Establishing Unions

Mendes’ long-time friend Euclides Fernando Távora had inspired Mendes to get involved in the union to fight against the unfair treatment of the rubber tappers in Brazil. Távora had given him much advice on how to start a trade union movement and explained that nobody had ever been able to eliminate such movement for liberation in the world (Gross, 1989). At the age of 26, Mendes tried to organise the rubber tappers but failed because the dictatorship’s grip was the strongest during that period. It was until 1975 when Mendes founded the Brasiléia Rural Workers Union with other like-minded colleagues. 2 years later, Mendes went back to his hometown in Xapuri and set up the Xapuri Rural Workers’ Union.

The unions have taken several actions against the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest. They would regularly initiate an empate (stoppage) by going to the area of deforestation with a group of rubber tappers and disrupt the clearing of lands. Rubber tappers would take on agricultural equipment as weapons during these empates for protection against the guns and chainsaws that the loggers and guards had brought with them. Even though they knew that their agricultural equipment were of no use in the face of guns and chainsaw, the rubber tappers saw that the destruction of the forest was equivalent to the loss of livelihood. Hence, they often used their bodies to defend the trees or block the roads to disrupt the deforestation. In some cases, these empates would result in bloodshed.