On Monday June 11^th, the 5^th National Congress of the Landless Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST for its Portuguese acronym) kicked off in Brasilia with more than 18 thousand delegates in attendance from 24 states across the country under the watchword "Agrarian Reform: for Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty."  Neuri Rosseto of the national coordinating body says that the central aim of this congress is to come out of it "with the understanding that agrarian reform has necessarily changed at this point in time, during which capitalism is restructuring and the enemy is much more powerful than the large estate owners (latifundistas) we were facing years ago." Given this aim, the MST will present to society at large "The Agrarian Reform we need: a project of the people for Brazilian agriculture," which includes objectives and concrete proposals that confront current issues in agriculture. In the dialogue that follows, Rosseto addresses the nature of this gathering and expected outcomes.

-  Let’s begin with a clarification: why doesn\'t the MST hold internal elections during its congress, which is usually one of the main elements for other social organizations?

Throughout the history of the movement, the character of our national congress has been a way of affirming our identity, which sets us apart from the traditional congresses of other political and social organizations. Our congresses are first and foremost a space for political training that helps to clarify the overarching strategic challenges that we are facing, striving to build greater unity on a national level within the movement so that our grassroots understand the upcoming issues.

Another aspect is that the congress is also a political demonstration by the countryside for the urban areas and all of society, expressing our opposition to large estate owners (latifundistas), the state and imperialism.

The third main element is that the congress is an opportunity to strengthen relationships at the national level among our membership and with society in general, and with all of those who are fighting for agrarian reform. We come together, we get to know one another and we share our different day-to-day experiences based upon the various regions and cultures represented, because the experiences are completely different from one region to another in Brazil. It’s also a chance for the movement to build relationships with society at large, with closely allied sectors as well as with society in the broadest sense possible. With regard to the other functions that you mention, such as electing leaders and holding debates, we take a different approach. We have national meetings every two years in which this is dealt with, for which reason elected leaders have two year terms. In this way, we have found that a more in depth discussion can take place concerning the selection of leaders, which is carried out at the state level. Each state organization selects their delegates, who then come to the national meeting for political endorsement.

-  And at what point or points in time are the arguments and positions on various issues debated?

With regard to debating our arguments and positions, we carry out a process of discussion at the grassroots level concerning our agrarian program at which time diverging opinions emerge and the different ideas and positions are debated. What comes forward to congress has already been sorted out to a large degree. So this is how we motivate discussion at the grassroots level. Previous to congress, further organization and processing has taken place, and unity has been reached on the results, such that during congress the results of all these discussions can be presented in a document which expresses the MST’s current proposal for Brazilian agriculture.

So, it’s a process with three complementary moments. During the previous stage, the basic aspects of what will be debated and more deeply discussed have already been established with regard to the central issues. Moreover, the materials upon which we base our discussion are developed at the grassroots level in various formats, such as printed texts, training materials and such.  The materials that appear in our newspaper and in our magazine already express a certain level of consensus and these reflect the main themes that will be developed further.

At the stage which we’re at now, we’re most interested in deepening within our membership and our organization an understanding with regard to the nature of agrarian reform in the context of global capitalism today and Brazilian capitalism in particular, and from there how agrarian reform can be implemented. It’s no longer the same agrarian reform that the MST was considering when the movement emerged. At that time, the idea was one of agrarian reform in a classic sense linked to the system of industrial production. With the restructuring of globalization, and of neoliberalism in general, this period is over. Now we are living through a time in which financial capital rules and agriculture is taking on new forms, for which reason the earlier model of agrarian reform doesn’t fit anymore and so we have to establish a new model as a counterproposal, and this also means looking at what model of alternative development is needed to counter neoliberalism, they aren’t separate things.

So congress is not a place for further developing the proposal, that process began two or three years ago. The discussion has taken place and now congress has the political endorsement to highlight the themes based upon a sense of unity, so that further political training can begin to take place at the grassroots.

Like all social movements, our membership is constantly being renewed.  Many of the participants who are here are attending congress for the first time, which helps them become integrated in the organization building upon the experience that we have already accumulated.  For these new activists, the congress is a reference point that represents what the movement stands for and what we propose for agriculture, that can’t be defined or worked out just here, but which comes from our history up until now. Looking ahead, we examine how we will continue promoting these issues at the grassroots level and how we’ll present this to society in order to bring about a new joint project.

- Given this, what results do you hope to achieve during this congress?

In general, the main hope is that we come away understanding that agrarian reform has changed within the context of a restructuring of capitalism, and that we are facing a much more powerful enemy than the old large estate owners, which is represented by the hegemony of agribusiness, transnational corporations, and financial capital.  It is no longer the large estate owners who we were confronting years ago.  If we achieve this goal and our membership understands the historical moment in which we are living, and how agrarian reform fits into this new context, then I believe that we will have taken a big step forward with regard to the strength of the congress, because this will enable us to develop new tactics, to build alliances, and to share with society and the international community.

By way of an example, there is enormous potential here for transnational groups to make a lot of money, and that\'s why they are investing money here, which is becoming ever more concentrated in fewer hands particularly given the conditions in the Brazilian countryside. Capitalism has become aware of this, and as international capital is reorganizing itself, agribusiness has the potential for a lot of profit here. As a result, the transnationals are no longer leaving control in the hands of large estate owners, rather they are themselves taking over these areas of exploitation. This is increasingly evident, their control over the physical territory that they aspire to, their control over land and water, their control over biodiversity and everything that has to do with technological control, these are the three strategic areas that they seek to dominate. In this sense, there is a mixture of new and old ways, and, in the viewpoint of the transnationals, it’s working very well.

- What do you have to say about the current political situation?

At this moment, the biggest challenge is to find a way to build unity between social movements, so that from there we can generate new ideas that will challenge the current power relations within national politics.  In other words, how we can confront Lula’s current project.  In the past elections, based upon this idea of building conditions for greater unity, we supported his reelection in the second round. However, this was also because Geraldo Alckim, the opposing candidate, was such a blatant expression of the neoliberal project. And it was in this context, whether Lula liked it or not, that we considered it important to bring in various issues of social concern, such as debt payments, agrarian reform, etc. - that didn’t come up during the first round of elections.

Indeed, it’s a complicated and complex situation. Given Lula’s background he is identified in the popular imagination with the working class and this boosts his popularity and acceptance. This is even true amongst the grassroots within our own movement, because he conjures up feelings of empathy and affection, as well as expectations regarding welfare policies.

As a result, our view is that from the mid 70s there has been a rise in social struggles. However, following 1989 and Lula’s electoral defeat, a new phase began characterized by the decline of social struggles.  Therefore, working toward greater unity amongst grassroots struggles continues to be our greatest challenge (Translation ALAI)

- Osvaldo Leon - ALAI