MST Letter to Friends of the MST in the US Current Issues for the MST in Brazil

September 21, 2003

Description: This letter offered greeting and an analysis of current events in Brazil to a gathering of Friends of the MST that met in New York City on September 21. Noted in the letter is the increase in violence against the MST (matching military dictatorship days), the increased criminalization of MST leaders, the increase in families participating in occupations in anticipation of settlement by Lula's administration, the MST's collaboration with the new government in the areas of literacy and agricultural products from settlements in the Zero Hunger basic food basket. The MST is also participating in a team that will develop a plan for agrarian reform. Agrarian reform progress has been slow as Lula will have settled less families than last year under the Cardoso administration. The MST needs solidarity now more than ever.

Dear Friends,

With this message, we would like to convey our profound thanks for the political solidarity work that you have been developing in the U.S. We would also like to bring you some news that can help you to reflect on the solidarity actions to be developed there in the U.S.

1) In the current political situation, we have opened many channels for dialog with the government. Although the president of INCRA was removed, which was an appointment of the MST, we do not assume that this is a defeat because the government has the right to name whomever they want for this post.

Although Marcelo, the former president of INCRA had close ties to the MST, his dismissal does not mean a change in the political direction of INCRA because Rolf, the new president, is also very good politically, despite the fact that he accepted the presidency of INCRA in an isolated way. In a meeting the social movements said it would be better if he did not accept the post, and he was not supported by these movements, since he was a government appointment.

In the area of the government's general politics, you must have seen in the media that what prevails are the reforms dictated by the Brazilian elites, that have nothing to do with the life of the people, who deal welfare and taxes. The Government is betting everything on the Zero Hunger Program, which began to move forward in the last two months, but this will not resolve the structural problems of social inequality in Brazil.

2) In the area of Agrarian Reform: nothing has moved forward, the government says that it does not have money to carry out the appropriations. The government makes a speech saying that quality will prevail over quantity; in other words, that it will not carry out Agrarian Reform on a massive scale, it will not settle one million families during the Government's four years, which is what we propose.

As for the Model of Agrarian Reform in the market, the Land Bank, the Government stopped the program of buying land in this way but it still implements a part of the program through Agrarian Credit for Family Farming, where they loan money to the sons of small owners to buy land. Why?

A sector of the government in the Family Farming Secretariat defends the Land Bank. This sector, tied to CONTAG/CUT, which is the National Federation of Farm Workers, disputes space with the MST in many states. They are together with ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the implementation of the Land Bank. A problem of Lula's government is to have space for all, on the right and the left, so each one does what it can to serve the interests of its class and sector.

On the question of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), the one still in charge of this question is the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, but there is a lot of pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture and from Monsanto for Brazil to allow GMOs, since we are the only territory that is GMO-free. As a consequence we can make guarantees to the European Market since all the other soy producers produce GMO soybeans.

3) As for the position of the MST in relation to the government, we are working with the government in some areas such as education and the Zero Hunger Program. We signed up for a literacy project for 45,000 rural young people and adults and we are establishing partnerships in the area of rice and bean production at a low cost so that these products can go in the basic food basket for the Zero Hunger Program. But we are pressuring the Government to implement a true Agrarian Reform through land occupations, marches, and protests.

There is a government team drawing up a National Plan for Agrarian Reform that will be presented before the end of the year for the entire government. It is not known if the Plan will be approved or not.

4) As for our internal situation, unlike the last few years, our principal enemy is no longer the Federal Government since we have the space for negotiation and debate. The problem is concentrated now in the big landowners and in the Judiciary. Most state governments have ties to the right, and it is in the states where the MST actions take place that the military police are acting with a level of violence only seen previously in Brazil during the period of the military dictatorship. Some examples include the number of imprisonments that have been decreed against the MST and the number of prisoners, totaling 21 people in leadership who are not just members but coordinators of the MST in their states.

This is not a generalized wave of violence and persecution of the MST throughout Brazil but is localized in certain states such as: São Paulo, Paraná, Pará, Goiás, Paraíba e Mato Grosso do Sul.

It's clear that the Federal Government could take a stand against this violence against the MST but it is also not interested in losing the support of the governing rural base in the National Congress.

Currently our international campaigns are focused on freedom for political prisoners. We continue carrying out the campaign for the construction of the Florestan Fernandes National School, and other campaigns.

In Pará an International Tribune will be held at the end of October. It will put on trial the violations of human rights committed in that state. We have invited various prominent people and it would be interesting to have a large number of international observers participating in this Tribunal.

Related to our more general international policies, we participated along with six leaders of the MST in the activities in Cancun, and it was Via Campesina which gave political direction to all the demonstrations. And the WTO meeting collapsed, The Brazilian Government agreed with the entrance of agriculture into the WTO discussions. But tactically it was the best position that the Government could adopt because if it had pushed for agriculture to be excluded from the WTO discussions, it would have ended up isolated without any allies.

We are preparing for the Fourth International Conference of Via Campesina that will be held next year in Brazil.

In the struggle against the FTAA, the campaign is very well organized in Brazil. The Brazilian government has consistently taken positions of not accepting the entrance of Brazil into the FTAA. In the field of popular mobilizations, we carried out, during the week of September 7, a signature-gathering campaign demanding a popular plebiscite of the Brazilian people regarding whether Brazil should join the FTAA.

Internally, we are increasingly focusing on political training, with the return of the technical assistance program. We are beginning to revitalize cooperatives and production associations, and in the field of education we are making significant advances.

Regarding land occupations, we have never had so many landless workers wanting land to occupy. All the landless now think that with Lula as president, Agrarian Reform is going to happen more rapidly and for this reason the number of families who are camping has already risen to 147,000.

We understand that at this moment, international political solidarity is of the highest importance since we have a President that because of his own history is more susceptible to political pressure and especially that which comes from other countries.

We hope that your meeting contributes to the continuing activist work of political solidarity with Brazil and the MST.

Long Live International Solidarity! Yes to Sovereignty, No to FTAA! Agrarian Reform -- for a Brazil free from Latifundios!!!

Source: Sector of International Relations, Landless Workers Movement