1. On July 23 João Pedro Stedile and lawyer Jacques Alfonsin participated in a camp of landless farm workers, in the parish Church hall in Gloria in the municipality of Canguçu, Rio Grande do Sul. The activity comprised studies and education. The press were only allowed to film pictures. 2. João Pedro Stedile spoke of the origins of the latifundios over the last 500 years. He explained that the existence and preservation of this agrarian structure generated an extremely unequal society in which we have on one side 26 thousand large-scale latifundistas who own areas greater than 2 thousand hectares, in general unproductive, and on the other, 4.5 million families without land who live in the camps suffering hardship. He also highlighted the fact that the role of the agrarian reform was to eliminate precisely these unproductive latifundios. And, in each expropriated latifundio will be space for a settlement of a thousand workers. 3. A journalist from a gaucho company infiltrated the meeting, recorded the speeches and sent them to his superiors in Porto Alegre. This company, faithful to its editorial style of systematically attacking social movements, tried to decontextualise and manipulate the statements made by João Pedro Stedile. In this way creating headlines that we all recognise: War has been declared in the countryside! Afterwards, the so-called mainstream press took on the task of reproducing and amplifying the distortions, already anticipating an "institutional crisis" and demanding that the President of the Republic declare his views. 4. Unfortunately, manipulation by the media is increasingly frequent and incisive, as a result of the financial monopoly and the absence of democratisation of the media. This concentration of the media has transformed them into a veritable ideological party of the Brazilian elite, in unfailing defence of its privileges alone. With this orchestration they now want to make Lula's government a hostage to their interests, preventing agrarian reform and a change to the economic model. They want to criminalize all social movements that fight for their rights. They want to conceal the gravity of the social crisis, fed by ten years of neo-liberalism, shielded by them. They want to throw social movements against Lula's government and visa versa, precisely to inhibit the fight against the neo- liberal model. To reach their aims the media keep feeding fictitious stories, hinting at a climate of political and social instability in the country. They did this with the occupation of the latifundios, with the occupation of the homeless in Sao Bernardo do Campo, when Lula wore the cap of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), and they are doing it now with the declarations of João Pedro Stedile in Canguçu. 5. It is not the MST which is demanding the elimination of the latifundios: it is written in the Federal Constitution that the State is responsible for expropriating all the large unproductive properties and distributing them through the agrarian reform. We only want the Brazilian Constitution to be carried out. In its entirety. 6. The attempts to give a violent connotation to the words of João Pedro come precisely from those minority sectors that are most retrograde, most violent and most discredited in our society. The minority sectors think they can conceal, behind a curtain of words, the weapons that have already killed so many leaders of the rural workers, such as Chico Mendes, Padre Josimo, Canutos, Dorcelina Folador and many others. In this year alone more than 30 workers have been assassinated in areas of conflict over the land. They publicly display their militia, display their arms with impunity, and have the audacity to give themselves squad names in contravention of the law. 7. Our fight towards agrarian reform will always continue. And agrarian reform will be implemented with the distribution of the large-scale unproductive latifundios which are owned by a minority of our society. Is there any one with a clear conscience who can approve of the fact that a latifundista holds areas of 2, 5, or 50 thousand hectares? Can there be anyone who agrees that a construction company should be the owner of millions of hectares? Can there be anyone who agrees that foreign companies should be the owners of millions of hectares? While many of our people have not even the smallest piece of land to work! 8. Brazilian society acknowledges that the MST has been fighting for agrarian reform for the last 20 years. It knows of our commitment and our fight against this latifundista minority. It knows that without removing the latifundios we will not have a democratic society. It knows that the cause of rural exodus, of poverty and unemployment is the concentration of the latifundios and of the wealth of our country. For this reason, we go on with our heads held high in dignity, so that one day there will be no more latifundios in our society. We want to take the opportunity to publicly thank the immense solidarity received, from all parties, from lawyers, students, churches, newspapers, trade unions, the Central Union of Workers (CUT) and thousands of anonymous people outside Brazil. Sao Paulo, July 29, 2003
National Secretariat
Landless Worker's Movement - MST