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from Workers Solidarity No 35
paper of the Irish anarchist
Workers Solidarity Movement
" Go West Young man"
The Amazon basin makes up more then half of
Brazil's territory. In 1964 a military Junta came to
power in Brazil. They initiated a campaign of
"development" which saw huge land consolidation in
the South of the country. As ranches sprung up
displaced peasants poured into the burgeoning slums
and favelas. The military realised that the vast and
undeveloped rain forests could serve as a social
pressure valve or repository for surplus population. "
Go West young man" was preferable to "agitate for
land" or "add to the embarrassing slum situation".
The government also hoped to grow huge amounts of
beef which could be sold in the cities at a subsidised
price to the Brazilian poor. They were also motivated
to try and stop the Bolivians moving in from the West
and beginning to extend their borders into the
uncharted forests.
Forest clearing has been rapid since the late 1980s
and early 1990s. By 1980 an estimated 77,500
square miles of forest had been cut (since records
began) by 1988 it was 370,760. 60% is used roads
and cattle ranching. The methods of deforestation
used by these interests could best be described as
strip mining. In such government subsidised
schemes in the 1960s/70s $250 million of valuable
hardwoods were left to rot. The usual method of
felling involves hauling a massive anchor chain
through the forests between 2 bull-dosers smashing
everything in it's path. Herbicides (including DDT in
the seventies) are then sprayed on remaining brush.
Then there is the burning.
In 1988 Brazilian scientists picked up 350,000 hot-
spots on satellite images indicating that at least
170,000 fires had burned in the Amazon that year.
Burning does 2 things. Firstly it unlocks some of the
nutrients in the tropical soil causing a brief flush of
fertility. Secondly it can be used to establish
ownership. Squatters rights can be acquired by siting
on a piece of land for a year and a day and putting it
to some use. 250 acres can be claimed in this way or
7000 if the land is not legally held by someone else.
An Expensive Failure
Even on the Government's own terms these schemes
have been an expensive failure. By 1980 35,156
square miles of indifferent pasture had been
developed at a cost of$ 2.9 billion. The Amazon basin
remained a net importer of cattle. Only 5% of those
displaced off their land in the south were settled.
The remaining 16.5 million ended up in the favelas or
slums around the major cities.
The deforestation, however, has also been an
ecological disaster. The deforestation and burning
has led to a huge release of carbon dioxide gass. This
is believed to cause the "Greenhouse" effect. The
Sun's reflected off the earths surface is trapped as it
bounces off the Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The gass acts like the glass in a greenhouse keeping
the heat in. Globally averaged surface temperature
has increased by about 0.5 degrees over the last 100
years. This century's hottest years were 1980, 1981,
1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. The UN
sponsored intergovernmental panel on climate
change predict a rise of at least 3 degrees over the
next century. The "greenhouse effect" seems to be
happening.
In Brazil there has been massive flooding and
erosion. Industrial projects especially mining have
been carried out with no regard to safety. For
example Mercury used to refine ores has been
dumped into rivers causing agonising deaths from
mercury poisoning down stream.
The loss of huge areas of tropical rain forest has
probably meant the loss of thousands of socially
useful products. Besides the environmental services
provided such as soil protection, water regulation and
mopping up of carbon dioxide and beyond the value
of the actual wood the forests have huge untapped
resources. Several products are already harvested to
a small extent and have commercial value in
countries such as India and Indonesia. These include
oils, fruit and nuts, fibres and cones, silks, resins and
gums including latex (rubber). A umber of valuable
drugs ranging from contraceptives to anti-cancer
treatments have already been isolated and it is
believed that many rainforest plants could be used to
improve existing crop yield and variety.
Ordinary Brazilians gained nothing during the assault
on the Amazon. In 1964 the richest 5% of owned 17%
of the countries wealth in 1980 they had 28% while
the poorest 50% saw their share drop from 34% to
12%. Only 766,000 or 5% of the farmers displaced
from the South were re-settled to eke out a living on
the infertile soil. The ranchers who took up most of
the land only employed a few cowboys and
pistolerios . Between January 1985 and June 1987
458 peasants, workers, union officials were
assassinated.
The biggest losers were those who actually lived in
the forest. Out of 5 million Indians in Brazil when
the first Europeon landed in 1500 only 213,000 were
left by 1989. In the expansion drive Westwards the
Indians were regarded as little more then beasts. On
March 28th 1988 14 Ticuna Indians were massacred
by timber cutters. Another group in the forest were
the rubber tappers. As the ranchers drove into the
the forests they began to meet with increased
resistance from Indians and tappers. This resistance
continues to today.
Chico Mendes
Francisco Alves Mendes Filho known worldwide as
Chico Mendes. Mendes is often presented as a martyr
to the cause of rain-forest preservation. However his
role as a rubber tapper, union organiser and socialist
tends to be down-played.
Mendes was a member of the Brazilian workers party
or PT and ran several times for both town council and
Acre state legislator all in a conservative rancher
dominated state with no connection with the PT's
urban strongholds. Although his Socialism was of a
Stalinist/Social democratic variety no-one could
doubt the genuineness of his commitment.
More importantly Mendes was also the leader of the
National Council of Rubber Tappers. This was by the
time of his death a union of 30,000 members. The
market for Brazilian rubber had been damaged by
cheaper Asian and synthetic rubber from 1911
onwards. Understanding the weakening position of
the rubber bosses Mendes urged tappers to organise
and sell collectively and directly to the rubber
exporters for a better price. Just as the tappers
began to organise the ranchers arrived and started
to chop into their livelihood. There response was the
empate.
Empates involve the tappers confronting logging
crews forcing them to leave with all their gear and
destroying their shacks. Usually the cutting crews
who are themselves peasants or even ex-tappers
advanced tools on credit leave peacefully. There have
been 40 empates between 1976 and 1988 in Mendes
home state of Acre some involving 100s of tappers.
Playing the green card
Revkin shows how the tappers had to learn a new
political game; "playing the green card". When the
tappers came together for the first time they soon
realised, to the dismay of many, that their trade was
entirely obsolete, their rubber worthless. They
decided to ally themselves with the international
environmental movement though not without some
disagreement; " One of the more politically minded
tappers, Osmarino rodrigues, initially saw the
environmental issue as a bit bourgeois, something of
a Luxury"
Central to their joint strategy was the idea of creating
extractive reserves where trees weren't felled and
where the forest could be used renewably.
This has had some limited success. Since Mende's
murder several large reserves have been created.
However, unsurprisingly it did not add to his
popularity at home. However it was the continuing
empates that led to his murder. This was arranged
and probably carried out by Darlly Alves de Silva.
Empates had prevented him from clearing of a 60,00
acre tract for another rancher. De Silva was
imprisoned but since been released on appeal (
Observor Sun March 1 1992 ). His revenge-the
Murder of Chico Mendes totally backfired and added
to the popularising of the fight for the rain forests
internationally.
There are no easy solutions to the problems of
worldwide de-forestation. The greens and many
environmentalists tend to blame things on
industrialism and consumerism. They seem to regard
these things as being rather like the weather and
don't analysis them any further.
Their solution involves decreasing "development".
They believe that the third world cannot and should
not be brought up to the same standard as the
developed West. They favour only low level
development assistance like tools and seeds in
keeping with what they see as peoples level of needs.
In other words while they oppose starvation and
poverty they believe that the under developed
countries with vast resources like the rain forests
must remain under developed.
This is unacceptable to us as socialists. We say that
far from being a problem development is vital in
third-world countries. Of course, "development"
under capitalism will always be Brazil style eg with
no long term regard for our future. We do not blame
the tappers for example for throwing their lot in with
the environmentalists. In Brazil however one can see
one example of a crying need for development. With
equitable collective management of the land and
workers control of production the pressure on the
forests would be enormously reduced. In a worker's
Brazil the resources of the forest would be used to
feed the development of the country as a whole
We believe that sustainable use of the rainforests is
virtually impossible under capitalism. We shouldn't
waste our time lobbying politicians and "development
banks" in the West to sort things out. They haven't
the solution they are, in fact, the problem. Socialism
is the only way in which Brazialians can be given a
decent standard of living and the forests can be used
sustainably. The only way to save the forests is to
cut down the bosses.
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The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at
PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland
or by anonymous e-mail to an64739@anon.penet.fi
Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive
by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18
or by gopher ("gopher etext.archive.umich.edu")
or WWW at http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/spunk/Spunk_Home.html
in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM