Occupy, Resist, and Grow
Janaina grew up in a MST occupation. Her family lost their land to banks in the late 1970s because, like many family farmers in the global south at the time, they borrowed money in order to adopt industrial agricultural techniques. Indebted and unable to pay back what they owed, the bank seized their land, displacing newborn Janaina, her eight older brothers, and parents to the city, where they survived precariously as field laborers. But, in 1985, her family joined the MST and they moved into a camp, with 225 other families, for two years, where they studied and prepared to occupy land in the western part of the Parana state.
The MST uses a two-step method to expropriate land lying fallow, owned by corporations or latifundios, for collective use. First, families are moved in rural camps, typically dwelling in shacks alongside highways, until land is identified for settlement. This can take anywhere from six months to five years, but camp living has proved to be important preparation in transforming atomized individuals into collectively minded occupiers. Camp residents receive a rigorous dose of participatory education, on politics and critical thinking as well as practical matters such as sustainable farming techniques and how to manage a cooperative. Without this experience, families that move directly onto occupied land typically leave within a few months. But, with this preparation, more than 90 percent stay for the long run.
The second step is occupation of the land by families, usually at dawn when security guards and police are sleeping. Janaina remembers arriving early one morning with her family to an unused piece of land, but the police were waiting and prevented the families from entering the land. So, they camped on the side of the road for two months, where conditions were difficult, “hunger and cold were always stalking us,” Janaina recalled. Brazil is unique in that, beginning in the nineteenth century, one had legal claim to land if it was serving a social function. While petitioning through bureaucratic pathways for the title, the MST also moved the camp to occupy the plaza in front of the state capital, Curitiba. After participating in seven occupations, Janaina’s mother finally acquired land, collectively.
Once land is occupied, the collective immediately begins to dig in and grow roots. Peter Rossett describes how “crops are planted immediately, communal kitchens, schools, and a health clinic are set up, and defense teams trained in nonviolence secure the perimeter against the hired gunmen, thugs, and assorted police forces that the landlord usually calls down upon them.” This is the new society that the MST is building alongside the current model of global capitalism.
Already, we are experimenting with land occupations. A faction of Occupy Oakland tried to takeover a foreclosed homeless shelter on the day of the general strike. They were unsuccessful, but planted a seed. A seed that took root on December 6, the national day of action, where organizers across the country occupied foreclosed properties. Next, come spring, as Max Rameau promises, we will emerge and bloom.
Postscript: I had the opportunity to ask Janaina: How does the MST example apply to Occupy, which does seem primarily to be urban? I found her response quite profound. She said, “It’s time to break the Cartesian dualism, step away from the rural versus urban dichotomy, and think of other ways to defend land, grow food, and distribute resources… We who are living in ‘urban’ places can create ‘rural’ spaces, to grow our own food.”
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