I13 May is a revolutionary day. Slavery was officially abolished in Brazil on May 13, 1888. Parisian barricades launched a general strike against big business on May 13, 1968. And on May 13, 1989, students in Beijing occupied Tiananmen Square. But hopes for distributive justice and democracy have turned into a global system of neoliberal exploitation. Even today, the soil of Latin America is in the hands of the ancient invaders. Not only does the destruction of the living world continue unabated, but it is even accelerated, hidden behind false labels and “greenwashing”. Today, May 13, 2023, we stand in solidarity with the Landless Movement (MST) and demand: no to land grabbing and exploitation! Yes to democracy, to an equitable distribution of land and to an ecology of care!
Since the 1980s, the MST – the largest social movement of peasant women and landless peasants in Latin America, which is committed to popular agrarian reform and ecological agriculture – has been able to obtain access to land for more than 400,000 families in Brazil. Since its inception, the movement has been criminalized and fought against by powerful Brazilian agribusiness corporations. Every year, dozens of activists are murdered or go missing. According to 2022 statistics, the state of Para has the highest number of murders of the five Brazilian states in the Amazon region.
These activists are fighting for all of us, because the future of our planet is being played out in the Amazon. For or against a truly sustainable, equitable and humane agriculture. For or against the displacement of populations for the production of soya, palm oil and beef. For or against a questioning of colonial land grabbing, which has been suspended for centuries. In recent years, numerous campaigns led by civil society have made it possible to raise awareness of the origin of our consumer products. Voluntary labels, called “environmental labels”, must guarantee for palm oil, soya, beef and many other products, non-violent and environmentally friendly production.
Colonial plunder
Thanks to this labeling system, Nutella (Ferrero) is considered first in class in terms of sustainable development and collaborates with the World Wide Fund for Nature, committing itself with confidence to the protection of the environment. But these initiatives fall under neoliberal “greenwashing”! Agropalma, Brazil’s largest palm oil company, operates in the Amazon state of Para and supplies 20 international food manufacturers, including Ferrero (Nutella), Nestlé, PepsiCo, Kellog’s, Mars, Langnese, Unilever and Danone , is the most cynical example. Agropalma is labeled with a total of ten international organic, fair trade and sustainable labels, including the European Union organic label (EU organic regulations) and the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification. The fact is that these labels were created by agribusiness for agribusiness.
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