Brazil

Slave work and rural violence

have the same origin: impunity

In one year only, more than 2,600 people who had been taken into slavery were released in Brazil, whereas every year dozens of peasants and leaders are killed.

Alberto Broch

 

Forced labor is a very sad situation which brings shame on our society as a whole; this unfortunate situation has been going on for many years. CONTAG has played a historic role in the fight for the eradication of this hideous practice, it has sought international condemnation together with the ILO and has demanded the Brazilian Labor Minister to control the situation in rural areas. We have worked hard for the eradication of this germ together with other organizations like the Land Pastoral Commission. Recently under Lula's government, the presence of inspectors has raised in distant zones, with the result, only last year, of the release of 2,600 people forced to work under this atrocious regime. More slaves have been released in two years of this administration than in eight years of Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government. A working group has been formed where several institutions partake, like the Ministry of Labor and the ILO which make a follow-up of specific proposals aimed at finishing slave work.

 

One proposal has been put into practice already and it is helpful: it is the publication of the names of landowners who slave men and women workers. This instrument is very powerful and has unveiled in the eyes of the society the double standards of renown people, influential in the Chamber of Deputies and local powers, who had slaves in their farms. Along the same line, we are promoting a reform of the constitution to allow immediate expropriation of landowner's states where slave work is proved. This reform was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, was modified in the Senate and now is back in Deputies. It should be passed quickly, but a lot of pressure is being made what predicts proceedings may be more protracted than desired. Besides, we have worked hard to introduce Rule 31 which refers to Health and Safety of workers, and we have pressed the government and Parliament to have ILO Agreement 184 ratified, which refers to Health and Safety in agriculture. These instruments shall conduct us more rapidly and firmly towards the eradication of slave work in Brazil.

 

Forced labor is imposed by deception and is a trap: people are hired usually by third parties who place them in farms with no contact with the outside world. They work there for two or three months, generally with promises never fulfilled, and when they want to leave they are not allowed because lodging and food they have consumed is charged at exaggerated prices. This way, the master creates a debt that the worker must pay and the term of repayment is at the master's discretion. People actually loose their freedom and when they manage to get out, they have empty pockets.

 

This generally occurs to people who have families awaiting them; they work with no labor rights, no signed labor agreement and that is the reason why the crime is very difficult to be proved.

 

We reckon that at present in Brazil, there are 20 thousand workers under slave conditions. This problem is always matched with violence in the countryside. Unfortunately, we have had this problem for many years, and social rural organizations like CONTAG and the MST settlements are those who most suffered it. We have been permanently exposed to violence, especially in the “borders” with extensive landowning and where the Sin Tierra (landless) workers are sited, because it is an area in permanent conflict for the property of the land. It can be affirmed that over the past 30 years, the whole process of land reform –some people say this was never applied in Brazil- took place because of the rural workers' struggle and the social movements in the Brazilian countryside. In recent years, we have suffered the assassination of many trade union leaders, priests, nuns, lawyers and a long list of workers. With Lula’s government, the trend is a reduction of violence, in some cases. Over a month ago, in the state of Pará, Sister Dorothy was assassinated, she was an American born nun naturalized Brazilian who had been struggling in favor of rural workers for more than 20 years. She supported the actions of our unions in the northern region of the country, currently one of the most violent. In Pará, there is still a long intact border, virgin lands where there is a strong dispute over land property.

 

The main actors of these disputes are important timber industry interests which covet natural forest of noble woods. But confrontation is not only because of land distribution, against the burning of forests, but also against the development system imposed by such interests. Our unions promote Sustainable Development Projects, something totally different from the systematic destruction of the natural woodland to sell timber and then develop soy monoculture o prairie for extensive cattle-breeding. Our policy is the promotion of a sustainable agricultural production model which includes rational exploitation of the woodlands. With the death of Sister Dorothy, the problem of rural violence in Brazil had an international impact, but we should remember that on the same week of her assassination, we also lost two CONTAG trade union leaders in the area and two rural workers who were also killed. And this has been happening for years, several dozens of people have been killed over the past years. It is still worse: there is a list of people condemned to death with the names of many leaders, peasants and local leaders who oppose those interests. This has become public, the National Congress and the Executive Power have become interested in the problem and they have taken specific initiatives, though we believe this effort has to be intensified.

 

Impunity has to come to an end because it encourages rural violence. Landowners, farmers and timber industry owners and their mercenaries who kill must be tried and prosecuted and at the same time land property problem has to be solved. A land reform has to be implemented and a development model has to be discussed. The government assigned a considerable military force in the state of Pará to stop this immune violence. We hope it continues until the real problems are solved, i.e., the regularization of property in Brazil, especially in the northern region.

 

The world must know what is going on here, international mass media are not interested in this 'domestic' facts unless a sad death occurs, like Sister Dorothy's. International pressure and solidarity have colossal power. At this time, they should support the government actions against political aggression in the region, against extensive landowning, against the timber industry and international capitalism pushing to get installed in the region. We must not forget the importance of human solidarity with the workers’ families, with our organizations, so we can establish widespread support, unity and solidarity.

 

 

Alberto Broch *

5 June, 2005

  

* Vice President of CONTAG (National Federation of Agricultural Workers) and a member of the IUF Latin American Committee.


 

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