Land Has to be in Hands of People: Lula at Agrarian Reform Rally
The president stated that the government created a “shelf” of land for agrarian reform and that now is the time to distribute it. Photo: Lucas Bois/MST
On Friday, March 7, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the delivery of 12,297 plots to families camped in 138 rural settlements spread across 24 states in the country. The announcement, made during the National Act in Defense of Agrarian Reform, in Campo do Meio in the state of Minas Gerais, marks the resumption of the country’s land distribution policy.
“The land has to be in the hands of the people so that they can produce,” said Lula, who signed seven decrees of social interest for agrarian reform purposes, totaling 13,307 hectares and Rs 189 million in investments, with the potential to serve around 800 families.
The event was held at the Quilombo Campo Grande camp, a complex of 11 areas, occupied 27 years ago by families linked to the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST). Since the occupations began, the residents have been evicted 11 times and had a school and crops destroyed.
Protest for agrarian reform drew a crowd with Lula present. Photo: Sara Gehren/MST
This was the president’s first visit to a Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) camp in his third term. Lula said that it took his team the first few years in office to survey the land available for land reform.
“It took us two years to achieve this,” said the president, justifying the delay in starting to hand over the land. “Now we need to make this area available so that we can start settling, not just those who are already in camps, but so that other people who want to can have the right to work,” he says.
At the event, the federal government announced Rs 1.6 billion for Installation Credit in 2025, intended for newly settled families. The benefit can be applied to housing, initial support and the promotion of young people and women in agrarian reform.
“It’s a great thrill, the fruit of a lot of struggle,” celebrates farmer Helen Mayara dos Santos, who has lived in the area for 18 years and grows coffee, corn, beans and other food. Without land regularization, farmers not only suffered violence, such as eviction attempts, the farmers were unable to access credit and trade with cooperatives. “We have a cooperative here and we can’t cooperate because we don’t have a land document. We were on a camp, we’re not recognized,” he says.
For Nei Zavaski, from the national leadership of the MST, Friday’s announcements and decrees show the way to achieving agrarian reform, “which is through popular organization, mobilization and struggle.”
This was the president’s first visit to an MST camp during his third term. Photo: Lucas Bois/MST
Those who produce food still have little land
During the event, Edjane Rodrigues Silva, National Secretary for National Policies at the National Confederation of Rural Workers and Family Farmers (CONTAG), cited data from the 2017 Agricultural Census carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) to highlight the concentration of land in Brazil.
According to Silva, Brazil has more than 5.7 million agricultural establishments. Of these, those with areas of less than 10 hectares occupy just 2.29% of the national territory. Areas of more than 1,000 hectares account for 47% of the entire national territory, although they represent only 1% of the country’s rural properties.
“That’s what’s wrong in this country, because the properties that hold up to 100 hectares account for practically 70, 80% of the food we consume in Brazil,” says Lula.
CONTAG’s secretary emphasized that “family farming will put an end to hunger in Brazil, with fair prices for both those who sell and those who buy.”
Commitment to paying the plant’s employees
The area of Quilombo Campo Grande belonged to Companhia Agropecuária Irmãos Azevedo (CAPIA), the former administrator of Usina Ariadnópolis Açúcar e Álcool S/A. The company went bankrupt in the 1990s without paying its employees their labor rights, and they decided to occupy the land.
Batista expects compensation for working for free as a child for the Ariadnópolis Plant. Photo: Carolina Bataier/Brasil de Fato
This is the case of farmer Rubens Leal Batista, who was born in the territory. In his childhood, he even worked for the mill for free. “The owner of the company made our parents take us to work on the farm for free for them,” he says. He recalls that the owners of the company used to justify that the children of the employees needed to work without pay “to learn”.
Now, in addition to seeing his land regularized, Batista has been informed that he will be able to count on the support of the federal government in the search for the labor rights that remain outstanding.
“We arrived here and received a complaint that many of the comrades here have a claim,” said Jorge Messias, Minister of the Federal Attorney General’s Office. “We will be at your side, going to the Public Labor Ministry, going to the labor police station, to recognize your rights,” he promised.
For Batista, the announcement is of great importance. “Many comrades, former employees of the plant, have already fallen..decades ago, right?” he says. He says that although some of his former colleagues have passed away, others who, like him, worked at the plant without a formal contract, are still alive. “If this lawyer gets us compensation, it will be fantastic,” he says. “But the most important thing now in the struggle for us was this decree, so that we can be at peace, work in peace on our plot,” he celebrates.
No comments:
Post a Comment