[05/08/06] For the first time, MST Landless Worker defends doctoral thesis

For the first time, a Sem Terra defends doctoral thesis

“One of the priorities in the MST is education, and the conquest of the title of
Doctor means the achievement of this priority. The effort to research and write
the thesis also demonstrates that the Movement is concerned with the elaboration
of new concepts whose objective, among others, is to make science accessible to
the social movements�, states Juvelino Strozake, 38, MST lawyer, who is about to
become the first doctor in the history of the Movement.

Nei, as he is more commonly known, defends the doctoral thesis “Access to land and
the Public Civil Action Law�, at PUC-SP (Pontifícia Universidade Católica of São
Paulo), on Monday (05/08). It is a long story that began in the encampments,
occupations, hearings and trials.

Since the founding of the movement, in 1984, education has been as important a theme
as Agrarian Reform. Currently, the Movement has 40 partnerships with 13 public
universities. In addition to this, there are 24 higher education courses in progress
in 14 states, 4 courses of Youth and Adult Education (elementary education),
involving 156 classes, in four states, 53 secondary and technical education and five
specialization courses in four states.

In this way, the Movement creates conditions so that the example may be repeated.
Nei, like all of the rural Landless workers, camped at the side of the highway, in
the town of Guaraniaçu, in the west of Paraná, and in 1985 participated in the
occupations in the region. Soon after, he took advantage of the opportunity to study
in a seminary of priests. In 1989, he came to São Paulo and, three years later,
began to study law in Unifieo (Fundação e Instituto de Ensino de Osasco).

In 1995, the Landless lawyer assumed the responsibility of managing the Human
Rights sector of the MST, which works in the legal defense of Landless workers
persecuted by the Court. After realizing the necessity of deepening the study of
the legislation that involves the Brazilian agrarian question and the social
movements, he decided to continue his studies. In 2001, he defended his Master’s
dissertation about the social function of land with regards to diffuse and
collective rights.

Nei began his Doctorate in 2003 and now defends his thesis with the objective of
building a new legal concept to use a civil process instrument, such as Public
Civil Action, to pressure the State to carry out the Agrarian Reform process.

�The Landless settlement in the projects of reinclusion of the men and women of the
field is the fulfillment of the constitutional and human principle of the
existential minimum, or of human dignity, and in the case of the families who are
denied land, this right can be made viable through the use of Public Civil Action�,
he states.

Education facts about the MST:
-40 partnerships of Agrarian Reform entities with 13 public universities;
-24 higher education courses in progress in the states of MT, SE, PA, PR, PB, BA,
MS, ES, MG, CE, RN, RO, PE and SP;
-4 Youth and Adult Education courses (elementary education), involving 156 classes,
in the states of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais;
-53 high school and technical courses;
-5 specialization courses in progress (PR, SC, MG and ES) and 1 specialization
course in rural education and health in negotiation in RS;
-3 extension courses with federal universities in RJ, PB and SC;
-50 middle schools in the settlement areas.