MST discusses participation in the EU-Mercosur agreement on a trip – 03/04/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

The MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) did not go to China with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who postponed his trip to the Asian country after being diagnosed with pneumonia, but has been addressing issues that are important to his agenda during a tour Europe, which ends next Friday (7).

João Paulo Rodrigues, national coordinator of the movement, has been to England, Spain, France and Switzerland. On Sunday (2), he landed in Berlin, Germany. The leader has been meeting with political leaders associated with the left and discussing topics such as international cooperation, proposals for a new agricultural model based on agrarian reform, agro-industrialization and climate change.

In London, Rodrigues had a meeting of about an hour and a half with British Labor member Jeremy Corbyn. “It was wonderful. He continues to be a reference in England, even if the Labor Party has not given him the opportunity to be a candidate for deputy”, he says to the column. “He really wanted to know about the MST, Lula and the extreme right [no Brasil]. He said he was worried about the vote [apertada] in the second round [das eleições de 2022]”, he follows.

During his visit to the English capital, the MST coordinator also participated, as a speaker, in a seminar on the climate crisis and food sovereignty, promoted by the organization Justiça Global, and visited the tomb of Karl Marx, in the Highgate cemetery.

The visit was shared by Rodrigues on his social networks. “We came to visit the tomb of our dear Karl Marx to pay our respects. I came here with our MST flag, which is our greatest symbol. And I have no doubt that, more than ever, we need thoughts, theoretical elaboration and all the accumulation on method that Karl Marx elaborated for today”, he said, in video.

“Facing this capital crisis and organizing, getting ready to make the necessary changes not only in Brazil, but in the world, requires a lot of study, a lot of organization and a lot of struggle. And Karl Marx is a reference for all of us”, he added.

In Madrid, Rodrigues met with parliamentarians from the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), discussed Spain’s arrival at the presidency of the European Union (EU) in the second half of the year and spoke about the trade agreement between the bloc and Mercosur.

The treaty, which has dragged on for more than 20 years, was signed in June 2019, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), but was never ratified due to a series of obstacles, in particular Brazil’s setbacks in the socio-environmental agenda. In January of this year, during a visit by German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz to Brasília, Lula said he hoped to complete it in 2023.

“We very much want the Spanish government [quando estiver à frente da União Europeia] can hear the social movements in the agreement with Mercosur. Otherwise, the French will swallow Brazil”, says João Paulo Rodrigues.

According to the director, France is interested in exporting agricultural products to the country at attractive prices, without any compensation. “We are interested in selling agricultural products to the European Union in exchange for technology”, says the MST coordinator.

In Paris, on the other hand, Rodrigues met with left-wing organizations and trade union movements to express their support for the protests being undertaken against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform. He also took the opportunity to meet photographer Sebastião Salgado.

The two talked about the MST’s 40th anniversary celebrations, which will take place in January 2024, and about a proposal to plant 100 million trees in schools, cooperatives and technical training centers of the movement, in addition to squares and avenues, in the period of ten years.

In his suitcase, João Paulo Rodrigues took chocolate, coffee, organic rice, cachaça and other products made by the MST to present to the people he would meet during the trip. “The coffee and chocolate were a hit,” he says.

The MST’s incursions abroad gained great prominence during the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, when its leaders denounced the violence that occurred in the massacre of Eldorado do Carajás (PA) and the State’s slowness in holding those responsible for the murder of 19 landless people accountable.

^{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH}

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