Open Forum: World Bank Takes Aim at Brazil's Landless Movement
Harbury, Jennifer
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...
...The Brazilian Constitution clearly mandates that all land must serve a social function...
...Yet a new World Bank program is now threatening the MST with extinction...
...There are no beds, mattresses or even extra clothes or tools...
...This World Bank program," he says slowly, shaking his head, "is going to kill all of us poor people...
...The MST began to press for enforcement of the Constitution some 15 years ago...
...They know their legal rights...
...Such forced expulsions are happening with increasing frequency...
...Under the old government program, the MST families received a five-year grace period before payments began...
...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...
...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...
...More than 300,000 families have gained farmland through MST actions...
...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...
...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...
...The MST provides members with medical, agricultural and administrative training, as well as assistance in establishing community schools, food cooperatives and leadership workshops...
...He is a settler from a neighboring MST community who, like so many others, has come to help out...
...The remaining leaders are in hiding...
...No landowners will be forced to sell, however, no matter how much of their property is lying unused or empty...
...Since the starting point here is one of feudal land-holding patterns, this hardly bodes well for any genuine reforms...
...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...
...Find land or starve...
...At the Rio Novo encampment, a tired young man sits on a sack of grain in the makeshift clinic...
...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...
...Worse yet, the terms of the loans virtually assure that the poor will lose their hard-won lands within just a few years...
...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 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...
...This has had a ripple effect, creating jobs for local workers and profits for nearby merchants...
...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...
...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...
...Still worse, the old 6% interest rate will be increased threefold to 18...
...The amount and quality of land available for redistribution will therefore be greatly limited...
...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...
...4 the choice is simple enough...
...In the province of Parand, there is an ongoing campaign to drive out the MST communities...
...Under the new program, the Brazilian government will set up a land bank and resort to market principles for guidance instead of the Constitution...
...Some 41 leaders have been thrown in jail on trumped-up charges, and several have been tortured...
...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...
...The chilling rains are endless, leaving everyone with hacking coughs...
...Educational opportunities are scarce and the cities offer little in the way of employment...
...She is author of Bridge of Courage (Common Courage Press, 1993...
...The more things change the more they stay the same...
...The tired young man peels off his wet jacket and hangs it up to dry...
...This constitutional clause is remarkable in a nation where the land distribution patterns have changed little since the times of the conquistadors...
...Loans will be made to the poor to assist them in purchasing lands...
...For many, Jennifer Harbury is a lawyer and Human Rights Program Director at Global Exchange...
...As the settlers at Rio Novo struggle to pitch their tents in the rain, they recognize that the future is bleak...
...A mere 1% of the population owns 50% of the land, while onefourth of the people live in conditions of the most abject poverty...
...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...
...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...
...Some 500 similar MST encampments, sheltering 100,000 families, now exist and are awaiting government purchase...
...But in May, in a burst of violence, the police threw the settlers out...
...The initial hardships for the families have been fierce, but the results speak for themselves...
...There is a foregone conclusion here: The land will go from rich to poor to rich again...
...And yet the collective mood is bold and strong, approaching gaiety...
...There is no grace period under the new land bank program...
Vol. 33 • September 1999 • No. 2
