By João Pedro Stedile
In Folha de S....
MST's Struggle for Agrarian Policies, Resources and Budget for Development
In this two part series, the MST exposes the struggle for resources from Brazil's Government
MST, policies for Agrarian Reform and budget by the Federal Government (Part 1)
Along 40 years of struggle, the Landless Movement has been using the occupation of unproductive large estates, buildings and public spaces in the whole country as a form of pressure to the federal and state governments for the creation of registration for aims of agrarian reform, thinking about the registration of an immense liabilities of landless families that they still exist in the country.
After years of struggle to gain land rights, the next step for the workers is to continue new processes of struggle with the federal government and state and municipal governments in the search for public policies and credits, so that these families are able to produce and survive in the conquered areas.
MST settlements report lack of budget for infrastructure and basic rights (Part 2)
In the struggle for land, after the Landless families of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) achieved the Movement's first objective, which is
the democratization of land with the transformation of a large estate into a settlement area, and in majority of times, it is only possible after years of struggle, living in camps of canvas tents in an itinerant and precarious way, then new processes of struggle begin to achieve the second objective of the Movement, the realization of People's Agrarian Reform.
The families, after settling, mobilized to continue the fight, now on the land and guarantee their permanence in this space, which previously generally housed animal husbandry, monoculture production, the use of pesticides and degraded areas. To return to generating life in these spaces, recovering the soil, the environment and establishing housing for food production, families need to remain organized and fight for the implementation of a set of public policies for the development of these territories. And thus advance the third objective of the MST, social transformation and the construction of socialism, in a society with relationships free from any type of discrimination and violence, and with social justice.
This dossier focuses on the MST’s tactics and forms of organization and why it is the only peasant social movement in Brazil’s history that has managed to survive for over a decade in the face of the political, economic, and military power of Brazil’s large landowners
the country, it is very clear that, in the areas of Agrarian Reform, education is a priority for the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST).
