Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 23:12:50 +0200
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-NEWS: Revolutionary socialist web site in Brazil (PSTU, LIT-CI)


Another major section of the LIT-CI, the PSTU (Partido Socialista dos
Trabalhadores Unificado) in Brazil, now has its own web site, at:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3375/

Mainly in Portuguese, it also hosts pages for the LIT in Portuguese,
Spanish and some English including our international journal Correo
Internacional,  and pages for the socialist union tendency  MTS (Movimento
por uma Tendencia Socialista, Movement for a Socialist Tendency) in the CUT
(Brazilian trade union central organization).

So go to the heart of the revolutionary workers' movement in the most
important country in Latin America, and check out the site!

Big issues right now are the landless and agrarian reform, the homeless and
systematic police killings, corruption in government (the buying of votes
in congress), the preparations for the coming congress of the Brazilian
trade unions, and the possibility of mobilizing for a general strike
against the less and less popular Cardoso government to follow up the huge
mobilizations of April 17.

Here's part of an interview with Edvar Lavratti, a leader of the MST in Sao
Paulo state, from the latest number of Opiniao Socialista, on the issue of
agrarian reform highlighted by the mobilizations of April 17 (my
translation).

	OS: How do you envisage winning agrarian reform? Is MST's project
of
	agrarian reform compatible with a capitalist basis, or does it
necessitate a
	revolutionary break?


	Lavratti: The Brazilian elite is among the most stupid in the
world; in any
	serious country, agrarian reform would be the first measure
employed to
	develop capitalism  itself. But here all we have to do is raise the
slogan:
	"Agrarian reform is a struggle for all",   and the elite starts
feeling
	uncomfortable.

	Agrarian reform in Brazil will come along with other complementary

	measures which will not be possible within the bounds of
capitalism. We are
	defending a new project, which will bring social justice and
prosperity to
	Brazil. If it will come by way of revolution or not, I don't know;
if it's
	socialism or not, I don't know; the goal is to build a new country.
And in the
	present stage of capitalism this will not be possible, however
important the
	agreements we may win along the way.


Ate' logo!

Hugh