the UN. Brazil is the country with the most unequal distribution of income on the planet: the per-capita income of the top 10% is 32 times greater than that of 40% of the poorest.
Doctors without Land is formed in Cuba
"Today the weapons are unique. The battle is won with knowledge, talent, and generosity. Freedom is won with solidarity‿, stated Cuban president Fidel Castro, while greeting the first group of graduates from the Medical School of Latin America. The ceremony took place on August 8 in the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. Sixteen hundred and ten doctors from 28 countries graduated, including 11 men and women rural workers from the MST.
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Charlotte Casey
Dear Friends of the MST,
The nation of Brazil is living through a serious crisis and is in grave danger. The danger that threatens our nation is the result of the implementation of neoliberal policies that favor only national and international finance capital and the huge corporations that are dedicated to exports. This policy worsens poverty, social inequality, and misery.
No fewer than 27 million workers (40% of the population) are unemployed or underemployed, without coverage from social security or labor rights. Around 20 million famlies, 82 million poor people, live with less than two monthly minimum wages.
We remain hostages of the highest interest rates in the world, of a budget surplus that is only of interest to bankers and of foreign debt, which requires frequent adjustments to service international finance capital. The government has given in to these demands of the bankers and the big transnational corporations, hanging on to neoliberal policies, which make it incapable of implementing public policies on behalf of the poor and of using public funds for Land Reform, health, education, transporation, housing, human rights, and the environment.
This economic model does not provide a future for our people!
Brazilian society is torn to pieces by unemployment, poverty, hunger, violence, and corruption, which revolts us and leaves us at times despairing..
The recent accusations of corruption and the revelation of the methods of how the parties played politics that fool the people unleashed a serious political crisis. The people do not believe any more in most politicians and these politicians have no legitimacy to represent the people. The Brazilian people are living with a mixture of sadness and disappointment in light of the situation in our country.
The Brazilian nation cannot continue with this impass. It is necessary to demand profound changes in the economy and in the policy. To demand these changes, we have four great challenges:
1. Build a new economic model, one that creates jobs, distributes income and puts a high priority on public investments in social areas.
2. An emergency program to overcome misery, poverty and the fight against social inequality.
3. A radical and deep political reform that returns to the people the right to decide the strategic questions affecting our country.
4. National Sovereignty: application of policies that guarantee the interests of the Brazilian people about our economy, territory, wealth, public enterprises, Central Bank, water, seeds, oil, gas, and foreign policy.
In light of this, we call on all to organize and get mobilized. We are crying out in favor of justice, ethics, for change in the economic policy, for an end to poverty and social inequality. We call on all to promote activities and demonstrations, to build spaces for creativity and popular participation and to reactivate our patriotism for a free and sovereign Brazil without corruption or exclusions.
BrAZIL, CHANGE IS IN OUR HANDS!
Via Campesina/Brasil; (Via Campesina Brazil)
Grito dos Excluídos/as; (Cry of the Excluded)
CMS- Coordenação dos Movimentos Sociais; (Coordination of Social Movements)
Rede Jubileu Sul/Brasil-Campanha Brasileira contra a ALCA; (Jubilee South Network/Brazil – Brazilian Campaign against the FTAA)
CRB - Conferência dos Religiosos do Brasil; (Conference of the Religious of Brazil)
4ª SSB - Semana Social Brasileira; (Brazilian Social Week)
MMM - Marcha Mundial de Mulheres; (Worldwide March of Women)
CONIC - Conselho Nacional de Igrejas (National Council of Churches)
Cristãs do Brasil; CESE - Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviços; (Brazilian Christians; Ecumenical Coordination of Services)
Fórum Nacional pela Reforma Agrária (National Forum for Land Reform)
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Charlotte Casey
Dear Friends of the MST,
Four months after the end of the National March, all of the people of the MST have etched in their minds the seven points that were agreed upon between the movement and the federal government. On May 17, the day the great walk arrived in Brasilia, the government signed a public document affirming its commitment to settle 400,000 families by 2006. The idea was that the families in the camps would be the priority since they experience many difficulties. Around 140,000 families Without Land are in this situation throughout the country. However, in 2003 not even 9,000 MST families were settled. In 2004, there were 11,000 and this year only 4,000.
To speed up the process of land expropriation, the government proposed a bill that will take back the funds that were cut by the Ministry of Housing. However, in all of the hearings with the Movement, Incra and MDA (Ministry of Agrarian Development) claim that the Ministry of Housing will not free their funds.
Another part of the agreement was that in a few weeks, starting at the end of the March, the new productivity indices would be published, which will help with the dispossession inspections. The Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rosseto, delivered his proposal for updating the indices to the Planalto Palace on April 6. In August, during a hearing with the social movements, President Lula looked surprised because he thought that the new indices had already been published. It seems that the palace rats are eating these documents.
A special program for the settlements
The promise was also made that new lines of credit would be opened for the people in settlements. The government did a part, adjusting the values to the current lines of credit of Pronaj (National Program for Family Agriculture). Still this does not resolve the problem. It is necessary to conquer the bureaucracy of the banks and because of this, we have always said that it is important to have a special program for the people in settlements like the Procera (Credit Program for Agrarian Reform). Because of this situation and because there are 580 thousand families in settlements, fewer than 60 thousand received credit from Pronaf in the last harvest. That is, the credit was not a tool used by the production organization in the settlements.
The government proved that it is still committed to improve the agroindustry program. We have hardly advanced with BNDES (National Bank for Social and Economic Development) and we are still far from having a program that puts Agrarian Reform together with a true incentive from the agroindustries in the settlements.
The agreement also guaranteed basic food baskets in the settlements. It is possible to see in Brasilia the desire to resolve this problem, but when it comes to the states, the same story about the lack of the basic basket continues. In practice, few camps have a way of regulating the monthly delivery of the basic basket.
As important as not allowing the families in camps to go hungry is that the Conab (National Supply Company) has conditions for implementing a program to buy all of the food produced in the settlements and in the rural communities. The government needs to speed up this process which would provide a guarantee in the market and a normalization of prices, avoiding speculation by the unprincipled.
As one can see, Lula’s government has a social debt to the MST. He is doing well with the large companies and the banks who are paid billions in interest religiously every month but agrarian reform is in a state of chronic paralysis.
There has only been one way to raise our voices for social mobilization. There should be a discussion in each state, in the camps and in the settlements, which will improve the way that we organize ourselves so that the government honors its duty and follows through with the seven points that were agreed upon in the National March. Another pathway is to continue to organize ourselves, the rural poor. The struggle continues!
MST National Secretary
Landless occupy unproductive estates throughout the country
In September the MST carried out various mobilizations to demand speed in the process of Land Reform. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Boqueirão ranch, in the township of Tupanciretã, was occuped by 200 families. An area of 1442 hectares was expropriated in 2001; however the process of definitive regularization of the settlement remains halted. In São Borja, around 300 famlies occuped the Palermo Ranch. Minas Gerais also has two occupations: in the Marilândia Ranch that is abandoned and totally unproductive and on the Belo Horizonte Ranch. More than 4 million famlies occupied the São Francisco Ranch for the fifth time in the township of Riacho das Almas (PE). In the Pontal do Paranapanema, 200 families from the Vitória encampment occupied the Saza Ranch, in Martinópolis (SP). At dawn on Saturday the 10th of September, around 200 MST families occupied the Globo Ranch in Iaras, interior of São Paulo state. The 200 hectar ranch was occupied for the second time this year because despite the fact that INCRA had already divided the ranch into 17 lots for a settlement, the local judge granted “reintegration of ownership‿.
Cinema arrives in areas of Land Reform in Mato Grosso
The Cinema of the Land project is being implemented in 10 states. Last month, activities were held in the Ernest Che Guevara School of the Antônio Conselheiro settlement, in the township of Tangara da Serra. More than 300 people who study in the school participated. After each presentation there was a discussion of the films.
Documentary highlights the life of Apolônio de Carvalho
Ninety-three year old Apolônio de Carvalho is the subject of a new documentary. An activist since his youth, he fought alongside republicans in the Spanish Civil War and participated in the French Resistance against the Nazis, besides having struggled against the military dictatorship in Brazil and was the first to register with the Workers Party. Directed by Stela Grisotti and Rudi Böhm/ 74 minutes / DVD / R$30,00.To obtain the documentary, send an email to assinaturas@mst.org.br.
translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Jamie Wick
The Uneasy Calm Continues
Now that Carnival has passed, we are beginning another political year. But looking at the horizon, what follows is a disturbing calm in the Brazilian political sitution, in which nothing appears to change the routes of the ship and the hegemony of the political and economic command of the country.
The second term seemed to bring us new winds, with the increase in political debate and with the more active participation of the various social sectors that were involved in the electoral struggle as a way of defeating the return of the neoliberal right represented by Alckmin.
Now that the electoral period and the expectation for changes have passed, many people return to being skeptical in the face of the sameness of national policy. But, more than looking for culprits or personalizing the reasons for this situation, we need to reflect on the historical context in which we are living.
There is a general apathy in national politics because we are living through a long historical period marked by some conditioning factors in the correlation of forces that the electoral battle and the re-election of President Lula did not succeed in changing. What factors are these?
First came a process of political defeat for the Brazilian working class, starting with the elections of 1989. The Collor and Cardoso governments represented the consolidation of the hegemony of a sector of the ruling class that abandoned any project of national development and completely subordinated itself to international finance capital. The result was the “privatization? of the Brazilian state to these interests and a neoliberal economic policy that benefits only those sectors of capital. This complete hegemony allowed capital to impose new conditions on the relations of work, to implement technological changes that represented the political defeat of the industrial working class, which was the basis for the rise of the decade of the 80s and the main force of the struggles that followed.
There was an ideological crisis of the Brazilian left, which did not succeed in confronting the new times when the movement was in a period of ebb and the U.S. empire was on the offense, after the defeat of the so-called socialist countries. The correlation of international forces also was against us in these last years. All this produced an ebb in the mass movement and in the social struggles that marked the past 15 years.
Only in the historical context of the political defeat of the working class and an ebb in the mass movement can one explain the electoral victory of President Lula and of the Workers Party, as a broken vessel for the hopes for structural changes in Brazilian society, because the Brazilian ruling class was divided. The most reactionary and perhaps the most stupid sector of the ruling class tried at all costs to defeat Lula, using as its main weapon the mass media. The other sector, more flexible and perhaps thinking of the future, preferred to enter into an alliance and maintain its privileges.
Of that alliance and correlation of forces, the result was a government composed of different classes and ideologies. In its first term, there was a greater expectation that we would have a government of the left, because of the history of the Workers Party and of the President himself. We were wrong. Now, the government itself transparently and honestly assumes that it will be only a coalition government, where forces from the right, the center, and the left coexist. Where representatives of the ruling class and of the working class coexist. And the president hurried to position himself in the center, as he made a point of explaining that he was older than 60 now and so it was necessary to change his political position.
So, my dear friends, we are still going through a long period that is not favorable to the interests of the Brazilian people. And more than being sorry about it, as some who prefer to go back home to watch the band go by, or worse yet, fall into accomodationism, in which it is not possible to change anything, the period calls for a lot of reflexion, clarity, and discussion so that the popular forces, in their most diverse forms of organization, be they rural, students, unionist, housing activists, people from the country and the city, seek to develop political actions to face the true challenges that the historical situation imposes on our generation. Without the pretense of dictating solutions but contributing to the discussion, we in La Via Campesina and in the Popular Assembly have reflected a lot about this correlation of forces and we have made it a top priority to face the main challenges that we have going forward.
The challenges for the Brazilian working class
The first of these is to take up again the work with the base, the work of raising consciousness, of organizing the workers where they are, either at work, school, or at home, to encourage the social struggles. Only with social struggles can the people recover their collective sense of politics, of having enough forces to improve their living conditions, to win new advances, and change the correlation of forces.
Secondly, we need to dedicate energies to the formation and training of our activists. In times of apathy, it is necessary to dedicate oneself to study, to political formation, to understanding better the complexity of reality and to find true solutions to problems.
Thirdly we need to put energies into the building and development of our own mass media, such as community radio and TV stations, newspapers, magazines, communication programs of all types, under the auspices of the popular movements and organizations, to confront the true oligopoly of communications under the control of the Brazilian ruling class.
Fourth, we need to stimulate a full discussion in society about the need for a development project for the country. It is not enough to speak about the growth of the economy. For whom? It is not enough to resolve the conjunctural issues. Brazil needs a project that is directed to the future and that, above all, confronts its structural problems and lays the basis for a more just and egalitarian society.
Fifth, it is necessary that all popular organizations dedicate themselves as a priority to consciousness raising and organization of the working class youth who live in the big cities. It will be this generation of young people, freed from the diversions and the vices of the past, and dreaming of a more just future, who will be able to mobilize themselves, build a different project and change the correlation of forces in society.
And finally with energies focused on confronting these challenges, we need to hope for a new cycle where the mass movement will be on the rise. Times are difficult. But they will change. And the winds only change direction through the strength of the masses.
João Pedro Stedile is a member of the National Coordination of the MST and of Via Campesina
We of the movements that make up La Via Campesina are joining the groups allied with the indigenous struggles to gather signatures in a petition for the Demarcation of Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous lands that are owned by the Aracruz Cellulose company in Espírito Santo. The goal of the MST is to collect 100,000 signatures of workers throughout Brazil to pressure the Ministry of Justice to mediate and to immediately return the lands to the indigenous peoples.
A total of 11,000 hectares are still in the hands of Aracruz, which has not held back from trying to criminalize the indigenous and the social movements that support them. Among the criminal acts carried out by the corporation is the coercion of its workers, who in 2006 were required to demonstrate, in the streets of the city of Aracruz, in defense of the corporation, under penalty of losing their jobs.
In the same period, the corporation determined that each one of its 2500 employees should collect signatures against the presence of the indigenous peoples in the region. Seventy-eight thousand signatures were collected. The corporation also distributed flyers with offensive content against the historical legitimacy of the indigenous peoples of the region.
In 2006, FUNAI finished a new study that identifies the lands as belonging to the indigenous peoples and the corporation has no way to appeal that decision. In the meanwhile, Aracruz Cellulose has brought enormous pressure to bear on the Minister of Justice Márcio Thomaz Bastos to prevent him from signing the homologation of the lands.
History of devastation
The 18,000 hectares were appropriated by the Aracrus Cellulose corporation during the 70’s. These lands were identified by a study carried out by a FUNAI work group in 1997. Of this total, 4500 hectares were reincorporated by the indigenous in 1979 – after a long struggle against the corporation, and another 3,000 were reincorporated in 1998. Even after the evidence provided by the FUNAI studies, the corporation insists in the illegal appropriation of the remaining 11,000 hectares, identified as lands belonging to the Tupinikim and Guarani.
Besides the indigenous lands, the Aracruz Cellulose corporation is also responsible for the expulsion of more than 8,000 afro-descendant families from the north of Espírito Santo. The majority lost their lands through lack of documentation or through agreements manipulated by the corporation and its regional allies.
The corporation is also accused of occupying public lands and of causing irreversible damage to the environment with the monoculture of eucalyptus.
News Briefs
Landless occupy latifúndio in Promissão, São Paulo
Last weekend, around 400 families occupied an area of 700 alqueires in the region of Promissão (SP). The ranch is called Santa Marina and is located on highway BR 153, between the towns of Lins and Getulina. The area belongs to the Bertim cold-storage company and is used for raising cattle and for planting eucalyptus, adding to the expansion of agribusiness in the state of São Paulo. The occupation of the Santa Marina ranch is part of a campaign against agribusiness and to call attention to the situation of agrarian reform in the region of Promissão.
MST participates in the Forum for Food Sovereignty in ?frica
The MST participated in Mali, in the World Forum on Food Sovereignty “Nyéléni 2007?, which brings together more than 600 delegates from social movements throughout the world. The objectives of the Forum are: to evaluate the sector of food production, to bring together and broaden political support for Food Sovereignty, besides working out strategies to implement systems of food production at a local and a global level that prioritize the interests of small farm producers and of consumers, against the interests of the large transnational corporations. The event took place February 23 to 27.
Dear Friends of the MST,
The MST recently returned from the African country of Mali. We went as part of a delegation of 12 representatives from Brazilian rural movements and environmentalist groups, joining more than 600 leaders from every continent on Earth. There we met with scientists, environmentalists, women’s movement activists, and members from a spectrum of other organizations, discussing the many questions raised by the goal of establishing food sufficiency for every country.
This World Forum for Food Sovereignty allowed us to deepen the ongoing conversation about an important topic-- the need for social movements around the world to prioritize the struggle to defend food production and food sovereignty for every nation. The struggle means a broad fight against the offensive that the forces of international capital have launched in rural areas, especially with regard to the control of agro-fuels.
Why? An alliance has unified the interests of three great international capital sectors: a) oil companies; b) the transnational firms that control agricultural commerce and genetically-modified seeds; and c) automobile firms. The only goal is to maintain current patterns of consumption in the First World and high rates of profit for multinational corporations.
1. The Goals of the Transnational Corporations, and President Bush:
The objective: to convince governments in the Southern Hemisphere to use their territory for the production of energy, in the form of agricultural goods, in order to maintain the pattern of consumption associated with the “American way of life�? in the First World.
The plant-based energy found in grains (in the form of oils), as well as in trees, is ultimately solar energy captured through an agri-chemical transformation. Through conversion into vegetable oil or alcohol, it is turned into fuel. Transnational agribusinesses need the world’s “southern�? countries because of this. Many of these countries receive a greater-than-average annual incidence of sunlight, and still have large areas of fertile land available for growing oil-rich plants such as sunflowers, corn, soy, peanuts, sweet-beans, and African palms/ dendê—or for producing alcohol through sugar cane, corn, or trees.
At the same time these businesses hope to impose monocrop production. In the case of soy and corn, such production would be accomplished through genetically-modified seeds. This guarantees a market for the seeds and the (toxic) fertilizers sold by transnational corporations in question. It also opens the door for them to charge intellectual-property fees based on patents and royalty agreements.
These companies are after profit. They don’t care about the state of the environment, global warming, or the lives of people who work in the countryside. But their “production offensive�? in the area of renewable energy does allow them to loosen their dependence on oil imports from countries that now have nationalist governments, such as Venezuela and Iran.
Moreover, a number of the countries that supply energy to the United States and Europe are currently suffering from tremendous political instability, including Nigeria, Angola, and Saudi Arabia, for example. Not to mention, of course, the failed invasion of another such supplier—Iraq.
2. The Position of Rural Movements from Around the World:
We can’t call this a “bio-fuels program.�? We certainly can’t call it a “bio-diesel program.�? Such phrases use the prefix “bio-“ to subtly imply that the energy in question comes from “life,�? in general. This is illegitimate and manipulative. We need to find a term in every language that describes the situation more accurately, a term like agro-fuel. This term refers specifically to energy created from plant products grown through agriculture. We do realize, however, that the prefix “agro-“ itself remains too general. Our scientists are considering a more exact phrase.
We certainly agree that agro-fuel use is better for the environment than petroleum-fuel use. But this doesn’t get to the heart of the human problem in question: the current energy and transportation system, which continues to be based on individual vehicles. To address this problem, we support a radical substitution. The current model of individual transportation, marked by consumerism and pollution, should be replaced with collective transportation—trains, subways, bicycles, et cetera.
We do not accept an energy plan that takes agricultural products currently used to feed human beings – such as corn, soy, sunflowers, etc. – and turns them into energy for cars.
When it comes to producing the agro-fuels that we do need, we must produce them in a sustainable way. In other words, we are opposed to the current neoliberal system, which produces these goods through monoculture on large plantations. Monoculture on a grand scale endangers the environment and forces rural workers out of the countryside.
Monoculture also has an impact on global warming. It destroys biodiversity, disturbs the water cycle, and disrupts the rains, making it difficult for farmers to stay in equilibrium with the Earth. Moreover, it makes intensive use of agro-toxic fertilizers and machines.
We can produce energy. We can make fuel from agricultural products – as long as they are grown sustainably, on small and medium-sized farms, without disturbing the environment. These products can even allow rural workers to have greater autonomy over their energy as they supply the cities.
We vigorously reject the plan put forth by George W. Bush’s government. In the next few days he will visit the governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala in order to co-opt them. He hopes to seduce them into increasing the production of alcohol for export to the United States.
Along with this increase, US capitalists from the three great capital sectors are demanding the right to buy or build dozens of new alcohol factories throughout the Western Hemisphere. They recently proposed the construction of 100 such factories in Brazil alone.
In order to make this plan possible, the Bush government proposes the creation of a new category on the international market, “energy commodities�? (referring in this case to alcohols). Products in this category would not be considered agricultural goods, and thus would not fall under the current World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
The White House is also proposing that Brazil, India, South Africa, and other countries negotiate a new common technology protocol for all ethanol, whether it comes from corn, sugarcane, or trees. This new, internationally accepted formula could have another effect—it might serve as the basis for a new OPEC-like group, dominating agricultural energy production in order to control the world market.
If the current US plan were implemented, it would be a tragedy for tropical agriculture. It would give huge swaths of our best land over to massive monoculture. It would annihilate even more of our biodiversity and sweep aside our food production. It would evict millions of workers from the world’s rural areas, sending them to the already-overcrowded slums in the cities. And all of this only to supply cars.
The discussion, and the struggle, are only beginning. We hope that civic groups will take action, and that the media will educate us on these issues. They will have a fundamental impact on the future of our people.
As a result, during the March 8th events, women who work in the countryside and in the city will stand together and fly a flag that reads, “Struggle for Food Sovereignty, against Agrobusiness.�? This flag represents a no to multinationals in the countryside, and a yes to workers and biodiversity. The number-one representative of imperialism, Mr. Bush, will arrive on Brazilian land in the next several days. This fact should encourage even more the struggle against neoliberalism.
-The National Secretariat of the MST
Dear Friends of the MST,
We have below the text of Silvia Ribeiro, researcher from the Mexican ETC group, who studies the impact of the introduction of transgenic seeds into rural cultures and the dominion of the world seed market.
World Bank Against Biosecurity
By Silvia Ribeiro
The basic role of the World Bank is not to act as a financial institution, but to define policies for countries, clearing a path so that private companies may then act with legal guarantees within the nations. This is done with a mixture of loans theoretically “light? (however with numerous conditions and which, to be repaid, can bleed the receiving countries dry), a percentage from common loans, and another part from aid without expectation of repayment.
The latter seem like donations, but are actually the most expensive, because they are those that pave the way for the advance of multinationals in areas where they otherwise could not enter. A typical example of this strategy is that of the projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF is administered by the World Bank, along with the environmental and developmental programs of the UN (UNEP and UNDP).
Within the biodiversity sector of the GEF, for example, are the Central American Biological Corridor and other forms of legitimizing the industrial use of biodiversity as a justification for biopiracy and the expulsion, in the name of “preservation?, of rural and indigenous workers from their ancestral lands, as well as alienation from the systems of communal forest management, introducing the workers into the “environmental services market?.
The GEF has received a series of criticism in this area during the last few years, as in the case of the UNEP-GEF biosecurity projects, which have been strongly questioned by civil society organizations in practically every country where they have acted in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The common denominator has been that these projects, under the title of training projects and “multi-sector? dialogue, actually established the basis for biosecurity norms that favor the global interests of a few multinational transgenics companies. A new initiative of the GEF is currently evaluating for approval two multimillionaire projects in Africa and Latin America, whose main objectives are to legitimize the introduction of transgenic cultivations into their centers of origins and/or important cultivations into the simple rural economies of very diverse countries.
In the case of Latin America, it is a question of “training? the governments of Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica to manage, on one hand, the transgenic contamination resulting from the introduction of genetically modified corn, potato, manioc, rice and cotton, and on the other, to handle public opinion critical toward transgenics, through cost-benefit analysis and standardizing what are called “adequate? scientific means of dealing with the contamination. In no part of the project is it considered that the best biosecurity to prevent contamination is to not allow transgenic cultivations, as millions of rural workers, indigenous people, environmentalists, consumers and responsible scientists have criticized. On the contrary, the basic presumption is that transgenics have already been or inevitably will be introduced. With the brutal aggravation that in this case four of the crops mentioned have their center of origin in the involved countries. Rice, although it originates from Asia, has also been adapted by the rural workers of the region, for whom, together with the other cultivations in question, constitute the base of their economies, cultures and lifestyles.
The project would be coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (one of the 18 public international centers of the CGIAR system that according to its mission should be dedicated to supporting the agriculture of the rural workers, instead of sabotaging it), with governmental institutions, universities, and private institutes of the countries. Among the advisors are the institutions promoted by the multinational companies, who are actually the main beneficiaries of the project.
In the case of Mexico, the counterparts are the National Commission for Biodiversity, Sagarpa and Cibiogem. María Francisca Acevedo and Amanda Gálvez are responsible for their contacts. The project was sent for “specialist’? review to Ariel Alvarez Morales, of Cinvestav. In the commentary that he directed to the GEF, he says: “I do not agree that the cultivations modified by the modern biotechnology are more important in the medium term. They are important in the present! The challenges in the short and medium term are the transgenic plants to produce medicines, transgenic fish and animals. Therefore I find it necessary to include these areas in the proposed program.?
In other words, it is not enough that Mexico is already the experimenting ground of the multinationals with the contamination of native corn, but must also be the pioneer of other devastating forms of contamination.
The project presented to the GEF does not include, to date, the suggestions of Alvarez. However, it without a doubt makes his real intentions clear: to give the companies time so that the discourse can be prepared to justify the new generation of transgenics.
Civil society is alert and has already begun an widespread campaign in both continents to deter these projects, with an initial informative of denouncement elaborated by the African Center for Biosecurity, Grain, the ETC Group and the Network for a Transgenic Free America. Through these initiatives, it is possible to obtain more information and get involved.
* Visit the MST website for more information about genetically modified organisms and entities and networks against transgenics.
Dear friends of the MST,
In 2002, we elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil. It was the first time that a representative of the people, a leader of the working class, assumed command of the nation. During the electoral campaign, however, the release of his “Letter to the Brazilians‿, proved Lula’s intentions to guarantee to international creditors and the Brazilian market a continuation of many of the same measures that marked Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s administration.
Even though the Brazilian people noticed these signs, they remained full of hope and high expectations and voted for Lula in hopes of changing the political economy. As months passed, ideals of making change for the benefit of social justice diminished as quickly as interest rates rose. It became clear that a clearly neoliberal policy was necessary, one based around containing rising interest rates – the basic SELIC rate (similar to the US Fed Funds Rate) remains at 19.75% and is considered the highest in the world – to stimulate exports and guarantee a primary surplus, one which is expected to reach 83 Billion Reais (approximately 35 Billion US Dollars) in 2005. The country’s use of resources for improving Agrarian Reform, education, public health, sanitation and infrastructure fell by the wayside.
On the other hand, a foreign policy of dialogue with Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and popular movements in Equador and Bolivia left the transnational capital and George W. Bush’s United States government restless.
In order to calm them down and guarantee the government’s smooth functioning, alliances were made with conservative sectors of politics and society, including the press. The base of this government no longer consisted only of popular movements and civil society, even though history shows that the National Congress has never failed to approve a bill for which it could obtain public support.
With the allegations of corruption that have spread over the last two weeks, the perimeter has been armed. The elite used the declarations of Roberto Jefferson (PTB), from within the pro-government base, to create a smoke screen and weaken Lula’s government, even raising the possibility of impeachment.
The MST encourages investigation of all allegations, whatever the consequences may be. It is, however, clear that the right has used this situation to its advantage in anticipation of upcoming elections. They will either invest themselves in the weakening of the government and resort to consolidating themselves behind one candidate, or they will make a new pact with the establishment of more right-wing politics and without a change in the economy. A clear example of this type of policy is the proposal to privatize the Postal Service as a way of avoiding corruption, as such following the rules of neoliberal change.
We stand against corruption, but we are also opposed to this kind of underhandedness. As such, we advocate for the investigation of all allegations of corruption against the Lula administration as well as against all previous administrations and particularly that of FHC.
This is a moment of decision. We are dealing with conflicting plans. The government can amplify the policies it has employed from its beginning until now, or it can come to the side of the people and take up again its campaign promises to the 53 million Brazilians who elected Lula. We must take to the streets to show our support for making decisions that prioritize changing the political economy and fulfilling social rights. We will insist that the government prove that it stands with the people in relation to democratization and the defense of nationalized business and social rights, in favor of democratic political reform and Agrarian Reform!
With a warm embrace,
The National Secretary of the MST
NEWS BRIEFS:
Mobilization in Goiâna
On July 1st, during the Congress of the National Students’ Union, the Coordinator of Social Movements (CMS) with carry out a protest march against misrepresentation and corruption within the government and in favor of changing economic policy.
Pará Justice upholds verdict that will leave 10,000 families homeless
The Pará Judiciary decided to uphold the verdict of reintegration of possession in the southeast of the state. This is a significant move against workers and rural workers: over 20,000 people will find themselves without shelter. Among the chosen farms are areas of expropriation, already established as unproductive, and some that use slave labor.
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer E. Brennan Dorn
Dear friends,
All of you were able to follow the Landless March to Brasilia via the internet and the press. Many evaluations have been made, including some on our web site. More important than what we ourselves may say about the march, it is important to hear what the people are saying about us and our actions. For this reason, we are reproducing below a part of an article written by Bishop Demétrio Valentini of Jales-SP, who went with us for a good part of the march, including the meeting with President Lula.
“What is still surprising in the Landless is their persistence in carrying out a utopia that they would give everything to make viable, but which faces historical resistence that needs to be overcome with political tenacity, with popular organization and with governmental firmness.?
Comparing the march with that in 1997, Dom Demétrio continues, “The greatest contrast was in the meeting with the President. In 1997, the government was closed off, and had to receive the landless unwillingly, full of caution. The result was a climate of mistrust.?
“This time, the climate of openness was evident, ensuring a disposition for the dialog. But the surprise came in the meeting itself. In their speech to the President, the Landless showed a great deal of competence and knowledge. They presented their concrete demands about land reform, at the same time that they showed a broad vision of Brazilian reality, in which they included the importance of a true Land Reform.?
“The first response of the ministers and the President himself was easy generic explanations, capable of promising everything at the same time that they committed to nothing. At that point, the Landless reacted. With courage and great deal of clarity they spoke again and made it ery clear that they had not carried out the march in order to listen now to vague promises. They wanted concrete solutions to the specific problems that they had presented.?
“Once the meeting was over, the President assured them that he would continue to meet with his ministers to define the government’s actions. I think that this is the main message of the march. It was not done as a spectacle. Organization and popular pressure is an indispensable component in the scenario of democracy. Above all to make the complex situation advance, that meets with ideological resistence and demands viable proposals, political sustenance and governmental action.?
On our part, we also made various evaluations, which are not worth reproducing. But for a synthesis, we are providing the interview that João Pedro Stedile gave to the newspaper "Correio Braziliense? and the summary of agreements made between the MST and the Federal Government at the end of the march.
We hope that all of you feel yourselves included in these evaluations. You were active participants, whether you showed your solidarity with financial contributions, parallel activities in your own countries, sending messages of support or responding when the media showed the violence of the police action during the closing ceremony.
These are various forms of struggle that we are summing up in order to realize an ambitious project such as this, where 12,000 people marched in an organized fashion for 15 days. This solidarity is what makes us march together in the direction of our common goal of building a more just and fraternal world and which makes us believe that “another world is possible?.
In the name of all the marchers and of all the movements of struggle for land who come together in Via Campesina-Brazil, we thank you for the support and solidarity.
“ Solidarity is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.? (Che).
João Pedro Stedile and Judite Stronzake - for the National Leadership
Dulcinéia Pavan and Daniel Correa – for the International Relations Sector
INTERVIEW OF JOÃO PEDRO STEDILE ABOUT THE MARCH OF THE LANDLESS TO BRAS?LIA
May 23, 2005
CORREIO BRAZILIENSE — Did the march show any results?
JOÃO PEDRO STEDILE — The objective of the march was to restore land reform as a subject for public discussion along with the subject of the nature of Brazilian problems and the need to change economic policy. We also sought to resolve the immediate problem of the delay in land reform in the states and to get the federal government to implement structural measures. In our view, we reached all these goals. So despite the sacrifices of the people who participated, it was an absolute success. It showed that there exist energies in Brazilian society that can be used to build a development project for the country.
CORREIO — What about the violence that occurred on the last day of the march?
STEDILE — The MST always had a good relation with the Military Police in Brasilia. We even played soccer games with them. But we are aware that there are sectors within the Military Police that are manipulated by the right and by the conservative sectors. These sectors that shame the police kept trying to provoke tension to create some conflict that could detract from the success of the march, at least in the press. And unfortunately they succeeded. We fooled ourselves about the good relations that we had with the command; we underestimated the capacity of these sectors to prepare something for us. And they did that. The incident was clearly a provocation. It could be seen that a police car tried to pass in the middle of the crowd, although it had no business being there. At that point, some punks and sectarians attacked the car. Immediately the police reacted against the whole crowd. It was stunning how quickly the cavalry showed up. It seemed that they were just waiting to attack everyone. Following that, the helicopter flew overhead and increased the climate of tension.
CORREIO — Didn’t the sound truck urge the demonstrators to jeer at the mounted police?
STEDILE — We are not idiots. We never preach confrontation with the police as a way to resolve problems. The objective of MST demonstrations is to put pressure to resolve the country’s problems. The reporters are witnesses that the sound cars urged the marchers to avoid the provocations of the police and of the punks. The incident reveals that sectors of the police should return to school and use a little more dignity in their treatment of the people.
CORREIO — Doesn’t the agreement with the government present a list of promises without indicating the source of funds?
STEDILE — Money is not lacking, what’s lacking is the will to make the social areas a priority. Where the funds will come from is a minor technical question. That’s up to the government bureaucrats. I can assure you that the government collects many public funds from taxes. However unfortunately the priority is only to pay interest and fulfill the commitments to the elite. We hope that the government honors the commitments that were publicly agreed to and signed off on. We made a political agreement with the government, which recognized that it has a debt to the landless and to the Brazilian people. The government has not fulfilled its goal of settling people on land. It has also not fulfilled its obligations in the camps and settlements.
CORREIO — Shouldn’t the government have stated the value of the budget supplement that it would send to Congress before May 31?
STEDILE — No. What we want is for the government to recompose the National Budget already approved by Congress, that allotted R$ 3.7 billion for land reform. All that’s necessary is to remove the contingencies from all the funds for the social area.
CORREIO — How do you evaluate the press coverage of the agreement?
STEDILE — The Finance Minister only cuts social spending but does not cut the interest rate. On the final day of the march, the Central Bank increased the rate from 19.5% to 19.75%. That will increase the costs of the government to the end of the year by R$ 900 million just in interest payments. But no newspaper asked if the government was going to send a bill to give a budget supplement for the banks. The newspapers and their owners are always critical of the government for social spending, but they remain silent when spending is increased with the banks and the transfer of profits.
CORREIO — And the position of the Agriculture Minister, Roberto Rodrigues, in relation to the criteria for productivity?
STEDILE — We have heard within the government that the Minister of Agriculture behaves much more like the president of an agribusiness syndicate than as a minister of the state. His priority should be the development of the whole country and all the people. He needs some classes about what the Constitution says with respect to the role of a minister. They are making a battle horse out of the productivity indexes as if it were aggression against the latifúndio. But let us agree that it is not agribusiness that takes pride in having changed Brazilian agriculture. They claim to have modernized and sustained the country. Well the indices used by INCRA are from 1975. The intention is to make those indexes more up-to-date. To use the data that was collected by the IBGE in 1995. That represents data from 10 years ago. Even so, they complain. They complain because they want to maintain the “untouchable? status of the latifúndio. But the Constitution is clear: every large property over 1500 hectares which does not produce and fulfill its social function should be expropriated by the State in the name of society. What’s lacking is a little more courage on the part of the government to make the necessary changes. In theory, the whole government is in favor of fighting poverty and inequality but each time that someone presents concrete proposals that affect the concentration of land and wealth, they are blocked.
CORREIO — You called on the activists to “increase their consciousness and intensify the invasions?. Isn’t this going to create more violence?
STEDILE — On the contrary. I wanted to say in that speech exactly that our activists need to study more, to understand the political situation, the class struggle. This means knowledge, consciousness of reality, in order to not fall into cheap provocations with the police or conservative sectors. And moreover to avoid violence, to avoid confrontations. In general it’s people with a lower consciousness who more easily react to provocations. Our remedy against violence is study and knowledge.
CORREIO — Are the land invasions even necessary?
STEDILE — Look at how prejudiced you are. We always speak of occupations which is very different from invasions. Invasion is an act of misappropriation of a good for private, particular exploitation. It’s what the ranchers do when they invade public lands and Indian lands and use those lands for their own personal enrichment. Occupation is a mass mobilization that enters an area to put pressure on the government to apply the law, to expropriate it. These ideas are in political sociology and are in agreement with the Supreme Court of Justice. But you journalists insist on a poor use of words, which causes prejudice. Since our beginning 21 years ago, we have always defended the mass occupations carried out by the poor of the rural areas. Unfortunately it is the only effective way to pressure the government to apply the law. It was a method used by all the families who are living today in settlements. None of them received land as a gift from some politician or government initiative. All of them had to organize, struggle, and occupy land in order to make the State take action.
CORREIO — Did you expect that the number of invasions would go down under the Lula government?
STEDILE — Of course. We don’t organize occupations because we like to, just to make an excursion, a picnic; we only organize occupations because the State is not working. The Brazilian State is organized only to maintain the privileges of the rich. The government shows up late to attend to the poor. No poor person likes to wait in the INSS line starting at dawn. Lula had land reform as a priority, we believed that the number of occupations would decrease. On one occasion, in a meeting with his ministers, President Lula said that his two highest priorities were to combat hunger and land reform. If in fact he had succeeded in getting the Finance Minister to think that way, the number of occupations and social conflicts in the rural areas would decrease.
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Charlotte Casey
Summary of Agreements Reached with the Government after the National March for Agrarian Reform
During the meetings that took place between the MST and the Brazilian government, seven points were agreed upon regarding the implementation of agrarian reforms.
Summary of the points:
1) Compliance with the goals of National Plan for Agrarian Reform (PNRA) in 2005:
a) The government reaffirms its commitment to the goals of PNRA II: 115,000 families settled in 2005 and 400,000 settled by the end of 2006.
b) By March 31, the delivery to the national congress of the Bill requesting the budgetary supplement, with the resources necessary for attaining these goals.
2) Revision of the Indexes of Productivity
The federal government has made the decision to put indexes of productivity into effect. The interministerial decree will be published in the coming weeks.
3) Restructuring and Strengthening of INCRA
a) The Ministry of Planning authorized the hiring of 137 employees, mostly agronomists, who have already been approved through a competitive hiring process.
b) Authorized the initiation of a new hiring competition for INCRA, also in 2005, with the opening of 1300 new jobs.
c) New organizational structure for INCRA
4) Prioritized selection of workers from older encampments in the selection for settlements (with other legal conditions observed)
5) Assurance of a monthly basic needs basket for all families in encampments
6) Removal of contingencies on the resources of the National Program for Education in Agrarian Reform – PRONERA
7) Better quality of access to credit for settlement members
a) Readjustment of the ceiling on PRONAF A funding from R$15,000 to R$18,000 (1.15% per year, reprieve of up to 5 years, a 10 year term for payment, 46% discount for payment on time).
b) Increase in the funding credits for the settlement families (2% interest and R$200 rebate for payment on time), which are valued up to R$3,000 each, from one to three, with the first two at risk to the Union and the third being a guarantee for purchase of produce.
c) Institution of Recovery Credit for settlements in the value of up to R$6,000 per family (1% interest, reprieve of up to three years and up to 10 year period for payment), with availability of fixed resources for each Crop Plan.
d) Assurance of the availability of R$100 million for the settlements´ exclusive access to Agroindustrial PRONAF (up to R$18,000 per family, 3% interest for payments on time, up to three years reprieve from payment and eight years to pay)
d) In addition to the current installation/starting credit of R$2,400, institution of a second resource for startup credit for the settlement families, of the same value, in the following year.
e) An increase from R$1000 to R$1500 in the resources for cistern construction in semi-arid areas.
Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Savanna Lyons
May 17, 2005
The MST arrived in Brasilia to meet with Lula and government officials about their demands for land reform. Though conflict with police that injured landless marchers and police officers overshadowed media coverage, the march managed to assert the urgency of land reform while animating MST members throughout. The March has also helped the MST guarantee its future through the heavy participation of MST youth in the 17-day long spirited and educational journey.
Read below a report from Reuters. The MST and other perspective on March outcomes and protest clashes will soon follow.
Brazil landless march ends in clashes, 50 injured
18 May 2005 05:58:40 GMT
Source: Reuters / http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N17557679.htm
(Updates number of activist injuries, adds government comment)
By Andrew Hay and Tiago Pariz
BRASILIA, Brazil, May 17 (Reuters) - A 17-day protest march by 12,000 Brazilian landless peasants ended in violence on Tuesday as activists fought with police and demanded faster government land resettlement to cut rural poverty.
Over 50 people were injured as mounted riot police charged into demonstrators at the end of the 150-mile (238-km) march to pressure President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to meet land reform promises.
The clashes occurred as leaders of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) met with Lula and said they reached a deal to boost reform spending. Government officials denied any accord.
Over 30 MST activists and 20 paramilitary police suffered bruises and broken bones after protesters tried to cross a police line at Congress. Mounted officers made repeated baton charges in the worst protest violence seen in Brasilia in years.
"They just came at us without provocation," said MST activist Gabriel Silveira as he staggered on the grass before Congress, complaining of a blow to his shoulder by police.
Police Maj. Nevitton Pereira Junior said two officers could lose their sight after being speared in the face by bamboo poles. He showed welts where he said he had been beaten.
MST leaders have threatened to increase the pace of land occupations, and could drop traditional support for Lula if he fails to meet a promise to settle 430,000 families by 2006.
He is nowhere near the election pledge after focusing on market-driven economic policies and big farm producers to achieve steady growth needed to cut poverty.
MST leaders left the Lula meeting telling reporters he agreed to free up nearly half the land reform spending he froze in 2005, or about 700 million reais ($282 million), and hire 1300 new land reform agents to speed settlement of families.
Agrarian Reform Minister Miguel Rossetto said the meeting had been "positive" but the government had made no deal and it would give its proposals to the MST on Wednesday.
MST leaders showed no sign of easing up on farm invasions that worry foreign investors and can cause political headaches for Lula as the opposition accuses him of being soft on "crime".
"With the energy of this march we have to raise occupations even higher, with this energy we have to attack economic policy," MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile told cheering activists near Congress as police looked on.
Since Lula's Workers Party moved away from its leftist roots the MST has lost its most powerful political backer.
With such support gone, 44 percent of the 2005 land reform budget has been frozen to help the government hit a high budget surplus goal meant to cut debt. The government says it may settle as few as 160,000 families by the end of this year.
The MST invades ranches to press the government to purchase and resettle unused land. The end goal is to cut deep land inequality where 1 percent of Brazil's 180 million people controls 45 percent of its farmland.
Leaders of Brazil's peasant movements said they still backed Lula but could discuss ending support for his 2006 re-election campaign unless he spends more on landless settlement.
"When we get to the election period we are going to discuss this," said Romario Rossetto, a national coordinator of the Via Campesino movement which represents small farmers.
Earlier in the day, crowds of peasants burned fast-food wrappers and other rubbish outside the U.S. Embassy to protest against what they called U.S. imperialism.
The MST has strengthened relations with populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and given support to his plans to counter a U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, as its relations with Lula have weakened.
"Bush, get your hands off Venezuela, Colombia and Iraq," shouted MST leader Maria de Jesus as activists waved Venezuelan flags at lines of police guarding the U.S. embassy.
*The MST distributes biweekly updates that FMST-US volunteers translate and make available. Please read the latest below.*
MST Update #91: June 4, 2005
FEATURE: Congressional Commission of Inquiry of Land--Ideological Platform of the Fght for Agrarian Reform
Dear friends of the MST,
The week in Brasília we followed two more sessions of the Congressional Commission of Inquiry of Land (CPMI). Established in the beginning of 2004, the objectives of the CPMI were to analyze the progress of Agrarian Reform, the social movements of workers and landowners, and to investigate the causes of rural conflicts and violence in order to identify concrete solutions to the Agrarian Reform problems in Brazil.
However, what we are experiencing is a deviation of focus in regards to the question of land. Recent issues such as habeas corpus conceded to Adriano Chafik Luedy, confessed perpetrator of the Felisburgo Massacre (state of Minas Gerais), or the liberty of those who ordered the assassination of Sister Dorothy Stang, did not even make it on the Commission agenda. Instead, the CPMI decided to investigate two associations, the Anca (National Association of Agricultural Cooperation) and the Concrab (Confederation of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives of Brazil), which fight for Agrarian Reform in the country and are partners of the MST and other social movements.
We are not against the investigation, much to the contrary. The MST has always defended transparency in the administration of any public resource. But the intention of the CPMI congress members, connected to agribusiness and other politicians who represent these interests, the ruralists, was not just to verify the destination of the government funds. The idea was to link the financial transactions of the two non-profit and autonomous associations, which are available to the public in the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (Tribunal de Contas da União), to the transactions of the Movement, trying to criminalize the rural workers and affect the morale of the MST in the eyes of the Brazilian society, trying to put the MST in the common grave of the corrupt.
The legitimacy of the National Congress in promoting the Commissions of Investigations is protected by the Federal Constitution itself. However, this legitimacy is lost when the CPMI misrepresents itself and, in the process of investigation, transforms into an instrument for attacking the government and for criminalizing the social movements. It fails to investigate entities tied to latifundios, CNA (National Agricultural Confederation), SRB (Brazilian Rural Society), UDR (Democratic Ruralist Union) and others. The denouncements of farms with slave labor are put aside. The smuggling of transgenic seed, which contaminate the plantations of the south of the country, was ignored.
In October of last year, the CPMI reporter, Congressman João Alfredo (PT/CE) alerted: “what Commission President Senator ÿlvaro Dias (PSDB/PR) appears to intend to do is transform it into the CPMI of Boné, proposed by the ruralists, with whom the Senator is extremely close.‿ The discussions between the congressmen and senators in this week’s sessions are a clear example of this dispute of ideologies and societal projects between those who want to maintain the concentration of wealth and land, and those who are in favor of the people, social justice and Agrarian Reform.
Furthermore, the judicial order was that the information would stay restricted to the CPMI. Oddly, the CPMI President has spoken with the press, in a clear attempt to involve the MST and to turn public opinion against the Movement.
In their opening explanations, those who testified from the two entities responded to all the doubts and questions that had been published in newspapers and in previous sessions of the CMPI, not leaving behind any doubts about the nature of the financial movements or the execution of governmental resources, demonstrating that the objectives of the agreements were reached. Following, those who testified decided to exercise their constitutional right not to answer the questions put forth by the ruralists, who during the session criticized, attacked, and condemned the image of the entities and their leaders. However, the representatives reaffirmed their willingness to debate with the society, making clear their objectives and their contribution to the fight for Agrarian Reform.
Between the agreements and partnerships, the Anca and the Concrab support projects in the areas of health, environment, culture, education, and agricultural cooperation. They collaborate, for example, in increasing literacy among youth and adults. Today there are thirty thousand students and around three thousand educators in the settlements, a part mobilized by these partnerships with UNICEF and universities (For example UnB, UNICAMP; UFPR; PUC-SP, UNESP and many others throughout Brazil). Currently the Concrab brings together approximately 500 associations of production and services, more than 50 livestock cooperatives, more than 60 service cooperatives, 5 credit cooperatives, more than 100 medium and small agribusinesses, and 5 labor cooperatives. They give technical support to the production cooperatives, seeking to help the families in the managerial and technological aspect of the productive process and organizing the agricultural production towards eliminating hunger and poverty, creating a space for social participation.
The Cinema na Terra Project, carried out by Anca, with financial backing of Petrobrás, and through the Law of Cultural Incentive (Lei de Incentivo à Cultura), has sought to take more cinema and art to the settlements. The first projections took place at the National March for Agrarian Reform. Starting this month, the project expands to nine states, which should receive equipment and training for 130 cultural agents who will work with the project.
In the area of environment, groundbreaking experiments have been taking place with organics seeds, free of agrotoxins and distributed nationally. In the area of health, Anca has been developing the STD/AIDS prevention program in partnership with the Minister of Health. These are just a few examples of the work that these entities have been developing during the years, contributing to the Agrarian Reform settlements.
These projects and partnerships will continue in the settlements, strengthening the causes of the social movements, regardless of the dishonest accusations put forth by the ruralists. The MST reiterates its support of these entities and invites all to visit the developments in the settlements.
We hope that the true objectives of the CMPI of Land are recovered, and that there is an end to the political persecution of the entities and Social Movements that support and fight for Agrarian Reform and a different society.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
*Translated by Friends of the MST volunteer Amanda Lyons
MST UPDATE # 89 "Special Edition"
Dear Friends of the MST,
On May 2, 12,000 men and women workers left the city of Goiânia headed to Brasília so that together they can march, protest and call society’s attention to the serious situation of poverty and inequality in the countryside. Coming from 23 states, these men, women, and children will go on foot for 17 days for the 200 kilometers between the two cities. Among them is a 97 year old man, Luis Beltrane, who is making his third march to the capital. The people are making a collective sacrifice, using their own bodies as a tool for struggle in search of a more dignified life for Brazilians.
They represent more than 200,000 families who are in encampments and 350,000 in settlements in our country. They represent the unemployed, the small farmers, the rural women, youth, students, teachers, the indigenous, the social movements and all those who call out for transformations and demand concrete changes to improve the life of the Brazilian people. This is the National March for Land Reform, the result of national and international solidarity.
Every day the march will begin at 5:00 A.M. During the morning before the sun heats up, our comrades will march almost 20 kilometers. In their backpacks, they will carry books and notebooks to study at night. Within himself, each marcher carries the values of generosity and the will to arrive in Brasília.
At night, marching will give way to cultural activities that will raise the level of consciousness of our people.
We are going to Brasília to demand Land Reform, changes in economic policies and to denounce slave labor produced by agribusiness.
In November of 2003 we made an agreement with the government that committed to settle 400,000 families in three years of the president’s term in office. Almost one and a half years later, fewer than 60,000 families have been settled the budget for Land Reform has been cut by two billion. The money was destined for the primary budget surplus to pay the interest on the foreign and internal debt and to the banks.
The political platform that will be handed over to the three powers upon our arrival in Brasilia on May 17 is attached below.
We hope to count on your participation, support, and the solidarity.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
WHAT MUST BE DONE TO CHANGE THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE!
- Proposal from the MST, Via Campesina and Social Movements to Lula’s Government
IN RURAL AREAS, FOR PEASANT AGRICULTURE AND LAND REFORM
1 – To meet the target of settling 430,000 landless families, until the end of his term, as promised in the National Plan for Land Reform.
2 – To implement a programme establishing agro-industries in settlements and to create a special credit for land reform.
3 – To defend the Amazon and Brazilian biodiversity against the interests of transnationals and to stop the process of water privatization.
4 – To guarantee the principle of precaution and to hinder the liberalization of any GMO crop for commercial agriculture before the release of definite research results on its consequences for the environment and for the health of the people.
5 – To exemplarily punish all ranchers responsible for violence against rural workers. To federalize court cases on manslaughter. To immediately approve the law for expropriation of farms which use slave labour.
6 – To demarcate all indigenous areas as determined by the constitution, to support and value the culture of indigenous peoples. To regulate all quilombola lands. (During the colonial period quilombos were communities organized by run away slaves.)
ECONOMIC POLICY
7 – To apply the 60 million reais from the annual primary budget surplus, which is people's tax money, investing this money to generate jobs. Applying them for popular housing, public health and free EDUCATION for the youth. To implement the programme to eradicate illiteracy in our society.
8 –To lower interest rates (Selic) to the rates practiced in the United States and in neighbouring countries such as Venezuela and Argentina, 2.5% a year, not the 19.50% charged now, which only makes profits for the banks.
9 – Double the real value of the minimum wage and pensions for 454 reais a month, in May 2005, and to 566 reais in May 2006, with the objective of distributing wealth and improving the living conditions of the poorest. Honouring the commitment made by the government to double the salary’s buying power during his time in office.
10 – To recover governmental and public control over the central bank and its monetary policies. To hinder the autonomy of the bank, as it is being pushed forward by bankers and the IMF.
11 – Not signing the FTAA agreement. Not accepting the WTO rules which affect Brazilian economy. Only keeping trade agreements that can benefit the people.
12 – To perform a Public Auditing of the foreign debt, as it is determined by the constitution. To renegotiate foreign debt, since we have already paid it over and over again. Use these resources in education, as proposed by CNTE [National Confederation of Workers in Education]. To renegotiate the internal public debt, extending its payment without affecting the budget of the Union.
GENERAL POLICY
13 – To mobilise the National Congress to approve the regulation for a Popular Referendum, a Law Project (#.4718/2004) presented by the OAB [Lawyer’s Organization of Brazil] and CNBB [National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops]. So people will decide about the fundamental issues concerning their lives.
14 – Democratise media use in the country. To review political concessions and release the use of community radios and TVs.
15 – To condemn in all international media the war policies and human rights violations committed by the Bush government, demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. To withdraw Brazilian troops immediately from Haiti.
16 – To promote a true collective effort, discussing with society a Project for national development which will guarantee national sovereignty, and to define as priority the assurance of work for everyone, the battle against social inequality and a true democratic policy.
DOCUMENT THAT WILL BE HANDED IN BY THE NATIONAL MARCH FOR LAND REFORM TO THE THREE POWERS IN BRASILIA
Thanks to all who wrote letters to free MST leaders in Alagoas. They were freed on habeaus corpus on May 10.
*o portugues esta em baixo*
Dear Friends,
The MST needs your solidarity.
In Alagoas, there are 5 MST leaders who have been imprisoned since the end of April - 4 men and one woman. They are in jail by request of the federal police who copied their names from the newspaper and considered them the leaders of a demonstration of 3,000 landless who occupied an INCRA building in April.
MST lawyers have entered a habeas corpus plea. Please send the letter below to help.
LETTER OF SOLIDARITY ON BEHALF OF THE MST POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ALAGOAS
To Judge PETRÚCIO FERREIRA,
We are in solidarity with the rural workers JOSÉ CARLOS DA SILVA, JOSÉ ROBERTO DA SILVA, HERC?LIO LEANDRO, VÂNIA SILVA and MARIA DO Ó DOS SANTOS, who were jailed on April 26 when they took part in a hearing with the Superintendant of Federal Police in Alagoas.
These people are farmers, heads of families, well-known in the society that is working through the social movements for land reform to be implemented.
We understand that the imprisonment of the activists is entirely unnecessary, illegal, and does not contribute to the democratic solution of the social conflicts in that state.
We believe that the sensitivity and feeling for the social demands that you and the Federal Tribunal have shown in other cases will cause you to rule in favor of justice, ensuring the release of the workers who have been unjustly held.
Sincerely,
Estimados companheiros/as,
Precisamos de sua solidariedade.
O MST de alagoas tem 5 companheiros presos desde final de abril, 4 dirigentes e uma companheira dirigente. Eles estão presos, por pedido do delegado da policia gfederalç que copiou os nomes deles nos jornais e os considerou lideres d euma manifestação de 3 mil sem-terras que ocuparam o predio dop Incra, no mes de abril
Nossos advogados entraram com habeas corpus. Vejam abaixo o desembargador que vai juldar.
Pedimos que todos enviem mensagens ao desembargador, que se considera uma pessoa religiosa e justa.
Desembargador Petrucio Ferreira-Tribunal de justiça federal, Maceio
Telefone do Gabinete Desembargador
81- 34259185
34259194
emails: petrucio@trf5.gov.br
Companheiros/as,
Segue um modelo de carta a ser enviado com urgência para o Desembargador Federal PETRÚCIO FERREIRA, pedindo a libertação de integrantes do MST presos em Alagoas. Favor enviar cartas para:
Telefone/ Fax: 81 - 34259185
email: petrucio@trf5.gov.br
NOTA DE SOLIDARIEDADE AOS PRESOS POL?TICOS DO MST DE ALAGOAS
Exmo. Sr. Dr. Desembargador Federal PETRÚCIO FERREIRA,
Viemos manifestar nossa solidariedade aos trabalhadores rurais JOSÉ CARLOS DA SILVA, JOSÉ ROBERTO DA SILVA, HERC?LIO LEANDRO, VÂNIA SILVA e MARIA DO Ó DOS SANTOS, presos desde o dia 26 de abril desse ano, no momento em que participavam de audiência na Superintendência da Polícia Federal de Alagoas.
Tratam-se de camponeses, pais de família, reconhecidos na sociedade que postulam partir de movimentos sociais a realização da reforma agrária.
Entendemos, como o Ministério Público Federal de Alagoas que a prisão dos ativistas é absolutamente desnecessária, ilegal e que em nada contribui para a solução Democrática dos conflitos sociais naquele Estado.
Acreditamos que a serenidade e a sensibilidade com as demandas sociais que Vossa Excelência e esse Tribunal Federal, já demonstraram em situações anteriores, irão se manifestar a favor da Justiça, garantido a liberdade aos trabalhadores injustamente presos.
Atenciosamente,
*The MST distributes biweekly updates that FMST-US volunteers translate and make available. Please read the latest below.*
MST Update #88 from April 20, 2005 includes:
1) FEATURE: "On the Indices of Productivity"
NEWS BRIEFS:
2) Demonstration in Carajás Attracts 10,000
3) Confessed Guilty, Chafik is Freed by Authorities
4) Settlement Invests in the Production of Herbal Medicines in Paraná
*******
1) On the Indices of Productivity
Dear friends of the MST,
In this edition we share with you the text of Plinio Arruda Sampaio, president of ABRA (Brazilian Association of Agrarian Reform) and member of the team that developed the National Plan of Agrarian Reform which was given to the government in 2003.
“The Federal Constitution determines that unproductive properties may be condemned for the purposes of Agrarian Reform. From this arises the question: What exactly are unproductive properties?
The law surrounding the subject considers property unproductive if it does not profitably utilize its land. This classification must be made by a professional by means of an inspection.
In the inspections the inspector first verifies the extent to which the land is being effectively developed in the property; after that he compares the production obtained by the various sources of cultivation and of cattle production on the inspected property, taking into consideration data of the median income of Brazilian plantations in relation to the same products. A property that utilizes a very small part of its lands or whose income is below the median is classified as unproductive and, therefore, can be condemned for the constitution of registration of Agrarian Reform.
The table containing the indicators of income and cattle productivity was made in the 1970s. Since then Brazilian agriculture has been modernized and become much more productive. However, the table of indicators has not been modified, and this allows plantations which have already overexploited their properties’ productivity to escape being classified as unproductive.
In Paraná only 8 of 148 property inspections resulted in the property being classified as unproductive. With new indices the result would obviously be much higher.
The outdated indicators lead to delays in the condemnation process and cause owners who fail inspections to dispute the condemnation laws with the government. This raises the stakes for the process of Agrarian Reform and does what it can to render the process slower overall.
In 1999 the Minister of Agrarian Reform carried out studies in order to update the indicators of income (or, “indices of productivity,? as they call them). Two institutes known for their competency and aptitude undertook the survey: Unicamp and Embrapa. The two acted separately and arrived at practically the same conclusions.
In keeping with the law, the Ministers of Agrarian Development and Agriculture should have issued, as reviewed by the National Council of Agricultural Development, the instruction by INCRA (National Institute of Agrarian Colonization and Reform) to establish the new indicators.
But large plantation owners came together to prevent this from happening.
In the proposal to the Second National Plan of Agricultural Reform, brought to President Lula in December 2003, the need to issue this instruction (pg. 38) was demonstrated, with the goal of making possible the implementation of the established record.
But, until now, April 2005, it still hasn’t managed to be issued, clearly due to resistance from the large plantation owners.
When the massacre occurred at Felisburgo, in Minas Gerais, a commission of civil service representatives requested that President Lula establish the indices, as a necessary provision to accelerate the process of Agrarian Reform, which is currently running behind the set goals of the government – goals that are at the median of the goals proposed by the same specialists who improved the Plan. On the occasion of Sister Dorothy’s assassination, the same commission renewed their request.
The decision they chose to take, however, was not to immediately issue the new indicators based on the studies from 1999, which were already ready, but rather to do a new study. It is reported that this was already done and discussed in the highest spheres of government.
It is hoped that the Lula government will face this veto and issue the new indices, in order not to stay in the same position of past governments, which always cited lack of information to do something other than that which was already being done?
A warm embrace,
The National Department of the MST
2) Demonstration in Carajás Attracts 10,000
On the morning of April 17 a demonstration occurred on the Curva do S, the Eldorado of Carajás, southeast of Pará. In the same place nine years ago, 19 Sem Terra members were murdered and another 69 injured by the Military Police. The date is commemorated worldwide as the International Day of the Peasant Fight by the Peasant’s Movement, and this year around 10000 rural workers came to participate in the mobilization. Similar acts occurred throughout the country.
3) Confessed Guilty, Chafik is Freed by Authorities
Though he confessed, the plantation owner Adriano Chafik Luedy, involved in the murder of five MST rural workers in the Promised Land camp in Felisburgo, Minas Gerais, was granted release by the Fifth Division of the Superior Tribunal of Justice in Brasília (DF). The other three accused men, despite being recognized as participants in the slaughter by surviving victims, were helped out by the Judge of the Jequintinhonha Judicial District (MG) by being allowed to await their trial free, out of jail. Following the release of these prisoners, Felisburgo Sem Terra workers already had spread bulletins of the occurrence in the local delegation recommending the recapture of the menaces.
4) Settlement Invests in the Production of Herbal Medicines in Paraná
Workers in the northeast part of the state started an herbal laboratory in order to manipulate plants and produce herbal medicines by using natural extracts from fresh or dried plants. The laboratory was founded in 2001, in the Ernesto Guevera Center for Study and Research (Cepag), in the Oziel Alves Pereira Settlement of Santa Cruz do Monte Castelo. Now families plan to expand the laboratory to teach more people how to handle plants and to start an herbal pharmacy. “We want to teach more people that all remedies come from the wilderness, of the plants that we are destroying. To end exploitation by multinational corporations, we need to stop the use of chemical remedies and only use natural ones,? believes Loreci Rodrigues da Silva, coordinator of the Sector of Health.
*Translated by FMST volunteer Kristen Schlemmer.
*The MST distributes biweekly updates that FMST-US volunteers translate and make available. Please read the latest below.*
SOURCE: MST National Secretariat
DATE: May 20, 2005s MST Update includes:
MST's National March for Agrarian Reform
Dear friends of the MST,
On May 17, after walking more than 230 kilometers, the 12 thousand workers who took part in the National March for Land Reform ended their mobilization in Brasília (DF).
In the morning, 200 marchers went to the National Congress to participate in a ceremony to honor Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida. Afterwards, they met with the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Severino Cavalcanti, and of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, who complimented the March “on its organization and peaceful nature, showing once and for all that it is possible to make demands with civility‿. In the two meetings, the Movement presented its support for the creation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for a hearing on the internal and foreign debts and for the proposal of the Brazilian Lawyer’s Guild and the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, that guarantees the people the right to call plebiscites, besides defending the referendum prohibiting arms sales.
In the evening, camped out in the area of the Mané Garrincha stadium, the marchers headed out in the direction of the Esplanade of Ministries. The first place they visited was the U.S. Embassy. There, they symbolically dumped the trash of our society with products from McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and toy guns. They put up two posters: “Bush: world-wide head of terrorism‿ and “We are returning your trash‿.
Following that, the Landless workers went to the Finance Ministry for a protest against the government’s economic policies. At the same time at the Central Bank, the interest rate paid by the government to the banks went up by 19.5% to 19.75% per year, which costs the Brazilian people more than R$900 million.
Plínio Arruda Sampaio, president of the Brazilian Association for Land Reform, gave a class to the marchers about the nature of the current economic policy. “We don’t need foreign interference in Brazil to help the economy. We need to make a model of a full stomach, of dignified change, of efficient schooling, of a hospital open to all. And we have conditions to change what now exists in Brazil‿, stated Sampaio.
When everyone was going to the Congress to begin the closing ceremony, where the parties and the groups were going to speak, there occurred the provocation that was organized and planned by the federal police.
First, a vehicle of the civil police, with no apparent reason, tried to enter the middle of the crowd, which caused some people to surround the vehicle. Immediately the cavalry of the military police threw themselves against the marchers while the helicopter flew overhead, causing hats and flags to be blown away. According to the Journal of Brazil, the military police had infiltrated 18 soldiers into the crowd, as if they were demonstrators.
The result was 50 people wounded and newspaper headlines on the following day. It was everything that the right and agribusiness wanted.
The strange thing is that this happened now, under a democratic regime. This proves that the reactionary forces act deliberately in the Brazilian state, no matter who is in power.
In contrast to the federal highway police, who during the 15 days of the march maintained good relations with the marchers and ensured their security, the military police of the Federal District appeared oriented to give difficulties to the legal protest. From the departure from Goiânia until the arrival in Brasília, there were no instances of violence. In these 21 years, the MST never adopted violence to resolve the problem of Land Reform in Brazil.
Despite the attempt to disrupt the March, the closing ceremony was carried out as planned, with the participation of many MST supporters, artists, singers, and congressmen who recalled the urgency of Land Reform.
At night, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received 50 MST leaders and guests of the Movement. Lula once again promised to guarantee the necessary resources to fulfill the goal of settling 400,000 families by 2006. “If we do not fulfill the goals of Land Reform, we will have a problem with our conscience‿, he stated. On the following day, a meeting with the Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rosseto, affirmed the hiring of 137 employees for INCRA and the opening of 1300 jobs, besides the other eight points related to concrete measure to speed up Land Reform, including the change in the productivity indexes that define when a property is productive, a new special credit for the settlement families, the guarantee of a restructuring for INCRA, basic food baskets, and a priority of settling 120,000 families by the end of this year.
About the 16 points that the MST discussed with the people along the route of the March, the government was silent.
The MST is making a positive balance of the results of the March. We succeeded in placing Land Reform once again on the political agenda of society and of the government. We succeeded throughout the March in raising the need for changing the government’s economic policy. And we gave an example of organization and a spirit of sacrifice to change the country, hoping to see a rebirth of the mass movement. Now we have to continue organizing our bases, knowing that only the social struggle will succeed in bringing about the necessary changes.
In the various public events and in the press, the MST always remembered that the March of the Landless was possible thanks to solidarity. We count on the support of the mayors offices of Anápolis and Goiânia, and of the government of the state of Goiás (PSDB), which gave porta-potties, ambulances and drinking water, and also of the millions of nameless people, groups, clergy, NGOs, political parties, and lawmakers, who helped with the great effort that made this March possible. To everyone, our proud thanks.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
*The MST distributes biweekly updates that FMST-US volunteers translate and make available. Please read the latest below.*
This MST Update #87 from April 1, 2005 includes:
1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Why do we need agrarian reform?
NEWS BRIEFS
2. Three Landless Workers Remain Imprisoned without Justification in Paraná
3. Nonviolent Marches Mark the Second Anniversary of the Iraq War
*****
1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Why do we need agrarian reform?
Dear friends of the MST,
Brazil has serious economic and social problems that result from the inequality in land ownership and the way agricultural production is organized.
Land reform proceeds at a slow pace in our country. Today there are 200 thousand landless families camped under tents made of black plastic sheeting, alongside unproductive estates (latifúndios), and there are 4.6 million landless families living in a situation of extreme abandonment. The policy of Land Reform has been criticized, including by the United Nations in a recent report about housing conditions in Brazil.
According to the National Plan for Land Reform laid out by the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), there are 55 thousand rural properties (making up 120 thousand hectares or 300 thousand acres) classified as unproductive. These lands should, by law, be expropriated and immediately handed over to the families of workers.
But the elite landowners of Brazil sought strategies to prevent the advancement of land reform. Through the influence of the elite landowners over the courts, many rural workers have been imprisoned. In the media, the constant attacks on the social movements and systematic propaganda favorable to agribusiness have been aimed at inhibiting our struggle. At the same time, the conservative wing of the national congress instituted a parliamentary commission of inquiry (CPMI) that was charged with investigating rural violence. Its role has been to try to discredit the MST in public opinion, creating factoids about the movement’s financial resources.
In 2003 as a result, 14 thousand families were settled and in 2004, not even 50 thousand were settled. The initial government proposal, established after a march to Brasilia with thousands of men and women workers from rural social movements, was to settle 430 thousand in three years, with priority given to families in encampments.
We began 2005 with the cut of R$2 billion in the MDA budget, which had been predicted to be R$3.4 billion. The money saved was used once again to guarantee the payment of interest on the external debt. And more than 66% of rural workers remain without access to credit and farm subsidies. The agrarian bourgeoisie, allied with the transnational corporations, built up the story about the success of agribusiness and continues doing this within the government, despite the weakness of this year’s soy harvest. The Minister of Agriculture, the representative of the agrarian bourgeoisie, quickly succeeded in renegotiating the debts of the large soy producers of the Central-West region with the Bank of Brazil, valued at R$6 billion.
The landowners who benefit, along with international financial capital, continue trying to convince Brazilian society that the agricultural model developed by them is collaborating with the political economy on dedicating itself to export. Agribusiness is shown as a synonym for modernity, but the properties larger than one thousand hectares employ only 600 thousand wage workers and possess only 5% of the national fleet of tractors. And in a universe of 5 million owners, fewer than 1% of the total, around 26 thousand, are owners of 46% of the land. The 300 largest farm properties total an area equal to the states of Paraná and São Paulo together.
Even in a country that has the highest rate of land concentration, the small properties employ 13 million family workers and more than 1 million wage workers and hold 52% of the national fleet of tractors. In all farm products, the small property has production indexes higher than those of the large properties. A few examples: in milk production, the small farms have 71.5% of the total and the large properties only 1.9%. In hog raising, the rural workers are responsible for 87.1% and the large estates only 1.7%. In coffee, the small properties produce 70% of all production.
Faced with this situation, we have been mobilizing for 20 years to demand a more dignified life for the rural workers and we adopted various forms of struggle, among them marches. On April 17, a worldwide day of struggle for land, we will begin a National March for Land Reform with 10 thousand workers.
For the MST, Land Reform must come along with agribusiness, education, and new farm technology that respects the environment. This is the quickest and cheapest way for the government to create 3 million jobs in the countryside. The only choice for the poor is to organize themselves and struggle for their rights that are guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Brazil.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE MST SHOULD DO TO REALIZE LAND REFORM IN BRAZIL?
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
NEWS BRIEFS
2. Three Landless Workers Remain Imprisoned without Justification in Paraná
For more than eight months, three landless workers have been arbitrarily imprisoned in the public jail of Guarapuava, in the central region of Paraná. The court and the police treat these workers as highly dangerous criminals, preventing visits from friends and families. Besides this, the fact of them not constituting a risk to public safety or the proceeding of the case against them, means that keeping them in jail is an affront to the Federal Constitution. In March, the Social Movements Coordinating Committee launched a campaign to free the MST political prisoners who are held in Paraná, with committees in Curitiba, Guarapuava, São Paulo and Brasília.
3. Nonviolent Marches Mark the Second Anniversary of the Iraq War
While U.S. President George Bush repeats that the war was “just?, millions of pacifists took to the streets of the whole world on March 19 to reiterate the illegitimacy of the invasion, which had taken place two years earlier on that date. In São Paulo, the demonstrators went up Avenida Paulista to the Praça de Sé. Marches and vigils also took place in Italy, France, the U.K., Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Finland, India, Argentina, and Japan.
**Translated by FMST volunteer.
Bionatur holds Third National Meeting
May 4, 2006
**NOTE: The Friends of the MST (FMST) has played an important role in the securing of resources for the MST's Bionatur organic seed initiative. We invite any/all interested parties to contact us if they are interested in contributing to this wonderful effort.**
Twenty-two tons of agro-ecological seeds in the last harvest with the work of 230 families in the three southern states of Brazil and in Minas Gerais. These are some of the victories that the Bionatur Agro-ecological Seeds Network will commemorate in the Third National Meeting to be held from May 9 to 11 in Candiota township, Rio Grande do Sul.
Bionatur was created in 1997 in MST settlements in the southern region of Rio Grande do Sul. Coordinated by the Regional Cooperative of Settlement Farmers (COOPERAL), the project began with only 12 settlement families from Candiota and Hulha Negra and today already produces 63 varieties of vegetable seeds in an ecological form, without using agro-toxins, involving the work of 230 families in 20 townships of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Southeast Minas Gerais.
The seeds have received certification of agro-ecological production from the Ministry of Agriculture and are sold in practically all the states of Brazil. This certification has allowed for producing families to receive a fair price for seeds sold, significantly increasing their annual income and living standards. Bionatur has been coordinated by the Agro-ecological Cooperative Land and Life (CONATERRA) since June 2005.
“We work with the perspective of confronting the agrarian model imposed by the multinationals, who control the seed market in Brazil and in the world. The Bionatur Network is guided by the production of healthy food, free of agro-toxins and transgenics, which is the base for food sovereignty of the people‿, states Marino de Bortoli, from the network’s coordination.
The Third National Meeting of Bionatur will discuss agro-ecological production and the certification of organic products, besides discussing the challenges of Bionatur and promoting the exchange of experiences among farmers. On Thursday, May 11, the new Unit for the Improvement of Seeds will be inaugurated, which was constituted with financing from INCRA (the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform), from the National Supply Company (CONAB) and the Ministry of National Integration.
Bionatur Data
:: Production of seeds in the 2005/2006 harvest: 22 tons
:: Varieties of seeds produced: 63
:: Families producing: 230
:: Townships involved: 20 townships from the states of RS, SC, PR and southeast of MG
:: To this point, 10 tons of seeds have already been sold from the harvest of 2005/2006
End of Year Message from the MST's National Coordinating Body
~~~
At the end of the year we sum up another period of struggle.
But at the end of the year we also prepare for the new day and it’s in this period that the rain waters the land and the seed gathers strength from the earth.
Although in some moments the hardships and limitations seem to dim our dreams, the justice of our cause spurs us to continue forward.
For the year that is beginning the certainty in continuing the struggle is that we will harvest the fruits of the seed we planted..
That we may recharge our forces, like the seed that rests and at the right time germinates to give fruit.
May hope be reborn!!
For 2007 we will continue dreaming, living, struggling!!!
A fraternal embrace to all!!!
- MST National Coordinating Body
~
who said that all is lost?
I come to offer my heart.
who said that all is lost?
I come to offer my heart.
(Fito Paez)
~
On Sunday, the 23rd of October, close to 121 million people will vote in Brazil’s Referendum on Disarmament. The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) favors the prohibition of guns and ammunition sales, which will serve to impede the violence currently devastating Brazilian society.
There are currently more than 17 million guns in circulation throughout the country. The free sale and movement of guns and ammo stimulates what can only be described as a genocide in both the urban and rural sectors. Guns are being used to exterminate young afro-brazilians living in the outskirts and favelas (shantytowns) of Brazil’s major cities. They are also used to murder Landless Workers in the countryside, where latifundiários (large estate owners) contract with private firms and hired gunmen, always heavily armed.
“Based on our own experience, members of the MST took a clear position in favor of prohibiting the sale of guns and ammo. It is our convocation of the people against violence, and in favor of life. Those who favor the sale of arms are the latifundiários (large estate owners)‿ states Jaime Amorim, member of the MST’s Coordenação Nacional (National Coordination). In his opinion, guns in of themselves generate violence, since those who carry guns are already predisposed, aware of it or not, to use them in the event they are attacked or in order to defend themselves.
Annually, over 40 thousand Brazilians die gun a related death. The majority of those who suffer from the sale of these arms are poor, while accidental deaths represent tragedies for families. In the past 25 years, over 600 thousand people have died gun related deaths. Close to 40% of these victims were between the ages of 15 and 24.
The battle for disarmament is crucial in the development of a culture that values life and respects human dignity. The referendum has allowed for an important opportunity to mobilize against the culture of violence, against the normalizing of intolerance and against inequality.
“Democracy is slowly consolidating itself. We hope that this referendum becomes one of many in Brazil’s history, and that we have many more in the future. The referendum process opens up a debate‿ affirms Amorim. He insists that the role of the referendum is much larger than this particular vote, and that in fact the referendum should be a tool for the entire population to address fundamental issues facing Brazilian society.
“The country needs to hold other referendums, principally in relation to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and other important international agreements that truly require a national debate‿ Amorim concludes.
This article can be found in its original Portuguese form:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/vozes/vozesinicial.htm
Two tons of foodstuffs per day, divided into 24,000 meals. In order to feed the 11,000 men, women, and children participating in the National March for Agrarian Reform (Marcha Nacional pela Reforma Agraria) 23 kitchens were set up, one in each state, and based in Anapolis (GO), a city located half-way along the journey.
The three daily meals-breakfast, lunch, and dinner-are prepared by 415 activists, who wake up before dawn to face a full day of work.
4,610 lbs. of rice, 3,130 lbs. of beans, 567.6 lbs. of sugar, 761.2 lbs. of cornmeal, 215.6 lbs. of meat and 682 lbs. of oil are utilized.
A major source of the provisions is the MST's own settlements. Only the meat, fruits, and vegetables are bought daily.
According to those responsible for the provision of meals, the menu should be light to complement the journey taking place.
The food is wrapped in aluminum foil packages that are delivered by truck and can be re-used.
Now the water arrives in 10 water trucks. Each day approximately 66 thousand gallons of water are used for drinking and bathing.
To mark the ten-year anniversary of the El Dorado das Carajas Massacre, Brazil's Agencia Noticias do Planalto has produced an informative radio special, including 8 distinct programs, all of which are available online (In Portuguese ONLY). These programs include interviews with victims of the massacre, an investigation into the criminal proceedings, and a special piece on the perverse nature of agri-business in Brazil and its relation to rural violence.
To download the programs, in MP3 format, visit the link below:
http://www.noticiasdoplanalto.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1089&Itemid=43
Friends of the MST Mobilize Support
What?
From May 1-17, 2005, thousands of Brazil’s rural workers will begin their 180 mile journey in the "National March for Land Reform." They will march from Goiânia and converge on the capital of Brazil to deliver a message to the public and the governing Workers Party: land reform is the critical path to Brazil’s development of social equality, food security and a vibrant civil society. Your contribution to this effort is crucial to the success of this march.
Background:
In October 2002, Brazilians voted the Workers Party’s (PT) Luis Inacio Lula da Silva their president. Lula’s election was a historic victory for Brazil’s social movements in their struggle for economic democracy against the country’s notorious income inequality. At the center of these social movements is Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) --the Landless Workers Movement-- who for decades have pressured Brazil’s government to carry out constitutionally mandated land reform.
But while the Worker’s Party has reduced inflation and increased Brazil’s exports and GDP, it has made very little progress securing the resources required for meaningful land reform. Indeed the Lula government has settled significantly fewer families than its conservative predecessor, the Cardoso government, and far fewer than the 400,000 families Lula committed to settle during his first term. Further, since Lula’s election, the landed elite and the “Democratic Rural Union? (UDR) have unleashed a new wave of violence against Brazil’s rural workers, intimidating and murdering dozens of MST members. Sister Dorothy Stang’s assassination, ordered by a large landholder, highlights the determination of the landed elite to maintain their historic dominance through brute force.
The landed elite and their allies at Brazil’s major media outlets have worked hard to convince the public and the Lula government that agricultural modernization, including genetically modified crops, and agro-exports are the only viable solution to the problems associated with underdevelopment. The large-scale deforestation in the Amazon to clear more land for agribusiness, particularly in Para where Sister Dorothy focused her struggle, is but one of the many negative social and environmental impacts of a devastating economic model. The MST will march on Brasilia to counter the myths of the global agribusiness, reiterate the urgent need for land reform and restate their proposal for an inclusive and sustainable development model rooted in the political and economic participation of Brazil’s majority, the working poor.
How to Get Involved:
North American based activists with the Friends of the MST will gather at consulates and embassies in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. in April 2005 to join in solidarity with the MST in its mass march to remind Lula and the Workers Party of its constitutional responsibility and Brazil’s historic opportunity to secure land reform and development. We are also organizing film screenings, house parties and fundraisers. See upcoming events.
For more information, on the mobilization and how to support land reform in Brazil, please contact Dawn Plummer at the Friends of the MST
(dawn@mstbrazil.org).
You can also make much needed donations to these efforts online by clicking Donate Now! or by sending checks, cash or money order made payable to:
FMST-Global Exchange to Dawn Plummer/FMST, 651 Vanderbilt Street, 7T, Brooklyn, NY, 11218. Please make your donation today!
Dear Friends of the MST,
In this special bulletin we include an article from researcher Juliano de Carvalho Filho, a professor from the faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Sao Paolo (USP), who has worked on the national program for agrarian reform and is a member of the Brazilian Association for Agrarian Reform (ABRA).
After carrying out analysis into how successive governments have acted in divulging the number of landless workers housed on their own land, the proffessor ratifies the position of the MST in relation to Lula's government: that statistics released are not resentative of reality and do not suggest an effective process of agrarian reform.
Below is the full copy of Juliano de Carvalho Filho's article, which was published on the 20th of January 2006 in the Globo newspaper.
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Lula's government fails in its agrarian reform
by Juliano de Carvalho Filho
Controversy over statistics isn't anything new when it comes to agrarian reform. Anyone who has followed agrarian politics in Brasil will remember numerous occasions where this has occured. Now it is the turn of Lula's government.
Under Figueiredo's rule, which marked the end of the military dictatorship, controversy arose over numbers. In that era, towards the end of 1984, officials announced the release of millions of new property deeds. The government of the time proclaimed this as evidence that the country was experiencing the largest agrarian reform in the history of the world.
Newspapers published various interpretations. I would like to refer to an article published in the Folha de Sao Paolo newspaper at the time: The million property deeds that were announced refer to a series of documents that not only include property that was definitely appropriated to landless farmers, but also those who had already occupied the land and deeds with only provisional or temporary rights of occupation. Obviously, the catchphrase that this was 'the largest agrarian reform in the world', is something proclaimed by military rulers and hasn't occured. We must also remember that under this dark period of our history social movements were repressed and persecuted.
In December 1995, the first year of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government, the President confirmed to the press that he had succeeded in one of his election promises: to house more than 40,000 families. The MST questioned these official statistics, suggesting that the true number of families that were housed in 1995 was actually fewer than 15,000. According to the MST, the discrepancy was a result of Cardoso's government including deeds that were already being distributed as a result of prior governments, and even deeds that were already in the hands of the occupants. For the MST, 'the target anounced by the government referred to 40 thousand new families who would be housed on their own land'.
Megalomania of PSDB (Fernando Henrique Cardoso party-Partido Socialista Democratico Brasileiro also known as tucanos)
In his re-election campaign, in an effort to exaggerate his alleged achievements, Cardoso confirmed on the INCRA website that, "Brasil is undergoing the largest agrarian reform in the history of the world. "On his television advertisements, a famous actor announced, "One new family is housed every five minutes. "Cardoso's second term, which was marked by the so-called agrarian market reform, went about dismantling concepts and necessary conditions for an effective distribution of real-estate. The government pursued two principal policy objectives. On the one hand, it was aggressive in its rhetoric around land reform, announcing measures and statistics, which were, quite rightly, regularly contested. On the other, along with the co-operation of the media, social movements continued to be criticised. Above all, the MST was targeted, with the objective of weakening and criminalizing its actions. This second largest agrarian reform in the history of the world also failed to happen.
Now we arrive at the Lula government. When Lula was elected there was hope that agrarian reform would actually materialize. A project was immediately commissioned to design a National Plan for Agrarian Reform (PNRA). Its objective was to make the necessary policy changes that could result in structural changes in land distribution that would favour vulnerable populations and reverse the ongoing trend of real-estate consolidation.
The proposal was not accepted. In its place the government announced PNRA II. More modest in its targets, it abandoned the goal of changing the absurd underlying structure of Brazilian agriculture. Even so, there was collaboration between the various social movements in that they agreed with the government on a series of measures that would result in more reasonable targets.
The Latest Frustration
On the 22nd of December 2005, after announcing that its annual target had been surpassed, the government issued a statement in response to criticism that it had received in a letter from the MST in October, during the popular assembly in Brasilia. Among other claims, it was said that Brasil had surpassed targets set by PNRA II, resulting in the best execution of agrarian reform in the country's history. It further belittled claims by the MST by suggesting the movement makes superficial critiscism and looks to pursue a debate with the government that is not serious or realistic.
Analysis of available statistics confirms criticism of the government. Of the 127,500 families that were considered to have been housed in 2005, only 45.7% were in areas of agrarian reform. The remaining 54.3% include housing or relocation to public housing projects. These figures also show that a large part of re-housing occurs in areas that border agricultural land, following on from previous governments' policies. The geographer Bernando Mançano, from USP, has used information from the 'Fight for Land Database' to prove that in the three years of Lula's government only 25% of families were re-housed in land that had been disappropriated (from rich landowners /latifundia).
The agrarian reform under Lula's government has not been able to change the fundamental structure of land distribution. The only positive results refer to Pronaf (the national program for strengthening family farming), which does little to substantiate the claim that effective agrarian reform is being carried out. What had helped Lula's government to differentaite itself from predecessors was its attitude towards social movements. But this is no longer the case. Its policies are ineffective towards latifundia. It hasn't helped to break down the monopoly over land.
*José Juliano de Carvalho Filho is a professor in the faculty of Economics and Business Administation at the Universtiy of Sao Paolo (USP). He has worked on the National Plan for Agrarian Reform and is a director of the Brasilian Association for Agrarian Reform (ABRA).
Best regards,
National Secretary of the MST
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Brief News
National School Commemorates a year of achievements in popular education
The 23 of January will mark a special day in the history for the struggle of the working classes of both cities and the countryside. On this date in 2004 the first National School Florestan Fernandes (ENFF)was inaugurated, an academic centre that was constructed by the MST in Guararema, in the interior of Sao Paolo state. The one year anniversary of the ENFF consolidates our efforts to democratise education. Those who are sat and camped out in MST projects will have the opportunity to study and share experiences with first rate teachers.
Social movements celebrate 250 years of Sepé's death
Thousands of campaigners for the rights of the people will gather in Rio
Grande do Sul to commemorate the 250 year anniversary of the death of Guarani leader Sepé Tiaraju, killed during the indiginous resitance movement that struggled against Spanish and Portuguese occupation. The event will take place between the 4th and 7th of February in the district of São Gabriel, the place of Sepé's death, and consists of debates, cultural presentations and celebrations of various indigenous cultures from various countries across South America. For more information please visit: www.projetosepetiaraju.org.br
The expected update of Brazil's Land Productivity Indices, used to identify land that is unproductive and available for the purposes of Agrarian Reform, has been delayed once again. The Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rosseto, announced that the actual updating will take place in February of this year. The Lula government had promised to update these indices at the beginning of its first mandate, yet to this day the update has not been finalized. Last year, for example, Minister Rosseto stated he would delay the update only until October of 2005.
Though the National Constitution requires an update of the indices every 10 years, the last modification took place in 1976. According to Jose Juliano de Carvalho Filho, retired Economics and Administration Professor at the University of Sao Paulo (FEA/USP) and member of the National Association for Agrarian Reform (ABRA), “the indices are fundamental because they allow for the identification of lands to be used for land reform. This is something that the government promised several times already‿.
Updating of the indices is under negations between the Minister of Agrarian Development and the Minister of Agriculture. Professor Jose Juliano agrees with the position of the social movements, that a lack of political will is the only thing that has held back the update for over 20 years.
“I think this delay is absurd. It demonstrates a total lack of commitment on the part of the government in implementing anything that might even resemble Agrarian Reform. Instead we are seeing only settlement projects that are the result of the social movement’s pressures, without which we probably would have seen nothing‿ stated Jose Juliano.
The MST estimates that once the indices are updated, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul alone (one of Brazil’s smaller states) 40,000 hectares of land will be identified as unproductive, making them automatically available for land reform. These lands could then become the sites for food production for the entire nation.
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In Portuguese –
The text above is available in its original form by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1536.htm
Dear friends of the MST,
In this special edition, we will discuss AGRIBUSINESS. This discussion will be a bit lengthy, but only because we believe it necessary to explain our position and the reasons that cause us to be radically against this practice in the Brazilian countryside.
I – What is agribusiness?
The word agribusiness has a generic meaning, refering to all business activities with farm products. When a small farmer sells a product at the market, he is practicing agribusiness. When a market vendor sells fruits and vegetables, he is practicing agribusiness. That is the essence of the meaning of the term, used on an international level.
However here in Brazil the expression was used by the ranchers, by university intellectuals, and above all by the press, to designate a characteristic of production in the countryside. They call those modern plantations that use vast expanses of land and are dedicated to monoculture “agribusiness‿. That is, plantations that specialize in one product, with technology, mechanization, sometimes irrigation, little manual labor, and for this reason they speak with pride that they achieve high productivity. All based on low salaries, intense use of agro-toxins and GMO seeds. In the majority of cases, production is for export, in particular, sugar-cane, coffee, cotton, soy, oranges, cacao, besides cattle raising. This type of plantation is called agribusiness.
But what’s new? Nothing. If we study it carefully, it is the same type of production that was used in the colonial period, during the period of the agro-export model. What has changed is only that slave labor has been changed to wage work and the techniques have been modernized. And studies show that the wages are the lowest when compared with pay in industry, trade and on the big plantations in the developed countries. Many Brazilian studies affirm that it is not our climate and our farm know-how that give Brazilian ranchers the comparative advantages but rather the lack of respect for their employees and lack of control on the part of the government in relation to the agression against the environment without any sense of responsibility to future generations. There are, for example, numerous accusations by agronomists and scientists of the damage that the planting of soy causes in the pasture land of the Northeast region of Maranhão.
II. The false propaganda of agribusiness and its class alliance:
In the last few years the Brazilian media, mainly the large newspapers and TV stations, have done systematic propaganda in favor of the agribusiness model, as if it were the salvation of Brazil. They claim that it is responsible for the growth of our economy, for job creation, for modern agriculture and for the production of food.
All these arguments used in their propaganda do not sustain a more rigorous analysis:
- Agribusiness is responsible for the economic growth of the GNP: agricultural production, strictly speaking (farming and ranching) correspond to only 12% of all national production. So even if agriculture were double the value or volume of production, its influence in the total economy is very small. The ones who promote agribusiness usually mix agriculture with agro-industry, to say that its importance in the economy is growing by 37%. Even so, the importance and growth of agro-industry does not depend on the area cultivated but on the consumer market. If the people in the city have money to buy more food, agro-industry would grow in Brazil. However, its success depends on the value of the minimum wage and on income distribution in the urban centers.
- Agribusiness is responsible for the success of industry: nothing could be more of a fantasy. At the end of the 1970’s and beginning of the 1980’s, at the peak of agriculture subordinated to industry and with easy credit to expand the industrialization of farming, around 65 thousand tractors of all types were sold per year. Thirty years have passed, agribusiness of the neoliberal model has been implemented and at the height of the so-called success of agribusiness in 2004, only 37 thousand tractors were sold. The industries had to sell another 35,000 units outside the country to keep from failing. Worse yet: according to the data of the IBGE (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics), in the last census the ranches with more than 2,000 hectares had only 35,000 tractors. On the other hand, the small properties with fewer than 200 hectares had more than 500,000 tractors.
- Agribusiness took charge of Brazilian agriculture: if agribusiness is so great, why hasn’t the cultivated area in Brazil grown? Since the 1980’s, the total area cultivated for farming has not gone above 45 million hectares.
- Agribusiness is the activity that creates jobs in the countryside: according to IBGE data, there are only 350,000 wage workers in the ranches with more than 2,000 hectares. A lot fewer than the 900,000 wage workers employed on small properties. That is, the production mode of the agribusiness plantation, which is always modernizing, expels manual labor from the field instead of creating jobs for workers.
-Agribusiness distributes income in the countryside: slavery continues and profits are limited to the ranch owners.
- Agribusiness means development of the towns and local economies: in all the regions in which agribusiness plantations exist, income is taken to the large cities. It may be because the largest part of the cost of production (machinery, fertilizers, seeds) comes from other cities and therefore on paying these costs the money returns there; or perhaps because the landowner rarely lives in the city in which the plantation is located. In general, he lives in the large cities and therefore the profits he gains with exports go to luxury consumption, on apartments, and so on. At least the “farm‿ for his employees is acquired in a local sale, being bought in general in more distant centers where prices are lower. For this reason, the cities dominated by agribusiness, instead of developing, suffer from an influx of people caused by the exodus from rural areas, which increases the poverty on the outskirts of these cities. A completely different scenario from the places where poly-culture predominates, the production of food and small farming that contributes to the wealth of the town and keeps it going.
If this information is official and in fact the big ranches of agribusiness do not represent a solution for the agricultural and social problems in Brazil, why then is so much propaganda published? For an ideological reason. Brazil is experiencing a debate about the model for the economy and for farm production. The agribusiness plantations represent the part of the national bourgeoisie that has assets in agriculture and which has allied itself or rather subordinated itself to foreign capital represented by the interests of the large multinational corporations. These businesses not only participate in the profit obtained by international agricultural trade and by agro-industries, but they also maintain strong economic and ideological ties with the media. There is a triple alliance between the ranchers of agribusiness, the multinational corporations that control agriculture, and the media conglomerates.
Only 10 multinationals have monopoly control over the principal agricultural activities in the country. These are: Bunge, Cargill, Monsanto, Nestlé, Danone, Basf, ADM, Bayer, Sygenta and Norvartis. Just look at their TV commercials to see their degree of involvement with the media.
III. The influences of agribusiness in the Lula government
The Lula government was elected in October 2002 with propaganda and commitments clearly opposed to the maintenance of the neoliberal economic policy, opposed to the priority given by the Cardoso government to agribusiness. All those who voted for Lula wanted changes. If not, they would have voted for José Serra.
However once the elections had passed, the Lula government revealed itself as ambiguous, that despite promising changes, based itself on party and class alliances that still defend neoliberalism, remaining hostage to international finance capital. In economic policy, administered by the Finance Ministry and by the Central Bank, the old line was maintained with those responsible clearly identified with the losing party. For the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in charge of exports, (but which should be in charge of taking care of the internal market), and for the Ministry of Agriculture, ministers were nominated who were identified with the agribusiness model. Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan is a member of Sadia and Minister Roberto Rodrigues owns ranches in Ribeirão Preto and in the south of Maranhão, dedicated to agribusiness of soy, sugarcane, and oranges.
In the policy of the agricultural public sector, the government did not succeed in reversing the picture of abstention by the State. For rural credit, there was an effort by the government to create farm insurance, which would be of particular interest to small farmers. There was an effort to increase the funds for credit aimed at family farming, through PRONAF, that jumped from $R2 billion to $R5 billion. But this did not mean changes in the structure of land. Public funds being allocated by the Bank of Brazil and by the BNDES for the ranches that dedicate themselves to export were not reduced. The Bank of Brazil itself published propaganda in the newspapers and magazines showing that it conceded a volume of credit more than $R5 billion to those 10 multinational corporations that control agriculture and for some few multinational cellulose businesses. That is, fewer than 15 businesses received the same amount of funds that were destined to 4 million family farmers.
In this way, although the government made some commitments to Land Reform and to strengthen rural agriculture, in practice the strongest Ministries clearly gave priority to agribusiness, monoculture, and the export of grains.
IV. The strength of agribusiness in our society:
In 2003, technicians and students of the Ministry of Agrarian Development, of INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Land Reform) and of IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research) of government agencies and also those tied to various universities prepared the National Plan for Land Reform. The latest statistical data collected by the IBGE in the farming census of 1996 and in the INCRA register of 2003 was used. Based on these, Professor Ariovaldo Umbelino Oliveira of the University of São Paulo organized the following table of comparisons:
1. Animal production
| Indicators | Small / family | Medium sized Property | Large property / agribusiness |
| Large animals | 46% | 37% | 17% |
| Medium-sized animals | 86% | 13% | 1% |
| Small animals and poultry | 85% | 14% | 1% |
2. Total agricultural production – products for export
| Indicators | Small / family | Medium sized Property | Large property / agribusiness |
| Cotton | 55% | 30% | 15% |
| Cacao | 75% | 24% | 1% |
| Sugar-cane | 20% | 47% | 33% |
| Oranges | 51% | 38% | 11% |
| Soy | 34% | 44% | 22% |
| Coffee | 70% | 28% | 2% |
3. Products for the internal market and food:
| Indicators | Small / family | Medium sized Property | Large property / agribusiness | Tree cotton | 76% | 20% | 4% |
| Rice | 39% | 43% | 18% |
| Bananas | 85% | 14% | 18% |
| English potatoes | 74% | 21% | 5% |
| Beans | 78% | 17% | 5% |
| Tobacco | 99% | 1% | zero% |
| Papaya | 60% | 35% | 5% |
| Manioc | 92% | 8% | zero% |
| Corn | 55% | 35% | 10% |
| Tomatoes | 76% | 19% | 5% |
| Wheat | 61% | 35% | 4% |
| Grapes | 97% | 3% | zero% |
V. About the renegotiation of the debts of the latifundio owners in the Northeast:
Those who have always had privileges do everything to keep things as they are. This week, they want their debts to be rolled over to be paid from the national treasury. The latifundio owners of the Northeast ask for $R7 billion from the public coffers. With this money, only 30,000 medium and large ranchers will benefit. The four million Northeastern rural workers will not benefit.
In the whole country, the debts prior to 1995 for rural products related to agribusiness totaled $R26 billion. They were renegotiated in 1995, when all the medium and large debtors with $R200 thousand had their payment schedules lengthened and rates lowered. Those who had debts over $R200 thousand entered into the Special Program for Asset Restructuring, created by Law 9.318.
In 1998, when the period arrived for ruralists to begin payment of the debt, the federal government authorized two more years of non-payment and new interest rates, besides benefitting the ranchers who were in PESA. It put off the payment of at least 32.5% of the initial parcel until October 31 2001 and the remainder of the loan was incorporated into the debt balance to be paid in annual payments until 2025. Insolvency rose to 90%. But amongst the small producers and settlers, late payments are lower than 2%.
With this money it would be possible to solve the problems of the rural poor. However, with the Brazilian people paying the debts of the ranchers and without anything to produce for the nation, agribusiness comes out ahead one more time. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate already approved the renegotiation for the Northeast latifundio owners, but we hope that President Lula vetoes this maneuver.
VI. The debate amongst academics and in the newspapers:
The power of the influence of agribusiness is so great that it affects even intellectuals and journalists who reproduce the ideological struggle in the universities and in the press. It’s common to see articles and reports singing the praises of agribusiness. Some intellectuals, including from the left, defend the idea that small farms should also enter into agribusiness. Syndicalists already made a poor copy of this idea, even calling it “small agribusiness‿. They do not perceive that in fact there is a struggle between two ways of organizing farm production in our society. The agribusiness way, which we have described above, and the other way, peasant agriculture, based in small family farm establishments that produce several food products, give work to millions of people, in the family and outside it, that produce and develop the local and internal market.
Some argue that it is possible for the two models to live together. This is just a shameful way to defend agribusiness. It’s clear that there will always be larger production units dedicated to export. But it’s necessary to identify the type of priority and farm policy that the government and society defend.
Is our society going to use land and agriculture to produce food, to distribute income, and to keep men and women working the land or are we going to hand over the lands to the large plantations that are going to expel the population, to gain a lot of money and to make exports the top priority?
This is the real debate. There are two agricultural projects for Brazil. For this reason, the representatives of agribusiness attack Land Reform so much. There is no apparent reason because if agribusiness has productive ranches, they are exempt from expropriation. So why does agribusiness attack Land Reform, and even use the ministers of Agriculture and Finance to do this?
For two reasons: first, because they know that Land Reform strengthens the model of land occupation and farm production, In second place, because they also are owners of unproductive latifundios, which instead of being shared in order to have a social function, create jobs, distribute income and improve the living standards of our people, are maintained as a type of reserve for speculation or future expansion of their plantations.
However, it is not possible to make the two models compatible. They can live together for a long time, but from the point of view proposed for our society, it is necessary to choose: either to defend of agribusiness or peasant agriculture -- the permanence of men and women in the countryside and food sovereignity. To define oneself by the mode of agribusiness production is to accept also the neoliberal economic model dominated by the banks, by finance capital, and by the multinational corporations.
As the popular saying goes, you cannot “light one for God and the other for the devil‿
Sincerely,
National Secretariat of the MST
Dear Friends of the MST,
We are sharing a report with you on this occasion of the Second Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development sponsored by the UN Agency for Food and Agriculture (FAO), to be held from March 7 to 10 in Porto Alegre, RS. The Conference intends to discuss among other things the type of Agrarian Reform that countries should adopt. The choice of Porto Alegre is symbolic for the model that is currently under way: the state has one of the worst implementations in Brazil with a little more than 200 Landless families settled in the last four years. More than 2600 remain camped alongside the unproductive latifundios. It is a reflection of a policy that puts a priority on agribusiness instead of family farming, on exports instead of food for the Brazilian people. To ensure a better future, Via Campesina International and the MST will be in Porto Alegre, discussing and building alliances that can alter the relation of forces in the countryside.
POR UMA REFORMA AGRÿRIA GENUÿNA, INTEGRAL E PARTICIPATIVA
By Fausto Tórrez, from Nicaraugua, member of Via Campesina International and active in the Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform
Two decades after the last Conference in 1979, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in coordination with the Brazilian government, proposed this conference. As a result, we recognize that holding the conference means that Agrarian Reform is returning as one of the most important tasks that governments, international agencies, and social movements should promote in order to eradicate hunger and poverty.
What kind of Agrarian Reform are we demanding?
An Agrarian Reform that is genuine and integral, that incorporates a cosmic vision between space, territory, water, and biodiversity. An Agrarian Reform that begins with the broad process of distribution of the property of land. The ownership and use of land should be subordinated to the principle that only those who work on the land, depend on it, and reside on it with their family should have the right to land.
An Agrarian Reform that helps to integrate the peasants on their land and that regulates migration from the countryside to the city and to other countries.
Agrarian Reform is not only a sharing of land, but its application implies human development, the creation of jobs, and the production of foods to supply the local market.
We defend the principle that land has a social function. There can be no speculation, and capitalist businesses (industrial, trade, and finance) should be prevented from taking over great expanses of land.
All genuine and integral agrarian reform is characterized by the democratizing of the agrarian structure, which presupposes a transformation in the relations of economic and political power, which are the causes of land concentration.
This agrarian reform should prohibit the commodification of the right to produce and of limiting production to that which is customized for export. It should guarantee food sovereignty for the people. As for the policy of redistribution, above all there should be the required expropriation of private lands that do not fulfill their social function. It should redistribute land and power, altering the relations of strength in society in favor of the peasants and small farmers and the groups that support them, which has nothing to do with the patrimonial private transactions financed by the State.
A process that does not exclude fishermen, indigenous people, landless workers, shepherds, small and medium producers, an Agrarian Reform that guarantees total access over the land and its resources.
An Agrarian Reform that gives legal guarantees to the peasants who resort to the taking of lands in order to survive, an agrarian reform that ensures real ownership of the land and banishes the ghost of agrarian counter-reform.
Why do we oppose Agrarian Reform that promotes the World Bank?
We consider unacceptable the kind of mediation that promotes the World Bank to run programs of agrarian policy in our countries, whose consequences are a policy of freeing up the agrarian markets, an extension of the plans of structural adjustment that have left our countries in extreme poverty, increasing the gap between the poor and the rich. It turns basic services and land, water, and biodiversity into commodities, diminishing the role of the State and leaving this control in the hands of the financial oligarchy, promoting remedies that focus on “alleviating‿ poverty.
The vision of a new policy of Agrarian Reform and rural development in favor of the poor that appeared in an anticipated declaration of the world-wide conference in Porto Alegre appears to be a concept full of traps, a proposal to disguise the mediation of the World Bank to society as a whole. We do not accept a declaration between mediation and the apparent ingenuousness as if we were speaking of true Agrarian Reform.
It is unacceptable that an agency of the level of FAO and the government of Brazil attempt to vindicate this failure, since they are already knowledgeable on this topic and reality reveals that market-based Agrarian Reform in South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, and Guatemala has not lived up to expectations. To indicate that this model is successful is to deny Agrarian Reform.
What do we hope for from this International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development?
It should be a space for discussion between the social movements, governments, and multilateral agencies to put into perspective the topic of Agrarian Reform in benefit of the main actors: peasants, fishermen, indigenous people, rural workers, etc.
It should analyze the causes that create poverty in the countryside and the need to build true processes of Agrarian Reform, a fundamental base upon which Food Sovereignty is built. We must not accept palliatives, because their proposals are to promote the alleviation of poverty while governments carry out the instructions of the international agencies. If we accept that there is imbalance in the processes of development and an increase in hunger and poverty, it is also true that what is called sustainable development begins to unleash processes of Agrarian Reform; where they are already being carried out, struggle to maintain them and where they are still effective, promote them without submitting to conditions of the market.
We accept the interest in ensuring gender equity in access, control, and management of the land, water, and other natural resources. This is crucial for rural economies and the empowerment of women, but we must begin by recognizing equal rights of men and women in the laws of the countries that are signatories to FAO. We hope to put forward an Agrarian Reform that goes hand-in-hand with Human Rights, as an important element in the struggle for land. Yes, we believe in the important role of social justice, the rule of law, and of adequate legal standards for land reform and rural development.
We believe that family farming is of great importance since it is based in sustainable production with local resources and in harmony with local culture and traditions. We producers use accumulated experience and the knowledge of our local resources, and we obtain excellent quantity and the best quality of foods with very few external inputs. Our production is mainly for family consumption and for sale in local markets.
Where are we going after Porto Alegre?
First of all to strengthen our Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform as the principal initiative to support and jointly strengthen the struggle for a genuine and integral agrarian reform, for access to land, as a prerequisite for fulfilling the right to adequate food for the peasants without land.
To struggle for our Campaign to be the major network of the social movement with the objective of converting agrarian reform into a priority on the agenda of the social movements, NGOs, governmental agencies, and governments.
After Porto Alegre we must have a commitment to endorse the initiatives and national movements that struggle for agrarian reform, the right to the sea, to decent work and to standardize methods of raising small farm animals. We must struggle against the advance of cities and big projects such as dams over farmland.
To ensure that the ancestral right to the lands of indigenous people is respected, including the subsoil and the forests, promoting the recovery of lands that were taken from them.
To denounce the effects of the World Bank programs in the countryside, whose strategy is contrary to the interests of family farmers, such as land credit, land banks, and land cards.
We are in agreement with following the Platform of Action of the International Conference as long as it guarantees the role of the State in developing and implementing policies and programs that are more centered on the building of a real and genuine Agrarian Reform according to the concepts that are spelled out above.
– If it promotes support for the processes of agrarian reform through national, regional, and global collaboration, and international solidarity, to provide assistance and technical support, investment, promotion of exchanges, and evaluation of the impulse for Agrarian Reform and rural development.
– If it strengthens the role of the International Planning Committee of the NGO/OSC for Food Sovereignty in following the agreements adopted in this conference.
– If it condemns and brings to justice to those who criminalize full access to land, water, territory, and biodiversity.
A platform to facilitate the process of Agrarian Reform, with peasants, for land to be democratized, and the conditions of life to be improved in the countryside, the sea, and the territory.
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
On March 8, two thousand women from La Via Campesina Brazil occupied an area belonging to the Aracruz Cellulose Corporation in Barra do Ribeiro (RS). The date (International Women’s Day) and the place (close to where the Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development was taking place) was symbolically chosen to demonstrate the anger of these farm women with the commodification of agriculture that is going on today.
The land, the waters, the seeds, the air, and the forests are today considered resources that must be exploited to further the economic interests of the big multinational corporations. Under the guise of “reforestation‿, green deserts of lumber production for cellulose factories have been created. Eucalyptus is the main species in this strategy and damages the soil irreparably--once it is planted, it is not possible to return fertility to the land and its minerals. Besides this, eucalyptus roots penetrate the water table, damaging the supply of water in the region. Each foot of eucalyptus is capable of consuming 30 liters of water per day. The major owner of this takeover is the Aracruz Cellulose corporation, which has 250,000 hectares planted on its own lands, 50,000 in Rio Grande do Sul alone. Its factories produce 2.4 million tons of bleached cellulose per year, contaminating the air and the water besides damaging human health.
Despite the fact that the action carried out last week got a lot of coverage in the media, the reasons that led the women of La Via Campesina to occupy the business did not receive coverage. Only Aracruz Cellulose could put out its opinions, transforming a political action into a personal drama of the researcher responsible for the eucalyptus saplings. Workers were interviewed who deplored the event, but at no time was it said that Aracruz creates only one job for each 185 acres planted, while the small rural farm creates one job per hectare.
In Espirito Santo and in Bahia, places where the corporation does business, at least 88,000 jobs are going to disappear this year because of a loan of $R297 thousand from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), with resources from the Workers Assistance Fund and the Fund of Participation/PIS/PASEP, for the corporation’s eucalyptus plantations. The total area that has been financed will be over 90,000 hectares. The grace period for these BNDES credits is 21 months. Only after 21 months will payments be due for the loan and the stated period of amortization is 84 months. All this at an incredibly low interest rate of 2%! The interest rates used in the National Program for Family Farming (PRONAF) vary up to 8.75% per year.
In the last three years, the corporation received $R2 billion from the public coffers. Fifty six percent of the money, according to the corporation’s 2005 balance sheet, was destined to the exterior, where a good part of its properties are located: the Norwegian corporation Lorena (whose major stockholder is the brother-in law of the King of Norway) holds 28%. The other 28% are of the Safra Bank, an international bank based in Monaco, 28% is of Votorantim Corporation, and 12.5% of BNDES. The British American Tobacco group Souza Cruz, also has stockholders but in a smaller percentage.
“We could be proud because Aracruz belongs to a Norwegian who is successful abroad and earns a lot of money. But no. We are not proud. Aracruz is robbing or occupying indigenous territory and our people reacted strongly. There are many forests in Norway, as there are in Sweden and Finland. Those countries form Scandinavia where the Stora Enso corporation was founded, which also produces cellulose in Brazil. Why not produce cellulose right there in Europe? Scandinavian trees have to grow for 10 to 30 years before they can be used for cellulose. Instead, eucalyptus can be used after 7 years. It’s much cheaper to produce in Brazil because the labor is cheaper.‿ This is the accusation made by Ingeborg Tangeraas, a Norwegian activist from the Norwegian Farmers and Smallholders Union.
The Swedish royal family also had stock but sold it in January, after people repudiated the action carried out by the corporation against the Guarani indigenous people in Espirito Santo. Around 120 Federal policemen used helicopters, bombs, arms, and munitions, besides Aracruz Cellulose’s own equipment, to knock over plantations and houses and expel 50 Guarani from land that belongs to them. The area, illegally invaded by the corporation to plant cellulose, is still in discussion with public authorities. That was not sufficient to avoid the jailing of eight indigenous and dozens of wounded.
In an international conference on Agrarian Reform, the action carried out by the women of La Via Campesina Brazil puts in question why a government that wants to end hunger continues to sponsor and legitimize companies such as these, which only multiply the green desert, cause unemployment and still violate the rights of the Brazilian people. We are not opposed to research. On the contrary, we want even more research. But we want research into solutions for the people’s problems and not only how to increase productivity for the greater profit of the multinationals. Those who invented the atomic bomb were also great researchers. The investments in these companies, nine times inferior to employment in family farming, can only lead to one conclusion: the idea that within 20 years, food in Brazil will be based on cellulose!
A warm embrace,
National Secretariat of the MST
Mobilizations to demand Agrarian Reform
News Briefs
Mobilizations throughout the country demand agrarian reform
To remember the 10 years since the Massacre at El Dorado dos Carajás (PA), more than 18 states carried out occupations and political protests. “It’s a national mobilization that began last week and goes until April 24, with a goal of pressuring the Federal government to immediately settle all the families in camps and approve changes in the productivity indexes‿, stated João Paulo Rodrigues, a member of the National leadership of the MST.
Landless occupy Arena Theater for the second time
The MST theater group Sons of Mother…Earth, made up of landless youth from the Carlos Lamarca settlement in the interior of São Paulo state, will present a piece on stage in the Eugênio Kusnet Arena Theater in the city of São Paulo. In “Scenes of the Struggle for Land‿, the group is going to show “Por estes Santos Latifúndios‿, by the Colombian Guillermo Maldonato, winner of the Casa das Américas prize from Cuba; and “Posseiros e Fazendeiros‿, an adaptation of Horácios and Curiácios, by the German playwrite, Bertold Brecht. The presentation will be on Saturday the 18th at 8:00p.m. in the Teatro de Arena Eugênio Kusnet on Rua Teodoro Baima, 94 in the center of São Paulo.
By Silvia Ribeiro*
Curitiba, Brazil. The south of Brazil, confluence of the strongest social movements from Brazil and Latin America was, during March, the scene of a confrontation between the peasant movements and the transnational corporations, with the United Nations as a backdrop. Between March 5th and 31st, one after another, there were UN Conferences on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, the Third Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena International Protocol on Biosecurity, and the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. While this was going on, the Fourth World Forum on Water was held in Mexico.
Without asking permission, the “condemned of the land‿ in the voice of thousands of peasants, rural landless workers, people affected by dams, victims of monoculture of trees and of transgenics in Brazil and throughout the world, interrupted the scene of the UN conferences that were held in Porto Alegre and Curitiba, while tens of thousands marched in Mexico in defense of water and against its privatization.
With calmness and strength and motivated by justice, armed with seeds, banners, and songs, the men, women, and children astonished the diplomats – reminding them about the real world outside of the negotiating tables – and infuriated the directors of the transnational corporations.
In the final march called by La Via Campesina on March 31, in front of the Convention Center of Curitiba, more than five thousand peasants and members of the MST placed an enormous banner that summed up what is at stake: “Nature and biodiversity belong to the people, not to governments or transnationals‿.
In Brazil, La Via Campesina took the lead from the start: on March 8, the women from La Via Campesina occupied a laboratory and nursery of cloned eucalyptus saplings belonging to the Aracruz Corporation, to protest the “green desert‿ and the expulsion of indigenous people and small farmers by the monoculture eucalyptus forests. Following that, they marched to the Conference on Agrarian Reform and shut off access to it for four hours.
The meeting of the Protocol on Biosecurity began with marches and the occupation by La Via Campesina of a property where the Syngenta Corporation was illegally planting transgenic corn and soy, in a buffer zone of Iguaçu National Park, where the famous falls are located. That occupation continues.
During the second week, in a forceful victory for international civil society, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) kept and reaffirmed the moratorium on Terminator technology, which makes suicide seeds. The moratorium was put in place by the CBD in 2000, but the transnational corporations that engage in genetic modification tried to undermine it months before, in a preparatory meeting of the CBD in Granada, Spain.
The transnational corporations arrived in Brazil very happy: the global directors of Monsanto, Syngenta, and Delta & Pine – the owners of the majority of the market for transgenics and Terminator patents -- strolled shamelessly through the halls. They were encouraged by their victory in Granada and their feeling of superiority over government bureaucrats, to whom they were used to giving orders via bribes and other means.
They received a smack on the face. The rainbow of daily protests by La Via Campesina in the streets and inside the conference center, the coordination of hundreds of organizations of civil society in the International Campaign against Terminator, with simultaneous actions in Brazil and other countries, the interventions by youth and indigenous peoples, including delegates who were specially sent by the Huichol people of Jalisco, Mexico and the Guambiano people of Colombia, the parallel activities with the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and social movements finally succeeded in reversing the documents signed in Granada, which caused despair amongst the transnationals and the governments of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the main countries that wanted to break the moratorium.
The strongest and most symbolic moment of the CBD was the entrance of the women from La Via Campesina into the plenary session: with the green banner of their movement and candles, they opened up dozens of posters written in various languages demanding the prohibition against the Terminator. The president of the session announced that he would take this “intervention‿ into account and, even with the frustration of the director of Delta & Pine, who asked for security to be brought into the room, the majority of the plenary stood and applauded.
To maintain the moratorium against the Terminator is an important accomplishment and relevant for the thousands of peasants and indigenous peoples, as well as for the possibilities of all of us to decided on what we eat so that the transnationals are not the ones who make this decision. But maybe the main message is one that is not on paper and is not able to be wiped out: the condemned of the earth do not accept their condemnation, nor their executioners, nor those who through national and international laws legalized the privileges of the powerful.
* Sílvia Ribeiro is an investigator of Grupo ETC
[04/09/2007] Shootout leaves landless worker dead in Tocantins
On Wednesday, April 4th, Landless Workers tied to the Landless Workers Movement (MST) found themselves caught in a hail of gunfire while fishing in a stream off of the Araguaia River, in Brazil’s northern state of Tocantins (TO). As the Landless attempted to escape the gunfire, they noticed José Reis, also known as Zé Preto, 25, had been shot and had fallen into the stream they were attempting to cross.
Antonio Pinheiro Silva – encamped member of the MST – described how, after discovering Zé Preto had been shot, he tried pushing Zé out of the stream, but was unable. After several failed attempts to remove Zé from the water, Antonio had to flee in order to avoid also falling victim to the ongoing hail of bullets. Zé Preto’s body was found by the Federal Police a day later, on Thursday, April the 5th.
The shooting began around 3:00pm, while 18 Landless Workers were fishing near a stream. Without warning, the Landless Workers found themselves caught in between the gunfire of both Military Police and hired gunmen of the region. Three of the four gunmen who participated in the shootout have been identified by the group of Landless. The gunmen used 12 and 38 caliber weapons during the incident.
According to reports by Landless Workers, once the hired gunmen had begun shooting at them, the Military Police approached the scene and also began shooting at the Landless. Since the hired gunmen and Military Police have made numerous threats against Landless families encamped in the region, the suspicion is that the police were in fact giving armed cover to the hired gunmen, as they launched their attack. Adding to their suspicion is the fact that, as the police fired their weapons, they screamed profanity at the group of Landless, referring to them as, “thieves�? and “sons of bitches�?.
No one is certain of the number of police involved, or their identities, but one of them did make his presence known when he arrived at a nearby MST encampment with six other police officers around 6:00pm that same evening. He identified himself as Sergeant Casa Branca. According to the Landless, the officers went on to search their tents/homes without cause.
The Landless Workers and their respective families are encamped on the Fazenda Santo Hilário, in the municipality of Araguatins, lands they have occupied since 2003 as they await governmental orders of expropriation for the purposes of Agrarian Reform.
In a public note, the encamped families are demanding agility in the expropriation process and for a full investigation into the murder of José Reis, or Zé Preto. “Zé Preto, victim of the morosity of this process, and of the failure of the State to implement Agrarian Reform, remains alive in the midst of this our struggle�?, the not affirmed.
Article originally available at:
http://www.mst.org.br/mst/pagina.php?cd=3213
The MST’s International Relations Sector would like to mark April 17th, International Day of Peasant Struggle, by sharing the following poem with Friends abroad. This poem was written in defense of the March 8th action (International Women’s Day) in which 2,000 women of La Via Campesina occupied and destroyed a eucalyptus nursery belonging to the cellulose corporation, Aracruz Cellulose. Since then, 37 rural activists have been indicted for their participation in the act.
Friends have been asked to read the poem and send a copy to Rio Grande do Sul’s Governor, head of the state in which La Via Campesina conducted the March 8th action. Contact information provided [AT END OF POEM].
More background is available at:
http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=researchforlife
http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=node/299
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Manifest of Men and Women in Solidarity with the Peasant Women of La Via Campesina
THE SEEDLINGS BROKE THE SILENCE
There was a sepulchral silence
over the eighteen thousand hectares stolen
from the tupi-guarani peoples
over ten thousand quilombola families
evicted from their territories
over millions of litters of herbicides
poured in the plantations
There was a promiscuous silence
over the chlorine used
for whitening paper
producing carcinogenic toxins which affect
plants, animals and people.
over the disapearence
of more than four hundred bird species
and forty mammals
in the north of Espírito Santo
There was an insurmountable silence
about the nature of a plant
that consumes thirty liters of water/day
and does not give flowers or seeds
about a plantation that produced billions
and more billions of dollars
for just a half a dozen gentlemen
There was a thick silence
over thousands of hectares accumulated
in Espirito Santo, Minas, Bahia
and Rio Grande do Sul
There was an accomplice silence
over the destruction of the Atlantic Forest and the pampas
due to the homogenous cultivation of a single tree:
eucalyptus
There was a bought silence
over the voluptuousness for profit
Yes, there was a global silence
over Sweedish capital
over Norwegian companies
over large national stalls
Finally,
there was an immense green desert
in concert with silence
II
Suddenly,
thousands of women got together
and destroyed seedlings
the oppression and lie
The seedlings shouted
all of a sudden
and no less than suddenly
the smile of bourgeoisies became amazement
became a grimace, disorientation
III
The order raised incredulous
crying out progress and science
imprecating in vulgar terms
obscenity and bad language
Newspapers, radios, magazines,
the Internet and TV,
and advertisers
well spoken businessmen
crawling advisers
clever technicians
reluctant governments
the yelling right
and all the centre extremists
in chorus, echo,
assemblies and declarations
to defend capital:
“They cannot break the silence!‿
And cried for beheading!
IV
Suddenly
no less than suddenly
thousands of women
destroyed the silence
On that day
the so called Aracruz’ land
the women from Via Campesina
were our gesture
were our voice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please send to –
Governor Germano Rigoto: agenda@gg.rs.gov.br
Copies to –
Claudia Avila (attorney in charge of the case of the women from Via)
claudiamavila@via-rs.net
Daniel Cassol,
Journalist from the Solidarity Committee in Rio Grande do Sul
dbcassol@yahoo.com.br
Women’s World March which is
Coordinating the National Campaign
sof@sof.org.br
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the list of those indicted by the Police. The Public Attorney has not made any comments yet (but he is more “right extremist‿ than the Police) and it has not being handed to the Judge
1.. Adriana Maria Mezadri
2.. Luciana Maria Passinato Piovesan
3.. Luci Luiza Piovesan Rodrigues
4.. Noemi Margarida
5.. Corinne Chantal Dobler - Suiça - esava como voluntaria com o movimento de mulheres camponesas
6.. Salete Girardi
7.. Fatima Girardi
8.. Elisiane de Fatima Jane
9.. Loiva Lourdes Rubenich
10.. Paul Charles Nicholson - Espanhol - dirigente d avia campesina internacional
11.. Juara Ferrer de Sanches - Rep. Dominicana - secretaria geral da CLOC
12.. Henry Saragih - indonésia Secretario geral da via campesina internacional.
13.. Irma Maria Ostrosky
14.. Fabio Augusto de Medeiros Lopes
15.. Maria Leda Sommer
16.. Marcelo Lucas da Silva
17.. Manoela Nicodemos Bailosa
18.. João Pedro Stédile
19.. Marise da Rosa Guaragni
20.. Gomercindo Gonçalves
21.. Celio Roberto Teixeira Pinheiro
22.. Juberley da Silva Mendes
23.. Nerci Lourdes Veiga da Silva
24.. Luciana de Brito Luz
25.. Clarice Rosa Luz
26.. Marcia Teresinha D´Avila
27.. Matilde Luíza dos Santos
28.. Geovane Marlisa Moer
29.. Rute Flores Ribeiro
30.. Edson Jair Paixao Madril
31.. Julia Teles
32.. Oracelia Ribeiro Chaves
33.. Maria Rodrigues
34.. Maria Leonor Batista
35.. Lisamara Souza Rodales
36.. Maria Selena Ferreira Rodales
37.. Ofélia Madril
April 17th: International Day of Peasant Struggle
“The came from both sides and we were caught in the middle. We weren’t in the position to anything against a large group of policemen armed with rifles and machine-guns!‿ Avelino Germiniano, 51, survivor of the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre.
“When the buses from Marabá arrived with the police, they got off and shot a round of fire into the air. We thought that they only wanted to intimidate us. We started shouting words of order. We had a deaf-mute companheiro who couldn’t understand anything and he went in the direction of the police, the late Amâncio. He was the first to go down,‿ Miguel Pontes da Silva, 42, survivor of the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre.
“I received a blow in the neck and I felt blood running down my back. At the time, I didn’t know if I had been hit or if I had been shot. When I made it back to the tent, my children were anguished. I put them in my arms and still had room to carry two other children who belonged to someone else. When I remember what happened that day, it feels as though I am reliving it,‿ Dalgisa Dias de Sousa, 50, survivor of the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre.
Dear Friends of the MST,
Monday, April 17th, will mark the ten-year commemoration of the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre (PA). On this day, three thousand MST participants occupied the PA-150 highway and were headed in the direction of Marabá to pressure for the expropriation of the Fazenda Macaxeira, a well-known unproductive large landholding in this region.
Two military troops surrounded the Sem Terra and then opened fire on them. The soldiers were obeying the orders of the then-governor of Pará, Almir Gabriel (PSDB), to clear the road by any means. The police left the barracks in Parauapebas and Marabá with no identification on their uniforms or on their weapons and they told the doctors and ambulances to stay on duty!
We all know the story of the Massacre. The extreme violence officially left 19 workers dead. Another three died afterwards as a consequence of reactions to the Massacre. Even today it is not certain if this number corresponds to the reality. “I think that more than 100 people died. I want to know about the children and women who were there. None of them showed up, only the men. Many people say that they saw a truck and a small car, covered with black canvas and blood leaving in the direction of Xinguara,‿ remembers José Carlos Agarito, 27.
Agarito and the other survivors continue to live today in the encampment, 17 de April: Mártires de Carajás (April 17: Martyrs of Carajás). It was necessary to have this human sacrifice for INCRA to recognize the unproductiveness of the Fazenda Macaxiera. Of the Sem Terra participants settled, 70 of these were seriously injured. Even today, they receive precarious medical treatment and they still have not been compensated. Together, the 13 widows wait for the case to be resolved in court.
Only three judicial decisions regarding the Massacre have been made. Not one of the 142 soldiers involved in the Massacre has faced punishment. Even though a popular jury sentenced the two commanders responsible for the operation, Colonel Mário Colares Pantoja and Major José Maria Pereira de Oliveira, to 264 years in prison, they continue to live in freedom as they await a decision of the appeal made to the Superior Court of Justice.
In the meanwhile, some of the police who were involved in the Massacre and large landowners from Parauapebas participated in the assassination of two regional MST leaders, Fusquinha and Doutor. The trial continues to be delayed.
The impunity that has always existed still continues to exist for those who commit crimes against the rural and urban poor. In just this past year, 19 people were assassinated here in Pará, the same area that failed to incarcerate Pantoja, Oliveira and Almir Gabriel. We all know the root causes of this situation. On the one hand, it is the continued reinforcement of an unjust system of land tenure. The 26,000 large landowners – who represent less than one percent of the five million agricultural workers and farmers – own 46 percent of the total land in Brazil. On the other hand, the State, that which is represented by the three powers, is managed by the economic interests of the landowning class and now increasingly more by transnational companies and foreign capital. Along with this is the continuance of the exclusionary neoliberal model that impedes a national developmental project for the people of Brazil that would include a real agrarian reform.
In the past 10 years, the MST has continued its fight. We did two large marches. In 1997, we marched on Brasília to create awareness in Brazilian society, covering 1500 kilometers with three different lines coming from the three regions. This was the first big unified protest, drawing together thousands of Brazilians to protest against the neoliberal government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. More recently, in May of 2005, we marched 256 kilometers with 12,700 people, from Goiâna to Brasília. In the capital, we were received with honor and respect by the government that made seven pledges to agrarian reform and to rural social movements. We returned home happy with the agreement, but none of the promises have been kept. More than 150,000 families who participate in different social movements continue to be camped throughout Brazil. The government directive that created the productivity indices – which had not be revised since 1975 – continue to be vastly ignored by the Lula administration.
We expect the federal government to honor their own words and their signatures they confirmed with the agreements made with the peasant movements. They are so zealous in their compliance with agreements made with the landowning elite, with the IMF, and with conservative political parties…
With the strength of the community from the encampment 17 de April that houses 690 families on 18,000 hectares of the ex-Fazenda Macaxiera, we ask civil society to join us in our acts, marches and protests that will take place in 23 states.
“If we keep quiet, the stones will have to shout‿ (Pedro Tierra, poet)
Forte abraço,
Secretaria Nacional do MST
* The 17th of April was pronounced by the conference of the Via Campesina International as the International Day of Peasant Struggle in homage to the martyrs of Eldorado dos Carajás. Protests will take place throughout the world on this day. At the same time, by way of an initiative of ex-senator Marina Silva, the then-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed a decree recognizing the 17th of April as the National Day of Struggle for Agrarian Reform.
[04/17/2007] MST Update #131: Why We Mobilized Across All of Brazil
The agrarian reform must be a public and governmental program that should apply the principles of the constitution to fight the concentration of land property. Through the expropriation and indemnification of the owners it organizes settlements, distribute land to the worker’s families and, by doing so, democratize the access to the land, which is a natural good and must be at the service of the whole population, and not only of a minority.
The state must also guarantee the democratic access, with equal rights to all its citizens, to employment, dwelling, education and health. In the last years, nothing, or very little, has been done to make a real agrarian reform come true.
The governments, in fact, have been giving priority to the agribusiness as a model for agriculture, which is based on the big and “modern�? properties that use a lot of poison, generate few jobs and produce to export. It´s a model that receives huge investments in the form of credit by the public banks and the BNDES (National Bank for the Social Development) and that don’t pay almost anything in taxes, thanks to the Kandir law.
This is a benefit that no worker, farmer, sales man or industrial has in the country: a lot of money, little taxes and no social engagement or responsability with the development of the country. A benefit given only to the big national and international enterprises.
And to the poor peasants that decide to organize themselves, the government adopts only social compensations, like the “bolsa família�? (basic income program for the poorer people) and the settlement in projects of colonization in Amazon forest, far from everything. Or it allocates families in empty lots in old settlements.
That’s why the concentration of land property has been increasing during the last 12 years. And now with an aggravating, the foreign capital, from the big transnational corporations, is also buying a lot of land! They want to settle huge areas of eucalypt, soy and sugar cane monocultures, to get profits and match only their own interests. They left us only the environmental destruction, the unemployment and the poverty!
For all these reasons, more than 140 thousand families of Brazilian workers are organized and fighting, but are forced to raise their children under black plastic canvas, in camps along the roads, thanks to the omission of the governments. Have you ever imagined how is it possible to stay only waiting, inert, listening to land promises, living in black plastic canvas slums, unable to produce for two, three, five, eight years?
That’s why, tired of waiting, we are mobilizing ourselves in the whole country. We are protesting to accelerate the agrarian reform.
And we are doing this on the period of April 17th because in this day, in 1996, the Military Police of the state of Pará, under the orders of the governor of that state, Almir Gabriel (PSDB) and of the former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, had made a massacre on a camp in the town of Eldorado dos Carajás, where 19 landless peasants were instantly killed, other two died a few weeks later, 69 were mutilated and hundreds were wounded. After all these years, no one was arrested or punished. Everything remains unpunished. As we all know, here in Brazil the judicial power works only to protect the assets of the rich, and the rights of the poor are always postponed.
In honor of the martyrs of Carajás, Via Campesina Internacional has enacted the day of April 17th the day of international peasant struggle all over the world. And here in Brazil, thanks to the former senator Marina Silva, the national congress approved and the former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso sanctioned a law that establishes the 17th of April as the national day of agrarian reform struggle!
What do we defend and expect the federal government to fulfill with the help of the state governments?
1. We want the government to make the expropriation of unproductive farms quicker, giving priority to some regions in each state, preferably next to the consumer centers, to make the access to the market and the development of food production easier.
2. We want the government to give priority to the expropriation of farms owned by foreign companies that came here to implement their monocultures (of eucalypt, soy and sugar cane) that are dangerous for the environment, with the intensive use of poisonous fertilizers and expelling the Brazilian workers from their rural environment
3. The government must update the edict of regulation that measures the productivity rate of the farms, which is still based on data of 1975. It must also mobilize its parliamentary base, which is the majority of the congress, to make come true the project already approved by the senate that orders the expropriation of farms that still use slave work. There are many properties in this situation and they are a shame to all the Brazilian people.
4. We expect the government to make a real effort, along with all the public organs involved, to settle down in a few months all the 140 thousand families that have been living in provisional camps for a very long time, waiting and living under black plastic canvas.
5. We demand the organization of a new model of settlement, which could mix a new rural credit, special for the settled families, with the food production and the installation of cooperative like agricultural industries. The families, then, would be able to get a higher income from its work and jobs would be created for the youth that lives on the rural environment
6. The Conab (National Supplying Company) must be valorized, its economical resources should be increased and all peasant family, no matter if settled or formed by little farmers, should have the guarantee that all its food production will be bought.
7. A national reforesting program must be adopted in the agrarian reform areas and in the peasant communities, with governmental subsidies, so that each family would be stimulated to plant at least two 20.000 square meters of native and fruitful trees in each area. By doing that we would contribute for the preservation of nature, avoiding the global heating, provoked by the predating monoculture of the agribusiness.
8. The government must develop a big educational program in the rural areas, that should start with a national campaign for the eradication of illiteracy and improve the offer of courses and vacancies in courses specifically for the rural youth. The resources for the Pronera (National Program for Agrarian Reform Education) must be amplified, allowing the young peasants to study in the brazilian universities through agreements and an alternating regime in the superior courses.
9. A new institutional format must be created to make the technical assistance and the pubic rural extension in the settlements viable. To make it possible is necessary that we have a public organ responsible for technical assistance and the training of the farmers.
10. The Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) must be directly bound to the Presidency of the Republic and form, with the Conab and the organ responsible for the technical assistance, a new institutional format to accelerate and make the agrarian reform possible.
With these measures, we could expect the agrarian reform to actually become more than a project
AGRARIAN REFORM: For social justice and popular sovereignty!
APRIL, 17 2007
[04/24/06] Gunmen attack MST encampment, shoot 3-year-old child
11:00pm, April 23rd - Six heavily armed gunmen attacked an MST encampment located on Taquaral Farm, also known as the ‘Farm of the Mexicans’. The property is located in the municipality of Occidental City, in the Federal District.
The 250 MST families who currently occupy the site were violently attacked. All of their belongings were also set ablaze during the attack, which lasted 30 minutes. During the incident, a 3-year-old child was wounded by gunfire. The child is currently in critical condition.
The property, which was completely abandoned before being occupied, consists of 800 unused hectares. The supposed owner of the land holds no documents demonstrating legal ownership, and there is speculation that the lands are public lands held fraudulently.
On April 20th, the night the land was occupied, gunmen fired at the families for over 40 minutes. As a result, the walls of buildings on the site are riddled with bullet holes.
In Portuguese -
The above article is available in its original form by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1858.htm
From: João Pedro Stedile, of MST’s National Coordinating Body
To: Friends of the MST
Journalist Juan Arias, correspondent for EL PAIS and Rio, recently published incorrect information regarding the recent events in Brasilia [as did BBC Online, SEE BELOW]. In response, the MST released the following message, to be shared with media outlets throughout Brazil and abroad.
[06/07/06] MST PRESS RELEASE
With respect to the events of Tuesday, June the 6th, the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) publicly affirms that it did not take part in any of the protests conducted by the MLST (Movement for the Liberation of the Landless) at the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasilia.
We also affirm that the MLST is in no way related to the MST. The two movements have no direct ties and the MLST is not a dissident group of the MST. We maintain our full autonomy, as we also respect the autonomy of other groups, political parties, governments and the State.
São Paulo, June 7th, 2006
MST Press Release
BBC News Report on Action of MLST:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5054338.stm
[06/08/06] Brazilian media attempts to criminalize MST and Via Campesina
Frei Sergio Gorgen, Deputy for the State of Rio Grande do Sul (PT-RS), criticized yesterday the Zero Hour newspaper of his state for its’ inappropriate linking of the Movement for the Liberation of the Landless (MLST) with Via Campesina. “While it is not our role to judge the actions of other social movements [referring to the MLST’s actions in Brasilia, June 7th, 2006], we should clarify that the MLST is not tied to the Via Campesina?, the deputy stated. The Via Campesina is an international umbrella organization of rural social movements struggling for Agrarian Reform, the valorization of peasant/traditional farming, Food Sovereignty and for the production of sustainable and ecologically-produced foods.
The article published by Zero Hour, titled “More Radical than the MST?, was written by journalist Carlos Etchichury. The article stated that, “just like the MST, the MLST is a member of the Via Campesina?. In fact, the only member organizations of the Via Campesina in Brazil are (1) the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), (2) the Movement of Small Farmers (MPA), (3) the Movement of Peasant Women (MMC), (4) the Movement of Persons Affected by Dams (MAB), (5) the Rural Pastoral Youth (PJR), (6) the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), and (6) the Federation of Brazilian Agronomy Students (FEAB). “Membership in the Via Campesina is public information, easy to find and access in whichever document signed and published by the Via Campesina, and could have easily been verified by the journalist, which he did not do. As such, the Zero Hour newspaper has contributed once again to the disinformation regarding the actions of the social movements. For what reason they continue to do this, we are unsure?, affirmed Frei Sergio.
This article is available in its original, Portuguese, version by clicking on:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas2045.htm
[07/17/2006] MST and others hold rally in support of the Arab People, against Free Trade Agreement with Israel
Social movements in Brazil held a rally today in front of the Israeli embassy in Brasília, denouncing the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosul and Israel signed on December 8th, 2005 by representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Among the numerous speakers at the demonstration, members of the MST’s Culture Sector conducted a theatrical representation of the unacceptable reality currently in existence throughout the Middle East.
Flávia Silva, of the MST’s Coordinating Body for the Federal District, spoke of the Movement’s concern towards the Free Trade Agreement with Israel. Of principal alarm are Israel’s close ties to the U.S., its policies of war and militarization, the occupation of Palestinian lands, and the construction of the ‘Apartheid Wall’ in the region.
“We denounce the Free Trade Agreement signed in December of last year, and we encourage the Parliaments of each country not to ratify the agreement with Israel, an agreement that may be signed in Córdoba, Argentina, later today. The MST struggles for Agrarian Reform, dignity, peace and justice. We struggle for these things in Brazil and abroad, and for this reason we are here today, demonstrating our solidarity with the Palestinian people?, Silva affirmed.
The original article is available in Portuguese, by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas2178.htm
Dear Friends of the MST,
Through more than two decades of struggles, we have learned that it’s necessary to break, not just the fences of the latifúndio but also the barriers that impede access to knowledge. With this understanding, we are initiating our mobile schools and building more than 2,000 schools for basic teaching, besides the educational courses for teenagers and adults, middle school level and technical courses. Today we can take pride in the 5,000 young people who are studying for degrees and for post-graduate degrees in various agreements with universities and of the 17,500 adults who are getting literacy training as well as the pride we take in the settlements that we have won.
Historically, we also learned the value of solidarity, in the most noble sense – that of giving what is lacking for us and not that which is leftover for us. And we know that many of the merits of the struggle for Agrarian Reform come from this solidarity that we receive from thousands of friends such as yourself. This was how we built the Florestan Fernandes National School in Guararema-SP, symbol of the meeting of these two forces, solidarity and our desire to learn. And now we want to carry out the meeting of these two principles and values, study and solidarity.
From August to December 2007, we will be mobilized around the Campaign for Solidarity with the Libraries of the MST: Support Agrarian Reform: Donate books! We have the honor of having professor Antonio Candido as a sponsor, who is one of the greatest and best intellectuals that Brazil produced in the last few years, whose words sum up the spirit of our campaign: “Not to have access to a book is to be deprived of fundamental nourishment.”
Our goal is to build People’s Libraries in the settlements and camps, and to broaden the reach of more than 40 already-existing libraries in our schools and training centers. A Campaign without limits, either of quantity or of areas of knowledge.
[Funds donated by Friends of the MST will be used to purchase] books, maps, and audiovisuals, including films, records and CDs, material that will be destined for the already-existing libraries in the states and also for the creation of new community libraries in the Agrarian Reform settlements and camps.
We want bread and we want roses. We want access to different cultures produced by humanity, so huge and so contradictory. “We want a true life” as the poet said. We want many libraries, either mobile or fixed, in all our communities. We are sure that this great collective effort will not only raise thousands of books for our youth, children, women and men in rural areas but will also make possible a more human, full, and free life, and a homeland that is more just and sovereign. We are counting once again on your support and solidarity for one more noble mission, that will be the act of seeking nourishment for the soul and the conscience, obtaining good books.
National Directorate of MST
Florestan Fernandes National School
Josué de Castro Institute of Education
~~~
[NOTE: Friends of the MST (FMST) will be collecting ($)FINANCIAL($) support for the MST's book collection campaign. To contribute to this effort, click on the link below. When making your contribution, be sure to include the words 'Buy Books' with your donation, so that FMST can ensure it is directed to this campaign]
CLICK HERE TO DONATE!
~~~
SEE WHO ALREADY SUPPORTS OUR CAMPAIGN
“The MST is promoting an admirable campaign to elevate the cultural level of the rural Brazilian worker. This elevation is basic for the workers to be able to demand their rights in the best possible way; workers need to count on the tools of instruction, the main one being the book. For this reason the MST libraries are a basic tool, and book donors will be contributing to the goal of raising the level of these workers.”
- Antônio Cândido, Professor, University of Sao Paulo and literary critic
“I make a point of participating in this project, because I think it’s very important to collaborate with this initiative of donating books for the Movement libraries. This is laying the basis for building a new society based on culture and education. And the MST is one of the main social movements in Brazil and it’s extremely important that they have a number of partnerships like this. And I make a point of participating and calling on people to understand the importance of these libraries.”
- Fred 04, composer and singer with the group Mundo Livre S/A
“Since we have witnessed for many years the problem of the landless, we can see that the MST's mission is indispensable. And I want to give all possible support to this beautiful, necessary campaign for donations of old or new books, CDs, records, other publications. The MST wants land and also wants to have health and education. Whoever gives a good book opens a window to the future. The MST in the midst of various movements has shown a conscience and a will to integrate all the demands so that the people can be conscious, cultivated, free, and united. And this campaign can be a good occasion. We want to demand Agrarian Reform, we want educational reform, we want land, we want books.”
- Dom Pedro Casaldliga, Bishop Emeritus of Mato Grosso
“I became literate at 6 years of age but at 16 I learned to read for real. I learned to know that books were the major source of information that could change my attitudes and my actions. Donate books to the MST -- it's worth it!”
- Marcelo Yuka, musician and composer
“We should donate to the MST because the books want to be read by landless workers and because those workers struggle with land and with books as well.”
- Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist and writer
“The MST can help Brazil reach the brilliant future that the people of “The Colossus of the South” deserve. Donating books for the Movement libraries will be a great contribution to help the Movement carry out its important tasks.”
- Noam Chomsky, USA linguist
“Today, more than ever, we need books, many books, all the books that the school library is already organized to receive. Contribute to realize a dream of a more just society. Donate books for the National School.”
- Heloísa Fernandes, sociologist and Professor of the University of Sao Paulo
“I want to appeal to you: editors and readers. Donate books to the libraries in the settlements and camps, in rural schools, because they will be very well used. There are youth and adults interested in all kinds of literature. So don’t let a book lay sleeping in your bookshelf without taking advantage of this campaign. Donate, buy, and you who are editors, above all, can make a good contribution to the activists and participants in the MST.”
- Frei Beto, writer and former secretary to the President of the Republic
“I want to say to my companions in the MST that they should work very hard on this campaign to raise the number of readers. Whoever reads not only knows more but is worth more as a human being. Whoever reads is going to learn the reasons for his oppression, why he does not receive the benefits that life has to alter the oldest condition, which is the human condition. By reading, one advances along life’s path, through knowledge. Let’s plant a road of hope through reading.”
- Thiago de Mello, poet
“I am participating with great pride and persistence in this MST campaign to collect books. Books are inexhaustible sources of knowledge, of wisdom, and therefore of power. So if you have any books at home that you can give, extra books or books that you are not going to read again, join this MST campaign, donate your books and make life easier for those who want to read! Help the MST with these beautiful libraries. Forward Brazil! Let’s help the MST disseminate throughout Brazil the habit of reading. Donate books to the MST.”
- Paulo Betty, actor
“There is something about a book that is immortal and each book speaks to all generations and it is important that people in the MST become friends of books. Books are the leaders of people. It’s important that people who have books at home that they have already read donate these books so as to help the MST to organize the libraries. Please if you can make an effort to donate books to help the MST libraries.”
- Leonardo Boff, writer, theologian and philosopher
~~~
[NOTE: Friends of the MST (FMST) will be collecting ($)FINANCIAL($) support for the MST's book collection campaign. To contribute to this effort, click on the link below. When making your contribution, be sure to include the words 'Buy Books' with your donation, so that FMST can ensure it is directed to this campaign]
CLICK HERE TO DONATE!
~~~
SEE ALSO:
[08/16/06] The Right to Land: MST inaugurates settlement in Cajamar, São Paulo
By: Ana Maria Straube
Over the past four years, 40 families of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) have fought and struggled for the expropriation of 120 hectares of land in the region of Cajamar, state of São Paulo. The land, which belonged to the Basic Sanitation Company for São Paulo (SABESP), was originally destined to become a landfill. After several attempts to negotiate with the appropriate authorities, the MST decided to occupy the area, declaring it a settlement of agrarian reform.
And after four years of struggle, on the 12 of August, 2006, the land was finally transformed into the Sister Alberta Communal Land Settlement. The division of the land into family-sized lots has already begun. Each family will receive 1.5 hectares of land, 0.5 hectares on which they will construct their homes and establish home gardens and 1.0 hectares which will be cultivated collectively. The remaining land (area not divided up for use by individual families) will be set aside as environmental reserve and will be reforested by the families themselves. The planting of fruit and vegetable crops, as well as meat and dairy production, will all be done using organic and agroecological methods. While they await their legal titles, currently being prepared by the MST, State officials, and members of the judiciary, the MST families have begun the collective production of foods for their own consumption. To do so, and to conserve water resources, the families have prepared a ‘Mandala’ or ‘Circulo’ (Mandala/Ciculo = Circular Garden).
Celebration
To celebrate their victory, the families held a party which began with the planting of tree saplings in the communal lands now owned by the settlement. The families then gathered under the humble tents they had called home for the past four years and shared food which came from other agrarian reform settlements. The theatre group, Calango e Arlequins, performed for the families, as did other cultural performers, poets, and musicians of latin, samba-rock, and hip-hop genres.
In the afternoon, a spiritual gathering was held in the presence of Dom Tomás Balduíno [of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT)], Pastor Heidi [of the Lutheran Church], Dom Dom Simão [Archbishop of São Paulo], José Maria [Bishop of São Paulo’s Braganca], Father Paulo Suez [of the National Indigenous Missionary Commission (CIMI)], and representatives of other religious groups. Homage was given to Sister Alberta [of the CPT], Italian nun whose name was given to the settlement, who blessed all those who struggle for land. Immediately following this event was a gathering of political figures close to the MST.
The original version of this text is available (in Portuguese) by visiting:
http://www.brasildefato.com.br/v01/agencia/nacional/news_item.2006-08-16.4827703524
[08/28/2006] MST occupies latifúndio in Minas Gerais
Yesterday morning, close to 150 MST families occupied the Monte Cristo Farm, located in the municipality of Salto da Divisa, Minas Gerais (MG). The estate, stretching roughly 2,400 hectares, had already been audited by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), who identified it as an unproductive latifúndio. The expropriation process is now well underway.
The majority of the occupying families have registered with INCRA, and are eligible to receive lands on this estate once it is transformed [into a settlement of Agrarian Reform]. The objective of the occupation is to pressure the government agencies responsible for Agrarian Reform in the region.
“It is important to remind everyone that the occupied estate finds itself almost completely abandoned and that the municipality of Salto da Divisa has one of the highest concentrations of land in the state?, affirmed Ademar Shuski, of the MST’s National Coordinating Body. In Salto da Divisa, two families own 92% of the land. “If Agrarian reform is an important mechanism to improve the lives of the people, in Salto da Divisa it is fundamental?, Shuski concluded.
The original version of this text is available (in Portuguese) by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas2296.htm
[08/28/2006] Superior Justice Tribunal (STJ) decides in favor of Jaime Amorim
A short while ago, the Superior Justice Tribunal (STJ) announced its decision to revoke the preventative imprisonment of Jaime Amorim, of the MST’s National Coordinating Body, detained since last Monday. The decision by Minister Nilson Naves comes in response to the filing of habeas corpus by Amorim’s lawyers.
In his decision, Minister Naves pointed to the failure to demonstrate justification for preventative imprisonment. “With respect to the reasoning behind his detainment – ‘the protection of public order’ – the imprisonment has no logical or concrete justification. If the client [Amorim] intended to put at risk the public order, given the length of time between the original crime he is accused of committing, and the date of his detainment, obviously, he would have done so already?, read the decision.
Last week Judge Gustavo Augusto Lima, of the 3rd Regional Tribunal of Justice of Pernambuco, denied the request for Jaime Amorim’s release, based on his review of the habeas corpus filed. After the negative results at this level, Amorim’s lawyers filed habeas corpus with the Superior Justice Tribunal.
In the opinion of Darci Frigo, coordinator of Terra de Direitos [Land of Rights], the legal entity working in Amorim’s defense, “The STJ recognized what that the social movements and Parliamentarians had already been affirming, that Jaime Amorim’s detainment was arbitrary and unfounded?.
Amorim’s lawyers are going through all the necessary steps so that his release will take place no later than today, August 28th.
The original version of this text is available (in Portuguese) by visiting:
http://www.terradedireitos.org.br/index.php?pg=conteudo&tema=1&conteudo_id=505&tipo=1
For more details from other sources (in Portuguese), visit:
The MST's Website -
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas2297.htm
Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo -
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u82079.shtml
Dear Friends of the MST and Via Campesina,
In response to the international campaign Terra de Direitos launched to
support the Via Campesina’s occupation of Syngenta Seeds, yesterday the
multinational corporation published a statement in three of Brazil’s
largest daily newspapers, including the Estado de São Paulo. This
maneuver came hours before the support campaign was launched in Latin
America, and days before Sunday’s national elections. The press
release is testimony to the force of the letters you sent to Syngenta
on behalf of the Via Campesina, and indicates the level of discomfort
this campaign is causing Syngenta.
Syngenta's press release is translated as follows:
“Syngenta Seeds, one of the leading companies in the area of seeds,
profoundly laments the protest of various international organizations
that are supporting the Via Campesina for the expropriation of its
Research Unit in Santa Tereza do Oeste (PR). The company understands
that the invasion violates the right to work and to private property
ensured in the Constitution. Syngenta remains obstructed to continue
its work, which has contributed to science in agronomy and to the
productivity of Brazilian agriculture over the past 20 years. It is
important to emphasize that the company fully respects the country’s
legislation, in which it refers to the development and research of
genetically modified soy and corn, including the areas to which these
crops may be planted. Syngenta Seeds has legal backing in all of its
activities, and holds the Certificate of Quality for Biosecurity issued
by the CTNbio (CQB 001/96). This document authorizes the company to
realize research with GMOs in the Research Unit in Santa Tereza do
Oeste (PR), which has had its operations paralyzed since the 14th of
March, the date of the invasion, resulting in the loss of development
and advance of the research that was taking place there. Syngenta
reaffirms its indignation and intent to continue to struggle to assure
that its rights are respected and fully attended to, conforming to
legal precepts and constitutional force.?
On September 13, Syngenta issued an email response to the all of the
letters you sent to Pedro Rugeroni, head of Syngenta in Brazil. In
this email Syngenta denied all illegal activity, and stated, “We have
fully complied with all applicable laws and regulations and will
continue to co-operate with the relevant authorities in Brazil.?
Syngenta is lying. Brazil's Federal Environmental Protection Agency
(IBAMA) levied a R$1 million fine on Syngenta on March 7, 2006, when
the agency discovered Syngenta had illegally planted twelve hectares
of genetically-modified soy at the research site. The soy was planted
within the protective boundary zone of the Iguaçu Falls National Park,
in which it is illegal under Brazilian law to plant GMO crops. To this day,
Syngenta has not paid the fine of about US$ 460,000 – a minimal amount
considering the corporation realized profits of US$ 8.1 billion in 2005.
Terra de Direitos ask that you please send the attached letter to Pedro
Rugeroni, head of Syngenta. This letter reiterates support for the Via
Campesina occupation of Syngenta Seeds’ research station, and the
effort to have the site expropriated and turned into a school for
agroecology. The letter also demands that Syngenta stop lying about
its crimes, pay the fine IBAMA has demanded, and cease its
criminalization of the social movements.
In order to send the letter:
1. Please personalize the letter BELOW. Copy and paste the
text into a blank email, and write “Stop the Lying? in the subject line.
2. In the address line, put:
pedro.rugeroni@syngenta.com
syngenta.seeds@syngenta.com
In the ‘BCC’ line put Isabella@kenfield.us so that Terra de Direitos
can track this effort.
3. Hit send.
Thank you! Due to your time and effort to support this campaign, the
Via Campesina remains at the site.
~~~
DRAFT LETTER BELOW
~~~
Mr. Rugeroni,
I (name/organization), send this letter to reaffirm support of the Via Campesina in its occupation of Syngenta Seeds’ experimental research station in Santa Teresa do Oeste, Paraná, Brazil. I also support the Via Campesina’s effort to have the site expropriated by the government in order to create a school for agroecology for small farmers.
Mr. Rugeroni, I demand that Syngenta stop lying about the crimes it has committed. Syngenta must confess that it illegally planted 12 hectares of genetically-modified soy within the protective boundary zone of the Iguaçu Falls National Park, and must immediately pay the R$1 million fine that the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) has demanded.
I also demand that you immediately cease the criminalization of the Via Campesina.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
(Name/Organization).
Guatemala Confers for Agrarian Reform
Guatemala, Oct 10 (Prensa Latina) The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Conference is taking place in Guatemala with participation of 200 delegates of farm organizations and representatives of several Latin American countries and international entities.
The objective is to delve into the need for transformation in rural Guatemala, Aparicio Perez of the Farmers National Coordinating Organizations (CNOC) told Prensa Latina.
The meeting is attended by delegates from Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico and Cuba.
Also present are the secretariat of agrarian affairs from the Guatemalan government and guests from the World Bank and the UN Fund for Agriculture and Food as well as the Landless Movement from Brazil, the Cuban National Association of Private Farmers, Honduran Farmers Thoroughfare, and the Bolivian Confederation of Indigenous People.
According to the CNOC leader, this is the first time an international conference on the issue is taking place in Guatemala since the revolutionary process led by President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in 1954.
The event will conclude with a march on October 12 to commemorate the Day of Indigenous Resistance in which the farmers will vindicate their right to land and natural resources.
This article is available on Prensa Latina's Website:
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BD3881C7E-9790-4788-A803-78FE66000462%7D&language=EN
Dear Friends of the MST,
This Special Edition of the ‘MST Informa’ has been written to share an historical event in these 505 years of Brazil’s existence: a gathering, during the 25th and 28th of October, of representatives from over 40 Brazilian social movements. Members of urban and rural movements, the National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops, and other organizations, all gathered for the same reason: to organize the poor to achieve real, structural, changes. We could not delay in sharing this unprecedented event: the Popular Assembly - Mobilization for a New Brazil.
Over 8,000 activists assembled in Brasília, committed to a collective construction of a popular project for a new Brazil. All of them in struggle for a better Brazil, studying and holding debates with this sole objective in mind.
On the 26th, participants marched with banners raised, banners of solidarity and demanding sovereignty. During the march, participants openly criticized U.S. imperialism and Brazil’s political economy: today, over 52 million Brazilians are living in misery while the country owes $600 billion Reals in public debt. 27 million Brazilians are currently unemployed, or working in the informal sector. The marchers’ central demand was a break from economic dependency, dependency on international capital and at the service of financial capital, represented by U.S. President George W. Bush, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the Central Bank of Brazil.
To express their critiques symbolically, marchers went to the U.S. Embassy carrying a sign that read, “Bush OUT of Latin America‿, making it clear that the U.S. president would not be welcomed on his planned November 6th visit to the nation’s capitol. As a reminder, marchers left 3,000 placards with photos of Bush dressed in German military fatigues used during Hitler’s reign. “Bush: Humanity’s #1 Enemy‿ was the message they sent.
As they sang the national anthem, marchers continued to Itamaraty, where they reiterated the importance of peoples’ fight for independence, demanding the withdrawal of Brazilian troops from Haiti.
During this march for a new Brazil, participants of the Popular Assembly demanded that more profound changes be made in society and that more attention be given to the Brazilian people.
Today, at the end of the Popular Assembly, four documents have been produced compiling the ideas and practices discussed: the ‘Declaration of the Popular Assembly’, ‘Mobilization for a New Brazil’, ‘Next Steps’, and ‘The Brazil that We Want’. With these documents in hand, the activist participants of the Assembly return to their communities, advancing the struggle for our country.
National Secretariat of the MST
---
Also, See “Social Movement Organized in Popular Assembly send Letter to Lula‿
New Death Threats against Landless Workers in Pernambuco
Prepared by: Joba Alves of the MST’s Human Rights Sector
Encamped workers from two separate encampments in Pernambuco have received death threats from armed militias in the municipality of Sertânia, desert region of the state.
Close to 20 families are currently encamped in front of the Nossa Senhora do Camo Farm in the municipality of Sertânia, on Interstate PE-360 connecting Cruzeiro do Nordeste to the municipality of Ibmirim. These families have received severe death threats from the owner of the farm, José Antônio do Nascimento, and a number of armed gunmen. The situation is extremely grave.
In the same municipality, another 25 families are encamped on the PE-360, in front of the Juá Farm. They have also received frequent death threats from the owner of the property, who has visited them with armed gunmen at his side and who has threatened to kill and expel them from the area.
The workers have attempted to report the threats to local authorities. However, according to these workers the local authorities have made it clear they side with the landowners and have refused to document the threats.
The families feel that their lives are at risk and they remain distrustful of the local police, who have demonstrated direct ties with the landowners’ militia and who have neglected to intervene on their behalf.
The MST of Pernambuco is demanding that all precautionary measures be taken so that cases of violence, similar to what took place at the end of October this year, do not occur once more.
---
In Portuguese -
The above article is also available in its original by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1318.htm
The Planalto News Agency has also reported on the incidents:
http://www.noticiasdoplanalto.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=511&Itemid=43
Rural Workers Assassinated in Northern Mato Grosso
Police serve as private militia in land conflicts near Gleba Gama, the Nova Guarita region of Mato Grosso (MT)
Information Released by Brazil’s National Network of Popular Lawyers
---
Around 9:30am on November 16th, landless workers Vanderlei Macena Cruz and Mauro Gomes Duarte, residents of Accampamento Rensacer (The Encampment Rebirth), were assassinated while riding their motorcycle to work. According to information released by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), they were found dead on a road that divides lands falsely claimed by local landowners Silmar Kessler and Sebastião Neves de Almeida, also known as Chapéu Preto.
The victims were found by another rural worker, known only as Moacir, who was roughly 300 meters away when he heard the gunshots fired. Moacir summoned several other encamped residents to see what had occurred, but by the time they arrived the two victims were dead. Only late in the evening did the Military Police arrive to take testimonies, with the two bodies left on the road the entire day.
Gleba Gama is an area of public lands owned by the Federal Government, consisting of roughly 16,000 hectares. According to INCRA/SR-13 Public Document no. 114 of February 2002, this land is to be directed towards agrarian reform settlements for 336 families.
However, over 40 local landowners have created false documents claiming to own these lands. Six of them, Sinvaldo Brito, Sebastião Neves (aka Chapéu Preto), Silmar Kessler, Ladir Jacomelli, Aldo Micheli and Genir Marsango currently claim 12,000 hectares of these lands without legal title. On the 2nd of June, 2003, close to 350 families occupied the land claimed by Chapéu Preto and established the Accampamento Rensacer.
The Situation of the Landless Families is Critical
The rural workers living in this area are constantly harassed with threats of physical violence by the landowners and their private militias, comprised of masked gunmen and local police.
On the 11th and 12th of October 2005, the landowner known as Chapéu Preto and his private militia attacked the Accampamento Rensacer. The landless families were brutally attacked by members of the militia who were using barbed wire as the weapon of choice. On the same day, landowner Ladir Jacomelli forcibly removed families that had occupied lands he claimed. He went on to keep all the personal belongings which these families were forced to leave behind. During this incident, the rural workers were able to take hold of one of the guns being used against them, and found that its registration number indicated ownership by a local police official. The Public Ministry of Labor is still investigating Chapéu Preto for his use of slave labor on his lands.
According to the Mayor of Nova Guarita, Antonio José Zanatta, who has also received a number of serious death threats, there have already been six rural workers and human rights activists murdered in the region. Another victim of these threats is the regional CPT representative, Sister Leonora Brunetto, who was forced to leave the area just days ago in order to save her own life.
The threats against human rights were soo severe and constant that the National Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, of the Secretary of Human Rights of the President of the Republic, decided to visit the region to investigate the accusations. The investigating committee, along with gathering testimony from rural workers in four local encampments, sat with a number of local authorities.
During these meetings, the threats were confirmed. The gravity of the situation was discussed in a meeting held at the Fórum da Camarca de Terra Nova do Norte, on the 27th of October of this year. Present at this Fórum were Judge Dr. Wladus Roberto Freire do Amaral, Public Prosecutor Dr. Hellen Uliam Kuriki, the Mayor of Nova Guarita Antonio José Zanatta, Federal Police representative Dr. Diógenes Curado Filho, OAB-MT representative Dr. Marisa Teresinha Vesz, CPT representative Sister Leonora Brunetto, and two representatives from the National Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the Secretary of Human Rights of the President of the Republic, Ailson Silveira Machado and Darci Frigo.
Those in attendance concluded that a, “definitive solution to the conflict around Gleba Gama depends on the agile decision on the part of the Federal Judiciary, especially regarding the release of resources by the Federal Regional Tribunal for the First Region, to immediately fund INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) activities in the region, prosecute crimes committed by hired gunmen, address the illegal organization of private militias by local landowners, and the widespread disarmament of the landless, the landowners, and their private militias‿ as the most pertinent issues discussed during the meeting.
The lack of implementation of the proposed solution is the result of a number of factors, including the criminal activities of local landowners and their creation of the Committee in Support of Titling Lands, supported by deputies Pedro Satélite and Sival Barbosa.
According to encamped families in the region, the landowners have collected millions of reals (Brazilian Currency [US$1 = R$2.85]) to prevent INCRA’s use of public lands in the region for purposes of agrarian reform.
These landowners have utilized all available mechanisms to prevent INCRA from moving forward in the region. Along with the violence used against landless workers, landowners have organized truck encirclements around the Fórum da Camarca de Terra Nova do Norte as a threat, and they have block roads into the Gleba Gama to prevent INCRA activities.
The rural workers in the region continue to denounce the slow pace at which the Federal Judiciary addresses cases regarding agrarian reform and INCRA, the agency responsible for the control of public lands to be used for agrarian reform.
---
In Portuguese -
The Pastoral Land Commission's (CPT) report on the violence can be accessed by visiting:
http://www.cptnac.com.br/?system=news&action=read&id=1429&eid=8
Also, the CPT has insisted upon an urgent investigation into the killings:
http://www.noticiasdoplanalto.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=516&Itemid=43
Jaelson Melquíades, member of the MST’s Coordinating Body for the State of Alagoas, has been assassinated in the municipality of Atalaia, a forested region of the state.
Jaelson, age 24, was murdered by two gunmen while he was visiting the Education Center of the MST’s São Pedro Settlement. Just four months ago, landless families won the right to this land and established the São Pedro settlement.
Violence and Impunity:
According to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), 39 rural workers have fallen victim to the land conflict this year. In 2004, 74 were killed.
Pernambuco has also seen an escalation of violence. At the end of October of this year, three rural workers were assassinated in less than four days. Hanilton Martins, leader of the MLST (Movement for the Liberation of the Landless) was murdered in Itaíba where he was shot in the face 18 times. Landless worker and farmer Antonio José dos Santos was murdered in the town of Tacaimbo, on his way to a local store to purchase cigarettes. His body showed signs of beatings as well as torture. On the 30th of October, Luiz Manuel, president of the Rural Workers’ Union of Taquaritinga do Norte, was assassinated when two shots were fired into his home.
On the 20th of November of this year, Landless Workers held a remembrance event one year after the Felisburgo Slaughter, in Minas Gerais, where five landless workers were assassinated and another 20 wounded. On orders from landowner Adriano Chafik Luedy, 18 hired gunmen entered the MST’s Terra Prometida (Promised Land) Encampment, in Felisburgo. Only two of the culprits are currently being held: Chafik and Erivaldo Pólvora de Oliveira Jr., both arrested on August 28th.
---
In Portuguese –
The above article is available in its original form by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1369.htm
Also, see what has been reported in Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo:
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u74261.shtml
The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), by way of this message, expresses its indignation toward the majority decision of the Congressional Committee of Inquiry on Land Issues (CPMI) who, fulfilling the criminal and hateful objectives of the UDR (Rural Democratic Union) and its allies, acted against the stated purpose of the CPMI. The CPMI was established to diagnose Brazil’s land structure and the processes of Agrarian and Urban Reforms and to propose solutions to the problems identified.
The official responsible for the Committee’s investigation, Federal Deputy João Alfredo (PSOL/CE), presented an in-depth diagnostic report on Brazil’s agrarian situation and presented an array of suggestions for enforcing the Constitution, that is to say, how land in our country is to be democratized. This is the reason the Ruralist Block, who make up the majority of the Committee, reacted against the report by directing their ongoing efforts toward criminalizing social movements in the countryside and delegitimizing the activities of those who struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil.
The vote of Abelardo Lupion (PFL/PR), a well known deputy tied to the UDR and who is currently under investigation by the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) for corruption during electoral campaigning, represents the distorted vision of the backwards-thinking landowners of our country who ignore the situation of social exclusion of over 4,000,000 landless families in Brazil. They remained silent regarding the 12,500 slave laborers who have been freed in the past three years from over 400 different estates using slave labor; silent regarding the frightening number of workers killed in the past 20 years, 1,500 of them; silent regarding private militias armed to protect the landowners; silent regarding the concentration of land; silent regarding the falsification of land claims; silent regarding the misappropriation of public funds from SUDAM (Superintendent for the Development of the Amazon).
The partiality is clear when one analyzes the allocation of public funds to a number of entities. It is impossible to ignore the fact that the three entities supporting Agrarian Reform in the CPMI received 4% of what the entities tied to the Ruralist Block received in 10 years. The latter entities received a total of R$ 1,510,000,000.
The partiality is made especially clear in the attempt to denounce leaders of the MST to the Public Ministry without providing any concrete evidence that would legally oblige the Ministry to investigate these workers.
The position held by the Ruralist Block has already been analyzed on a number of occasions by Tribunals in our country. These Tribunals rejected the possibility of criminalizing rural workers for the act of occupying latifúndios (large landholdings). The Tribunals also recognized the legitimacy of this type of act as an effort to ensure the Constitution is enforced.
The dispute that occurred in the CPMI represents the ideological clash between the large landowners and the landless families who struggle for a dignified life in the countryside. The majority of these large estates, as has already been made clear, are unproductive and many of them use slave labor and/or disrespect the environment. All of these aforementioned characteristics make these lands eligible for the purposes of agrarian reform, as is stated in the Constitution.
Statistics from INCRA (the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) show that 51.4% of estates classified as large landholdings are unproductive, that is, over 133,000,000 hectares of land do not meet the productivity requirements and should be expropriated for purposes of agrarian reform. These statistics also show that 1.6% of landowners with lands over 1,000 hectares possess 46.8% of all the land in the country.
After making 43 trips to nine of Brazil’s states, taking testimony from 125 people and analyzing close to 75,000 documents, the investigation pointed to an enormous degree of land concentration, falsification of land claims, violence in the countryside and the use of slave labor as central problems, and proposed a number of solutions.
There is a need for a massive agrarian reform of quality through the fulfillment of the goals of the 2nd National Plan of Agrarian Reform (PNRA), signed by the Federal Government, and consisting of the settlement of 400,000 families currently encamped throughout the country. Only 45% of the goals have been reached with only a little more than one year left until the end of the government’s first term of office. For the goals to be met a land registry must be compiled and productivity indices must be updated, indices that are over 30 years old.
The Chamber of Deputies, who are supposed to represent the Brazilian people, has demonstrated once again that it is a tool of defense of the powerful in our country, the powerful who resist the implementation of Agrarian Reform. The Movement rejects the positions taken by the report that has been approved and reaffirms its commitment to the struggle so that the over 4,800,000 landless families can achieve Agrarian Reform.
National Coordinating Body of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)
Access the original (Portuguese) version of the above article:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1372.htm
Download João Alfredo's findings (in Potuguese) on the need for Agrarian Reform:
http://www.joaoalfredo.org.br/relatroriocpi.htm
See the BBC's coverage of this issue:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4484606.stm
NEWS BRIEFS –
1) Landless Worker assassinated in Alagoas
Jaelson Melquíades, member of the MST’s Coordinating Body for the State of Alagoas, has been assassinated in the municipality of Atalaia, a forested region of the state. Jaelson, age 24, was murdered by two gunmen while he was visiting the Education Center of the MST’s São Pedro Settlement. Just four months ago, landless families won the right to this land and established the São Pedro settlement.
For more information, see:
http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=murderinalagoas
2) In Pará, 772 rural workers have been killed since 1971
The report “Violation of Human Rights in Amazônia, conflict and violence on the Pará border‿, launched on November 28, by the Pastoral Commission on Land, Land of Rights, and Global Justice, shows that Pará is the state with the most killings of rural workers. In the last 10 years, an average of 13 persons have been killed every year. The document will be handed over to various ministries and UN representatives.
For a copy of this report (in Portuguese), see:
http://www.global.org.br/docs/relatorioparaportugues.pdf
3) Superior Court of Justice grants habeas corpus for MST members
Towards evening on November 29, Minister Paulo Medina of the Superior Court of Justice, granted habeas corpus to 4 MST activists. Clédson Mendes, José Rainha Júnior, Manoel Messias Duda and Sérgio Pantaleão were sentenced to 10 years in prison, accused of arson and robbery during a land occupation in Sampaio, in Pontal do Paranapanema, São Paulo. Cledson had been held since October 31. “The convictions were politically motivated‿, states Patrick Mariano, from the MST Human Rights Sector.
National Forum for Land Reform and Justice in the Rural Areas
Overall balance for 2005
The Rural Areas Demand Changes to Solve the People’s Problems: Against Neoliberalism and Agribusiness
1. Brazil is going through a serious crisis at this moment in history. A crisis of an economic character, because the economic policy puts the highest priority on the remuneration of finance capital in detriment to solving the people’s problems. A social crisis because the people’s problems are increasing with the lack of jobs, of income, of schools, and of land. A political crisis because the people do not believe in the lawmakers and are demanding a profound political change that ensures greater participation and direct democracy. We are, in a word, living through a crisis of needing a project for our country.
2. In the countryside, we are seeing the dispute between two projects for organizing production. On the one hand, agribusiness, putting a high priority on exports, bringing technology to the ranches, laying off workers, and increasing their profits. On the other hand, family and peasant farming that is responsible for the production of food, nourishment for the internal market, and for the employment of more than 85% of the labor in the rural areas.
3. Unfortunately in the last three years, the government, represented by the strength of the ministries in the areas of Finance, Agriculture and Industry and Trade, opted for agribusiness. The current economic policy is an alliance of the multinational corporations and agribusiness and it increasingly penalizes family and peasant farming. Those receive support only in the weakened Ministry of Agrarian Development.
4. Land reform--a combination of measures to attack the concentration of land--which values and multiplies the benefits of family and peasant farming, is paralyzed. It was transformed into a mere program of settlements, which fall short of the promises of the Second National Plan for Land Reform. While this is going on, we are watching astonished the advance of the Ruralist Bench (in the Chamber of Deputies) that approved the report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Land, in which land occupations were classifed as hideous crimes and other attacks were launched against the rural social movements.
5. The increase in resources for PRONAF, the return of public competition for INCRA, and the new agreements for technical assistance are insufficient to meet the needs and to truly bring about changes in the countryside.
6. The Government did not honor its commitments to rural workers in the various protests, for example the National March, the Cry of the Land, and the Campaign for Family Farming, among others. An example of this is the failure to publish the Interministerial Decree that updates the indexes of productivity, a point that was high on the list of demands of all the movements and a failure to keep the promise that depends exclusively on the Executive branch. Consequently, more than 140 thousand families remain camped alongside the highways, despite the promises to make the settlement of these families a top priority. In addition, sufficient credit was not made available to the settlements.
7. As for the Ministry of Agriculture, the measures are taken in a speedier and more courageous form, but always against family farming, as is the object of Decree 51, which selects and concentrates the production of milk, of the decree that regulates the sale of seeds; of the attempts to free up the use of imported agro-toxins until prohibited by ANVISA. The priority of the Ministry is to defend agribusiness, exports, and genetically-modified seeds controlled by the multinational corporations.
8. Faced with all of this, the groups that make up the National Forum for Land Reform and Justice in the Rural Areas, directs itself to Brazilian society, its base, and to the Federal Government to say that the balance of the year 2005 is extremely negative for the interests of the landless, for family and peasant farming, and finally for all rural workers.
9. If the government wants to be on the side of the rural poor, it needs to immediately take the following measures:
a) To settle, as quickly as possible, all the families that are in encampments and are very needy.
b) To publish a decree that updates the indexes of productivity that affect expropriation.
c) To change the economic policy, modifying the interest rate, eliminating the primary surplus and making investments in job creation, income distribution, and strengthening of the internal market a top priority.
d) To treat land reform as a priority, adopting a set of measures that lead in fact to the democratization of the ownership of land and the strengthening of INCRA as an agency that can bring about this reform.
e) To apply the law that demands labelling of all the products that contain GMOs, taking drastic measures to fight contraband of genetically modified (GMO) corn seeds and ensuring the representation of society and of the rural movements in the make-up of the CTNBio.
f) To open up a full national debate, including holding a plebiscite, about the revitalization of the São Francisco River and the diversion project, to fulfill a commitment made to Dom Luiz Cappio.
g) To take urgent measures in defense of the biodiversity of Amazônia and of the sources and reserves of potable water in the country, avoiding privatization and the control of multinational corporations; re-examining the projects for zones of steel production in Amazônia (such as in Marabá, Belo Monte-PA, Açailandia e São Luis-MA) that meet only the interests of foreign capital, and preventing the propagation of the monoculture of soy in Amazônia. All these projects bring serious damages to the environment and to local populations.
h) To adopt a policy of defending agro-ecology and a position against the use of the “terminator‿ seed (seed modified with a gene that makes it sterile).
i) To vote in favor of the labeling of GMO crops in international trade in the next International Conference on the Cartagena Protocol to be held in Curitiba at the end of March, 2006.
j) To stop financing, via BNDES (the National Bank of Economic and Social Development), the implementation of cellulose industries and the planting of eucalyptus trees that bring serious damage to the environment.
k) To free up more resources and increase the teams for the inspection of slave work and of super-exploitation to which workers are submitted, especially the cane-cutters throughout the country.
l) To pledge that Congress will approve the Project for a Constitutional Amendment, which expropriates ranches that use slave labor.
m) To take into account the suggestions of the peasant movement and reevaluate all the legal rubbish launched by the Ministry of Agriculture against family and peasant farmers.
n) To immediately implement FUNDEB (Fund for Basic Education) and increase the number of openings in all the public universities, targeting more public funds for public learning, guaranteeing to the Brazilian population the right to education.
o) To increase funds for PRONERA (the National Program of Education on Land Reform), giving access to education to all the rural population.
p) To honor the commitments of the campaign to double the buying power of the minimum salary as a means of distributing income to the poorest, thus creating more jobs and demand for food products.
Brasília-DF, December 19, 2005.
Signed by all 45 groups that make up the National Forum for Land Reform and Justice in the Rural Areas
1. ABRA – Associação Brasileira de Reforma Agrária (Brazilian Association for Land Reform)
2. ABONG – Associação Brasileira das ONGs (Brazilian Association of Non-governmental Organizations)
3. APR – Animação Pastoral Rural (Rural Pastoral Animation)
4. ASPTA – Assessoria e Serviços em Projetos de Tecnologia Alternativa (Assistance and Service in Projects of Alternative Technology)
5. ANDES – Sindicato Nacional dos Docentes das Instituições de Superior (National Syndicate for Docents of Higher Institutions)
6. COIABE – Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon Region)
7. Cáritas Brasileira (Caritas Brazil)
8. Centro de justiça Global (Center for Global Justice)
9. CESE – Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço (Ecumenical Coordination of Service)
10. CIMI – Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Indigenous Missionary Council)
11. CMP – Central dos Movimentos Populares (Center for Popular Movements)
12. CNASI – Confederação Nacional das Associações dos Servidores do Incra (National Confederation of Associations of INCRA Employees)
13. CONDSEF – Confederação Nacional dos Servidores Públicos Federais (National Confederation of Federal Public Employees)
14. CONIC – Conselho Nacional de Igrejas Cristãs do Brasil (National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil)
15. CONTAG – Confederação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura (Confederation of Agricultural Workers)
16. CPT - Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Commission on Land)
17. CUT – Central Única dos Trabalhadores (Central Workers Union)
18. DESER – Departamento de Estudos Sindicais Rurais (Department of Rural Syndical Studies)
19. ESPLAR – Escritório de Planejamento Rural (Office of Rural Planning)
20. FASE – Federação de Órgãos de Assistência Social e Educacional (Federation of Organs of Social and Educational Assistance)
21. FASER – Federação das Associações e Sindicatos dos Trabalhadores da Extensão Rural e do Setor Público Agrícola do Brasil (Federation of Associations and Syndicates of Workers of the Rural Extension and of the Public Farming Sector of Brazil)
22. FEAB – Federação dos Estudantes de Engenharia Agronômica (Federation of Students of Agronomy)
23. FETRAF Brasil – Federação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Familiar (Federation of Workers in Family Farming)
24. FIAN-Brasil – Rede de Informação e Ação pelo Direito a se Alimentar (Network of Information and Action for the Right to Eat)
25. FISENGE – Federação Interestadual de Sindicatos de Engenheiros (Interstate Federation of Syndicates of Engineers)
26. IBASE – Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Econômicos (Institue of Social and Economic Studies)
27. IBRADES – Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento Social (Brazilian Institute for Social Development)
28. IDACO – Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Ação comunitária (Institute for Development and Community Action)
29. IECLB – Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil)
30. IFAS – Instituto de Formação e Assessoria Sindical (Institute of Training and Syndicate Assistance)
31. INESC – Instituto de Estudos Sócio-Econômicos (Institute for Socio-Economic Studies)
32. MAB – Movimento dos Atingidos pelas Barragens (Movement of People Affected by Dams)
33. MLST – Movimento de Libertação dos Sem-Terra (Liberation Movement of the Landless)
34. MMC – Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (Movement of Rural Women)
35. MNDH – Movimento Nacional de Direitos Humanos (National Movement for Human Rights)
36. MPA – Movimento de Pequenos Agricultores (Movement of Small Farmers)
37. MST – Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Movement of Landless Rural Workers)
38. MTL – Movimento Terra, Trabalho e Liberdade (Movement for Land, Work, and Freedom)
39. Pastorais Sociais da CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil) Social Pastorals of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops)
40. PJR – Pastoral da Juventude Rural (Pastoral for Rural Youth)
41. Rede Brasil sobre Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais (Brazilian Network for Multilateral Financial Institutions)
42. Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (Social Network for Justice and Human Rights)
43. RENAP – Rede Nacional dos Advogados Populares (National Network of People’s Lawyers)
44. SINPAF – Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores de Instituição de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Agropecuário (National Syndicate of Workers of the Institution of Farm Research and Development )
45. TERRA DE DIREITOS (Land of Rights)
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In Portuguese -
News on this report is available at:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1432.htm
The MST Presents a New Proposal for Agrarian Reform
Osvaldo León
On Monday June 11th, the 5th National Congress of the Landless Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST for its Portuguese acronym) kicked off in Brasilia with more than 18 thousand delegates in attendance from 24 states across the country under the watchword "Agrarian Reform: for Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty." Neuri Rosseto of the national coordinating body says that the central aim of this congress is to come out of it "with the understanding that agrarian reform has necessarily changed at this point in time, during which capitalism is restructuring and the enemy is much more powerful than the large estate owners (latifundistas) we were facing years ago." Given this aim, the MST will present to society at large "The Agrarian Reform we need: a project of the people for Brazilian agriculture," which includes objectives and concrete proposals that confront current issues in agriculture. In the dialogue that follows, Rosseto addresses the nature of this gathering and expected outcomes.
- Let’s begin with a clarification: why doesn't the MST hold internal elections during its congress, which is usually one of the main elements for other social organizations?
Throughout the history of the movement, the character of our national congress has been a way of affirming our identity, which sets us apart from the traditional congresses of other political and social organizations. Our congresses are first and foremost a space for political training that helps to clarify the overarching strategic challenges that we are facing, striving to build greater unity on a national level within the movement so that our grassroots understand the upcoming issues.
Another aspect is that the congress is also a political demonstration by the countryside for the urban areas and all of society, expressing our opposition to large estate owners (latifundistas), the state and imperialism.
The third main element is that the congress is an opportunity to strengthen relationships at the national level among our membership and with society in general, and with all of those who are fighting for agrarian reform. We come together, we get to know one another and we share our different day-to-day experiences based upon the various regions and cultures represented, because the experiences are completely different from one region to another in Brazil. It’s also a chance for the movement to build relationships with society at large, with closely allied sectors as well as with society in the broadest sense possible. With regard to the other functions that you mention, such as electing leaders and holding debates, we take a different approach. We have national meetings every two years in which this is dealt with, for which reason elected leaders have two year terms. In this way, we have found that a more in depth discussion can take place concerning the selection of leaders, which is carried out at the state level. Each state organization selects their delegates, who then come to the national meeting for political endorsement.
- And at what point or points in time are the arguments and positions on various issues debated?
With regard to debating our arguments and positions, we carry out a process of discussion at the grassroots level concerning our agrarian program at which time diverging opinions emerge and the different ideas and positions are debated. What comes forward to congress has already been sorted out to a large degree. So this is how we motivate discussion at the grassroots level. Previous to congress, further organization and processing has taken place, and unity has been reached on the results, such that during congress the results of all these discussions can be presented in a document which expresses the MST’s current proposal for Brazilian agriculture.
So, it’s a process with three complementary moments. During the previous stage, the basic aspects of what will be debated and more deeply discussed have already been established with regard to the central issues. Moreover, the materials upon which we base our discussion are developed at the grassroots level in various formats, such as printed texts, training materials and such. The materials that appear in our newspaper and in our magazine already express a certain level of consensus and these reflect the main themes that will be developed further.
At the stage which we’re at now, we’re most interested in deepening within our membership and our organization an understanding with regard to the nature of agrarian reform in the context of global capitalism today and Brazilian capitalism in particular, and from there how agrarian reform can be implemented. It’s no longer the same agrarian reform that the MST was considering when the movement emerged. At that time, the idea was one of agrarian reform in a classic sense linked to the system of industrial production. With the restructuring of globalization, and of neoliberalism in general, this period is over. Now we are living through a time in which financial capital rules and agriculture is taking on new forms, for which reason the earlier model of agrarian reform doesn’t fit anymore and so we have to establish a new model as a counterproposal, and this also means looking at what model of alternative development is needed to counter neoliberalism, they aren’t separate things.
So congress is not a place for further developing the proposal, that process began two or three years ago. The discussion has taken place and now congress has the political endorsement to highlight the themes based upon a sense of unity, so that further political training can begin to take place at the grassroots.
Like all social movements, our membership is constantly being renewed. Many of the participants who are here are attending congress for the first time, which helps them become integrated in the organization building upon the experience that we have already accumulated. For these new activists, the congress is a reference point that represents what the movement stands for and what we propose for agriculture, that can’t be defined or worked out just here, but which comes from our history up until now. Looking ahead, we examine how we will continue promoting these issues at the grassroots level and how we’ll present this to society in order to bring about a new joint project.
- Given this, what results do you hope to achieve during this congress?
In general, the main hope is that we come away understanding that agrarian reform has changed within the context of a restructuring of capitalism, and that we are facing a much more powerful enemy than the old large estate owners, which is represented by the hegemony of agribusiness, transnational corporations, and financial capital. It is no longer the large estate owners who we were confronting years ago. If we achieve this goal and our membership understands the historical moment in which we are living, and how agrarian reform fits into this new context, then I believe that we will have taken a big step forward with regard to the strength of the congress, because this will enable us to develop new tactics, to build alliances, and to share with society and the international community.
By way of an example, there is enormous potential here for transnational groups to make a lot of money, and that's why they are investing money here, which is becoming ever more concentrated in fewer hands particularly given the conditions in the Brazilian countryside. Capitalism has become aware of this, and as international capital is reorganizing itself, agribusiness has the potential for a lot of profit here. As a result, the transnationals are no longer leaving control in the hands of large estate owners, rather they are themselves taking over these areas of exploitation. This is increasingly evident, their control over the physical territory that they aspire to, their control over land and water, their control over biodiversity and everything that has to do with technological control, these are the three strategic areas that they seek to dominate. In this sense, there is a mixture of new and old ways, and, in the viewpoint of the transnationals, it’s working very well.
- What do you have to say about the current political situation?
At this moment, the biggest challenge is to find a way to build unity between social movements, so that from there we can generate new ideas that will challenge the current power relations within national politics. In other words, how we can confront Lula’s current project. In the past elections, based upon this idea of building conditions for greater unity, we supported his reelection in the second round. However, this was also because Geraldo Alckim, the opposing candidate, was such a blatant expression of the neoliberal project. And it was in this context, whether Lula liked it or not, that we considered it important to bring in various issues of social concern, such as debt payments, agrarian reform, etc. - that didn’t come up during the first round of elections.
Indeed, it’s a complicated and complex situation. Given Lula’s background he is identified in the popular imagination with the working class and this boosts his popularity and acceptance. This is even true amongst the grassroots within our own movement, because he conjures up feelings of empathy and affection, as well as expectations regarding welfare policies.
As a result, our view is that from the mid 70s there has been a rise in social struggles. However, following 1989 and Lula’s electoral defeat, a new phase began characterized by the decline of social struggles. Therefore, working toward greater unity amongst grassroots struggles continues to be our greatest challenge (Translation ALAI)
- Osvaldo Leon - ALAI
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Article originally available at http://latinlasnet.org/node/63
Farm workers' movement criticizes Brazil government's ties to agribusiness
The Associated Press
Published: June 13, 2007
BRASILIA, Brazil: Land reform activists on Wednesday criticized President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government for its close ties to agribusiness and for not including small farmers in Brazil's biofuel program.
One of the main leaders of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, or MST, Joao Pedro Stedile, said agribusiness was agrarian reform's main enemy in Brazil.
"Agribusiness is the beast born of the marriage between foreign capital and rich Brazilian landowners," Stedile told thousands of delegates at the Fifth National Congress of the MST. "It is a marriage which the Brazilian government helps sustain."
Officials at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia said the government had no comment on Stedile's remarks, and Silva was not invited to the MST congress.
The MST has gained international notoriety for its high-profile and organized invasions of land it deems unproductive to pressure the government to accelerate land reform in a country with one of the world's most uneven distributions of land.
About 3.5 percent of Brazil's landowners hold 56 percent of the arable terrain while the poorest 40 percent own a scant 1 percent.
"With the government's help, agribusiness wants to transform us into mere exporters of raw materials," said Gilmar Mauro, another MST leader. "No country has ever developed by just exporting raw materials."
He said the government's biofuel program also favors agribusiness "because it has easier access to the technology needed."
"The government has not drawn up policies to encourage small farmers to involve themselves in the production of biofuels," Mauro said.
The government claims that at least 63,000 families of small farmers have benefited from a series of tax incentives to produce palm tree and castor seeds used to make biodiesel.
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Article originally available at
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/13/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Landless-Farmers.php
More than 15,000 activists of Brazil's largest landless peasant movement protested in the capital on Thursday against US military interventions and called for more social justice.
The Landless Rural Workers' Movement, or MST, left 20 coffins at the US Embassy to protest deaths from major conflicts with US involvement, including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
"These are all the deaths caused by the United States and other imperialist nations," Joao Paulo Rodrigues, one of the MST leaders, said.
About 16,000 people attended the peaceful march, police said. Many wore red baseball caps and shirts and waved red flags with the group's logo – a peasant couple holding a machete in the air against the backdrop of a Brazilian flag.
One banner read: "Beware Imperialism, the Revolution is coming."
"Bush is a big Satan, our big battle is also for peace," protesters chanted in a refrain rhyming in Portuguese.
At Brazil's Foreign Ministry, they protested against a Brazilian-led UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
"It's also a military intervention that we condemn," an MST spokesman said.
The MST has strong left-wing roots, including ties to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's ruling Workers' party as well as to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent a letter to the MST on Wednesday, calling it "one of the most outstanding and combative social movements to fight for a better world."
Beating Samba drums made from old soap canisters and singing regional folk tunes, protesters gathered on the Square of the Three Powers, the heart of the government district.
They denounced as insufficient land reform by Lula and delays in Congress in cracking down on slave-like working conditions in Brazil. At the Supreme Court they demanded the 1997 privatisation of Brazil's mining giant CVRD be reversed.
For more than two decades the MST has been pushing Brazilian governments to expropriate land and settle poor peasants. Now it says the peasants must create their own agribusinesses with government aid.
The MST is also looking to broaden its agenda to push for changes in economic policy, including increased income distribution.
The Venezuelan government is paying MST farm experts to help reproduce seeds for crops and thereby reduce the Caribbean country's food imports, MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile said earlier this week.
Cuba is training MST physicians and helping with education programmes, Castro said in his letter.
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Article originally available at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4096193a12.html
Landless rural workers confront Brazil’s Lula
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Brazil’s workers vow to continue struggle for land and against agribusiness interests
By Isabella Kenfield*
19 June 2007
Last week the Brazilian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) held its fifth National Congress in Brasília, the country’s capital. The power the MST has garnered throughout its 23 years was palpable, as more than 17,500 delegates from 24 states and almost 200 international guests marched to the Square of the Three Powers, situated between the buildings of the Executive, Judicial and the Legislative branches of government. Marchers hung a huge banner in the square that read, “We accuse the three powers of impeding agrarian reform.”
In the minds of most MST members, President Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva and the Workers’ Party (PT) have failed to implement the radical economic and social reforms that were promised, especially agrarian reform. According to José Maria Tardin, who was elected the first mayor of the PT in the state of Paraná in 1989, and now works in the MST, “For the left, Lula is the biggest political tragedy in the history of Brazil.”
In a discussion with reporters, founder and national organizer of the MST João Pedro Stedile recalled that when Lula was elected in 2001 the MST hoped that Brazil would overturn many of the neo-liberal policies imposed on the country by Washington and institutions like the International Monetary Fund. However, “nobody can say that Lula is implementing an alternative project. We cannot be so simplistic as to say that everything is Lula’s fault, but the Lula government does not represent the working class, and is not on the left,” Stedile said. He pointed out that, during Lula’s first four-year mandate, the financial sector accumulated more capital than it did during the previous eight years under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
This public acknowledgment of the fracture in the MST’s historic alliance with Lula and the PT represents a major shift toward a more confrontational stance. One MST member reported that Lula requested to speak at the Congress, but was refused. Lula had previously turned down requests to meet with the MST since he was elected for a second term last October. Thursday’s [14 June] march was important for the MST’s relationship with the rest of Brazilian society, as many urban Brazilians, also disillusioned, still believe the MST supports Lula.
The MST’s grievance with Lula reflects his failure to move to the left politically, unlike other leaders in Latin America, such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. Not only has Lula not slowed the advance of foreign capital in Brazil, in many ways he is speeding it up as with, for example, his recent promotion of Brazil’s ethanol production for export to the United States. In terms of geographic size, population and economic power, Brazil is the largest country in Latin America. As long as Brazil does not take on Washington’s neo-liberal policies, the region’s ability to consolidate its leftward shift will be impeded.
Increasing anger and hostility directed at the United States was also a major subject during the Congress. On route to Three Powers’ Square, the marchers passed the US embassy, where they deposited coffins with the names of countries, including Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and Afghanistan, and threw garbage onto the lawn of the embassy. François Houtart, Director of the TriContinental Centre in Belgium, declared, “Neo-liberalism is in crisis, and the imperialism of the United States is in decline. Imperialism is losing, but it is still strong.” Houtart said that global capital is searching for “new frontiers of domination”, citing agricultural biotechnology, agribusiness and the privatization of public resources.
Juan Reardon, National Coordinator for the Friends of the MST, based in Santa Cruz, California, agreed with Houtart’s assessment. “Iraq is showing that the US military isn’t invincible,” he said. “The war in Iraq is calling into question the entire US military power structure.”
The Congress closed with a videotape message from Subcomandante Marcos of the Mexican Zapatista movement. He said the MST has
our affection and our respect, and also has our admiration... We feel fraternity for all of the organizations and people that struggle for land, because not one nation can be truly called sovereign if the land is not in the hands of those who work it. There can be no social justice as long as production is for the foreign thieves and not the workers.
Marcos’s message highlighted the importance the MST has assumed in the growing global struggle against neo-liberalism, especially in Latin America. Since its founding in 1984 it started organizing landless, poor rural families to non-violently occupy the unproductive lands of large landowners. The MST has also played a significant role in the organization of the international Via Campesina, a social movement active on four continents with over 150 organizations.
Indeed, despite the various challenges the MST faces in building an alternative project in Brazil, there were also many reasons for the Congress delegates to celebrate. The MST has pressured the government to settle over 370,000 families on land, and has also advanced significantly in the area of education, especially literacy for adults. With the slogan “Each and every Landless studying,” the MST has formed relationships with federal and state universities, and foreign governments such as Venezuela and Cuba, to increase popular education in literacy and medicine.
The MST is also in the vanguard in the adoption of agroecology and food sovereignty policies, both of which have been gaining increasing popularity in more progressive development circles since the early 2000s. As the movement has evolved, it has become increasingly aware of the need to reject industrialized agriculture, especially monoculture with the use of agrotoxins, and production of commodity crops for export. Agroecology is viewed as a way for people, especially the rural poor, to secure independence from multinational agribusiness corporations.
The Congress was also used as a forum for the MST to raise support for the Via Campesina’s occupation of the Syngenta corporation’s experimental site in the state of Paraná, which was taken over by the movement on 14 March 2006 after the Brazilian government confirmed that Syngenta had illegally planted transgenic soy. The site is located within the protective boundaries of the Iguaçu National Park, which was declared the Patrimony of Humanity by the United Nations in 1986. The social movements have joined forces with Governor Roberto Requião to expropriate these holdings of the agribusiness multinational.
In its final letter to Brazilian society, the MST declared that it will continue to “struggle so that all of the large landholdings are expropriated, with the properties of foreign capital and the banks being prioritized”. It will “combat multinational corporations, like Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Nestlé, Basf, Bayer, Aracruz and Stora Enso, that seek to control seeds and Brazilian agricultural production and commerce”.
Brazilian Landless Support ALBA Integration Effort
BRASILIA .— The Landless Workers Movement of Brazil (MST) closed their Fifth National Congress this Friday, with marked support for the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the integration group formed so far by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
The ALBA promotes social and economic development through mutually beneficial trade and solidarity among its member nations.
In the final declaration of its 5th Congress the Movement adopted a commitment to fight against large estates and imperialism, as well as new proposed limits to the size of land holdings.
The MST goals are contained in a document titled the Charter of the 5th National Congress of the Landless Workers Movement, and includes 18 short statements that summarize the topics discussed during the meeting that began Monday attended by 17,500 delegates.
Among the items approved, the landless rural workers highlighted their interest in discussing with other social groups the building of a popular project against neo-liberalism and imperialism, and the structural causes of the problems that affect the people of Brazil.
They pledged to continue struggling for the expropriation of all large estates and “to fight against the transnational corporations that want to control the seeds, production and agricultural trade of Brazil, like Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Nestlé, Basf, Bayer, Aracruz and Stora Enso, among others.
We will also be battling for laws that limit the size of farm properties, something that doesn’t exist at this moment, said Vanderlei Martine, a member of the 300-strong national coordination committee.
The Landless Workers Movement, Martine stated, is advocating for a maximum property size of between 400 and 500 hectares, which they consider enough for both agricultural and cattle production. Such a limit would also provide the opportunity for at least a quarter of a million families, of whom 140,000 are members of the movement, to have access to plots of land to farm.
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Article originally available at http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_world/landless061607.htm
Fidel Castro Sends Message to 5th Congress of Landless Movement
Posted: 2007/06/16
From: Mathaba
Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz sent a letter to the rural workers that make up Brazil's Landless Movement, on the occasion of the 5th Congress of their organization, which the Cuban Revolution leader described as very active and combative.
Havana, June 15 (acn) In his letter Fidel Castro said that he sent the Landless Movement fraternal greetings with sincere solidarity and added that "it is my pleasure to send this message to you, who are the genuine expression of the fair cause in favor of a better world without exclusions or exploitation."
The Landless Movement is one of the most active and combative social organizations currently fighting for a better world, said Fidel Castro his message broadcast on Cuban television on Thursday evening.
In his letter, Fidel Castro underscored the organized action and deep conceptions of Brazil's Landless Movement, which are part of a working style marked by collective discussion and austerity.
Cuba has always received solidarity and encouragement from the Landless Movement during its long and hard resistance struggle, in the face of the most powerful empire ever, to build a society marked by social justice and equality, said Fidel Castro in his letter.
The Cuban Revolution leader said that he was following with interest the Landless Movement and Via Campesina joint project to set up a Latin American School of Agro-ecology to allow, by means of six-month courses, 250 young farmers to become environmental agronomists.
It is an excellent project, which will benefit Latin American and Caribbean agriculture, pointed out Fidel Castro and noted that it is good to know that they already count on 20 young Brazilian doctors, members of the Landless Movement, who graduated from the Havana-based Latin American School of Medicine. He added that another 80 Brazilian youths are currently taking courses in that school; while another 40 Brazilian students will begin their course this year.
Fidel Castro underscored the advancement of an adult literacy program undertaken by the Landless Movement, which is implementing the Cuban methodology "Yes, I Can".
President Fidel Castro finally said that Cuba will always offer its solidarity to human projects such as the one undertaken by the members of the Landless Movement and wished their 5th Congress success.
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Article originally available at http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/
June 14, 2007
Agriculture-Brazil: David, Goliath and land reform
By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO - The largest movement fighting for the distribution of unproductive rural property to landless peasant farmers in Brazil complains that the "euphoria" over the production of biofuels from sugar cane and other crops is aggravating the concentration of land ownership and driving up land prices.
The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra or Landless Workers Movement (MST) argues that the biofuel boom is just another manifestation of the growing strength of agribusiness in Brazil, Latin America's giant.
Joao Pedro Stedile, a member of the MST national leadership, told IPS that biofuel production forms part of the "agricultural model of the dominant classes, the big capitalists who have built up an alliance of vested interests, comprised of transnational corporations on one hand and large Brazilian landowners on the other."
This alliance, he said, is based on export-oriented production on vast tracts of land, and heavy use of toxic agrochemicals that damage the environment.
The MST advocates a different model, one that is "focused on the needs of the people, and is based on keeping peasant farmers in the countryside and on multi-crop production that puts a priority on food production, without the use of agrotoxics," said the activist.
The MST's fifth national congress, which has drawn 18,000 delegates to Brasilia, the capital, from Jun. 11-15, is discussing alternatives to agribusiness.
"Agribusiness impedes land reform because to carry out such reforms, it is necessary to democratise access to property ownership, carve up the large estates (latifundium) and stimulate multi-crop farming for the domestic market," said Stedile. Agribusiness, by contrast, "needs ever larger scales of production and increasingly concentrates land ownership," he added.
According to the Pastoral Land Commission, 3.5 percent of Brazil's landholders own nearly 60 percent of the best farmland, while the poorest 40 percent of farmers have a mere one percent.
The MST, Latin America's largest social movement, stages occupations of unproductive land to press for faster, more effective agrarian reform.
The movement now has a new concern: the biofuel craze and its impact on the distribution of land.
Stedile said that "What worries us now is the offensive we are seeing by U.S. investors who are funnelling large amounts of money into the purchase of land and distilleries in Brazil, to produce ethanol."
He pointed to the purchase of 13 ethanol factories, mainly by U.S. investors. For example, U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill bought the largest ethanol plant in Riberao Preto in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, along with 356,000 hectares of sugar cane crops.
"The recent announcement in Brazil by Soros is also pathetic," said the activist.
Adeco, a company in which Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros is the main shareholder, has invested 900 million dollars in the construction of three ethanol plants in the southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In addition, Soros plans to purchase one billion dollars worth of land in Brazil through an investment fund.
A recent study published by the FNP Institute, which is linked to the agricultural market research services firm AgraFNP, confirms that land prices have increased as a result of the ethanol boom.
The study, coordinated by agronomist Jacqueline Dettman, notes that in states like Sao Paulo, sugar cane production is encroaching on orange crops and pastureland, and has driven land prices up by 70 percent in the last year.
And in areas suitable for growing sugar cane in the impoverished northeast, land prices have hit record highs, increasing by 84 percent over the last year, says the study.
In an interview with IPS, Minister of Agrarian Development Guilherme Cassel admitted that along with the growth of ethanol production, "there have to be regulations to ensure that production is not based on the expansion of the latifundio at the expense of the environment, family farms and agrarian reform."
But production of biofuels and food are compatible, he said, if they are planned and regulated, "by avoiding, for example, the purchase of land by foreign investors, which even poses a problem in terms of national sovereignty."
Cassel, however, said he had discrepancies with respect to the MST's argument that agribusiness has been favoured over a "social" model of agriculture.
"In Brazil we have two models: agribusiness, based on large extensions of land and monoculture farming, and the family farm model, based on land reform settlements, crop diversification and protection of the environment," he stated.
During his first four years in office, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva "supported both models, and both were very effective," he said.
Brazil is currently in a position "where it is no longer necessary to commit ourselves only to monoculture farming to generate revenues. At the same time, we support agrarian reform and family agriculture," Cassel added.
He pointed out that over the last four years, the Lula administration increased credits for family farms from 1.15 to 6.25 billion dollars.
The minister said he agreed with the MST that of the two models, "the best one for the Brazilian countryside is the one based on small landholdings, with large numbers of people working, generating jobs and income, with diversified production that protects the environment."
This viewpoint, he acknowledged, is opposed to the model "that has concentrated land and has caused unemployment and marginalisation among people in the countryside, deforestation, slave labour and violence."
The government, he added, is prioritising production of biodiesel, produced from vegetable oils, as a motor for rural development.
He described this as a "revolutionary policy" that has already benefited some 200,000 farmers in the northeast, according to government figures.
What the minister and Stedile do not agree on is the progress made by the government's agrarian reform programme. The MST leader argues that the process has been "practically stagnant" since the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003).
Stedile says 65 percent of the new settlements in which landless farmers have been granted property were established on publicly-owned land in the Amazon jungle region, and thus "should be labelled ‘colonisation projects' instead of ‘settlements'."
The remaining 35 percent, according to the MST, are settlements in which there has been no true agrarian reform policy, in the sense of "measures aimed at distributing land and democratising the ownership of rural property."
"We maintain that these settlement policies do not constitute agrarian reform, but are policies of social contention aimed at resolving short-term problems" that form part of "free-market economic policies that have left behind national and industrial development."
"I don't agree with Stedile's arguments," Cassel responded. "The Brazilian government can confidently state that never before have so many people been settled on land of their own in such a short time in Brazil."
According to the minister, 371,000 rural families have received a total of 32 million hectares of land in the last four years, "an area larger than Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined."
He did not deny that many of the families were settled in the Amazon jungle region, and said that policy should be included in the aims of social movements like the MST when they "discuss a rational and environmentally sustainable occupation of land."
Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service
LETTER TO THE PEOPLE FROM THE 5TH BRAZIL-MST NATIONAL CONGRESS
We, 17,500 Landless rural workers from 24 states in Brazil, 181 international delegates representing 21 peasant organizations from and friends from several movements and organizations, met in Brazilia from June 10th to 15th, 2007, for the 5th MST National Congress too discuss and analise the problems in our society to find alternative solutions.
We commit to go on helping in the organization of people, to be able to struggle for their rights and against inequelities and social injustices. And we commit to the following:
1.To network with all social sectors and their forms of organizationin to build a popular project to confront neo-liberalism, imperialism and the structural causes of the problems that affect Brazilian people.
2.To defend our rights against any policy that tries to remove rights already conquered.
3.To struggle against privatizations of public patrimony, the transposition of Rio São Francisco and for the reestatization of public companies that have been privatized.
4.To struggle for all latifundios* to be expropriated with priority to those owned by foreign capital and banks.
5.To fight against the logging anf burning of native forests for the expansion of latifundios.
6.To fight against transnational corporations that want to control seeds, Brazilian production and agricultural trade such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Bungue, ADM, Nestlé, Basf, Bayer, Aracruz, Stora Enso, among others. To stop them from further exployting our nature, our labour and our country.
7.Demand the end of slave labour, the super exploytation of labour and the punishment of the perpetrators. All latifundios that use any form of slave labour must be expropriated, without any compensation, as stated in the Project of Law already aproved in the Senate.
8.To fight against all forms of violence in the countryside, as well as the crimilization of Social Movements. Demand punishment for the murderers – those who hired and the executors – of all those fighting for the Agrarian Reform, which go unpunished or their law suits are paralised in the Judiciary System.
9.To struggle to limit the size of land ownership. For the legal recognition of the historical rights of indigenous peoples and afro-descendents to their land.
10.To fight for the production of agri-fuels to be under controll of peasants and rural workers, as part of the policulture, with environmental protection and seeking the energetic sovereignty of each region.
11.To defend native and creole seeds. To struggle against GMO seeds. Promote the practices of agro-ecology and agricultural techniques that respect the environment. Settlements and rural communities must give priority to produce foods without agro-chemicals for the internal market.
12.To defend fresh water springs, fountains and reservoirs. Water is a common good from Nature and it belongs to humanity. It cannot be privatized by any corporation.
13.To preserve forrests and promote the planting of native and fruit trees, in all settlement areas and rural communities, contributing for the environmental preservation and in the struggle against global warming.
14.To struggle for the working class to have access to basic, secondary and public higher education, of excellent quality and free.
15.To develop different ways of organising campaings and programmes to erradicate illiteracy in rural areas and in Brazilian society as whole, using transformative pedagogical guidelines.
16.Struggle for each settlement or community in the countryside to have their own popular media, such as, free community radio stations. Struggle for the democratization of all media in society contributing to create political awareness and the respect of popular culture.
17.To strengthen the network with rural social movements in Via Campesina Brazil, in all states and regions. To build alliances with all Social Movements and Popular Assemblies in counties, regions and states.
18.Contribute in the construction of all possible mechanisms for the popular integration in Latin-America, through ALBA – Bolivarian Alternativa the Peoples of the Americas. Exercise INTERNATIONAL solidarity with people who suffer the agressions of the empire, specially at the moment, the people in CUBA, HAITI, IRAQ and PALESTINE.
We call the Brazilian people to organise and struggle for a fair and igualitarian society, which will only be made possible with the mobilization of everyone. The great transformations are always the work of people organised. And, we from the MST, commit to never give up and always struggle.
*Latifundio – large land holding
AGRARIAN REFORM: For Social Justice and Popular Sovereingty!
Brasília, June 15th, 2007
Good Evening Friends,
In the name of the national directorship and of the families of the MST, I salute the representatives of the entities that are here tonight, at the same time that we recognize the importance of the presence of each one of you and your organizations for the struggle of the workers in Brazil.
I compliment all of the invited entities and organizations, the international delegation of more than 28 countries, especially the organizations of the Via Campesina from various continents, the friends of the MST, and the politicians: senators, congressmen, mayors and councilmen.
With utmost respect I salute the militance of the persistance, dedication, spirit of sacrifice and responsibility for the preparation of our congress at the grassroots, in the states and here at the gymnasium where they contructed the city of the Landless.
And with much affection, I complement the almost 20 thousand delegates, the more than one thousand Landless children, companheiros and companheiras, true heroes of this nation, present from the 24 states where our movement is organized.
This Congress was switched various times, for various reasons. With certainty, we are realizing it in the most opportune moment of the History and the correlation of forces in Latin America.
Opportune, because we are witnessing throughout the entire world imperialist intervention through wars, the invasion of countries for natural resources, and through international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund.
Opportune, because here in Brazil we are experiencing, through the structure of the bourgiose state, in the Legislative, Executive and the Judiciary branches, the maintenance of the priveledge and the defense of the interests of the elite.
Opportune, because we see the Brazilian Government, in its second mandate, maintaining an economic policy of continuity, adhering to neoliberal rules, with large damages, with a policy based on international exchange, a monetary and tributary policy focused on export.
A government that makes reforms and projects that benefit international financial capital to the detriment of the rights of the workers historically conquered through struggle.
We see the transnationals being prioritized, incentivizing monoculture production, and the liberation and the use of transgenics and agrotoxins, with Agrarian Reform treated as a social compensation.
Opportune, because we are experiencing in Brazil a new phase of economic power in the countryside through agribusiness, organized by the historic landowners and by the multinational corporations, that want to secure control over our water, natural resources, biodiveristy and seeds, and to rob our Amazon, constructing dams and implementing the transposition of the São Francisco River. And leaving for the Brazilians only unemployment and misery.
For this, friends, our Fifth Congress has to be a mark in the History of the working class. A mark against imperialism, a mark against the neoliberal policies of this government, a mark against the multinationals, a mark in the struggle for legislation that limits private property. In the words of Florestan Fernandes: do not allow ourselves to be co-opted, not allow ourselves to be divided, and to win conquests for the people.
A mark in the struggle and defense of Agrarian Reform as a method to democratize land, destribute income, create employment and j