News and Updates: all
Indians celebrated the ruling as a confirmation of land rights they were granted in 1988 [AFP] The Amazon's indigenous groups have won a major victory with Brazil's Supreme Court upholding the integrity of a vast native reserve. Friday's ruling paves the way for the expulsion of white farmers living in the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve the...
by Plinio Arruda Sampaio Published in Folha de S. Paulo, March 16, 2009 Today, the MST is struggling against an intermittent type of attack: an attack sponsored by enemies visible and invisible. The MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) is subject to two types of attack: the permanent and intermittent. The first type is directed daily...
By Immanuel Wallerstein This article appeared in the March 23, 2009 edition of The Nation. There seem to me to be two occasions, which require two plans for the world left, and in particular for the US left. The first occasion is in the short run. The world is in a deep depression, which will only get worse for at least the next one or two...
Women from La Via Campesina mobilized last week on March 8th for International Women’s Day. The fight is our historic tool to denounce the agribusiness model which is socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable. We also question the role of the State, which in the wake of a deep structural economic crisis, chooses to aid big private...
The City that Ended Hunger A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger. by Frances Moore Lappé Published on Friday, March 13, 2009 by YES! Magazine "To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer."...
Director-General of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Commends the Struggle of Women of Via Campesina MST Press Release (March 10, 2009) On the second day of mobilization of the International Women's Day by Via Campesina, a committee of farmers has been received in Brasilia by the Director-General of FAO (UN Food and...
In recent days, the press has been giving rise to a series of materials about the MST that express an offensive of the right-wing forces. For this reason, we interviewed a member of MST national direction, João Paulo Rodrigues, to explain the position of the Movement regarding the main topics of the offensive. What is the reaction of...
The Landless Workers Movement (MST) announces its sorrow at the death on Thursday February 5 of the Federal Deputy Adão Pretto and extends its solidarity to the family at this time of loss for Brazilian society.
Since the beginning of his social activism in the Ecclesiastical Base Communities and in the rural union movement, Adão Pretto...
In our 13th National Meeting we received the support of many friends of the Agrarian Reform movement. On the 24th, representatives from the political left, trade organizations, churches, intellectuals, leaders and activists from Brazil and other countries met to discuss politics. Our meeting brought together more than 1,500 activists from the...
Migration and Mechanization in Brazil's Biofuel Cane Fields Gretchen Gordon | February 9, 2009 In the rich sugarcane region of São Paulo lies the quiet town of Guariba. Outside the Catholic Church in Guariba's main square, a driver parallel parks his horse and cart in between a Chevy and a Fiat. A street vendor pushes a stalk of sugarcane...