MST and Working Class Unity

By Felipe Milanez in Washington

The Embassy of Brazil in Washington, a modernist building that contrasts with the classical properties of the beautiful Embassy Row, the sector of embassies of the U.S. capital, hosted on Monday April 9th a march that brought together about one hundred people, including students, activists and Brazilians living in the region, who demonstrated during the visit of President Rousseff the city.

The protest, according to organizers, had four reasons: the violence in the countryside, especially in the Amazon; the impunity of the masterminds and executors of these crimes; changes in the Brazilian Forestry Code; and the construction of large dams in the Amazon.

Amid the flags of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), posters stamped images of the couple José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo da Silva, murdered on May 24, 2011. They were next to pictures of Dorothy Stang, Chico Mendes and a scene of the burial of 19 landless workers killed in the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas in 1996.

By Vanessa Ramos

MST leader Elias Araujo was in the US to accept, on behalf of the MST the Food Sovereignty Prize for 2011, given by the Community Food Security Coalition.  On November 9 2011, Elias was ased to address the general assembly of Occupy Oakland.  Click on photo for a a link to the podcast of Elias' remarks. [NOTE: click on red down arrow to play speech.]

By Bianca Costa

On the morning of March 8, 2006, 1,800 women from Via Campesina carried out a major action against the monoculture of eucalyptus in Rio Grande do Sul.