A luta pela terra e conflitos territoriais no projeto de assentamento Joncon/Três Irmãos, Conceição do Araguaia-PA

Abstract

This study analyzes the struggle for land, territorial conflicts and territorialities at the Joncon/Três Irmãos settlement, located in the Conceição do Araguaia municipality, south of Pará, between the second half of the 1980's and 2017. Applying a qualitative approach, bibliographic research and field work, the research was constructed through an interdisciplinary exercise. It, thus, uncovers the subject's pathways in the struggle for land and the confrontation of rural workers against Brazilian agrarian policies, which, capillarized by capital, contribute to the (re)production of social problems in the countryside. The Joncon/Três Irmãos settlement has been territorialized for over three decades, but the struggle for land has not ended only with the approval of the settlement project, as other struggles remain, such as better conditions for access to agricultural benefits. Mediators, such as the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and the Rural Workers and Workers Union (STRR), at Conceição do Araguaia played an important role, as they, applying partnerships, provided training for workers in the field, ranging from political notions to soil use for different types of cultivation. Migrants from several parts of the Brazilian territory, challenged by the discontinuity of a policy focused on private interests, did not give up implanting their longings aiming for the possession of a a territory for their family’s subsistence. Workers take their sustenance from the land, through agriculture (pineapple, rice and vegetables, among others), as well as through small chicken, pig and cow rearing activities. Land at the Joncon/Três Irmãos Settlement represents a long history of sacrifice for its workers, recalled through narratives (such as migration, obstacles in producing, an affectivity bond with the earth), revealing the reasons why they remain on this land, symbolizing an entire trajectory of life in the field.