Neoliberalism

Brazil’s civil society needs to start having a major discussion: a discussion about the exploration, production, and use of oil found in the pre-salt layer.

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Some 300 protesters blocked a key iron ore export railway belonging to mining giant Vale as nationwide protests against multinational corporations continued Thursday for a third day. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA said in a statement that farm workers started blocking the railway line that carries 70 cargo trains and about 1,000 passengers daily.

The Associated Press Tuesday, June 10, 2008 SAO PAULO, Brazil: Thousands of landless rural workers invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in a wave of protests across eight Brazilian states on Tuesday. Rogerio Homm, a coordinator with the Via Campesina activist group, said the protests are aimed at large corporations that benefit from Brazilian policies favoring agribusiness over small farmers.

Protesters target seed company in Lisle May 9, 2008 The Lisle Sun By Eva McKendrick emckendrick@scn1.com About a dozen activists May 2 staged a protest at the Syngenta Seeds facility in Lisle, seeking a response from its Swiss headquarters on alleged environmental and human rights violations in Brazil. The protesters, members of a group called Friends of MST (the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement) from the Chicago area, marched to the facility's doors at 4343 Commerce Court to demand the company send a fax with the group's requests to corporate headquarters. And they weren't leaving until they got results.

By Mario Osava RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 24 (IPS) - It is a question of "national sovereignty, not xenophobia," said the president of Brazil’s land reform agency, INCRA, explaining the need to regulate foreign land ownership in Brazil. The biofuel frenzy has driven growing purchases of land in Brazil in the last few years, by local and foreign investors alike. Global financier George Soros, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, the owners of Google and former U.S. president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) have all bought land or are partners in companies dedicated to the development of bioenergy in this country.

We begin this year by taking on an important battle for the development of our country around Tax Reform and reform of the current economic policy.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 8 (Reuters) - A group of Brazilian landless peasants threatened on Monday to block a railroad run by mining giant CVRD and halt iron ore shipments from Carajas area in a protest