MST celebrates 40 years since the occupation of the Annoni Farm, a historical milestone in the struggle for agrarian reform.
An event in Rio Grande do Sul commemorates the occupation that gave rise to the March 16th Settlement and spurred the national expansion of the movement.
247 - Between October 24th and 25th, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) will hold a celebration in Pontão, Rio Grande do Sul, to mark the 40th anniversary of the occupation of the Annoni Farm—one of the most emblematic episodes in the history of the struggle for land in Brazil. This information was released by the MST itself.
The occupation, which brought together approximately 7,5 rural workers from 32 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul on the night of October 29, 1985, marked the beginning of a new phase in peasant mobilization and resulted in the creation of the March 16th Settlement. Families traveled in more than 200 trucks, buses, and cars to occupy the large estate, giving impetus to the consolidation of the Movement, which quickly spread throughout the country.
Political and cultural programming
The event program includes State Fair of Popular Agrarian Reform – MST 40 years and State Conference on Popular Agrarian Reform: Memory, Struggle, and Current ChallengesIn addition to cultural and educational activities that retrace the history of the Movement.
The opening will be attended by Paulo Teixeira, Minister of Agrarian Development (MDA); Cesar Andrigh, president of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (Incra); Ana Earth, Secretary of Supply, Cooperativism and Food Sovereignty (SEAB); Edegar Pretto, president of the National Supply Company (Conab); John Alfredo Braida, rector of the Federal University of the Southern Border (UFFS); and Kleytton Moraes, president of the Banco do Brasil Foundation (FBB).
During the main conference, scheduled for Saturday, October 25th, the following will participate: Joao Pedro Stedile, national leader of the MST; the jurist José Geraldo de Souzaand the historian Alessandra Gasparotto.
The event is organized by the MST and the Instituto Preservar, with support from the Federal Government, the Banco do Brasil Foundation, the MDA, Incra, Conab, and Crehnor — the Rural Credit Cooperative for Small Farmers and Agrarian Reform.
Four decades of social transformation
After eight years of resistance, the organized struggle resulted in the settlement of 1.250 Families, officially established in 1992, with the definitive name of March 16th Settlement In 1993, what was once an unproductive large estate was transformed into an area of... 9,3 thousand productive hectares, a symbol of the social function of land.
Currently, the settlement produces food such as pork, vegetables, greens, beans, milk, fruit, soybeans, corn, and wheat. The cooperative Cooperlat, one of the most active in the settlement, provides food for the school lunches of 220 thousand children in 52 municipalities and 74 state schools, in addition to supplying Army barracks e 17 community kitchens in Porto Alegre.
Education and agroecology as a legacy
The settlement houses the Educate Institute, responsible for the only higher education course in Pontão — a degree in Agronomy with an emphasis on Agroecology —, having already trained hundreds of professionals. Also noteworthy is the October 29th School, a benchmark in rural education, which for decades has been training generations of young settlers with a pedagogy focused on community reality and the appreciation of the territory.
With four decades of achievements, the MST celebrates not only a historic occupation, but the consolidation of a popular project that transformed the Brazilian countryside into a space for production, education, and social resistance.
