Brazil: Event in defense of the peasants of Barro Branco

Feature image: Act at the headquarters of SITUFEPE in defense of the peasants of Barro Branco. Source: AND

The A Nova Democracia Support Committee in Recife organized on April 19 an act in defense of the peasants of Barro Branco, who suffer attacks of the big landlords who want to appropriate their lands.

In a camp in Barro Branco, the peasants have suffered attacks by big landlords for months. These attacks by big landlords specifically by the agricultural company Mata Sul S/A are based on poisoning drinking water wells in order to force peasants to abandon their lands. In addition, these attacks went further, and when the peasants saw the workers of the company launching the spill, gunmen at the service of the latifundium went to threaten them. The peasants managed to expel them, but not before being photographed by the goons.

In solidarity with the attacked peasants, the A Nova Democracia Support Committee has held an event at the headquarter of the Workers’ Union of the Federal Universities of Pernambuco -UFPE section (SINTUFEPE -UFPE), who have already supported the professors’ strike of The Federal University of Pernambuco, as we report yesterday.

150 people attended the event, with representation of different organizations such as SINTUPEFE, People’s Women’s Movement (MFP), the Brazilian Association of Lawyers of the People (Abrapo) and student organizations such as Movimiento Ventanaia and the Mangue Vermelho Collective, among others.

The event began with the peasant struggle song “Conquistar a Terra” and the representatives of the Revolutionary Areas talked about the peasant struggle in Pernambuco and Alagoas, greeted the support received and explained the national struggle for the Agrarian Revolution.

The MFP also talked about the struggle of women in the countryside, specifically in the Jaqueira field and “the need to awaken in each of them the revolutionary fury that inhabits them.” The Mangue Vermelho Collective, Movimiento Ventanaia and students of Philosophy also positioned in solidarity with the peasants and talked about the role of the student and youth in supporting this struggle and against imperialism, represented in the company Mata Sul S/A.

After the contributions and as proposal of the table, the Support Committee in Defense of the Squatters of Mata Sul was created, to increase the propaganda of the fight of the peasants in the Metropolitan Region and carry out solidarity actions in the field and create a resistance support piggy bank. Finally, Professor Luiz Momssso was elected to be the honorary president of the Committee.

All the proposals were approved and received with enthusiasm from the attendees, who applauded the proposed actions. With the final greetings, the anthem “O Risco” was sung and the event ended.