From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERWE ORGANISE, THEREFORE WE ARENever doubt that a group of concerned citizens can change the world –indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.MARGARET MEAD, ANTHROPOLOGISTThe first sign of the squatters is a huge red flag flapping above adepression in the hills a few hundred yards away. Across two barbedwire fences and an arid, sandy hillside lies the cluster of huts thrownup a number of weeks ago by 40 landless families. They have called theencampment ‘Hope’ (Esperança). Already the inhabitants are makingthe first improvements: tiles are starting to replace plastic sheets onthe roofs of the huts, whose walls are made from branches tied togetherwith twine. To provide safety in numbers, 500 people originallyoccupied the site. When ten armed policemen promptly arrived toevict them, the children stood in front with stones; behind them camethe women and adolescents, followed by the men armed with theirprimitive farming tools. The policemen backed off without a fight,allowing the squatters to get on with planting their first crops of yamsand fennel. 68The red flag belongs to Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, theMST. The MST leads landless peasants in well-organised invasions ofwasteland or uncultivated farmland. Standing amidst newly ploughedfurrows thirsty for rain, one of the squatters explains: ‘People camehere for land.We weren’t interested in riches – land created people and58