Being a missionary is to read with a careful look at the reality, striving to interpret the signs of aging, promote changes together with the people, so that all may have life and everything.
In the northern region of Brazil, the obvious injustice and the plundering of resources for the enrichment of a few calls everyday practice for new missionaries: it is up to us to create the conditions for a fabric of relations to take care of life, the poor and of creation.
É sempre più urgente, dato che nelle periferie del mondo sta cominciando un nuovo ciclo di colonizzazione, estremamente violento e devastante. Per esempio, dal 2002 al 2006, in pieno boom di crescita dello sfruttamento delle risorse naturali dell’America Latina, l’utile dell’industria mineraria è cresciuto dell’800%! Dietro a questi risultati ci sono, però, la devastazione e la violazione dei diritti economici, sociali e ambientali delle comunità toccate dagli investimenti minerari.
Per questo, i Missionari Comboniani della Provincia Brasil Nordeste are among the founders of the campaign Justiça nos Trilhos (the Italian name of the campaign and on track for Justice), which gives voice to a network of movements and communities affected by the mining and steel company Vale do Rio Doce, second largest mining company in the world. A giant Brazilian traditional communities that tramples over thirty countries and territories worldwide.
In April 2010, Justiça nos Trilhos formally submitted their complaints, together with those of many other movements, articulating the "1st International Meeting of the victims by the company Vale .
some time there is a dispute between the model of industrial development and investment unscrupulous in the northern region of Brazil and the local communities.
Since the beginning of 2009, during and immediately after the World Social Forum in Belem, associations and social movements in search of a new model of development have felt the need for a international meeting focused exclusively on the company Vale and its social and environmental impacts in different regions of the world.
The obvious injustice reported by many communities in Brazil and abroad, the huge profits of the mining company without any revenue sharing to local communities, aggressive practices of companies related to it made urgent identification of collective strategies of resistance and the search for alternatives for growth.
Comboni Missionaries How we felt directly respondents: in fact accompany the various communities in the various villages and cities along the 900 km of railway Carajás, including the states of Maranhão and Pará. It was up to us to help people qesto community to understand the history and causes of such deterioration of their living conditions.
To build and announce "abundant life", it is necessary to expose and destroy growth models, on the contrary, produce death due to excessive and irresponsible research gain.
We have been blessed and encouraged by this option also Fraternity Campaign del 2010, un'iniziativa della Conferenza dei Vescovi del Brasile che incentivava, quest'anno, a studiare le ingiustizie economiche più evidenti e a contrapporvi esperienze di economia alternativa, decentrata, rispettosa della vita e dell'ambiente. Per questo abbiamo assunto con entusiasmo l’organizzazione di questa nuova fase di confronto con la compagnia Vale : sognamo, con Dio, un nuovo modo di rapportarsi con la terra, le risorse naturali e tutto il creato.
Justiça nos Trilhos outset has involved the entire Province Comboni Brasil Nordeste, which is identified in the country and supports it. Even in this new phase, various missionaries participated in many initiatives have arisen in preparation for the meeting.
has been drafted in a magazine, entitled Não Vale , which contains research articles and documents from the harm caused by the company, especially in the corridor of Carajás. The magazine supports and complements the work of a famous Italian director, Silvestro Montanaro: This is a documentary produced in recent months, describing the main conflicts and major experiences of resistance of the population along the Carajas corridor. Film magazine and will be disclosed in the affected communities along the rail, through launch events and training seminars. The members of Rede Brasileira de Justiça Ambiental and other international partners have already received this material useful for the formation of their communities and leaders.
All this work was preparato in vista dell'Incontro internazionale delle vittime di Vale. L'evento è stato preceduto, dal 5 all’11 aprile, dalla Carovana dei popoli attraverso il Sistema Nord della compagnia.
Sono state organizzate tre tappe, attraverso gli stati del Pará e del Maranhão, in collaborazione con le comunità, i movimenti sociali e i sindacati, che hanno accolto un pubblico formato da persone provenienti da vari paesi del mondo.
Trenta persone, Brazilian and foreign, visited Barcarena (Pará), Marabá (Pará) and Açailândia (Maranhão) and made a valuable exchange between the communities convolte from Vale in different regions of the planet. Representatives of communities of different states of Brazil (Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and members of movements and communities in other countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Canada and Mozambique) had In this way the opportunity to meet urban and rural communities and meet representatives from neighborhood associations, social movements, the Christian communities, unions, human rights movements, as well as politicians, judges, journalists, actors, families, youth, women, etc.. ...
is impossible to summarize in a few lines, the richness of these encounters. However, we can highlight the dynamics of enrichment that allowed members local and international "mirror" each other. It became clear that, albeit in different contexts, the strategies of the company Vale are always the same: the conquest of territory, huge investments marketing to support an image of a socially and environmentally responsible company, co-optation of political power and the judiciary. It has been a noticeable tendency to approach the individual and local community leaders to negotiate separately with each of them, isolating people and dividing the community, also depending on the level of organization and protest by local groups, there have been threats or attempts criminalization of dissidents.
Equally interesting were the responses and resistance efforts of people such as: the effort to give visibility to the conflict (through publications, reports, documents); actions designed to combat the aggressiveness of the (occupation of land, road closures, demonstrations) the legal action to compensation, compensation or no compensation for environmental damage, the production knowledge by combining local knowledge and university research; articulation in networks (international, national, regional) and the involvement of key employees, especially legal area.
In the following days, 12-15 April, the caravan of System North met by another convoy coming from the South System of Vale (through the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo). Participants in two caravans, and with them many others, are meeting in Rio de Janeiro, where the head office of the company Vale that in those days was by convening the annual meeting of stockholders.
You are so joined 160 people from 80 different organizations and associations, representatives of 12 diversi paesi. Un'occasione unica: per la prima volta le popolazioni colpite e i leader che le accompagnano sono riusciti a collaborare per sistematizzare le loro rivendicazioni, imparando gli uni dagli altri.
Dal lavoro di quattro giorni interamente dedicati allo studio e al perfezionamento di strategie collettive è emerso un quadro dettagliato dei problemi vissuti dalle comunità. Sono state evidenziate le seguenti aree di conflitto: un modello di “sviluppo a tutti i costi” fondato sul saccheggio indiscriminato delle risorse naturali, violazioni in materia di diritto ambientale e problemi legati all’inquinamento, violazione dei diritti dei lavoratori e conflitti sindacali, conflitti con le comunità e appropriazione di terre, conflitti economici e mancanza assoluta di compensazione e redistribuzione degli incommensurabili guadagni della compagnia ( Vale é l’impresa più grande del Sud America e la più redditizia al mondo!) 
Major initiatives for action at the time, the criticism concerning the picture, built by suitably Vale , enterprise committed to socially and environmentally responsible. The participants agreed to commit to systematically dismantle the facade of this company, displaying and disseminating the problems and abuses that affect them. With this goal has been presented in the parliament building of the state of Rio de Janeiro, a detailed file consists of 120 pages and 21 specific cases presented to the press and to the shareholders.
Un movimento internazionale si è impegnato a produrre costantemente un rapporto alternativo, sottolineando le omissioni del Rapporto di Responsabilità Sociale dell'azienda (finora emesso due volte, nel 2006 e nel 2008). Questo nuovo documento, oltre a far riacquistare slancio alle rivendicazioni delle comunità rispetto alle violazioni dei propri diritti, fornirà un supporto concreto per nuove dinamiche di denuncia, sensibilizzazione e coscientizzazione delle comunità, costruzione di forme più sostenibili di economia e sviluppo locale.
Incontri locali con le comunitá e reti internazionali di lobby e denuncia: l’azione di Justiça nos Trilhos si fa ogni giorno piú compessa ed articolata. Ai Missionari Comboniani spetta, tra le altre cose, permeare tutte queste attivitá con una profonda spiritualitá eco-teologica: non si tratta semplicemente di contrapporsi ad una tra le tante multinazionali; la sfida piú ampia é definire limiti all’aggressione socioambientale e tracciare alternative per un nuovo equilibrio tra l’umanitá e le risorse della terra.
Foto: Nils Vanderbolt
