We are very happy to publish here a call from Austria „Call against the planned massacre at Camp Manoel Rebeiro: Prevent the massacre of the poor peasants!“. Democratic people, which are known in the public because of their positions in the workers unions, as authors, scientists or journalists express their firm solidarity with the struggle of the peasants for land in the Camp Manoel Rebeiro. With this call they follow the „Urgent call“ for international solidarity from Brazil, which writes: „Today, with this note, we urgently and immediately start the great international campaign of solidarity with the struggle of the revolutionary peasant movement in this particular region. It is important that democratic organisations, personalities, artists, etc. send their protests and denounce the Secretary of Security of Rondonia, Cisneiro Pacha ‚butcher of Santa Elina‘ and the governor of the state, Colonel of the Military Police, Marcos Rocha.“ This great act of international solidarity, the determined stance to prevent the massacre is a important sign for the struggling peasants in Brazil.
Here is the Webpage of the "Initiative for Brazilian-Solidarity" of Austria: brasiliensolidaritaet.wordpress.com
FIRST UNDERSIGNERS – Call against the planned massacre at Camp Manoel Rebeiro: Prevent the massacre of the poor peasants!
As democratic persons, we determinedly stand against the criminalization of the struggle of the poor and landless peasants for land and declare our solidarity with the struggling peasants of Brazil and their organization, the “League of poor Peasants” (LCP). Since the end of March 2021, a new massacre of the peasant movement in the Westamazon state of Rondonia, at Camp Manoel Rebeiro in the Corumbiara region is planned. The massacre should take place exactly in the area where the “massacre of Corumbiara” was carried out over 25 years ago. In 1995, around 500 poor and landless peasant families decided to occupy a piece of the large land ownership (Hacienda) of the Farm Santa Elina in Corumbiara to escape the fate of hunger and misery of the landless peasants and to achieve their just concerns on land. Against these 600 peasant families, a massacre was conducted by the large landowners in cooperation with the military police. Children were shot, peasant women used by the military police as human shields and peasants were purposefully executed. Of numerous NGO this massacre is rated as one of the major crimes against the human rights of recent years in Brazil. 25 years after this massacre, in the summer of 2020, built 600 poor peasant families, organized in the “League of poor Peasants”, recaptured this land in Corumbiara and shared it among themselves, in order to cultivate the land in the Camp Manoel Rebeiro in collective work and live from it.
The military and today’s Security Minister, Military Police-Colonel José Hélio Cysneiro Pachá, who has already militarily led the massacre of the poor and landless peasants in 1995, also commands today the apparatus that prepares for the announced massacre. Pachá has been called “butcher of Santa Elina” by the poor peasants, since the massacre in Corumbiara. The preparations for the massacre, the construction of a war apparatus consisting of police and military police, are financed primarily by the governor of Rondonia, the military policeman Colonel Marcos Rocha. The successful reconquest and democratic distribution of the country on the poor peasants should now be combated by declaring the “League of poor Peasants” to a “terrorist association”. With this justification, the Camp Manoel Rebeiro has been militarily besieged and even road controls has been set up since the beginning of this year. Cynically, the aggression campaign is called “for peace in the countryside”. The farmers at Camp Manoel Rebeiro are currently being isolated by military blockages of the camp. The public health service has been withdrawn from the region, which has particularly devastating consequences in view of the high infection- and death rates of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Military troops are ready with rifles, helicopters and bombs to attack the camp of these 600 families.
Thereby the Brazilian state helps the feudal land-owners, who enrich themselves due to the misery and poverty of poor peasants. One percent of large landowners own 46% of the countries land, while more than 4.8 million peasant families are landless. By all means of violence, the interests of large landowners are defended against the population. The large landowners are the support of foreign large corporations from the US and the EU. Through them international mining-, food-, animal feed- and wood companies enter, which destroy the land, build monocultures, destroy the rainforest and drive the poor and landless peasants away. The North American and European corporations and imperialists, who are happily welcomed by the Brazilian state, are responsible for these crimes.
Despite the planned massacre, the determined peasants in the Camp Manoel Rebeiro can not be intimidated, but call for an international solidarity campaign to prevent the massacre. We explain our solidarity and do not want this planned massacre taking place unnoticed to the world’s public. The concern of the peasant movement in Brazil is a deeply democratic one: the distribution of the land among the peasants and a end to the large land ownership. We call for a immediate end to the preparations of this massacre by the governor of Rondonia, Colonel Marcos Rocha, and the Security Minister José Hélio Cysneiros Pachá, as well as the legitimate stay of the 600 peasant families on the land of the Camp Manoel Ribeiro.
No criminalization of the struggle for land! Solidarity with the struggle of the poor peasants in Brazil!
FIRST UNDERSIGNERS: Leo Gabriel, International Board Member of the World Social Forum, Journalist and Anthropologist Martin Müllauer, Chairman of the FSG Vienna (City) [1] Clemens Arvay, Biologist and Non-fiction Author Petra Gantze, Initiator of the Demonstration “No Closing of MAN-Steyr!” Zoraida Nieto, Journalist at ORANGE 94.0, Cultural– and Social Anthropologist, Activist from Venezuela Axel Magnus, Chairman of the Workers Council of the “Vienna Drug- and Addiction Coordination” [2] Gerhard Kovatsch, Expert on Latin America Simon Müllauer, Author and Book Trader Wilhelm Langthaler, Publicist Leo X. Gabriel, Political Scientist Gerhard Mack, Secretary of the Trade Unionist Initiative KomIntern [3] Selma Schacht, Member of the Faction KomIntern in the Workers Chamber Matthias B. Lauer, Chairman of the Study Association Christianity and Social Democracy (ACUS) Irina Vana, Sociologist Oliver Jonischkeit, National Secretary of the GLB [4] [1] FSG ist a Faction in the Trade Unions and Workers Chamber, by full Name it is: Faction of Socialdemocratic Trade Unionists [2] The “Vienna Drug- and Addiction Coordination” is a social welfare Program in Vienna for prevention and medical care of drug- and addiction affected diseases. [3] KomIntern is a Faction in the Trade Unions and in the Workers Chamber, by full Name it is: Communist Trade Unionist Initiative – International. [4] GLB is a Faction in the Trade Unions and the Workers Chamber, by full Name it is: Trade Unionist Left Block