Number 436, March 2, 2001.
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Dear News from Brazil readers,
The news was a little thin this week due to Carnaval activities, and our modem on our computer burned out this week during an electrical storm. Therefore, we were not able to contact our usual internet sources. You will notice that the News from Brazil is being sent out through a different email address. If you need to contact us, continue to use the old Sejup address (sejup1@ax.apc.org).
Sejup
In this week's issue:
>NEWS BRIEFS
- Rural women workers to rally in Sao Paulo
- "Life yes, drugs no!" theme of Lenten campaign>REFLECTIONS ON WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
NEWS BRIEFS
- Rural women workers to rally in Sao Paulo
From March 6-8, the MST (Movement of Rural Workers Without Land), the Church’s Land Commission, Quilombo Communities, Peoples Affected by Dams, and Worker’s Union Center are organizing a large-scale, national rally by rural women workers. In Sao Paulo, 1,000 women and children will be encamped and will participate in a series of political and cultural activities. The rally hopes to call attention to the plight of rural women. The group will also participate in the World March of Women on March 8th. The entities are soliciting for financial help to pay for transportation, food and other necessities. Interested donors can contact the
MST at 55-11-3663-2219 or 3663-4167.
- "Life yes, drugs no!" theme of Lenten campaign
The Brazilian Catholic Church began its annual Lenten campaign this week taking up the theme, "Life yes, drugs no!" Every year the Church chooses a social issue upon which to reflect and act during the 40 days of Lent and the months following. The Church chose this issues due to the devastating effects drugs have upon Brazilian society: "The youth are being destroyed by drugs," said Fr. Haroldo Rahm, who for two years has worked to try to get the CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) to adopt the issue as a Lenten campaign. "More than 60% of crimes are linked to drugs and alcohol." The biggest focus of the campaign will be on prevention, which should be done "in the churches, in the schools, in the factories, and in the family," said Rahm. The Church is also creating a new ministry in conjunction with the campaign, the "Pastoral da Sobriedade" (The Sobriety Ministry), which will carrying out various activities throughout the country.
Source: Folha de Sao Paulo
February 28, 2001
REFLECTIONS ON WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
Sejup staff member Chad Ribordy went to Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum in January and submitted this report:
There could not have been a more diverse group of people in terms of age, race, and nationality. They represented over 500 entities from 30 different countries. They were professors, working mothers, government officials, leaders of social movements, members of social movements, journalists and ordinary citizens. All came to Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to protest the current world system of trading, lending, borrowing, salaries and land distribution.
The World Social Forum, January 25-30, 2001, held four simultaneous plenary sessions every morning featuring distinguished speakers from around the world (most from Global South countries). There were four themes around which the lecturers centered their talks: the production of wealth and social reproduction; access to wealth and sustainability; the affirmation of civil society and of the public arena; and political power and ethics in the new society. The afternoon sessions consisted of workshops offered by various entities. Social Exclusion and School Drop-out Rates, Strategies for Opposing the IMF and the World Bank in 2001, Social Protest and Alternatives for Neoliberalism in Latin America, Land Rights and Reforms, Drugs and Violence, Is the FTAA in the Interest of Women?, and Breastfeeding and Social Mobilization: this is just a sampling of the wide areas of interest that the workshops addressed.
Because of the great diversity in people and topics, it is difficult to try to summarize the content of the Forum. However, there were a few themes or ideas that were present throughout:
1. The status quo is no longer acceptable. The representatives from the poorer nations gave strong testimony to the havoc the current trade and monetary system wreaks in their nations. Due to the policies the multilateral lending institutions are imposing on nations, citizens, especially the poor, no longer have access to such basics as sanitation, health and education.
2. Power needs to be "democratized." In other words, decisions which affect the common good in a significant way need to be brought before the people. So often, such decisions are made by politicians and the elites behind closed doors without any consultation of the people who will be affected by these decisions.
3. Nations must have sovereignty. Today, multinational corporations and rich nations control the economic and political policies of poorer nations. Even when poorer nations do want to act in a way that benefits their citizens they cannot do so because of the rules others have imposed upon them.
4. Militarism must end. Several of the speakers of the forum discussed how in the past and in the present the military, enforcing the rules of the world system, have grossly violated human rights through repressive acts. Perhaps one of the most moving talks of the Forum came from an Argentinian mother who pressed her government for information after her son was "disappeared."
5. Land reform must be addressed. In so many nations, agricultural lands are in the hands of a few. The family farm is becoming extinct due to the rules of the current world order. Trade agreements favor large-scale farming, a type of farming which pollutes soil and water with chemicals. If the world is to survive, ecological, sustainable agricultural practices/policies must be put in place, and land must once again be accessible to the small farmer.
There were other specific themes and problems that the Forum addressed. For example, there was a great deal of concern of the United States’ involvement in Columbia. Many feel that the U.S. government is using narcotrafficking as a cover for the U.S. to gain political control over the region, much in the way it used the "communist threat" during the Cold War. In general, there was a great deal of anti-U.S. sentiment. At the opening of the conference, the speaker announced each country that was being represented at the forum. The announcement of each country was received with warm applause, except when the United States was announced--booing could be heard from the crowd. Some demonstrators burned the U.S. flag later in the week.
The poster child of the Forum became José Bové, the famous French farmer who led a protest against globalization and which ended in the destruction of a McDonald’s. On the third day of the conference, he accompanied members of the MST (Movement of Rural Workers Without Land) to acreage owned by agro-industrial giant Monsanto. The company is using the land to experiment with the production of genetically-altered crops. (Such crops are illegal here in Brazil, but the government has granted concessions to Monsanto since the project is experimental.) The delegation proceeded to destroy the crops, with Bové leading the way. He was later given notice by the Federal Police that he had to leave the country in 24 hours. However, opposition pressure prevailed and Bové remained until his scheduled date of departure.
For me personally, more important than any one of the talks or the personalities at the Forum, was the overall positive energy among the participants. I am sure some of the mainstream press will use events such as the flag-burning (which I didn’t even see) and the destruction of the genetically altered crops to say that the participants of the Forum were all radical, anarchist "punks". That was not my experience. The people I met were just folks concerned about the direction in which this world is going. People who dream that a better world is possible. People who believe that every human being has a right to the basic necessities of life. People who believe that poverty and hunger can end if we just changed the rules of the game.
I think that the anti-U.S. sentiments are a challenge for us who are U.S. citizens. We must ask ourselves why so many in the world, especially those from poor nations, hate our government and businesses. We must be more attuned to what our government and businesses are doing abroad, if not out of moral concern, then out of a sense of survival. For how long can we operate in a world in which the majority oppose us? The game our governments and businesses are playing is bound to blow up in our faces.
Concretely, we can involve ourselves in movements/organizations which are demanding greater accountability from governments and institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, movements/organizations such as 50 Years Is Enough or Jubilee USA Network, for example. We can write letters to officials. We can also demand to know more about the companies in which we may hold stock. Are they paying decent wages? Are they destroying local economies? Are they engaged in ecological practices? It is when we begin to take responsibility for our governments and enterprises that the rules can change to benefit those who have been long hurt by the past and current game.
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