Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil

Abstract

This article explains the context, origin, inspiration and aims of the Brazilian “Landless Workers’ Movement” (MST). Starting from a brief description of the situation in Brazil, in general, and of the agrarian problem, in particular, paying attention to the concentration of land, the author analyses first the origins of the MST, which was officially born in 1985 in Curitiba, after decades of rural protest movements. It is a movement of classes and of masses, and in contrast to the dominant pattern of other union movements, in the MST the importance of leaderships is relatively limited. Its actions, occupations of land and massive marches, aroused a great deal of interest in the media both in Brazil and worldwide. Its main objective is the struggle for land reform, in order to achieve a fairer distribution of land, the main resource in Brazil. Significant successes in this field have been achieved, nevertheless, and according to workers themselves, much remains to be done.