“Candelária,
Carandiru,
Corumbiara,
Eldorado dos Carajás…
[…]
The pedagogy of steel
strikes the body,
this atrocious geography” *
Twenty-eight years ago, newspapers and newscasts around the world carried headlines depicting brutality against rural workers. Images of numerous coffins and open graves demonstrated the extent of the crime – one of the most violent against rural workers on the entire planet. On 17 April 1996, around 1500 families, who were part of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra: MST) marching through the state of Pará, were taken by surprise by a military police operation at the so-called S curve in the municipality of Eldorado dos Carajás, in the southeast of the state. Police gunfire, bombs, knives and machete attacks attempted to silence the resistance of the poorest and the courage of those who fight for dignity. Sixty-nine people were injured and 21 were killed, 19 on the spot.
However, of the more than 150 police officers involved in the operation, with the consent of Pará’s governor and the secretary of security at the time, who authorized the use of police force, only two people have been convicted of the crime. The Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, as it is known, has become a sad symbol of the cruelty and injustice that surround the fight for land in Brazil. As part of the process to remember and pursue justice, the 17 April has become International Day of Peasant Struggles. In Brazil, the day also marks National Day for the Fight for Agrarian Reform. Throughout the month, social movements from the countryside and the city run activities, protests and occupations, and honour the massacre as an example of a past that must never be repeated.
Marching for a grassroots Brazil
“Is the dream worth a life?
I don’t know. But I’ve learnt
from the little life I’ve lived:
death doesn’t dream” *
“Marching has always been an instrument for the struggle, for the resistance of the working class. It helps to nourish our hopes and dreams.” It was with these words that Evanildo Costa, from the MST-BA’s national board honoured the martyrs of Carajás and highlighted the role the MST organization plays in the defence of Agrarian Reform. Since 9 April, Evanildo and about 3 thousand other workers have been marching through Bahia, along a route from Feira de Santana to Salvador to dialogue with society and pressurize the state government for more rights for rural workers.
The march in Bahia is part of a country-wide National Campaign for the Fight in Defence of Agrarian Reform, run by the MST. On 19 April, under the slogan “Occupy to Feed Brazil,” the movement will run a series of activities in all the regions of Brazil to honour the martyrs of Eldorado dos Carajás, demand Agrarian Reform and celebrate the MST’s 40th year of struggle. More than 30 activities have already taken place in 14 states, mobilizing more than 20 thousand landless families.
“Our hope from this march is that we get to Salvador and obtain good results. From the Federal Government, which can announce important measures to develop settlements, provide technical assistance and housing for families who are in settlements; to also see important education announcements through the National Programme for Education in Agrarian Reform (Programa Nacional de Educação na Reforma Agrária: PRONERA), creating a budget policy to expropriate land to settle the occupying families. We have initiated a negotiation process with the state government and our expectation is that when we get there, we’ll have an audience with the governor,” Evanildo noted.
He also noted that the activities around the state are intended to draw public attention to the violence in the countryside, which, in recent years, has reached a critical point.
“This march also aims to denounce armed militias, criminal organizations, run through certain mayors, deputies, politicians, as well as landowners and groups linked to agribusiness, which promote violence in the countryside, killing workers, just like they killed Nega Pataxó,” Evanildo declared.
Defending land is defending life
“They surround the wall of laws
and strap a ticking bomb
to their chests:
the dream of a free land” *
Progress against the lands, rights and lives of indigenous peoples is one of the features of the fight for land in Brazil. In recent years, the escalating violence against these peoples and the pursuit of setbacks to their rights is an expression of an alliance between the public authorities, agribusiness and foreign capital. This is the analysis of Agnaldo Pataxó Hãhãhãe, General Coordinator of the United Movement of the Organized Indigenous Peoples of Bahia (Movimento Unido dos Povos Organizados Indígenas da Bahia: MUPOIBA).
“We, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, face the great challenge of understanding and formulating the resistance against anti-indigenous forces in the country, which have linked up within Brazil and with foreign powers, powers linked to anti-democracy, to support for racism and intolerance. They have come together to strengthen agribusiness and to get organized across various power sectors in Brazil, particularly the Legislature, where these groups come together to form laws and break certain regulatory frameworks, which have advanced the demarcation of our territories,” he explained.
The offensive against indigenous peoples has gained ground with the proposed Temporal Framework, President Lula’s veto of which was overturned by Congress last year. According to Agnaldo, the indigenous movement has filed a writ of mandamus with the Supreme Court asking for the congressional vote to be cancelled on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. “The Temporal Framework destroys all the demarcations of our lands; it’s not possible for us, as the indigenous peoples of Brazil, to obey such an absurd and unconstitutional law as this,” he declared.
Between 22 and 26 April, thousands of the indigenous, from hundreds of different peoples, will gather in Brasilia (Federal District) at the 20th Free Land Camp, under the slogan “Our Framework is Ancestral: We’ve Always Been Here.” The meeting will ensure that the voices of the resistance of the country’s original peoples to defend the environment and for the rights of indigenous people will echo across Brazil and the world. Agnaldo Pataxó noted, however, that this is a broad struggle and he invites all of society to join it.
“This is the call we are making to all of Bahian and Brazilian society. To join us to protect the environment, to protect our forests, our rivers, our fauna, flora, and all that exists in our environment. Because it’s the only way we’ll have future lives, preserve our future generations. And this occurs through the demarcation of our indigenous lands and those of all original peoples.”
*Lines from the poem “Pedagogy of Steel” by Pedro Tierra, written immediately after the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, to honour the martyrs.