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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERWE ORGANISE, THEREFORE WE ARENever doubt that a group of concerned citizens can change the world –indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.MARGARET MEAD, ANTHROPOLOGISTThe first sign of the squatters is a huge red flag flapping above adepression in the hills a few hundred yards away. Across two barbedwire fences and an arid, sandy hillside lies the cluster of huts thrownup a number of weeks ago by 40 landless families. They have called theencampment ‘Hope’ (Esperança). Already the inhabitants are makingthe first improvements: tiles are starting <strong>to</strong> replace plastic sheets onthe roofs of the huts, whose walls are made from branches tied <strong>to</strong>getherwith twine. To provide safety in numbers, 500 people originallyoccupied the site. When ten armed policemen promptly arrived <strong>to</strong>evict them, the children s<strong>to</strong>od in front with s<strong>to</strong>nes; behind them camethe women and adolescents, followed by the men armed with theirprimitive farming <strong>to</strong>ols. The policemen backed off without a fight,allowing the squatters <strong>to</strong> get on with planting their first crops of yamsand fennel. 68The red flag belongs <strong>to</strong> Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, theMST. The MST leads landless peasants in well-organised invasions ofwasteland or uncultivated farmland. Standing amidst newly ploughedfurrows thirsty for rain, one of the squatters explains: ‘People camehere for land.We weren’t interested in riches – land created people and58

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