On July 25, 1999, more than 1,100 people in Rio de Janeiro gathered in front of the offices of Petrobrás, the country's national oil company, to protest the government's plans to privatize the profitable industry. But the crowd blocking traffic and shouting in protest was not only upset about the impending Petrobás sell off. The people in the streets were demonstrating against the entire system of neo-liberal policies and structural adjustment programs that over the past few years have led to the privatization of other profitable national companies, including the mining company Vale do Rio Doce and the telecom company Embratel, which was sold to MCI in July 1998.

The Rio protest was just the start of a 10-week journey meant to bring attention to Brazil's economic and social ills that protesters say have been exacerbated by the demands of the International Monetary Fund and the policies of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. From July 25 through October 7, the group of 1,100 people--the oldest of whom was 91 year-old, and the youngest 12--marched 1580 kilometers from Rio to the country's capital, Brasilia.

For 67 days the marchers woke at dawn, walked two hours before breakfast, another five hours before lunch, and then kept going--an average of almost 30 km per day. The march passed through 160 towns, from the fertile lands of the coast to the arid stretches of the interior. Along the way, the marchers held hundreds of community meetings, debates and workshops at schools and churches in the towns they passed. All together, the march reached an estimated 300,000 people. The marchers--who included students, trade unionists, teachers, religious activists, indigenous peoples, and landless farmers from the Movement of Landless Workers (MST)--delivered a simple message to the people they met: The Brazilian economy should put the needs of Brazilian citizens before the priorities of the international financial community.

According to the U N, Brazil is the most unequal society in the world--the richest 20 percent of the population holds 80 percent of the wealth. Fifty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Unemployment has reached 20 percent in urban areas, and 400 thousand small farmers have lost their land in the last four years. In 1998, more than 23,000 small businesses went bankrupt. Brazil is also one of the most unequal countries in terms of land distribution: one percent of large landowners control 44 percent of all agricultural land. As a consequence, 4.7 million family farmers--or 12 million men, women and children--have no land.

In the towns and villages they passed, the marchers argued that this terrible inequality is due in part to economic policies that favor large multinational corporations and international financial institutions above the interests of ordinary Brazilians. For example, in recent years the Cardoso administration has prioritized government agriculture subsidies for large agribusiness firms above assistance for small farmers. Government policies such as this are driven by the country's need for hard currency with which to pay its foreign debt. The severe devaluation of the Brazilian currency in January led to a 35 percent increase in Brazil's foreign debt, and in 1999 alone Brazil has paid $50 billion in interest on its $300 billion foreign debt. This debilitating situation, the marchers said, explains why the government favors the big companies that produce food for export over the small farmers that produce for local markets.

While denouncing this predicament, the marchers also wanted to show that it's possible to create alternatives to the economic crisis. When they arrived October 7 in Brasilia, where they were met by nearly 10,000 people, the marchers headed to the Brazilian Central Bank, which also houses the IMF's Brazil office. There they urged the Brazilian government to reduce interest rates to help boost economic growth; establish new regulations on capital flight and short-term speculative investments; suspend debt payments; and increase taxes on the banking sector and the country's richest individuals. All together, the marchers said, these measures would generate new income for improving the country's infrastructure, health care services, education system and other social services.

As they had along their entire journey, the marchers sought to keep their symbolism simple. Before leaving, they presented Central Bank president Amínio Fraga with a small gift--a US flag, an illustration of who really controls Brazil's economy.