Via Campesina's struggle denounces agribusiness and companies actions in 17 Brazilian states and presents proposals to rural policy.
Protests point out agribusiness as being responsible for the rise in food prices, and question the diversion of São Francisco River and the energy model.
Via Campesina, a coalition that gathers several social movements of the countryside (as the Dam Affected People Movement and the Landless Rural Workers Movement), and the Popular Assembly, which gathers urban popular movements and communities, carried out from June 9th to 12th a struggle journey to denounce the problems caused by the action of the big companies in Brazil, especially the foreign ones, which are benefited by the agribusiness model and the neoliberal economic policy.
Protests took place in 17 states - Pernambuco, Paraíba, Ceará, Bahia, Alagoas, Minas Gerais, EspÍrito Santo, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Tocantins, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Pará - besides a meeting with Federal government representatives in Brasília.
The protests denounced the speculative practices of transnational companies and financial capital, which are imposing sugarcane and eucalyptus monocultures and lead to the increase of food prices. The global agricultural market is controlled in all its aspects from production to distribution for less than 40 companies.
The journey also brought up to the agenda the debate on the current economic model based on monopolistic/oligopolistic practices of transnational corporations of the energy and agricultural sector in particular, which sacrifices the living standards of the general population with the rise in food and energy prices. In the northeast, social organizations denounced the diversion of Rio São Francisco showing that it will benefit only the big land owners and agribusinesses. According to the government, 4% of water will be diverted to the rural population and 26% for the urban, while the other 70% will be diverted to agribusinesses.
In Brasília, representatives of the organizations part of Via Campesina Brasil published a platform with proposals to the development of Brazilian countryside, with national sovereignty and social justice. The proposal includes programs for fostering agri-industry to the production of food and agrienergy, reforesting and infra-structure in settlements, in addition to the broadening of educational programs in the country and the creation of a fertilizers State-owned company.
A commission of Via Campesina's movements representatives had a meeting with the Chief of the President's Personal Cabinet, Gilberto Carvalho, to present the document “Short Term Structuring Programs.” Carvalho asserted that will forward the platform to the President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and to the Minister of Agrarian Development, Guilherme Cassel.
See below all the actions, divided by regions, state by state.
In the state of Pernambuco, 200 peasant workers from Via Campesina occupied the Sugar Cane Test Station (EECAC) in the town of Carpina, in the Zona da Mata, north of Pernambuco, protesting against the rise in sugar cane plantations in the region, which is contributing to the rising prices of foodstocks around the country. During the protests, the peasants destroyed Sugar Cane samples, including genetically engineered ones, and tore down two of 100 hectares of sugar cane sowed in the station.
The EECAC is a public-private partnership between Sindaçúcar (the Union of Sugar and Alcohol Producers), which includes the 20 largest enterprises in the state, and the Federal University of Pernambuco. The station, a farm of 250 hectares, could house at least 50 landless families and also supply foodstocks to markets around the region.
In the city of Petrolândia, peasant workers from Via Campesina held three protests. 700 peasants occupied an energy distribution center of CHESF (Hydro-electric Company of the São Francisco Valley), near the Antônio Conselheiro settlement, protesting against the project for the diversion of the São Francisco River. Over one thousand peasants blockaded the BR316 motorway, near the bridge between Petrolandia and Paulo Afonso.
Around 1,000 peasant workers from Via Campesina also protested in front of Netuno Pescados company headquarters, one of the ten largest multinational companies in the fishing industry. The company has 200 shrimp farms in the Brazilian North-East, creating a process of water privatization - water being a public good, belonging to the people and not to few private enterprises. The largest Brazilian fish exporter, Netuno Pescados buys and uses illegally the waters and surface of Lake Itaparica. The company also forbids traditional fishermen to work, imposing its own development project on the population. In 2006, Netuno Pescados received R$211 millions in funding from BNDES (the state-owned Brazilian development bank) for additional business investments.
During the last day of the Journey, 500 agricultural workers from Via Campesina and members from the Xukuru native community blockaded the BR 232 motorway, near the city of Pesqueira, South of Pernambuco. Another 400 peasants blockaded BR 110 motorway, between the cities of Inajá and Ibimirim, protesting against the rise of sugar cane plantations, agro-business watering projects, and defending family and peasant farming. Protesters also spoke against the project for the diversion of the São Francisco River.
In the state of Paraíba, 200 peasant workers from Via Campesina occupied the Nossa Senhora de Lourdes Farm, 5km from the city of Mari. The farm has 1,100 hectares dedicated to sugar cane crops. The farm belongs to Carlos Ribeiro Coutinho, but was rented to Usina Jacungu.
Members of Via Campesina denounced the agro-exportation model adopted, and the government decision in favour of that. In the protesters opinion, with the increase of sugar cane crops, less and less land is available for agrarian reform and foodstock farming.
In another protest, 150 families occupied a farm in Várzeas de Souza, camping there to denounce the government option of expanding agro-business in the region, directly benefiting the Santana Sementes Group.
Near the city of Campo de Santana, last Friday, 40 landless families camped in an area of the Bilingui county.
The families ask for the expropriation of Volta (1,000 ha) and Carnaúba (800 ha) fams, both unproductive. Both farms belong to the former state Governor and now senator José Maranhão, who owns a total of 11 farms, one in the Tocantins state, and a herd of 30,000 of cattle.
Last May, the senator was denounced by Andar (Nacional Association for the Defense of Public Administration, Patrimony, Environment, Consumer and Citizens of Paraíba) for illegal enrichment.
During his administration as state Governor, from 1998 to 2006, José Maranhão's wealth increased in 580%. Andar asks for investigation of this sudden increase, plus the fact that the senator has not declared to the Treasury the value of the cattle in his farms.
In the state of Ceará, 1,000 agricultural workers from Via Campesina occupied the Pecém Port, in the city of São Gonçalo do Amarante (Fortaleza region). The loading and unloading sectors were shut down as a protest against the proposal to install five thermo-electrical power stations, an oil refinery and a Siderurgy in the complex, all of which will cause environment and social damages.
Besides that, workers also protested against the rise in foodstock prices, the project for the diversion of the São Francisco River and the building of an oil refinery of Petrobrás, which should be built over the river and will consume the same quantity of water as a 30,000 person city.
In the state of Bahia, peasants from Via Campesina occupied the dam of the Sobradinho Power plant to denounce the large watering projects that benefit only great exporting plantations, among which the project for the diversion of the São Francisco River, the Pontal Sul (in Petrolina, Pernambuco), and the Salitre Project, in the neighbouring city of Juazeiro.
Even with huge public funding (in the Pontal Sul project were already invested R$250 millions), the watering projects are virtually privatized under Public-Private Partnership agreements.
In the north of Bahia, 350 families from MPA (Small Farmers Movement) and from Via Campesina occupied the area of the Ponto Novo watering project, in the Senhor do Bonfim region. The area of the project, created by the state Government of Bahia, should be used by small and medium farmers. Workers warned that businessmen are taking over the lands to create banana plantations. To build the project, 400 families were removed. Only 120 were settled in lots around the project area. The others were forced to live in the outskirts of Senhor do Bonfim. The rest of the watering project area was leased to companies to create banana and pineapple plantations.
In the state of Alagoas, 1,000 people from several popular organizations, Via Campesina, Church organizations and native communities (indigenous communities, Quilombolas and traditional fishermen) protested in the Xingó Hydroelectric Power Station against the project for the diversion of the São Francisco River and the building of new dams. The level of the river is alarmingly low, that has a huge impact in the São Francisco Delta. Protesters warned that the projects (the dams and the transposition) will benefit only plantation and agro-business land-owners.
In the state of Minas Gerais, 500 people, members of the Popular Assembly blockaded the railway of the Vale mining company, in the São Geraldo neighborhood at the outskirts of the capital of Belo Horizonte. They denounce the problems caused by the trains, which blocks pedestrians and people circulation for up to 2 hours. Since last year, four people already died in ambulances waiting, local school classes were canceled due to noise and several houses were structurally affected.
For over 25 years, members of Popular Assembly from the São Geraldo, Caetano Furkim, Boa Vista, Casa Branca and Vila de Abreu communities have pleaded for the relocation of the railway, besides compensation for the loss of property and lives. During 2007, the people blockaded the railway twice, and none of the promises done then were fulfilled.
In the region of Governador Valadares, North-East of Minas Gerais, 1200 people stopped a train and occupied the Vale railway, to demand the beginning of talks between the mining company and 500 families from the Pedra Corrida community. This community will be expelled due to the construction of the Baguari Dam, which will be built between the cities of Valadares and Periquito. The blockade was lifted 10 hours later, after a local judge ordered the protesters to leave the railway and the military policy was brought to intimidate the workers. Vale denied participation in any talks.
The protesters remembered that the problems raised by a similar action in the city of Resplendor also remain. Last March, protesters denounced that the construction of the Aimorés Dam, by Vale and Cemig (Minas Gerais' Power Company) expelled 1,000 families from four cities, who were not compensated or resettled. Besides that, the dam cripples the sewage system of Resplendor, after flooding 2,000 hectares (equivalent to 2,000 football pitches).
Krenak community, from Resplendor, also joined the protest. All of the Krenak community is ordered by the local justice to keep a distance of 2km from anyone of Vale's installations and railways, due to several protests organized in 2005. They demand the end of such prohibition and proper compensation for the lands they lost to Vale.
In the state of Espírito Santo, 500 workers from Via Campesina protested against the increase in sugar cane plantations. The act happened in the city of Montanha, where will be installed a new plant belonging to the multinational Infinity Bio-Energy. This company was created in 2006 in the Bermudas Island, but already bought all sugar cane plants in the north of the state.
Northern Espírito Santo has 40,000 hectares of sugar cane crops, and this area might double in the coming years. Infinity Bio-Energy, that aims to become a world leader in production and distribution of ethanol and other bio-fuels, stimulates this increase in tandem with the Government of the state, which has a goal of increasing the ethanol production in 133%, as set in the Strategic Plan for Espírito Santo Agriculture (PEDEAG).
In the state of São Paulo, 450 peasant workers from Via Campesina occupied a farm in Mirante do Paranapanema belonging to the Odebrecht Group, responsible for the construction of an ethanol plant. Odebrecht's project includes the use of 120,000 hectares to sugar cane crops. These lands belong to the 11th Perimeter of the Pontal do Paranapanema, a state-owned area.
In the Capital, 600 workers from Via Campesina and from the Popular Assembly occupied a building belonging to the Votorantim group, to denounce the environmental damaged caused by the construction of the Tijuco Alto Dam, in the Ribeira de Iguape river, between the states of São Paulo and Paraná.
The report about Environment Impact (RIMA) of the Tijuco Alto project warns that 51.8 square kilometers in the region will be flooded, and 46% of these are proper for agriculture, while 35% are proper for pasture. The RIMA also says that 689 families will be directly affected by the dam. All energy produced in the dam will be directed to CBA (Brazilian Company of Aluminum), belonging to the Votorantim Group. IBAMA (Brazilian Environment Agency) disapproved twice the Environment Impact Studies presented by CBA.
Protesters also denounced the high tariffs of the electrical energy. Police invaded the building with 300 storm troopers and violently attacked the peaceful demonstration, with pepper gas bombs and shots. Five protesters, belonging to Via Campesina and the Popular Assembly, were arrested.
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, 500 agricultural workers from Via Campesina e others popular organizations for the Popular Assembly promoted a demonstration in front of Vale Mining Company Headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro Old City, to denounce the negative social impact of the mining company actions in the states of Minas Gerais, Pará, Maranhão and Rio de Janeiro.
Protesters demand that the company, which profits from mineral resources belonging to the Union, as established in article 176 of the Brazilian Constitution, raise the conditions of life of the communities where works, as well as the Brazilian Society as a whole. With fiscal incentives such as the Kandir Law, Vale does not pay state taxes (ICMS) to extract minerals for exportation. Only the state of Pará loses R$600 millions in taxes, per year.
In the state of Paraná, around 300 farmers from the Movement of Dam Affected People and Via Campesina camped at the hydroelectric plant Salto Santiago in Paraná, protesting against the Franco-Belgian dam's owner, Suez-Tractebel. It is the second time this year that the plant is occupied by rural workers. They also protested against the law prohibiting farmers to live closer than 100 meters from ciliary forest around the dam's reservoir. The protesters demanded a negotiation with government to solve the problems of the dam affected people of the region.
In another demonstration, around 700 peasants from Via Campesina and the Committe in Defense of Small Farmers and organizations of family-based agriculture protested in front of Ultrafertil/Fosfertil fertilizers plant, owned by Bunge, in Araucaria, metropolitan region of Curitiba. The rural workers demand from the Federal Government the company re-statization (it was privatized 15 years ago) the breaking of transnational companies control on the fertilizers and foodstock prices and efficient policy to finance farmers and the family-based agriculture.
In Santa Catarina, mobilizations took place in two regions of the state. Around 700 workers blockaded the entrance of paper and cellulose company Klabin, which owns around 160,000 hectares of eucalyptus and pine monocultures in the state. In addition, the protestors distributed 500 seedlings of native trees and 15 tons of food produced in an Agrarian Reform settlement, to the people in Otacílio Costa town.
The protesters also planted hundreds of native trees seedlings in an act of resistance to the "green desert" imposed by the companies of the cellulose sector. At the end, they handed out baskets of food with small farming and rural settlement products to the municipal authorities.
In the municipality of Maravilha, 1200 Via Campesina members blockaded the BR 282, road which delivers access to the town, protesting against the practices of Aurora, one of the biggest agribusinesses in the region.
Close to the boundary that separates Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, around 300 rural workers occupied the Hydroelectric Plant of Itá, that belongs to the Franco-Belgian transnational company Suez-Tractebel. Suez-Tractebel is the biggest foreign energy production company in Brazil, with 6 hydroelectric and 7 thermoelectric plants. According to the company itself, in 2007, its net profits reached R$ 1.05 billion, 6.8% more than 2006.
In Rio Grande do Sul, rural and urban workers occupied the food and seeds transnational company Bunge, in Passo Fundo, town at the north of the state. Farmers and workers denounced the monopolistic practices of food and seeds companies like Bunge, which rises the final price of food to consumers.
According to a study from the Ministry of Agriculture, Bunge, which is present in Brazil since 1938, has established a monopoly in the fertilizers sector and has contributed significantly to the recent increase of food prices. In addition, Bunge was denounced by public prosecutors in 2007 for selling transgenic soy oil without labeling as such, hiding this information from consumers.
Another action mobilized around 500 Via Campesina's landless workers and farmers who occupied two areas belonging to Votorantim. The protests took place in Erval do Sul and Piratini, denouncing the eucalyptus and acacias monoculture in the south of the state. The monocultures in the region cause environmental degradation and drought in streams, bringing losses to settled workers and small farmers.
Families also denounced Votorantim, a company that promises employment and revenue to the farmers, but implement, helped by the state government, the Forest Savings program, in which the farmer has to save part of his property to plant euclyptus and pinus. According to the families, the program should be an incentive to food production (what does not happen today), instead of an incentive to produce raw material for export.
In Porto Alegre, social movements occupied the Nacional supermarket, owned by Wal-Mart, protesting against the lack of policy to the food production and the control of agri-commerce by transnational companies. Around 1.2 thousand rural and urban workers held a march towards the Piratini Palace (state's government headquarters) to denounce the governmental policy on cutting Health and Educational investments and their incentive to transnational, especially paper plants.
The local police reprehended the social movement demonstration, shooting rubber bullets and hindering the demonstrators to move. At least 10 people were taken to the hospital.
In Rosário do Sul, in the western part of the state, around 200 settled and camped workers marched towards the Tarumã Farm, to denounce illegal practices of Stora Enso, cellulose transnational, which has purchased thousand of hectares in the country border strip, not complying with legislation. They also criticized the lobby that the company has been doing to the state and federal parliament to reduce the border strip, in order to legalize the eucalyptus and pinus monoculture along the region. The same Stora Enso property was occupied by the Via Campesina women on March 8th.
In Vacaria, three thousand self-statements of dwellers were handed to Rio Grande Energia (the local energy company) by 300 MAB members, ecclesiastic social groups and neighborhood associations. The self-statement guarantees that those who uses up to 220 kW/month are entitled to the discount offered by the Low-Income Social Fees, without the need to be registered under any governmental social program.
In Rondônia, hundreds of members of MAB and Via Campesina blockaded the BR 364 road in Candeias do Jamari, 20 Km from Porto Velho, which links the state capital to Cuiabá. The road is the main transport route of soy from the state of Mato Grosso. The mobilization aimed to denounce the deforestation of the Amazon region, the illegal occupation of vast areas for soy production and the construction of the hydroelectric complex of Rio Madeira. In Ouro Preto, 200 people made a demonstration defending the reduction of energy costs.
In Tocantins, people affected by the Estreito hydroelectric dam blockaded the railway owned by Vale in the municipality of Darcinópolis. Around 400 people stopped the traffic of trains which carry materials for the construction of the railway which will link the Port of Itaqui in Maranhão to the municipality of Senador Canedo in Goiás.
After being built, the railway will transport soy produced in the Amazon region and mineral iron for Vale. Besides denouncing the illegal deforestation of the Amazon and Cerrado forests for soy plantation, the protestors demanded the complying of the agreements between them and Valec, which is building the railway.
In Goiás, Via Campesina farmers, workers organized in Unions and in the Popular Assembly held demonstrations in three parts of the state. One of the mobilizations happened in Uruaçu, where 800 people blockaded the BR-153, the road which leads to the state of Tocantins. In Catalão, 600 people closed the BR-050, which leads to Goiânia.
In Goiânia, capital of the state, 150 demonstrators protested in front of the CLEG (Goiás Energy Company) against the expensive price of the energy, and handed self-statements that assure the compliance with the Aneel (National Agency for Energy issues) decision on social fees. The self-statement guarantees that those who uses up to 220 kW/month are entitled to the discount offered by the Low-Income Social Fees, without the need to be registered under any governmental social program.
In Mato Grosso, around 300 Via Campesina farmers held a public demonstration in the municipality of Diamantino, where they finished a 80 km march that started from Nova Marilândia on the 5th. The rural workers debated with local people at schools and local radios.
The workers denounced the considerable social and environmental problems that Camargo Corrêa group brings to the region. They own 52% of the lands there, and are responsible for the works on the Madeira River complex. The region sustains a low employment rate and a high misery rate, which results in a high suicide rate.
In Pará state, 3 thousand families, neighborhood associations, the UJCC (Rural and Urban Youth Union), supported by Via Campesina, occupied a piece of land in Parauapebas, in the west of the state. The area belongs to Gabriel Saldanha, cattle farmer, one of the region's biggest businessmen. Around 5 thousand families can be settled in the area. Parauapebas is a town with about 130 mil inhabitants, and the major part does not have fixed dwelling. According to the social movements, 60 thousand families are in the situation of having no dwelling at all.
Why do we mobilize?
WE WANT TO PRODUCE FOOD Against agribusiness, in defence of family farming
The current economic model, sustained by agribusiness and the domination of financial capital, wants to transform food, seeds and all natural resources into commodities, in order to satisfy and protect the interests, profits and greed of big multinational companies.
To achieve that, financial groups seek to dominate land, water and biodiversity resources through privatization of this common patrimony. These are the same groups that destroy forests and land with the expansion of monocultures and increase the exploitation of labour force by disrespecting the relevant legislation and contributing, therefore, to unemployment, poverty and violence.
Thus, agribusiness promotes wealth accumulations in the hands of the few privileged, especially those behind banks and transnational corporations, while the general population faces increasing poverty and social unrest. It is necessary and urgent to resist this oppressive and destructive logic. Therefore we:
The Lula government has to honour its promise for Agrarian Reform and comply with its political program of 2002, which foresaw the immediate settlement of landless families camped in makeshift huts and the construction of at least 100,000 houses per year in order to reduce the rural exodus. Our struggle is for the fair society based on equality and democracy where wealth is distributed equally to all.