Movement Histories: A Preliminary Historiography of the Brazil's Landless Laborers' Movement (MST)

Abstract

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.

Engaging the Brazilian state: the Belo Monte dam and the struggle for political voice

“…They hoped that Lula, who aligned himself with historically marginalized social movements (Wright and Wolford 2003;Welch 2006), would finally deepen democracy, increase citizen participation in decision-making processes and reduce social inequities. President Lula and his PT successor, President Dilma Rouseff, did introduce more formalized and diverse citizen participation initiatives (Secretaria-Geral da Presidência da República 2011) and social programs such as Bolsa Família, a conditional direct cash transfer program that provides financial assistance to the poor.…”

Public Representations of the Collective Memory of Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra

“…Various peasant groups struggled for more equitable land distribution for much of the twentieth century: as early as the 1940s, the Partido Comunista Brasileiro (Communist Party of Brazil-PCB) organized peasant leagues throughout Brazil's South and Southeast. While the PCB's interest was explicitly political and the peasant leagues did significantly increase its membership numbers, this shift also brought a critical mass of disenfranchised peasant farmers into the political process (Welch, 1999). The PCB continued to pursue a role as a power broker in rural areas of Brazil by supporting land reform through the União de Lavradores e Trabalhadores Agrícolas do Brasil (Farmers' and Farmworkers' Union of Brazil -ULTAB), founded in the 1950s, and its successor the Confederação Nacional de Trabalhadores na Agricultura (National Confederation of Agricultural Workers -CONTAG), founded in 1963.…”

“…The PCB continued to pursue a role as a power broker in rural areas of Brazil by supporting land reform through the União de Lavradores e Trabalhadores Agrícolas do Brasil (Farmers' and Farmworkers' Union of Brazil -ULTAB), founded in the 1950s, and its successor the Confederação Nacional de Trabalhadores na Agricultura (National Confederation of Agricultural Workers -CONTAG), founded in 1963. These organizations worked to organize rural peasant farmers first through efforts to register them to vote, then by the formation of small labor associations, and eventually by the creation of formal labor unions (Welch, 2009).…”

“…During the military regime of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, several similar peasant movements arose fighting for agrarian reform, such as the Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra (Landless Farmers' Movement-MASTER) and the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission), a collection of Catholic and Lutheran liberation theologians that worked alongside farm workers to promote justice in land distribution (Welch, 2006). The Comissão Pastoral da Terra used organizing methods similar to those of its communist political counterparts, partly to prevent the PCB from displacing the Church in its social role in rural Brazil (Welch, 2009).…”

“…The Comissão Pastoral da Terra used organizing methods similar to those of its communist political counterparts, partly to prevent the PCB from displacing the Church in its social role in rural Brazil (Welch, 2009).…”