League of Poor Peasants
The League of Poor Peasants (Brazilian Portuguese: Liga dos Camponeses Pobres, LCP) is a left-wing farmer organization based in Brazil. The LCP was formed in 1995 in reaction to the Corumbiara Massacre, when landless activists in Rondônia were killed by police and armed mercenaries. Much of the League was drawn from the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) after dissatisfaction with its agrarian reformism. The LCP takes a radical approach to the peasant situation, supporting the occupation and transformation of large estates into productive collectives structured under People's Power Assemblies. These assemblies determine both short and long-term planning and development for the collectives, as well as its conduct. Although not a guerrilla organization, the militancy of the LCP has brought it into much conflict with the Brazilian government, which often coordinates police interventions towards occupied camps and associated activists. The group also has faced death threats and selected assassinations from hired gunmen which the League claims is a collaborated effort between the government and landowners. Ideology According to the LCP's publication Nosso Caminho (Our Path), the organization's general program outlines the goals for an agrarian revolution in the Brazilian countryside to replace latifundia with collective production and structure. The general program is defined by 15 points: The end of the latifundia; all land to the tillers The land with social destination according to interests of the majority of the people and the nation Nationalization of land and large rural capitalist enterprises as the final objective A new agricultural and credit policy to make small and medium landownership economically viable The creation and promotion of agro-villages and industrial application in every rural region The creation of a health system with needed infrastructure in the countryside The creation of an education system, A School of a New Type, centered on production and class struggle Independent social and political organization based on the direct democracy of People's Assemblies Special policy for the dry (semi-arid) northeast region Special policy for the Amazon region Support for the city worker struggle; strengthen the worker/peasant alliance Recognition and support for the self-determination of indigenous nations and peoples Strengthen and develop the masses' ideology/politics towards land collectivization as a final objective A new economy, a new culture, a new politics of new democracy, and a new People's Democratic Power Internationalist solidarity with the struggle of peoples against imperialism and for progress See also Landless Workers' Movement Agriculture in Brazil Agrarian Socialism References Socialism in Brazil Collectives Agrarian politics Social movements