Brazil: Marching for real land reform

After 10 years of waiting for secure title to the land they occupy and farm, 35 families in Resende, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, have joined a huge march organized by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brasilia to demand effective agrarian reform. Mario Laurindo knows all about protest demonstrations. Some 14 years ago, he and others in the MST set up a roadside camp and were evicted. For the past 10 years he and his family have lived in the "Terra Libre" (Free Land) settlement, 176 kilometers from the city of Rio de Janeiro, the state capital. "I'll never work for someone else again. Now I'm my own boss," says Laurindo, who has taken up the way of life of a small farmer and ekes out the family income with odd jobs such as bricklaying, but always on a self-employed basis, he stresses.