[Lasnetmail] MST News & Analysis as Brazil Awaits Lula's Re-Election

[lucho]

Updates from Brazil's Landless Workers Movement
>From the Friends of the MST 

*The MST distributes biweekly updates that FMST-US volunteers translate and make available. Please read the latest below.* 

This update includes: 

1. [SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN] The Chico Mendes Encampment, here we produce dignity! **DRAFT LETTER INCLUDED** 

2. [MST NEWS] Killers of Landless Leaders in Brazil Still at Large 

3. [ELECTION NEWS] "The government will only change if the pressure comes from the streets", affirms MST's Stedile 

4. [INTERVIEW] Frei Betto's Brazil. By: Tarso Luis Ramos. September '06 

5. [REPORT] Landless Workers Movement: The Difficult Construction of a New World 

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1. [SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN] The Chico Mendes Encampment, here we produce dignity! **DRAFT LETTER INCLUDED** 

Dear Friends of the MST, 

For more than two years, nearly 500 rural landless workers from the Chico Mendes Encampment have fought for the ownership for 580 hectares of land of the Engenho S㯠Jo㯮 This is part of the Usina Ti?owned by the Votorantim Group, one the businesses that owns many plantations and large estates in Brazil...The farm has been idle for 17 years, since the Usina Ti?losed. Some of those now living on the land are the ex-employees of the farm. After its closure, the workers no longer have fixed employment and are without work and homes. 

Read more: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=chicomendescampaign06 

2. [MST NEWS] Killers of Landless Leaders in Brazil Still at Large 

On August 20, two leaders of the Landless Movement (MST) were assassinated (shot in the back) in the Brazilian northeastern state of Pernambuco. Josias de Barros Ferreira, 28 years old, and Samuel Matias Barbosa, 33 years old were killed at the Balan硠encampment in the city of Moreno...While the assassins who killed Barbosa and Ferreira are free, the police arrested Jaime Amorim, one of the national coordinators of the Landless Movement, when he was returning from the funeral of Barbosa in Itaquitanga, Pernambuco. 

Read more: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=pernambucoatlarge06 

3. [ELECTION NEWS] "The government will only change if the pressure comes from the streets", affirms MST's Stedile 

The MST will take to the streets to force President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva toward more social and land reform if he wins re-election in October. In an interview with the Reuters News Agency, the MST's Joao Pedro Stedile was quoted as saying, "We want to revive mass mobilisation and class struggle...We have a big cooking pot ready to boil and the MST wants this government to abandon its neoliberal policies and adopt measures to a project of national development." 

Read More: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=lulareelection06 

4. [INTERVIEW] Frei Betto's Brazil. By: Tarso Luis Ramos. September '06 

Tarso Lu�Ramos interviews Lula's former special assistant as he opens up about four years of Workers Party governance, Lula's reelection chances and the current conjuncture in Latin America. 

For the complete interview, go to: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=freibetobrazil 

5. [REPORT] Landless Workers Movement: The Difficult Construction of a New World 

The Filhos de Sep頳ettlement faces its share of problems, mostly derived from the global crisis of the small farmer competing with the powerful expansion of agribusiness pushed by large multinational corporations. 

Read more: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=ircamericasonmst06 

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