MANIFESTO REPUDIATING THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THE MST PROMOTED BY THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL.
AGAINST THE REVOCATION OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY AND IN DEFENSE OF THE MST.
DOWN WITH THE AUTHORITARIANISM OF THE MILITARY BRIGADE AND THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL!
ALL SUPPORT TO THE WORKERS/LANDLESS, TO THE MST AND TO THE VIA CAMPESINA!
FOR AGRARIAN REFORM! FOR DEMOCRACY! AND FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY!
AGAINST THE REVOCATION OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY AND IN DEFENSE OF THE MST.
We, Brazilian citizens, members of social and political organizations, want to demonstrate to Brazilian society and the international community our indignation and most vehement repudiation of the measures taken by the Public Ministry and the Military Brigade of Rio Grande do Sul against the MST (Landless Workers Movement).
In September 2007 the Subcomandant General Cel. Paulo Roberto Mendes Rodrigues sent the Public Ministry a report elaborated by the Military Brigade that characterizes the MST and the Via Campesina as movements that have ceased to realize “typical acts for social demands” and have passed to orchestrating “acts typical of criminal organizations” and “paramilitaries.”
Such measures by the Military Brigade cross into the jurisdiction of the Federal and Civil Police, violating the 1988 Constitution. State deputies, governors, members of INCRA and supposed foreigners were secretly investigated.
On December 2, 2007, the Superior Council of the Public Ministry approved a report elaborated by prosecutor Gilberto Thums that designates “[…] a staff of Justice Department prosecutors to pursue public civil action with the aim dissolving the MST and declaring it illegal […]”. As such, the Public Ministry decided “[…] to intervene in the MST’s schools, with the intention of taking all measures necessary to reinstate legality, both in the pedagogical aspect and in the MST’s external structure of influence.”
On March 11, 2008, contradicting the inquiry of the Federal Police that investigated the MST in 2007, the Federal Public Ministry denounced 8 supposed members of the MST for “integrating groups whose objective was to move the State of Law, the present order in Brazil, that would practice crimes of political non-conformity,” crimes captured in the National Security Law of the now defunct dictatorship.
The denunciation refers to the encampments of the MST as a “parallel State” and points to the existence of support from FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), among foreigners responsible for military training.
In addition to such measures is the intensifying process of police repression of the MST’s political actions. Peaceful marches, protests, and occupations are attacked with extreme violence on the part of the Military Brigade. The images reveal shocking brutality: bombs thrown in the middle of families with children, rubber bullets shot at face level and beatings.
It is against these measures if such authoritarian and dictatorial character that we come to publicly demonstrate our support of the MST.
Democracy cannot be an empty word. To dissolve the MST, make it illegal, prosecute and criminalize its actions and its political militants to “break its spine” signifies- in no uncertain terms- to annul the democratic rights of landless rural workers.
Such criminalization of poverty and social movements represents an attack on democratic liberties and cannot be tolerated in a country that intends to be free. Since re-democratization and the end of the military dictatorship this is the bluntest threat to civil and political rights, with intent to succeed, including against other popular organizations and our people’s fighters.
One of the report’s proposals goes to the extreme: it suggests canceling the voting registration of those landless encamped or settled in a region to avoid their political influence. Suffrage without the right to organize politically is a farce. To annul suffrage is patent dictatorship.
Not one citizen aware of Brazil’s recent history can be silent before so great, evident, and concrete a threat to democracy and Human Rights. This is a shameful offense to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1988 Constitution that reserve the right to association for lawful ends.
The MST is a social movement of popular character that fights for agrarian reform for social justice and popular sovereignty. The Brazilian elites need to learn that social questions should be resolved with POLITICS AND NOT WITH POLICE!
The only way to put an end to the MST is to put an end to the latifúndio (grand agricultural estate), to agro-business, and to millions of landless families by giving them opportunity for work and income in food production. This is the political proposal of agrarian reform guaranteed in the Federal Constitution, whose promise the MST claims thought its occupations and fights throughout Brazil for the last 25 years.
For this we call on all those that fight to stand at with us at the Public Act in Repudiation of the Criminalization of the MST Promoted by the Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Sul in the theater of the Catholic University of São Paulo (TUCA), Rua: Monte Alegre, 1024-Perdizez, at 7:00PM on July 16th, 2008.
In September 2007 the Subcomandant General Cel. Paulo Roberto Mendes Rodrigues sent the Public Ministry a report elaborated by the Military Brigade that characterizes the MST and the Via Campesina as movements that have ceased to realize “typical acts for social demands” and have passed to orchestrating “acts typical of criminal organizations” and “paramilitaries.”
Such measures by the Military Brigade cross into the jurisdiction of the Federal and Civil Police, violating the 1988 Constitution. State deputies, governors, members of INCRA and supposed foreigners were secretly investigated.
On December 2, 2007, the Superior Council of the Public Ministry approved a report elaborated by prosecutor Gilberto Thums that designates “[…] a staff of Justice Department prosecutors to pursue public civil action with the aim dissolving the MST and declaring it illegal […]”. As such, the Public Ministry decided “[…] to intervene in the MST’s schools, with the intention of taking all measures necessary to reinstate legality, both in the pedagogical aspect and in the MST’s external structure of influence.”
On March 11, 2008, contradicting the inquiry of the Federal Police that investigated the MST in 2007, the Federal Public Ministry denounced 8 supposed members of the MST for “integrating groups whose objective was to move the State of Law, the present order in Brazil, that would practice crimes of political non-conformity,” crimes captured in the National Security Law of the now defunct dictatorship.
The denunciation refers to the encampments of the MST as a “parallel State” and points to the existence of support from FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), among foreigners responsible for military training.
In addition to such measures is the intensifying process of police repression of the MST’s political actions. Peaceful marches, protests, and occupations are attacked with extreme violence on the part of the Military Brigade. The images reveal shocking brutality: bombs thrown in the middle of families with children, rubber bullets shot at face level and beatings.
It is against these measures if such authoritarian and dictatorial character that we come to publicly demonstrate our support of the MST.
Democracy cannot be an empty word. To dissolve the MST, make it illegal, prosecute and criminalize its actions and its political militants to “break its spine” signifies- in no uncertain terms- to annul the democratic rights of landless rural workers.
Such criminalization of poverty and social movements represents an attack on democratic liberties and cannot be tolerated in a country that intends to be free. Since re-democratization and the end of the military dictatorship this is the bluntest threat to civil and political rights, with intent to succeed, including against other popular organizations and our people’s fighters.
One of the report’s proposals goes to the extreme: it suggests canceling the voting registration of those landless encamped or settled in a region to avoid their political influence. Suffrage without the right to organize politically is a farce. To annul suffrage is patent dictatorship.
Not one citizen aware of Brazil’s recent history can be silent before so great, evident, and concrete a threat to democracy and Human Rights. This is a shameful offense to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1988 Constitution that reserve the right to association for lawful ends.
The MST is a social movement of popular character that fights for agrarian reform for social justice and popular sovereignty. The Brazilian elites need to learn that social questions should be resolved with POLITICS AND NOT WITH POLICE!
The only way to put an end to the MST is to put an end to the latifúndio (grand agricultural estate), to agro-business, and to millions of landless families by giving them opportunity for work and income in food production. This is the political proposal of agrarian reform guaranteed in the Federal Constitution, whose promise the MST claims thought its occupations and fights throughout Brazil for the last 25 years.
For this we call on all those that fight to stand at with us at the Public Act in Repudiation of the Criminalization of the MST Promoted by the Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Sul in the theater of the Catholic University of São Paulo (TUCA), Rua: Monte Alegre, 1024-Perdizez, at 7:00PM on July 16th, 2008.
DOWN WITH THE AUTHORITARIANISM OF THE MILITARY BRIGADE AND THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL!
ALL SUPPORT TO THE WORKERS/LANDLESS, TO THE MST AND TO THE VIA CAMPESINA!
FOR AGRARIAN REFORM! FOR DEMOCRACY! AND FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY!
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5 comments:
July 16th is today. I pray all goes well.
hey Laura,
i just got back from my summer travels and settled in to catch up on your blog. Wow, looks like you've been busy! I love the pictures from the festival you went to. Are those dances still performed in religious ceremonies, or are they just displayed at the festival to preserve the culture?
I'm glad to see you're still enjoying your research so much.
If squatters and those without titles to the land on which they live were granted property rights equal in stature to the rights enjoyed by the rich and powerful, what else would there be to talk about?
Another unrelated note- i just started taking my linguistics classes a week ago and they're so much fun. I think you would love this stuff! I'm taking sociolinguistics too. It's fascinating how much control governments actually have over (and by means of) languages.
Oh, and there's a guy in my class who speaks Portuguese.
David- There would still be a lot to talk about, but I agree with your friend De Soto insofar as land rights that the government/others can't fuck with are CRITICAL for both rural and urban squatters.
What I am trying to wrap my head around now is the use of violence to crush demands for land/space that come form Brazil's poorest. In particular urban squatters and homeless. Other demands in terms of services, health, education, and to some extent work are all legitimate claims citizens can make down here, at least now that we've got democracy back. There are all sorts of avenues and forums for these things now. But if you start making aggressive claims for a right to space or property, it still comes down to teargas, rubber bullets, water hoses, etc. etc. and democracy goes out the window. What the crap is going on here? I don't know how to explain this yet, but hope to one day.
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