from Workers Solidarity No 35 paper of the Irish anarchist Workers Solidarity Movement " Go West Young man" The Amazon basin makes up more then half of Brazil's territory. In 1964 a military Junta came to power in Brazil. They initiated a campaign of "development" which saw huge land consolidation in the South of the country. As ranches sprung up displaced peasants poured into the burgeoning slums and favelas. The military realised that the vast and undeveloped rain forests could serve as a social pressure valve or repository for surplus population. " Go West young man" was preferable to "agitate for land" or "add to the embarrassing slum situation". The government also hoped to grow huge amounts of beef which could be sold in the cities at a subsidised price to the Brazilian poor. They were also motivated to try and stop the Bolivians moving in from the West and beginning to extend their borders into the uncharted forests. Forest clearing has been rapid since the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1980 an estimated 77,500 square miles of forest had been cut (since records began) by 1988 it was 370,760. 60% is used roads and cattle ranching. The methods of deforestation used by these interests could best be described as strip mining. In such government subsidised schemes in the 1960s/70s $250 million of valuable hardwoods were left to rot. The usual method of felling involves hauling a massive anchor chain through the forests between 2 bull-dosers smashing everything in it's path. Herbicides (including DDT in the seventies) are then sprayed on remaining brush. Then there is the burning. In 1988 Brazilian scientists picked up 350,000 hot- spots on satellite images indicating that at least 170,000 fires had burned in the Amazon that year. Burning does 2 things. Firstly it unlocks some of the nutrients in the tropical soil causing a brief flush of fertility. Secondly it can be used to establish ownership. Squatters rights can be acquired by siting on a piece of land for a year and a day and putting it to some use. 250 acres can be claimed in this way or 7000 if the land is not legally held by someone else. An Expensive Failure Even on the Government's own terms these schemes have been an expensive failure. By 1980 35,156 square miles of indifferent pasture had been developed at a cost of$ 2.9 billion. The Amazon basin remained a net importer of cattle. Only 5% of those displaced off their land in the south were settled. The remaining 16.5 million ended up in the favelas or slums around the major cities. The deforestation, however, has also been an ecological disaster. The deforestation and burning has led to a huge release of carbon dioxide gass. This is believed to cause the "Greenhouse" effect. The Sun's reflected off the earths surface is trapped as it bounces off the Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The gass acts like the glass in a greenhouse keeping the heat in. Globally averaged surface temperature has increased by about 0.5 degrees over the last 100 years. This century's hottest years were 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. The UN sponsored intergovernmental panel on climate change predict a rise of at least 3 degrees over the next century. The "greenhouse effect" seems to be happening. In Brazil there has been massive flooding and erosion. Industrial projects especially mining have been carried out with no regard to safety. For example Mercury used to refine ores has been dumped into rivers causing agonising deaths from mercury poisoning down stream. The loss of huge areas of tropical rain forest has probably meant the loss of thousands of socially useful products. Besides the environmental services provided such as soil protection, water regulation and mopping up of carbon dioxide and beyond the value of the actual wood the forests have huge untapped resources. Several products are already harvested to a small extent and have commercial value in countries such as India and Indonesia. These include oils, fruit and nuts, fibres and cones, silks, resins and gums including latex (rubber). A umber of valuable drugs ranging from contraceptives to anti-cancer treatments have already been isolated and it is believed that many rainforest plants could be used to improve existing crop yield and variety. Ordinary Brazilians gained nothing during the assault on the Amazon. In 1964 the richest 5% of owned 17% of the countries wealth in 1980 they had 28% while the poorest 50% saw their share drop from 34% to 12%. Only 766,000 or 5% of the farmers displaced from the South were re-settled to eke out a living on the infertile soil. The ranchers who took up most of the land only employed a few cowboys and pistolerios . Between January 1985 and June 1987 458 peasants, workers, union officials were assassinated. The biggest losers were those who actually lived in the forest. Out of 5 million Indians in Brazil when the first Europeon landed in 1500 only 213,000 were left by 1989. In the expansion drive Westwards the Indians were regarded as little more then beasts. On March 28th 1988 14 Ticuna Indians were massacred by timber cutters. Another group in the forest were the rubber tappers. As the ranchers drove into the the forests they began to meet with increased resistance from Indians and tappers. This resistance continues to today. Chico Mendes Francisco Alves Mendes Filho known worldwide as Chico Mendes. Mendes is often presented as a martyr to the cause of rain-forest preservation. However his role as a rubber tapper, union organiser and socialist tends to be down-played. Mendes was a member of the Brazilian workers party or PT and ran several times for both town council and Acre state legislator all in a conservative rancher dominated state with no connection with the PT's urban strongholds. Although his Socialism was of a Stalinist/Social democratic variety no-one could doubt the genuineness of his commitment. More importantly Mendes was also the leader of the National Council of Rubber Tappers. This was by the time of his death a union of 30,000 members. The market for Brazilian rubber had been damaged by cheaper Asian and synthetic rubber from 1911 onwards. Understanding the weakening position of the rubber bosses Mendes urged tappers to organise and sell collectively and directly to the rubber exporters for a better price. Just as the tappers began to organise the ranchers arrived and started to chop into their livelihood. There response was the empate. Empates involve the tappers confronting logging crews forcing them to leave with all their gear and destroying their shacks. Usually the cutting crews who are themselves peasants or even ex-tappers advanced tools on credit leave peacefully. There have been 40 empates between 1976 and 1988 in Mendes home state of Acre some involving 100s of tappers. Playing the green card Revkin shows how the tappers had to learn a new political game; "playing the green card". When the tappers came together for the first time they soon realised, to the dismay of many, that their trade was entirely obsolete, their rubber worthless. They decided to ally themselves with the international environmental movement though not without some disagreement; " One of the more politically minded tappers, Osmarino rodrigues, initially saw the environmental issue as a bit bourgeois, something of a Luxury" Central to their joint strategy was the idea of creating extractive reserves where trees weren't felled and where the forest could be used renewably. This has had some limited success. Since Mende's murder several large reserves have been created. However, unsurprisingly it did not add to his popularity at home. However it was the continuing empates that led to his murder. This was arranged and probably carried out by Darlly Alves de Silva. Empates had prevented him from clearing of a 60,00 acre tract for another rancher. De Silva was imprisoned but since been released on appeal ( Observor Sun March 1 1992 ). His revenge-the Murder of Chico Mendes totally backfired and added to the popularising of the fight for the rain forests internationally. There are no easy solutions to the problems of worldwide de-forestation. The greens and many environmentalists tend to blame things on industrialism and consumerism. They seem to regard these things as being rather like the weather and don't analysis them any further. Their solution involves decreasing "development". They believe that the third world cannot and should not be brought up to the same standard as the developed West. They favour only low level development assistance like tools and seeds in keeping with what they see as peoples level of needs. In other words while they oppose starvation and poverty they believe that the under developed countries with vast resources like the rain forests must remain under developed. This is unacceptable to us as socialists. We say that far from being a problem development is vital in third-world countries. Of course, "development" under capitalism will always be Brazil style eg with no long term regard for our future. We do not blame the tappers for example for throwing their lot in with the environmentalists. In Brazil however one can see one example of a crying need for development. With equitable collective management of the land and workers control of production the pressure on the forests would be enormously reduced. In a worker's Brazil the resources of the forest would be used to feed the development of the country as a whole We believe that sustainable use of the rainforests is virtually impossible under capitalism. We shouldn't waste our time lobbying politicians and "development banks" in the West to sort things out. They haven't the solution they are, in fact, the problem. Socialism is the only way in which Brazialians can be given a decent standard of living and the forests can be used sustainably. The only way to save the forests is to cut down the bosses. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland or by anonymous e-mail to an64739@anon.penet.fi Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18 or by gopher ("gopher etext.archive.umich.edu") or WWW at http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/spunk/Spunk_Home.html in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM