For more results, you may also want to perform a site-wide search for MST.

There were multiple offensives against indigenous people throughout the month of June. A Canadian court paved the way to reclassify 16 lakes as mine waste dumps; The US Supreme court issued at least three rulings against indigenous rights; Police in Australia barred a group of Indigenous People from visiting a scared site; and there was state-sanctioned violence against people in Guatemala, India, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.

In other news, the O’odham of Gila River became the first Indigenous Community in the US (perhaps in the world) to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights …

The Rural Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has blockaded eight roads in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This action comes in response to the “violence and abuses” committed against 900 women two days ago.

Organized as part of a “week of mobilization for Agrarian Reform and against the violence of big land-owners”, the women of La Via Campesina decided to occupy a plot of land that was illegally acquired by the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso.

According to Via Campesina, Brazilian law states foreigners cannot own land that’s “less …

It’s fairly short notice, but Via Campesina has organized a Global Day of Action against Syngenta Seeds for the recent attack against the peaceful protest, during which a local MST leader, Valmir Mota de Oliviera (also known as Keno; pictured right) was shot dead. Several others were also injured and threatened.

See below for Via Campesina’s call to action, followed by some email addresses and sample letters you can send in Solidarity.

Thursday, 01 November 2007
Call to action for the 8th of November!

To: Organisations of Via Campesina, …

On Sunday, Via Campesina peacefully occupied an experimental GMO field of the Swiss company Syngenta in the state of Parana, Brazil, when it was attacked by an armed militia that killed one and critically injured 6 others.

Via Campesina issued a statement following the attack, demanding a full investigation into what they describe as the execution of Keno, a local MST leader who was shot twice at point-blank range. They are also calling for Syngenta to be held accountable because they hired the militia in the first …

The Landless Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST) has warned that a massacre could took place in Para state, similar to the one that occurred in 1996 in Eldorado de Carajas municipality. The warning comes after an official authorization of the military police in Para to evict those living on several plots of land — currently over 2,000 families.

From Real World Radio - The military police of Para is ready to comply with 49 orders of “reintegration of large estate properties” occupied by peasants. The MST, which has over …

As promised a couple days ago, here’s the first of a number of writings I’ve found that offer critical insights, analysis, and alternatives to conventional organization and activism.

This one in particular, is an excerpt from a paper written by Paula X. Rojas, titled “Are the Cops in Our Heads and Hearts?” You can read the full version at the Zapagringo blog, or find it in the new book The revolution will not be funded.

Challenges to the Non-Profit System
These new organizing models pose some important challenges to the …

As a part of International Peasant Struggle Day, as well as the National Day of the struggle for Agrarian Reform (established by the government in 2002) MST Brazil has initiated several large-scale protests and blockades, aswell as a Petition campaign (see below)

From the WW4Report: Hundreds of rural workers occupied the offices of the National Agrarian Reform Institute in Brasilia, and thousands more invaded farms and blocked roads on April 16, demanding the government speed up moves to give land to small farmers and peasants. Protesters stormed the building …