This is Brazil, but it isn’t Carnaval. There are no sequins or bright feathers here in Rio Novo. Instead, a ragtag group of children huddle together around the fire, trying to stay warm, while their parents rush to pitch makeshift plastic tents and organize the scant food and medicines they brought to this empty farmland. There are no beds, mattresses or even extra clothes or tools. The chilling rains are endless, leaving everyone with hacking coughs. And yet the collective mood is bold and strong, approaching gaiety. These people are members of the Movement of the Landless (MST), and right now they are seizing the land they need for their very survival.
They know their legal rights. The Brazilian Constitution clearly mandates that all land must serve a social function. Lands lying empty and unused may be forcibly purchased—not expropriated—by the government and resold to the landless poor at low interest rates and flexible payment schedules. This constitutional clause is remarkable in a nation where the land distribution patterns have changed little since the times of the conquistadors. A mere 1% of the population owns 50% of the land, while one-fourth of the people live in conditions of the most abject poverty. Educational opportunities are scarce and the cities offer little in the way of employment. For many, the choice is simple enough. Find land or starve.
The MST began to press for enforcement of the Constitution some 15 years ago. Rejecting outright the use of violence, the member families have peacefully occupied unused lands throughout the country, insisting that the government take action and secure farmland for the country’s 4.8 million farmers who lack access to land. The MST provides members with medical, agricultural and administrative training, as well as assistance in establishing community schools, food cooperatives and leadership workshops. The initial hardships for the families have been fierce, but the results speak for themselves. More than 300,000 families have gained farmland through MST actions. This has had a ripple effect, creating jobs for local workers and profits for nearby merchants. By contrast, during the last few years of President Cardoso’s administration and its neoliberal policies more than 400,000 other citizens have lost their plots and have nowhere to go but the streets.
One might well expect such a positive grassroots campaign to draw world support, and even serve as a model for other nations in this hemisphere. Yet a new World Bank program is now threatening the MST with extinction.
Ostensibly, the World Bank program, to be carried out with the Brazilian government, has precisely the same goals as the MST: to provide the poor with urgently needed lands. Under the new program, the Brazilian government will set up a land bank and resort to market principles for guidance instead of the Constitution. Loans will be made to the poor to assist them in purchasing lands. No landowners will be forced to sell, however, no matter how much of their property is lying unused or empty. The amount and quality of land available for redistribution will therefore be greatly limited.
Since the starting point here is one of feudal land-holding patterns, this hardly bodes well for any genuine reforms. Worse yet, the terms of the loans virtually assure that the poor will lose their hard-won lands within just a few years. Under the old government program, the MST families received a five-year grace period before payments began. They could use this period to obtain credit for housing materials, tools and agricultural supplies, giving them time to make their lands productive before payments came due. There is no grace period under the new land bank program. This not only means there will be no chance for families to establish themselves before making payments, but also that it will be impossible to obtain additional credit for badly needed supplies. Still worse, the old 6% interest rate will be increased threefold to 18%. There is a foregone conclusion here: The land will go from rich to poor to rich again. The more things change the more they stay the same.
As the settlers at Rio Novo struggle to pitch their tents in the rain, they recognize that the future is bleak. They had quietly settled on the land here for a full year, and the courts had recognized that the property was eligible for government purchase. But in May, in a burst of violence, the police threw the settlers out. Outraged, they took the land back, only to find their houses gone, their crops pulled out by the roots and their pumpkin patch sprayed with poison by the owner. Such forced expulsions are happening with increasing frequency. In the province of Paraná, there is an ongoing campaign to drive out the MST communities. Some 41 leaders have been thrown in jail on trumped-up charges, and several have been tortured. The remaining leaders are in hiding. The goal, it seems, is to shut down the MST efforts in order to make way for the new World Bank program without protest or interference—or more successful alternatives.
At the Rio Novo encampment, a tired young man sits on a sack of grain in the makeshift clinic. He is a settler from a neighboring MST community who, like so many others, has come to help out. He has been with the MST campaign since his teens, and sees the program as the only way out of poverty for himself and his children. Some 500 similar MST encampments, sheltering 100,000 families, now exist and are awaiting government purchase. However, as the government shifts to the land bank program, the budget for such purchases has been drastically cut, leaving the settlers with a dim future.
The tired young man peels off his wet jacket and hangs it up to dry. “This World Bank program,” he says slowly, shaking his head, “is going to kill all of us poor people.”
For up-to-date information on the MST and its struggles, as well as other information on the Americas, see Global Exhange’s Web page at:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Harbury is a lawyer and Human Rights Program Director at Global Exchange. She is author of Bridge of Courage (Common Courage Press, 1993).
