Number 353, June 3, 1999.
Visit our home page: http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
In this week's issue:
>NEWS BRIEFS from Folha de São Paulo:
- Military Police make arrests after MST sacks trucks in São Paulo State
- Pastor Jaime Wright dies of heart attack at age 71
- Brazil not using money destined for the preservation of the Amazon
- U.S. critiques government's decision to give priority to Brazilian
products
>URGENT ACTION APPEAL: from Global Exchange regarding violence against
rural workers and delegation to Brazil
>SPECIAL TO SEJUP: The complete text of the campaign, Brazil: 500 years of
Indigenous, Negro and Popular Resistance:
**NEWS BRIEFS**
- Military Police make arrests after MST sacks trucks in São Paulo State
On Friday, May 28th, the Military Police arrested twenty rural workers
connected to the MST (Movement of those Without Land) for pillaging trucks
carrying meat, pasta and potatoes. The arrests were made in Nova Canudos,
an MST settlement located near Porto Feliz in the state of São Paulo. The
MST says the people in the camp desperately needed food, and so resorted to
the action. Among those arrested was Marcelo Buzetto, a sociologist who
works with the CPT, the Catholic Church's Land Commission.
By Wednesday, June 2nd, thirteen of the twenty were released. As a
protest to the imprisonment of the remaining seven and forty-one
coordinators in the state of Paraná who were arrested in the beginning of
May, the MST blocked for five hours a bridge that connects São Paulo and
Paraná.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
May 29, 31 & June 2, 1999
- Pastor Jaime Wright dies of heart attack at age 71
Jaime Wright, a Presbyterian pastor, died on Saturday, May 29th, of a
heart attack. Pastor Wright is well-known among peace activist here in
Brazil for his work with Dom Paulo Everisto Arns on a book called, "Brazil:
Torture Never Again." The book exposed cases of torture which occurred
during the military dictatorship. Wright retired in Vitória, Espirito
Santo. In his last article, written in December of last year, he critiqued
what he called the "theology of prosperity" now popular in evangelical
churches.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
May 30, 1999
- Brazil not using money destined for the preservation of the Amazon
Brazil has at its disposal, but is not using, US$270 million for projects
designed to protect the Amazon rainforest, informed Greenpeace at a news
conference yesterday. According to the NGO, the money was given in 1992 by
the G-7, the seven wealthiest countries of the world, and by the European
Union. Brazil has only used US$70 million of the US$340 million originally
given. "I think its a scandal that this money has been made available for
such a long time, and only a fraction of it has been used," said the
international director of Greenpeace, Thilo Bode. Bode was in Rio de
Janeiro yesterday to announce a new campaign by the NGO for the
preservation of the Amazon.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
June 1, 1999
- U.S. critiques government's decision to give priority to Brazilian products
The decision of the Brazilian government to give priority to buying
telecommunication products made in Brazil generated criticisms from the
U.S. government and U.S. telecommunications industry. The U.S. Department
of Commerce and the Telecommunications Industry Association sent letters to
Anatel (National Agency of Telecommunications) critiquing the new proposal.
The new regulation proposes to give priority to national products, if the
provider offers a price, quality and date of delivery equivalent to
imported products. The proposal was discussed in a public forum, and was
to be implemented last month; but Anatel has not yet released the final
version of the regulation, nor did it comment on the criticisms it received
from the U.S.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
June 1, 1999
*URGENT ACTION APPEAL**
From: Maisa Mendonga of Global Exchange <maisa@globalexchange.org>
Dear Friends,
I'm sending you an urgent alert denouncing human rights violations against
rural workers in Brazil. In addition to the letter campaign, Global
Exchange in San Francisco, California, USA, is organizing a human rights
delegation to Brazil to look into land issues, from June 26 to July 6. For
more information, please contact Luis at 415-255-7296 ex. 226.=20
Brazilian farm workers and religious organizations are urging international
observers to go to Brazil. If you can't go with the delegation, I can
arrange for Brazilian groups to host you in Brazil.
Please distribute this information. Thank you very much. In solidarity,
Maisa Mendon Director, Brazil Program
URGENT ALERT
April 24, 1999 Violence against Brazilian landless workers in the state of
Parana has intensified in the last few days, with 41 cases of arrests,
torture and death treats. The military police is surrounding the area and
hundreds of family farmers have been expelled from their homes.
LEADER OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT (MST) KILLED IN BRAZIL
On March 29, 1999, Eduardo Anguinoni was killed in the state of Parana.
Eduardo was the brother of the MST regional director in Parana, Celso
Anguinoni. Both, Celso and Eduardo, were at Celso's house when a number of
gunmen arrived and killed Eduardo. This was not an isolated case. Several
MST leaders have been suffering repression in Parana.
On April 5, 1999, the MST regional coordinator in Parana, Seno Staat, was
kidnapped and tortured for five hours. The ten kidnappers referred to the
killing of Eduardo Anguinoni and made it clear that the next target was
going to be his brother, Celso. A number of other MST leaders have been
receiving death treats in Parana, including Jaime Calegari, Ademir Dalazen,
Antonio Arrepiado, Claimar, Jairo Zatta, Delfino Becker, Pedro Cabral, and
Julir das Chagas Martins.
Due to the increasing economic crisis and high unemployment rates, rural
workers organizations have intensified land occupations in Brazil. In the
last two years, the number of families living in rural camps increased by
10,000. They are waiting for the government to desapropriate the idle
pieces of land they have occupied, as it is mandated by the Brazilian
Constitution.
In addition to the recent assassination, there have been several cases of
human rights violations against rural workers who have been expelled from
rural camps. The MST has accused the state government, the military police
and the large land owners association (UDR) for the violence. The UDR has
announced it will start using land mines as a weapon against rural workers.
The MST has been constantly denouncing this violence to the state
government, the local police as well to the Human Rights Commission in
Congress. In addition to disregarding these claims, the government of
Parana has not investigated the killings or any other human rights violations.
We ask our friends in Brazil and abroad to launch an international campaign
against this violence, asking the Brazilian government to: 1. Stop violence
against rural workers and investigate human rights violations in the
countryside; 2. guarantee the protection of MST leaders and farm workers;
3. implement agrarian reform in Brazil.
Please send letters to:
1. Governor Jaime Lerner Pr Nossa Senhora da Salete, s/n CEP 80.530-909,
Curitiba, Parana, Brasil. Fax: (011- 55 -41) 2542399
2. Presidente da Republica Fernando Henrique Cardoso Palacio do Planalto:
CEP 70.150-900, Brasilia, DF, Brazil E-mail: pr@planalto.gov.br
3. Ministro da Justicia Renan Calheiros Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco T,
4 andar, CEP 70064-900, Brasilia, DF, Brazil Fax: ( 011- 55- 61) 322 6817 /
224 4784
Please send copies of your letters to: semterra@mst.org.br MST, Human
Rights Department Alameda Barao de Limeira, 1232, CEP 01201-002, Sao Paulo
SP, Brazil
From: Global Exchange 2017 Mission St., Rm. 303 San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: 415-255- 7296 Fax: 415-255-7498 1-800-497-1994
http://www.globalexchange.org
**SPECIAL TO SEJUP**
The complete text of the campaign, Brazil: 500 years of Indigenous, Negro
and Popular Resistance:
BRAZIL: 500 YEARS
A CELEBRATION, YES, BUT DIFFERENT.
The date is approaching, April 22, 2000, when we will reflect on the day
500 years ago when an group of armed Portuguese soldiers came to these
lands, with the intention of making them colonial territory.
Here had lived, for more than 40,000 years, more than 5 million persons,
who belonged to about 970 different peoples. They were the legitimate
owners of these lands. To them belonged all except the antibodies against
the European sicknesses, the gunpowder and lead, and the impulse to
violence, exploration and plunder.
The privileged carriers of these were the ragged and sick men who landed
on the beach of Cabrália (as it is known today) in the south of Bahia,
saying that they were "discovering a New World" and that they were bringing
to it their ideas of civilization, progress and evangelization. That day
was the beginning of the expansion of the Old World, through lethal and
organized brutality, ready to put themselves against everything and
everybody in their path. The 22 of April 1500 was the beginning of a
violent and inhuman history which continues until today.
We, indigenous peoples, Negro movements, social movements and entities of
the Movement "Brazil: 500 years of Indigenous, Negro and Popular
Resistance", read our history from a place well defined: of those who
suffered and struggled against the colonial exploitation of class, of those
condemned on the land, in the peripheries of the cities. We do not believe
in a history written by the dominant classes, in which these put themselves
as the only winners .... We intend, through our movement, to demystify the
construction of official lies and reveal the true history lived by the
indigenous peoples, by the enslaved Negro people and by the popular sectors
explored and excluded: the truth of the indigenous people who, all through
these five centuries, suffer a continuous process of extermination and
abandonment, not withstanding their heroic struggle to preserve their
lands, their culture, their identity, their religion, their life's
projects; the truth of the African peoples who, imprisoned, were taken
violently and kidnapped from their homes and brought here. During almost
400 years they have lived in this country as part of a system of production
which has been condemned by history. Protagonists of heroic gestures who
founded here free lands - the quilombos - living proof of the affirmation
of human dignity and of the struggles maintained up to the present day by
the Negro entities confronted by a notorious power; the truth of the
popular sectors who, during all of our history struggled to change its
course, in the search for a just and fraternal society. The popular sectors
were the greatest protagonists of our recent struggle against a military
dictator and against the implantation amongst us of a neoliberal model.
Today the struggle for agrarian reform and the struggle against mass
unemployment are two of their struggles to establish a new society.
During the difficult establishment of a Brazilian society these past 500
years, there was always violence. In the same way, the examples of
generosity, creativity and the willingness to build a free and independent
land and a just and humane society always existed and were bequeathed to us
by the indigenous peoples, the enslaved Negro peoples and the popular
sectors. It is they too, who today, continue to give examples of how it is
possible to transform a society to benefit all.
We intend through our Movement to mark our disagreement clearly and
transparently in relation to the official commemorations. These will
commemorate the 500 years of the building of a nation supposedly united and
harmonious , from their point of view, and with the 'voluntary
contribution' of the indigenous peoples, of the Africans brought here and
of the white Europeans. For the official commemorations there is no notion
of conflict, which is as central to our history as it is to the present
day. The brutality of the indigenous genocide commanded by the colonial
enterprise which was responsible for the killing of whole peoples, the
barbarity of the slavery which plundered the African peoples sacrificing
families and communities and a merciless cruelty which victimized and is
victimizing daily the popular sectors, making it one of the most unequal
societies on the planet. All these historic facts cannot be understood
without the central notion of conflict - conflict between peoples, classes,
ideologies, between perceptions of life, of the world, of humanity and of
our history.
Our Celebrations
Our movement Brazil: 500 years of Indigenous, Negro and Popular Resistance
intends to celebrate, but to celebrate the victories achieved during these
five centuries through joint struggles, through popular incentives, full of
anonymous heroes who will never have their names written in the history
books. We will celebrate the victories which cost us so much blood and so
many martyrs, so much suffering and hope in the hearts of those who had
nothing with which to struggle if it was not their faith in a world less
inhuman.
We will celebrate the victories and losses of a struggle that was always
unequal: on one side the riches, the power, the arms, the disdain for life
and arrogance; on the other hand, community life, human work, the
dispossessed, the class solidarity, the humility, the anonymous generosity
and the infinite hope.
We will also celebrate the future. Heirs of a past of resistance and
struggle, we are certain that, apart from all the injustices and inequality
which exist, we will build a just and free society, marked by equality and
fraternity - a society dreamed of by so many of us and of those who went
before us.
Our Plans
To attain our objectives to reflect and celebrate the indigenous, negro
and popular resistance in these 500 years of Brazilian history we pledge
ourselves to the following acts: to provoke, in all the movements and
entities in which we participate, a process of reflection, cultural
activities and struggles which have as their reference the question of the
500 years; to launch during the week of 18th to the 24th of April 1999
throughout Brazil the movement Brazil: 500 year of Indigenous, Negro and
Popular Resistance; during the month of April 2000 to have several events
in the south of Bahia - a march, ecumenical and cultural events - to
stimulate the Brazilian society to reflect on these 500 years of history
from the point of view of the indigenous, negro and popular classes; and to
join with the social struggles which exist locally, regionally and
nationally and launch them on the international agenda in Latin America as
well as in Europe, particularly in Portugal.
December 98 CONEN, MNU, CMP, CIMI, CPT,GTME, , Committee 500 years of
Negro, Indigenous and Popular Restistance Salvador Bahia, Fórum 500 anos de
Campinas, SP., CAPOIB, APOINME, Articulação de Mulheres negras Lélia
Gonzales - Salvador Bahia, CEPIS, A.C.R., Equipe Palmares de Rio Claro, SP,
Coletivo 500 anos de Araras,SP, SINPRO Comitê de Solidaridade às
Comunidades Zapatistas -SP
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