[12/15/06] Friends of the MST: 2006 Year in Review

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Friends of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement! As the year comes to a close, we thought it appropriate to share our work with you in this 2006 End-of-Year Report [SEE BELOW]. As you reflect on these important solidarity efforts, many of which you helped to make successful, we also ask that you consider making a financial contribution to this important work to ensure our success in this next year.

With the recent reelection of Workers Party President Lula da Silva, the MST publicly announced its campaign to increase popular pressure from the streets in order to meet movement goals including the settlement of all 200,000 encamped landless families. The MST also calls for the immediate construction of schools, medical clinics and improved infrastructue for all exisiting agrarian reform settlements. And as always, land is only an initial demand; the MST will continue its struggle for food sovereignty and a food system based on the agroecological production by family farmers, the conservation and protection of Brazil's most fragile ecosystems, a solidarity-based integration of the Latin American nations, and the immediate withdrawal of Brazilian troops from occupied Haiti. In all of these efforts, the MST needs our international solidarity. Be sure to visit our continually updated website and subscribe to our email listserv for news of these and other important updates and urgent actions in English.

Warm thanks to those who continue to support our efforts. We are truly grateful for your support. Now, as we approach a new year and new challenges, we ask for your help once again. Please make your donation today to help us maintain our small operating budget of less than $12,000 per year. One-time or recurring donations can be made online at ww.mstbrazil.org in amounts small and large. Checks and money orders payable to FMST/Global Exchange can also be mailed to: Friends of the MST, c/o Juan Reardon, P.O. Box 7307, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. All of our work, all of our activities are dependent on the financial support and participation of people like yourself. Friends of the MST is a grassroots network sustained by the contributions of people who share the MST's vision of building a more just society.

Click HERE to donate today!

We stand united with the MST and others in the global struggle for true democracy, social and economic justice, self-determination, and a sustainable environment. We look forward to your ongoing participation and support in the coming year!

Globalize Struggle! Globalize Hope!

In Solidarity,
Juan Reardon
FMST Coordinator

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Friends of the MST
2006 Year in Review

In January 2006, international solidarity helped stop attempts by landowners, the courts, and hired guns to forcibly evict 150 families of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) from lands they had occupied in Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco. “Solidarity amongst those who struggle, those who dream, is an indispensable part of our human worth. So many obstacles, fences, and difficulties can be overcome by this force,�? was the message of thanks sent to Friends of the MST. With that sentiment at heart, FMST worked to strengthen international solidarity throughout 2006.

Fundraising

$25,000 to Brazil! Working in our communities to educate and organize support for the MST's economic, social and political development projects, FMST members raised over $25,000 to support MST efforts in Brazil: $15,000 for the MST's 5th National Congress (scheduled for May 2007) and $10,000 to support the MST's campaign to secure justice for the victims of the 1996 El Dorado das Carajás Massacre, where 19 MST activists were shot and killed by military police. Special thanks to Agricultural Missions, FMST chapters and individual donors.

Translating, Website & Listserv

This year, the FMST Translation Team completed over 50 updates, articles and Urgent Action Alerts totaling over 115 pages of Portuguese to English translation, and a vital component of the FMST's human rights work. For example, when five MST leaders were threatened with imprisonment in early February for participating peacefully in a land occupation, FMST translators completed and distributed an Urgent Action Alert forwarded by MST lawyers. As a result, all five MST leaders secured their right to continue their efforts.

The FMST website continued to serve as host to news, views, resources and interviews addressing the struggle of the MST. Supporters made online donations and subscribed to our listserv. This year, 500 more supporters joined the FMST BiWeekly Listserv, which now has over 3,000 subscribers!

FMST Events & Film Screenings

In San Francisco and Washington, DC, FMST chapters organized solidarity actions at the Brazilian Consulate and Embassy, respectively, to demonstrate indignation over the impunity, lawlessness and rural violence represented by the April 17th ten-year anniversary of the El Dorado das Carajás Massacre. In DC, FMST delegates were received by the Brazilian Ambassador. Also in DC, FMST activists joined the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and the Washington Office on Latin America for a candlelight vigil commemorating the one-year anniversary of the murder of U.S. nun Sister Dorothy Stang. In San Francisco, FMST participated in the city's annual Carnaval Celebrations, distributing leaflets to hundreds. In both Chicago and DC, FMST hosted Brazilian Independence Day celebrations to educate and organize solidarity with the MST.

Charleston, South Carolina saw major protests against the Major Industry Conference on Genetically Engineered Trees in solidarity with the MST's campaign against the “Green Desert�?. The actions, called by the Global Justice Ecology Project, brought the MST and Via Campesina struggles for a sustainable, family-farm based agriculture to the forefront of the struggle against genetically engineered crops. In Louisville, presentations on the MST were given at the Presbyterian Women's Assembly. And at Yale University, La Casa Cultural hosted an MST photo exhibit.

In Berkeley, Chicago, Louisville, Minneapolis, Portland, Washington, DC and beyond. FMST organized film screenings and house parties for hundreds to view and discuss the award-winning feature length documentary, The Landless: On the Roads of America (available at mstbrazil.org). Thanks goes to all who participated and helped make these activities possible.

MST Leaders in U.S.

Thanks to the invitations and efforts by friendly organizations and universities across the country, six MST leaders visited the US in 2006.

In February, the National Family Farm Coalition and Grassroots International hosted four representatives of La Via Campesina, including the MST's Pedro Christofolli. In an international effort to defend family farmers and food sovereignty in the run-up to the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, Pedro attended meetings on Capitol Hill and with the USDA, bringing the MST's voice to a number of important conversations on the development of U.S. agricultural and trade policies. In DC, Pedro also participated in a candlelight vigil for Sister Dorothy Stang, as well as a public forum on the relationship between land and hunger in Latin America.

In March, the University of Florida at Gainseville’s Center for Latin American Studies hosted their 54th Annual Conference-Alternative Visions of Development: The Rural Social Movements in Latin America. MST leaders Andreia Ferreira and Daniel Correia represented the Brazilian perspective. FMST worked with a number of organizations to secure the best use of the MST leaders' time in the country: Daniel participated in public meetings at the University of Miami, Miami Workers' Center and at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers headquarters. FMST also coordinated meetings between Daniel and representatives of two important foundations, helping to secure a loan of $60,000 to support the MST's efforts at the Florestan Fernandes National School.

At the conclusion of the University of Florida conference, Daniel returned to Brazil while FMST launched a National Tour for Andreia called “Resisting Rightwing Backlash Amidst a Latin American Shift to the Left.�? In two weeks, Andreia traveled from Gainesville, Florida to Louisville, Lansing, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and a number of neighboring communities. Andreia participated in over two dozen FMST-organized activities, collecting more than $1,000 in small donations and increasing the FMST listserv by 200 members. Andreia’s Chicago stop was a noted success with audiences of 100 students at the Latin American Studies Department of the University of Illinois, meetings with members of the American Friends Service Committee and audiences of over 150 at the Jobs With Justice Women's Day Conference.

In June, the Agribusiness Research and Popular Education Project (ARPEP), based in New Jersey, invited the MST's Martina Unterberger to attend an international roundtable at Cornell University's Global Labor Institute. Farmers from India, Colombia, Mexico and the US joined Martina to discuss the perspectives and priorities of their organizations. In November, the ARPEP again invited the MST’s Ciro Correia to represent the voice of Brazil's popular forces at Columbia University, William Paterson University, Rutgers University, and Highland Park’s Reformed Church.

Also in November, the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago brought together representatives from over 50 North American and Latin American grassroots organizations, including MST leader Judite Stronzake, to expand the dialogue and build bridges of understanding between and among the participants. Prior to the Chicago gathering, FMST organized for Judite to visit the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she presented to students at the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. After concluding her time in Chicago, Judite spent a week in Portland, Oregon, where she participated in a number of events organized by FMST, including a rally with the Sierra Club, a forum on immigration and human rights, and a special appearance on the regional campesina-run radio station.

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Released December 15th, 2006