Activists Protest Killing in Brazil

A local solidarity group occuped the Lisle office of a major agro-chemical corporation May 2 to protest the recent killing of a leader of landless peasants in Brazil.

Chicago Friends of MST — supporters of the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil, or Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra — normally focuses on fundraising and educational programs. But member Duff Morton said they were “horrified” by the killing of MST leader Valmir Mota de Oliviera last October during an occupation of an experimental farm in southern Brazil owned by the Swiss-based multinational Syngenta.

According to reports, Mota was shot point-blank in the chest by guards from a security firm hired by Syngenta. MST called the killing an “execution.” Mota had led the campaign against Syngenta.

The Chicago group said it has had no response to its attempts to contact the corporation’s Midwest office; it pressed managers the day of the protest with demands for a response to the murder — and for Syngenta to leave Brazil, as MST has demanded, Morton said.

Syngenta was fined over a half million dollars and ordered to give up the site in Parana, Brazil, after being cited for cultivating genetically-modified soy and corn in an evironmentally-protected area. According to Morton, Syngenta has refused to pay the fine or close the facility.

About 150 MST members occupied the site on October 21, seeking enforcement of the orders against the experimental farm. They were attacked by a force of 40 security guards.

With 1.5 million members, MST may be the largest social movement in the world. Occupying large plantations, the group has settled 300,000 farmers in 2,000 settlements in the past two decades under a contitutional provision requiring redistribution of land that is unproductive or fails to meet environmental and labor standards.

The group has established small cooperatives and over a thousand schools, working with United Nations agencies and the church.

MST has championed small-scale, sustainable farming over industrial agriculture and demanded crops be grown for food, not bio-fuels. Syngenta’s profits have soared recently, largely due to bio-fuel related sales, Morton said. Production for bio-fuels is a major cause of rising food prices and the growing hunger crisis around the world, he said.