To reinforce the unity for the struggle against Landownership!
It was held on June 28th and 1st July, in Esmeraldas, Belo Horizonte, the state of Minas Gerais, the Meeting of the National Commission of the LCPs of Brasil.
The victorious event that has raised the slogan: Peasants, indians and quilombolas affected by the mining industry, dams and eucalyptus planting, united! has gathered tens of leaders, activists and supporters for the land struggle in the country, from north to south.
Delegations from the League of the Poor Peasants from Rondonia and Western Amazonia, Para and Eastern Amazonia, Northeast of the country, North of Minas and South of Bahia, Centre-West and South of the country were presents.
The event openning had the participation of guests, organizations like the People’s Brigades from Para, Union of the Rural Workers from Canaã-Para, National Front of Struggles (FNL), Worker League, Struggle for Socialism (LPS), People’s Women’s Movement (MFP), Revolutionary People’s Student Movement (MEPR), People’s Sunrise, Red Unity – League of the Revolutionary Youth (UV-LJR), Movement for the Land’s Struggle, (MLT), Union of the Postal and Telegraph Workers of Minas Gerais, Union of the Construction Workers of Belo Horizonte and Region (Marreta), Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers (Abrapo), Sub-centre of the Single Union of the Workers for Education of Minas Gerais (Sind-UTE) – Vespasiano, Classist Movement of the Workers for Education (Moclate) and the Revolutionary Front in Defense of the People’s Rights (FRDDP). The resistance struggle of the indigenous people to their territories had the presence of representatives from the Indigenous Councils of the Terena and Guarani/Kaiova, from Mato Grosso do Sul state.
After the openning table formation the presents sang The International, the proletariat’s and the world’s people struggles anthem. Next there were saluations from the organizations and representatives present to the event. After the openning the peasants sang in a vibrant way the song Conquer the land. The meeting agenda consisted of five points: 1.Debates on the international and national political situation. 2.Lecture on the agrarian question in Brasil by the geographer and professor Ariovaldo Umbelino. 3. Informs on the balance of the activities held by the League during a year period, from June, 2017, to June,2018. 4. Planning for the next period and 5. Resolutions and evaluation of the event.
Answering the invitation made by LCP, the geographer and researcher of the University of São Paulo (USP), professor Ariovaldo Umbelino, on the second day of the event, gave an enlightening lecture on the agrarian question in Brasil, historically and mostly at present.
In the auditorium it was displayed a central banner: Long live the Agrarian Revolution! near the one that announced the meeting of the National Commision of LPCs, surrounded by the movement banner. On the walls there were flags of the people’s movements, posters and a large panel showing pictures of the heroes and heroines who died during the struggle for the land, murdered by policemen and military landlords’ gangs, expressing the life and death struggle that peasants, indigenous people and quilombolas have been fighting for the land’s sacred right.
The discussion on the national and international situation has occupied the first day of the event (28th )with presentations by FRDDP, represented by the leader, Juca, and by FNL, by the leader, Valdomiro.
The debates were held around the peasant struggle and the need for the Democratic, Agrarian and Anti-imperialist Revolution in Brasil and they have spread for the whole morning on the second day with discussions and speeches of the National Commission members.
On the second day of the event (29th )the persons have attended with enthusiasm and attention a lecture by professor Ariovaldo Umbelino. The celebrated geographer has showed, based on official statistical data and researched by him, that the struggle for the land is a necessity of the peasant masses in the country where the estate concentration has grown enormously.
On the third day ( 30th ) the speeches have concentrated into the presentation of the assessment and discussion on the concrete situation of the seized areas and the mobilization for new ones. The discussions have considered the political evaluation that a period of class struggle has finished in the country, that the false opportunist electoral “left-wing” has arrived to the management of the old State and its misleading project to transform the country has failed completely. The assesment for this period has established as the principal the positive aspect and the negative as the secondary.
The resistance was strongly maintained during the difficult years of the demagogic policy that co-opted the leadership of the people’s movements, being assistentialist, demotivating policies for the masses during PT governments and having increased the repression against the peasants with arrests, lawsuits besides the murders of more than 20 LCP leaders and militants in Rondonia, Pará and Minas Gerais. However, in this period the struggle and the unchanged course for the Agrarian Revolution stood firm.
There were also debates on the negative aspects of the period, mostly in the moments that the programme and methods of organization moved away from the line.There was a definition of position by recognizing the mistakes and using the self-criticism to correct them.
On the 4th and last day ( July 1st ), as a decorrence of the anterior questions and based on the evaluation of the political situation that a new period of the class struggle would be starting – a period of a deep crisis of the society and the rise of the mass struggle in the cities and in the countryside – it was defined the planning which requires new tasks and, for fulfilling them, a need of new forces, to search a broadly unity with all strenghts of the peasant movement willing to fight for the Agrarian Revolution, joining peasants, indigenous people, quilombolas and those afected by the dams, mining and eucalyptus planting.
At the end of the meeting, the activities were assessed with a large optimism because of the struggles that took place in the meeting, affirming the line expressed in Our way – agrarian programme of the LCPs – and the combat to all kind of opportunism, rising the unity on the classist principles, the Revolution line, the methods of the organizations, work and leadership.
The evening of the last day, Saturday, was dedicated to the cultural activities. Homages were paid to the fellow-fighters, men and women, who fell during the land struggle, to the memory of the Honorary Chairman of the Poor Peasant League of Brasil who died a year ago in Lisbon, a revolutionary fellowmate, leader of the pioneer Peasant Leagues, Alípio de Freitas. And a homage was paid to the memory of the fellowmate, Sandra Lima – a revolutionary who was a driving force of the classist organizations, founder of the MFP (People’s Women Movement), who died on July 27th , 2016 – with an artistic performance of her fellowmates as well as some other songs and singings and a savoury ‘canjica’ (sweet corn pudding).
Such an important meeting – interspersed by a vigorous chorus in unison of struggle slogans of the combative and revolutionary peasant movement, revolutionary songs and LCP’s screams of war – has played its role for consolidating the struggle for the land struggle road, against landownership, the big bourgeoisie and opportunism, advancing the peasant movement leadership and their alliances, laying the foundations for the defense of the land struggle and developing the Agrarian Revolution in the country. We will give more information in the next AND editions.
