H14579
Headlines : Human RightsLandless Rural Workers Confront Lula
The Brazilian Movement of Landless Workers (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – or MST) recently held its National Congress in the nation’s capital to voice its displeasure with President Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva and his ruling Workers Party (_Partie dos Trabalhadores_ – or PT) over their failure to live up to repeated campaign promises of agrarian reform.
The MST, which numbers approximately 1.5 million members, is considered the largest independent social movement in Latin America. Founded in 1984, the MST seeks agrarian reform through a campaign of non-violent occupations of non-used agricultural land. In Brazil, 1.6% of the country’s landowners control roughly half (46.8%) of the nation’s agriculturally viable land. Just 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all arable lands.
Lula was elected into power on a platform of pushing through long-awaited agrarian reforms, but has backtracked on these promises and largely adopted the neo-liberal model of the ‘Washington Consensus’ – especially with his recent moves towards a new biofuel pact with the United States.
[Posted By Heatscore]Republished from Counterpunch
Last week the Brazilian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) held its fifth National Congress in Brasília, the country’s capital. The power the MST has garnered throughout its 23 years was palpable, as more than 17,500 delegates from 24 states and almost 200 international guests marched to the Square of the Three Powers, situated between the buildings of the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government. Marchers hung a huge banner in the square that read, “We accuse the three powers of impeding agrarian reform.”
In the minds of most MST members, President Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva and the Workers’ Party (PT) have failed to implement the radical economic and social reforms that were promised, especially agrarian reform. According to José Maria Tardin, who was elected the first mayor of the PT in the state of Paraná in 1989, and now works in the MST, “For the left, Lula is the biggest political tragedy in the history of Brazil….
Posted by Heatscore
A jaded Raskolnikov waiting in disgust for this sick society's imminent paradigm shift.
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Power to the People
Whenever I hear landless, in the context of Our America, I hope that somewhere in our public discourse we are moving towards the assumption that the land belongs to the people and that any and all business models operate under the auspices of a public trust. I know to a certain extent we have to exercise moderation to interface with the consensual reality. But I hope we’re not doing that to our dreaming life.
Obrigado companeros! For some reason the garbage on the lawn was MUCH funnier than the coffins and but the contextualizing of Haiti in the mouth of Iraq and Afghanistan was a very nice touch. Do you think these guys are beginning to realize how much smaller the world is getting, day after day after day?
The Marcos touch was nice too.