Act in Memory of the Martyrs of the Struggle for the Land

This Sunday, the Peasant Leagues and Struggles Memorial celebrates the Act in Memory of the Martyrs of the Struggle for the Land. The event takes place from 2pm, at the Memorial headquarters, in the Traditional community of Barra de Antas, in the city of Sapé (PB). The motto of this year’s demonstration is “For the Right to Memory, Agrarian Reform and Democracy”.

The event, held annually since 2010, was created with the aim of denouncing the death of João Pedro Teixeira, an agrarian reform activist in the 1950s, and honoring his memory. However, after the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of the peasant leader, the celebration began to involve the main martyrs of the struggle for land in the country, murdered in defense of the rights of the peasant people: Nego Fuba (João Alfredo Dias), Pedro Fazendeiro (Pedro Inácio de Araújo ) and Margarida Maria Alves, among others.

“The 31st of March marks the life of Brazilian society with great sadness, trauma, threats and pain. It is the day that marks 60 years since the civil-military coup in our country. During the coup, and even before it, peasant reality was even harsher than today. Persecution, torture, fear and death haunted our peasants who fought for better living conditions in the countryside”, states the collective in a statement published on social media.

It is important to remember that Sapé, the birthplace of one of the biggest conflicts in the Paraíba Peasant Leagues, was one of the first cities to be besieged, due to the large movement of peasants who shouted for “agrarian reform by law or by force”. “They fought against the structure that imprisoned and killed them. They tried and are trying to end, deny the uprising and the power of the peasant class. To this day there are no exact numbers of how many victims were. In the latest study carried out by Gilney [Viana, pesquisador colaborador da UnB]which makes up the National Peasant Truth Commission, more than 1,600 peasants were victims of the dictatorship [em todo o país]but we know it was much more.”

Alane Lima, president of the Memorial das Ligas e Lutas Camponesas, highlights the importance of the peasant leader João Pedro Teixeira, who was murdered in 1962 and recognized in the Book of Heroes and Heroines of the Fatherland in 2018.

“Every April we celebrate the Martyrs of the Fight for the Land, culminating on April 2, the day on which João Pedro Teixeira, who is today considered a national hero, was murdered. This year, we will commemorate the civil-military coup, so that it never happens again, remembering the 62 years of the martyrdom of João Pedro Teixeira, and associating this with all the violence that occurred, in which peasants fell. That’s why the name Celebration of Martyrs, because it goes beyond Joao Pedro Teixeira, and commemorates these other martyrs from the past, but also from the present”, he explains.

IN 2023, April 2nd was established as State and Municipal Peasant Memory Day in Paraíba.

“We need to make this memory, and ensure that all people from Paraíba, Sapeenses, peasants, peasants, Brazilians know the history of the Peasant Leagues”, explains Alane Lina. She remembers that the leagues were used as one of the justifications for the coup of 64, which mobilized fear of communism in the country.

“This moment will commemorate these actions, both the denunciation of the 1964 coup, and the resistance of the peasants who survived and who still fight today for better living conditions in the countryside”, he says.

The celebration will feature cultural attractions such as the Voz Ativa Choir; the Banda Santa Cecília, from Sapé – considered municipal heritage; the guitarists Soledade and Oliveira de Panelas and the group of Jovens de Jacaraú.

“It will be a very beautiful moment of resistance. We will be with the social movements in the countryside, with the Pastoral Land Commission, the Landless Movement, the Department of Education of the Municipality of Sapé, the State Government and Adufpb to carry out this moment of extremely important”, adds Alane.

Source: BdF Paraíba

Editing: Cida Alves