He arrives, dynamic and smiling as usual; a bit embarrassed tonight perhaps, as he is not as comfortable being interviewed as in a conference… Douglas Estevam is now 31. For more than a year, he has been representing the Brazilian landless movement (Mouvement des sans-terre or MST), a Frères des Hommes partner, in France. Here he looks back on an eventful life that took this committed young man from the slums of São Paulo to Paris. Douglas’s parents were peasants. They were forced out of (...) Next ...

The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. From the 21 to 24 January 2009, over 2000 people took part in a celebration, held in a place of strong symbolic value: the “assentamento” (legalized occupation of land) Novo Sarandi, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, first assentamento created by the movement 25 years ago. There are 418 families living there today, in 7 villages spread out over thousands of hectares. Apart from the red MST flags which flutter in front (...) Next ...

“Developing a common legislative bill on agrarian reform is decisive in order to overcome the agrarian crises we have been facing for years!” cries out Usep Setiawan of the Consortium for agrarian reform (KPA) during the opening of the national Forum that took place in Jakarta last January 29th and 30th. During this forum, KPA united legal and agricultural experts to set up legislative bills on land reform and define strategies in order to advocate to the Parliament. This project intends to (...) Next ...

From the 24 to the 27 January, 400 journalists worldwide were invited by the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST), to visit Carajas, near Belem, where a few days later the World Social Forum (WSF) would be held. They could see for themselves the economic and human catastrophe caused by mining. Members of MST, of the municipality of Parauapebas in Carajas region, of the Environment Ministry of Para along with researchers gave a tour of the area to (...) Next ...

The landless farmers of acampamento Irma Alberta, in the state of Sao Paulo, are no longer landless! The federal government has granted 300 people the right to the land they have occupied since 2002. These occupied lands take the form of acampamento and assentamento (legalized camps). A few dozen families, with the help of he Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST) are located on land mostly unused or poorly used that they want to develop. They live in (...) Next ...

This article was published in the June 2008 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists. Culture was the focal point of the meeting organized from May 14-18 of last year by the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales sin Tierra, MST) and la Vía Campesina, international peasant movement in Curitiba, in the state of Paraná in the south of Brazil. The meeting allowed farmers from all over Brazil to get together to discuss (...) Next ...

Inday is the local representative of our Philippine partner PhilNet-RDI in Leyte in the centre of the country. Committed ! This is the best way to sum up Inday Pizon’s personality. _ She is the local representative of our Philippine partner « The Philippine Network of Rural Development Institutes » (PhilNet-RDI) in Leyte, in the centre of the country. In this region, as in the rest of the country, most of the population depend on farming for their livelihood. Inday has always lived in a rural (...) Next ...

This article published in the September 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists. In Brasilia, from 11 to 15 June, the Fifth National Congress of the Landless Farmers’ Movement (MST) brought together nearly 18 000 participants. After long months of preparations, often beset challenges , there were five days of discussions, workshops and debates. This huge participatory mobilisation ended with the drafting of a document that, once more, (...) Next ...

This article was published in the March 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists. The suicide rate among Indian farmers has reached the breaking point. With the government unable to stop the crisis, only Indian farmers’ organizations are capable of bringing together the force and the willpower necessary to fight against this desperate cycle. Among the world’s newly emerging countries, India is in the limelight. A large power with underlying (...) Next ...

This article was published in the March 2007 issue of Resonances, a citizens’ information monthly drawn up by young activists. In Bandung, in western Java, the very first SPORA conference took place between 9 and 21 March. SPORA is a new umbrella organization that brings together various Indonesian farmers’ associations. This meeting, which carries high hopes for strengthening farming movements, was an exciting event for all participants. A coalition with incredible ambitions Over (...) Next ...