[08/01/2007] Solidarity with MST Libraries: Support Agrarian Reform – Help the MST Buy Books!
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
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[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!
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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
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[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!
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