A firsthand account by S. Kannaiyan, General
Secretary, SICCFM
Brazil’s Landless Workers
Movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) has started a
national school named after Florestan Fernandes who was leader and intellectual
of working class in Brazil and movements across south America. Paulo, one of
the Political coordinators of the School explained more about the MST school.
“MST school is the national school for its cadres. There are centers at
provincial levels in Brazil. MST school in Sao Paulo has the required essential
facilities, and there are plans to have schools in other places too. They have
schools in Brasilia, Ciarea, Para (Near Amazon). Currently there are 30
formation Schools for MST.”
In 1996, the MST decided to build
the school and took three years to establish it. Many well-known personalities
have understood the significance of this Movement and support it.
Sebastian Salgado, the world famous photographer
who made stunning photographs of MST’s fights and people’s life and gave the
rights of his publications to MST as a source of revenue to build the school.
Chico Buaque, a very popular singer of Brazil
also gave the rights of his songs to MST.
Jose Saramago, a noted writer also gave his
rights of his books to MST to build their school.
The school was constructed with
hard work of the brigades who came from all over Brazil. Architects and
engineers have volunteered and designed the school and helped in the construction,
with the school being inaugurated in 2005. The school has a good library
stocked with books on different subjects and nice class rooms, meeting halls, well-maintained
hostels and residential buildings, kitchens and dining halls. There is also a
computer room with internet connections for students. The school area is Wi-Fi
enabled. Every day in the morning students express innovative ideas and host
flags of MST and La Via Campesina in the school.
So what they do in the MST
school? They give political training on a variety of subjects. Some of them
are:
1)
Political
theory. Four national courses lasting 40 days each every year, with two of
these courses devoted to train the future leaders of MST
2)
A
course for leaders from social movements, conducted in three phases with each
phase running 45 days
3)
An
intensive course on systematic reading of Karl Marx in six phases, each phase
being of 1 week duration
4)
A
course similar to reading of Karl Marx but to study Florestan Fernandes who has
written 60 books of classical political thoughts. This course is to prepare
students to read his works.
5)
Latin
American Studies is an international course. La Via Campesina - CLOCK (Latin
American Coordination of Social Movements) and La Via Campesina ALBA- Net work
of social movements in Latin America send their students for this course. There
are three courses offered to these students under Latin American Studies.
i.
Training
of Trainers course for political training. This is a 40 days course and by the
end of the course students have to present a program for their movement. Around
60 students from the 16 countries are participating in this course.
ii.
Latin
American Political Theory is the longest course of the school of 3 months
duration.
iii.
Specialisation
in Latin American Studies. This course is being conducted in partnership with
the federal university of Juiz De Fora. This is a 2 year course conducted in 5
phases; the subjects of the course include philosophy, politics, economy,
agrarian questions and organisational theories. One phase of the course is
conducted in the national school in Sao paulo and the rest in the university.
Formal courses: MST national school in
partnership with many universities conducts formal graduation and post
graduation courses. Seven formal courses are coordinated with Federal
University of Brasilia, Federal Rio de Janeiro University, University of Sao
Paulo (USP) and UNESP, the state university of Sao Paulo and UFSC (Federal
University of Santa Catarina). Graduation courses including art, drama and
poetry pertaining to rural areas and post graduation courses in agro ecology
and education, Masters courses (similar to M.Phil courses in India) in health
and education and Marxism etc. are conducted.
Seminars, debates and
meetings: People
visit the MST school to attend seminars in various subjects. At least eight
seminars are conducted every year on different topics including Latin American
Studies. Apart from seminars, there are cycles of debates conducted every
Saturday. The debates are open to all. Meetings on different subjects and new
issues are also organised regularly in the school. Around 4100 people in 2012
and 3500 people in 2013 were benefited from the school by studying and
participating in different programs.
The MST school is an idea of
construction built during the process of the movement. All the volunteers stay
in the school for a specific time of two to four years, do collective work with
division of responsibilities. During the time my visit, Paula Djacira and
Erivan were the political coordinators of the school and were collaborating
with other friends and within the larger MST movement. The MST school does not
get any support from the government and does not pay anybody. Teachers
volunteer and students study and work in the school. Some food is grown in the
campus with the rest supplied from various states of Brazil from MST.
Paulo’s parting shot to me was
that he hoped what was happening in the school would set the stage for the
future of society. Indian peasants movements have no such school to
systematically educate its cadres and leaders. I felt impressed by the equal
participation of young women and men in the all the activities of the school
from class room to kitchen. Another impressing thing which I felt in the school
was that the schools contribution to Latin American studies which strengthens
the (America Luccha) American struggle which demonstrated the collective
struggle of Latin American people which is something not there in Asia needs to
be explored.
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