“We can’t cease to think about solutions, nor to quit walking our land, talking to the people about this other Brazil, about the respect that our people and our land deserve to be treated, by those who truly love them". With these words, and warm wishes, Brazil’s former presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ends his letters sent to the participants of the Land and Earth Seminar: Diversity and Struggle.
The gathering unites agrarian and environmental movements, intellectuals, public officials and more than 50 organizations at the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF). The meeting goes until saturday (8) and it aims to create a unified platform and a letter of commitment of these entities with the sovereignty of the brazilian people and the defense of the environment. These documents will be presented in a public ceremony, held this saturday, attended by Fernando Haddad, former presidency candidate, as well as lawmakers and social movements.
Read bellow our translation of Lula’s letter:
"Dear friends gathered at the Land and Territory Seminar,
To know Brazil, is to know its people, its land, its nature. It’s knowing how the people live, where they live, work, study and eat throughout our vast land, filled with different realities.
I’ve dedicated decades of my life travelling, talking, studying and knowing this country. I’ve travelled Brazil creating PT and CUT (Central Worker’s Union), to support workers organizations and environmental activistas in their struggles, to mourn our comrades that were cowardly murdered for their support of social and political struggles.
After 1989, when I first ran for presidency, I decided to travel even more, creating the Caravans of Citizenship, to hear and talk to the people, scholars and local leaderships about the experiences, problems and solutions of each region of the country.
That’s how I governed, without ever getting accustomed with Brasília’s air conditioning, always going where the people stood.
Maybe that’s why they think it is so important to keep me in prison. To keep me away from being there with you, remembering, discussing and building an alternative country, that we have proved it’s possible.
A Brazil governed to all, but with an extra care to those who need more. Where people have jobs, where the environment is respected, where there’s opportunity for people to study, where food security is priority and family farming is valued.
But if they can arrest a body, they can’t arrest a idea nor the people. That’s why it brings me joy to know that people from all throughout Brazil are gathered discussing the real and sustainable development of our land, our sovereignty, as well as the earth we step on and the nature that surround us.
We can’t cease to think about solutions, nor to quit walking our land, talking to the people about this other Brazil, about the respect that our people and our land deserve to be treated, by those who truly love them.
Have a great seminar and receive my warmest salute,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva""
Edited by: Vivian Neves Fernandes
