Byron Clark.
From The Spark December 2006.
Free Software is a global movement, it takes on different forms in different parts of the world. In New Zealand Free software user groups organise support networks and distribute software CD’s, elsewhere, especially in parts of the third world, it has taken on the form of more traditional mass movements. Lawrence Lessig, author of the book ‘Free Culture’ wrote of a Free Software rally he attended in Brazil, where Free software, or ‘software livre’ as it is called there, is becoming increasingly popular;
“The place was packed. There were hundreds inside the tiny tent; there were many hundreds more huddled outside… …You can’t imagine this scene. Or at least you can’t imagine this scene as a rally for Free software. I’ve seen Free-software rallies in the U.S. They’re populated by geeks with ponytails. This was something very different. The tent was divided evenly between men and women. Geeks were in the minority. Most of the people at the rally were astonishingly beautiful, and amazingly articulate. They were young and intensely passionate. And they were chanting Free-software slogans.”1
At first the large level of support for free software seems strange in a country where less than 10% of the population can afford a computer, but it is the result of organisations working on bridging the ‘digital divide’ by providing access to computers and the Internet for Brazil’s poor. Marcelo D’Elia, coordinator of the countries Free Software Project, explains the economic significance of using free software to do this; “Every license for [Microsoft] Office plus Windows in Brazil – a country in which 22 million people are starving – means we have to export 60 sacks of soy beans. …For the right to use one copy of Office plus Windows for one year or a year and a half, until the next upgrade, we have to till the earth, plant, harvest, and export to the international markets that much soy”2
Linux International, a non-profit organisation which supports and promotes the Free Linux operating system has been working with several groups in Brazil to help the adoption of Free software, including the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil. Jon Hall of Linux International talked about this experience in Linux Journal;
“Brazil was settled by a few very wealthy families who continue to control the vast majority of land in Brazil today. This land ownership tends to impoverish many in Brazil by withholding the right to grow their own food or to otherwise earn a living. A movement to help these landless workers has formed in Brazil, and they have sent a couple dozen people trained in proprietary software to a central location in Rio Grande do Sul to be retrained as Linux system administrators… …It was an intensive month-long course that made each student a part of the fellowship of software livre and the Landless Rural Workers Movement.”
What is happening in Brazil is a good example of the way Free software is being used to help the struggles of workers in the third world, similar examples can be found in other parts of South America.
