News and Updates: Agrarian Reform

We have demonstrated throughout the whole country and set up a pre-land occupation encampment in Brasilia in defence of Agrarian Reform, accomplishing important successes regarding solutions to the problems that agrarian workers have. The day of struggle brought about a series of fundamental measures granted by the government, even though we are still far from achieving Agrarian Reform and the consolidation of a new agricultural model. Moreover, it showed society and people in general, that...

This August, the National Encampment for Agrarian Reform in Brasilia and mobilizations organized by the MST and by the movements of Via Campesina throughout the country secured important victories for the working class and reinstated agrarian reform on the agenda of both the government and society at large. In the federal capital, more than three thousand workers and rural workers, with the representation of the 23 states in which the MST is organized, aside from the Federal District, met...

The struggle for land has more victims in the Brazilian countryside. This time, five workers were killed. The murders happened on the night of last Monday (July 6th), the Garrote settlement, located in the district of Santo Domingo in Brejo da Madre de Deus (PE). The national coordination of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST) did not discard the hypothesis that the crimes were motivated in retaliation to the struggle for agrarian reform. João Pereira da Silva, Juarez...

“If we silence ourselves, the stones will cry out” (Pedro Tierra) The Fifth Session of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) will rule this week on the appeal presented by Colonel Mario Colares Pantoja, one of the commanders of the Massacre at Eldorado dos Carajas, which asks to overturn the verdict by which he was condemned to 228 years in prison. In the session on Tuesday, Minister Laurita will analyze the request made by the Colonel's defense and the verdict may be overturned. On April...

The concentration of land in Brazil continues to be among the highest in the world. In the past few years, the agro-exporter model, based in agribusiness, not only compounded this concentration, but also aggravated the economic and social problems generated by it. For the sake of the monocultural farming of sugar cane for combustion, eucalyptus for paper, and soy for animal feed in Europe, agribusinesses reduces space for planting food, deforests the Amazon and pushes people into degrading...

By Silvia Adoui From São Paulo, Brazil, NP Radioagencia Week of April 14 The Fazenda Puntumujú, in the extreme south of Bahia, was occupied by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST). Around 1.5 thousand families came, the morning of Wednesday, June 8, at the ranch belonging to the transnational company Veracel Cellulose, arguing that the monoculture of eucalyptus practiced by the company was illegal on the State land in the region. According to the MST, such land should be allocated...

by Plinio Arruda Sampaio Published in Folha de S. Paulo, March 16, 2009 Today, the MST is struggling against an intermittent type of attack: an attack sponsored by enemies visible and invisible. The MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) is subject to two types of attack: the permanent and intermittent. The first type is directed daily by UDR (Democratic Rural Union) and the "rural bench". The second form of attack happens from time to time. Today, the movement is struggling against...

Women from La Via Campesina mobilized last week on March 8th for International Women’s Day. The fight is our historic tool to denounce the agribusiness model which is socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable. We also question the role of the State, which in the wake of a deep structural economic crisis, chooses to aid big private companies which exploit our country, its biodiversity, our natural resources and leave our workers unemployed.

We live in a period where there is a...

In recent days, the press has been giving rise to a series of materials about the MST that express an offensive of the right-wing forces. For this reason, we interviewed a member of MST national direction, João Paulo Rodrigues, to explain the position of the Movement regarding the main topics of the offensive. What is the reaction of the minister Gilmar Mendes due to? Minister Gilmar Mendes has become the newest leader of the Brazilian right since taking office as president...

In our 13th National Meeting we received the support of many friends of the Agrarian Reform movement. On the 24th, representatives from the political left, trade organizations, churches, intellectuals, leaders and activists from Brazil and other countries met to discuss politics. Our meeting brought together more than 1,500 activists from the 24 states in which the MST is present and we welcomed invitees from more than 30 countries. The discussions were documented in a manifesto, in which we...

Changing times for Brazil's landless By Gary Duffy BBC News, Sao Paulo state A small hut with a red flag flying above it marks the start of the Elizabeth Texeira camp in the heart of the countryside in Sao Paulo state. Among fields of sugar cane, 120 landless rural families have taken over an area of state-owned land as part of a campaign for agrarian reform. Accommodation is basic, consisting of shacks made of plastic, wood and tin, and in the frequent tropical storms, the rain often...

João Pedro Stedile In January 1984, there was a process of re-ascension of mass movements in Brazil. The working class was reorganizing, accumulating organic forces. Underground parties, such as the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), the Communist Party of Brazil, etc., were in the streets. We had achieved a partial amnesty, but the majority of the exiles had returned. The Worker's Party (PT), the Central Workers' Union (CUT) were taking shape, as well as the National Congress of the Working...

We of the MST along with the central unions, student organizations, peoples’ movements, and groups from civil society, are putting together a document with concerns around the country’s current social and economic picture and proposals to overcome the worldwide economic crisis. We demand that the country change the macroeconomic policy of neoliberalism and build a new model of national development, based on income distribution, job creation, and strengthening of the internal market. In the...

Agrarian Reform has reached a standstill all over Brazil. It was for this reason that, in July, MST workers from 12 Brazilian states protested in the streets, at INCRA (National Institute of Agrarian Colonization and Reform) headquarters, and farms, demanding the settlement of the 140,000 encamped families and public funding for the already existing settlements.

Encamped and settled landless workers pass through difficult situations. There are families who have been waiting for the...