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 their land and obliged to try their luck in the city. Douglas was born in São Paulo, but “was raised with the peasant mindset” on such values as hospitality and solidarity. In 1992, when he was 14, Brazil was in turmoil. The then president Fernando Collor, responsible for the country’s rapid liberalisation, was charged with corruption. Many asked for his resignation. “I took part in the strikes as a worker and in the great demonstrations as a student”, remembers Douglas, with a smile. It was then that he discovered trade unions and political parties, but was not really interested. " I never joined any of them ", he insists.
Next, he volunteered to work for a support association for the homeless, and took an MST training course. His very first meeting with the movement proved fruitful and he was one of the sympathisers to attend an international seminar against the American free-trade economic zone. That was the beginning of his career with MST. " I joined the movement primarily for political reasons " he adds. What appealed to him was the collective and participative organisational pattern where very diverse members (young and old, women and men) all worked together as in a strong family of 450,000. Apart from its social and political agenda, MST is also developing a project for society that it is gradually implementing over the years. He likes this orientation: " Sectors like culture and gender, for example, have acquired an increasing importance, although they are not directly related to land ownership. This social pattern, based on collective thinking, is less dependent on the market economy and is therefore of paramount importance for a great number of landless people. "
Today Douglas is still as strong-willed and determined although he is aware of the difficulties: " The struggle for land in Brazil is becoming harder and harder ", he confesses with a sigh. The agro-industries are getting increasingly powerful, and the media generally collaborate with economic and political powers and often give a false image of MST… But Douglas does not lose hope, as is evident from the latest event he staged in Paris for the 25th anniversary of MST with the help of some fifteen French associations, including Frères des Hommes. The public always needs to be informed with conviction and encouraged to share in the struggle for a greater sense of solidarity. What does his future foretell? He will be committed to working as always for a fairer and more fraternal society, possibly in Bolivia or in Brazil!
