Brazil: LCP Will Commemorate Leader Zé Ricardo and the 17th Anniversary of the Popular Land Division in the José Ricardo Area
On May 30, the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) will commemorate the 17th anniversary of the Popular Land Division in the José Ricardo Area, in the municipality of Lagoa dos Gatos, Pernambuco. This event also marks nearly two decades of struggle by the families who live and work on the land.
A Nova Democracia interviewed a LCP leader, who states: “March 26, 2009, is a historic date: it marks the First Festival of the Popular Land Division of the Area, following seven months of intense work. The name of the Area could not be any other: it pays tribute to José Ricardo, a great peasant leader of the LCP region in Pernambuco. […] His memory remains alive among the masses, whether through the area that bears his name or through his legacy of struggle, sacrifice, and tireless service to the landless and small-scale peasants of Riachão de Dentro.”
As a member of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), he began in 2003 to work alongside peasants in Riachão de Dentro to occupy land belonging to a latifundium. Since then, he was the target of several assassination attempts by goons. “On February 5, 2005, Zé Ricardo was the victim of an assassination attempt by goons acting on behalf of the region’s big landlords. The masses of a camp led by Zé Ricardo in the municipality of Quipapá organized their self-defense and protected their leader. Of the three goons, one died, another was wounded, and the last fled screaming, a coward like the rest of the big landlord class and their henchmen.’”
Zé Ricardo was prosecuted and imprisoned after the self-defense, and the MST tried to prevent the peasants from speaking about him “under penalty of expulsion from their camps and settlements” and spread the rumor – which they later say was not true – that he belonged to an armed group.
In 2007, the LCP carried out land occupations in Alagoas and spearheaded the campaign for the release of political prisoner José Ricardo. “That year, the Committee to Support the Peasants of Quipapá was founded, and a large demonstration was organized in Recife, in which 300 people – including peasants, students, workers, and democrats in general – demanded the immediate release of the leader.”
Zé Ricardo was finally released on March 3, 2008, following an intense campaign by peasants –with the support of students – led by the LCP. A few days later, the comrade organized an assembly where, according to an LCP representative, he “raised the ever-red banner of the League of the Poor Peasants alongside the local masses and put forward as his first proposal the popular distribution of the land; for the peasant masses, it is not enough to take the latifundium: for them to develop, raise their families, and put down roots, it is necessary to TAKE AND DISTRIBUTE ALL THE LAND OF THE LATIFUNDIUM!”
After his death in a motorcycle accident, the masses continued the task that Zé Ricardo had entrusted to them, carrying out the Popular Land Division two months later and handing over the long-awaited deeds to their lands to dozens of families in the newly formed José Ricardo Area.
An LCP leader explains: “This is the significance of Zé Ricardo, the League of the Poor Peasants, and the Popular Land Division for the masses of Riachão de Dentro and the surrounding area. The Popular Land Division Festival, on May 30, carries with it all the historical legacy of one of the League’s oldest Areas, of the entire struggle and the masses’ commitment to its leadership. The masses make history, and part of their history will be written at the 17TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE POPULAR LAND DIVISION OF THE JOSÉ RICARDO REVOLUTIONARY Area, proudly led by us, the League of the Poor Peasants.”
