The MST is a movement of landless peasants in Brazil that occupy unused land to construct agricultural coops. It has grown to encompass not only food cooperatives but an alternate education and health system as well.
Marxism
Anti globalization and the global south
Indigenous feminism
Indigenous peoples
Postcolonialism
Direct action
Construction of alternatives – Spaces and Zones
Economies
Working the system
Advisory service for squatters
Claws
Ithaca hours
Lets linkup
Par econ
New economics foundation
Web homepage:
http://www.mstbrazil.org/ (in English)
http://www.mst.org.br/ (in Spanish)
Email: semterra@mst.org.br
Snail mail: Friends of the MST
c/o Global Exchange
2017 Mission Street, #303
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 255-0795 phone
(415) 255-7498 fax
Spokespersons: João Pedro Stédile
Brazil
Currently active. Began in early 1980s.
Conditions for the emergence of the MST begin in the late 1970s with the rise of Liberation Theology and the growing pressure from the Catholic Church for the government to address land reform. Isolated struggles occur in rural areas, as the impoverished peasantry grows more desperate and begin to occupy state land. ‘Officially’ born in 1984, they scored a major victory in 1988 when the constitution was changed to mandate land redistribution. (Matthew Flynn, “Brazil’s Landless Worker’s Movement”, on America’s Program
Website: http://www.americaspolicy.org/citizen-action/series/06-mst.html
“The Brazilian Landless
Workers Movement is the largest social movement in Latin America and one of
the most successful grassroots movements in the world. Hundreds of thousands
of landless peasants have taken onto themselves the task of carrying out a long-overdue
land reform in a country mired by an overly skewed land distribution pattern…
… The success of the MST lies in its ability to organize. Its members
have not only managed to secure land, thereby guaranteeing food security for
their families, but have come up with an alternative socio-economic development
model that puts people before profits. This is transforming the face of Brasil's
countryside and Brasilian politics at large…
… The MST has resisted this repression and has been able to gather support
from a broad international network of human rights groups, religious organizations,
and labor unions. It has received a number of international awards, including
The Right Livelihood Award and an education award from UNICEF.
In order to maximize production, the MST has created 60 food cooperatives as
well as a small agricultural industries. Their literacy program involves 600
educators who presently work with adults and adolescents. The movement also
monitors 1,000 primary schools in their settlements, in which 2,000 teachers
work with about 50,000 kids.”
http://www.mstbrazil.org/index.html
Basically, the MST propose a revolutionary change in Brazil. They oppose the current bureaucracy, gross corruption and extreme concentration of wealth in Brazil, and propose alternatives for a “Popular Project”, including:
· Agrarian reform, focusing on small self sufficient end environmentally
friendly collectives.
· An end to IMF and WB payments, in favour of social spending at home
http://www.mstbrazil.org/EconomicModel.html
· In general, they challenge the tenets of neoliberalism. “…there
is no economic or social reason that impedes every Brazilian having access to
land, work, dignified housing, quality public schools, and food. But we need
to have the courage to change our government, rethink economic policy and challenge
the profits of the powerful.” ( Manifesto to the Brazilian People , Delegates
of the 4th National Congress of the MST. August 11th, 2000.
Available at: http://www.mstbrazil.org/manifesto.html
The MST is part of a
long history of movements for agrarian reform
in Latin America. In particular, they grow
out of a tradition of Liberation Theology
with the support of the Catholic Church. Often
called Marxist (and sometimes Maoist and sometimes
Leninist) by those on the outside, this trajectory
is at once both unique (to Latin America)
and diffuse (throughout many countries in
the region in various incarnations).
Not many theorists are cited, as it is a tradition
that emerges from experience rather then academia.
However, Stédile is an academic and
cites Florestan Fernandes (the Brazilian sociologist
and Marxist) as saying “…The elites…always
act in the same way. They try to divide us
and then to co-opt us.” http://www.mstbrazil.org/4.html
The 3% of Brazilians who control the majority of the country’s wealth. The militias of the landowners and historically military police. The corruption of Brazilian politics. The rich. The banking system in Brazil.
The MST operate more through action then media, but have become more media savvy in recent years as the Movement grew. They now issue communiqués and have a pitched battle with the mainstream media in Brazil.
They generally get favourable press in the West (they have even received an education award from UNICEF) but have historically been attacked and dismissed by the right wing Brazilian media.
The
MST’s strategy has been to occupy unused
land held by the rich and to utilize the land
for and by the poor. Eventually, the ‘squatters’
have been able to get land titles to such
land. At this point, agriculture coops and
small communities have been built on the land,
including schools.
As James Petras explains in “The Rural
Landless Workers Movement: The movement gains
momentum” http://www.mstbrazil.org/petras0300.html
The MST have shifted from direct action type
activities to more political manoeuvring.
They had become increasingly reliant on INCRA
(the Agrarian Reform Institute) to grant land
titles, and were thus dealt a severe blow
when in 1999 the Cardoso regime cut INCRA’s
funding by over half.
Despite the apparently radical tactics of
land occupations, the Movement has always
had a strong legal position (in the Brazilian
constitution, unused land is supposed to be
redistributed to those who would use it).
The occupations themselves have always been
peaceful, but have often been met with violence
on the part of the angry landowners and their
hired militias.
“In 1985, with the support of the Catholic Church, hundreds of landless rural Brasilians took over an unused plantation in the south of the country and successfully established a cooperative there. They gained title to the land in 1987.” (Friends of MST Homepage, http://www.mstbrazil.org/index.html
People’s Global Alliance
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/en/index.html
OXFAM
UNICEF
Brazilian Worker’s Party
Food First http://www.foodfirst.org
Petras, James. “The Rural Landless Workers Movement: The movement gains momentum” http://www.mstbrazil.org/petras0300.html
Indymedia
article cryptically pointing to a critique
of the MST as authoritarian http://brasil.indymedia.org/pt/blue/2002/10/39151.shtml
Global Exchange: http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/brazil/mst.html
Wright, Angus and Wendy Wolford. To Inherit
The Earth. Oakland: Food First/Institute for
Food and Development Policy, 2003. see http://www.toinherittheearth.org/
Link to an interesting interview with an MST
worker : http://www.newsandletters.org/Issues/1998/Dec/12-98brazil.htm