On Occupied Territory
Santos Valdir Jora, 35, occupied a 623-hectare farm with 43 families tied to MST in Paranapoema, a small rural village on the Parana-Sao Paulo border in south-central Brazil. The Brazilian National Institute for Land Reform, known here by the acronym INCRA, expropriated the unproductive farmland owned by an elderly widow and divided it up among the families. Jora has a 14.5-hectare lot all to himself now.
He spent his life working the land, and his experience has visibly paid off. Jaro’s property is the most advanced and upscale of the families living at the Mãe de Deus Farm. What once housed himself and his family of four, is now a tool and feed shed. A typical, middle class, three bedroom home stands ten feet away, painted white.
“I can tell you that some of the people who are tied to MST are not interested in working the land. I know people who were given property from INCRA and have done nothing,” he said, standing beside a wire fence on his property. White spotted Angolan Chickens run around the property beside him. A green parrot hangs outside a wooden birdhouse, eating seed. Regarding some of his former peers, he said, “They’re happy with the bare minimum.”
Although Jaro has no contact with MST today, he said the organization improved his life. “Without MST, I’d have no life for my family,” he said. “I’ve got three children. They’re in school now.”
MST says that they only target unproductive farms, those massive tracts of land that are either left vacant, or not serving a social purpose (breaking labor laws, for example), as defined by the government.
Yet, right next door to Jaro’s land, hundreds of people remain camped out in huts made of tree branches and black plastic sheeting on the Santa Terezinha Farm owned by Alexandre Maehara. On Maehara’s land sits a massive roadside sign by INCRA that says the land is productive and will not be expropriated. Even more stunning is the fact that Paranapoema has less than 3,000 inhabitants, and MST said that 3,000 people invaded Maehara’s 1,210-hectare farm, where they have been since Aug. 5, 2003.
“They’ve taken everything,” said Luiz Gallant, Maehara’s farm manager. “I’ve got 2.42 hectares to work with now. That’s it. I don’t know how many people are down there. I’m a little afraid to talk to them.”
Walking along a small road in the center of town in Paranapoema, two women in red MST baseball hats, accompanied by a teenage boy, were heading up the street towards the farmlands. They said they were not members of MST and did not want to identify themselves, but one of them said that her brother-in-law was camped out on Maehara’s farm. He has a house in town, she said. Why is he there? He just wants land, she shrugged.
“They don’t want to farm the land,” said Edson Neme Ruiz, president of the Rural Society of Parana. Parana has the largest number of MST families now living on expropriated farmland south of the equator. Ceara state in the north has the largest number of families in the nation. “Many of these people just want free land. Sometimes they take over the land and just sell it with no title, nothing,” he said.
Rocha said that a movement the size of MST is bound to have its share of unsavory characters. But the group has used land invasions as a political tool, she said, to get the federal government to move forward on land reform matters.
Brazil is notorious for its land distribution problems. Much of the land here is in the hands of private investors. Some have used land for money laundering or for investment property in an unstable economy that has a history of currency changes and market crashes. The International Labor Organization of the U.N. has come down on Brazil for slave cases on massive private farms. Last year, a top Supreme Court judge, Mauricio Correia, was found to have used slave labor (work for food) on his farm in the West. It is socially excluded laborers like that that make up the bulk of the landless movement.
However, as Brazil continues its rise as a massive agriculture producer, larger export driven agribusiness estates are becoming the norm.
As it is, agribusiness makes up roughly 42% of the country’s exports and 37% of the country’s job market. MST is against large agribusiness, they have stated numerous times, and have recently taken to invading these properties.
In April, nearly 30,000 families invaded 135 farms in 17 of Brazil’s 26 states. By MSTs own estimates, four of those properties were massive productive farms owned by corporations.
Joao Paulo Rodrigues, an MST coordinator in the capital city of Brasilia, suggests that the movement is moving away from its traditional concern of agrarian reform and focusing on poor and working class issues. “In general, we have a very serious problem with unemployment in this country,” Rodrigues said. Unemployment in Sao Paulo, for example, hit a record 20.7% in May. “I haven’t seen it this bad in 20 years. We have to change the economic model.”
MST is clearly the lead agitator for agrarian reform, though there are an estimated 70 such groups nationwide.
The Fan Base
The group that Morris and the World Food Program intents to work with has very little fans in the country and their support among the majority of Brazilians is weak, mainly because of their land invasion strategy. On the other hand, support for land reform is high. Every farmer interviewed for the story said that when their property was invaded, MST killed their farm animals and destroyed their crops. Some were held at gunpoint. Weeds have largely overcome Maehara’s property.
Kamal El Kadre of Londrina, Parana had his farm invaded for 15 days. He said that 300 families came in a two-day occupying wave on Aug 15 and 16, 2003. “They just destroyed the farm,” he said. “After that, you lose interest in working again.”
Ivone Henrique DeMelo, 59, of Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, said her 329-hectare farm was invaded on Nov 11, 1999, one year after her father’s property was expropriated by INCRA. “I drove to the property to negotiate with them, but they wouldn’t let me in,” she said. “They killed a lot of my cattle, destroyed my tractor, and cut down bamboo and eucalyptus trees.” The damage cost her 180 thousand Brazilian reals, or roughly $175,000 in 1999 dollar terms.
The paper and pulp industry has asked the government to take a “firm position” [1] against invasions of productive farmland. Osmar Zogbi, president of The Brazilian Paper and Pulp Association said MST was a threat to job creation. According to Zogbi, the sector is hoping to invest $14.4 billion in expansion in the next 10 years, leading to the creation of 60 thousand jobs, they said. Invasions pose increased investment risk, Zogbi said.
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Santos Valdir Jora, 35, occupied a 623-hectare farm with 43 families tied to MST in Paranapoema, a small rural village on the Parana-Sao Paulo border in south-central Brazil. The Brazilian National Institute for Land Reform, known here by the acronym INCRA, expropriated the unproductive farmland owned by an elderly widow and divided it up among the families. Jora has a 14.5-hectare lot all to himself now.
He spent his life working the land, and his experience has visibly paid off. Jaro’s property is the most advanced and upscale of the families living at the Mãe de Deus Farm. What once housed himself and his family of four, is now a tool and feed shed. A typical, middle class, three bedroom home stands ten feet away, painted white.
“I can tell you that some of the people who are tied to MST are not interested in working the land. I know people who were given property from INCRA and have done nothing,” he said, standing beside a wire fence on his property. White spotted Angolan Chickens run around the property beside him. A green parrot hangs outside a wooden birdhouse, eating seed. Regarding some of his former peers, he said, “They’re happy with the bare minimum.”
Although Jaro has no contact with MST today, he said the organization improved his life. “Without MST, I’d have no life for my family,” he said. “I’ve got three children. They’re in school now.”
MST says that they only target unproductive farms, those massive tracts of land that are either left vacant, or not serving a social purpose (breaking labor laws, for example), as defined by the government.
Yet, right next door to Jaro’s land, hundreds of people remain camped out in huts made of tree branches and black plastic sheeting on the Santa Terezinha Farm owned by Alexandre Maehara. On Maehara’s land sits a massive roadside sign by INCRA that says the land is productive and will not be expropriated. Even more stunning is the fact that Paranapoema has less than 3,000 inhabitants, and MST said that 3,000 people invaded Maehara’s 1,210-hectare farm, where they have been since Aug. 5, 2003.
“They’ve taken everything,” said Luiz Gallant, Maehara’s farm manager. “I’ve got 2.42 hectares to work with now. That’s it. I don’t know how many people are down there. I’m a little afraid to talk to them.”
Walking along a small road in the center of town in Paranapoema, two women in red MST baseball hats, accompanied by a teenage boy, were heading up the street towards the farmlands. They said they were not members of MST and did not want to identify themselves, but one of them said that her brother-in-law was camped out on Maehara’s farm. He has a house in town, she said. Why is he there? He just wants land, she shrugged.
“They don’t want to farm the land,” said Edson Neme Ruiz, president of the Rural Society of Parana. Parana has the largest number of MST families now living on expropriated farmland south of the equator. Ceara state in the north has the largest number of families in the nation. “Many of these people just want free land. Sometimes they take over the land and just sell it with no title, nothing,” he said.
Rocha said that a movement the size of MST is bound to have its share of unsavory characters. But the group has used land invasions as a political tool, she said, to get the federal government to move forward on land reform matters.
Brazil is notorious for its land distribution problems. Much of the land here is in the hands of private investors. Some have used land for money laundering or for investment property in an unstable economy that has a history of currency changes and market crashes. The International Labor Organization of the U.N. has come down on Brazil for slave cases on massive private farms. Last year, a top Supreme Court judge, Mauricio Correia, was found to have used slave labor (work for food) on his farm in the West. It is socially excluded laborers like that that make up the bulk of the landless movement.
However, as Brazil continues its rise as a massive agriculture producer, larger export driven agribusiness estates are becoming the norm.
As it is, agribusiness makes up roughly 42% of the country’s exports and 37% of the country’s job market. MST is against large agribusiness, they have stated numerous times, and have recently taken to invading these properties.
In April, nearly 30,000 families invaded 135 farms in 17 of Brazil’s 26 states. By MSTs own estimates, four of those properties were massive productive farms owned by corporations.
Joao Paulo Rodrigues, an MST coordinator in the capital city of Brasilia, suggests that the movement is moving away from its traditional concern of agrarian reform and focusing on poor and working class issues. “In general, we have a very serious problem with unemployment in this country,” Rodrigues said. Unemployment in Sao Paulo, for example, hit a record 20.7% in May. “I haven’t seen it this bad in 20 years. We have to change the economic model.”
MST is clearly the lead agitator for agrarian reform, though there are an estimated 70 such groups nationwide.
The Fan Base
The group that Morris and the World Food Program intents to work with has very little fans in the country and their support among the majority of Brazilians is weak, mainly because of their land invasion strategy. On the other hand, support for land reform is high. Every farmer interviewed for the story said that when their property was invaded, MST killed their farm animals and destroyed their crops. Some were held at gunpoint. Weeds have largely overcome Maehara’s property.
Kamal El Kadre of Londrina, Parana had his farm invaded for 15 days. He said that 300 families came in a two-day occupying wave on Aug 15 and 16, 2003. “They just destroyed the farm,” he said. “After that, you lose interest in working again.”
Ivone Henrique DeMelo, 59, of Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, said her 329-hectare farm was invaded on Nov 11, 1999, one year after her father’s property was expropriated by INCRA. “I drove to the property to negotiate with them, but they wouldn’t let me in,” she said. “They killed a lot of my cattle, destroyed my tractor, and cut down bamboo and eucalyptus trees.” The damage cost her 180 thousand Brazilian reals, or roughly $175,000 in 1999 dollar terms.
The paper and pulp industry has asked the government to take a “firm position” [1] against invasions of productive farmland. Osmar Zogbi, president of The Brazilian Paper and Pulp Association said MST was a threat to job creation. According to Zogbi, the sector is hoping to invest $14.4 billion in expansion in the next 10 years, leading to the creation of 60 thousand jobs, they said. Invasions pose increased investment risk, Zogbi said.
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