[08-18-10] MST Informa #187: Participate in the Struggle for Agrarian Reform

The MST comes to the cities this week to ask for support from all workers, once again, in defense of Agrarian Reform. We want to present a proposal for a new model for Brazilian agriculture, one that actually distributes the land, helps to generate jobs, and produces quality foods at prices affordable to Brazilians. The Movement has as its principle objective the struggle for the democratization of the land. Brazil has one of the largest land concentrations in the world: more than 43% of agricultural land in the country is in the hands of 1% of the landowners (about 50,000 owners, while four million families don’t have land to work.) We believe that, in order to distribute part of the unproductive land, it is necessary to have a massive process of Agrarian Reform. In this way, the living conditions of the population in the cities will also improve. We stand for a People’s Agrarian Reform, with the creation of agroindustries, that can generate income and create jobs in rural areas, with the construction of good-quality schools and universities, enabling the population to remain in the countryside and have good living conditions. For defending the flag for the division of land, our relentless struggle has resulted in the Landless becoming victims of a large campaign by the media and large landowners to criminalize them. There is an attempt to transform the MST into the guilty party for the crimes caused by plantation agribusiness. We came to the cities and are going to go to the streets to denounce agribusiness for the destruction of nature, by using large amounts of poison – that besides destroying the soil poisons the population – and for the expulsion of men and women from the countryside. We want to also denounce the use of slave labor in the production areas of agribusiness. A crime like this cannot go unpunished and these lands should be distributed for Agrarian Reform. Help defend Agrarian Reform. To divide the land is to contribute to an improvement in the living conditions of rural and urban workers. To defend Agrarian Reform is to struggle for the preservation of the environment and the end for violence in the countryside, caused by the large capitalist companies and the plantation owners. Participate in this struggle. Wear the MST cap and help to defend this flag, that is not just of the peasants, it is yours too. Long live Agrarian Reform! Long live the Brazilian people! National Secretary of the MST Visit the special page for the National Mobilization for Agrarian Reform: http://www.mst.org.br/mobilizacao-nacional-pela-reforma-agraria Put the MST cap on your head, promote it, and give it as a gift! ******************************* See on the MST Website videos in defense of Agrarian Reform. This week, the video presents the political act and commemoration party for 15 years of MST struggles and conquests in Mato Grosso. http://www.mst.org.br/multimidia