The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) published an open letter to Brazilian society on this Monday, 21st of July. In the document, the movement denounces the stagnation of Agrarian Reform, criticizes attacks by the right wing in the National Congress, and demands that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) fulfill his historic commitments to structural policies for rural areas. The publication takes place during Peasant Week, held in allusion to Workers’ Day, celebrated on July 25th.

With the slogan “For a fed Brazil, Popular Agrarian Reform!”, Peasant Week is marked by mobilizations throughout the country. The MST’s letter echoes the feeling of dissatisfaction among settlers and campers with the lack of concrete measures to democratize land and strengthen peasant family farming. According to the movement, more than 122,000 families remain in 1,250 camps awaiting land to live and produce.

The text asserts that Agrarian Reform is an essential instrument for guaranteeing national and food sovereignty, in opposition to “sellout agribusiness” and the actions of transnational corporations. Among its criticisms, the MST condemns the approval of Bill 2.169/2021, the so-called “devastation bill”; Bill 8262/2017, which allows police action without a court order in rural and urban occupations; and the maintenance of Normative Instruction No. 112, issued at the very end of the Bolsonaro administration, which facilitates mining and large-scale construction in rural settlement projects.

The letter also denounces the slowness of federal government agencies, such as the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) and the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), in implementing public policies. The MST points to a lack of resources and infrastructure for programs such as Pronaf A, Pronera, and the Food Acquisition Program (PAA). It also highlights the closure of rural schools and the lack of investment in rural education.

In a direct tone, the movement demands that President Lula answer the question that resonates among families living in encampments and settlements: “Lula, where is the Agrarian Reform?” The MST affirms that it will continue to mobilize to pressure the government and ensure that Brazil advances a popular project committed to sovereignty, social justice, and care for nature.

Read the full document below

MST LETTER TO BRAZILIAN SOCIETY

We are fighting to echo our collective voice throughout the country, which connects with the sentiment of Brazilian society and President Lula in the unconditional defense of national sovereignty, threatened by imperialism and the actions of Donald Trump.

However, the threat to our popular and national sovereignty has also come from within the country itself, with the subordination of our agriculture to transnational corporations and the actions of the Legislative Branch, which represents the interests of agribusiness and mining.

Agrarian Reform is an instrument for defending the country’s lands, in opposition to the sell-out, coup-mongering, plundering, and unpatriotic agribusiness. National sovereignty is only possible with food sovereignty. And food sovereignty is built through peasant family farming and Agrarian Reform.

Therefore, the Landless Workers’ Movement takes to the streets in defense of national sovereignty and Agrarian Reform. We fight for land, housing, credit, and rural education as policies to strengthen Brazilian agriculture and as basic and essential rights to be guaranteed to families living in settlements and encampments.

The defense of Popular Agrarian Reform, beyond confronting large estates and land concentration, as provided for in the Constitution, is a struggle for a just, sovereign society, free from exploitation and oppression, and a project to confront the ongoing plundering of nature.

Land concentration continues to be one of the main causes of inequality in our country, with land being one of the most important assets protected by elites, and its disputes are a driver of constant tension, violence, and attacks on the rights of nature and its peoples.

For this reason, we repudiate:

• The action of the Chamber of Deputies, which, contrary to the climate emergency, approved Bill 2.169/2021, the so-called “Devastation Bill,” a direct attack on nature and its peoples;
• The approval of Bill 8262/2017, which allows police action without a court order in rural and urban occupations. This bill could go to a vote directly in the Chamber of Deputies, without a thorough debate with society on the matter. This proposal violates all legal rights and precepts related to the right to social mobilization;
• The continuation of Normative Instruction No. 112, issued at the very end of the Bolsonaro administration, which facilitates mining and large-scale construction in rural settlement projects.

After more than three years of the Lula administration, Agrarian Reform remains stalled, and families living in encampments and settlements are asking: Lula, where is the Agrarian Reform?

We are thousands of Landless People! There are more than 122,000 families, organized in 1,250 encampments across the country, who need land to work and live.

Approximately 400,000 settled families are still waiting for existing public policies that don’t reach the grassroots level to improve food production and settlement development.

Thousands of young people want to stay and contribute to rural development, but they are unable to pursue higher education due to a lack of sufficient funding for the National Education Program in Agrarian Reform Areas (PRONERA).

The government’s slowness, through the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), only increases discouragement and further fuels social conflicts.

Regarding settlements, structural programs for the human, social, and economic development of Agrarian Reform areas, such as the Family Farming Strengthening Program (PRONAF A), PRONERA, and the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), have not received the necessary and urgently needed resources.

Regarding the Ministry of Education, it is necessary to guarantee budgetary conditions for the National Policy for Rural, Water, and Forest Education (Pronacampo) to work to overcome the intense and accelerated closure of Rural Schools and the infrastructural, training, and pedagogical challenges of Rural Education, combined with the strengthening of the rural territorial project.

We achieved an important victory for the Brazilian people in the streets and at the ballot box by electing Lula as president. The grassroots forces—women, Black people, youth, LGBTI+ individuals, Indigenous peoples, and the working class in rural and urban areas—were protagonists of this victory.

We are committed to the campaign for taxation of the super-rich and for a reduction in working hours without a reduction in wages, which united all progressive forces around the Popular Plebiscite for a More Just Brazil.

We will continue to mobilize our social base to guarantee national sovereignty, democracy, and the rights of workers, in addition to denouncing the attacks our country has been suffering at the hands of the United States government.

Our banners are raised once again to demand Popular Agrarian Reform as a necessary path to building a sovereign country, committed to environmental stewardship, the redistribution of wealth, and the fight against social inequality.

For this reason, we demand that the Government make a real and effective commitment to allocating land and resources consistent with the concrete needs of rural families. Therefore, we trust in President Lula’s historic commitment to guide his ministries to act more quickly in this direction.

We can no longer postpone our achievements!

Landless Workers’ Movement – MST

Brasília, July 21, 2025