MST Informa
March 28, 2002
MST National Leadership

The month of March was marked by serious episodes for our country. Early in the month, the Federal Police entered the office of one of the businesses of Governor Roseana Sarney, taking documents and around $R1.4 million in cash. The purpose was not to investigate corruption but simply to create facts to fight the candidacy of the Party of the Liberal Front.

Sarney went on the attack: she denounced the fact that the Federal Police were being used for electoral purposes and that Cardoso's campaign in 1994 illegally collected more than $R5 million.

After that we received a visit from Professor Jean Ziegler, in an official mission from the United Nations to research hunger in Brazil. He denounced the fact that a social war is going on here: 40,000 people are murdered every year, and even worse, there are more than 50 million people below the poverty level who moreover are going hungry. And he dared to state the cause: hunger in Brazil is not because of scarcity but rather a result of the economic policy implemented in our country. And he presented a solution; only true agrarian reform and a plan for the distribution of income can end hunger. It would not allow interference. The UN mission admitted to journalists that it spent an hour and a half with the President but he didn't spend even a minute talking about Brazil, only about France, modern sociology, the UN, etc.

Later it was announced that Justice prosecutors are investigating the accounts of Cardoso's electoral campaigns (of 1994 and 1998). There are strong indications of the existence of unreported funds.

In the Northeast of the country, inspectors from the Ministry of Labor discovered the existence of slave work on one of the ranches of Federal Deputy Inocêncio de Oliveira (of the Liberal Front Party, from Pernambuco).

Even more serious. Public prosecutors are studying the source of funds and the activities of an espionage business contracted by the Ministry of Health, by then-minister Serra, to illegally study not only the Ministry but other places.

All these facts begin to compromise even more the image of Cardoso's government. It was enough that the rural workers in the region of Buritis, Minas Gerais, once again occupied the ranch that sometimes belongs to Cardoso, sometimes to his sons, in order for the government to find a miraculous way out.

Immediately all of the press went wild, blowing the episode up as though it were the fall of the Bastille. "We're dealing with bandits, terrorists" Minister Jungmann trumpeted. "Democracy is at risk", announced General Cardoso. Minister Aloysio Nunes, former colleague in the Brazilian Communist Party of Deputy José Dirceu, ended up with the job of blaming and reining in the Workers Party. Then the Presidential Secretary General, Arthur Virgílio, expressed the government's intentions: to take advantage of the occupation of the ranch in order to try to mortally wound the MST, as they had done to the strike movement of the oil workers in 1995.

The occupation of the Buritis ranch owes itself solely to the indifference with which the government has been treating those families. In the last six years, instead of resolving the problems of the families who are camped and settled there, the government generated insecurity, discrediting the negotiation channels -- systematically disregarding the agreements -- and showed itself to be completely insensitive to the problems of the families. Humiliated, they decided to mobilize to make themselves heard. The excesses committed during the mobilization, recognized by the workers themselves, cannot overshadow the causes for the mobilization. Even more so because these excesses are also a result of the way the workers were treated by the government. Some time ago we called attention to the fact that the constant lies told by Jungmann, putting a good face on the agrarian reform numbers, serve only to fool the people but did not contribute anything to resolving social problems.

There is no more valid proof of the government's lies and its manner of treating workers than the order for resignation of Senhora Maria de Oliveira and of Appeals Court Judge Gercino da Silva, who preferred dignity to employment. Tired of so many lies. And they were the Minister's special assessors, running around Brazil to resolve social conflicts.

The government makes use of a servile press to distract the attention of public opinion from the serious accusations that hang over Brasilia, to muddy the waters and place the blame for everything on the landless workers.

But history shows that reality and truth always prevail. And the result can be the opposite. There are numerous groups, organizations, and people who have lent solidarity and support, emphatically condemning the performance of the government and of the Federal Police in the episode. The workers know that they will only win their rights through mobilizations and struggle.

News in Brief

Solidarity with the struggle of the workers families in Buritis, Minas Gerais

After the attacks of the media and of the government on the MST against the families of the rural workers in Buritis (Minas Gerais) and on the 16 political prisoners, different organizations and friends sent messages of solidarity. We are citing here only the names of those who sent messages that arrived to us at our email address: semterra@mst.org.br. We thank those persons and organizations and we extend our thanks to all those who support agrarian reform and who sent messages to other email addresses for the MST outside Brazil.

CNBB - National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, MPA - Movement of Small Farmers, ABRA - Brazilian Association for Agrarian Reform - Friends of the MST in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, ESPLAR - Center for Research and Assessment, Documentary film makers of the TV program "El Cuarto Patio" - Cordoba - Argentina, National Forum for Agrarian Reform and Violence in the Field, Catholic Organization for Development and Peace - Canada, CNASI - National Confederation of INCRA Employees, CPT - National Pastoral Commission for Land, the magazine "Em Marcha" - Buenos Aires - Argentina, the newspaper "Resumen Latinoamericano", STIMMMEIP - Sindicate of Metalworkers, Mechanics and Electrical Workers of Itajubá and Paraisópolis; Sindicate of Laticínios of Rio de Janeiro; Syndicate Lab - Euskal Herria, Luis Zamonra and Jose Alberto Roselli, National Deputies for Self-Determination and Liberty - Buenos Aires - Argentina, Maria de Lourdes Nascimento - Academic in the Social Science course of UVA - Sobral - Ceará, Natalia Garcia Romano - Rosário - Argentina, Luciana Correia, Roberto Herrera Cañon - Bogotá - Colômbia

Families are threatened with expulsion after 10 years of settlement

The 230 families who live on the Timboré ranch, in the township of Andradina (São Paulo), are being threatened with expulsion after 10 years of production in the area which was certified to be of social interest for agrarian reforms in 1986. After the families had been settled in a just and legal manner and the government had invested a lot of resources in the infrastructure and development projects, the former owner went to court asking to retake possession of the land. On April 8, the judicial district of Araçatuba will hear the case. We ask you to write to the Federal Public Attorney asking for justice to be done, that the 230 families may continue living and working in the area.

Sovereignty Yes, FTAA No!

The FTAA is a strategic plan of North American businesses, through their government, to try to impose their interests on the whole continent and thus have access to our riches, our territory, our biodiversity, to impose their currency - the dollar - to have access to the purchases of public organs (purchases by the state), to control our agriculture, our market, to influence our culture.

The FTAA is a dangerous expansion plan to guarantee a captive space for the 500 transnational businesses of the United States. As General Colin Powell, the North American Secretary of State explained didactically, "The FTAA is a way of guaranteeing a territory which goes from Alaska to Patagonia, for our businesses to guarantee their interests in commerce, in the market, in control of technology, capital and services and in the access to wealth." The publisher Expressão Popular (Popular Expression) has just launched the book "Soberania Sim, Alca Não" ("Sovereignty Yes, FTAA No"). The book has analyses and essays that explain in more detail this strategic plan of domination; the publisher also carries other documents that subsidize the national campaign against the FTAA.

"Soberania Sim, Alca não"
192 pages, cost: $R5
requests: editorapopular@uol.com.br

Opine www.mst.org.br Español
letraviva@mst.org.br English

MST Informa is a bimonthly publication of the Landless Workers Movement, sent only by email, with analyses of the struggle for Agrarian Reform of the MST. If you have suggestions for topics, articles or format, please send them to us.