Law and disorder: the Brazilian landless farmworkers' movement (original) (raw)

The landless rural workers movement (MST) in Brazil

Journal of Peasant Studies, 2001

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The Landless Rural Workers Movement [O Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or the MST] and its Relations with Democracy in Brazil

Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) in International Peace Studies, 2013

This dissertation sets out to explore the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement and its relations with democracy in Brazil. This topic was chosen primarily because the MST’s confrontational relations with Brazil’s governing institutions have been portrayed as harmful to Brazilian democracy. In this regard, the main aim of this dissertation is to dispute these excessive views by illustrating the major contributions the MST has made to democracy in Brazil. I will argue that, far from being harmful to Brazilian democracy, the MST has actively contributed to democracy, and to creating more democratic relations in a number of different ways, as evidenced in Chapter Three. Here, I will argue that the MST has contributed to democracy in Brazil in four major ways: First, by advocating popular education. Debatably, the poor quality of education is one of the major problems overwhelming Brazil. Second, I will explore the positive effects of the MST’s advocation of land reform. While land is abundant in Brazil, land disputes do exist between the landless majority and the landowning elite minority. This MST initiative has not only enabled thousands of landless families to access land, but it has also directed the attention of important government bodies to the cause. Thirdly, I will illustrate how the MST has enhanced democratic relations through its focus on direct political action. Through direct political action, the MST has combated clientelism and inequality in Brazil. Finally, I will show how the MST’s relationship with political parties has also contributed to democracy. Although it has never demanded to be part of government, the MST has pressured political parties for land reform, protection of small-scale-family and community farms. In other words, it has managed to impose its agenda on political parties, especially the Workers’ Party. Overall, by raising its voice and calling for popular education, land reform and direct political action (among other things), the MST has challenged traditional patterns of elitist domination and marginalization, and in so doing has made significant improvements to Brazil’s problems regarding inequality, political alienation, social exclusion, illiteracy and clientelism. Thus, one might argue, the MST has helped to create a new concept of citizenry in Brazil.

The Landless Rural Workers ’ Movement and its Legal and Political Strategies for Gaining Access to Law and Justice in Brazil

2008

1. Towards a democratic conception of access to justice in Brazil; 2. The land question: resistance and struggle for access to law and justice; 2.1 The struggle for indigenous land; 2.2 The Quilombola lands; 2.3 The rural workers’ struggle; 3. The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement: history of the land reform struggle in Brazil; 3.1. Legal and political strategies adopted by the MST to gain access to land; 3.2. The impact of those strategies upon legal decisions: analysis of particular court cases; 4. The National Network of

Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement: a Replicable Strategy for Social Change?

Despite the fact that the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil was founded in 1985 and is therefore more than 20 years old, the available literature is concentrated mainly in articles and these, as well as the few books about the movement are mostly recent publications. The main reasons for that are not only the growth of the movement but also a changing focus of the political and social sciences and the public interest. The MST is counted as a regional force within the world wide anti-neoliberal struggle and is not longer looked at as a pure interest group. In front of this the question arises if the MST offers a strategy for social change to be replicated elsewhere? (Leeds 2010)

The Landless Rural Workers Movement and Democracy in Brazil

Latin American Research Review, 2010

This article takes issue with infl uential views in Brazil that depict the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), the largest popular movement in this country, as a threat to democracy. Contrary to these assessments, it argues that a sober review of the MST's actual practice shows that it is far from an antistate or antidemocratic organization. Quite to the contrary, the MST demands that the state play an active part in reducing the nation's stark social inequities through the institution of an inclusive model of development. The MST's contentious edge has contributed to Brazil's ongoing democratization process by (1) highlighting the role of public activism in building political capabilities among the poor and catalyzing downward redistribution policies; (2) facilitating the extension of basic citizenship rights, broadening the scope of the public agenda, and strengthening civil society through the inclusion of groups representing the most vulnerable strata of the population; and (3) fostering a sense of hope and utopia through the affi rmation of ideals imbued in Brazil's long-term, complex, and open-ended democratization process.

Agrarian reform and land reform: social movements in Brasil and South Africa

The comparison between the Rural Landless Workers' Movement of Brazil (MST) and the Landless People's Movement of South Africa (LPM) has already been the subject of Rosa (2007 and and Balleti et al (2008). The former compared the relation between these movements and the State, while the latter looked to list the differences in the form of organization and mobilization of each case, identifying the potential limits of social movements international networks formed over recent years.

Transformation and ‘human values’ in the Landless Workers’ Movement of Brazil

Ethnos, 2013

Social movements often seek transformation in wider society, but they are also themselves subject to the fluidity and ephemerality of the environments in which they operate. Academic literature has long held the view that social movements inevitably come to be beset by institutionalisation and a loss of relevance, and in Brazil, where socio-economic change has been so dynamic, the future of the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Sem Terra (MST)) has been called into question. This article argues that the MST is responding to changes in its membership, and transformation more widely in Brazil, in a measured way, by drawing upon a familiar repertoire of cooperativisation to boost production. The article suggests that decline is not necessarily certain, but as a case study for movements more generally, current MST leadership decisions may be significant in understanding how social movements can best react to unpredictable transformations in wider society.