On the struggle for land in Barro Branco, Brazil

For the past months A Nova Democracia (AND) has been extensively reporting on the sharpening of the struggle for land in Brazil. One of the peaks of this struggle was without doubts the Fierce Battle of Barro Branco, Jaqueira, State of Pernambuco, which took place on September 28. The poor peasantry, lead by the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) as well as supported by people’s students resisted and rejected the attacks by the goons of the latifundium organized in the movement known as “Invasão Zero”¹. The latifundium has unleashed a war on the poor peasantry which is increasingly organizing the resistance. In a recent statement, the LCP linked this struggle with the history of the struggle for land in Brazil making very clear that this is not an isolated event or clash but much more: “The fierce resistance of the squatters of Engenho Barro Branco is the continuation of the heroic struggle of the peasants of Santa Elina, Eldorado dos Carajás, of the Guarani, Kaiowas, Tupinambás, Caigangues, Mundurucus, Pataxós and many others, of the Manoel Ribeiro camp and the bloody battles of the peasants of Tiago dos Santos, to cite a few examples from our recent history.”

A student who was injured by a gunshot, Ana Cecília, was interviewed by AND:

The old Brazilian State along with the goons of latifundium have continued their attacks on the peasantry. After this battle, the Military Police (MP) has continued its harassment of the peasants, what has been denounced by the Support Committee to Barro Branco:

Source: Instagram of the Support Committee to Barro Branco

Among other criminal acts, the MP illegally arrested a resident of Barro Branco on October 22. Among the troops who was carrying out this operation, one of the MP’s who was supporting the attack by goons at the Battle of Barro Branco was present. The MP invented an excuse to detain the peasant, to whom also the right to have a lawyer from the ABRAPO was denied. Few hours later the peasant was released since there was a big pressure by the other peasants, the Support Committee and the students.

But this is not preventing the peasants led by the LCP and the students to continue their struggle. After the Battle of Barro Branco a great solidarity was unleashed with the peasants and more than 200 signatures were gathered in a document to support and express solidarity with the peasants. We share the link to the signature for the document:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSev1W1312CSU-vwygPyWrYLKUI9uewZ0KUN7TABsM79xJAWFQ/viewform

The students and many organizations made a big event of solidarity at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) with more than 150 attendants. A demonstration was carried out and a representative of the peasants of Barro Branco made a speech, in which the following statement stood out: “They tried to do what they wanted with the peasants of Barro Branco and we gave the appropriate response. We defend in the Barro Branco Association the principles of the Agrarian Revolution highlighted by the League of Poor Peasants, which has been clearly saying since 2023 that we are experiencing a reactionary Civil War in the countryside and the peasantry has to organize their self-defense groups to struggle!”.

The repression and the attacks by latifundium have proved to be useless to prevent the peasants to continue their activity in the area. After the battle and some operations against them, the peasantry has continued working the land and repairing damages caused by the attacks of the goons. They have spread their struggle among other peasants, distributing leaflets among other residents of the area. They noticed as well that they were filmed by the goons.

Barro Branco shows how is developing the context of war in the Brazilian countryside, with increasing mobilization of the peasantry, attacks by the latifundium and resistance against it, as well as increasing politicization and mobilization of the peasantry and the solidarity from other sectors with the struggle for land, such as from the student movement. As an example, in the same area, Pernambuco, other attacks by the latifundium and the old Brazilian State took place on the last weeks: for example on October 9, around 500 peasant families were evicted from Santa Maria da Boa Vista, and MST members were violently repressed by the Brazilian police. But just few days after the peasantry retook the lands there. Also in the bordering area of Zona da Mata paraibana, between Pernambuco and Paraíba, AND made an extensive reportage on the threats and attacks faced by the peasantry, who faced harassment by the goons who are destroying houses, making gunshots against the peasant encampment organized by the MST, as well as they faced a military base erected by mercenaries. Those mercenaries are preventing the peasants to work the land.

The LCP highlighted how is developing the situation nowadays: “Under these conditions, there is only one path for peasants, indigenous peoples and Quilombolas: the path of the Agrarian Revolution, as an inseparable part of the New Democratic Revolution. Only by revolutionizing the countryside, destroying the latifundium and its old State, will the masses be able to win the sacred right to land for those who live and work on it. The Agrarian Revolution is the destruction, in practice, of these semi-feudal relations of production that have been in force in the countryside since the origin of the Brazilian nation (five centuries); today, the Agrarian Revolution, moreover, is the defeat in practice of the extreme right. As the great Peruvian revolutionary Mariátegui established, the struggle for land is always violent and therefore touches on the political question of Power from the beginning. Under the leadership of the revolutionary working class, the insurgent Brazilian peasantry advances with each struggle towards the construction of a New Power.” After that, made a call to the peasantry of the state of Pernambuco: “The National Commission of the Poor Peasants’ Leagues and the LCP Northeast call on all land struggle organizations in the state of Pernambuco, from the Sertão to the Coast, and peasants, indigenous peoples and Quilombolas from all over the country, to mobilize to confront and defeat the Bolsonaro paramilitary hordes of the far-right “Invasão Zero”, in every situation that arises and to support the struggle of the squatters of Barro Branco.”

1We recommend our readers to read this article by AND explaining what is the movement “Invasão Zero”: https://anovademocracia.com.br/pe-quem-e-o-movimento-invasao-zero-em-pernambuco/