Brazil

Brazil: Increasing repression and criminalization against the Landless People Movement (MST)

Raj — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:39:28 -0600

This urgent action just in from FIAN. Time to get scribbling.

Brazil: Increasing repression and criminalization against the Landless
People Movement (MST)

Last June 17, about 300 landless (the vast majority of them women, children and elderly) were forcibly evicted from two camps of the "Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Terra" (MST), located on leased and private land -therefore legally occupied- in the vicinity of Fazenda Guerra, in Coqueiros do Sul, Northern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. ... read more »

Urgent Action Against Syngenta's Thugs

Raj — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:36:34 -0700

This just in, from supporters of the MST in Brazil, following up on the news that Syngenta had hired men to kill the poor.

Dear friends,

We are writing to you with an urgent request to support the Landless Worker’s Movement (MST in Portuguese), Via Campesina and Terra de Direitos in Brazil.

As reported by Terra de Direitos, MST and Via Campesina on October 21, 2007 Mr. Mota de Oliveira of the MST was shot dead at point-blank range two times in the chest by armed men while joining a protest against the operations of Syngenta Seeds, subsidiary of the Swiss biotech firm Syngenta AG and their illegal experimentation with generically-modified organisms (GMOs). According to reports, several other protesters were severely injured. The attack reportedly occurred during lunch hour, under strong rain, which made it completely impossible for the workers to defend themselves. We also understand that the situation at the site remains extremely tense. The landless workers camped in the regionespecially some MST leaders who were chased by the gunmen during the attackremain in danger and are in need of immediate protection. ... read more »

Syngenta's Stormtroopers

Raj — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:33:29 -0600

When the pesticide industry takes its gloves off, people get hurt. Below is a press release from Via Campesina about a recent killing by men with guns hired by Syngenta in response to a protest against genetically modified food.

To write to the authorities condemning this brutal attack, see the Food First Urgent Action (scroll down past the Michael Pollan article...

PRESS RELEASE

21/10/07

Attack of Syngenta?s armed militia results in deaths and wounded in Brazil

During an attack of an armed militia with around 40 gunmen on the peasant? camp at the experimental field trial of Syngenta Seeds multinational, at Santa Teresa do Oeste, at 13:30h of today (October 21st), a Via Campesina member, Valmir Motta, 32 years old, father of 3 children, was executed with two shots to his chest. Other six rural workers are severely wounded and a gunmen was possibly killed. ... read more »

Urgent action: Syngenta vs Family Farmers in Brazil

Raj — Thu, 31 May 2007 10:51:16 -0600

Syngenta Threatens to Violently Expel the Family Farmers of the Via Campesina from the Free Land encampment: Act Now!

The multinational Syngenta Seeds is pressuring the Governor of the State of Paraná to expel the family farmers of the Via Campesina currently residing on the Free Land encampment with police force.

The 120 families occupied the area more than a year ago, in protest to the environmental crime committed by Syngenta. The multinational illegally cultivated genetically-modified soy and corn at the site, within the protective zoner of the Iguaçu National Park. The family farmers demanded that Syngenta pay the fine of US$ 465,000, imposed on the corporation by the IBAMA, the federal environmental agency. In November of 2006, the Governor of Paraná expropriated Syngenta´s site, and planned to turn the area into an agroecological research center. ... read more »

Brazil's Biofuel Slaves

Raj — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:20:10 -0600

Here's a story well worth reading, one that gives the lie to the 'biofuels boom' promoted by, among others, The World Bank as a balm to poverty. As if further evidence were needed.

Brazil's ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom

Tom Phillips in Palmares Paulista
Friday March 9, 2007
The Guardian ... read more »

Celebrate International Women's Day: Invade an Ethanol Plant

Raj — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:07:47 -0700

It's biofuels a-go-go here at Stuffed and Starved with yet another post on the theme. That the wires are buzzing with news about biofuels is welcome, though. It means the newsagencies are catching up with the struggles in the fields.

Yesterday saw news of an important protest against agribusiness giant, Cargill. It's important not just because it shows the depth of resistance to what's happening in the name of 'alternative energy', but also because in the lead were the women of the Brazilian Landless Rural Worker's Movement (MST). The opposition to biofuels in Brazil is as broad as it is deep.... ... read more »

The Myth of Biofuels

Raj — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:45:00 -0700

Following up on yesterday's post here's some more biofuels from Brazil. ... read more »

Running on Empty

Raj — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:06:24 -0700

Here's something that has just come over the wires. It's a statement from some of the most important social movements in Latin America, and it's a deep indictment of biofuels.

The Brazilian 'biofuels' miracle has been powered by sugar cane. All along, those in the fields have known the cost of the biofuel venture.It's often forgotten that biofuels need to be grown somewhere. And when they are, they're not grown in a mom-and-pop scatter-a-few-seeds-on-the-ground-and-soon-you'll-have-a-gas-tree sort of way. It's big, industry and monoculture. It's a multimillion dollar affair. And, in Brazil, it's an engine of exploitation and environmental destruction. Here's the text. ... read more »

Two MST Human Rights defenders detained since Feb. 1st

Raj — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:19:22 -0700

[ACT NOW] Two MST Human Rights defenders detained since Feb. 1st **DRAFT LETTER INCLUDED**
MST Brazil - 15 February, 2007 - 15:13

Dear Friends of the MST,

We write to let you know that Almir Silva Xavier and Everaldo Miguel Oliveira, MST rural workers and human rights defenders, have been jailed in the town of Águas Belas, state of Pernambuco, since February the 1st.

Please join others in sending letters of support to the judge and prosecutor's office in question.

More here.

Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST)

Raj — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:00:57 -0700

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, or in Portuguese Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), is the largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members organized in 23 out 27 states. The MST carries out long-overdue land reform in a country mired by unjust land distribution. In Brazil, 1.6% of the landowners control roughly half (46.8%) of the land on which crops could be grown. Just 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all arable lands.

The organisation's Portuguese language website is here and the US-based Friends of the MST can be reached through ... read more »