Number 438, March 16, 2001.

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In this week's issue:

>NEWS BRIEFS

- Landless women workers protest in front of McDonald’s

- Number of complaints of sexual and domestic violence against women rises in Sao Paulo

- Cuba supports Brazil in AIDS medicine dispute

- Mato Grosso du Sul buys land for landless workers

- Program assists in removing children working in trash dumps

- New judge chosen for Eldorado do Carajas Massacre trial

>WOMEN’S ISSUES

-Women stage demonstrations throughout Brazil

>LAND ISSUES

- The MST must be defended

by Plínio de Arruda Sampaio

NEWS BRIEFS

- Landless women workers protest in front of McDonald’s

On the International Day of the Woman, women linked to various landless movements in the state of Rio Grande do Sul gathered in front of a McDonald’s in the capital city of Porto Alegre to protest a variety of issues ranging from current economic and social policies to the use of genetically modified organisms in food products. Nina Tonin, a member of the National Board of Directors of the MST (Movement of Rural Workers Without Land) said that the group chose McDonalds because it is "a symbol of the intervention politics of the big monopolies operating in Brazil." The protest was linked to protests which happened in 21 other cities throughout the country.

Source: Folha de Sao Paulo

March 9, 2001

- Number of complaints of sexual and domestic violence against women rises in Sao Paulo

Over the last seven years, women is the state of Sao Paulo are more likely to report cases of sexual and domestic violence perpetrate against them. In 1994, the state reported 114,832 cases; last year, 310,058 cases were reported, representing a 170% increase. The statistics are not sufficient enough to say that the violence is increasing, but it does indicate that women are reporting the violence more and more. Officials say three reasons can be attributed to this increase: an increase in the conscientization of women and their rights, the increase in the number of police stations dedicated to the defense of women, and an increase in the number of centers which welcome and protect battered women.

Source: Folha de Sao Paulo

March 9, 2001

- Cuba supports Brazil in AIDS medicine dispute

The Cuban government has given its support to Brazil in its dispute with multinational pharmaceutical companies who are trying to end Brazilian production of medicines for AIDS patients. The Cuban paper Juventud Rebelde published an official note from the Minister of Exterior Relations which declared that "it is inhumane and unacceptable that commercial interests and profits are put before the basic human right to treatment of diseases such as AIDS..." The official note went on to critique U.S. laboratories that are trying to gain a monopoly on these medicines.

Source: Linha Aberta

March 14, 2001

- Mato Grosso du Sul buys land for landless workers

The state government of Mato Grosso do Sul bought 1,511 hectares of land in the municipality of Dois Irmaos do Buriti. The government paid US$600,000 for the land and gave it to 60 families without land. The government also released another US$100,000 to pay for infrastructure for this settlement and others in the area. The state government of Mato Grosso do Sul is to be commended for this act with the hope that more of the same will happen not only is this state, but in all the states of Brazil.

Source: Linha Aberta

March 14, 2001

- Program assists in removing children working in trash dumps

Unicef released a report this week showing that through its program "Children in the Dump Never Again," 13,230 children have been removed from working in city trash dumps. The program gives income assistance to the parents of the children so that the children can go to school. The program also helps set up after-school programs to keep the children occupied so that they don’t return to the dumps after their school day ends. When the program began, an estimated 43,320 children worked in the dumps, collecting various materials for recycling. In doing so, they expose themselves to a number of different health risks, ranging from diseases transmitted by rodents to childhood prostitution. The goal of the program is to end all childhood labor in the dumps by the year 2002.

Source: Folha de Sao Paulo

March 14, 2001

- New judge chosen for Eldorado do Carajas Massacre trial

The Justice Department of the state of Para chose for the fifth time a new judge to preside over the Eldorado do Carajas trial. (For more detail on this story of the massacre of landless workers, see past issues of News from Brazil on our web site.) According to Otavio Marcelino Maciel, a leader of the judicial coordination team for the state, the last judge, Jose Maria Teixeira do Rosario could no longer assume responsibility for the trial as he was transferred. Rosario had been criticized for delaying the trial. Maciel will now travel to the nation’s capital to discuss the proceedings of the case with the National Secretary of Human Rights. The Justice Tribunal of Para also has to prepare a report on the case to the InterAmerican Court of the OAS. Meanwhile, a lawyer of the MST (Movement of Rural Workers Without Land) said that he is suspicious of the new judge, Eva do Amaral Coelho, as she has already dismissed herself from polemical trials involving land issues.

Source: Folha de Sao Paulo

March 15, 2001

WOMEN’S ISSUES

-Women stage demonstrations throughout Brazil

In at least 25 Brazilian capital cities female rural workers and indigenous women have organized demonstrations and set up camps for the International Women’s Day, March 8. The slogan of the national mobilization effort is "Female rural workers are building a new Brazil" and it is being organized by the National Movement of Female Rural Workers (MNTR), the Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), the Youth Pastoral, and the National Landless Movement (MST), which expect to gather about 40,000 female rural workers. In the state of Espírito Santo, the demonstration will be supported by Tupinikim women and in Roraima Macuxi and Wapixana women will take part in it. Hearings have been requested for the delivery of a list of claims to local authorities and the same document will be delivered in Brasília to the minister for Land Development, Raul Jugmann, and to the head of the department that assists the president of the Republic with political affairs, Pedro Parente.

The document contains proposals related to the land reform, imports of agricultural products, credit lines, agricultural assistance and insurance, documentation and communication, energy, social security and health care for women, housing, and education. In it, the women also express concern with transgenic food products and with violence in rural areas. They request the immediate implementation of the National Plan for Human Rights and that the Department for Land Conflicts of the Federal Police be closed down. By getting organized, female rural workers have won important victories already, such as ensuring their right to retirement pensions, to maternity pay, and to an allowance when they are sick and cannot work. The challenge now is to expand these rights and make sure they are actually enforced.

Indigenous Women are getting organized

Indigenous peoples are becoming increasingly aware that the indigenous movement will reap important benefits from the fact that women are getting organized. Women have become the political leaders of at least two indigenous peoples as their chief, a position held by men in most villages. Maria de Lourdes da Conceição Alves is the chief of the Genipapo Kanindé peoples in Aquiraz, state of Ceará. Diva Eurico de Souza, a Macuxi, is the Tuxaua (chief) of the Raposa II village in the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous area in the state of Roraima.

In the states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Bahia, and Roraima, women are getting organized in movements of their own. In Roraima, the mobilization began in the 1990s with the aim of strengthening the struggle of the Macuxi, Wapixana, Taurepang, Ingarikó, Wai Wai, and Yanomami peoples and of contributing to the unity of the indigenous movement and to the conquest of territorial rights. Their first state-level meeting was held in 1996. The first meeting that brought together women from Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Bahia took place in 1998 and the second one was held in the following year and was attended by leaders representing the Tupinambá and Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe (Bahia), the Maxakali, Xakriabá, Knenak, Pankararu and Aranã (Minas Gerais), and the Tupinikim and Guarani (Espírito Santo) peoples.

By getting organized and with a style of their own, women are conquering more space in the indigenous movement, predominantly led by males. They are respected and listened to at local and national meetings and assemblies about all matters related to their peoples. Women want to enhance and improve their participation in the struggle for the demarcation of indigenous areas, for the approval of the Statute of Indigenous Peoples, for a quality health care, especially for women, and for a differentiated education. They have been reporting different forms of violence, such as the sale of alcoholic beverages in indigenous villages, prostitution and sterilization of indigenous women (as in 1994, when Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe women were deliberately sterilized and the guilty ones have not been punished so far), the theft of traditional knowledge, prejudice against indigenous customs and traditions, and the assassination of indigenous leaders.

Source: Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi

March 8, 2001

LAND ISSUES

- The MST must be defended

by Plínio de Arruda Sampaio

Resistance is mounting against the campaign being pursued by government and various sections of the press against the MST (Movement of Rural Landless Workers). The explanation for this genuine outrage is simple: the government has resolved to decelerate their programme of agrarian reform.

The idea is to replace dispossessions with a system of buying land in groups of interested farmers. Known as "Banco da Terra" (Land Bank) the programme is financed by the World Bank. The MST is resolutely opposed to the project and has created such difficulties that it is yet to get off the ground. The government is unwilling to spend a lot of money in financing domestic agricultu re. Both President Fernando Cardoso and those who formulate his agricultural policies understand that, under the advances of modern capitalist agriculture, this category of producer faces an early demise. Unable to say this straight out, trickery has prevailed: it was announced that R$ 4,2 billion would be channeled into subsidy grants for small producers. Yet built into the regulations for this funding are a series of loopholes, effecting reduced subsidy levels and greater difficulty in obtaining loans. Besides this, the release of the funds – as yet incompletely distributed – was so delayed that the planting season in the southern and southeastern regions had practically come to an end. Millions of producers have thus lost the coming year’s harvest. Evidently the intention is to not spe ation from foreign investment companies.

The MST is firmly opposing these manoeuvres, which it is bringing to the attention of the public with noisy protests. It has insisted on being heard by Cardoso, and that he accept the reluctant mediation of the CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) of Conic (National Council of Christian Churches) and of OAB (Order of Brazilian Advocates); whose rejection of the process left the government publicly exposed.

The reactionary elite cannot tolerate a popular independent movement that does not bow to the arrogant demands of those in power. The destruction of the MST has been preordained. Inquiries, criminal trials, scandalous news stories and budget cuts; anything goes! The democratic sections of our society cannot sit back and watch this massacre. Besides the its profound injustice, it could also have tragic consequences for the nation. On the contrary to what certain newspapers claim, it is not the MST which is causing disturbance in rural Brazil, but the miserable state of poverty in one of the most concentrated and unjust agricultural systems of the world. What the MST does is direct rural popular pressure towards the clear objective of agrarian reform, as a means of civilising the conflict and preventing its degeneration into banditry and anarchy.

We do not have any illusions: if the reactionary forces today intrinsic in the government of the Republic were to succeed in their destructive intents, it would only be a matter of time before the social scene in rural Brazil could take on the semblance of that in Columbia.

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