LAND REFORM: CULTIVATING HOPE

by Gerard Mulherin

The struggle for agrarian reform in Brazil is a long and painful one. The Irish more so than most should be able to empathize with a people's struggle, for the right to their own land. The recent famine commemorations brought home to us how different history might have been if the 19th century Irish had been owners of the land they worked, and in greater control of their destiny.

In the past 12 years nearly one thousand people have been killed in land related conflicts in Brazil. To date only seven people have been condemned for these killings. Five remain in prison, two having escaped from custody. Yet despite these assassinations and the wide spread intimidation and violence over a million are involved in land disputes in any given year.

The story of João and Maria da Silva is typical of the "landless" who get involved in this struggle. They live with their six children in Sao João Favela (slum) in the Amazonian state of Tocantins. Their home is a two roomed, thatched, mud walled hut built on waste-ground close to the refuse dump for the neighbouring town of Colinas.

On New Year’s 'eve 1995 the couple sat despondently outside their home, watching the fireworks display over Colinas town. It seemed that another year of grinding poverty and the humiliation and despair that accompanies it loomed before them.

Maria hand washes the clothes of the propertied elite for $100 a month. João gets sporadic employment on local ranches clearing forest and scrubland to provide more and more grassland for beef production. For this back breaking work he earns about $5 a day, working from dawn to dusk under the hot Amazonian sun. Their children work on the streets, shining shoes and selling ice-cream for a local producer. When tropical fruits like the cashew and mango are in season, the younger children will comb the neighbouring countryside to help supplement their meagre diet. Even with all this combined effort and struggle the family are unable to provide their twice daily meal of rice and beans. They, like their neighbours often go without.

João’s dream is to farm his own piece of land. He and his colleagues in the Colinas rural workers union are painfully aware that many of the local ranches contain vast tracts fo unproductive land. Under Brazilian law, unproductive land can be expropriated by the government, and divided among the landless. In 1988 an unproductive ranch was occupied in the Colinas region. It was a violent conflict involving the deaths of four landless. However it was eventually expropriated and 80 families got 30 acre plots to farm.

The situation was about to change again for the Colinas landless. On April 17th 1996, 19 landless were massacred by the military police in the adjoining state of Para. The National and International outrage which followed gave João and his colleagues the courage to act. A couple of weeks later over 100 men occupied a large unproductive ranch owned by an absentee landlord. They built makeshift homes and began clearing the land for planting. A twelve member commission was elected to negotiate with INCRA (Federal land reform agency). Two years later the landless believe they are on the brink of becoming landowners. Negotiations between INCRA and the ranch owner are at an advanced stage and expatriation seems likely.

However the two years have not been easy. The men were evicted twice by the military police and were forced to camp on the roadside adjoining the ranch. They were blacklisted by the ranchers union and were unable to get work to support themselves. Also despite infiltration by a spy employed by the rancher as well as rumours of "pistoleiros" (gunmen) patrolling the area, the occupation has remained free of violence. The good relations developed between the president of the rural workers union and INCRA and the election of a PT (workers party) mayor to the town has greatly contributed to the continued peaceful struggle.

Many women and children have now joined the men and a provisory school is in operation. The first crop has been harvested ensuring a food supply for the coming year. When João and Maria proudly showed me the sacks of rice, beans and maize they had recently harvested. Feeding their family is no longer the uphill struggle it once was. Their life of humiliation and despair has been replaced by a life of dignity and hope. For the first time the future is bright, bright as anew year's eve fireworks display over Colinas town.

(Gerard Mulheirn lived in Colinas from 1994 - 1996 and returned last September for a visit).