What will be the outcome of the MST CPI that will end this month? What will your conclusion point to? Who will win and who will lose from yet another investigation in the Chamber of Deputies into the Landless Rural Workers Movement?
:: Lira avoids Salles’ defeat and MST’s CPI gains another week to discuss report ::
These are some of the questions that Brasil de Fato RS asked congressman Dionilso Marcon (PT/RS), one of the members of the CPI. A farmer settled by agrarian reform, Marcon is in his third term in Brasília and has been active in the fight for land for a long time. He checks his answers.
Brasil de Fato RS – Deputies from the Bolsonaro base were planning to present the final report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) this week, but it was postponed. What are the expectations?
Marcon – The expectation was that the report would be presented this week, but that was not what happened, on the contrary, the extension of the CPI until the 26th was announced. But, regarding the expectations of the report, we know that these pages were already ready even before the start of the CPI and whose clear objective is to criminalize the movement, however this narrative lost strength with each week that we showed the infractions committed and when we ended the process with the rapporteur being a defendant in an action that investigates illegal timber exports .
BdF-RS – In your assessment, how does the MST that emerges from this CPI come out?
Marcon – The MST comes out much bigger than this CPI. The intention to criminalize popular movements and the struggle for agrarian reform backfired, as the popular expression goes. The movement had more national recognition and managed to show its actions of solidarity, production, culture, art and a lot of struggle for a fairer society.
“The intention to criminalize popular movements and the struggle for agrarian reform backfired”, says Marcon / Photo: Disclosure
BdF-RS – Who won and who lost?
Marcon – Certainly, those who were defeated in this CPI were Bolsonarism and the Bolsonarist deputies who do not represent Brazilian agriculture. They represent hate speech and contempt for democracy and Brazilian society does not tolerate anyone who confronts the Democratic Rule of Law and all this anger against the poorest population.
:: ‘MST’s CPI has emptied itself politically’, assesses Sâmia Bomfim ::
BdF-RS – What are the expectations in terms of new settlements for 2024?
Marcon – The agrarian reform agenda returns to the center of the debate, since President Lula brought the Ministry of Agrarian Development back to the Esplanada dos Ministérios and resumes the leading role of Incra, which, during the last 6 years, was completely scrapped.
However, the fight for agrarian reform must continue and the movements must continue to demand their agendas. It is not just because we have a popular government that we will be able to advance easily, since the agenda of the National Congress itself is more conservative. Furthermore, we need to continue to guide the infrastructure of existing settlements such as water, roads and internet for everyone, regularization of titles and the production of healthy food.
BdF-RS – Just like in the pandemic, once again the MST provides solidarity to those in need, with the installation of a community kitchen in Encantado, in the Vale do Taquari region. More than 18 thousand lunch boxes have been served since September 7th. How do these solidarity actions impact society in your view?
Marcon – These actions resonate very well with the population, because they show a side that the traditional media and right-wing have always tried to hide: the class solidarity that the MST represents in all its actions, the fight for a more just and egalitarian society . We need to expand the support and dissemination of these actions, because that’s what the MST is, it’s solidarity, helping others and unity.
João Pedro Stédile gave testimony at the MST CPI / Photo: Disclosure
BdF-RS – An issue that became very clear in the MST CPI, mainly in João Pedro Stédile’s testimony, is that there are two models of rural development. One defended by agribusiness, monocultures, poisons, deforestation… and the other by family, organic production, with local production. What are the main challenges regarding this clash of projects?
Marcon – The challenge is to have a more conscious, sustainable agribusiness that respects and understands the signs that the environment has been giving, with all the extreme weather events that we have been experiencing. And in this sense, the Lula government proposed the beginning of the transition of this mode of production, when it presented a Harvest Plan with a differential for sustainable producers, energy transition and undoubtedly part of the process involves the resumption of agrarian reform.
BdF-RS – Rio Grande do Sul is suffering from severe weather events. Cities were destroyed. People will need to rebuild their homes. How can the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program help at this time? Is there any debate in the Chamber about this?
Marcon – What happened in Rio Grande do Sul is very sad, another climate tragedy with many losses for Rio Grande do Sul families. One of these is the issue of housing. President Lula, together with the Minister of Cities, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and the Crisis Committee created to monitor the state has already announced more than R$2.3 billion in resources to help the victims. Minister Jader Filho announced, when he was visiting the affected areas in the state, that the Minha Casa Minha Vida program will be used to build homes for affected families. I have defended, with the Rio Grande do Sul bench, that social rent should also be provided until this construction process is completed.
“The agenda of agrarian reform and family farming have always been main topics in our work in the Legislature” / Photo: Disclosure
BdF-RS – What are your main projects in the Chamber of Deputies today?
Marcon – The agenda of agrarian reform and family farming have always been main topics in our work in the Legislature. Today, together with the MST bench and the Agrarian Center, I have been fighting for better conditions for our producers, for more infrastructure in the settlements and for a popular agrarian reform project. Furthermore, I also have the urban struggle for decent housing for all our people, because the very dignity of human beings comes from the basic guarantee of their rights such as owning their own home.
Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Ayrton Centeno
