WHOSE LAND IS THIS ANYWAYS? (Brazil, 2008)

There are few lands where the gap between rich and poor is as great as in Brazil. In part that is the result of a system of land ownership that dates back to colonial times. Half of the arable land is in the possession of only one percent of the population. In recent decades thousands of landless far-mers and activists have taken the law into their own hand by seizing untilled land, in the hope that they can claim it as theirs by bringing it under cultivation. They believe the Brazilian Constitution supports them in this, because it states that undeveloped land must be productive. Denise Militzer travelled to a temporary encampment of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), a pressure group which, like the larger Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, was formed in 1983. CUT organises resistance by landless peasants and migrant workers from the big cities, but faces opposition from rich landowners. Already 1500 landless poor have died in these confrontations. Militzer pictures the living conditions in the camp, in that way demanding attention for the struggle of the landless.