Brazil’s Movements Mobilize in the Face of Historic Flooding

Amidst unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil leaving more than half a million displaced, Grassroots International’s partners are demonstrating movement-led emergency relief grounded in solidarity and mutual aid.

Damage on a mass scale

Prolonged torrential rain from late April into early May has resulted in a situation of extreme flooding in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, described as one of Brazil’s worst floods in modern history. Entire neighborhoods have been swept away; more than 170 people have lost their lives; more than 560,000 have been displaced; and at least 2.3 million people have been impacted by this multifold public health, environmental, and economic disaster.

Among those impacted are our social movement partners. The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement, MST) reports flood damage to at least six of its settlements, leaving 870 people without housing as well as damaging/destroying crops, livestock, farm equipment, vehicles, and vast amounts of community infrastructure. Furthermore, Rio Grande do Sul is home to the vast majority of MST’s rice production that makes it the largest producer of organic rice in Latin America. This year’s rice crop was already suffering from climate-related disruptions before the latest floods, which now threaten a loss of the magnitude of 10,000 tons.

Social movements as first responders

Even while facing their own losses, MST members from across the region and across Brazil have sprung into rapid action. Nearby settlements facing less damage have received those evacuated from other settlements and have set up a growing number of solidarity kitchens to feed those in need, sourcing food grown by the MST through ecological production. The MST is also mobilizing solidarity brigades from across the country to help with both immediate and longer-term recovery needs. 

As a sign of MST’s commitment to the flood recovery process, it has announced the hard but necessary decision of postponing its national congress that had been planned for this coming July in Brasilia, stating:

Throughout our 40-year history, we have learned that solidarity is the tenderness of peoples, a revolutionary principle and a human value. We recognize that our existence and resistance are the fruit of the solidarity of the peoples of the world. In these times of violence and degradation of life, it is necessary to place solidarity at the center of our political action. Therefore, at this time of pain and mourning for the people of Rio Grande do Sul, the MST has decided to postpone its 7th National Congress to July 2025.

We will dedicate our strength and the best we have built throughout our history to contributing to this reconstruction, caring for and welcoming people. Offering our solidarity, best food, militancy, organization and best hugs. [We offer] all our affection for the reconstruction of humanities and interrupted dreams…. (See full statement here.)

Also responding to the flood emergency, with solidarity kitchens, distribution of essential items, advocacy for the rights of those impacted, and a multipronged plan for longer-term actions, is our partner Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (Movement of People Affected by Dams, MAB). MAB stresses that:

We are in the midst of the biggest socio-environmental catastrophe in Brazil, with drastic consequences for the people affected, which is likely to extend for a long time. Faced with this scenario, the affected people of Rio Grande do Sul need a lot of solidarity…  

This is not an isolated event, but part of a new context of an environmental and climate crisis experienced around the world, with extreme events that have hit the most vulnerable populations very hard. The MAB has been following the situation with great concern and standing up in solidarity and organization.

Other Grassroots International partners involved in flood response include Levante Popular da Juventude (Popular Youth Uprising, LPJ), which, similarly to the MST, has postponed its upcoming national encampment to focus on recovery efforts, and Movimento Camponês Popular (Popular Peasant Movement, MCP), which is mobilizing to send food produced by its members to affected areas.

“A tragedy foretold”

While social movements respond to the needs at hand, they are clear in their analysis about the worsening climate crisis and lack of preparedness on behalf of the state spelling disaster for communities on the frontlines of climate chaos. And they are clear on the urgent need to address the roots of the climate crisis while building new systems centering the sustainability of life.

The MST states:

This catastrophe is a tragedy foretold. Scientific studies have been pointing for decades to the acceleration and intensification of extreme weather events, resulting from the capitalist development model and agribusiness, which targets profit in an unbridled way: with the concentration of land, deforestation and burning, the intensive use of pesticides, the production of extensive monocultures, the appropriation of nature’s common goods and the dismantling of environmental protection laws. This is not a natural disaster or divine vengeance, but rather the expression of the destructive model of capital…directly linked to the interests of agribusiness, hydro-business and mining, infiltrated into the most diverse political decision-making spaces in the country.

Additionally, MAB stresses how the recent flooding demonstrates the danger of Brazil’s heavy reliance on dams, with one dam already ruptured from the floods and others at risk of rupture:

The consequences of the heavy rains were aggravated by several factors, mainly the state’s unpreparedness to deal with these situations, with no emergency plan… In addition, many unsafe dams have been put at imminent risk, and the 14 de Julho dam collapsed, reaffirming that no dam is safe in the face of climate change.

Moving from relief to justice

It has not been lost on social movements that Brazil is facing this historic flooding at the same time that it is gearing up to host the COP30 climate summits in 2025, marking thirty years of weak agreements — and even weaker actions — in the face of a mounting climate crisis that too many world leaders have looked away from, or sought to profit off of. 

Immediate relief efforts are, of course, crucial. Grassroots International is supporting the current work in Brazil through emergency grants and other funds. At the same time, we know that emergency efforts are simply not enough to respond to climate disasters like this. Following our partners’ lead, we must work to win real ecological justice — a world where the planet and people’s lives are no longer sacrificed for polluters’ profits.