Number 31, May 28, 1992.

CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Governors sign Infancy Pact.

The governors of Brazilian states signed an Infancy Pact on May 20 at the Pan-American Health Organization in Brasilia, in which they took on the commitment of implementing the children and adolescents' rights in their states as is outlined in the Statute of Children and Adolescents.

According to the text signed by the governors, by the year 2000 the following steps must be implemented: reduction of 1/3 in the rate of infant mortality of children of less than five years; reduction of 50% in the rate of maternal mortality; reduction of 50% in the rate of serious or moderate malnutrition of children under 5 years of age; complete access to clean water and basic sanitation; complete access to basic education thus ensuring that at least 80% of the children finish the first grade; reduction of 50% in the rate of adult illiteracy especially in the case of illiteracy of women as well as improved protection for children who live in risky personal and social conditions.

According to Ruth Pistori, from the Pastoral of Minors of the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, the event should not be seen only as a copy on a national scale of the meeting of 71 heads of state held in September of 1990 in New York. "It is in fact a pact of responsibility to overcome the tragic situation in which the children and adolescents live in, in our country", she stated. In the governors' meeting, the Pastoral of the Minor was represented by the Maria do Rosario Leite Cintra.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Congress prepares a new Statute of the Indigenous Peoples.

According to information supplied by the Commission for the Creation of the Yanomami Park (Comissao pela Criacao do Parque Yanomami - CCPY), Congress is studying the reformulation of the Statute of the Indigenous Peoples. This is expected to be a set of laws, or a kind of code which will define the indigenous peoples' rights and the action of the State in relation to these groups. One of the main issues to be discussed is whether to abolish or not the State guardianship of the Indians. If this guardianship is abolished the indigenous groups would be free to decide about their own land amongst other things. The CCPY believes that the end of this guardianship is desirable, but is not immediately applicable to all the indigenous groups. For the entity, "the constitutional defenses foreseen in the Constitution are not enough to guarantee the rights of several indigenous peoples of the Amazon, principally isolated groups such as the Yanomami".

The demarcation of the Yanomami territory was announced early this week in Brasilia. The demarcation of the territory was carried out with a special fund. Thus the funds of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) were not used in this project. At the moment Funai is totally lacking funds. Some of Funai's telephone lines were disconnected last May 4 due to the lack of payment of telephone bills; these lines included the direct line of the president of the entity. The expansion of work in the area of health as well as sanity assistance in the Balau area, the modernization of the Boa Vista office in Roraima and the improvement of the coordination and communication of the central office of the entity in Sao Paulo are amongst the priorities of CCPY for the period March 1992 to April 1993. The entity also wants to increase political pressure on Congress and start an education project in two localities in the Yanomami area.

Indigenous groups debate the new statute and demand the demarcation of their lands.

The need to understand the social and political organization of the country and especially to know government and other organisms which have an influence on the relationship between indians and the so called developed society, are topics which occur with frequency in the meetings of the indigenous communities who form part of the Organization of the Indigenous Nations of the South (Organizacao das Nacoes Indigenas do Sul - Onisul).

According to the leadership of Onisul, starting with the process which led to the preparation of the 1988 Constitution, legislation dealing with the indigenous peoples improved considerably. During the process of preparing the new constitution, the participation of the indigenous people in the discussions and the impulse to create various indigenous organizations has been noticeable.

In order to continue this process, the indigenous communities are discussing the Statute of the Indigenous Peoples.At the moment three proposals are being discussed: law project 2160/91 of the federal government; law project 2618/92 prepared by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionario - Cimi) and law project 22057/91 prepared by the Nulcleo of Indigenous Rights (Nucleo de Direitos Indigenas - NDI)

The indigenous community of Irai, State of Rio Grande do Sul is articulating a campaign amongst different entities to pressurize the Ministry of Justice and Funai to immediately demarcate their area in Irai. Even though no work has yet been done to demarcate this area, Resolution 45 of Funai dated March 23, 1992 determined that this demarcation be carried out. Messages requesting that this work be undertaken without further delay should be sent to the Minister of Justice. The address is: Dr. Celio Borges, Ministro da Justica, Esplanada dos Ministerios, Gabinete do Ministro, 70.004 Brasilia, DF, Brazil.

RURAL WORKERS

Risk of federal intervention in the State of Parana.

Roberto Requiao, Governor of the State of Parana, has refused to authorize the military police to carry out expulsion orders in various areas occupied by landless rural workers in the State of Parana. Because of this situation, the judges have appealed to higher authorities in order to force the state government to use the police to carry out the expulsion orders.

During the second week in May, the Supreme Justice Tribunal (Supremo Tribunal de Justica) in Brasilia received a request from a judge asking for federal intervention in the State of Parana. The judge requested the removal of Roberto Requiao because of the fact that he refused to expel 61 families who have occupied the Cancan ranch since 1988 in the municipality of Roncador. This area has a process of disappropriation registered in Incra since 1989 (process 97774/89).

According to the Movement of the Rural Landless Workers (Movimento dos Sem Terra - MST) of the State of Parana, Governor Requiao has taken a public stand in defense of those who occupied the area. In an interview with the Jornal da Bandeirantes, the governor went as far as to state that he would "prefer to leave office than to expel with force, workers who have nothing to eat".

In Sao Paulo, the national secretariat of the MST sent a message to entities connected to the question of agrarian reform in which it manifests solidarity with the Governor of Parana. Messages of support may be sent to the Governor of the State of Parana at the following addres: Dr. Roberto Requiao, Palacio Iguacu, 80.000 Curitiba, PR, Brazil; fax (041) 254-7345 and telex 41-5156.

The agrarian situation in the State of Sao Paulo is explosive.

"Enough of Violence" ("Basta de Violencia") is the title of a note which the Pastoral Land Commission of Sao Paulo (Comissao Pastoral da Terra - CPT/SP), the State Department of Rural Workers of CUT (Departmento Estadual dos Trabalhadores Rurais -DETR/CUT/SP) and the Rural Landless Workers (Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra - MST) released in Sao Paulo on May 18 regarding the agrarian situation in the state. According to the note " situations which call more attention include the conflict which took place on May 12 last on the Pirituba ranch, municipality of Itabera, which resulted in the death of one person; the presence of more than 1.200 families in an acampment in Pontal do Paranapanema; the recent land occupation which took place in the municipality of Ipero; the 600 families threatened with expulsion in the municipalities of Iguape and Peruibe as well as other situations in which land struggles are taking place including the historic wait of those in the acampment of the Tambore ranch in the municipality of Andradina".

In the note, the entities stress the responsibility of the State of Sao Paulo since the state government was alerted about the situation and has to date done nothing to solve it. Towards the end of the note, the entities demand "especially from the state government a decision which would bring about the immediate solution of the conflicts". Civil society is invited to " demand of the federal and state governments an effective program of agrarian reform which will guarantee the democratization of property and the maintenance of men and women in rural areas as well as being a sure method of guaranteeing citizenship".

In the municipality of Itabera, situated 350 kms from the city of Sao Paulo, there are two versions regarding the death of Andre Luis Santos. Santos was an employee of the ranchers known as the "Dutch" and was assassinated on May 12. According to the ranchers, Santos was assassinated by the landless rural workers. On the other hand, a representative of the rural landless workers claimed that Santos was killed by gun-men of the ranchers during a party. In this version, the invasion of the acampment of the landless rural workers by the gunmen in the early hours of the morning and the consequent finding of Santos' body was set up to give the impression that he was killed by those in the acampment.

URBAN WORKERS

Occupation completes 100 days with a protest.

On May 18, the workers of the Calfat factory completed 100 days of occupation. They are camped in front of the residence of the owner of the factory and await a solution for problems caused at the end of last year. During collective holidays, the directory of Cafat removed the machinery from the factory. On returning to work, the workers found that they had no place to work nor were their rights guaranteed. This initiated a mobilization to guarantee salaries owed to the workers by Cafat. When the case was brought to judgment, the judge decreed in favor of the workers. However until this moment in time, the owner of the factory has given no satisfaction or explanation to the workers.

In order to call more attention to the 100 days of occupation the Garment Workers Trade Union (Sindicato das Costureiras) invited several public figures to visit the acampment. Those invited included the Governor of the State of Sao Paulo, Luiz Antonio Fleury Filho; the Mayor of Sao Paulo, Luiza Erundina; Senators Mario Covas, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Eduardo Suplicy; the presidents of PT (Workers' Party), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and of Fiesp, Mario Amato; the Cardinal of Sao Paulo, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns and members of the CUT, Forca Sindical and CGT trade union congresses.

A survey carried out jointly by Dieese and by the Fundacao Seade shows that the number of unemployed in the Greater Sao Paulo area was 1,174 million persons in the month of April. This represents 15.5% of the economically active population in the 38 municipalities of the region. This is the worst result since 1985, the year in which this survey started. The Department of Statistics of Fiesp announced recently that since the beginning of the year, industries in Sao Paulo took on 88.438 workers.

According to workers, the end of monopoly will ruin Petrobras.

"The end of monopoly as is planned by the government is only the first step in the removal of legal impediments against the giving over of patrimony which is considered necessary to pay the government's debts. Thus, with the end of monopoly, there will follow a fast and huge shrinking of Petrobras which will eventually end up as a small company. Its existence will be limited to what is necessary for its public image and will be made up of a highly qualified work force and will be a supplier of technology. It will even become smaller to the extent that it loses its refineries, tankers, pipelines, production areas etc.".

This analysis is included in a document called "International Oligarchy as an Alternative for State Monopoly" which was prepared by the Movement in Defense of the Petrobras System (Movimento em Defesa do Sistema Petrobras). This latter group is made up of trade unions of this area. The trade unions are trying to hold off this decision of the Federal Government even though the government officially has been denying any plans to change the status of Petrobras. For the trade unions, the loss of the subsidiaries of Petrobras is a first step in the process. This would mean a significant loss of profits since these sectors made a profit of U.S. $ 1,4 billion in the period 1980 - 1989.

According to the workers, state monopoly had its origin not only in Brazil, as a response to the large consumers "Petroleum is a question of power" they observe. They also remember that in 1991, Petrobras won a prize from the Offshore Technology Conference which recognizes "its advanced position in the production of deep water petroleum".

Metalworkers contest price increases.

The motor industry increased its prices for the second time after the agreement of the sectorial camera. This provoked protests on the part of the Metal Workers Trade Union of Sao Bernardo do Campo and Diadema, State of Sao Paulo. " There is a problem to solve; it is called transparency" commented the president of the entity, Vicente Paulo da Silva (Vincentinho) on May 18 before his journey abroad to participate in seminars regarding the automobile industry. The workers say that they are not convinced by the explanations of the companies; the latter blame price increases on rising costs.

Apart from price increases, the metal workers are participating in other discussions which started in the sectorial camera. On May 22, the first meeting took place about a collective work contract in the headquarters of the Ministry of the Economy in Sao Paulo. On the same day a meeting took place about the internal market. The trade union also has prepared its proposal about the importation of cars. "It is necessary to open frontiers in a selective and gradual manner" observed the secretary general of the trade union, Luiz Marinho.

The number of labor law suits increases.

In 1991, a total of 22.039 labor connected law suits were filed in the Superior Work Tribunal (Tribunal Superior do Trabalho - TST) as against 20.276 in 1990 and 19.250 in 1989. The number of cases judged, including cases remaining since the previous year was 24.746. In 1990, 20.743 such cases were judged and in 1989 the number of such cases judged amounted to 23.812. In the largest regional court of the Tribunal - that which includes the Greater Sao Paulo and the Greater Santos areas, 22.000 of the 42.000 law suits filed were judged.

According to experts on this topic, these numbers show that this area needs to be restructured. Criticisms include delays, inefficiency and favoritism. Such experts point out that a labor related law suit could take up to eight years to be resolved. An alternative proposed would be that of mediation which would be carried out by private entities. For example, the Freitas and Garcez consulting firm in Sao Paulo, set up this type of service last year based on U.S. experience. However this type of arbitration is criticized by some lawyers such as Jose Francisco Siqueira Neto of the Metal Workers Trade Union of Sao Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. According to Siqueira, different historical and cultural experiences in Brazil and in the U.S. means that American experiences in this area cannot be transferred easily to Brazil.

CUT prepares its three year plan.

"The trade union movement cannot benefit any more from the general political conditions which facilitated its growth in the last decade, where apart from being the driving force, it was probably the most expressive symbol of the democratic conquests of society". This statement is from the document "CUT - Planning 92" ("CUT - Planejamento 92") which was prepared by the national executive of the entity for the period 92 - 94 or until the next national meeting of the trade union congress (Concut).

CUT plans to give a "leap forward" in terms of organization. It plans to participate in various discussions instead of using solely the style of combat which has become characteristic of the entity. For this reason, a commission was set up to elaborate the planning which started in a seminar in the Trade Union School, 7 de Outubro in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais. At the beginning of 1992, those responsible for this task were named; the coordinator is the secretary general of the entity, Gilmar Carneiro dos Santos.

Seven projects are included: difficulties in facing up to the neoliberal project; organization according to work place; integration between different levels; trade union structure and politics; participative management;finance and politics for small farmers. According to the national president of CUT, Jair Meneguelli, this trade union congress has 1.771 affiliated entities.

CHURCHES

- Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida may be transferred to Salvador.

Expectations are increasing amongst Vatican experts in Brazil that the Archbishop of Mariana in the State of Minas Gerais and president of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida could soon be transferred to the Archdiocese of Salvador, State of Bahia. The present Cardinal Primate of Brazil, Dom Lucas Moreira Neves is expected to return to the Roman Curia where he earlier served during almost a decade. Dom Lucas is one of the cardinals closest to the pope, having been his personal confessor and retreat preacher as well as his teacher of portuguese.

If in fact Dom Luciano were transferred to Salvador, he could be made cardinal. A move from Mariana to Salvador would mean a recognition of the important tasks which Dom Luciano has undertaken as bishop since he was nominated auxiliary of Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns and worked in the eastern region of the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo. The Pastoral of Minors (Pastoral do Minor) was started by Dom Luciano. Because of his experience, it is felt that he could undertake more significant tasks if he were transferred to a more strategic archdiocese as is the case of Salvador. As is the custom, there is no official comment from the Church on the question. Recently a short note about this topic was published in a column signed by Swann in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper "O Globo".

The expansion of the sects demands that attention be given to the social appeals says Bishop Tomas Balduino.

The expansion of the new religious movements - known as sects, demands a special attention from the Christian Churches to the social appeals of a suffering people according to the bishop of Goias, Dom Tomas Balduino. Dom Tomas believes that the social suffering of the majority of the population is the seed-bed in which the sects flourish. He pointed out however, that the Catholic Church since the 2nd. Vatican Council has abandoned a methodology of apologetics and crusading which characterized this Church during many centuries in its opposition to new religious movements.

Speaking of attitudes which should be adopted to counteract this phenomenon, Dom Tomas gives prime importance to sensibility to such social calls and a greater valorization of popular forms of celebration. " Instead of a hierarchical and formal liturgy, it is necessary to promote a more open and popular celebration" observed Dom Tomas.

Commenting on the specific situation of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus) whose leader "bishop" Edir Macedo was arrested earlier this week, Dom Tomas said that " when the facts show an evident distortion of Gospel demands, the Christian Churches cannot but make a prophetic denouncement. They cannot remain silent in the name of religious corporativism. He pointed out that with time, the people who are now being wronged by Macedo, will become convinced that they were being fooled.

The basic text for Santo Domingo reflects the preoccupations of the bishops of Latin America.

The basic text which will be used in the fourth general conference of the Latin American bishops which will be held next October in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, amply reflects the preoccupations of the episcopal conferences of the continent. This is the informal consensus of bishops, theologians and pastoralists. A big preoccupation earlier existed that this text which deals with the evangelization of cultures on the eve of the 21st. century, would not have as its point of departure the concerns of bishops who deal on a daily basis with the Latin American people.

A recurring theme in the episcopal debate in Santo Domingo is expected to be ethical questions surrounding the social, economic, political and cultural situations in Latin America. The bishops are becoming more and more preoccupied with anti-values and with the inhuman and dehumanizing character of liberal capitalism which has been widely adopted on a world scale but especially in this continent. According to pastoralists, exaggerated individualism favors egoism, while hedonism in the social area creates a situation of social apartheid. In such a situation, the victims continue to be the poor.

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