[10/28/05] MST Informa #102 - SPECIAL EDITION - Popular Assembly: Mobilization for a New Brazil

Dear Friends of the MST,

This Special Edition of the ‘MST Informa’ has been written to share an historical event in these 505 years of Brazil’s existence: a gathering, during the 25th and 28th of October, of representatives from over 40 Brazilian social movements. Members of urban and rural movements, the National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops, and other organizations, all gathered for the same reason: to organize the poor to achieve real, structural, changes. We could not delay in sharing this unprecedented event: the Popular Assembly - Mobilization for a New Brazil.

Over 8,000 activists assembled in Brasília, committed to a collective construction of a popular project for a new Brazil. All of them in struggle for a better Brazil, studying and holding debates with this sole objective in mind.

On the 26th, participants marched with banners raised, banners of solidarity and demanding sovereignty. During the march, participants openly criticized U.S. imperialism and Brazil’s political economy: today, over 52 million Brazilians are living in misery while the country owes $600 billion Reals in public debt. 27 million Brazilians are currently unemployed, or working in the informal sector. The marchers’ central demand was a break from economic dependency, dependency on international capital and at the service of financial capital, represented by U.S. President George W. Bush, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the Central Bank of Brazil.

To express their critiques symbolically, marchers went to the U.S. Embassy carrying a sign that read, “Bush OUT of Latin America‿, making it clear that the U.S. president would not be welcomed on his planned November 6th visit to the nation’s capitol. As a reminder, marchers left 3,000 placards with photos of Bush dressed in German military fatigues used during Hitler’s reign. “Bush: Humanity’s #1 Enemy‿ was the message they sent.

As they sang the national anthem, marchers continued to Itamaraty, where they reiterated the importance of peoples’ fight for independence, demanding the withdrawal of Brazilian troops from Haiti.

During this march for a new Brazil, participants of the Popular Assembly demanded that more profound changes be made in society and that more attention be given to the Brazilian people.

Today, at the end of the Popular Assembly, four documents have been produced compiling the ideas and practices discussed: the ‘Declaration of the Popular Assembly’, ‘Mobilization for a New Brazil’, ‘Next Steps’, and ‘The Brazil that We Want’. With these documents in hand, the activist participants of the Assembly return to their communities, advancing the struggle for our country.

National Secretariat of the MST

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Also, See “Social Movement Organized in Popular Assembly send Letter to Lula‿