TRANSITION GOVERNMENT WITH OLD PRACTICES: WHAT IS LEFT OVER FOR THE RURAL WORKER

Abstract

The author describes, analyses and evaluates various State interventions on behalf of the small rural producer in the Northeast. He gives emphasis to the "Northeast Project, especially the Program of Support of the Small Rural Producer (PAPP) and the Development Project of the National Agrarian System (PDSFN), in the period from 1985 to 1988. He analyzes the interrelations between this project and two other recent actions by the State in the Norteast the Program of Support for the Organization of Small Rural Producers of the Northeast (São Vicente Program) and the Padre Cícero Project. The author concludes that we have a transition government without changes which continues to carry out very well known "old practices" through various agricultural policies, without attacking the "agrarian question" of the Northeast, i.e., without an ample agrarian policy, because the class alliances in the interior and in the power group itself have not changed. It is concluded also that the process of democratization in Brazil passes through social movements in rural areas and consequently must include mobilization and articulation on the part of rural workers in the entire country.