Comissão Pastoral da Terra

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The Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) is an organization founded in 1975 in the Catholic Church in Brazil . She is involved at the political level through public relations and lobbying for land reform . In addition, it also makes social and ecological demands. Together with the MST , the CPT was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1991 .

The seat of the secretariat is in Goiânia , the capital of the state of Goiás .

history

The Comissão Pastoral da Terra was founded in June 1975, during the Amazonia Pastoral Conference convened by the Brazilian Bishops' Conference ( Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil - CNBB) and held in Goiânia. First, the CPT developed a pastoral service together with workers and farm workers , so that according to the definition of Ivo Poletto , the first minister of the CPT and a theologian close to liberation theology , “the real fathers and mothers of the CPT are day laborers, squatters, indigenous peoples , migrants That women and men are fighting for their freedom and dignity in a free country that is dominated by the rule of capitalist property. "

The CPT was founded during the military dictatorship of Brazil (1964–1985) in response to the plight of farm workers, squatters and day laborers, especially in the Amazon region , and has since played an important role in helping to defend human rights . The CPT established itself in association with the Catholic Church because the repression affected many pastoral workers and community leaders and the Church has a political and cultural influence within society and can therefore act as a mouthpiece for the suffering of the population.

During the dictatorship, it was the link between the CPT and the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB) that enabled the CPT to continue its work. In the following years, the CPT sought an ecumenical character, which was able to be realized in particular through the cooperation with the Protestant Church of Brazil ( Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil - IECLB).

By explicitly or implicitly making grievances, oppression and exploitation public and indicting those responsible, the CPT fights for social justice , the protection of human rights and land reform. With the help of the CPT, more than 150,000 families were able to receive over 10 million hectares of land and hundreds of trade unions were founded by the 1990s . In addition to around 100 permanent employees, the organization has several 10,000 volunteers and over 1,000 priests and church employees.

Social conditions

Land distribution in Brazil is a serious problem. Many have nothing and few have almost everything: more than half of the arable land is in the hands of two percent of the landowners. About half of the land belonging to large landowners or companies is not cultivated, as it is often only a matter of speculation . As a result, many families do not have enough land to feed and support themselves. Furthermore, the land rights are still not sufficiently clarified. Conflicts against these injustices are therefore often inevitable. On the one hand, the land occupiers were and are at the mercy of repression by state institutions (e.g. the military police ), on the other hand, the extensive impunity of the landowners opens the door to violence. Between 1985 and 2007, the Comissão Pastoral da Terra recorded 1,117 incidents of land conflict, in which 1,493 farm workers were killed. Most of the land occupiers were murdered on behalf of landowners and the police. Of all these conflicts, few have been tried in court.

The land reform, which has been promised again and again and is long overdue, is still a long time coming and seems farther away than ever, as the worldwide increasing demand for meat consumption and biofuels have made the production of soy , corn and sugar cane extremely lucrative.

mission

The CPT advises and supports smallholders in land conflicts, for example legally, if they occupy and cultivate unused land. Although such land use is legal in Brazil, it is often not respected by large landowners and authorities. At the political level, the CPT is striving for a land reform that gives smallholder farms the opportunity and sufficient space to compete with agricultural corporations. With the rural population consisting of around 90% small farmers, the CPT is fighting against the one-dimensionally favored interests of latifundia .

support

On the part of Germany, the Comissão Pastoral da Terra is supported by the Episcopal Action Adveniat and the Episcopal Relief Organization Misereor in questions of the fair distribution of land .

literature

  • Comissao Pastoral da Terra: Pe. Josimo. A velha violencia da nova República . CPT, São Paulo 1986 (on the commitment of Pe. Josimo Morais Tavares in rural pastoral care and his martyrdom).
  • Alfredo Wagner Berno de Almeida, Miguel Henrique Pereira da Silva, Maristela de Paula Andrade (eds.): O Maranhão em rota de colisão. Experiências Camponesas versus Políticas Governamentais (= Coleção Pe. Cláudio Bergamaschi , vol. 1). Comissâo Pastoral da Terra (CPT), São Luís 1998.
  • Andrea Reichmuth: The landless movement in Brazil between repression and hope. Your political and social influence during Cardoso's reign (1994-2002) and the perspectives with President Lula (= workbooks of the Latin America Center, No. 93). Latin America Center of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster, Münster 2005.
  • Sandra Lassak: “We need land to live!” Resistance from women in Brazil and feminist liberation theology . Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Ostfildern 2011. ISBN 978-3-7867-2873-3 . In Chapter 8: Church and Land Question - The Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) , pp. 140–155.

See also

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Art. Brazil . In: Fischer Weltalmanach 1998, Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, Sp. 127-134, here Sp. 130-131.