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    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. 

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The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at 
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