The Landless Workers' Movement

MST Activists Continue to Be Victims of Political Persecution in the State of São Paulo

June 7, 2002

The MST is enduring a process of "criminalization," their political activities defined as "criminal," with resulting violation of their human rights such as their freedoms of movement and expression and the inviolability of their homes.  These activities are supported by the governor of the state of São Paulo, who does nothing to impede police violations of the universal rights of the landless rural workers. In fact, the governor continues to privilege the desires of the large farmers and land defrauders in the Pontal do Paranapanema.

A Short History of the Pontal

The Pontal do Paranapanema (in the extreme west of São Paulo state) is the second poorest region in the state.  The agricultural structure of the area is based on latifúndios (large plantations) and on lands owned by the State, used for pastures by ranchers.

The Pontal do Paranapanema always was a region of great conflict owing to the large expanse of land legally owned by the state that is in the hands of the landowners-defrauders. (Translator's notes: Enormous portions of the western part of São Paulo state, like many other agricultural regions of Brazil, are held by wealthy families through fraudulent land documents and the winking complicity of generations of powerful friends in successive Brazilian governments. Brazilians call fraudulent landowners "grileiros," taken the name from the crickets, "grilos," that they formerly placed in a box with forged documents to make them later look aged and insect eaten.)   

The latifúndios, responsible for the backwardness of the region have always acted boldly and harshly against any challenge.  In the disorganized beginning or action in the area, supported with fraudulent land titles, the plantation owners defended their supposed "properties" by violently expelling workers.  Today, they are "more organized" and contract with armed militias, reinforcing their firepower and sponsoring the persecution and imprisonment of the landless rural workers.

The MST began to organize in the region in 1990.  Since then, the organization has denounced and fought against the barbarities committed by the owners of the latifúndios who have the complicity of the local judicial powers.

All of this conflict has a single cause: a lack of will and the avoidance of responsibility by the state government.  In the Pontal, there are 1,200,000 hectares of legally forfeited agricultural land. It would be enough if the state simply did its duty, completing the obligatory distribution of this property to landless families camped in the region.

In spite of all the persecution, the workers have raised the banner of Agrarian Reform and have successfully conquered diverse areas.  Today, more than 6,000 families are settled in the region - around 20,000 people - as a result of agrarian reform.  There are still around 1300 families in encampments in the Pontal, struggling for the creation of additional settlements.

In the last few months, the persecution of rural workers has grown more intense.  The large landowners, allied with the local judiciary, maintain an intense legal offensive aimed at rendering the rural workers and their leaders classified as "criminal."  It is not a crime to struggle for land and for life.  It is a crime to maintain the plantation system that generates unemployment, marginalization, hunger, misery, and a social-economic crisis.  Brazilian society clearly understands the struggle for Agrarian Reform and supports the social movements organized to work for a dignified life for all Brazilians. Therefore, Agrarian Reform cannot be stopped by prisons; it can only be resolved by a serious political project of settlement of landless farmers.

When the Local Judiciary is at the Service of the Plantation Owners

The judiciary of the Pontal, with rare exceptions, always acts on behalf of the plantation owners and land defrauders of the region because they also use the lands of the State to fatten their own cattle.  The persecution unleashed by the judicial authorities is related to the direct links with the great land defrauders.   

Justice can be swift in the Pontal when it comes to persecuting and violating the  human rights of landless rural workers:

On May 23, the Delegate of Euclides da Cunha Paulista imprisoned eight workers encamped with the MST.  On the same day that the prosecutor requested their imprisonment, the judge issued a decree, and the police apprehended them.  All of this happened in less than 24 hours.  The justification for imprisonment is that these workers were impeding ITESP (the Land Institute of São Paulo State) from founding a settlement due to a dispute between the MST and another social movement, MAST.   Those imprisoned are accused of having, in the process of this dispute with MAST, violated laws against the formation of a criminal gang or band, the illegal use of force, larceny and injury, and, in addition, undermining the preservation of public order through their actions.  In this investigation, according to the police, there are 70 other encamped members of the MST that might be imprisoned at any moment in order to give testimony.

The prosecutor, in another legal proceeding, carried out the preventative imprisonment of five persons for, supposedly, being of the regional coordinating body of the MST and thereby putting at risk the public order.  The prosecutor demanded prison for those who, in the name of the MST, met with ITESP to discuss the other problems in this area.

The lawyer for the MST testified that the orders of arrest were obtained in a secretive manner, without filing appropriately in the registry.  The judge sent the arrest warrants in a sealed envelope to the Captain of the Military Police of Teodoro Sampaio (a city in the Pontal region), planning the arrest of José (Zé) Rainha and Sérgio Pantaleão for May 24.  The date was set because both men were to testify in Teodoro Sampaio against the landowner that had tried to kill José Rainha in January of this year.  Therefore, the arrest warrant had two objectives: it was an attempt both to capture him and to prevent him from producing evidence against the landowner.  They successfully accomplished only one of these two objectives: Zé Rainha and Sérgio are both still free.

On May 28, the Military Police encircled the nascent settlement of the Santa Maria plantation in Marabá Paulista, São Paulo.  Police entered all of the workers' shacks without judicial authorization, creating a climate of terror among the families gathered in this camp that is a prelude to a full-fledged settlement.   

The Brazilian Supreme Court Overturns the Liberty of MST Militants in São  Paulo

The Brazilian Supreme Court (the Superior Tribunal de Justiça) on Friday refused to grant a preliminary injunction of habeas corpus sought by the 13 militants of the MST in the region of the Pontal do Parapanema.  Six of these leaders are already in jail and the other seven have arrest warrants issued.  They will have to wait a month for the merits of the habeas corpus case to be heard and judged.

Around 100 women and children camped in the region of the Pontal initiated a vigil on the morning of June 6 next to the Fórum of Teodoro Sampaio, a landmark of state authority in the region.  The encampment will remain in the city for an undetermined period.

On June 15, a demonstration will be held in Teodoro Sampaio calling for liberty for the movement's imprisoned representatives and for an end to persecution in the Pontal.

Call for Action

These events demonstrate that the MST is living through a process of criminalization, where exercising protected forms of political action brings retaliation by the state, and members' human rights are violated.  For this reason, we are holding a campaign for liberty and for an end to persecution of rural workers in the region. We ask those who believe in the struggle for Agrarian Reform, please, send a message to the authorities listed below asking for a promise to aid in the settlement of landless rural workers and an end to the political repression of the leaders of the MST.

Governor of the State of São Paulo - Sr. Geraldo Alckimin
Av. Morumbi, 4500
CEP 06598-900
São Paulo, SP   Brasil
FAX: 011 55 (11) 3745-3301 (from the US)
E-mail: saopaulo@sp.gov.br

Secretary of Justice and the Defense of Citizenship - Dr. Alexandre de Moraes
Pátio do Colégio, 148 - 1o andar
CEP 01016-040
São Paulo, SP  Brasil
FAX: 011 55 (11) 3107-8243 (from the US)
E-mail: justica@justica.sp.gov.br

"Liberty for those who struggle for Agrarian Reform!"

News Brief

MST Makes Public Denouncement of Government Failure to Carry Out Land  Reform in Ceará

On June 7th, the MST made a public denouncement of the Federal and Ceará state government's lack of action towards agrarian reform, after marching from an encampment on Avenida José Bastos, in Fortaleza, to the Praça do Ferreira.  Following the public denouncement, the marchers continued to the Central Post Office to mail envelopes filled with sand to the Minister of Agrarian Reform, José Abrão.  The sand symbolized the ongoing situation of extreme land concentration in Brazil.  The MST also protested the policies of the Ministry of Agrarian Reform, which have relied on propaganda rather than concrete action towards solving Brazil's agrarian problems.  On the same day, a mass was celebrated in the 12- day encampment located in front of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INCRA).

Deputies find only forest in area where government says it settled 280 families On April 25th, 11 deputies of Brazil's Worker's Party (PT) visited a 2,142 hectare site in the Federal District. According to the data provided by the government's Agrarian Reform Agency, INCRA, the site should have been settled by 280 families. However, the visitors found only forest and secondary vegetation. Where the government asserted that a phase-two settlement was located (with basic infrastructure), no roads, energy, or water system were found.

Supreme Court Denies Freedom of MST Activists in São Paulo The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) today denied the habeas corpus plea of 13 MST activists in the Pontal of Paranapanema region (SP). Six people are imprisoned and seven others are in custody. Anytime from now until a month from now will the merit of the habeas corpus plea be judged. About 100 women and children camped in the region of the Pontal started off the morning of  June 6th with a vigil next to the Fórum de Teodoro Sampaio. They have mounted an encampment that will remain in the city for an undetermined amount of time.

 

From: MST Human Rights Sector/São Paulo

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MST Informa
Ano I - n� 16
sexta-feira, 7 de junho de 2002 

Militantes do MST continuam sendo vítimas de perseguição política em São  Paulo

Setor de Direitos Humanos - MST/SP

O MST está vivendo um processo de criminalização com violação de direitos humanos, como a liberdade de locomoção, domicílio e liberdade de expressão. Tudo isso patrocinado pelo Governo do Estado de São Paulo, que nada faz para impedir a polícia na violação dos direitos universais dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra e assim, continua prevalecendo a vontade dos latifundiário/grileiros do Pontal do Paranapanema.

Pequeno histórico do Pontal

O Pontal do Paranapanema (extremo oeste de São Paulo) é a segunda região mais pobre do Estado. A estrutura fundiária está baseada em latifúndios e em terras pertencentes ao Estado, utilizadas para pastos.

Os latifundiários, responsáveis pelo atraso na região sempre agiram com truculência. No início desorganizados, amparados por títulos falsos, defendiam suas supostas propriedades expulsando os trabalhadores de forma violenta. Hoje, "mais organizados", contratam milícias armadas, reforçam seu poder de fogo e patrocinam a perseguição e a prisão dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra.

O MST começou a se organizar na região a partir de 1990. Desde então, vem denunciando e lutando contra as barbáries cometidas pelos latifundiários que têm a conivência do Poder Judiciário local.

Todos esses conflitos têm uma única causa: a falta de vontade e responsabilidade política do Governo do Estado. No Pontal existem 1 milhão e 200 mil hectares de terras devolutas. Basta que o Estado cumpra seu papel, fazendo a devida distribuição às famílias acampadas.

Apesar de toda perseguição, os trabalhadores ergueram a bandeira da Reforma Agrária e conquistaram diversas áreas. Hoje são mais de seis mil famílias assentadas - cerca de 20 mil pessoas. E ainda existem no Pontal cerca de 1300 famílias acampadas, lutando pela realização dos assentamentos.

Quando o poder judiciário local está a serviço do latifúndio O Poder Judiciário do Pontal, salvo raras exceções, sempre agiu em conivência com os latifundiários-grileiros da região porque também usam as terras que são do Estado para engordar bois. Mas, a perseguição desencadeada pelas autoridades judiciárias se deve às estreitas ligações com os grandes grileiros. A justiça pode ser muito ágil no Pontal quando se trata de perseguir e violar os direitos humanos dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra: 1. Em 23 de maio, o Delegado de Euclides da Cunha Paulista, representa pela prisão de oito trabalhadores acampados do MST. No mesmo dia, o promotor requer a prisão, o juiz decreta e a polícia prende. Tudo em menos de 24 horas. O fundamento da prisão é que estes trabalhadores estariam impedindo o Itesp (Instituto de Terras de São Paulo) de realizar o assentamento em virtude de disputa com outro movimento social, o "MAST", cometendo com isso os delitos de formação de bando e quadrilha, constrangimento ilegal, furto e dano, além do que, com essa conduta, estaria quebrada a manutenção da ordem pública. Neste inquérito, segundo o delegado, há 70 acampados identificados do MST que a qualquer momento podem ser presos ao prestarem depoimento. 2. Por este fato o promotor de justiça, em outro processo, representou pela prisão preventiva de cinco pessoas por, supostamente, serem da coordenação regional do MST e estarem colocando em risco a ordem pública. O promotor requereu a prisão daqueles que, em nome do MST, se reuniram com o ITESP para discutir o problema da mencionada área. 3. O advogado do MST constatou que os pedidos de prisão foram elaborados de maneira sigilosa, sem autuação em cartório. O juiz enviou os pedidos em envelope lacrado ao Capitão da Polícia Militar de Teodoro Sampaio programando a prisão de José Rainha e Sérgio Pantaleão para 24 de maio porque neste dia eles iriam prestar depoimento no Fórum de Teodoro Sampaio contra o fazendeiro que tentou matar o José Rainha no mês de janeiro deste ano. Portanto, o decreto de prisão teve dois objetivos: tentar prendê-los e evitar que fosse produzida prova contra o fazendeiro. Atingiram apenas um dos objetivos. Zé Rainha e o Sérgio ainda estão em liberdade. 4. Em 28 de maio, a PM cercou o pré-assentamento da fazenda Santa Maria, em Marabá Paulista/SP, e entrou em todos os barracos sem autorização judicial, causando clima de terror nas famílias do pré-assentamento.

Solidarize-se

Por favor, envie uma mensagem as autoridades abaixo listadas solicitando empenho no assentamento dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra e o fim da repressão política contra as lideranças do MST em São Paulo Governador do Estado de São Paulo - Sr. Geraldo Alckimin Av. Morumbi, 4500 - CEP 06598-900 - São Paulo - SP - Brasil FAX (11) 3745-3301

Secretário de Justiça e Defesa da Cidadania - Dr. Alexandre de Moraes Pátio do Colégio, 148 - 1� andar - CEP 01016-040 - São Paulo - SP - Brasil FAX (11) 3107-8243 

Breves

STJ nega liberdade aos militantes do MST em São Paulo

O Superior Tribunal de Justiça negou hoje a liminar do pedido de habeas corpus aos 13 militantes do MST da região do Pontal do Paranapanema (SP). Seis companheiros estão presos e outros sete estão com a prisão preventiva decretada. Somente daqui a um mês é que será julgado o mérito do habeas corpus. Cerca de 100 mulheres e crianças acampadas na região do Pontal iniciaram na manhã de 6 de junho uma vigília próximo ao Fórum de Teodoro Sampaio. As companheiras montaram um acampamento que permanecerá na cidade por tempo indeterminado.

MST realiza ato público em 7 de junho no Ceará

O MST realiza um ato público de denúncia pela falta de ação dos governos Federal e Estadual do Ceará quanto à Reforma Agrária. @s trabalhador@s rurais marcham do acampamento montado na Avenida José Bastos, em Fortaleza, para realizar ato na Praça do Ferreira. Após a realização do ato, os manifestantes seguem até à agência central dos Correios para enviar envelopes com areia ao Ministro da Reforma Agrária, José Abrão. A areia simboliza a terra que continua concentrada no País. O objetivo também é protestar contra a política do Ministério que tem usado muita propaganda e quase nada tem feito no sentido de resolver o problema agrário brasileiro. Neste mesmo dia será celebrada uma missa no acampamento montado em frente ao Incra há 12 dias.

Deputados encontram mato em área que governo diz ter assentado 280 famílias

Em 25 de abril, 11 deputados do PT visitaram uma área de 2.142 hectares no Distrito Federal. De acordo com os números da Reforma Agrária do governo federal, deveriam estar assentadas 280 famílias. Tudo o que encontraram, no entanto, foi muito mato e resquícios de cerrado. Onde o balanço do governo afirma que há um assentamento na fase dois (com infra-estrutura básica) não há estradas, energia ou água.

Opine    www.mst.org.br    Español    English

 

MST Informa é uma publicação quinzenal do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, enviado apenas por correio eletronico, com análises da luta pela Reforma Agrária e do MST. Se tiver sugestões de temas, artigos, formato, por favor nos envie. * Caso queira incluir outros amigos no cadastro ou não deseje mais recebê-lo, escreva-nos. letraviva@mst.org.br

National Campaign Against the Concession of the Alcântara Base to the U.S. Government

Please read the below Campaign announcement and ACT, especially those of us based in the United States - as our government is moving to use this base in Brazil for hemispheric dominance.

I. Brief History of the Base: Alcântara Rocket Launch Center (CLA)

1. In 1982 the Brazilian government created the launch site in the municipality of Alcântara and expropriated an area of 52,000 hectares. Five hundred families were affected, the majority descendents of escaped slave communities who lived on fishing and subsistence agriculture. Those families were moved to seven villages and granted 15-hectare lots, far from fishing access. In 1990, the Collor government increased the size of the base by expropriating an additional 10,000 hectares, giving the CLA a total of 62,000 hectares.

2. In October 2000, the Cardoso government signed an agreement with the U.S. government to cede the base or, in other words, the 62,000 hectares of land. Under the accord, the United States would control the area and Brazilian authorities would not even be able to monitor it. In practice, the CLA would be a U.S. military base.

3. Analysts warn that the real objective of the U.S. government is not just to launch rockets, but to use nuclear warheads, as a way to maintain military control of the Amazon. The geopolitical strategy of the United States in the Amazon region already includes military bases in Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, which can benefit from intelligence provided by the Amazon Intelligence System, or SIVAM, which was set up by U.S. corporations. Consequently, what is at stake is the sovereignty of the Amazon and the control of its riches, its biodiversity and water resources.

II. Principal Demands of Base-Area People

The population that is being affected by this policy has organized the Movements of those Affected by the Base (MAB). Its principal demands are:

1. That the families living in the affected region be identified and their needs  accessed.

2. That no more families be relocated, especially the 210 that are currently threatened by the 10,000 hectare expansion of the base.

3. That the families be given the right to work the lands within the original 52,000 hectares, even if access has to be granted through concession.

4. That legalization of those landholdings within the CLA be guaranteed, since they were part of former escaped slave communities.

5. That the families be guaranteed education for their adolescent children, technical assistance, and training and resources in order to develop agricultural production on their land.

6. That a social fund be created, equal to 15% of each space rocket launch. Of this money, 5% would be for the mayor's office and 10% for the relocated communities.

7. That the Brazilian government not concede the base to the United States.

III. Current Situation of the Agreement between the Brazilian and U.S. Governments

1. By the Brazilian Constitution, all international agreements must be approved by Congress. The Brazilian government has sent the agreement to Congress for approval.

2. In 2001, the agreement was evaluated by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Chamber of Deputies. The member reporting on the agreement, PT Deputy Waldir Pires of the state of Bahia, produced a document, approved by consensus, which rejected it and proposed changes that would guarantee Brazilian sovereignty over the area.

3. The accord was then evaluated by the Committee on Science and Technology. The member in charge of reporting on the agreement, PFL Deputy José Rocha of Pará, produced an evaluation in favor of the original agreement. That document was approved by the Committee.

4. In March 2002, the agreement was sent to the Committee on the Constitution and Justice, where PSDB Deputy Zenaldo Coutinho of Pará drafted a report. The deputy must now produce a new report, which will be voted on by the Committee.

5. After that, the Committee report will be voted on by the full Chamber, where the deputies generally follow the lead of the committees. This should occur within the next few weeks.

IV. National Campaign Against the Agreement

It is necessary to block this agreement, because its approval would allow the U.S. government to assume control over the entire base area of 62,000 hectares, with serious consequences for local communities and national sovereignty.

Please send messages demanding that Deputy Zenaldo Coutinho, like Waldir  Pires, reject the agreement.

Write NOW to:

Deputado Zenaldo Coutinho dep.zenaldocoutinho@camara.gov.br
Fax: 011 55 61 318 2266 (from the United States)

Mailing address:

Camara dos Deputados, Anexo 3
70000 Brasília, DF, Brasil

MST Calls on International Community

 

An invitation to all the friends of the MST outside Brazil to mobilize and join us the week of April 8 to 11 in the city of belém to attend the trial of those accused in the Massacre of Eldorado Dos Carajás.

March 11, 2002

Dear Foreign Friends,

1. As you must already know, the trial of those officials who took part in the massacre of Carajás will take place starting April 8th, 2002. The trial will be held in the auditorium of the Justice Tribunal of Pará state, in the city of Belém. Judge Eva Coelho will preside over the trial, which will be organized in three large sessions. The first session will begin on April 8, when the four main commanders of the operation will be tried. Each session will last four days. The second session will begin on April 15, to try 17 officials of lower rank. On April 22, the trial of the 129 soldiers who were involved in the operation will begin.

2. The trial of the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás has been manipulated by the ruling classes, who have used various tricks to avoid punishing those responsible for the death of the 19 rural workers. In our view, the massacre was premeditated and planned, with the objective of punishing the workers who struggle for land reform. The Military Police were directed by the governor of the state, Dr. Almir Gabriel, who still holds office. The Secret Service of the Military Police, headquartered in Marabá, directed the actions of the Military Police that were carried out on April 17, 1996, to open up the highway occupied by more than 600 landless worker families. The Military Police left their quarters without identification on their uniforms and without individual registration of the arms they carried. Instead of opening up the highway, the Military Police blocked the passage with troops who arrived shooting and using tear gas bombs on both sides of the road, surrounding the landless worker families, who began running. The balance was19 workers dead and hundreds wounded, 64 of whom will have life-long consequences. Among the dead, 13 were executed point-blank after being captured and immobilized. One of the MST leaders in that region, Oziel, only 18 years old, was captured and tortured in front of his comrades and afterwards beaten to death. During the torture, the police demanded that he shout "Long Live the MST"! All these facts are in the official findings. In the following years, two more landless workers died as a result of their wounds.

3. Almost seven years have passed and until today, no one has been imprisoned or sentenced for the massacre. In general, an accusation of murder will go to trial the same year. Of the judges in the Tribunal with criminal jurisdiction in Belém, only Dr. Eva Coelho accepted the mission of overseeing the trial of the massacre. The other judges recused themselves from this task. Why? In 1999, the first trial of the massacre took place, but the manipulations of the coordinating judge were so extensive that the jury ended up finding the officials innocent. The MST lawyers withdrew from the trial in protest and the trial was suspended. The Judiciary Power later annulled that trial.

4. So many years have passed that the ruling classes of the state of Pará (basically made up of the cattle barons and a layer of bureaucrats that always enrich themselves with public money, as was shown in the proceedings that led to the resignation of ex-governor and ex-senator Jader Barbalho) are working with the perspective that public opinion has forgotten and the persecution of the MST continues.

5. Six years after the massacre, the new trial was scheduled. But the scenario that they are presenting seems to repeat the farce of the previous trial with the objective of acquitting those responsible, as we can see from the following:

a) Those responsible for the command of the action were Governor Almir Gabriel and his Secretary of Security, who continue in their jobs and who were excluded from the trial.

b) The Federal Government had promised quick approval, using its legislative base, of a law that was going through Congress that would transfer the trials of crimes against human rights to federal jurisdiction. This project has been held up for three years in the Senate.

c) Former judge Otavio Maciel, who prepared the case for trial, in which there are various weaknesses such as the exclusion of the Governor and the Secretary of Security, is retiring and has become the spokesman for the Tribunal to the press. He used this job to take on the MST with statements to the press, clearly going on the attack against the MST.

d) Judge Eva Coelho, who is responsible for the trial and who will preside over the Tribunal, postponed the date of the trial on two occasions, alleging that the prosecuting attorneys had identified irregularities. e) Although there was a technical opinion by experts from the University of Campinas about the videotape that proved the use of rifles by the Military Police at the beginning of the massacre, the Judge did not put this finding into the official documents. This proof is basic because the defense of the military police is based on the idea that the landless workers were armed and initiated the shooting. The expert testimony from the University of Campinas refutes this argument.

f) The members of the jury were chosen in December 2001. There are 21 people, of whom seven will be chosen on the day of the trial. The strange thing is that all are civil servants, the majority of them state employees and some in responsible positions. The municipal and federal employees are in a minority and there are no other representatives of other sectors of society.

g) The defense attorneys for the police prevented the Governor and the Secretary of Security from testifying during the trial.

h) The Prosecuting Attorney did not enlist any testimony from those workers who were present on the day of the massacre. Even the journalists who filmed the massacre are not obliged to testify, just as they did not appear during the first trial.

6. For these reasons, it is evident that the farce being presented for the trial must result in the acquittal of those responsible for the tragedy. The local judicial power is taking advantage of the electoral climate to produce a result favorable to the killers.

7. Thus the only way to try to prevent this farce will be the presence of foreign journalists and of leaders and members of human rights organizations who can denounce the bias of the trial.

WE INVITE ALL FRIENDS FROM OUTSIDE BRAZIL TO MOBILIZE AND BE WITH US THE WEEK OF APRIL 8 TO 11,2002 IN THE CITY OF BEL�M, TO ATTEND THE TRIAL OF THOSE ACCUSED IN THE MASSACRE OF ELDORADO DOS CARAJ�S.

8. If there is any need for a letter or a formal invitation to make the visit possible, or if you wish recommendations for lodging, please contact us.

Signed:

Human Rights Collective/MST [Coletivo de Direitos Humanos/MST]
National Popular Lawyers Network/RENAAP [Rede Nacional de Advogados e
Advogadas Populares-RENAAP]
Pastoral Land Commission/CPT [Comissão pastoral da Terra]
Social Network for Justice and Human Rights [Rede Social de Direitos humanos]

São Paulo/Belém

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Please Write Letters In Any Language In Favor Of Justice In The Case Of The Carajas Massacre Trial.

 

Presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Palácio do planalto
pr@planalto.gov.br

Juíza Dra. Eva Coelho
Tribunal de Justiga do para
ecoelho@tje.pa.gov.br

Media Clash in Brazil: MST and the Media Democracy Movement

By Norman Solomon
Nov 17, 2003

RIO DE JANEIRO -- After a quarter-century of intensive grassroots organizing and a victorious presidential campaign a year ago, Brazilian social movements are in a strong position as they push the left-wing Workers Party government to fulfill its promises. The contrast to Washington's current political climate is as diametrical as the opposite seasons of the two countries. Yet Brazilian activists are now giving heightened priority to the same concern that preoccupies an increasing number of people in the United States -- the imperative of challenging the corporate media.

On the night of Nov. 10, at the headquarters of the Brazilian Press Association here in Rio, more than 100 activists gathered to help kick off the nationwide Campaign for Media Democratization. In spite of progress for social justice, Brazil's mass media remain firmly in the hands of nine wealthy families intent on serving the interests of conservative economic elites. The contradictions between an ascendant democratic movement and a timeworn media oligarchy are extreme.

The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- known to all as simply "Lula" -- represents hope for a vast population of impoverished people suffering from the country's shameful economic inequality. One of the key goals is agrarian reform -- an issue that has come to great prominence in recent years largely due to the pathbreaking work of Brazil's diverse and well-organized landless workers movement, the MST.

Brazil's constitution stipulates that ownership of land not being put to social use can be transferred to dispossessed citizens. Fed up with the government's longstanding failure to implement that provision, the MST has organized many land takeovers in recent years.

Violent physical attacks on landless workers by police and goon squads have run parallel to the media attacks in the nation's largest news outlets.

MST activists are being slandered and trashed by major media in Brazil. They say the media establishment is seeking to "criminalize the social movements." That's why the MST has joined forces with many other groups to launch the Campaign for Media Democratization.

At several gatherings in November -- including the first Brazilian Social Forum, which drew 25,000 activists to the city of Belo Horizonte -- I heard many people compare the struggles for land and for media space. One speaker called for "agrarian reform of the airwaves."

Among the first components of the Campaign for Media Democratization is a nationwide boycott of Veja, the country's biggest weekly newsmagazine. Activists call the slick magazine "a symbol of manipulation."

A recent example of Veja's typical spin was an extensive one-sided article about genetically modified crops -- a fiercely contested issue in Brazil, where the U.S.-based agribusiness giant Monsanto is eager to gain high-tech control over the nation's large soybean industry.

"Veja" means "look" in Portuguese. So, new stickers promoting the boycott say "Veja! Que Mentira!" Translation: "Look! What a lie!"

During the year since voters chose Lula in a landslide, mainstream Brazilian media outlets have often warned against progressive initiatives while encouraging him to abandon key elements of the Workers Party program. "In this way," a National Student Union leader commented days ago, "the media struggle becomes more important."

Lula's newly conciliatory approach toward the International Monetary Fund early this month is a victory for Brazil's media monopoly and the interests it represents. But he appears to be moving ahead with some aspects of a social-justice agenda that could put him on a collision course with media titans.

While laying the groundwork for directly confronting anti-democratic concentrations of media power, Brazilian social movements are also proceeding to further develop independent means of communication.

Grassroots groups are making effective use of unlicensed radio transmitters that inform shantytowns and other neighborhoods in ways that are impossible via capitalist media. An impressive weekly broadsheet newspaper that circulates nationally, Brasil de Fato, is nearing its first anniversary. Numerous other non-corporate media outlets are already functioning, and many others are in the works.

Such outlets provide a markedly different working environment than Brazil's corporate media do. Many mainstream journalists complain that they're under pressure to constrain news coverage -- whether the restrictions involve not reporting on strikes or not mentioning that a governor was booed at a public event.

After a few days of going to meetings and listening to speeches in three Brazilian cities, I felt right at home. Movements for democracy are learning how to organize for democratization of media. In Brazil and the United States, or anywhere else, a free flow of information and opinion is not only worth fighting for -- it's essential.

Adital's Interview with national MST Leader Gilmar Mauro

Adital/Rogeria Araujo
November 11, 2003

This Monday, November 10, more than 1000 rural workers will be leaving Goiania and walking to Brasilia. This march, organized by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) is going to the national capital to pressure the government to approve the National Agrarian Reform Plan.

Gillmar Mauro, MST's national coordinator, believes that this is a very important step for changing and improving life in the countryside. He states that this is a struggle of the movement that will not tolerate interference from any government or political party! He also believes that the Lula government represents an advance for rural workers, and that never before has a President allied with Agrarian Reform ascended the ramps of the Presidential Palace.

His assessment of the government up to now is not positive. "The assessment is negative, we are very clear on that. The government advanced a little on the issue of settlements, on the creation of mechanisms for disappropriation and so forth. Our expectation is that the National Agrarian Reform Plan will be discussed beginning next week." With the Plan, one million families all over the country will be settled.

Active for almost twenty years, the MST is one of the best known civil organizations in Latin America. Gilmar Mauro participated recently in the Brazilian Social Forum I, that took place in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.

Adital: What did the directors of the MST think of the move to allow the planting of genetically modified soybeans for the next harvest? Gilmar Mauro: The MST is radically against the liberation and planting of genetically modified crops in Brazil. Our understanding is that there has not been sufficient research, or better, there are studies that prove their negative impact on the environment and on health. It is very clear that there is a monopoly on the part of economic groups that want to control seeds, which are patrimony of humanity.

Adital: What is your assessment of the 11 months of Lula's government: Gilmar Mauro: It is not positive, the assessment is negative, we are very clear on that. The government advanced a little on the issue of settlements, on the creation of mechanisms for disappropriation and so forth. Our expectation is that the National Agrarian Reform Plan will be discussed beginning next week. It has provisions for the settling of one million families in the next four years if the plan is discussed by the government and approved. Then we would be creating the conditions to improve conditions in the rural areas, generating more than 3 million jobs. It is the chance to begin a process here in Brazil of distributing income and wealth, beginning with land.

Adital: What is your assessment of INCRA after the exit of Marcelo Resende? Gilmar Mauro: INCRA continues to be frozen, as I see it, very bureaucratic and slow. If we truly want to see the face of Brazilian agriculture, INCRA must move much quicker.

Adital: The MST is a model for organization all over Latin America. How does the movement deal with this? Gilmar Mauro: We have never wanted and have never been presumptuous enough to believe that we are the main organization, etc. We have the humility to understand that there are various important organizations in Latin America, and that, together with them, we are building the CLOC (Latin American Rural Organization Coordinating Office), and together with others, have put together the Via Campesina, understanding that we must escape the logic of social and political protagonism. I see it more as a participative form, a network. This will permit us to share experiences as equals. And, above all, for unified concrete actions. And so we believe that we are only one more organization, among many, with the task of building unity.

Adital: According to the MST web page, 44 assassinations in rural areas have been registered in 2003. Since 1987, 137 MST workers have been assassinated. Have these crimes decreased? What is the situation? Gilmar Mauro: Unfortunately, they have not decreased. But I believe that we are going to resolve the violence in the Brazilian countryside when we resolve the problem of the large landholdings, that are the source of the violence, not only of the physical violence of assassinations, but also of children dying of hunger, the destruction of the environment, the swelling of the large urban centers. The fundamental reason in this country is that the elites suffer from mental monoculture and, for this reason, leave Brazil in the misery in which it is found today.

Adital: A number of organizations have expressed their disappointment with Lula's government. But the MST seems to maintain a stable stance with the present presidency. In one interview, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva stated that the MST's agrarian reform is not the government's agrarian reform. What do you think of this? Gilmar Mauro: The government's agrarian reform is not the MST agrarian reform. We are very clear on this, and for this reason maintain autonomy in relation to other organizations and political parties as well as to the government. The government may also be transitory. Obviously, the government must have its own agrarian reform project that is different from ours. This is normal, natural. We want that the issue of land not be a mere object of the market. This may differ from the thinking of the government or alt least from the context in which the government finds itself. And we will continue fighting for our ideas, also understanding the limitations under which we still may not implement our project. However, the advances that we have had in Lula's government are important, although obviously insufficient for what we are trying to achieve.

Adital: Doesn't this pressure that the MST has been exerting help to destabilize Lula's government? Gilmar Mauro: No, no, I don't think so. We don't believe in change from the top down. Neither from Lula, nor from anyone in the MST who happens to be president on paper. That is not how to change the structures of this country, from above. It is a process that needs to be built. And how can it be built? By dialogue and the participation of the people. The struggle is for the people to be the historic actor in these changes and to put pressure, even in contraposition to the oligarchy of this country that is not dead and will come out with a counter reform of its own. Either we have the strength to push Lula's government to make the reforms, or the right will have the strength to impose a rhythm of continuism in Brazil.

Adital: Do you think that the movement is already being better understood by society after so many years of work? Gilmar Mauro: There is still a lack of understanding. But this is part of the Brazilian historic political culture. If you look at the bourgeoisie, in Brazil's 500 years, it has never let go of bourgeois radicalism and has never allowed access, not even to the petty bourgeois. It builds an upper class unity. The bourgeoisie has a grudge against the people, and this is expressed in the social means of communications. The MST will be twenty years old next year, and its survival for this twenty years is in itself a great victory and is part of this cultural change that we are helping to build in Brazil.

Adital: In the same way that the MST is organizing, the land owners are also seen to be organizing, through various mechanisms, including with collusion of the government. How is this relationship? Gilmar Mauro: The land owners have always been organized and have always run things in this country. Either through the government, through brute force or through the legal system. What must be said is that for the first time we are managing, through a President who is allied to Agrarian Reform, to have a turn and a voice in this country. The landowners will continue to fight us and we will continue organizing people and we believe that we are the majority of the people and one day we will win.

Agrarian Reform at the Witness Stand: 17 Rural Workers Imprisoned

A Message from MST Human Rights Section Regarding the Rise in Criminalization of MST Leaders for which URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED. Also read two short news briefs on (despite the one year lift on the ban) mobilizations against GMOs mounted in Brasilia and the MST meeting with the minister of justice regarding the increased criminalization of social movements.

September 19, 2003 Reforma Agrária no banco dos réus: 17 trabalhadores presos

From: MST Human Rights Section www.mst.org.br

For defending the introduction of Agrarian Reform in Brazil, 17 rural workers connected with the MST have been detained throughout Brazil. In a tactic designed to intimidate the movement, judges have decreed prison sentences and are abusing their power. The detention of each of these workers represents the imprisonment of all the landless of Brazil, who are being treated as outlaws for struggling for land and against the latifundio (large landed estates). See the following cases and also how to show your solidarity.

São Paulo There are three rural militants detained in the state: José Rainha Júnior and Felinto Procopio, Mineirinho, have been in prison since the 11 of July in Teodoro Sampaio, Pontal do Paranapanema, accused of forming a criminal gang. Rainha's wife, Diolinda Alves de Souza was detained on the 10th of September. Their imprisonment is part of a strategy to criminalise the MST, set in motion by the actions of the judge Átis de Araujo who, in a little more than a year has decreed preventive prison sentences for 28 members of the movement in the Pontal region. Also in this state, the judiciary continues to persecute workers: detention orders include another 8 from the MST: Cledson Mendes, Márcio Barreto, Messias Duda, Eduardo de Morais, Zelitro Luz, Valmir Rodrigues Chaves, Sérgio Pantaleão and Roberto Rainha.

Messages and protests should be sent to the governor of the state: Governador do Estado - Geraldo Alckmin - Fax: (11) 3745-3301- saopaulo@sp.gov.br

Paraiba Eight rural workers from the occupation of the Fazenda Mendonça (farm) - considered unproductive by an inspection by INCRA (government body in charge of agrarian reform) in the municipality of Itabaiana, have been in prison since June 2002. They are accused of the homicide of a hired gunman in the area. The worker's defense states that they acted in legitimate self defense. Antonio Francisco da Silva, Jose Inacio da Silva Irmao, Jose Luiz dos Santos, Jose Martins de Farias, Marcelo Francisco da Silva, Severino Jose da Cruz, Severino Ramos dos Santos and Ivanildo Francisco da Silva are waiting for the judgment of the habeas corpus and are accusing the local police of using torture to get them to confess to a crime they did not commit.

Send your messages of solidarity to the judge: Juiz da Comarca de Itabaiana - José Ferreira Ramos Júnior - Fax: (83) 281-1383

Goiás On the 4th of July, an eviction in an area near the Fazenda Duartina (farm), near the town of Fazenda Nova, in Goiás, resulted in the imprisonment of about 40 people. During the removal of the families there were acts of physical violence and intimidation, besides the burning of food and the destruction of flags and hats. Yet again, the local judge paid no heed to these irregularities. Four workers are still being held prisoner: Josnei Dias, Claudinei Lúcio Soares dos Santos, Valdinei Vicente Silva and Milton Felipe de Moraes, are still in prison in the town of Fazenda Nova. Messages of support and solidarity to the governor of the state: Governador do Estado - Marcolini Perillo, www.goias.gov.br (on the link: "Fale com o Governador" - Talk to the Governor)

Mato Grosso do Sul Carlos Aparecido Ferrari and Antonino Alves de Lima, Toninho Borborema, have been in prison since the 26th of August in the town of Dourados, in a maximum security prison. The prison orders were decreed in December 2000, when the then judge, Eduardo Magrinelli Júnior also handed out prison sentences for another 19 rural workers. The state lawyer's argument is that the delay in carrying out these prison orders was due to the difficulty in finding the workers, despite the fact that they are leading activists and are constantly present on the encampments. The MST understands that these prison sentences are in fact a retaliation for the occupation of Fazenda Coimbra (farm), near the town of Itaporã, on 24th of August.

Messages to: Procurador Geral do Ministério Público - Sérgio Luiz Morelli, Fax: (67) 341-4102

News Briefs

MST Meeting with Minister of Justice

Leading activists from the movement met with the minister for Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos on the 16th of September, in Brasilia, to discuss the increase in violence in the countryside and the action of armed militias. Also present at the meeting were Dom Tomás Balduino from the CPT (Catholic church body concerned with rural issues) and Nilmário Miranda (national secretary for human rights). The minister came out against the criminalisation of the social movements. "Social movements are fully entitled to pursue land reform", declared the minister, making it clear that he will combat the growth of private militias in rural areas.

Encampment against GMOs Mobilises Social Movements in Brasília

Combating the legalisation of the commercial production and use of genetically modified seeds and giving incentives to the production of natural seeds instead in order to guarantee sovereignty over the production of food to the peoples of the world. These are the aims of the Encampment against GMOs which was started on September 12th in Brasilia and which promises to keep going for more than a month in the federal capital. The encampment is being promoted by the social movements in the countryside and there are more than 500 people staying in the campsite in the capital.

Current Issues for the MST in Brazil

MST Letter to Friends of the MST in the US Current Issues for the MST in Brazil
September 21, 2003

Description: This letter offered greeting and an analysis of current events in Brazil to a gathering of Friends of the MST that met in New York City on September 21. Noted in the letter is the increase in violence against the MST (matching military dictatorship days), the increased criminalization of MST leaders, the increase in families participating in occupations in anticipation of settlement by Lula's administration, the MST's collaboration with the new government in the areas of literacy and agricultural products from settlements in the Zero Hunger basic food basket. The MST is also participating in a team that will develop a plan for agrarian reform. Agrarian reform progress has been slow as Lula will have settled less families than last year under the Cardoso administration. The MST needs solidarity now more than ever.

Dear Friends,

With this message, we would like to convey our profound thanks for the political solidarity work that you have been developing in the U.S. We would also like to bring you some news that can help you to reflect on the solidarity actions to be developed there in the U.S.

1) In the current political situation, we have opened many channels for dialog with the government. Although the president of INCRA was removed, which was an appointment of the MST, we do not assume that this is a defeat because the government has the right to name whomever they want for this post.

Although Marcelo, the former president of INCRA had close ties to the MST, his dismissal does not mean a change in the political direction of INCRA because Rolf, the new president, is also very good politically, despite the fact that he accepted the presidency of INCRA in an isolated way. In a meeting the social movements said it would be better if he did not accept the post, and he was not supported by these movements, since he was a government appointment.

In the area of the government's general politics, you must have seen in the media that what prevails are the reforms dictated by the Brazilian elites, that have nothing to do with the life of the people, who deal welfare and taxes. The Government is betting everything on the Zero Hunger Program, which began to move forward in the last two months, but this will not resolve the structural problems of social inequality in Brazil.

2) In the area of Agrarian Reform: nothing has moved forward, the government says that it does not have money to carry out the appropriations. The government makes a speech saying that quality will prevail over quantity; in other words, that it will not carry out Agrarian Reform on a massive scale, it will not settle one million families during the Government's four years, which is what we propose.

As for the Model of Agrarian Reform in the market, the Land Bank, the Government stopped the program of buying land in this way but it still implements a part of the program through Agrarian Credit for Family Farming, where they loan money to the sons of small owners to buy land. Why?

A sector of the government in the Family Farming Secretariat defends the Land Bank. This sector, tied to CONTAG/CUT, which is the National Federation of Farm Workers, disputes space with the MST in many states. They are together with ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the implementation of the Land Bank. A problem of Lula's government is to have space for all, on the right and the left, so each one does what it can to serve the interests of its class and sector.

On the question of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), the one still in charge of this question is the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, but there is a lot of pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture and from Monsanto for Brazil to allow GMOs, since we are the only territory that is GMO-free. As a consequence we can make guarantees to the European Market since all the other soy producers produce GMO soybeans.

3) As for the position of the MST in relation to the government, we are working with the government in some areas such as education and the Zero Hunger Program. We signed up for a literacy project for 45,000 rural young people and adults and we are establishing partnerships in the area of rice and bean production at a low cost so that these products can go in the basic food basket for the Zero Hunger Program. But we are pressuring the Government to implement a true Agrarian Reform through land occupations, marches, and protests.

There is a government team drawing up a National Plan for Agrarian Reform that will be presented before the end of the year for the entire government. It is not known if the Plan will be approved or not.

4) As for our internal situation, unlike the last few years, our principal enemy is no longer the Federal Government since we have the space for negotiation and debate. The problem is concentrated now in the big landowners and in the Judiciary. Most state governments have ties to the right, and it is in the states where the MST actions take place that the military police are acting with a level of violence only seen previously in Brazil during the period of the military dictatorship. Some examples include the number of imprisonments that have been decreed against the MST and the number of prisoners, totaling 21 people in leadership who are not just members but coordinators of the MST in their states.

This is not a generalized wave of violence and persecution of the MST throughout Brazil but is localized in certain states such as: São Paulo, Paraná, Pará, Goiás, Paraíba e Mato Grosso do Sul.

It's clear that the Federal Government could take a stand against this violence against the MST but it is also not interested in losing the support of the governing rural base in the National Congress.

Currently our international campaigns are focused on freedom for political prisoners. We continue carrying out the campaign for the construction of the Florestan Fernandes National School, and other campaigns.

In Pará an International Tribune will be held at the end of October. It will put on trial the violations of human rights committed in that state. We have invited various prominent people and it would be interesting to have a large number of international observers participating in this Tribunal.

Related to our more general international policies, we participated along with six leaders of the MST in the activities in Cancun, and it was Via Campesina which gave political direction to all the demonstrations. And the WTO meeting collapsed, The Brazilian Government agreed with the entrance of agriculture into the WTO discussions. But tactically it was the best position that the Government could adopt because if it had pushed for agriculture to be excluded from the WTO discussions, it would have ended up isolated without any allies.

We are preparing for the Fourth International Conference of Via Campesina that will be held next year in Brazil.

In the struggle against the FTAA, the campaign is very well organized in Brazil. The Brazilian government has consistently taken positions of not accepting the entrance of Brazil into the FTAA. In the field of popular mobilizations, we carried out, during the week of September 7, a signature-gathering campaign demanding a popular plebiscite of the Brazilian people regarding whether Brazil should join the FTAA.

Internally, we are increasingly focusing on political training, with the return of the technical assistance program. We are beginning to revitalize cooperatives and production associations, and in the field of education we are making significant advances.

Regarding land occupations, we have never had so many landless workers wanting land to occupy. All the landless now think that with Lula as president, Agrarian Reform is going to happen more rapidly and for this reason the number of families who are camping has already risen to 147,000.

We understand that at this moment, international political solidarity is of the highest importance since we have a President that because of his own history is more susceptible to political pressure and especially that which comes from other countries.

We hope that your meeting contributes to the continuing activist work of political solidarity with Brazil and the MST.

Long Live International Solidarity! Yes to Sovereignty, No to FTAA! Agrarian Reform -- for a Brazil free from Latifundios!!!

Source: Sector of International Relations, Landless Workers Movement

MST Meets with President Lula

MST Informe
July 31, 2003
MST 

1) LETTER TO THE READERS OF THE MST INFORMES
Jo�o Pedro St�dile
MST National Direction
Bras�lia, July 2nd 2003

Dear comrades,

MST Informes have been made available to you as a way of keeping you informed about the agrarian situation in our country and about some facts that we consider important to share. Like you, another 26 thousand comrades and friends of the MST receive this bulletin.

Today we wish to send this special letter to let you know the contents of the document that the national direction of the MST handed to the Presidency of the republic. They are thoughts aiming at contributing with the Federal Government for the urgent elaboration of a national Plan of Agrarian reform, as determined by law.

The President has constructed his political trajectory defending Land Reform. He has a historical friendship and alliance with the MST. He received us with generosity and friendship, as is customary of a Statesman. But also as a president elected by the MST and by the poorest people in our country. And as part of our historical alliance, he once again put on the MST cap. He must be tired of wearing our cap, one he has been wearing since 1985.

On the other hand, the MST, through its 20 years of existence, has been received since 1984 by elected Presidents Tancredo Neves, Jos� Sarney, Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, all of them in several legally expelled President Fernando Collor.

So what is the reason for so much aversion of the bourgeois press, the parliamentary right and the farmers?

They lost the elections, but thought that it was all a little game, that they would carry on doing what they pleased to maintain their privileges, as they are managing to do in other areas. And now, they realized Land Reform is not only a historical pledge, but will be a priority of the federal Government.

Now, Land Reform has the support of the society, church, rural workers through all its official bodies, some state governments, and the Federal Government.

On the side of the Land ownership there were only conservative congressmen and governors who are landowners themselves. Worried landowners appealed to three classical weapons:

a) Increase their influence in local judiciary, in which the ties with economic power and landownership are historical.

b) Manipulation through the press in attempting to criminalize the MST and corner the Federal Government. The landowners even managed to move the Senate, calling a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the causes of the land occupations. In doing so, the Senate ignored CPI petitions to investigate the corruption and privatization of SIVAM, Teles, Banestado (all of which continue to be ignored).

c) Organization of militias and armed outlaw groups that provocate and carry out all kinds of violent acts. They have even created the First Rural Commando, using the same tricks of organized crime. They have publicly shown their AR-15 guns on television. It is this type of terrorism that the landowners have always used.

This is the situation. But we are certain that Brazilian society is aware of land Reform. And that it will fulfill a fundamental role in this moment of crises of the economic model, of the transition for a new economic model, for a new agricultural model and for the generation of jobs and the solution of hunger and poverty in the rural area.

Jo�o Pedro St�dile Dire��o Nacional do MST

 

 

 

2) MST�S PROPOSALS FOR AGRARIAN REFORM Jo�o Pedro St�dile MST National Direction Bras�lia, July 2nd 2003

Please read the following document delivered by the MST to President Lula on their July 2, 2003 meeting.

PROPOSALS FOR AGRARIAN REFORM

I - LAND:

1. To speed the elaboration and implementation of a National Land Reform Plan to benefit the settlement of 1 million families of rural landless workers between 2003 and 2006;

   2. Assure the immediate settlement of the 120 thousand families that are in encampments throughout the national territory;

   3. To strengthen the INCRA as a body of land reform by providing financial and human resources;

   4. To protect the Rural Territorial Tax (ITR) as a complementary tax for the land reform, linked to the Federal Tax office;

5. To determine the expropriation of farms that; do not accomplish a social function, that use slave labor, that are linked to smuggling, that cultivate psychotropic drugs, where labor laws are not complied with, which promote aggression to the environment and squatted public land. To determine that state banks and the INSS make it available immediately to the land reform all mortgage areas with public money

II �SETTLEMENTS:

1. To create a special credit program for land reform, in the moulds of PROCERA, without bureaucracy, that will stimulate co-operation, agribusiness, agroecology, and offer conditions to structure the economic and social development of the settled families;

2.To develop a technical assistance program with multidisciplinary teams having one technician as a reference for each 100 families, under the organization of the settled;

   3. To implement a program of co-operative agroindustry in settlements of the land reform - refer to proposal annex;

4. To stimulate the implementation of a new technological model, based on organic agriculture, in the multiplication of seeds by farmers and the production of all products (insumos);

5. To assure the conditions for the implementation of the basic infra-structure in all settlements, such as: roads, electricity, housing, basic sanitation, medical service, culture and leisure.

      III � EDUCATION:

   1. To associate land reform to a massive program of education in the countryside;

2. To intensify the campaign to eradicate illiteracy in settlement areas, being necessary to allocate more financial resources to MEC (Ministry of Education and Culture) to do so;

   3. To promote a professional skills program for 20 thousand youngsters and adults in the settlement areas and encampments;

4. To strengthen the National Educational Program in the Areas Land Reform (PRONERA) and designate R$30 million in 2003 to do so.

IV � HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST IMPUNITY:

1. To approve a Constitutional Amendment Project transferring to Federal jurisdiction the competence to investigate and sue crimes against human rights

2. To determine the opening of an inquiry by the Federal Police against farmers that use armed militias, incite violence and crime, and keep links with the narcotraffic and the smuggling of weapons;

V � GENERAL CONCERNS:

   1. We manifest our position against the liberation for planting and selling of GMOs;

2. We manifest our position against the implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and we defend the sovereign integration of all Latin-American and Caribbean countries;

3. We defend a new agricultural model aimed at the generation of jobs, production of food for the internal market, control over the production of our own food, and the appreciation of life in the countryside.

3) INTERVIEW WITH JO�O PEDRO ST�DILE REGARDING MST MEETING WITH PRESIDENT LULA BRASIL DE FATO Interview by Claudia Jardim

FOR STEDILE, now Brazil has the chance to defeta the latifundio. The government of President Luiz In�cio Lula da Silva is willing to make agrarian reform an absolute priority, states Jo�o Pedro Stedile, of the National Coordination of the Landless Workers Movement (MST). Together with the other members of the MST leadership, Stedile participated in a meeting with Lula and several of his ministers at the Pal�cio do Planalto, on July 2. The President received the MST in a very friendly fashion. He put on the cap with the movement�s logo, played with a soccer ball made in the settlements and even offered one of the landless a cookie also produced by the rural workers. It was enough to cause the media, expressing the point of view of the owners of the large estates (latifundios), to artificially provoke a national scandal. In the interview given to Brasil de Fato, Stedile tells how the meeting went, the main topics discussed and his impressions about the meeting with Lula. An optimist, Stedile believes that Brazil has the historic opportunity to defeat the backward latifundios.

WHO HE IS: Jo�o Pedro Stedile is one of the founders of the Movement of Landless Workers (MST) and a member of the National leadership of the movement. He graduated with a degree in Economics from the Catholic Pontifical University (PUC) of Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), and with a graduate degree in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The son of small farmers, Stedile was born in Lagoa Vermelha (RS) on December 26, 1953. Among various struggles, he acted as a member of the Regional Commission of Grape Producers, of the Syndicates of Rural Workers of Rio Grande do Sul, assisted the Pastoral Commission on Land in Rio Grande do Sul and, at the national level, worked in the Agriculture Department of the State Government of Rio Grande do Sul. Since 1979, he has participated in the struggles for land reform in Rio Grande do Sul and in Brazil.

Stedile is the author of various books: Assentamentos: Uma Resposta Econ�mica da Reforma Agr�ria , A Luta pela Terra no Brasil (published also in Italian � Senza Terra ), A Quest�o Agr�ria Hoje � 7th edition, Quest�o Agr�ria no Brasil , A Reforma Agr�ria e a Luta do MST , Brava Gente � the history of the MST and of the struggle for land in Brazil (also published in Spanish by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo publishing house). He has been interviewed by practically all the national newspapers and magazines and has written countless essays and articles about the agrarian question, published in Brazil and abroad.

INTERVIEW: Brasil de Fato (BF) � The leadership of the MST was with President Lula to discuss the agrarian reform situation in the country. How did the movement evaluate this meeting?

Jo�o Pedro Stedile (Stedile) � The meeting was very important and positive, because it allowed a joint evaluation of the historic opportunity that we have to implement agrarian reform. There is a common understanding in the government and in the social movements that there exists a correlation of favorable forces to defeat the backward latifundios. The government is willing to make agrarian reform a priority in the second half of their first year in office, including making a self-criticism that in the first six months it was only worried about the farm policy (the Harvest Plan) and �straightening up the house�. The positive signal of the meeting was clear enough that the backward latifundio and its representatives in the press and the parliament immediately reacted in their typical fashion.

� What were the main demands presented by the MST? What commitment did Lula make?

Stedile � The MST did not bring a list of demands. We brought a document with reflections on what we consider necessary for true agrarian reform. We showed that it was necessary to have a massive process, that is to say to serve the millions of poor in the rural area and that agrarian reform must be wed to agro-industry, technical assistance, and education in the countryside. And instead of making exports and agro-business a priority, we need a new model that prioritizes the production of food, the internal market, the creation of jobs and the distribution of income. That is the essence of our document. At the Planalto, there was discussion and dialog, not a list of demands. We noted a great convergence of ideas, which is the fruit of historical commitments of the parties of the left that are in the government, of the person of the president himself, and the accumulation of social movements.

� In what way does the president intend to make agrarian reform a priority? Were any schedules established to meet the goals of the National Plan for Agrarian Reform (PNRA)?

Stedile � First of all, the government is going to mobilize various ministries, not only the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA). Secondly, an inter-ministerial group was set up to make a concrete survey of how many public lands and lands that are mortgaged with public agencies can be mobilized immediately. Thirdly, a pledge to restructure the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), with the human and financial resources that are necessary. We presented the idea that it is possible in four years for the government to settle at least a million families. The government prefers to work with a political goal, to make a �massive� agrarian reform of high quality. All of this is going to depend on the capacity of the social movements and the correlation of forces. If we can, we are going to win a million. And the government pledged to prepare in the coming weeks a national plan for agrarian reform, that takes into account all the ideas that we presented. It will be the main tool for a large program for creating jobs in the country.

� What is the new model for settlements presented by the MST? In what way do they differ from the earlier model? How did the president evaluate this new project?

Stedile � It�s difficult to speak of a model. We presented historical ideas, accumulated over the years by the MST, the social movements and the intellectuals who understand agrarian reform. We cannot simply distribute individual lots, but work from the perspective of smaller lots and organize cooperation in farm production. To work from the perspective of bringing the houses together into agro-villas, to urbanize the community nucleus to facilitate access to public services like water, electricity, and schools. To combine this with technical assistance in which the technicians live in the settlements. To develop agro-industry, as a form of improving income and creating jobs for young people in the rural areas. To wed this to a big process of schooling, with adequate education. Finally, to build a new technological model, based on organic agriculture and not agro-toxins.

� One of the problems of the farmers in the settlements is the lack of credit for production. In some regions farm production is responsible for supplying food for various towns. How were these aspects evaluated by the President?

Stedile � In the first place, there is an emergency aspect which was solved. The president signed a decree that authorizes the National Supply Company (CONAB) to make the anticipated purchases and the direct purchases of the products of the settlements in the whole country. R$ 400 million of the Ministry of the Zero Hunger campaign was freed up. This is a great win, because it guarantees the purchase, on the part of the government, and at market prices, of all that the settlement produces. So the purchases are no longer in the hands of profiteers. On the other hand, since these are the resources of Zero Hunger, the idea is that CONAB passes these products on to the town officials and the schools in the towns for the needs of the poor. Besides this, the settlements that are more established will have access to the resources provided in the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming (PRONAF), in the Harvest Plan.

Here the question is to guarantee that the bank bureaucracy is dismantled. And they are guaranteeing us that there is a group working on this dismantling of the bureaucracy, especially the Bank of the Northeast and the Bank of Amazonia (BASA). We also presented the proposal to recreate a new program of credit specially for the settlements, along the lines of the Program of Special Credit for Agrarian Reform (PROCERA). Or else inside the PRONAF program, to have a special mode, free of bureaucracy, that is adequate for the precarious situation of the families that are arriving on the land. We are going to form a work group with the MDA and INCRA to put forward this proposal. Finally, there is the commitment of the government to immediately free up resources for an agro-industry program that we have in the settlements.

� In the last few months, violence in the fields has been incited. The formation of organized militias by the latifundio owners to contain the landless has been widely publicized by the press. How did the President evaluate this scenario?

Stedile � This topic did not come up in the discussion. Our evaluation is that there are two sides to this. There is a lot of bluffing by these owners of the latifundios, who are interested in creating a climate of false tension in the fields, to frighten the government and the public. But there are also radical sectors of landowners, generally near the border, that create their own armed militias, security companies, and hire gunmen; they are linked to the huge cattle farms that traffic in contraband with heavy arms. But these groups are few, insignificant, and do not have support from the most representative organizations of ranchers. For these sectors, there is only one path: the Federal Police must open an inquiry and arrest the criminals. The Minister of Justice guaranteed that he is going to put the Federal Police on the case of these marginal groups.

� Is the posture of the latifundio owners caused by the increase in occupations that the MST has been carrying out?

Stedile � No. First of all, these backward latifundio owners arm themselves and create agitation every time they perceive that society and the government are advancing to really combat the latifundio. Second, the land occupations occur as result of a huge contradiction that exists: on one hand the huge areas of unproductive land; on the other hand the millions of landless families. The former government spent four years repressing the struggle for land and this created a pent-up social demand that is now erupting. Moreover, the agro-business model is perverse.

The more that the production of soy increases, or grains and exports, this only enriches a minority of farmers. Finally because the poor in the rural areas became aware that the correlation of forces to win agrarian reform has improved.

� After the meeting with Lula, does the MST intend to offer a truce?

Stedile � The press, with their right-wing editors, introduced the word �truce� into the question of agrarian reform. A truce exists when there is a war. In our case, there is no war. We have the people on our side, the government and the social movements, all wanting to apply the Constitution that specifies that every unproductive latifundio must be returned to society to create work and production. The President knows that all the social changes depend on social struggles. The actions of the MST are legal. An agreement of the Supreme Court (STF) some years ago ruled that �the occupation of the lands as a form of pressure for agrarian reform is a legal, legitimate form for the people to seek agrarian reform� A demonstration in a public building or on a highway can be considered abusive (although not illegal).

But all the demonstrations are temporary, done only to call attention. The right-wing press is the one who classifies these occupations of public buildings. The worst occupation of a public space is when a private corporation appropriates the roads and charges tolls, or when ranchers rob public lands or when dishonest businessmen take power over state enterprises with the money from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). We have the pledge of the Minister that the Federal Police are going to open an inquiry against the fascist ranchers who are arming themselves. For the MST, what interests us is peaceful agrarian reform.

� How did the president evaluate the issue of GMOs in the country?

Stedile � The president revealed that 90% of his government is against GMOs and that he personally is against them. But he recognizes that the subject is more complex and polemical and that the government needs to consult the people as a whole and the scientific community, so that new legislation can suit the reality.

� A multi-party commission in the Congress is drawing up a law on GMOs. What does the government think of this?

Stedile � The government created an inter-ministerial work group, and the Ministry of Science and Technology is preparing the consultations and a first report. The Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) was charged with organizing the debate in society as a whole. There are government sectors, in the Ministry of Agriculture and in the Brazilian Company for Farming Research (EMPRAPA) who want GMOs. But we warned that Monsanto has the world-wide patent on genetically-modified soy, that the Brazilian market is the only salvation for Monsanto. And if the government freed the soy, Monsanto would receive around $500 million from our people. The government assured us that they would pay attention to the interests of Monsanto and that they are not going to tolerate a monopoly and nothing should harm the interests of Brazilian farmers. We still said that the government should not hurry to pass a new law about GMOs. That well or badly, the current legislation handles it. That we must let all the farmers know that planting genetically-modified seeds is expressly prohibited, and that every supermarket needs to label products that have GMOs.

� After the meeting with Lula, the congressional bloc from the rural area and the Brazilian elites became furious. What does this reaction mean?

Stedile � The symbolism of the meeting showed that there is a new correlation of forces uniting the government, the parties of the left, the social movements, the churches and the people. The latifundio stood alone. Thus to defend their privileges, they used their classic arms: lobbying their congressmen, and inciting their big newspapers, little newspapers and television stations to attack. The ranchers decided to show their arms, trying to provoke the government.

� The result was the request for the opening of a Parliamentary Inquiry (CPI), approved in the Senate, to investigate the MST. What does the opening of this CPI represent for the MST?

Stedile � In less than 12 hours, they tried to create a CPI -- it�s a record in the history of the Brazilian legislature. To tell you the truth, it�s a way to put pressure on the government and bring out other interests. We are not afraid of the CPI. We are going to use it to explain why the latifundio exists, and why there are landless, slave work, etc.

We are going to find out how many ranches each senator has, among those who will be investigating. Our role is to organize the poor in the rural area to struggle against inequality and for the right to land. The MST is almost 20 years old, the people know us. They know that the problems in Brazil are the latifundio, poverty, and inequality. The elites will never permit the poor and the exploited to organize themselves. Even Lula, at the time of the early strikes, was denounced and arrested.

The elites, as the great Florestan Fernandes taught, always act in the same way. They try to divide us and then to co-opt us. And if they don�t succeed, they move to repression, criminalization, and isolation. But we are certain that the Brazilian people and the poor support and want agrarian reform.

A Land Drenched in Blood

MST Informe
July 25, 2003
MST
 

Frei Betto

On July 25, we commemorate the Day of the Farmer. �We all eat what he plants. But we don�t always repay him with a good bowl of alphabet soup, as John Steinbeck did in �Grapes of Wrath�; Juan Rulfo did in �A plan�cie em chamas�; Jos� Lins do Rego, in "Fogo Morto"; Graciliano Ramos, in "Vidas Secas", Dion�sio da Silva, in "Os guerreiros do campo". �Life springs from two types of production: the hoe and the arts, material goods and symbolic goods. The first gives sustenance; the second, meaning.

Brazil is fat with land. There are 360 millions of acres that can be cultivated. Astute, Pero Vaz de Caminha soon discovered that here, "by planting, it gives food". But they still did not understand the gift. �They prefer �"by fencing it in, no one gets a bite of food".

There is a lot of land in this country for a few people. It�s enough to point out that 44% belongs to just 1% of rural owners. And there are many people without land.�There are around 15 million people wandering the roads and camps, daring to dream that with so much idle land they may find the piece of earth that may redeem them from poverty and the risk of ending up in a favela in the city.

This country never knew agrarian reform. Disabled, it supports itself in an archaic capitalism, far from modernity. And from the balconies of the islands of opulence, the latif�ndio looks out over the multitude of excluded people.

The patience of the poor cannot be abused, emphasizes the Church�s social doctrine. Here, tired of waiting, they organize themselves in the MST. For their educational work, (around 100,000 children and young people) the movement already received the prize from UNICEF-Ita�. For their activity on behalf of agrarian reform, they received the King Balduino Prize (the highest social distinction in Belgium). For maintaining more than 2500 settlements besides a network of cooperatives, they also won the alternative Nobel, "The Right Livelihood Award".

In slavery, that officially bloodied 350 years of the history of Brazil, it was said that the Blacks were rebels. It was hard for the elite like Nabuco to understand that the problem was not in the Black but in the whip and in the whipping post. With the Peasant Leagues, Francisco Juli�o was demonized. Forty years later, the Northeast is even more barren of water and of justice and a sub-human species is blooming in the shade of the cactus: the flagellant.

Under the military regime, all of us who resisted were treated as terrorists. Today, history recognizes the true villains, those who made the coup d�etat, suppressed democratic order, and installed torture and the disappearance of prisoners, as Vargas had done in the �30s.

Today it is the MST that is the target of those who cannot stand the outcry of the poor and who are silent before the unjust land structure. Where has Justice gone in the face of the 21 who fell under assassins� bullets in Eldorado dos Caraj�s? Impunity throws open the doors to criminality.

July 25 will be a day of many deaths announced as long as there is no agrarian reform and justice that does not step forward for the rights of the poor. Brazil does not deserve to be a country drenched in blood.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of the novel "Entre todos os homens" (�tica), along with other books.

2) NEWS BRIEFS

JUSTICE SYSTEM IMPRISONS MST MEMBERS

Jos� Rainha and Felinto Proc�pio, better known as Mineirinho, were jailed in the city of Teodoro Sampaio on July 11. The judge of the district, �tis de Ara�jo Oliveira, ruled that Jos� Rainha should be jailed as he was leaving a hearing in which testimony was heard about his alleged participation in demonstrations at the Bank of Brazil and Banespa. Mineirinho was jailed after that, when he was visiting Rainha in the city jail. Since 2002, Judge �tis de Ara�jo has already decreed 29 preventative jail terms for MST members. Of these, 25 were annulled by the Tribunal of Justice and by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

We ask all to send messages of solidarity, condemning the arbitrary actions of Judge �tis de Araujo Oliveira, requesting that the workers be freed: Exmo. Sr. Dr. Ju�z de Direito �tis de Araujo Oliveira F�rum de Teodoro Sampaio Rua Passeio Curi�, n�4 e 5 � Vila S�o Paulo � Teodoro Sampaio CEP: 19280-000 � FAX: (18) 282-1152

For more information and a sample letter, please see �FREEDOM FOR THE POLITICAL PRISONERS OF THE MST� on our Urgent Action page at:  http://www.mstbrazil.org/actions.html

Political Realism Doesn't Mean we Ditch Our Dreams

Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva
July 12, 2003
The Guardian
MST
 

Even though it grew at very high rates in the past, Brazil still has one of the most unequal distributions of income in the world. This situation must be reversed. A lack of economic and social democracy threatens democracy as a whole. The values of social solidarity are in decline. State institutions, politics and politicians are viewed with increasing hostility.

This state of affairs has become more acute over the past two decades as a result of recession or stagnation. Since 1990, Brazil - as with other Latin American countries - has been made into a laboratory for disastrous economic recipes that damaged its productive capacity, dismantled the fabric of society, weakened the state's ability to regulate and increased its vulnerability to outside pressures.

The Brazilian Workers' party (PT), in alliance with others, is now putting in place a project that combines economic growth with income redistribution, deepens political democracy and asserts the sovereignty of our country in the world.

We inherited a heavy burden. The currency suffered a sharp devaluation against the dollar and international credit dried up. The new government managed to overcome this situation and confound forecasts of economic collapse. Fiscal discipline, high interest rates in the short term, an aggressive export policy and tax, and social security reform have helped revive both the economy and national and international confidence.

A broad social and political coalition was formed, bringing together state governors, parliament, the trade unions, the business community and other sectors. There are times when only a major coming together of wills can overcome situations of dire crisis.

As a result, the exchange rate has stabilized, inflation has dropped below 9%, the country's credit rating has improved, the debt burden has fallen. Export credits have been reestablished and this year the balance of trade will run a $20bn surplus. In six months, conditions for a return to growth and a boost to employment have been achieved.

The commitment to fashion a new economic model calls for forceful policies, such as our Hunger Zero and First Job programmes. Fighting hunger includes both structural measures - in support of small farmers, education, health, housing, water and sewage treatment � and emergency relief to those suffering from malnutrition.

The social and political conditions are now in place to launch a sustainable cycle of development. That will require the enlargement of the internal market, particularly for mass consumer goods, by integrating into it millions of excluded citizens. Agrarian reform is also fundamental if the Brazilian economy is to be rebuilt. And it will play a crucial role in making the country fully democratic.

The state must also act decisively to carry out its regulatory role in the economy. The loudly proclaimed achievements of globalisation have failed to materialise, made worse by the climate of recession throughout the world. The advice offered by international organisations, and slavishly followed by many, has brought about the deindustrialisation of vast expanses of our planet.

The rhetoric of free trade contradicts the protectionist practices of the rich countries. The uncontrolled flows of financial capital can destabilise a country in a matter of hours. Hunger, unemployment and social exclusion have reached alarming proportions in developing countries. Indeed, there are huge pockets of poverty even in wealthy societies.

This state of affairs demands a new kind of foreign policy to help build a new world order that is both fairer and more democratic. An end must be put to international financial anarchy and the pressures it exerts on developing economies. It is essential that both overt and covert protectionism which marginalises poor countries be done away with.

We are committed to the peaceful settlement of conflicts, defence of multilateralism and a world order that respects both human rights and international law. That demands reform of multilateral bodies, including the UN and its security council; indeed, Brazil has claimed the right to a seat as a permanent member of the council.

The main flashpoints of international tension result from inequalities that prevail in the world, with its billions of unemployed and hundreds of millions that go hungry and ill, with its unfair trade regime. Against this background, South America has become the top priority of the new Brazilian foreign policy, with an agenda for a customs union, economic integration and a future common currency - as well as to pave the way for an elected regional parliament and a common regional foreign policy.

Brazil, the country with the world's second largest black population, has also reinvigorated its ties to Africa and re-engaged with the Arab world. The creation of the G3 group by Brazil, India and South Africa represents a decisive step in strengthening south-south relations, while we have forged a mature relationship with the US and Europe.

The Brazilian experiment is not intended as a model. The Workers' party that currently governs the country was forged around a specific social and political alliance. This young leftwing party rose out of the working classes during the declining years of the military regime. Its appearance in 1980 coincided with the predicaments faced by social democracy and the decline of the USSR and the countries of the communist bloc. It also coincided with the conservative wave that swept the world and even contaminated segments of the left.

Its programme blended economic and social demands with calls for political freedom. It had the support of broad segments of the middle class, of youth and of new social movements. The PT defines itself as a mass leftwing socialist party that is democratic in its internal organisation. The party helped rebuild the trade union movement and has given an impetus to social struggles throughout the country, as well as playing an important role at local government level, where it has pursued anti-corruption policies.

The experience of government has now renewed the PT. And the ties between state and society have been revisited by the adoption of initiatives, such as the participatory budgets, that allow citizens' oversight of public policies.

Courage is needed to implement an ambitious reform programme that can immediately improve the living conditions of the majority of the population. However, such changes must be understood as only one aspect of a broader process of social transformation. Political realism must not be taken as a justification to abandon the dreams that lie at the foundation of the thinking of the left. Neither can it mean disenfranchising the votes of more than 52 million Brazilians.

Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003