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In this week´s edition of News from Brazil: 

MST Seeks To Broaden Its Scope:  A Report on the 5th National MST Congress

He was 8 years old, and was on the S-curve in Eldorado dos Carajas with his parents that fateful day of April 17th, 1996.  He saw friends of his parents die.  Arlete Nascimento, skinny and a little more that a meter and half, speaks of what he remembers of the massacre.  In spite of the terror, his parents did not give up.  They continued in the struggle and were able to get a little piece of land.  They gave Arlete an opportunity that they didn't have:  the opportunity to study.  "My first school was in a straw hut," said Nascimento.  Thanks to the MST (Movement of rural workers Without Land), he finished high school, and some other technical courses.  He would like to go on to college, but there are no schools close to his settlement.

Maria Divina da Silva lived for ten years on an encampment site.  She began when her daughter was only 3 years old.  This smiley native of Goiás with long, black braided hair, lives today on the Dandara settlement.  Did her life get better?  "God help me that I never go back to the sugar cane fields.  I was really exploited, " she replied.  But her work continues to be difficult.  She grows peanuts, rice, corn and watermelon.  She makes homemade sweets.  Her biggest problem, however, is that the government has not released any money for small farmers such as her.  "It is always like this.  The worst part is that after a time, we simply don't have the resources to plant anymore, and we lose a whole season."

Ademilson Pereira Souza from the state of Espirito Santo participated in his first MST encampment in the mid-80's.  His family has a small-scale production of  coffee, corn and beans.  However, today a dark shadow has been cast over his future:  the monocropping of eucalyptus trees and sugar cane.  The multinational paper company Aracruz Cellulose continues to expand its production of trees, just as the sugar barons acquire huge tracts of land for their production.  "The result is that Espirito Santo has one of the worst distributions of land:  2.4% of large land owners have as much land as 80% of all small farmers put together," said Souza.  

These three stories capture the essence of the debates and talks of the MST's Fifth National Congress, held last month.  Ademilson, Maria Divina and Arlete were among the 18,000 participants of this encounter--the biggest ever meeting of rural workers in Latin America.  The Congress defined new directions for the MST for the next 5 years.  At the center of the discussions was the idea that the agrarian reform defended by the organization since 1984 needs to be updated.  The socio-economic reality has changed, the agricultural world is dominated by agribusiness, sustained by the State and capitalism.  According to Fatima Ribeiro, of the National Board of the MST, the movement now seeks to unite forces working for another model of development.  The ideas of the meeting are spelled out in the Manifesto of the meeting, which lists the 18 principles for the struggle for a just society.

During the encounter, there was a march of 20,000 people through the streets of Brasilia, protesting the lack of commitment on the part of public officials to agrarian reform, as well as marching against a new imperialism lurking on the horizon.  The 14 kilometer march displayed red t-shirts and flags, signaling a solidarity with all workers.  Even Antonio da Silva, a member of the military police who escorted the march, commented, "I think that Brazil needs agrarian reform.  I see many who have nothing, and a few with a lot."

The debates that happened during the meeting underlined the fact that the MST, now more than ever, needs to involve the entire society in the struggle for agrarian reform and social transformation.  Gilmar Mauro, of the National Coordination office, commented that this mutual support is still being built, beginning with the current context of fragmentation among organizations of the left.  According to Mauro, there is a crises of the political instruments built between 1970 - 1980 whose objective was a democratic and popular revolution.  Now, what is necessary is a dialectic movement and a creation of something new from the old.  "From a political point of view, we have to maintain a relationship with the historical instruments, but strengthen new mechanisms, for we have new things being done."  

Besides the fragmentation of the left, the current political context is marked by neoliberalism and the domination of financial capital.  In one of the discussions of the meeting, Joao Pedro Stedile warned about the current marriage of big multinationals with capitalistic farmers, a union which enjoys support of the Brazilian government.  In this covenant, there is no space for the rural worker, for there are divergent interests.  "For the small farmer, they give three options:  the shantytown in the city, [succomb to] the policies of social compensation (welfare programs), or become integrated into foreign firms, agribusiness," said Stedile.  

Confronted with this reality, the MST formulated its Program for Agrarian Reform, expanding the scope of its proposals for rural areas.  "We need an agrarian reform that reflects the concerns of the Brazilian population, a reform that guarantees human development, that juxtaposes distribution of land with easy access to health and education, and healthy food programs," affirmed Fatima Ribeiro.

"There is no longer the probability to bring about the agrarian reform that we dreamed of 20 years ago,"  said Stedile.  "We have to reflect on another type of proposal, which we call popular agrarian reform.  But this will only happen if we change the economic system.  The necessities at the base of the movement are much greater than just land."  Stedile went on to critique the current model of settlements being promulgated by President Lula, which concentrates on land in the Amazon region.  "We are against this market and social isolation, which at the same times continues to promote illegal land-grabbing."

This program of popular agrarian reform includes demands such at that made by a child to the Minister of Education, Fernando Haddad:  "Mr. Minister, I want to study on my settlement, because the city is far away, and there they do not teach you things about the field."  (Haddad had visited the Paulo Freire Itinerate School, where 400 teachers were hosting 600 children who went to Brasilia with their parents.)  For old time militants of the movement, like Agnor Bicalho Vieira, 66, the participation of the children and young people was a highlight of the 5th Congress.  Further, according to Vieira, for the MST to advance it should focus on internal organization and articulation with other sectors.  "The four previous congresses were learning experiences.  With time, we have succeeded in strengthening our international ties and our relations with urban society," he added.

Source:  staff of Brasil de Fato, June 21-27