Acampamentos - Campo e Cidade

My last days in Rio Grande dol Sul were spent in an MST acampamento and at a 3 day, statewide youth congress of varios social movements in the Rio Grande dol Sul area.

The MST Acampamento I visited is located an hour outside of Porto Alegre. The Acampamento is a community of black tarp tents that are located alongside a major highway leading to Porto Alegre. Over 50 families live in modest huts made of black plastic tarps with dirt floors and wood fired cook stoves. After joining the MST, landless families must camp in these acampamentos for an extended period of time until the State government authorizes land to be redistributed. Sometimes the MST organizes acampamentos inside the private farms or property (fazendas) that they hope to gain access to. However in recent years the MST has organized acampamentos, such as the one I visited, that are located on government land to press the government into action, and also to avoid violent conflicts with the private landowners, who often employ private securty forces to scare MST families and also evict them from the land. At the acampamento I visited Some families had only been there a few months, while others have been at the acampamento for over 4 years.

Life in the acampamento is my first real glimpse into the poverty and struggle of the landless families. While the families had little income they were very open and welcoming and offered abundant amounts of food and hospitality. Some cultivate little gardens and even had pigs and chickens out behind their tents. Many families have at least one member who busses into Porto Alegre to work, and others have family members living in the city who send food and money to support the camping families.

From the acampamento, me and 5 other youth traveled to a city in the interior of Porto Alegre for the Acampamento da Juventude, which is a statewide campout that occurs every year in the city Santa Maria. Over 700 youth from various social movements, including the MST, Levante Popular da Juventude, and many others, come together to debate and share experiences, create stronger networks between movements and youth that share the same luta, and also stengthen a projecto popular that aims to reduce inequality and poverty in Brazil and attacks the capitalist policies of the government.

It was interesting to see that although nearly a third of the youth came from country origins, it was almost impossible to distibguish and urban youth from a rural one. The urban culture, through television, music, and internet, has thoroughly penetrated the youth culture of the campo.

The Acampamento was a great experience to contextualize the youth of social movements in the south of Brazil. It was very interesting to see how the youth coordinate and organize among themselves.