Women of the Via Campesina occupy export harbor of Aracruz Celulose

In the early morning of this Monday (09/03), about 1,300 women of the Via Campesina from the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro occupied the Portocel, the export harbor of the Aracruz Celulose company, located in Barra do Riacho, municipality of Aracruz, Espirito Santo state. The demonstration is parte of the activities of struggle of 8 March, International Women´s Struggles Day.

The aim of this action is to denounce the company´s land concentration. The lands are used for planting eucalyptus for export, harming the food sovereignty. The women also denounce the transfer of state money to this multinational, what has even increased with the present global crisis. The company takes possession of public money but neither creates nor guarantees jobs, destructs the environment and does not contribute to the national development. To save Aracruz from bankruptcy, the government transferred, through the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) - with money from the FAT (Guarantee Fund for the Worker) - R$ 2.4 billion (about US$ 1 billion) to the Votorantim Group to buy the Aracruz shares. Even with the money of the FAT, the company does not guarantee job creation and already dismissed more than 1,500 out-sourced workers. The case is an example that the interests of outsourced companies are more important than the interests of the Brazilian people.

Aracruz Celulose is one of the main representatives of agribusiness in the country. It concentrates about 300 thousand hectares of lands occupied with eucalyptus monoculture, of which a part are "devolutas" lands, in other words, lands that belong to the state. A big part of this has been taken from indigenous communities, quilombola communities, fishermen and -women and ribeirinhos (inhabitants of riversides). In this same area about 20 thousand families could be settled, creating jobs in the countryside and producing food for the families settled and for the towns in the region where the company has installed itself.
Besides, Aracruz is responsible for serious environmental impacts.

For each hectare of eucalyptus planted 49 billion liters of waters are being consumed. The pulp mill in Barra do Riacho, next to the occupied harbor, consumes 248 thousand cubic meters of water per day, equivalent to the daily consumption of 2,5 million people. Part of the Doce River was diverted to attend the interests of the duplication of the production of the company, and the impact of this intervention for the region was not seriously observed. The municipality of Aracruz clearly served the interests of the company, one more time, without assuring the protection of nature and the
population.

8 March 2009 - International Women´s struggles Day - Via Campesina Brasil