Brazil: Thousands of families occupy senator's farm
Brazil: Thousands of families occupy senator's farm
Saturday, September 6, 2014
More than 3000 landless families occupied the Santa Monica farm in Brazil on August 31.
The farm, registered in the name of businessperson and Brazilian Democratic Movement Party Senator Eunicio Oliveira, is a complex of more than 20,000 hectares. It is self-declared as unproductive.
The occupation was organised by the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), a powerful Brazilian social movement that fights for land for the poor.
Oliveira is a candidate for governor of the state of Ceara. He is considered the richest candidate for governor in Brazil, with declared assets worth about R$100 million (almost A$50 million).
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This is a clear example of how the Brazilian state has deep ties with landowners and agribusiness. The national parliament is dominated by large farmers, who make up more than one third of the total number of deputies and senators. There are fewer than a dozen peasant representatives.
It is precisely these large farmers who destroyed the forest law and are now moving to destroy indigenous lands as well as defending the easing of labour laws and preventing stricter regulation of pesticides.
Despite the power of agribusiness, which influences the electoral process and finances the campaign of the leading candidates for executive and legislative positions, the strength of our occupation demonstrates that this death model is living on borrowed time.
As the largest occupation held in the state of Goias in the past 10 years, it is made up of young men and women who demonstrate the relevance of agrarian reform for a new development project for the country. Such a project must be based on the real needs of the working people in Brazil. With this occupation, the MST reaffirms its commitment to Brazilian society to fight for the end of the large estates, against agribusiness and for the production of healthy food for the people of the city and countryside.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57285
