Fw: BRASÍL: Landless Peasants Movement petition to demand that Lula & PT act now

["Nello peacelink" <n.margiotta at peacelink.it>]

> STATEMENT OF THE O TRABALHO CURRENT OF THE WORKERS PARTY OF BRAZIL
> (submitted for wide endorsement in Porto Alegre, Brazil)
>
> AS IN VENEZUELA:
>
> Agrarian Reform Now! Land For the Landless Peasants Now!
>
> Who can accept that day after day in Brazil the landless
> peasants continue to be massacred by hired goons at the
> service of the large estate owners?
>
> ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
>
> Not one more landless peasant should die fighting for a
> piece of land, for the survival of his or her family. No
> landless peasants should die fighting for lands which are
> rightfully theirs but which have been denied to them for the
> past two years by Minister Rossetto and the government in
> which he serves.
>
> As in Venezuela: Agrarian Reform Now! Land For the Landless
> Now!
>
> In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez signed on January 10 the
> Decree on the Reorganization of Land Ownership and the Use
> of Arable Lands that distributes land to the peasantry.
> Since then, each day witnesses thousands of peasants
> occupying lands to which they now have a right.
>
> "The land must belong to the peasants, to those who really
> work it," declared the president of Venezuela.
>
> Yes, the land must belong to the peasants -- in Brazil just
> as in Venezuela!
>
> Can't the Brazilian government do immediately what Chávez
> did in Venezuela? Of course it can! Today, the Brazilian
> government can and must issue a similar Decree on the
> Reorganization of Land Ownership and the Use of Arable Lands
> distributing the land to the landless peasants.
>
> Minister Miguel Rossetto, YOU MUST DECIDE to take such
> action!  President Lula, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO ISSUE SUCH A
> DECREE!
>
> This is what two million landless families in Brazil  -- the
> official government figure contained in the Plinio Sampio
> Commission report -- are eagerly awaiting.
>
> There is a lot of talk about "solidarity with the sister
> people of Venezuela." The best solidarity we can provide to
> the Venezuelan workers and peasants is to decree immediately
> in Brazil: All land to those who work it!
>
> On January 19, in the presence of the leaders of the
> National Union of Workers (UNT), the independent union
> federation of Venezuela, President Chávez signed Decree
> 3438. This measure expropriated the bankrupted Venepal Paper
> Co., as the workers had demanded. Venepal had been driven to
> bankruptcy by its old owners.
>
> In Brazil there are also plants that have been driven to
> bankruptcy by their owners. For two years now, factories
> such as Cipla and Interfibra in Joinville (Santa Catarina)
> and Flaskô in Sumaré (Sao Paulo) have been occupied by the
> workers, who have kept the plants running. "Bankrupt
> Factories Are Occupied Factories, and Occupied Factories
> Must Be Nationalized Factories!" is the slogan of the
> workers, who with their plant occupations are defending
> their jobs and livelihoods.
>
> How can it not be possible to do in Brazil what is being
> done in Venezuela?
>
> - - Nationalize Cipla, Interfibra and Flaskô!
> - - Agrarian Reform Now! Land For the Landless Peasants Now!
>
> - ----
>
> Please sign this statement and help us gather more
> signatures!
>
> Sign this statement to send a clear message to Minister
> Rossetto and the Lula government that they must decree now,
> as Chávez has done in Venezuela, a land reform law so that
> the land is immediately distributed to the landless peasants
> of Brazil.
>
> Send your endorsements to the O Trabalho Current of the
> Workers Party, Rua Caetano Pinto, 678, Brás, São Paulo, SP
> 03041-000.  Email: otrabalho at uol.com.br