On November 30, peasants in Messias, in the northeastern state of Alagoas, retook their camp at Lajeiro which is part of the Renato Nathan Revolutionary Area, occupied since 2008. When Military Police (MP) attempted to storm the new encampment, the peasants set fire to a barricade and turned the MP away. The rebuilding efforts include working the land and a poster to support the resistance of the Zumbi dos Palmares camp also in Messias has been posted on the site.
The peasants are organized under the leadership of the League of Poor Peasants (Liga dos Camponeses Pobres – LCP). The LCP fights for Agrarian Revolution in service to the New Democratic Revolution of Brazil.
On December 3, 180 peasant families raised the ire of landowners after occupying two farms in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, an action organized under the Landless Rural Workers Movement (Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Teto – MST). The action comes within the MST’s broader campaign to pressure the government to accelerate the process of land purchases. An MST representative said, ‘We don’t leave here without an achievement,” adding, “Our motto is Christmas with land.”
Brazilian democratic, revolutionary newspaper A Nova Democracia highlights the actions in Rio Grande so Sul as demonstrating that the “struggle for land is in a general trend of sharpening, which crosses the country from North to South, even crossing the indigenous and quilombola [note: descendants of escaped Black slaves] struggle, facts that have been reported daily on the AND portal.”
In response to the ongoing advances of revolutionaries, democratic peoples, and peasants fighting for Agrarian Revolution in the countryside, the government of Brazil passed a bill on December 11 which removes the need for judicial authorization for police to launch attacks on the camps of peasants, indigenous peoples and quilombolas—a service to the big landlords who claim the land against those who work it.
The bill also moves to classify land seizures and other acts of resistance as ‘terrorism,’ with penalties of between 1-4 years in prison. The law merely legalizes the existing practices of the latifundium (the semi-feudal landlord system) and government, where military police act in concert with landlords to terrorize the peasants who fight for the land on which they live and work. This “expresses the fear of the old State of the organization of the peasants,” in the words of AND.
The LCP of North Minas and South Bahia, an area which straddles the region where the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia meet, has denounced new persecutions of the Mae Bernadete Camp in a statement released earlier this month. The LCP highlights how Calsete, a mining company displacing peasants in the area, is now pursuing environmental studies as a means of further harassment of peasants “planting crops.” The irony is that in 2003, Calsete itself was fined $11 million reales (nearly $2 million US dollars) for the destruction of native forests in the area.
Scenes of peasant livestock and agriculture at Camp Mae Bernadete
The LCP’s pamphlet states “The [peasants’] farms are beautiful and represent the bounty of our communities. Very different from a bunch of parasites that live off the sweat and blood of our people, exploiting and oppressing.” They continue, saying the camp’s resistance, “is an example of struggle for all the peasants in the region, who live surrounded and threatened by the latifundium. Just as it was with the fight at the Camp Trevo/Porto Agrário in Minas Gerais where the landowner was king and many did not believe that the peasants would win. Whoever attacked, got what is coming!”
In early December, peasants from the Zumbi dos Palmares Camp in Messias, in the northeastern state of Alagoas, successfully freed squatters held by Military Police (MP). After peasants held vigil at the courthouse in Rio Largo, authorities conceded to the demand for the release of the three detainees. The squatters had been detained without warrants during an invasion by goons of local landlords, supported by the police, which included police harassment questioning the camp’s flying of the Palestinian flag. On an instagram page (@comitedeato_messias) representing supporters of the camp, a post responded, “Answer: Internationalism, the struggle for the conquest of land by the oppressed peoples of the world, peasants are the Palestinians in Brazil. It’s the same fight.”
On December 5, the people rallied in the federal capital, Brasilia, to protest the persecution of 11 activists affiliated with the Popular Resistance Movement (Movimento de Resistência Popular – MRP). The action was headed by the MRP Solidarity Committee and during the intervention, banners including the slogans “Death to the Latifundium! Long Live Agrarian Revolution!” and “Struggling is Not a Crime!” were displayed during the hearing of Constitution and Justice and Citizenship Commission of Chamber of Deputies. The MRP activists are charged with crimes connected to their support for land seizures.
In recognition of the Day of the Black People, which takes place on November 20, a day of events was held in Betim, Minas Gerais by the residents commission of Vila Bandeira Vermelha (Red Flag Village), an urban settlement in the greater Belo Horizonte area. The event focused on public health in the morning, with a demonstration to aid women in the prevention of breast cancer and teaching self-examination methods, while children participated in a storytime as well as hygiene lessons through games. A discussion focused on the political history of Black people in Brazil, highlighting the latifundium’s role in the formation of Brazil, and explained how the dispossession of Black people in the countryside led to their displacement to the outskirts of the cities in favelas.
The State Union of Education Professionals of Rio de Janeiro rallied in front of the city council on December 5 to expose the “enemies of education” for their support of the PLC 186, a legislative package which increases required classroom hours from 26 to 32 hours per week and reduces planning time from 14 down to 8 hours. The union has been in a state of strike and particularly denounces politicians of the so-called “Workers Party” (PT – Partido de Trabalhadores) who voted for the legislation. Teachers hung posters of those who voted for PLC 186 in front of City Hall, and destroyed effigies of Mayor Eduardo Paes and his education secretary.
A teacher says that their movement “has not had this level of mobilization” since 2013, which saw a massive surge in protest movements as students, workers, democrats and the people rose up mainly in the cities rose up against the opportunist PT government in the midst of the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup and Olympics.
Student activists of the Maruí Movement at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Florianopolis commemorated the 45th anniversary of the “Novembrada,” a protest action that occurred during the 1979 visit of João Figueiredo, the 30th president of Brazil who was the last in the line of the military regime which ruled Brazil from 1964 until 1985. Students have held other actions at the university in recent years at the student Community Center, the same site of the 1979 Novembrada, which has fallen in to disrepair due to the neglect and disinvestment of university administration.
Students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) marched to defend the School of Social Sciences, which they say is on the brink of dissolution due to precarious administration in all areas.
Updates come from the Federal University of Ceara (UFC) that the administration has pushed back against the student council’s vote to name an outdoor auditorium after Bergson Gurjão, a former student at UFC and communist militant who was tortured to death after his capture as part of the Araguaia guerrilla. Despite the administration trying to keep the old name and offer a token recognition for Gurjão, students decided to continue referring to the space in honor of Gurjão.
The movements of students and education professionals has been vigorously active linking the struggles in public education and popular movements to the fight in the countryside. The same day that the government passed its December 11 legislation to oppose the Agrarian Revolution, activists dropped a massive 60-foot banner along the face of the main building of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ) reading “Long Live Agrarian Revolution, Death to the Latifundium!” The action was accompanied by leafleting and putting up flyers in the main lobby to support struggles such as those of Barro Branco (Pernambuco), Messias (Alagoas) and Dourados (Mato Grosso do Sul).
At the School of Social Work at the Federal University of Alagoas last Monday, a forum brought together peasants, students, and other democrats to discuss the nearby struggles at the Zumbi dos Palmares Camp and celebrate its victories against landlord and government incursions. In attendance were peasants who had recently been detained and freed, along with representatives of the LCP, who all made clear and precise denunciations of the Old State’s war on the peasants.
A member of the LCP assessed the recent battles: “The Zumbi dos Palmares camp only experienced a rehearsal, resisting 48 hours against the wind and the tide. The Camp demonstrated that it is possible to resist the enemy, encouraged the people to fight and pointed towards the way of the Agrarian Revolution. The promise of our movement is to win back the land, ever growing stronger and more prepared. The peasantry of Messias, Alagoas, together with the student supporters and workers of the city, reaffirm their decision on the path of the struggle for the Agrarian Revolution with the approval of a combative plan of struggles to reorganize families and rebuild the Zumbi dos Palmares Camp.”
The Worker continues to raise the banner of international solidarity with the justified rebellions in Brazil, extending its unwavering support to their struggle for new democratic revolution and the right to self determination free of imperialism and reaction. We call on our readers to redouble their efforts to express solidarity and support the struggles in Brazil over the coming months, and to send reports and contributions to our email.
image: Mobilization in the federal capital, Brasilia, to oppose the criminalization of activists who are part of the land struggle in the Brazilian countryside
