January 2001

BRAZIL’S LANDLESS PEASANTS DIG IN THEIR HEELS

With the help of the landless peasants’ movement in their country called the MST, Brazil’s rural poor are getting organised and taking over unproductive land. The MST also takes up issues related to the struggle for people’s rights to be included in matters that affect their lives.

By Eduardo Nunes

Tropical rain forests, remote beaches, expansive rivers, indigenous tribes. These are the images that pop into most people’s minds at the mention of Brazil. Rural scenes.

But rural areas are not where you’ll find most of Brazil’s people.

In terms of population, nearly 80% of the country’s inhabitants live in cities, and have economic dealings in such things as industry and finance, as opposed to ‘non-urban’ enterprises such as agriculture. Export goods like airplanes, automobiles, trucks, optical cables and steel account for some 70% of the GNP [gross national product]. Traditional agricultural products such as coffee and soy beans account for less than 25%.

It is somewhat ironic, then, that Brazil’s most important social movement today is rural-focused: the landless peasants’ movement, in which more than three million people are directly involved. Known as MST (Movimento Sem Terra) in Brazil, it is a movement that embraces a wide range of people, from the young to the elderly, from rural workers to the urban unemployed.

Unfair distribution

It is perhaps no secret that land distribution in Brazil is deeply unfair, and has been  since  the  Portuguese  conquest.   Less  than  3%  of   the  population  holds  nearly two-thirds of the nation’s half-billion arable hectares. Some 4.8 million rural Brazilian families - roughly 25 million people - eke out a meagre existence as temporary labourers or slash-and-burn farmers in the country’s expansive interior.

At the same time, more than 60% of Brazil’s land remains unplanted. If it is used at all, it is for ranching or tax write-off purposes.

It was for the purpose of addressing these issues that MST was organised. Although peasant movements are nothing new in Brazil, the current incarnation of this movement, of which MST is the most prominent representative, was born in the Roman Catholic Church during the decline of military rule in the mid-1980s.

MST grew in number and importance by advocating for the rights of the landless. They organised poor communities and, most controversially, some of these groups of landless people took over unproductive land.

The tactics used by MST are controversial. In rural areas, however, rich landowners have also shown themselves to be willing to side-step the rule of law in their treatment of poor labourers and indigenous communities. Indeed, the activities of MST often take place within the context of extreme inequality and sometimes violent domination of the poor by the rich.

The response to their work has itself not infrequently been violent and repressive. It has not been unusual for MST members to fend off armed attacks by police or hired gunmen, or for their leaders to be arrested and imprisoned.

Some 1,200 land reform advocates in Brazil have been killed over the past 15 years, according to the Roman Catholic Church. In some cases where they have been able to hold onto the farms, the federal government has granted them land titles, with the legal owners receiving compensation for the land.

Using this strategy, MST has successfully settled 210,000 landless families on 7.3 million hectares of land. More than 110,000 other families remain camped outside idle plantations all over Brazil, awaiting their turn to claim and work the land. Most likely, the transition of these lands to their hands will not be peaceful.

Life remains difficult

Other tactics have produced positive outcomes for landless residents, as well. As a result of MST pressure, the government has placed more than 310,000 landless families on expropriated plots since 1994, and plans to settle another 300,000 families by the end of 2002.

The problem is not limited to land, however. Even for those who have benefited from land acquired through the efforts of MST, life remains difficult. Most have no credit access and no market opportunities. Selling to the domestic market - which is controlled by a few powerful groups, including some transnational ones - is a limited option. Exporting is nearly impossible. The reach of the current global economy does not include small farmers and small business operators.

The leaders of MST understand that their success thus far can be attributed partly to the fact that their focus has not been limited merely to obtaining land, but on broader issues having to do with the struggle for people’s rights to be included in matters that affect their lives.

‘We’re a symbolic force that shows Brazilian society that it is possible to change,’ says Sem Terra’s co-founder Joao Pedro Stedile.

The land has become a tool for rural workers, and a symbol for urban ones. - Third World Network Features

About the writer: Eduardo Nunes is programmes coordinator for World Vision Brazil. The above article first apppeared in Global Future (First Quarter, 2001), published quarterly by World Vision.

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