AP/Dario López

Member of Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) constructs home June 7 at Tres Marias ranch, state of Paraná, southern Brazil, on land taken over by MST.

Politicians from the region, said the July 29 London Financial Times, “are pressing the government to act firmly against a wave of land seizures” organized by the MST. The occupations have targeted large farms, cattle ranches, and sugar mills. The protesters have also set up expanding encampments along highways to publicize their demands. Some 150,000 families are living in 1,300 squatter settlements established by the MST.

“We need to discuss this issue to avoid social turmoil,” said Wilma de Faria, the governor of Rio Grande do Norte state. “There are a lot of expectations and I need to know how the government is going to deal with them.”

On July 28 several governors sent a delegation to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to demand “more decisive action to crack down on the illegal occupations,” according to the Financial Times. The politicians joined with capitalist farmers in calling for the indictment and imprisonment of MST leader João Pedro Stedile after he was quoted as saying, “The peasant struggle includes 23 million people. On the other side are 27,000 ranchers. That is the dispute. We won’t sleep until we do away with them.”

Nearly half of arable land in Brazil, a country of 165 million people, is owned by 3 percent of the population; the poorest 40 percent own just 1 percent of the land.

Big landowners are stepping up pressure on da Silva’s seven-month-old Workers Party (PT) administration to move against the protests. “We have a president who swore to respect and uphold the constitution but is not doing so,” fumed rancher Luiz Antônio Nabhan Garcia, president of the Democratic Rural Union. “When land invasions take place, the police stand by with arms crossed, because this government has no will to enforce the law.”

“People can protest and react…but we won’t accept the law to be broken,” da Silva’s justice minister Márcio Tomaz Bastos said. “The government will act energetically to ensure legality.”

Government officials have stated that increases in agricultural production and exports are key elements in steadying the capitalist economy after years of crisis. Da Silva’s administration has granted land titles to 2,500 families this year. PT president José Genoino told the New York Times, “There is room in Brazil for everything from agribusiness to cooperatives and family farms. They can all coexist comfortably, just as some people wear jackets and ties and others prefer shorts and sandals.”

Garcia, the rancher, had a different approach. “Landowners can’t take it any more,” he said, “and they are taking advantage of their right under law to arm themselves, their relatives, and their employees to protect their property.”

The MST has organized many land seizures since its founding in 1984. Its website states that through these struggles some 250,000 families have won title to 15 million acres of land across the country. The organization has also created 60 food cooperatives, and has initiated a literacy program involving 600 teachers.

Occupations have spread to the cities. On July 18 some 4,000 people organized by the Movement of Workers Without a Roof (MTST) occupied land in São Paulo owned by Volkswagen. The squatters are demanding title to the land so they can build new homes. The government has threatened to use riot police to evict them. “We’re open to negotiations, but the negotiations have to produce a victory,” said MTST leader João Batista Jota. “If there’s no place to go, we’re going to resist.”  
 
 
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