I come from a country characterised by extreme contradictions and social injustice.
We possess an incredible land, water, biodiversity, maritime coastline, Amazon forest and mineral riches potential. We are a continental country that is industrially developed. We are the eighth largest economy of the world and we are an ethnically and culturally mixed people. A mixture of white people (European descent), descendants of African slaves, indigenous people that have lived in Brazil for the past 1500 years and people from Asia. We have one of the largest hydrographic basins in the world. In addition, we have no problems with nature disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Our land is rich and fertile.
In terms of the social and economical issues, we can compare Brazil to the most miserable countries of the world. According to the World Bank, we are the country with the largest revenue concentration in the world, where 10% of the riches people possess 48% of the national revenue. The 20% of the poorest only possess 2% of the national revenue. Today, more than 50 million people are living below the misery line, some do not eat three times a day and others when they do, they do not receive the nutrients necessary for the human organism. There is a serious lack of basic sanitation, housing, employment, education, and health as well as the destruction of the environment. The worst about the environment is the disorganisation of eco-systems so as provide a First world level of consumption for the rich.
The environmental degradation associated with social injustice is a factor that constitutes a process of agricultural development in Brazil.
This situation is due to the absolute national subordination to the international economy, managed by the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF. Since 1994, these organisation wish to integrate Brazil in the FTAA.
Small farmers represent more than 80% of rural property owners, but they own only 18% of the land that produces foodstuff for the national market. 500 thousand large property owners produce for export oriented crops and livestock such as Soya and cattle. 40% of the Brazilian production is for exportation.
Brazilian agriculture is characterised by monoculture, The heavy mechanisation in the countryside and the rural exodus of small farmers towards large urban centres who then become cheap labour for urban industries. The so-called modernisation of the countryside brought with it serious risk for the environment. The agro-chemical system, mechanised, the sanitation of land, the draining of rivers and dams, the tree clearing have provoked unchangeable damage with the loss of cultivated land. In 1983 more than 600 thousand hectares of land have lost their capacity to produce.
With the adoption of a Neoliberal policy, depending on the dictates of the IMF, we have become a country dependent on imports such as water, coconut, rice, wheat, and beans. These are products that we can produce to sustain ourselves.
Mercosul: this reduced the internal production. Of the small farmers in the south of the country, not even 10% managed to take part in the commercial accords.
We denounced the multinational corporations are the major destroyers of the environment, of agro-ecological production and of food security in Brazil.
Our engagements: MST and Via Campesina (which is an organisation of farmers from around the world).
We understand that agro-ecology is a struggle and an ideological issue that is at stake and that the survival of future generations is a risk.
We maintain that sustainable commerce should be subordinated to the needs of the people and after that should answer to the market. It should first and foremost produce so as to feed the people and end hunger.
For us, sustainable development means that we succeed in food sovereignty, with rights to produce; in terms of seeds, (we do not want GMOs), we understand them as belonging to mankind, we want the autonomy to decide what we will produce and how we will produce it; we wish to stay in the countryside, we want people's sovereignty and not government sovereignty; we understand that commerce itself is good only if it is subordinated to first and foremost answer the needs of the people.
We should not have to obey he rules defined by the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF, but motivate commerce in each region of the world, that should be just, motivate co-operation and solidarity among all peoples of the world.
The role of social movements, of the people is to define and decide. This is not the role of corporations and market agents.
We defend the priority for the production of healthy food and for the satisfaction of the internal market. It is fundamental that we maintain the capacity to produce on the basis of a system of diversified farmer production (biodiversity, respecting the productive capacity of the land, the culture and the preservation of nature resources) to guarantee independence and sovereignty.
We must protect small producers, for example, from the price of products that compete with low prices of imported products.
Reduction of subsidies to multinational corporations and investment in national production, in the production of seeds that have not been genetically modified, because seeds are the patrimony of mankind.
We defend that in the short term, the obligation imposed by the WTO that each country should import a minimum of 5% of internal consumption be removed.
We demand that Brazil not sign FTAA. The FTAA means an end to social movements, to small farming, to experiences in organic agriculture, to the participation of the people in decisions. It would annex Brazil to the USA. We would become a colony and continue to be slaves. It would mean the end to democracy.
FTAA's goals are not only economic, but education would also be subordinated to the logic of the USA; it would privatise all services, such as health and welfare. Our culture would also be subordinated to the culture of the USA.
We demand a just agrarian reform. The register of patents on forms of life could give the rich the property rights on genetic natural resources and human genes is unacceptable. We will not hand over the property of our common heritage and base all of our life on the transnational corporate sector.
The privatisation of natural resources is concentrating these common goods in the hands of a few rich people, that will use them for their personal desires, while the basic needs of the people is not being answered. In the perverted world order, land is used as a golf field instead of being used to produce food (with no toxins) for the people. And water is sold and directed to hotels and pools instead of answering the basic needs of most of the world.
With the new left wing government of the PT in Brazil that was sworn in on January 1st, we have maintained discussions so as to help Brazil come out of its crisis. It is a government allied with the people which we helped to elect during its electoral campaign. It has good propositions for exportation of agriculture and for the internal market. The priority of the government is to end hunger in Brazil, where each person has three meals a day.
We are waiting: we understand that the new government must do some house cleaning in order to begin serious changes. Two months is little to manage real change, but the people can wait no more.
Social movements are available to contribute and help the government in whatever will benefit the people because the most important thing for us is the life of human beings and not property.
In conclusion, we reaffirm that our engagement is with the people of the world as the MST and as Via Campesina. We only desire that our rights should be respected, we want national sovereignty and to produce food to end hunger.
No to FTAA!
No to theWTO!
No to war!
In the name of the national co-ordination of the MST and of Via Campesina, I thank you for this invitation to be present in this important debate of ideas.