MST Informas

By Raumi Souza

The coming together of financial capital and the large farming estates has brought about what is called ‘modern’ agribusiness. The logic of land exploitation – large expanses; monocropping; the growing of grains just for export; mechanization and low salaries – needs yet another poisonous ingredient: more than a billion liters of pesticides spread over Brazil’s farmland, in 2009 alone.

The women of Via Campesina held a National Day of Women’s Struggle in light of March 8 - International Women’s Day – to denounce the extreme gravity of the situation in the Brazilian countryside.

Dear Friends of the MST,

In a meeting at the end of 2006, it became clear to the MST and other social movements that the people were not consulted about the sale of their own national property, the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, sold in 1997 for 3.3 billion reais (approximately 1.7 billion dollars) when its estimated value was 40 billion dollars. Today the Vale is valued at approximately 100 billion dollars. The Congress did not approve the sale of the Companhia, thus, a basic principle of our Constitution, which guarantees the Brazilian people the power to make the decisions which will affect the future of the country, was not respected. That's when it was decided to hold the Popular Plebiscite, an act of civic action for the exercise of citizenship of the Brazilian people.

Dear Friends of the MST,

In this bulletin we want to talk about a very important topic for Brazil: education. But it’s impossible to speak about education without engaging in an important discussion about the economic policy that the Brazilian state has put into practice. An increase in investment in public education is the basis for every transformation in teaching in the country, which begins by increasing the number of vacancies, with conditions for access and remaining in school until arriving at an improvement in the quality of teaching. Improving quality requires structure, an investment in research and valorizing educational professionals.

In an interview with the online newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa, João Pedro Stedile, of the national MST leadership, speaks about the need to build a development model that prioritizes democratization of the land, the distribution of income, and an agriculture based on small and medium-size properties.

Dear Friends of the MST,

We would like to share with you the results of our 6th National Congress on Agroecology, which has been organized every year since 2002. This congress gathers social movements, public institutions, researchers and small rural producers to debate and exchange experiences about different forms of agroecological cultivation. In addition, it strengthens the combat against transnational corporations acting on Brazilian rural areas. This year’s congress took place at the city of Cascavel, Paraná, between 11 and 14 July, with the participation of more than 5.000 rural workers.

Dear Friends of the MST,

Two years of study and discussions led up to the 5th National Congress. For five days during the Congress, we studied the situation in agriculture, the political situation, and the challenges of the Brazilian people to build a sovereign, just nation. There was also time to strengthen ourselves through the mistica, to remember the comrades who could not be with us because of the savagery of the latifundio and of agribusiness, and to fraternize and celebrate our victories.

Dear Friends of the MST,

The fact that so many popular movements, unions, and student groups from all over the country have come together to build a Day of Struggle on May 23 shows that there is a revival of working class mobilizations. Since the People’s Plebiscite Against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americans in 2002, there has not been such unity of political movements around the same objective.

Letter from the Landless Mothers

We speak to the sons and daughters of the land from all nations. To those who were not invited to the banquet. To those who have been waiting in the queue of history for centuries. We will not be spectators at a film waiting for the light to go out. It’s time to believe in the possibility of defeating sorrow.