[Diggers350] MST Founder João Pedro Stedile Confronts Landlords in Brazil's Congress

Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Sun Aug 20 13:13:01 BST 2023 

<https://libya360.wordpress.com/category/world/latin-america/brazil/>BRAZIL, 
<https://libya360.wordpress.com/category/world/latin-america/>LATIN 
AMERICA, 
<https://libya360.wordpress.com/category/resistance-and-revolution/revolutionary-movements/mst/>MST

MST Founder João Pedro Stedile Faces Off against Right Wing in Congress

https://tlio.org.uk/mst-founder-joao-pedro-stedile-faces-off-against-landlords-in-brazils-congress/
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/08/17/mst-founder-joao-pedro-stedile-faces-off-against-right-wing-in-congress/
Posted by 
<https://libya360.wordpress.com/author/internationalist360/>Internationalist 
360° on 
<https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/08/17/mst-founder-joao-pedro-stedile-faces-off-against-right-wing-in-congress/>August 
17, 2023

<https://peoplesdispatch.org/author/pd/>Peoples Dispatch
[]


João Pedro Stedile of the National Board of the 
MST testifies in the CPI on the MST. Photo: Lula Marques/Agência Brasil

The leader was summoned by right-wing deputies to 
testify before the Parliamentary Commission of 
Inquiry that is “investigating” the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement

After seven hours of questioning before the 
Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) 
“investigating” the Landless Rural Workers’ 
Movement (MST), João Pedro Stedile exited the 
Chamber of Deputies and was embraced by dozens of 
representatives of people’s movements, religious 
leaders, and parliamentarians who sang “This 
struggle is ours, this struggle is of the people. 
And only in struggle, will we create a new Brazil.”

Stedile was summoned to testify to the CPI by the 
right-wing deputies Ricardo Salles, the minister 
of the environment under Jair Bolsonaro, and 
Zucco, a member of the Brazilian military. The 
establishment of the CPI was approved on April 26 
by the Chamber of Deputies of the National 
Congress, dominated by the right, in order to 
“investigate” “the activities,” “the real 
purpose,” and “the means of funding” of the MST.

The CPI had its first session on May 23 and since 
then they have received testimonies from diverse 
“witnesses” and experts who are questioned by the 
deputies in the commission. The information 
collected throughout these months is then drafted 
into a report which is presented to different 
entities of the judicial, executive, and 
legislative branches of power with conclusions and recommendations.

However, analysts have pointed out that the 
“investigative” commission has largely focused on 
bringing former or disgruntled members of the two 
million person movement to testify about 
grievances they have with local leadership, 
alleged irregularities or even alleged crimes 
which they participated in or witnessed, and 
other isolated incidents. Right-wing deputies 
which until recently composed the majority of the 
commission, have also used the space to launch 
baseless sweeping accusations at the movement and 
criticize its struggle not only for popular 
agrarian reform but for social change, against 
racism, and for a sovereign Brazil where all can live with dignity.

Many have also pointed out that it is no 
coincidence that this CPI is occurring alongside 
moments of great political difficulty for the 
country’s right-wing including an ongoing CPI 
investigating the coup actions committed on 
January 8 in Brasilia by thousands of Bolsonaro 
supporters with links to government officials and 
businessmen, as well as the investigation of 
several members of the Bolsonaro government as 
well as some of his close allies over corruption.

So, what has come to be known popularly as the 
“CPI Circus against the MST” had one of its last 
major days of work on August 15 with the 
testimony from João Pedro Stedile, one of the 
founding members of the MST and a member of the 
national board. Despite their efforts to catch 
the leader off guard and tire him out through 
hours of questioning and accusations, the 
testimony of Stedile ranged from explanations of 
Marxism, a defense of the organizational 
structure and vision of the MST, and a deep 
criticism not only of capitalism and 
agribusiness, but also of how the deputies 
carried out the work of the commission.

[]


Methodological errors

The deputies running the CPI have employed a 
common tactic used by the right, which is to use 
testimonies of specific individuals who have been 
sought out and previously identified as against 
the MST, to support their claims about the 
movement. This move was sharply criticized by João Pedro in his testimony.

He said that in order for the CPI to have results 
found more faithful to reality, it should have 
taken a random sample of people that live on MST 
settlements and encampments, and not pick certain groups in advance.

“I want to make a statistical observation. We 
have 500,000 settled families and 60,000 encamped 
families, according to INCRA [National Institute 
for Colonization and Agrarian Reform]. If you 
take a random sample of 1%, that would be 5,000 
families you would have to listen to, although 
the most serious evidence is of even higher percentages.”

After Deputy Salles, asked his opinion about 
cases where people allegedly try to personally 
benefit from the MST’s projects on settlements 
and encampments, the landless leader responded by 
referencing the German sociologist Karl Marx: “In 
a capitalist society, all classes, whether the 
bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the working 
class, the peasantry, the workers in general, 
have a lumpen fraction. What is a lumpen? It’s 
that opportunist who wants to live off the work 
of others, who wants to exploit the work of 
others. So these lumpens exist throughout 
society. You’ll find them among the bourgeoisie – 
drug traffickers, for example, are billionaires 
and are lumpens – in the middle class, among 
liberal professionals, among lawyers, 
journalists, MPs, among workers and among peasants.”

Can the right understand movement organizing?

Another major line of questioning lodged at the 
landless leader was regarding the work that often 
takes place in the collective areas of the MST. 
The right-wing deputies, seemingly unable to 
understand why people would willingly organize 
collectively and distribute work to advance the 
common good, attempted to accuse MST leaders of 
authoritarianism and imposing forced labor on members.

In response, Stedile highlighted the 
characteristics that mark the movement’s form of 
organization, citing aspects such as the 
collective awareness, the use of a 
decision-making process that is always collective 
rather than individual, the division of tasks, 
discipline, and the educational and intellectual 
training of the militants that join the movement on their own volition.

When he mentioned the organization’s 
characteristics, the economist sent a message to 
Kim Kataguiri from the União Party and one of the 
founders of the Free Brazil Movement (MBL) who is 
part of the CPI. The organization has produced 
different conservative and extremist youth 
leaders since its creation nine years ago.

“Among the organizational principles, everything 
has to be collective. Everything has to be in the 
form of a committee because it is the collective 
that protects [us] from the opportunism of false 
leaders. Don’t adopt this terminology of 
‘president’, ‘treasurer’, ‘secretary’. The 
organizing principles are universal. They apply 
to the workers’ movement and they apply to Kim’s 
movement. I hope he’s taking notes. Any popular 
social movement has to adopt these principles,” 
Stedile explained in what many have deemed a 
master class on popular organization, provoking laughter from the audience.

[]



Education for all: another conquest of the MST

While explaining the actual work and functioning 
of the MST, João Pedro also emphasized the 
centrality of study and education in the MST. 
Whether its carrying out literacy campaigns with 
adults and young people for people in MST and in 
communities they work with, developing popular 
pedagogy for the childcare and primary schools 
organized within the MST settlements and 
encampments, or fighting for policies that 
facilitate access to higher education for the 
landless, education for all is more than a slogan.

During the CPI, João Pedro highlighted that, as a 
result of this historic effort, around 250 
landless workers have already studied law in the 
university. He also highlighted the importance of 
the National Program for Education in Agrarian 
Reform (PRONERA) created in 1998 during the 
Fernando Henrique Cardoso government (1994-1994), 
as a result of pressure from union and social 
struggles. Stedile described PRONERA as a 
“fantastic achievement” for the movement.

“I brought here the proof of the ‘crime’ – that’s 
how you use [the word], right? Ney [Strozake], 
the comrades who are here, are all lawyers who 
are children of [land reform] beneficiaries. Can 
you believe that? If it hadn’t been for PRONERA, 
they’d be [working the land] or they’d have 
become lumpens,” Stedile joked, pointing to the 
group of MST lawyers accompanying him at the 
session. The mention was also made in front of a 
silent plenary and a visibly embarrassed Ricardo 
Salles: Ney Strozake, one of the MST’s legal 
advisors, is also the lawyer of the former Environment Minister in some cases.


Agribusiness

During the hours-long testimony, the economist 
heavily criticized the more conservative 
agribusiness. At one point during his answers to 
the CPI deputies, the leader pointed out that 
this segment of the rural sector is currently 
experiencing divisions in response to the PT 
administration. Part of the sector is active in 
the Lula government, as is the case of the 
Minister of Agriculture, cattle rancher Carlos 
Fávaro, who is a senator-elect for Mato Grosso 
and is currently on leave from his mandate.

“Agribusiness is divided. The half that has any 
sense supported Lula. The other half is Aprosoja 
[Brazilian Association of Soybean Producers, one 
of the sector’s political arms], which only 
thinks about making money. Part of agribusiness 
is already aware of the limits and is already 
migrating to another form of agriculture, what is 
now known as ‘regenerative practices’, to replace 
pesticides with agroecological pesticides. Part 
of agribusiness is still going to heaven,” 
Stedile joked. “But the dumb agribusiness, which 
only thinks about easy profits, has its days numbered,” he added.

Occupation vs. invasion

The key political disputes between the 
Bolsonaristas and MST supporters were present 
throughout the landless leader’s CPI testimony. 
At one point during the hearing, deputy Rodolfo 
Nogueira from Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, 
questioned Stedile about whether the leader 
“believes he has a license of impunity” for 
allegedly “inciting crimes” in the country. “I 
have never incited any crime,” replied the 
economist, to which he was interrupted by the 
deputy, who said that “land invasion is a crime.”

Stedile took the opportunity to highlight the 
difference between “occupation” and “invasion”, 
the latter being an expression often used in 
public debate by more conservative politicians to 
create confusion on the subject. “Land invasion 
is a crime, like the farmers in Mato Grosso do 
Sul invading indigenous land. What the MST is 
doing is occupying land as a way of putting 
pressure so that the Constitution is implemented. 
Invasion of land or any public property is when 
someone does it for their own benefit, and then 
it is characterized as squatting and is 
criminalized by the Penal Code,” said Stedile.

The MST leader continued his reasoning by 
highlighting the legal aspects surrounding the 
issue: “What our movement is doing, recognized by 
jurisprudence, is not an invasion. It is 
occupation, and occupation here is not squatting, 
so much so that, to your despair, of the many 
occupations that have taken place over the last 
40 years throughout Brazil, no one has been 
arrested or convicted.” “If you want to end the 
occupations, expropriate large unproductive 
properties, because then there’s land for everyone,” he added.

In another moment, the deputies asked about 
Stedile’s participation in the entourage that 
accompanied President Lula to China in April this 
year. Deputy Salles asked him if there was “any 
movement in China analogous to the MST in 
Brazil”. “No, because in 1949 they carried out 
land reform. [For] those of you who want to 
defeat the MST so badly, the formula is simple: 
carry out agrarian reform and the next day the MST will disappear,” he said.

Solidarity

Half an hour before the start of the hearing, 
João Pedro Stedile’s arrival at the Chamber drew 
the attention of everyone nearby. The landless 
leader was welcomed by dozens of people who had 
gathered there to show solidarity. Federal 
deputies, religious leaders, trade unionists, and 
members of different popular movements crowded 
around and chanted slogans and songs about 
agrarian reform as a way of embracing Stedile 
with words of support. From there, he made his 
way to the room, accompanied by a procession. “We 
are here in the name of the model of society that 
we seek to give our support to those who help 
organize the people in Brazil,” said Pastor Luís Sabanay.

“What drives me to be here is that I want the 
land for those who plant on it. I want nature 
alive because we don’t eat dead nature. And what 
moves me to be here is that, as well as not 
letting go of anyone’s hand, is that it is 
[important] to be together at a time like this. 
It is to say that the MST moves us because it 
teaches us what my religion already brings in its 
daily life, which is [the idea that] we need 
nature because without it there is no orixá,” 
said Makota Celinha, general coordinator of the 
National Center for Afro-Brazilian Africanity and 
Resistance (Cenarab), who received a public 
greeting from Stedile at the start of the session.

Members of parliament who are not part of the CPI 
also joined the procession to embrace Stedile and 
wish him strength. “The MST is a movement that we 
all cherish, which fights for the democratization 
of the land, demonstrates to the Brazilian people 
that it is necessary to fight the ultra-right, 
defend democracy, and share wealth. It’s a 
movement that lives in our hearts, that’s why I 
came here, on his behalf, to congratulate the 
entire MST,” said Congressman Rogério Correia of the Workers’ Party (PT).

Politicians from other levels of government also 
attended the event with the same objective. This 
was the case of Pernambuco state deputy Rosa 
Amorim of the PT, who is the daughter of founders 
of the MST in several states and grew up on an 
agrarian reform settlement. “We have an elected 
agrarian reform caucus in several states of the 
country and, at this very important moment, which 
is also a battle in the institutional realm, we 
have to be here to show our solidarity. Today we 
are going to send a message to Brazil about what 
the MST does and produces,” she said.

One sighting that attracted the spotlight was 
that of the governor of Ceará, Elmano de Freitas 
of the PT. Having come to Brasilia to fulfill 
agendas in some ministries, he went to the 
Chamber of Deputies to greet Stedile at the CPI 
and stayed for a couple of minutes. Speaking to 
Brasil de Fato, Elmano highlighted the movement’s 
work in the countryside of Ceará.

“In Ceará, we are closely acquainted with the 
landless movement, which has built an 
agro-industry in the milk production chain in the 
Quixeramobim region, which has developed 
agro-industries in the area of [production with] 
goats and sheep, in the area of honey, generating 
opportunities for thousands of families who used 
to live in extreme poverty and today live with 
dignity, have children going to college, going to 
school full time. Therefore, the landless in 
Ceará, as it is throughout the country, represent 
an organization of the most humble people to be 
able to live with dignity,” said the governor.

Various parliamentarians from the progressive 
camp wore MST hats during the CPI meeting as a 
way of paying tribute to Stedile and the 
organization. “I wear it with great pride and as 
a way of recognizing the struggle for agrarian 
reform in Brazil,” said Fernanda Melchionna, 
deputy from the Socialism and Liberty Party 
(PSOL). Congressman Nilto Tatto of PT also joined 
the group. “Wearing the MST hat at the CPI that 
wants to criminalize the movement is an act of 
resistance, solidarity and gratitude for 
everything the organization has done for the Brazilian people,” he said.

MST evaluates CPI

Ayala Ferreira, one of the leaders of the MST’s 
Human Rights Sector, said following the hearing 
that Stedile had demonstrated his superiority in 
terms of political capacity and knowledge of the subject.

“Our evaluation is that he gave a lesson, which 
we already imagined would happen. He didn’t come 
here to convince the agro-military, Bolsonaro 
sectors of the importance of agrarian reform and 
the relevance of the MST in this agenda. He came 
to talk to Brazilian society, to all the people 
who followed [the testimony] online, on the pages 
that published [the testimony], to see everything 
we’ve been saying: that the MST is going to 
celebrate 40 years of history and struggle for 
the democratization of the land, highlighting the 
need for agrarian reform,” said Ayala.

In a 
<https://mst.org.br/2023/08/15/stedile-leva-debate-sobre-questao-agraria-para-cpi-contra-o-mst/>public 
statement sent to the press shortly after the 
committee’s session, the national leadership of 
the MST expressed a positive assessment of João 
Pedro Stedile’s participation in the committee, 
but also criticized the CPI’s handling of the 
work. “This CPI has been running for three 
months, under the command of Bolsonaro 
parliamentarians, in an attempt to criminalize 
the MST and prevent the resumption of the 
National Agrarian Reform Policy, as well as 
trying to wear down the federal government. 
However, the baseness and lack of legitimacy and 
seriousness of the Bolsonaro deputies is leading 
it to be closed earlier than expected by these 
parliamentarians themselves,” the text says.

With reports from Brasil de Fato.



















































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