Brazilian elite stamps on peasants’ revolt

The Brazilian landless farmers' movement, the MST, has been described as the most dynamic social movement in the world. Over a million strong, it has been feted across the globe by human rights and workers' organisations.

But its provocative tactic of direct action - taking over unproductive farms en masse - has always irked the Brazilian authorities, even though the rights of the landless are enshrined in the post-dictatorship 1988 constitution, which says that any land that remains unproductive should be used for a "larger social function".

Now, in a move that has left the MST and its supporters worldwide reeling in shock, the state prosecutor for the southern region of Rio Grande do Sul, where the MST was born, has declared the movement "a paramilitary organisation and a threat to national security" and called for its dissolution and "a declaration of their illegality".

The prosecutor has accused the movement's leaders of being involved in organised crime, while certain sections of the Brazilian media have suggested that the MST is linked to FARC, Colombia's infamous guerrilla army.

Land has always been a potent issue here and the hands of the landowning elite have never been far from the levers of power. Brazil is a nation of 190m people, with an area of 8.5m square kilometres - twice the size of Europe - yet just 35,000 families own 46 per cent of the land. It remains the country with the second worst land distribution in the world.

To escape slavery conditions, millions flocked to the urban areas in the 1970s creating mega-cities and vast slums. The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) was founded in January 1984 and has since settled 370,000 families. Another 160,000 are currently living in extreme poverty in straw huts and under black plastic sheeting in camps waiting for the government land agency to legalise their situation, but it can take years.

In 2005, the MST undertook the biggest march in Brazilian history to try to kickstart wide-scale agrarian reform - but it just led to more broken promises.

The MST boasts many high-profile Brazilian supporters, including the photographer Sebastiao Salgado and the singer Chico Buarque. Support groups across the US and Europe - 'Friends of the MST' - give financial and moral support. It is also part of Via Campesina, a network of 120 social movements active in 70 countries.

But in its own country it's a different story - and not just in the south. In a recent newspaper poll, 80 per cent said they believed that the MST should be outlawed. Just seven families of the elite control the mass media in Brazil, who paint the movement as dangerous outlaws, even terrorists. One proposed law passing through the Senate suggests that land occupations be re-classified as "a terrorist act".

The irony is rich. In the latest figures available, 1,349 people were murdered in land conflicts between 1985 and 2004. But the landowners know they can act with impunity because cases of intimidation rarely come to court. After 19 MST members were shot dead by police in the massacre of Eldorado do Carajas on April 17, 1996, no police officer was even condemned for the crime.

Little wonder the MST, which has sent a plea to the UN for support, is likening the declaration of illegality to the dark days of the military dictatorship. ·