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Landloze Boeren Brazilië in Actie

De
afgelopen weken heeft de organisatie van Landloze Boeren in Brazilië (Movimento
Dos Sem Terra, MST) een indrukwekkende hoeveelheid acties en bezettingen
uitgevoerd. De repressie is navenant. De boerenbeweging verzet zich met name
tegen de industrialisering van de landbouw en de toename van de verbouw van
suikerriet voor biobrandstof door agromultinationals. Ook worden acties van
inheemse bevolking en tegen de aanleg van stuwdammen (die grote stukken grond
onder water zetten) ondersteund.

 

7 min leestijd
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Er zijn
acties geweest in 13 verschillende deelstaten. In Espirito Santo werd door zo’n
500 mensen gedemonstreerd bij de plek waar een nieuwe ethanolfabriek gebouwd
wordt, eigendom van het buitenlandse bedrijf Infinity Bio-Energy (gevestigd op
de Bermudas). Dit bedrijf heeft nu alle ethanolfabrieken in het noorden van de
staat in bezit. Er staat al 40.000 hectare suikerriet aangeplant, en deze
oppervlakte zal de komende jaren verdubbelen.

Ondertussen
(verklaart de beweging) "zit de landhervorming geheel in het slop en wordt
er geen vordering gemaakt met het demarkeren (=als ‘reservaat’ toewijzen) van
gronden voor de traditionele Quilombola gemeenschappen."

Een
andere actie gebeurde in de hoofdstad Vitória, waar zo’n 300 mensen
bijeenkwamen bij vestigingen van de multinationale supermarketbedrijven
Carrefour en Walmart. Ze deelden informatie uit over de rol die deze bedrijven
spelen bij het overheersen van de wereldwijde handel in voedsel. Ook verkochten
ze gezonde landbouwproducten van kleine lokale producenten.

Op de
website van de MST zijn dagelijks nieuwe acties en bezettingen te lezen (in de
Portugese taal).

Ondanks
het feit dat de progressieve Lula aan de macht is, is de repressie tegen de
boerenactivisten hevig. Op deze video kun je bijvoorbeeld de politie in Porto
Alegre (was dat niet de thuisbasis van het Wereld Sociaal Forum) bezig zien.

Op 3
juni werd een kampement van MST-leden in Viamão (Rio Grande do Sul) ontruimd
door zwaarbewapend contigent militaire politie ontruimd.

In dit
bericht
staat een video die laat zien hoe vorig jaar een activist vermoord
wordt door een beveiligingsbedrijf dat in dienst is van de multinational
Syngenta.

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Op de
algemene ledenvergadering van de boerenbeweging werd een uitgebreide verklaring
aangenomen onder de titel: Waarom we Mobiliseren? Wij willen voedsel
produceren. Tegen agrobusiness, ter verdediging van de gezinslandbouw.

De
engelse vertaling:

ASSEMBLÉIA
POPULAR 

Why do
we mobilize?

WE WANT
TO PRODUCE FOOD

Against
agribusiness, in defence of family farming

The
current economic model, sustained by agribusiness and the domination of
financial capital, wants to transform food, seeds and all natural resources
into commodities, in order to satisfy and protect the interests, profits and
greed of big multinational companies.

 
To
achieve that, financial groups seek to dominate land, water and biodiversity
resources through privatization of this common patrimony. These are the same
groups that destroy forests and land with the expansion of monocultures and
increase the exploitation of labour force by disrespecting the relevant
legislation and contributing, therefore, to unemployment, poverty and violence.

Thus,
agribusiness promotes wealth accumulations in the hands of the few privileged,
especially those behind banks and transnational corporations, while the general
population faces increasing poverty and social unrest. It is necessary and
urgent to resist this oppressive and destructive logic. Therefore we:

I –
denounce the current agriculture model which:

1.
favours the interests of transnational corporations which, in collaboration
with big land owners seek to dominate agriculture and profit excessively from
food and seeds production and commercialization;

2.
prioritizes monoculture in vast extensions of land, affecting the environment
adversely through land erosion and excessive use of agrochemicals;

3.
stimulates eucalyptus and pine monocultures which eliminate biodiversity and
cause pollution of native ecosystems, unemployment and social disintegration in
the rural, indigenous and quilombo communities;

4.
promotes the expansion of sugarcane monoculture and ethanol production for the
international markets, leading to high food prices and land concentration in
the hands of the international capital;

5.
expands the use of transgenic crops which destroy biodiversity, eliminate
native seeds, cause damage to the health of farmers and consumers alike and
places the seeds market under the political and economic control of
transnational corporations;

6.
promotes the deforestation of our native biomes, in particular the Amazon and
Cerrado forests, through cattle farming, eucalyptus, soy and sugarcane
monocultures, timber and minerals extraction;

II- are
against:

1. the
transnational corporations, agribusinesses, deputies, congressmen and parties
which defend big economic interests and approve projects that can only
deteriorate the current situation;

2. the
law allowing the concession of public forests which leads to the privatization of
biodiversity and the draft law nº 6.424/05 submitted by senator Flexa Ribeiro
(PSDB-PA), which reduces the size of Legal Amazon from 80% to 50%;

3. the
Provisionary Measure nº 422/08 which legalizes areas invaded by big
agribusinesses in the Amazon and reach even 1500 hectares, while the
Constitution sets 50 hectares as the maximum limit;

4. the
Provisionary Measure that allows employment of up to three months to be
unregistered. We condemn the impunity regarding slave and child labour and the
disrespect to labour and social security legislation;

5. the
Constitutional Amendment Project nº 49/06 submitted by senator Sérgio Zambiasi
(PTB-RS), which seeks to reduce the width of the frontiers strip restricted
from foreign investment which will favour enormously transnational companies;

6. the
project for the diversion of Rio São Francisco, which will benefit only big
agriculture and water businesses which produce commodities for the
international market and not for the population of the semiarid northeast;

7. the
privatization of water resources and the creation of monopolies dominated by
transnational corporations such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Suez;

8. the
current energy model based on big hydroelectric plants throughout Brazil and
the Amazon region in particular, which hands the energy sovereignty of the
country to  transnational corporations
and electro-intensive industries;

III –
want:

1. a
new agriculture model based on family farming, agrarian reform, wealth
redistribution and the permanence of people in the rural areas;

 
2. to
combat the concentration of land and natural resources, through the dismantling
of latifundia and the definition of a maximum limits for the extension of rural
properties;

2. to
guarantee that agriculture is controlled by the Brazilian people and secures
the food sovereignty of the country, through small farmers cooperatives
producing healthy food;

3. to
diversify agricultural production with respect to the environment through a
sound agroecological model;

 
4. to
preserve the environment, biodiversity and water resources with particular
attention to the Guarani aquifer;

5. to
completely halt the devastation of the Amazon and other Brazilian biomes and
preserve natural resources through sustainable use in favour of the people. We
defend the collective right of sustainable use of the Babaçu forests;

6. to
preserve, multiply and improve native crops from all different biomes and
guarantee access to them for all small farmers;

7. to
fight for the immediate approval and implementation of the law determining the
appropriation of all rural properties using slave labour, and the definition of
heavy fines for land owners that disrespect the labour and social security
legislation;

 
8. the
implementation of the policy proposal from the National Water Agency, which
foresees investments in all municipalities of the semiarid region, to deal with
the lack of adequate and sufficient water for the local population;

9. to
prevent that water resources become a mere commodity and establish that water
is managed as a public good;

10. the
implementation of a new energy model which secures the energy sovereignty of
all the Brazilian people and prioritizes social development, though the
rational use of energy from small hydroelectric plants and the sustainable
production of agrofuels from small farmers and their cooperatives;

11. the
Federal Government to authorize Incra (National Institute of Colonization and
Agrarian Reform) to restart the demarcation of all areas belonging historically
to quilombo communities;

12. the
immediate demarcation of all indigenous areas and the expulsion of all illegal
farmers that have invaded these territories and in particular the reserve
Raposa Serra do Sol and the Guarani indigenous territory in the State of Mato
Grosso do Sul. 

 
The
Lula government has to honour its promise for Agrarian Reform and comply with
its political program of 2002, which foresaw the immediate settlement of
landless families camped in makeshift huts and the construction of at least
100.000 houses per year in order to reduce the rural exodus. Our struggle is
for the fair society based on equality and democracy where wealth is
distributed equally to all.

VIA
CAMPESINA

POPULAR
ASSEMBLY