Founded in 1984, the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil (MST) has been historicized in several recent publications. This review essay examines seven books that provide historical analysis of the movement. Published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian in the past six years, these books offer diverse assessments of MST history. The essay contrasts their interpretations of the movement's origins, founding, consolidation, organization, and future prospects. As an institutionalized social movement with more than twenty years of history, the books prove that the MST merits the attention of historians.
This article examines recent Brazilian rural labor and agricultural history. It identifies three broad periods for analysis in the postwar era: the 1940s to 1960s, the 1960s to 1980s, and a third period that dates roughly from the promulgation of Brazil's new constitution in 1988 to the present. Using primary and secondary sources the article analyzes recent agrarian transformations associated with globalization, including the organized response of workers and farmers to the loss of millions farm livelihoods. It explains the rise of an autonomous peasant movement in the late twentieth century and describes the recent development of a polemic between a peasant vision of expanded family farming and the agricultural capitalist model promoted by powerful agribusiness interests.
The article utilises oral history, labour and military court records, newspaper accounts, and government documents to narrate the history of rural labour mobilisation in the Aha Mogiana region of São Paulo, Brazil, during the years 1959 to 1964. It shows how rival rural leaders linked either to the Brazilian Communist Party or the Catholic Church organised many workers, led numerous influential strikes, and helped hundreds of workers sue for their rights in court. Eventually, Catholic and Communist competitors joined forces under the guidance of a federal agency (SUPRA). Coordinated by SUPRA, the newly unified Alta Mogiana movement was suppressed by the military regime that took control of Brazil in April 1964.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.