The revelations of Canguçu
Clarifications of the MST
28/07/2003
- Opinión
1. On July 23 João Pedro Stedile and lawyer Jacques
Alfonsin participated in a camp of landless farm workers,
in the parish Church hall in Gloria in the municipality of
Canguçu, Rio Grande do Sul. The activity comprised studies
and education.
The press were only allowed to film pictures.
2. João Pedro Stedile spoke of the origins of the
latifundios over the last 500 years. He explained that the
existence and preservation of this agrarian structure
generated an extremely unequal society in which we have on
one side 26 thousand large-scale latifundistas who own
areas greater than 2 thousand hectares, in general
unproductive, and on the other, 4.5 million families
without land who live in the camps suffering hardship. He
also highlighted the fact that the role of the agrarian
reform was to eliminate precisely these unproductive
latifundios. And, in each expropriated latifundio will be
space for a settlement of a thousand workers.
3. A journalist from a gaucho company infiltrated the
meeting, recorded the speeches and sent them to his
superiors in Porto Alegre. This company, faithful to its
editorial style of systematically attacking social
movements, tried to decontextualise and manipulate the
statements made by João Pedro Stedile. In this way creating
headlines that we all recognise: War has been declared in
the countryside! Afterwards, the so-called mainstream press
took on the task of reproducing and amplifying the
distortions, already anticipating an "institutional crisis"
and demanding that the President of the Republic declare
his views.
4. Unfortunately, manipulation by the media is increasingly
frequent and incisive, as a result of the financial
monopoly and the absence of democratisation of the media.
This concentration of the media has transformed them into a
veritable ideological party of the Brazilian elite, in
unfailing defence of its privileges alone. With this
orchestration they now want to make Lula's government a
hostage to their interests, preventing agrarian reform and
a change to the economic model. They want to criminalize
all social movements that fight for their rights. They want
to conceal the gravity of the social crisis, fed by ten
years of neo-liberalism, shielded by them. They want to
throw social movements against Lula's government and visa
versa, precisely to inhibit the fight against the neo-
liberal model. To reach their aims the media keep feeding
fictitious stories, hinting at a climate of political and
social instability in the country. They did this with the
occupation of the latifundios, with the occupation of the
homeless in Sao Bernardo do Campo, when Lula wore the cap
of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), and they are doing
it now with the declarations of João Pedro Stedile in
Canguçu.
5. It is not the MST which is demanding the elimination of
the latifundios: it is written in the Federal Constitution
that the State is responsible for expropriating all the
large unproductive properties and distributing them through
the agrarian reform. We only want the Brazilian
Constitution to be carried out. In its entirety.
6. The attempts to give a violent connotation to the words
of João Pedro come precisely from those minority sectors
that are most retrograde, most violent and most discredited
in our society. The minority sectors think they can
conceal, behind a curtain of words, the weapons that have
already killed so many leaders of the rural workers, such
as Chico Mendes, Padre Josimo, Canutos, Dorcelina Folador
and many others. In this year alone more than 30 workers
have been assassinated in areas of conflict over the land.
They publicly display their militia, display their arms
with impunity, and have the audacity to give themselves
squad names in contravention of the law.
7. Our fight towards agrarian reform will always continue.
And agrarian reform will be implemented with the
distribution of the large-scale unproductive latifundios
which are owned by a minority of our society. Is there any
one with a clear conscience who can approve of the fact
that a latifundista holds areas of 2, 5, or 50 thousand
hectares? Can there be anyone who agrees that a
construction company should be the owner of millions of
hectares? Can there be anyone who agrees that foreign
companies should be the owners of millions of hectares?
While many of our people have not even the smallest piece
of land to work!
8. Brazilian society acknowledges that the MST has been
fighting for agrarian reform for the last 20 years. It
knows of our commitment and our fight against this
latifundista minority. It knows that without removing the
latifundios we will not have a democratic society. It knows
that the cause of rural exodus, of poverty and unemployment
is the concentration of the latifundios and of the wealth
of our country. For this reason, we go on with our heads
held high in dignity, so that one day there will be no more
latifundios in our society. We want to take the opportunity
to publicly thank the immense solidarity received, from all
parties, from lawyers, students, churches, newspapers,
trade unions, the Central Union of Workers (CUT) and
thousands of anonymous people outside Brazil.
Sao Paulo, July 29, 2003
National Secretariat
Landless Worker's Movement - MST
National Secretariat
Landless Worker's Movement - MST
https://www.alainet.org/en/active/4204
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