Brazil: Note of the Student Movement on the shock troop actions in Barro Branco
We share an unofficial translation of the article found here.
Combative Student Movement was shock troops of the Agrarian Revolution alongside the squatters of Barro Branco
On September 28, the squatters of Engenho Barro Branco (Jaqueira/Pernambuco) put up fierce resistance against more than 50 armed men organized by the Bolsonaro movement “Zero Invasion”, who carried out an attack on the peasants at the behest of the land thief big landlord, Guilherme Maranhão. The goons invaded the peasants’ farms, destroyed crops, fired more than 100 shots at the people but faced with the brave resistance put up by the squatters, they were forced to retreat injured and demoralized, even with all the coverage given by the Military Police to this criminal attack by the latifundium.
Mangue Vermelho Collective (MV) and the People’s Revolutionary Student Movement (MEPR) were together with the peasants on the front line, fulfilling the historic and even more pressing role in the current moment of serving the people wholeheartedly, being shock troops for the Agrarian Revolution, deeply linking itself to the brave Brazilian peasantry. The students, who organized a delegation to go to Barro Branco that same day as part of a Solidarity Mission with the squatters, in the face of the cowardly attack by far-right big landlord goons, promptly stood side by side with the peasants and participated in their blunt resistance to prevent the advance of large estates. Even with three peasants and a student injured by bullets from the goons, the strength of the occupying peasantry and the struggling youth proudly defeated the goons, who left escorted by the Military Police.
We salute the intrepid combativeness of the peasants and students in the midst of the combat, who remained firm for more than 6 hours, cornering the Bolsonarist fascist hordes, preventing the attempted massacre of the masses by these cowards and not allowing them to continue destroying the houses, banana trees and farms of the people, built with so much sweat and struggle. Cohesive around the flag of the glorious League of Poor Peasants, at the moment when the first peasant had just been shot by the goons, a firm cry was heard, which defined: “Comrades, we will win this battle and it will be dedicated to the comrade injured! ”, with which all the peasants and students redoubled their strength, making this great resistance advance even further. We, combatant youth students, salute the poor peasantry of Barro Branco and feel honored and honored to have participated in this battle alongside our comrades.
We salute our comrade Cecília, a Pedagogy student, who was shot in the foot by the goons, for her solidarity with the peasants and her firmness. In the days following the fight in Barro Branco, the comrade continued to be active in mobilizing university students and actively denouncing the crimes of the latifundium against the peasants and those who support them, passing through classrooms in a wheelchair and being at the head of the Event of Solidarity with the brave Peasant Resistance of Barro Branco. This Event, organized by the Support Committee for the struggle of the Squatters of Barro Branco and organizations that form it, mobilized more than 150 students and teachers and dozens of organizations in front of the Education Center, on October 3rd. Doing justice to the tradition of struggle of pedagogy students from all over the country, comrade Cecília and all the students present in the battle of the squatters of Barro Branco, follow the example of our dear comrade Remis Carla of “tearing down the walls of the university, serving the people in the countryside and in the city ”.
The struggling youth of Recife will continue to raise the flag of the Agrarian Revolution high, as the first stage of the New Democratic Revolution, the only way to transform the current state of affairs and make the Revolution in our country. We will transform Recife into a powerful sounding board for peasant resistance, a fundamental task of the true revolutionary, independent, classist and combative democratic Student Movement. We will fight to the end against all the latifundium’s crimes against the people, which can only end with its complete destruction. The struggling youth in Barro Branco once again echoed the combative cry of our country’s peasant struggle: “The risk of the stick, the ax has it as well!” making all big landlords, goons, cowards and traitors of the people tremble!
Long live the Agrarian Revolution! Death to the latifundium!
Long live the League of Poor Peasants!
Long live the struggling youth!
Serve the people wholeheartedly, shock troops of the Revolution!
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
Recife, October 2024
People’s Revolutionary Student Movement
Collective Mangue Vermelho