View source for Landless Workers' Movement

{{Short description|Social movement for land reform in Brazil}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} 
{{Infobox organization
| name                = Landless Workers' Movement
| native_name         = Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra
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| formation           = January 1984
| founder             = <!-- or | founders = -->
| extinction          = <!-- {{End date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
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| type                = <!-- [[Governmental organization|GO]], [[Non-governmental organization|NGO]], [[Intergovernmental organization|IGO]], [[International nongovernmental organization|INGO]], etc -->
| status              = [[Social movement]]
| purpose             = [[agrarian society|Agrarian]] [[land reform]]
| professional_title  = <!-- for professional associations -->
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| coords              = <!-- Coordinates of location using {{Coord}} -->
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| services            = Land reform movement, squatting (primary); basic healthcare and education (secondary)
| membership          = 1,500,000
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| general             = <!-- Secretary General -->
| leader_title        =
| leader_name         = [[João Pedro Stédile]]
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| main_organ          =  Núcleo de Base
| parent_organization = National Coordination Body
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| website             =  https://mst.org.br
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[[Image:Mst conabNove2004.jpg|thumb|300px|MST supporters in [[Brazil]].]]
The '''Landless Workers' Movement''' ({{langx|pt|Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra}}, '''MST''') is a [[social movement]] in Brazil aimed at [[land reform]]. Inspired by [[Marxism]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ifch.unicamp.br/formulario_cemarx/selecao/2012/trabalhos/6142_Feix_Plinio.pdf|title=O Pensamento Marxista no Projeto Político dos Dirigentes do MST|date=2012|access-date=2017-11-10|publisher=Universidade de Campinas (UNICAMP)|last=Feix|first=Plínio José|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416071828/http://www.ifch.unicamp.br/formulario_cemarx/selecao/2012/trabalhos/6142_Feix_Plinio.pdf|archive-date=2016-04-16|url-status=live}}</ref> it is the largest such movement<ref>Anders Corr, ''No trespassing!: squatting, rent strikes, and land struggles worldwide''. New York: South End Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-89608-595-3}}, page 146 in 2007</ref> in [[Latin America]], with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 million<ref>Herbert Girardet, ed. ''Surviving the century: facing climate chaos and other global challenges''. London, Earthscan, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-84407-458-7}}, page 185</ref> across 23 of Brazil's 26 states.<ref>Dave Hill & Ravi Kumar, eds., ''Global neoliberalism and education and its consequences''. New York: Routledge, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-415-95774-8}}, page 146</ref> 

MST defines its goals as access to the land for poor workers through [[land reform]] in Brazil, and activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as unequal [[income distribution]], [[racism]], [[sexism]], and media monopolies.<ref>"Nossos objetivos". MST page, {{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/node/7703 |title=Nossos Objetivos &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2012-09-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902042649/http://www.mst.org.br/node/7703 |archive-date=2012-09-02 }}. Retrieved September 1, 2012</ref> MST strives to achieve a self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor.<ref name="James">{{cite book |title= Gaining Ground? Rights and Property in South African Land Reform|last= James|first= Deborah|year= 2007|publisher= Routledge Cavendish|location= New York, New York|isbn= 978-0-415-42031-0|pages= 148–149}}</ref>

The MST differs from previous land reform movements in its single-issue focus; land reform for them is a self-justifying cause. The organization maintains that it is legally justified in occupying unproductive land, pointing to the most recent [[Constitution of Brazil]] (1988), which contains a passage saying that land must fulfill a social function (Article 5, XXIII). The MST also notes, based on 1996 census statistics, that a mere 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all [[arable land]] in Brazil.<ref>[http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=about About the MST] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627093457/http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=about |date=2019-06-27 }} on mstbrazil.org. Accessed September 9, 2006.</ref>

In 1991, MST received the [[Right Livelihood Award]] "for winning land for landless families, and helping them to farm it sustainably."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/movimento-dos-trabalhadores-rurais-sem-terra-mst/|title=Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra (MST) |website=The Right Livelihood Award|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824065917/https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/movimento-dos-trabalhadores-rurais-sem-terra-mst/|archive-date=2018-08-24|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Land reform before the 1988 Constitution==

Land reform has a long history in Brazil, and the concept predates the MST. In the mid-20th century, Brazilian leftists reached a consensus that the [[democratization]] and widespread actual exercise of political rights would require land reform.<ref>Michael Moran,Geraint Parry, eds., ''Democracy and Democratization''. London: Routledge, 1994, {{ISBN|0-415-09049-0}}, page 191; Arthur MacEwan, ''Neo-liberalism Or Democracy?: Economic Strategy, Markets, and Alternatives for the 21st Century''. London: Zed Books, 1999, {{ISBN|1-85649-724-0}}, page 148</ref> Brazilian political elites actively opposed land reform initiatives, which they felt threatened their social and political status.<ref>Michael Lipton, ''Land Reform in Developing Countries: Property Rights and Property Wrongs'' London: Routledge, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-415-09667-6}}, p. 275 ; Rodolfo Stavenhagen, ''Between Underdevelopment and Revolution: A Latin American Perspective''. New Delhi: Abhinav, 1981, p. 10; Carlos H. Waisman,Raanan Rein, eds., ''Spanish and Latin American Transitions to Democracy''. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2006, {{ISBN|1-903900-73-5}}, pp. 156/157</ref> Political leaders of the rural poor then attempted to achieve land reform from below, through [[grassroots]] action. MST broke new ground by tackling land reform itself, by "breaking...dependent relations with parties, governments, and other institutions,"<ref>Bernardo Mançano Fernandes, "The MST and Agrarian Reform in Brazil". ''Socialism and Democracy online'', 51, Vol. 23, No.3, available at [http://sdonline.org/51/the-mst-and-agrarian-reform-in-brazil/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215043600/http://sdonline.org/51/the-mst-and-agrarian-reform-in-brazil/|date=2017-12-15}}</ref> and framing the issue in purely political terms, rather than social, ethical, or religious ones.

The first statute to regulate land ownership in Brazil after its [[Independence of Brazil|independence]], Law 601 or ''Lei de Terras'' (Landed Property Act), took effect September 18, 1850. A [[Colonialism|colonial administration]], based on Portuguese [[feudal law]], had previously considered property ownership to stem from royal grants (''sesmarias''), and were passed through [[primogeniture]] (''morgadio''). In the independent Brazilian state, the default means of acquiring land was through purchase, from either the state or a previous private owner. This law strongly limited [[squatter's right]]s, and favoured the historic [[concentration of land ownership]], which became a hallmark of modern Brazilian [[social history]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Carlos Ignacio Pinto |url=http://www.klepsidra.net/klepsidra5/lei1850.html |title=A Lei de Terras de 1850 |publisher=Klepsidra.net |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229033913/http://www.klepsidra.net/klepsidra5/lei1850.html |archive-date=2012-02-29 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> The ''Lei de Terras'' left in place the colonial practice of favoring of large landholdings created by mammoth land grants to well-placed people, which were usually worked by enslaved people.<ref>[[Robert M. Levine]], John Crocitti, eds., ''The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics''. Duke University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-8223-2258-7}}, p. 264</ref>

Continuing the policy favored [[economies of scale]], given the limited number of landowners, but simultaneously made it difficult for small planters and peasants to obtain the land needed to practice [[subsistence agriculture]] and small-scale farming.<ref>Wendy Wolford, ''This Land Is Ours Now: Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil''. Duke University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-8223-4539-8}}, pages 38 sqq.</ref>

The consolidation of land ownership into just a few hands had ties to the advent of [[capitalism]] in Brazil, and opposition and insurrection in the 19th and early 20th century (for example, the [[Canudos War]] in the 1890s, and the [[Contestado War]] in the 1910s) idealized older forms of property,{{which|date=August 2017}} and revitalized ideologies<ref>[[Candace Slater]], ''Trail of Miracles: Stories from a Pilgrimage in Northeast Brazil''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986, {{ISBN|0-520-05306-0}}, p. 45</ref> centered on a fabled [[millenarian]] return to an earlier, pre-bourgeois social order. Advocated by groups led by rogue [[messianism|messianic]] religious leaders outside the established [[Catholic]] hierarchy, these ideologies seemed [[heretic]]al and revolutionary.<ref>Michael L. Conniff, Frank D. MacCann, eds., ''Modern Brazil: Elites and Masses in Historical Perspective''. The University of Nebraska Press, 1991, {{ISBN|0-8032-6348-1}}, page 133</ref> Some [[leftist]] historians, following the tracks of the groundbreaking 1963 work by journalist {{ILL|Rui Facó|pt||fr}} (''Cangaceiros e Fanáticos''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Facó |first=Rui |url=https://digital.bbm.usp.br/handle/bbm/7762 |title=Cangaceiros e fanáticos: gênese e lutas |publisher=Editôra Civilização Brasileira |year=1976 |isbn=9788571083301 |edition=4th |location=Rio de Janeiro |language=pt |format=PDF |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230421014153/https://digital.bbm.usp.br/handle/bbm/7762 |archive-date=21 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>), tend to conflate early 20th-century banditry in northeastern Brazil (''[[cangaço]]'') with messianism as a kind of [[Social bandits|social banditry]], a protest against such social inequalities as the uneven distribution of land assets.<ref>Sarah R. Sarzynski, ''History, Identity and the Struggle for Land in Northeastern Brazil, 1955--1985''. ProQuest, 2008: page 284</ref><ref>Candace Slater, ''Stories on a String: The Brazilian Literatura de Cordel''. University of California Press, 1982, {{ISBN|0-520-04154-2}}, page 210,  footnote 10</ref> This theory developed independently in English-speaking academia around [[Eric Hobsbawn]]'s 1959 work ''Primitive Rebels''. It was criticized for its unspecific definition of "social movement," but also praised for melding political and religious movements, previously separately examined.<ref>[[Peter Burke (historian)|Peter Burke]], ''História e teoria social''. São Paulo: UNESP, 2002, {{ISBN|85-7139-380-X}} , page 125</ref> This blend was later the basis for the MST's emergence.

Both messianism and ''cangaço ''disappeared in the late 1930s, but in the 1940s and '50s, additional peasant resistance broke out to evictions and [[land grabbing]] by powerful ranchers:
*[[Teófilo Otoni]], [[Minas Gerais]], in 1948
*[[Porecatu]], [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], in 1951
*Southwest Paraná, in 1957
*[[Trombas]] and [[Goiás]], 1952–1958<ref>Anthony L. Hall, ''Developing Amazonia: deforestation and social conflict in Brazil's Carajás Programme''. Manchester University Press: 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-7190-3550-0}}, pages 188/189</ref> 
These local affairs, however, were repressed or settled locally, and did not give rise to an ideology. Policy makers and scholars across the political spectrum believed that it was an objective economic necessity to permit the end of Brazilian rural society through mechanized [[agrobusiness]] and forced [[urbanization]]. The left, in particular, felt that the technologically backward, feudal ''[[latifundia]]'' impeded both economic modernization and democratization.<ref>José Carlos Reis, ''As identidades do Brasil: de Varnhagen a FHC''. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2007, {{ISBN|978-85-225-0596-8}}, V.1, page 164</ref>

During the 1960s, various groups attempted land reform through the legal system, beginning with the [[peasant leagues (Brazil)|peasant leagues]] (''Ligas Camponesas'') in northeastern Brazil,<ref>Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros, eds., ''Reclaiming the land: the resurgence of rural movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America''. London, Zed Books, {{ISBN|1-84277-425-5}}, page 342</ref> which opposed the evictions of [[tenant farmers]] land, and the transformation of [[plantation]]s into [[cattle ranch]]es.<ref>Ronald H. Chilcote, ed. - ''Protest and resistance in Angola and Brazil: comparative studies''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972, {{ISBN|0-520-01878-8}}, page 191</ref> These groups questioned the existing distribution of land ownership through a rational appeal to the social function of property.{{clarify|date=July 2017}}

Despite the efforts of these groups, land ownership continued to concentrate, and Brazil to this day has had a highly dynamic and robust agricultural business sector at the price of extensive dislocation of the rural poor.<ref>James F. Petras, Henry Veltmeyer, ''Cardoso's Brazil: a land for sale''. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7425-2631-3}}, page 17</ref> MST questioned the scope of the benefits from the alleged efficiency of the change, given that since 1850, Brazilian land development had been concerned with the interests of a single class — the rural bourgeoisie.<ref>Luiz Bezerra Neto, ''Sem-terra aprende e ensina: estudo sobre as práticas educativas do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais''. Campinas, SP: Autores Associados, 1999, {{ISBN|85-85701-82-X}}, page 30</ref> While the MST frames its policies in socio-economic terms, it still points to Canudos and its alleged millenarism<ref>Robert M. Levine, ''Vale of tears: revisiting the Canudos massacre in northeastern Brazil, 1893–1897''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-520-20343-7}}, page 65</ref> to legitimize its existence,<ref>Angela Maria de Castro Gomes et al., ''A República no Brasil''. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2002, {{ISBN|978-85-209-1264-5}}, page 118</ref> and to develop a powerful mystique of its own.<ref>Ruth Reitan, ''Global Activism''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-96605-8}}, page 154</ref>

A great deal of the early organizing in the MST came from Catholic communities.<ref>Edward L. Cleary, ''How Latin America Saved the Soul of the Catholic Church''. Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-8091-4629-1}}, page 32; Angus Lindsay Wright & Wendy Wolford, ''To inherit the earth: the landless movement and the struggle for a new Brazil''. Oakland, Food First Books, 2003, {{ISBN|0-935028-90-0}}, page 74</ref> Much of MST ideology and practice come from a social doctrine of the [[Catholic Church]]: that private property should serve a social function.<ref>Petras & Veltmeyer, ''Cardoso's Brazil'', 18</ref> This principle developed during the 19th century,<ref>Sándor Agócs, ''The troubled origins of the Italian Catholic labor movement, 1878–1914''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|0-8143-1938-6}}, page 25; Scott Mainwaring, ''The Catholic Church and politics in Brazil, 1916–1985''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986, page 55</ref> and became Catholic doctrine with [[Pope Leo XIII]]'s ''[[Rerum novarum]]'' encyclical,<ref>Charles C. Geisler & Gail Daneker, eds. ''Property and values: alternatives to public and private ownership''. Washington DC: Island Press, 2000, {{ISBN|1-55963-766-8}}, page 31</ref> promulgated on the eve of the 1964 military coup (''golpe militar''). This doctrine was evoked by President [[João Goulart]] at a rally in [[Rio de Janeiro]], at which he offered a blueprint for political and social reforms, and proposed [[expropriation]] of estates larger than 600 [[hectare]]s in areas near federal facilities, such as roads, railroads, reservoirs, and sanitation works; these ideas triggered a strong conservative backlash, and led to Goulart's loss of power.<ref>Marieta de Moraes Ferreira, ed., ''João Goulart: entre a memória e a história'', Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2006, {{ISBN|85-225-0578-0}} , page 74</ref> Nevertheless, the Brazilian Catholic hierarchy formally acknowledged the principle in 1980.<ref>the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) issued a document - ''Church and Land Problems'' - recognizing and pleading for public acknowledgement of communal rights to the land.</ref><ref>José de Souza Martins, '' Reforma agrária: o impossível diálogo''. São Paulo: EDUSP, 2004, {{ISBN|85-314-0591-2}}, page 104</ref>

In Brazilian constitutional history, land reform — understood in terms of public management of natural resources<ref>Albert Breton, ed., ''Environmental governance and decentralisation''. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-84720-398-4}}, page 52</ref> — was first explicitly mentioned as a guiding principle of government in the [[History of the Constitution of Brazil#Sixth Constitution .281967.29|1967 constitution]],<ref>(Article 157, III)</ref> which sought to institutionalize an [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] consensus after the 1964 coup. The military dictatorship intended to use land reform policy to develop a buffer of conservative small farmers between ''latifundia'' owners and the rural proletariat.<ref>Peter Rosset, Raj Patel, Michael Courville, Land Research Action Network, eds. ''Promised land: competing visions of agrarian reform''. New York: Food First Books, {{ISBN|978-0-935028-28-7}}, page 266</ref> In 1969, at the most repressive point of the dictatorship, the 1967 constitution was amended via a decree (''ato institucional'') by a junta that held interim power during the final illness of president [[Arthur da Costa e Silva]], and authorized government compensation for property expropriated for land reform. This compensation would be made in [[government bonds]] rather than cash, previously the only legal practice (Art. 157, §1, as amended by Institutional Act No. 9, 1969).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao67.htm|title=Constituição67|website=www.planalto.gov.br|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024022647/http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Constituicao/Constituicao67.htm|archive-date=24 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Land reform and the 1988 Constitution==
The Constitution passed in 1988 required that "property shall serve its social function,"<ref>(Article 5, XXIII.)</ref> and that the government should "expropriate for the purpose of [[agrarian society|agrarian reform]], rural property that is not performing its social function."<ref>(Article 184)</ref>

Under Article 186 of the Constitution, a social function is performed when rural property simultaneously meets the following requirements:
* Rational and adequate use.
* Adequate use of available [[natural resources]], and preservation of the environment.
* Compliance with the provisions which regulate [[labor relations]].
* Development uses which favor the well-being of owners and workers.

Since the criteria are vague and not objectively defined, the social interest principle was seen as a mixed blessing,{{who|date=July 2017}} but accepted in general. Landowners have lobbied against the principle since 1985 through the landowners' organization, [[União Democrática Ruralista]] (Democratic Union of Rural People, or UDR), whose rise and organization parallels that of the MST. Although it avowedly dissolved itself in the early 1990s, some believe it persists in informal regional ties between landowners.<ref>Sonia Maria Ribeiro de Souza & Anthonio Thomaz Jr, "O Mst e a Mídia: O Fato e a Notícia". ''Scripta Nova'', Vol. VI, no. 119 (45), 1st. August de 2002, available at [http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn119-45.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928190004/http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn119-45.htm|date=2011-09-28}}</ref> UDR lobbying over the constitutional text is believed{{who|date=August 2017}} to have watered down concrete enforcement of the "social interest" principle.<ref>Alfred P. Montero, ''Brazilian politics: reforming a democratic state in a changing world''. Cambridge (U.K.): Polity Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7456-3361-7}}, page 87</ref>

One Brazilian law handbook argues that land reform, as understood in the 1988 Constitution, is a concept made up of various "compromises," on which constitutional law has consistently evaded taking a clear stance, and so one could argue either for or against the MST without leaving the framework of the Constitution.<ref>Felipe Dutra Asensi, ''Curso Prático de Argumentação Jurídica'', Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2010, Google Books, partially available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=hREGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1]</ref> The lack of clear government commitment to land reform precludes the MST engaging in [[public-interest litigation]],<ref>Boaventura de Sousa Santos,César A. Rodríguez-Garavito, eds., ''Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-84540-3}}, page 224</ref> so concrete proceedings for land reform are left to the initiative of the groups concerned, through onerous and time-consuming legal proceedings. Given "the highly problematic and ideologically driven nature of the Brazilian justice system,"<ref>George Meszaros, ''Social Movements, Law and the Politics of Land Reform: Lessons from Brazil''. London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-47771-0}}, page 21</ref> all parties have an incentive to resort to more informal methods: "while the large landowners try to evacuate squatters from their land, squatters might use violence to force institutional intervention favoring them with the land expropriation afterwards [...] violence is mandatory for both sides to achieve their goals."<ref>Artur Zimerman, "Land and Violence in Brazil: A Fatal Combination". LASA paper, page 9. Available at [http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/1976.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426035256/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/1976.pdf|date=2012-04-26}}. Retrieved December the 20th.2011</ref> These tactics raise controversy about the legality of the MST's actions, since it tries to ensure social justice unilaterally.<ref>Roberto Gargarela, "Tough on Punishment: Criminal Justice, Deliberation, and Legal Alienation". IN Samantha Besson, José Luis Martí, eds. ''Legal Republicanism: National and International Perspectives''.  Oxford University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-19-955916-9}}, page 168</ref>

The MST identifies rural land it believes to be unproductive and that does not meet its social function, then occupies the land,<ref>Eugene Walker Gogol, ''The concept of Other in Latin American liberation''. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, {{ISBN|0-7391-0331-8}}, page 311</ref> only afterwards moving to ascertain the legality of the occupation. The MST is represented in these activities by public interest legal counsel, including their own lawyers, sons and daughters of MST families, and organizations, such as ''Terra de Direitos'', a [[Human rights group|human rights organization]] co-founded by [[Darci Frigo]], the 2001 [[Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award|Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award]] Laureate.<ref>Jan Rocha and Sue Branford. ''Cutting the Wire: The story of the landless movement in Brasil''. 2002, Latin American Bureau, page 291</ref> The courts might eventually issue a warrant for eviction, requiring the occupier families to leave, or they might deny the landowner's petition, and allow the families to stay provisionally, and engage in subsistence farming until the federal agency responsible for agrarian reform, Brazil's [[National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform]] (INCRA), determines whether occupied property had indeed been unproductive. The MST's legal activity bases itself on the idea that property rights are in a continuous process of social construction, so litigation and seeking to strike sympathy among the judiciary is essential to MST's legitimacy.<ref>[[James K. Boyce]], [[Sunita Narain]], Elizabeth A. Stanton, ''Reclaiming nature: environmental justice and ecological restoration''. London: Anthem Press, 2007, {{ISBN|1-84331-235-2}}, page 134; Peter P. Houtzager, ''The movement of the landless (MST) and the juridical field in Brazil''. Institute of Development Studies, 2005</ref>

Traditionally, Brazilian courts side with landowners, and file charges against MST members some call "frivolous and bizarre."<ref>Wilder Robles-Cameron, D.Phil. Thesis, University of Guelph. Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology, 2007: ''Peasant mobilization, land reform and agricultural co-operativism in Brazil''. page 160. Available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=_PyiVi4TMn0C] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216023942/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PyiVi4TMn0C&printsec=frontcover|date=2016-12-16}}</ref> For instance, in a 2004 land occupation in [[Pernambuco]], a judge issued arrest warrants for MST members, and described them as highly dangerous criminals.<ref>Jayme Benvenuto Lima Jr., ed: ''Independence of Judges in Brazil''. Recife: GAJOP/Bagaço, 2005, page 89. Available at [http://www.gajop.org.br/arquivos/publicacoes/Independence_of_Judges_in_Brazil-english.pdf#page=81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924020430/http://www.gajop.org.br/arquivos/publicacoes/Independence_of_Judges_in_Brazil-english.pdf#page=81|date=2015-09-24}}. Retrieved December 12, 2011.</ref> Nevertheless, many individual judges have shown themselves sympathetic.<ref>In August 1999, State Higher Court Judge Rui Portanova overruled a trial court decision granting a landowner's petition to evict MST from his property, with the following reasoning: <blockquote> Before applying a law, the judge must consider the social aspects of the case: the law's repercussions, its legitimacy and the clash of interests in tension. The [MST] are landless workers who want to grow produce in order to feed and enrich Brazil, amid this globalized, starving world... However, Brazil turns her back on them, as the Executive offers money to the banks. The Legislative... wants to make laws to forgive the debts of the large farmers. The press charges the MST with violence. Despite all that, the landless hope to plant and harvest with their hands, and for this they pray and sing. The Federal Constitution and Article 5... offers interpretive space in favor of the MST&nbsp;... [I]n the terms of paragraph 23 of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution [that landed property must fulfill a social function], I suspended [the eviction.] (Decision #70000092288, Rui Portanova, State Court of [[Rio Grande do Sul]], [[Porto Alegre]]) </blockquote></ref> Brazilian higher courts have usually regarded the MST with reserve: in February 2009, for instance, the then-president of the [[Supremo Tribunal Federal|Brazilian Supreme Court]] (STF), [[Gilmar Mendes]], declared the MST engaged in "illicit" activities, opposed granting it public monies, and supported an "adequate" judicial response towards land occupation.<ref>''Mendes condena ações de sem-terra em Pernambuco e São Paulo''. G1 newssite, 25 February 2009, available at [http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,MUL1017867-5598,00-MENDES+CONDENA+ACOES+DE+SEMTERRA+EM+PERNAMBUCO+E+SAO+PAULO.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004213449/http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,MUL1017867-5598,00-MENDES+CONDENA+ACOES+DE+SEMTERRA+EM+PERNAMBUCO+E+SAO+PAULO.html|date=2012-10-04}}</ref> The MST leadership has, in turn on various occasions, charged that the STF as a whole is consistently hostile to the movement. In late 2013, it described the court as "lackeying to the ruling class," and "working for years against the working class and social movements."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2013/11/1375269-mst-defende-dirceu-e-chama-stf-de-servical-a-classe-dominante.shtml|title=MST defende Dirceu e chama STF de 'serviçal à classe dominante' - 22/11/2013 - Poder|website=Folha de S.Paulo|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123071423/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2013/11/1375269-mst-defende-dirceu-e-chama-stf-de-servical-a-classe-dominante.shtml|archive-date=23 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> This fraught relationship came to a head on February 12, 2014, when a court session was suspended after an attempted invasion of the court building in [[Brasília]] by MST activists, who were met by police firing rubber bullets and tear gas.<ref>MST tenta invadir STF em Brasília; PM usa bomba para dispersar manifestante. UOL newssite, February 12, 2014, available at [http://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2014/02/12/sob-ameaca-de-invasao-do-mst-stf-suspende-sessao.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903132656/http://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2014/02/12/sob-ameaca-de-invasao-do-mst-stf-suspende-sessao.htm|date=2014-09-03}}</ref>

==History==
===Foundation===
[[Image:MonumentoMST.JPG|thumb|200px|Monument by [[Oscar Niemeyer]] dedicated to the MST.]]
The smashing of the [[peasant leagues (Brazil)|peasant leagues]] following the [[1964 Brazilian coup d'état|1964 coup]] opened the way for commercialized agriculture and concentration of land ownership throughout the period of the [[Brazilian military government|military dictatorship]], and an absolute decline in the rural population during the 1970s.<ref>Thomas William Merrick, Elza Berquó, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Population and Demography. Panel on Fertility Determinants: ''The determinants of Brazil's recent rapid decline in fertility''. Washington D.C.: National Academic Press, 1983, page 133</ref> In the mid-1980s, out of 370 million hectares of total farm land, 285 million hectares (77%) were held by [[latifundia]].<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, Bernardo Mueller, ''Titles, conflict, and land use: the development of property rights and land reform on the Brazilian Amazonian Frontier''. University of Michigan Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-472-11006-3}}, pages 67/68</ref> The re-democratization process in the 1980s, however, allowed grassroots movements to pursue their own interests,<ref>Biorn Maybury-Lewis, ''The politics of the possible: the Brazilian rural workers' trade union movement, 1964–1985''. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|1-56639-167-9}}, page 169</ref> rather than those of the state and the ruling classes. The emergence of the MST fits into this framework.

Between late 1980 and early 1981, over 6,000 landless families established an encampment on land located between three unproductive estates in Brazil's southernmost state of [[Rio Grande do Sul]]. These families included 600 households expropriated and dislocated in 1974 from nearby {{ILL|Passo Real|pt|Usina Hidrelétrica Passo Real}} to make way for construction of a [[hydroelectric]] dam.<ref>Local mobilization of peasants dislocated by dam constructions was one of the primary sources of grassroots rural mobilization in the 1980s in southern Brazil, which gave rise to a national organization, the ''Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens'' (MAB), or "Dam-slighted people's Movement"; cf. Franklin Daniel Rothman and Pamela E. Oliver, "From Local to Global: The Anti-Dam Movement in Southern Brazil". ''Mobilization: An International Journal'', 1999, 4(1), available at [http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/PROTESTS/ArticleCopies/RothmanOliver1999MobyFromLocaltoGlobal.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404173105/http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/PROTESTS/ArticleCopies/RothmanOliver1999MobyFromLocaltoGlobal.pdf|date=2012-04-04}}. Accessed 16 November 2011</ref> Local mobilization of the Passo Real and Nonoai people had already achieved some land distribution on non-Indian land, followed by demobilization. Those who had not received land under these claims, joined by others, and led by leaders from the existing regional movement, MASTER (Rio Grande do Sul landless farmers' movement), made up the 1980/1981 encampment.<ref>Michel Duquette and others, ''Collective action and radicalism in Brazil: women, urban housing, and rural movements''. University of Toronto Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8020-3907-3}}, pages 140/141</ref> The location became known as the Encruzilhada Natalino. With the support of civil society, including the progressive branch of the [[Catholic Church]], the families resisted a blockade imposed by military force. Enforcement of the blockade was entrusted by the government to Army colonel {{ILL|Sebastião Curió|pt}}, already notorious for his past counter-insurgency efforts against the [[Araguaia guerrilla]]s.

Curió enforced the blockade ruthlessly;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/revista/49/destaque |title=Da luta há 25 anos, o reencontro em Sarandi &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2013-07-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719014944/http://mst.org.br/revista/49/destaque |archive-date=2013-07-19 }}</ref> most of the landless refused his offer of resettlement on the Amazonian frontier, and eventually pressured the military government into expropriating nearby lands for agrarian reform.<ref>Gabriel A. Ondetti, ''Land, protest, and politics: the landless movement and the struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil''. Pennsylvania State University, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-271-03353-2}}, pages 67/69</ref> The Encruzilhada Natalino episode set a pattern. Most of subsequent early development of the MST concerned exactly the areas of southern Brazil where, in the absence of an open frontier, an ideological appeal at an alternate foundation for access to the land—other than formal private property—was developed in response to the growing difficulties [[agribusiness]] posed for family farming.<ref>Hank Johnston, Paul Almeida, eds.: ''Latin American social movements: globalization, democratization, and Transnational Networks''. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-7425-5332-3}}, Chapter 10</ref> The MST also developed what became its chief ''[[modus operandi]]'': local organizing around the concrete struggles of a specific demographic group.<ref>Magda Zanoni, Hugues Lamarche, eds. ''Agriculture et ruralité au Bréil: un autre modèle de developpement'', Paris: Khartala, 2001, {{ISBN|2-84586-173-7}}, page 113</ref>

The MST was officially founded in January 1984, during a National Encounter of landless workers in [[Cascavel]], Paraná,<ref>Marlene Grade & Idaleto Malvezzi Aued, "A busca de uma nova forma do agir humano: o MST e seu ato teleológico", Paper presented at the XIth. Congress of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política, Vitória, 2006; published at ''Textos e Debates'' (UFRR), Federal University of Roraima, Boa Vista-RR, v. I, p. 16-35, 2005.</ref> as Brazil's [[military dictatorship]] drew to a close. Its founding was strongly connected to Catholic-based organizations, such as the [[Pastoral Land Commission]], which provided support and infrastructure.<ref>Mauricio Augusto Font, ''Transforming Brazil: a reform era in perspective''. Lanham, Ma: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8476-8355-9}}, page 94</ref>

During much of the 1980s, the MST faced political competition from the National Confederacy of Agrarian Workers' (CONTAG), heir to the peasant leagues of the 1960s, who sought land reform strictly through legal means, by favoring [[trade union]]ism, and striving to wrestle concessions from bosses for rural workers. But the more aggressive tactics of the MST in striving for access to land gave a political legitimacy that soon outshone CONTAG, which limited itself to trade-unionism in the strictest sense, acting until today as a rural branch of the [[Central Única dos Trabalhadores]] (CUT).<ref>Cf. The description offered by the Trotskyist review ''International Viewpoint'', in the article by João Machado, "The two souls of the Lula government", March 2003 issue (IV348), available at [http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article246] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017101718/http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article246|date=2011-10-17}}</ref> MST eventually all but monopolized political attention as a spokesman for rural workers.<ref>Mauricio Augusto Font, ''Transforming Brazil'', 89</ref>

From the 1980s on, the MST has not maintained a monopoly of land occupations, many of which are carried out by a host of grassroots organizations (dissidents from the MST, trade unions, informal coalitions of land workers). However, the MST is by far the most organized group dealing in occupations, and has enough political leverage to turn occupations into formal expropriations for public purposes. In 1995, only 89 of 198 occupations (45%) were organized by the MST, but these included 20,500 (65%) out of the grand total of 31,400 families involved.<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, Bernardo Mueller, ''Titles, conflict, and land use'', pages 61/62</ref>

=== 1995–2005 Cardoso government ===
Brazil has long history of violent land conflict. During the 1990s, the MST emerged as the most prominent land reform movement in Brazil, and in 1995–1999, led a first wave of occupations<ref>According to MST-friendly [[UNESP]] professor Bernardo Mançano, interview to Giovana Girardi, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.unesp.br/aci_ses/revista_unespciencia/acervo/16/perfil |title=Unesp - Universidade Estadual Paulista - Portal |access-date=2011-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001165107/http://www.unesp.br/aci_ses/revista_unespciencia/acervo/16/perfil |archive-date=2011-10-01 }}</ref> which resulted in violence. The MST, landowners, and the government accused each other of the killings, maimings, and property damage.

In the notorious [[Eldorado de Carajás massacre]] in 1996, nineteen MST members were gunned down, and another 69 were wounded by police as they blocked a state road in [[Pará]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u551569.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Ocupações do MST lembram 13 anos do massacre de Eldorado dos Carajás (PA) - 17/04/2009 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2009-04-17 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016225724/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u551569.shtml |archive-date=2012-10-16 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1997 alone, similar confrontations with police and landowners' security details accounted for two dozen internationally acknowledged deaths.<ref>[[Robert M. Levine]], ''The History of Brazil''. New York: Palgrave- Macmillan, 2003, {{ISBN|1-4039-6255-3}}, page 164</ref>

In 2002, the MST occupied the family farm of then-president [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/brasil/mst/2002/0324mst_action.html |title=www.agp.org &#124; arquivos dos protestos globais: MST action in Brazilian president's farm &#124; 23/2/2002 |publisher=Nadir.org |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204054457/http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/brasil/mst/2002/0324mst_action.html |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> in [[Minas Gerais]], a move publicly condemned by [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva|Lula]], then-leader of the leftist opposition,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31238.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST deve seguir lei, diz Lula - 11/04/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041334/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31238.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> and other prominent members of the PT.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31194.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Entre petistas, maioria é contra ação de sem-terra - 10/04/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041346/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31194.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30653.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Ato do MST foi "irresponsável", diz Genoino - 27/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-27 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041357/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30653.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> The farm was damaged and looted in the occupation, and a [[combine harvester]], tractor, and several pieces of furniture were destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30607.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Administrador da fazenda de FHC avalia prejuízo em R$ 100 mil - 26/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-26 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041422/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30607.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> MST members also drank all the alcohol at the farm. Later, 16 MST leaders were charged with theft, vandalism, trespassing, kidnapping, and resisting arrest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30559.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Líderes do MST serão julgados por violação de domicílio e furto - 25/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-25 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041431/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30559.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2005, two undercover police officers investigating cargo truck robberies near an MST homestead<!-- check, this said "stead"--> in Pernambuco were attacked. One was shot dead, and the other tortured; MST was suspected to be involved.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67074.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Um policial é morto e outro é torturado em área do MST - 08/02/2005 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041325/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67074.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Throughout the early 2000s, the MST occupied functioning facilities owned by large corporations, whose activities it considered at odds with the social function of property. On March 8, 2005, the MST invaded a [[Nursery (horticulture)|nursery]] and a research center in [[Barra do Ribeiro]], 56&nbsp;km (34.8 mi) from [[Porto Alegre]], both owned by [[Aracruz Celulose]]. The MST members held local guards captive while they ripped plants from the ground. MST president João Pedro Stédile commented that MST should oppose not only landowners, but also agrobusinesses that partook in "the project of organization of agriculture by transnational capital allied to capitalist farming"—a model he deemed socially backwards and environmentally harmful.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.direitos.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3561&Itemid=2 |title=Direitos Humanos - Palestra de João Pedro Stédile no 5º Congresso do MST |publisher=Direitos.org.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301205034/http://www.direitos.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3561&Itemid=2 |archive-date=2012-03-01 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the words of an anonymous activist: "our struggle is not only to win the land&nbsp;... we are building a new way of life."<ref>Quoted by Jeff Noonan, ''Democratic society and human needs'', Mc Gill -Queen's University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7735-3120-3}}, page 244</ref> The shift had been developing since the movement's 2000 national congress, which focused mainly on the perceived threat of transnational corporations, whether Brazilian or foreign, to both small property in general, and to Brazilian national [[food sovereignty]],<ref>Nik Heynen,ed. ''Neoliberal environments: false promises and unnatural consequences'', Abingdon (UK), Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-415-77149-8}}, page 249</ref> especially in the area of [[intellectual property]].<ref>Ruth Reitan, ''Global activism''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-96605-8}}, page 155</ref> In July 2000, this principle was the impetus for MST to mobilize and lead farmers in an attack against a ship loaded with GM [[maize]] from [[Argentina]] that was docked in [[Recife]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scoones |first=Ian |date=2005 |title=Contentious politics, contentious knowledges: mobilising against GM crops in India, South Africa, and Brazil |url=https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/4053 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230421051044/https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/4053 |archive-date=21 April 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=[[Institute of Development Studies]] |page=12 |type=PDF}}</ref> Since 2000, much of the movement's activism consisted in symbolic acts in opposition of multinational corporations, as "a symbol of the intervention politics of the big monopolies operating in Brazil."<ref>Jagdish N. Bhagwati, ''In defense of globalization''. Oxford University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-19-533093-9}}, page 23 - quoting MST activist on [[International Women's Day]] 2001, protesting before a [[McDonald's]] restaurant in Porto Alegre.</ref>

A possible reason contributing to the change in strategy might have been the perceived shift in government stances in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Cardoso government declared that Brazil "had no need" for land reform, that small farms were not competitive, and were unlikely to increase personal [[income]]s in rural areas.<ref name=":0">William C. Smith, ed. ''Latin American democratic transformations: institutions, actors, and processes''. Malden, MA: Blackwell-Wiley, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9758-8}}, page 259</ref> He believed that it would be better to create skilled jobs, which would cause the land reform issue to recede into the background.<ref>A stance endorsed by former US ambassador to Brazil [[Lincoln Gordon]], known for his support for the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état: Lincoln Gordon, ''Brazil's second chance: en route toward the first world''. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8157-0032-6}}, page 129</ref> Cardoso denounced the MST's actions as aiming for a return to an archaic, agrarian past, and therefore, in conflict with "modernity"—"one of the enabling myths of the [[neoliberal]] discourse."<ref>Eugene Walker Gogol, ''The concept of Other in Latin American liberation: fusing emancipatory philosophic thought and social revolt''. Lanham, MA, Lexington Books, 2002, {{ISBN|0-7391-0330-X}}, page 318</ref>

Cardoso offered lip service to agrarian reform in general, but also described the movement as "a threat to democracy."<ref>Benjamin Keen, Keith Haynes: ''A History of Latin America: Independence to the Present''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-618-78321-2}}, Volume 2, page 526</ref> He compared the MST's demands for subsidized credit, which led to the 1998 occupation of various banks in [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], to bank robbery.<ref>''Veja'', 3 June 1998, reproduced in ''Veja'' digital archive text, "Os 25 anos do MST: invasões, badernas e desafios a lei" [25 years of the MST: invasions, disorder and contempt for the law], 23rd. January 2009, available at {{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/25-anos-mst-invasoes-badernas-desafio-lei?print=1 |title=Os 25 anos do MST: Invasões, badernas e desafio à lei - Brasil - Notícia - VEJA.com |access-date=2011-06-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014181249/http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/25-anos-mst-invasoes-badernas-desafio-lei?print=1 |archive-date=2012-10-14 }}</ref> In a memoir written after he left office, Cardoso expressed sympathy for land reform, stating, "were I not President, I would probably be out marching with them," but also countering, "the image of mobs taking over privately-owned farms would chase away investment, both local and foreign."<ref>Fernando Henrique Cardoso (with Brian Winter), ''The accidental President of Brazil: a memoir''.New York: Publicaffairs, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-58648-324-1}}, page 210</ref> Although Cardoso himself never branded the MST as terrorists, his Minister of Agricultural Development did, and even hypothesized that the MST invaded [[Argentina]] from the north in order to blackmail the Brazilian government into action.<ref>Jorge I. Domínguez, Anthony Jones, eds.: ''The Construction of Democracy: Lessons from Practice and Research''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8018-8595-2}}, page 157</ref> In July 1997, Senior General Alberto Cardoso,<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 November 1998 |title=Discurso na abertura do 12 Fórum Nacional Antidrogas |url=http://www.biblioteca.presidencia.gov.br/presidencia/ex-presidentes/fernando-henrique-cardoso/discursos/1o-mandato/1998-1o-semestre/27-de-novembro-de-1998-discurso-na-abertura-do-i-forum-nacional-antidrogas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230421060348/http://www.biblioteca.presidencia.gov.br/presidencia/ex-presidentes/fernando-henrique-cardoso/discursos/1o-mandato/1998-1o-semestre/27-de-novembro-de-1998-discurso-na-abertura-do-i-forum-nacional-antidrogas |archive-date=21 April 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=Biblioteca da Presidência da República |language=Portuguese |format=PDF}}</ref> Cardoso's Chief of Military Household (''Chefe da Casa Militar'', among other things, a general comptroller over all issues regarding the military and police forces as armed civil servants), expressed concern about participation of MST activists in the then-ongoing police officers' strikes, as a plot to "destabilize" the military.<ref>João R. Martins Filho & Daniel Zirker, "The Brazilian Armed Forces After the Cold War: Overcoming the Identity Crisis". LASA paper, 1998, available at [http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA98/MartinsFilho-Zirker.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426035313/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA98/MartinsFilho-Zirker.pdf|date=2012-04-26}}. Accessed December the 28th. 2011</ref>

In terms of concrete measures, Cardoso's government's approach to land reform was divided: while the administration simultaneously acquired land for settlement and increased taxes on unused land, it also forbade public inspection of invaded land—thereby precluding future expropriation, and the disbursement of public funds to people involved in such invasions.<ref>A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Saturnino M. Borras, Cristóbal Kay,eds., ''Land, poverty and livelihoods in an era of globalization: perspectives from developing and transition countries''.Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-96225-7}}, pages 87/88</ref> Cardoso's main land reform project, supported by a [[World Bank]] US$90 million loan, was addressed to ''individuals'' who had experience in farming, and a yearly income of up to US$15,000; they were granted a loan of up to US$40,000 if they could associate with other rural producers in order to buy land from a willing landholder.<ref>Becky Mansfield, ''Privatization: property and the remaking of nature-society relations''. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-7550-0}}, page 166</ref> Thus, this programme catered primarily to substantial small farmers, not to the MST's traditional constituency—the rural poor. Cardoso's project, ''Cédula da Terra'' ("landcard"), did offer previously landless people the opportunity to buy land from landowners, but in a negotiated process.<ref>Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize, Camille Bourguignon, Rogerius Johannes Eugenius van den Brink, eds.: ''Agricultural Land Redistribution: Toward Greater Consensus''. Washington D.C.: The World Bank Publications, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-8213-7962-2}}, pages 295/296</ref>

In the words of an American scholar, despite its efforts in resettlement, the Cardoso government did not confront the prevailing mode of agricultural production: concentrated, mechanized, latifundia-friendly commodity production—and the resulting injustices.<ref>Alfred P. Montero, ''Brazilian politics'', pages 88/89.</ref> In his own words, what Cardoso could not accept about the MST was what he saw not as a struggle for land reform, but a wider struggle against the capitalist system.<ref>Juan David Lindau, Timothy Cheek, ''Market economics and political change: comparing China and Mexico''. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998, {{ISBN|0-8476-8733-3}}, page 70</ref> Therefore, Cardoso's administration tried to initiate tamer social movements for land reform on purely negotiated terms, such as the Movement of Landless Producers (''Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra'', or MAST), organized on a local basis in the [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo State]], around the trade union central Syndical Social Democracy (SDS).<ref>Jurandyr Luciano Sanches Ross,ed. ''Geografia do Brasil'',São Paulo: EDUSP, 2005, {{ISBN|85-314-0242-5}}, page 534</ref>

By contrast, MST leaders emphasized that their practical activity was a response to the poverty of so many people who had little prospects of productive, continuous work in conventional labor markets. This reality was admitted by President Cardoso in a 1996 interview: "I'm not going to say that my government will be of the excluded, for that it cannot be&nbsp;... I don't know how many excluded there will be."<ref>Anthony Peter Spanakos & Cristina Bordin, eds. ''Reforming Brazil''. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7391-0587-6}}, page 103</ref> In 2002, João Pedro Stedile admitted that in plotting the movement's politics, one had to keep in mind "that there are a great many [[lumpenproletariat|lumpens]] in the country areas."<ref>Stedile, "Landless Battalions", interview to Francisco de Oliveira, IN Francis Mulhern, ed., ''Lives on the Left: a Group Portrait''. London: Verso, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-84467-798-6}}, preview available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=F1a9X9nr0oAC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216063640/https://books.google.com/books?id=F1a9X9nr0oAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|date=2016-12-16}}</ref> In Stedile's view, the existence of the large underclass should not be held against the working class character of the movement, because many rural working class had been "absorbed" into the periphery of the urban proletariat.<ref>Tom Mertes, Walden F. Bello, eds., ''A Movement of Movements: Is Another World Really Possible?''. London: 2004, Verso edns., {{ISBN|1-85984-504-5}}, pages 34/35</ref> Such a view is shared by some academic authors, who argue that, behind its avowedly "peasant" character, the MST, as far as class politics is concerned, is mostly a ''semi proletarian'' movement, consisting of congregations of people trying to eke out a living in the absence of formal wage employment, out of a range of activities across a whole section of the social divisions of labour.<ref>David Clark, ed., ''The Elgar Companion to Development Studies''. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-84376-475-5}}, page 332</ref>

MST somewhat filled the void left by the decline of the organized labor movement in the wake of Cardoso's neoliberal policies.<ref>William C. Smith,ed. ''Latin American democratic transformations: institutions, actors, and processes''. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9758-8}}, page 258</ref> Therefore, the movement took steps to ally with urban struggles, especially those connected to housing.<ref>Thomas Janoski, ed., ''A handbook of political sociology: states, civil societies, and globalization''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-52620-3}}, page 602</ref> João Pedro Stedile stated that the struggle for land reform would unfold in the countryside, but would be decided in the city, where "political power for structural change" resided.<ref>Douglas H. Boucher,ed. ''The paradox of change: hunger in a bountiful world''. Food First Books, 1999, {{ISBN|0-935028-71-4}}, page 325</ref>

=== 2005–2010 Lula government and March for Agrarian Reform ===

The Lula government was seen by the MST as a leftist and therefore friendly government, so MST decided to shun occupations of public buildings in favor of actions against private landed states{{clarify|date=July 2017}}, in a second wave of occupations starting in 2003.<ref>Cf. Bernardo Mançano, interview.</ref> However, the Lula government's increasingly conservative positions, including its low profile on land reform,<ref>out of a promised grand total of 430,000 resettled families, Lula had managed to actually settle a mere 60,000 in the first two years of his administration</ref><ref>Alfred P. Montero, ''Brazilian politics: reforming a democratic state in a changing world''. Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7456-3361-7}}, page 139</ref> (actually somewhat less than achieved by Cardoso in his first term<ref>Wendy Hunter, ''The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 ''. Cambridge University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-521-73300-7}}, page 153</ref>) impelled the movement to change its stance as early as early 2004, when it again began to occupy public buildings and [[Banco do Brasil]] agencies.

In June 2003, the MST occupied the [[R&D]] farm of the [[Monsanto|Monsanto Company]] in the state of [[Goiás]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2961284.stm |title=Americas &#124; Brazil activists target Monsanto |publisher=BBC News |date=2003-06-03 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901092846/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2961284.stm |archive-date=2011-09-01 |url-status=live }}</ref> On March 7, 2008, a similar action by women activists at another Monsanto facility in [[Santa Cruz das Palmeiras]], [[São Paulo]], destroyed a nursery and an experimental patch of [[genetically modified maize]], slowing ongoing scientific research. MST said they destroyed the facility to protest government support for the extensive use of GMOs supplied by transnational corporations in agriculture. In 2003, Lula authorized the sale and use of GM soybeans, which led MST's Stedile to call him a "[[Transgene|transgenic]] politician."<ref>Marie-Monique Robin, ''The World According to Monsanto'', New York, The New Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-59558-426-7}}, page 277.</ref> The dominance of transnationals over Brazilian seed production was summed by the fact that the Brazilian hybrid seed industry in the early 2000s was already 82% Monsanto-owned,<ref>Saturnino M. Borras, Marc Edelman, Cristóbal Kay, eds.''Transnational agrarian movements confronting globalization'',Malden MA, Blackwell, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9041-1}}, page 184</ref> which the MST saw as detrimental to the development of [[organic agriculture]] in spite of the economic benefits, and enabling possible future health hazards similar to intensive use of [[pesticides]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/node/944 |title=Via Campesina ocupa Monsanto e destrói experimentos em SP &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |publisher=MST |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902203950/http://www.mst.org.br/node/944 |archive-date=2012-09-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Stedile later called Monsanto one of the ten transnational companies that controlled virtually all international agrarian production and [[commodity]] trading.<ref>Erin C. Heil, ''Powerless resistance: a theoretical discussion of power, resistance and the Brazilian Landless Movement''. D, Phil. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2008, page 125. Available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ-YbK_nMd0C] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216061045/https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ-YbK_nMd0C&printsec=frontcover|date=2016-12-16}}</ref> Similarly, in 2006, the MST occupied a research station in [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]] owned by Swiss corporation [[Syngenta]], which had produced GMO contamination near the [[Iguaçu National Park]]. After a bitter confrontation over the existence of the station (which included easing of previous restrictions by the Lula government to allow Syngenta to continue GMO research), the premises were transferred to the Paraná state government, and converted into an agroecology research center.<ref>Michael Ekers, Gillian Hart, Stefan Kipfer, Alex Loftus, eds: ''Gramsci: Space, Nature, Politics''. Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-4443-3970-3}}, pages 154/155</ref>

After an exchange of barbs between Lula and Stedile over what Lula saw as an unnecessary radicalization of the movement's demands,<ref>Peter R. Kingstone, Timothy Joseph Power,eds. ''Democratic Brazil revisited''. University of Pittisburgh Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-8229-6004-4}}, page 47</ref> the MST decided to call a huge national demonstration. In May 2005, after a two-week, 200-odd kilometer march from the city of [[Goiânia]], nearly 13,000 landless workers arrived in their nation's capital, [[Brasília]]. The MST march targeted the U.S. embassy and Brazilian Finance Ministry, rather than President Lula. While thousands of landless carried banners and scythes through the streets, a delegation of 50 held a three-hour meeting with Lula, who donned an MST cap for the cameras. During this session, Lula recommitted to settling 430,000 families by the end of 2006, and to allocating the human and financial resources to accomplish this. He also committed to a range of related reforms, including an increase in the pool of land available for redistribution [Ramos, 2005]. Later, the Lula government would claim to have resettled 381,419 families between 2002 and 2006—a claim disputed by the MST.<ref>Jorge Almeida, ed., ''Brazil in focus: economic, political and social issues''. New York: Nova Science, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-60456-165-4}}, page 20</ref> The movement argued the numbers had been doctored by the inclusion of people already living in areas (national forests and other managed areas of environmental protection, as well as other already existing settlements) where their presence had only been legally acknowledged by the government.<ref>"Folha de S.Paulo Reports: Lula Government Inflates Agrarian Reform Numbers". February 19, 2007, MST site, available at [http://www.mstbrazil.org/news/021907-folha-de-sao-paulo-reports-lula-government-inflates-agrarian-reform-numbers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927151018/http://www.mstbrazil.org/news/021907-folha-de-sao-paulo-reports-lula-government-inflates-agrarian-reform-numbers|date=2011-09-27}}</ref> The MST also criticised Lula's administration to call mere land redistribution by means of handing out of small plots land as "reform," when it was simply a form of [[welfarism]] (''assistencialismo'') that was unable to change the productive system.<ref name=":0"/>

The march was held to demand, among other things, that President Lula implement his own limited agrarian reform plan, rather than spend the project's budget on servicing the national debt [Ramos, 2005]. Several MST leaders met with President [[Lula da Silva]] on May 18, 2005—a meeting that had been resisted by Lula since his taking of office.<ref>Kathryn Hochstetler, ''Civil society in Lula's Brazil''. Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford, Working Paper 57, page 10. Available at {{cite web |url=http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/9365/Kathryn20Hochstedler2057.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-08-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928233030/http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/9365/Kathryn20Hochstedler2057.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-28 }}</ref> The leaders presented Lula with 16 demands, including economic reform, greater public spending, and public housing. In interviews with [[Reuters]], many of the leaders said they still regarded Lula as an ally, but demanded that he accelerate his promised land reforms. However, in September of that year, João Pedro Stedile declared that, in terms of land reform, Lula's government was "finished."<ref>Richard Bourne, ''Lula of Brazil: the story so far ''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-520-24663-8}}, page 139</ref> By the end of Lula's first term, it was clear that the MST had decided to act again as a separate movement, irrespective of the government's agenda.<ref>Kurt Gerhard Weyland, Raúl L. Madrid, Wendy Hunter, eds: ''Leftist Governments in Latin America: Successes and Shortcomings''. Cambridge University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-521-13033-2}}, page 122</ref> As far as the MST was concerned, the greatest gain it received from the Lula government was the ''non-criminalization'' of the movement itself; the tough, anti-occupation measures taken by the Cardoso government were left in abeyance, and not enforced.<ref>Gabriel Ondetti, ''Land, Property and Politics'', page 207</ref> Attempts to officially define the MST as a "terrorist organization" were also opposed by Workers' Party congresspersons.<ref>Arinda Fernandes, "Crime Organizado e Terrorismo:Uma Relação Simbiótica Afetando {{not a typo|a}} Economia Global". ''Revista do Mestrado em Direito da UCB'', n.d.g., page 14. Available at {{cite web |url=http://portalrevistas.ucb.br/index.php/rvmd/article/view/2511/1529 |title=Fernandes |access-date=2011-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713172230/http://portalrevistas.ucb.br/index.php/rvmd/article/view/2511/1529 |archive-date=2012-07-13 }} . Accessed December 16, 2011</ref> Nevertheless, the Lula government never acted in tandem with the MST, according to a general pattern of keeping organized social movements outside the fostering of the government's agenda.<ref>Steven Levitsky, Kenneth M. Roberts, eds. ''The Resurgence of the Latin American Left''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0109-6}}, page 301</ref>

However, as stated by a German author, the Lula government year after year proposed a blueprint for land reform that was regularly blocked by regional agrarian elites.<ref>Christoph Blepp, ''Blockaden und Disparitäten?: Über das Entwicklungspotential und dessen Hindernisse in Brasilien''. GRIN Verlag, 2011, n;p.g., page 10</ref>

Lula's election to the presidency raised the possibility of active government support for land reform, so conservative media increased their efforts to brand the MST's actions as felonies.<ref>Noemí María Girbal-Blacha, Sonia Regina de Mendonça, eds., ''Cuestiones Agrarias en Argentina y Brasil'', Buenos Aires, Prometeo, 2007, {{ISBN|978-987-574-200-0}}, pages 146/147</ref> In May 2005, ''Veja'' accused the MST of helping the [[Primeiro Comando da Capital]] (PCC), the most powerful prison-gang criminal organization in [[State of São Paulo|São Paulo]]. A police [[Telephone tapping|phone tap]] recording of a conversation between PCC leaders mentioned the MST; one of them said he had "just talked with the leaders of the MST," who would "give instructions" to the gang <ref>{{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/110505/p_106.html |title=VEJA on-line |publisher=Veja.abril.com.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102175022/http://veja.abril.com.br/110505/p_106.html |archive-date=2013-11-02 |url-status=live }}</ref> about the best ways to stage what became the largest protest by prisoners' relatives in Brazilian history. On April 18, 2005, some 3,000 relatives protested prevailing conditions in São Paulo's correctional facilities.<ref>Police Brutality Observatory site [http://www.ovp-sp.org/protestos_sap.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220085724/http://ovp-sp.org/protestos_sap.htm|date=2009-12-20}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref> The MST "leaders" were not named. No MST activist, real or alleged, took part in the taped conversations. The MST denied any link in a formal written statement, calling the supposed evidence hearsay, and an attempt to criminalize the movement.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= Terra |date= 2006-05-16 |url= http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/guerraurbana/interna/0,,OI1007590-EI7061,00.html |title= MST descarta ligação com PCC |access-date= 2006-05-22 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606012740/http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/guerraurbana/interna/0,,OI1007590-EI7061,00.html |archive-date= 2011-06-06 |url-status= live }}</ref> In the wake of [[9-11|9/11]], Brazilian media tended to describe the MST as "terrorists," lumping it together loosely with various historical and mediatic happenings<ref>Fhoutine Marie Reis Souto, "Mídia e terror: a pesquisa sobre cobertura jornalística do terrorismo no Brasil", page 6. Brazilian Political Science Association (ABCP) paper, available at {{cite web |url=http://cienciapolitica.servicos.ws/abcp2010/arquivos/12_7_2010_16_12_50.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426053812/http://cienciapolitica.servicos.ws/abcp2010/arquivos/12_7_2010_16_12_50.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-26 }}. Accessed December 16, 2011.</ref> in keeping with an international post-9/11 trends of relegating any political movement against existing globalization to beyond the pale, and outside the boundaries of permissible political discourse.<ref>Stanley Aronowitz, Heather Gautney, eds., ''Implicating Empire: Globalization and Resistance in the 21st Century World Order''. New York: Basic Books, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-465-00494-2}}, page 282</ref>

The MST assumes its activities are continuously surveilled by military intelligence.<ref>Alvarado, Arturo, "The Militarization of Internal Security and Its Consequences for Democracy: A Comparison Between Brazil, Mexico and Colombia". APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper. Available at [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1642562] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121035716/https://ssrn.com/abstract=1642562|date=2014-01-21}}</ref> Various intelligence organs, Brazilian and foreign, assume a relationship between the MST and various terrorist groups.<ref>John B. Alexander, "Intelligence Scotomas in Central and South America", ''The Proteus Monograph Series'', Vol. 1, issue 4, March 2008.</ref> The MST is regarded as a source of "civil unrest."<ref>Karl R. DeRouen, Uk Heo: ''Defense and security: a compendium of national armed forces and security policies''. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Calif., Volume I, page. 75; Gary Prevost,ed. ''Neoliberalism and Neopanamericanism: the view from Latin America'', New York: Palgrave, 2002, {{ISBN|0-312-29456-5}}, page 116</ref>

In late 2005, a parliamentary inquiry commission, where landowner-friendly congressmen held a majority, classified the MST's activities as terrorism, and the MST itself as a criminal organization. However, its report met no support from the PT members of the commission, and a senator ripped it up before TV cameras, saying that those who voted for it were "accomplices of murder, people who use slave labor, [and] who embezzle land illegally."<ref>Relatório de CPI chama invasão de terra de "ato terrorista". ''Folha de S. Paulo'', 29 November 2005. Available at [http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/reuters/2005/11/29/ult27u52567.jhtm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406082249/http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/reuters/2005/11/29/ult27u52567.jhtm|date=2012-04-06}}</ref> Nevertheless, based on this report, a bill presented to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 by Congressman Abelardo Lupion ([[Democrats (Brazil)|Democrats]]- Paraná), proposed making "invading others' property with the end of pressuring the government" a terrorist action, and therefore, a heinous crime. A "heinous" crime in Brazilian law is a felony, designated as such in a 1990 Brazilian law, and those accused of committing them are ineligible for [[Bail|pretrial release]].<ref>Robert Gay, ''Lucia:testimonies of a Brazilian drug dealer's woman''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|1-59213-339-8}}, page 191</ref><ref>Rafael Litvin Villas Bôas, "Terrorismo à brasileira: a retórica da vez da classe dominante contra o MST". ''Revista NERA'', Ano 11, nº. 13, July-Dec./2008. Available at [http://www2.fct.unesp.br/nera/revistas/13/15_villas_boas_13.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425031953/http://www2.fct.unesp.br/nera/revistas/13/15_villas_boas_13.pdf|date=2012-04-25}} Retrieved December 11, 2011</ref>

In April 2006, the MST took over the farm of [[Suzano Papel e Celulose]], a large maker of paper products, in the state of [[Bahia]], because it had more than six square kilometres devoted to [[eucalyptus]] growth.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u77917.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Pedido do Incra faz PM suspender reintegração de posse na Suzano - 27/04/2006 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2006-04-27 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000507/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u77917.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> Eucalyptus, a non-native plant, has been blamed for environmental degradation in northeastern Brazil,<ref>[http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/6236/53/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125211634/http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/6236/53/|date=November 25, 2006}}</ref> as well as reducing the availability of land for small agricultural production, called by some as "cornering" producers (''encurralados pelo eucalipto'').<ref>Lateinamerika-Dokumentationsstelle Kassel, ''Tradionelle Völker und Gemeinschaft in Brasilien'', Kassel, 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-86219-150-5}}, page 114</ref>  In 2011, ''Veja'' described such activities as plain theft of eucalyptus wood, quoting an estimate from the state's military police that 3,000 people earned a living in Southern Bahia from theft of wood.<ref>''Veja'', issue 2,216, 11 May 2011</ref>

In 2008, a group of public attorneys from [[Rio Grande do Sul]] who were working with the state's military police issued a report, charging the MST with collusion with international terrorist groups. The report was used in state courts, according to [[Amnesty International]], to justify eviction orders carried out by the police with "excessive use of force."<ref>Amnesty International, ''Informe 2009 Amnistía International'' (in Spanish), Madrid:2009, {{ISBN|978-84-96462-23-6}}, pages 124–125</ref> The group of attorneys made public a previously classified report by the Council of Public Attorneys of Rio Grande do Sul, and asked the state to ban the MST by declaring it an illegal organization.

The report declared further investigation pointless, "as it was public knowledge that the movement and its leadership were guilty of engaging in organized criminality." The report also proposed that where MST activists could "cause electoral disequilibrium," the activists' right to vote be withdrawn by striking them from the voter registry.<ref>Pedrinho A. Guareschi, Alinne Hernandez, Manuel Cardenas, orgs. : ''Representaçoes Sociais em Movimento''. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 2010, {{ISBN|978-85-7430-989-7}}, page 33</ref> Declarations issued at the same time by the State Association of Military Policy Commissioned Officers, in an open [[Red Scare]] vein, declared the MST "an organized movement, striving at instituting a totalitarian state in our country."<ref>Mario Guerreiro, "Ele estava certo e todos estavam errados". Federal University of Santa Catarina paper, n.d.g., available at [http://www.egov.ufsc.br/portal/sites/default/files/anexos/30635-32482-1-PB.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407020533/http://www.egov.ufsc.br/portal/sites/default/files/anexos/30635-32482-1-PB.pdf|date=2012-04-07}}. Accessed December 27, 2011</ref>

Between September 27 and October 7, 2009, the MST occupied an orange plantation in [[Borebi]], State of São Paulo, owned by orange juice multinational [[Cutrale]]. The corporation claimed to have lost R$1.2 million (roughly US$603,000) in damaged equipment, missing pesticide, destroyed crops, and trees cut by MST activists.<ref>"Cutrale afirma que MST causou R$1,2 milhão de prejuízo em sua fazenda de laranja". Agencia Brasil newssite, October 14, 2009, [http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2009-10-14/cutrale-afirma-que-mst-causou-r12-milhao-de-prejuizo-em-sua-fazenda-de-laranja] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019230740/http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2009-10-14/cutrale-afirma-que-mst-causou-r12-milhao-de-prejuizo-em-sua-fazenda-de-laranja|date=2014-10-19}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref> In response, the MST declared the farm to be government property that was illegally embezzled by Cutrale, and that the occupation was intended to protest this, while the destruction was done by provocateurs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vermelho.org.br/noticia.php?id_secao=8&id_noticia=120383 |title=Carta Capital: Os vencdos não se entregam - Portal Vermelho |publisher=Vermelho.org.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614132100/http://www.vermelho.org.br/noticia.php?id_secao=8&id_noticia=120383 |archive-date=2012-06-14 |url-status=live }}</ref> Such questioning of the legality of existing private property by denouncing landowners as holding land in [[adverse possession]] was one of the movement's main political tools.<ref>Boaventura de Sousa Santos, César A. Rodríguez Garavito, eds.: ''Land and Globalization from Below: towards a cosmopolitan legality''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-60735-3}}, page 226</ref> The Cutrale plantation, Fazenda S. Henrique, was occupied by the MST four more times until 2013, and the multinational's property rights over it are being contested in court by the Federal Government, who alleges that the farm lands were set aside as part of a 1910 settlement projects for foreign immigrants, rights over it going afterward astray during the following century.<ref>"MST volta a ocupar fazenda da Cutrale no interior paulista". Agencia Brasil newssite, July 31, 2013, [http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2013-07-31/mst-volta-ocupar-fazenda-da-cutrale-no-interior-paulista] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019230753/http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2013-07-31/mst-volta-ocupar-fazenda-da-cutrale-no-interior-paulista|date=2014-10-19}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref>

During the same period, the MST also repeatedly blocked highways<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u78096.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST pára estrada na Bahia e acampa em Goiânia para exigir reforma agrária - 02/05/2006 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000702/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u78096.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u69159.shtml|title=Folha Online - Brasil - Sem-terra bloqueiam quatro rodovias em Mato Grosso - 23/05/2005|website=www1.folha.uol.com.br|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215224603/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u69159.shtml|archive-date=15 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67747.shtml|title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST interdita rodovia em Pernambuco - 10/03/2005|website=www1.folha.uol.com.br|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215222756/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67747.shtml|archive-date=15 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u59971.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST interdita rodovia e inicia duas marchas no PA - 12/04/2004 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000759/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u59971.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> and railroads,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u61599.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Depois de parar ferrovia, MST volta a invadir no entorno de BH - 11/06/2004 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000821/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u61599.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> to create calls for public attention to the plight of landless workers.<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, and Bernardo Mueller, "Interest Groups, Information Manipulation in the Media, and Public Policy: The Case of the Landless Peasants Movement in Brazil". NBER Working Paper No. 15865, April 2010, page 12. Available at [http://www.nber.org/papers/w15865.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915163411/http://www.nber.org/papers/w15865.pdf|date=2015-09-15}}. Accessed December 16, 2010.</ref>

===2010–present===
The MST wholeheartedly declared support for [[Dilma Rousseff]]'s candidacy, and once elected, she offered the movement very qualified support. In a national broadcast in November 2010, she declared land reform a question "of human rights," that is, a purely humanitarian one.<ref>Genny Petschulat, "Grass-Roots Struggle in the 'Culture of Silence': Collective Dialogue and the Brazilian Landless Movement". University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects, 2010, pages 47/48, available at [http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1351] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430192819/http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1351/|date=2012-04-30}}. Retrieved November the 19th. 2011</ref> As Lula's chief of staff, she supported economic growth over ecological and land reform concerns.<ref>Gustavo de L. T. Oliveira, "Land Regularization in Brazil and the Global Land Grab: A Statemaking Framework for Analysis". International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, 6–8 April 2011, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, p. 12.</ref> In a radio interview during the campaign, she repeated the old conservative trope that economic growth could make Brazilian land issues recede: "What we are doing is doing away with the real basis for the instabilities of the landless. They are losing reasons to fight."<ref>Benjamin Dangl, "Why land reform makes sense for Dilma Rousseff". ''The Guardian'', 27th January 2011, available at [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/27/brazil-farming] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203131718/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/27/brazil-farming|date=2016-12-03}}</ref> Thus, one author described the MST's endorsement of Rousseff as a choice of the "lesser evil."<ref>Eduardo Silva, ed., '' Transnational Activism and National Movements in Latin America: Bridging the Divide''. New York: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-83237-3}} , page 74</ref>

State agencies and private individuals continued to violently oppose the movement's activities. On 16 February 2012, eighty families were evicted from an occupation in [[Alagoas]] of a farm rented to a [[sugar cane mill|sugar mill]] awash in unpaid debts.<ref>"Polícia realiza despejo em acampamento do MST no estado de Alagoas". MST site, {{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/Policia-realiza-despejo-em-acampamento-do-MST |title=Polícia realiza despejo em acampamento do MST no estado de Alagoas &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2012-02-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303023154/http://www.mst.org.br/Policia-realiza-despejo-em-acampamento-do-MST |archive-date=2012-03-03 }}. Retrieved February the 22nd. 2012</ref> According to MST activist Janaina Stronzake, MST assumes that landowners have a hit list of MST leaders. Many have in fact been killed, although some murders were doctored to make them look like accidents.<ref>Mª Ángeles Fernández,J. Marcos, eds., ''Diez encuentros incómodos con América del Sur: Diez entrevistas a diez voces críticas del continente''. Hornillo de Cartuja (Granada, Spain): Crac, 2013, page 30 (e-book)</ref> In April 2014, a [[Global Witness]] report called Brazil "the most dangerous place to defend rights to land and the environment," with at least 448 people killed between 2002 and 2013 in disputes over environmental rights and access to land.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalwitness.org/library/sharp-rise-environmental-and-land-killings-pressure-planet%E2%80%99s-resources-increases-%E2%80%93-report |title=Sharp rise in environmental and land killings as pressure on planet's resources increases – report |access-date=2014-04-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420112350/http://www.globalwitness.org/library/sharp-rise-environmental-and-land-killings-pressure-planet%E2%80%99s-resources-increases-%E2%80%93-report |archive-date=2014-04-20 }}</ref> A report for the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission, ''Land Conflicts in Brazil 2013'', estimated that land struggles were involved in 34 murders in Brazil in 2013, and 36 in 2012.[http://www.cptnacional.org.br/index.php/publicacoes-2/noticias-2/12-conflitos/2032-cpt-lancara-o-relatorio-conflitos-no-campo-brasil-2013]

On April 16, 2012, a group of MST activists occupied the headquarters of the [[Ministry of Agrarian Development (Brazil)|Ministry of Agrarian Development]] in Brasília, as part of the movement's regular "Red April" campaign, a yearly nationwide occupation initiative in honor of the April 1996 [[Eldorado dos Carajás massacre]].<ref>"MST invade prédio do Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário". Folha.com newssite, April the 16th. 2012, available at [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076642-mst-invade-predio-do-ministerio-do-desenvolvimento-agrario.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232652/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076642-mst-invade-predio-do-ministerio-do-desenvolvimento-agrario.shtml|date=2013-12-30}}</ref> Minister [[Pepe Vargas]] declared ongoing talks between the government and the MST suspended for the duration of the occupation.<ref>"Governo suspende negociações após MST invadir ministério". Folha.com newssite, April the 16th. 2012, available at [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076696-governo-suspende-negociacoes-apos-mst-invadir-ministerio.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231000702/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076696-governo-suspende-negociacoes-apos-mst-invadir-ministerio.shtml|date=2013-12-31}}</ref>

Land activists were dissatisfied with the slowing pace of official land reform projects under the Rousseff government. Fewer families were officially settled in 2011 than in the previous 16 years. Government reaction to the occupation sparked widespread accusations from the PT base that Rousseff had sold out.<ref>"Dilma fights accusations of selling out, risks losing party support". ''Global Post'', April 6, 2012, available at [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/dilma-fights-accusations-selling-out-risks-losing-party-support] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414232007/http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/dilma-fights-accusations-selling-out-risks-losing-party-support|date=2012-04-14}}</ref> In a 2012 interview, Stedile admitted that the movement had not benefited from the policies of the PT administrations, since the coalition governments of the PT could not act politically on behalf of land reform.<ref>Interview, ''Jornal dos Economistas'', no.278, November 2012, pages 6/7</ref>

Both political pundits and activists thought Rousseff's first term was a lean period for land reform, and mainstream media called the MST "tamed" by the two consecutive PT administrations, and drained of mass support by steady economic growth and expanding employment—denying the movement its chief ''raison d'être''. In 2013, MST attempted only 110 occupations.<ref>"Em 2013, MST registra o menor número de invasões durante governos do PT". ''O Globo'' , January 1, 2014, [http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/em-2013-mst-registra-menor-numero-de-invasoes-durante-governos-do-pt-11192302] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106031656/http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/em-2013-mst-registra-menor-numero-de-invasoes-durante-governos-do-pt-11192302|date=2014-01-06}} Retrieved January 5, 2014</ref> The same year saw another low, with only 159 families resettled. MST National Coordinator João Paulo Rodrigues said that the federal government's reliance on [[agribusiness]] exports for procuring [[hard currency]] was the main reason the Rousseff administration did not advance land reform, and even went backwards in some cases.<ref>''Século Diário'', December 28, 2013, [http://seculodiario.com.br/14632/10/mst-2013-fica-marcado-como-o-pior-ano-da-reforma-agraria-no-pais-1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226204130/http://seculodiario.com.br/14632/10/mst-2013-fica-marcado-como-o-pior-ano-da-reforma-agraria-no-pais-1|date=2013-12-26}}. Retrieved December 29, 2013</ref> The only recent advances in land reform policies had come in programs, such as the National Program for School Meals (PNAE) and Food Catering Plan (PAA), which purchased food from land reform farmers for use at public schools and other government facilities. However, Rodrigues disputed that such programs were "entirely disproportionate to what [was] being offered [in terms of public money, subsidized credits, etc.] to agribusiness." He concluded that the only chance for land reform in Brazil would be a kind of [[joint venture]] between small producers and urban working class consumers, as simple [[land redistribution]] would be fated to fail, as it had in [[Venezuela]], "where [[Hugo Chávez]] stockedpiled seven million [[hectares]] of nationalized land property which remained unused for want of proper peasants."<ref>" 'Agora estão tentando privatizar inclusive o ar', diz João Pedro Stédile" - IG newssite, December 11, 2013, [http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/politica/2013-12-11/agora-estao-tentando-privatizar-inclusive-o-ar-diz-joao-pedro-stedile.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054037/http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/politica/2013-12-11/agora-estao-tentando-privatizar-inclusive-o-ar-diz-joao-pedro-stedile.html|date=2013-12-14}}. Retrieved December 30, 2013</ref>

The PT government's base generally felt that the vested interest of agribusiness in setting development policies during the Lula and Rousseff administrations hampered aggressive policies of expropriation and land reform.<ref>Armando Boito Jr. & Tatiana Berringer, "BRASIL: CLASSES SOCIAIS, NEODESENVOLVIMENTISMO E POLÍTICA EXTERNA NOS GOVERNOS LULA E DILMA".REVISTA DE SOCIOLOGIA E POLÍTICA V. 21, Nº 47: 31-38 SET. 2013. Available at [http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs/index.php/rsp/article/viewFile/34470/21378] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111623/http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs/index.php/rsp/article/viewFile/34470/21378|date=2015-04-27}}. Retrieved April 19, 2015</ref>

In November 2014, amid the radicalization surrounding Rousseff's reelection, an unannounced visit to Brazil by Venezuelan Minister for Communities and Social Movements [[Elias Jaua]] led to an information exchange agreement in agro-ecology between the MST and the Venezuelan government. The visit and agreement created tension among the conservatives in the Brazilian Congress; Senator and landowner [[Ronaldo Caiado]] described it as "an arrangement between a high-placed representative of a foreign government and an unlawful entity, aimed at building a socialist society," and argued for a clearly more conservative stance on land reform, and therefore, less maneuvering room for the MST.<ref>George Meszaros, ''Social Movements, Law and the Politics of Land Reform: Lessons from Brazil''. London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-47771-0}} , page 20</ref> The movement described Caiado's reaction as evidence that "conservative sectors are hostile to any form of grassroots participation [in the political process]."<ref>"MST defende acordo de cooperação assinado com ministro venezuelano". Agencia Brasil, ''Carta Capital'', 10 November 2014, available at [http://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/mst-defende-acordo-de-cooperacao-assinado-com-ministro-venezuelano-9820.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113165759/http://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/mst-defende-acordo-de-cooperacao-assinado-com-ministro-venezuelano-9820.html|date=2014-11-13}}. Retrieved November 13, 2014</ref>

In an even clearer sign of limited room, Rousseff chose [[Kátia Abreu]], the notorious female landowner, to be a member of her second-term cabinet.<ref>"Lil' Miss Deforestation", who had clashed in public with the MST over the issue of [[forced labour|slavelabour]]</ref><ref>Bret Wallach, ''A World Made for Money: Economy, Geography, and the Way We Live Today''.University Of Nebrasca Press:2015, {{ISBN|978-0-8032-9891-0}} , page 218; Francesco Giappichini, ''Brasile terzo millennio''. Lulu Author: 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-4709-2543-7}} , page 216</ref>  However, some have suggested that the ongoing tension between the MST and the PT, far from signaling an impending end, on the contrary, suggested a ''reconfiguration'' of the MST, from a single-issue movement to one with a wider focus on political and social emancipation.<ref>Jan Nederveen Pieterse,Adalberto Cardoso, eds., ''Brazil Emerging: Inequality and Emancipation''. London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-415-83704-0}} , Chapter 6</ref> Since the 1990s, such a tendency has been expressed in the integration of MST with various other grassroots organizations in a network sponsored by progressive Catholics, the CMP (''Central de Movimentos Populares'', or Union of Popular Movements),<ref>Lúcio Flávio de Almeida & Félix Ruiz Sánchez. "Um grão menos amargo das ironias da história: o MST e as lutas sociais contra o neoliberalismo." Lutas Sociais-Desde 1996 - {{ISSN|1415-854X}} (1998): 77-91.</ref> through which the MST developed its collaboration with its urban "sister" organization, the MTST.<ref>Jeffery R. Webber,Barry Carr, eds. ''The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire''.Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,2013, {{ISBN|978-0-7425-5757-4}} , pages 101/102</ref>

==Land ownership==
Consolidation of land ownership continued unabated. In 2006, according to the property census, the [[Gini index]] of land concentration stood at 0.854, while at the beginning of military regime in 1967, it was at 0.836. In other words, concentration of land ownership into just a few hands actually increased.<ref>''Carta Capital'', issue 657, July 29, 2011</ref> As of 2009, Brazilian economic policy, especially in [[international trade|foreign exchange]], relied upon [[trade surplus]]es generated by the agricultural [[export]]s, so "the correlation of forces moves against [[agrarian reform]]."<ref>A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Saturnino M. Borras, Cristóbal Kay, ''Land, poverty and livelihoods in an era of globalization'', p. 111</ref> The resumption of sustained general economic growth in the Lula years might have greatly diminished social demand for land reform, especially among the informally and/or under-employed urban workers, who formed most of the movements' later membership.<ref>Wendy Muse Sinek, ''Coalitional Choices and Strategic Challenges: the Landless Movement in Brazil 1975–2000''. Center for Latin American Studies working paper, University of California-Berkeley, September 2007, Paper no. 19. Available at [http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7q5402w4#page-1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121170017/http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7q5402w4#page-1|date=2015-01-21}}. Accessed December the 28th. 2011. Pp. 29 sqq.</ref><ref>Haro Brookfield, H. C. Brookfield, Helen Parsons: ''Family Farms: survival and prospect'', p. 169</ref> In a 2012 interview, a member of the MST national caucus, Joaquim Pinheiro, declared that the recent increase in welfare spending and employment levels had had a "sobering" influence on Brazilian agrarian activism, but he declared himself in favor of government spending on social programs, adding that the MST feared, however, that people would become "hostages" to such programs.<ref>''O Globo'', January the 30th. 2012</ref> But as of 2006, according to the MST, 150,000 families lived in its encampments, compared to 12,805 families in 1990.<ref>Armando Boito, Andréia Galvão e Paula Marcelino: "Brasil: o movimento sindical e popular na década de 2000". CLACSO paper, n.d.g., available at [http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/osal/osal26/05boito.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425231809/http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/osal/osal26/05boito.pdf|date=2012-04-25}}, page 50. Accessed December the 29th. 2011</ref>

==Organizational structure==
The MST is organized entirely, from the grassroots level up to the state and national coordinating bodies, into collective units that make decisions through discussion, reflection, and consensus. This non-hierarchical pattern of organization, reflecting liberation theology and [[Paulo Freire|Freirean pedagogy]], also avoids distinct leadership that can be bought off or assassinated.<ref name="Democracy">{{cite book |title= Democracy, States, and the Struggle for Global Justice|last= Gautney|first= Heather|author2=Omar Dahbour |author3=Ashley Dawson |author4=Neil Smith  |year= 2009|publisher= Routledge Cavendish|location= New York, New York|isbn= 978-0-415-98983-1|pages= 244–245}}</ref> The basic organizational unit, 10 to 15 families living in an MST encampment settlement,<ref>"encampment" is for a non-legally recognized occupation, "settlement" for one already recognized</ref><ref>Herbert Girardet, ed.''Surviving the century: facing climate chaos and other global challenges''. London: Earthscan, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-84407-458-7}}, page 186</ref> is known as a ''nucleo de base''. A ''nucleo de base'' addresses the issues faced by member families, and members elect two representatives, one woman and one man, to represent them at settlement/encampment meetings. These representatives attend regional meetings, and elect regional representatives, who then elect the members of the state coordinating body of the MST, a total of 400 members of state bodies—around 20 per state—and 60 members of the national coordinating body, around 2 per state. Every MST family participates in a ''nucleo de base'', roughly 475,000 families, or 1.5 million people. João Pedro Stédile, economist and author of texts on land reform in Brazil, is a member of the MST's national coordinating body.

The MST is not a political party, and has no formal leadership, other than a dispersed group of some 15 leaders, whose public appearances are scarce. This secrecy minimizes the risk of arrest,<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, Bernardo Mueller, ''Titles, conflict, and land use: the development of property rights and land reform on the Brazilian Amazon frontier ''. The University of Michigan Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-472-11006-3}}, page 63</ref> and also preserves a grassroots, decentralized organizational model. This is regarded as an important strategy by the MST, in that it allows the movement to maintain an ongoing and direct flow of communication between member-families and their representatives. Coordinators are aware of the realities faced by member-families, and are encouraged to discuss important issues with said families. This organizational blueprint seeks, in a way, to empower people politically by having them acting "in the way they see fit, true to local context."<ref>Anil Hira, Trevor W. Parfitt, ''Development projects for a new millennium''. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004, {{ISBN|0-275-97502-9}}, page 25</ref> To assist with communication between Coordinators and member-families, and as an attempt to democratize the media, the MST produces the ''Jornal Sem Terra'' and the ''MST Informa''.

The structure and goals of the MST has led some authors to consider it a large [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]], [[Anarchism|anarchist]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Anarchy Works|last=Gelderloos|first=Peter|year=2010}}</ref> or [[Autonomist Marxism|autonomist Marxist]] organization.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Zibechi |first=Raúl |title=Genealogía de la revuelta: Argentina, la sociedad en movimiento |date=2003 |publisher=Letra Libre |isbn=978-987-20834-1-0 |edition=1. ed. en Argentina |location=La Plata}}</ref>

==Ideology==
The MST is an ideologically eclectic rural movement of hundreds of thousands of landless peasants (and some who live in small cities), striving for land reform in Brazil. Since its inception, the MST has been inspired by [[liberation theology]], [[Marxism]], the [[Cuban Revolution]], and other [[leftist]] ideologies. The flexible mix of discourse that includes "marxist concepts, popular religion, communal practices, citizenship principles, and radical democracy" has increased the movement's popular appeal.<ref>Magda Zanoni, Hugues Lamarche,eds. ''Agriculture et ruralité au Brésil: un autre modèle de développement''. Paris: Karthala,2001, {{ISBN|2-84586-173-7}}, page 114</ref> The radical democratic and anti-hierarchical structure and goals of the MST have led some authors to consider it a large [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]], [[Anarchism|anarchist]],<ref name=":2" /> or [[Autonomist Marxism|autonomist Marxist]] organization.<ref name=":3" />

The landless say they have found institutional support in the Catholic Church's teachings of [[social justice]] and equality, as embodied in the activities of Catholic Base Committees (''Comissões Eclesiais de Base'', or CEBs), which generally advocate [[liberation theology]] and anti-hierarchical social relations. This theology, a radicalized re-reading of the existing social doctrine of the Church, became the basis of the MST's ideology and organizational structure.<ref name="Democracy"/> But during the 1980s, the loss of influence of progressives in the later Catholic Church reduced the closeness of the relationship between the MST and the Church.<ref>{{cite book|last=Burdick|first=John|year=2004|title=Legacies of liberation: the progressive Catholic Church in Brazil at the start of a new millennium|url=https://archive.org/details/legaciesoflibera0000burd/|publisher=[[University of Virginia Press]]|isbn=978-0-7546-1550-7|page=101}}</ref>

MST's anti-hierarchical stance stems from the influence of [[Paulo Freire]]. After working with poor communities in the rural Brazilian state of [[Pernambuco]], Freire observed that aspects of traditional classrooms, such as teachers with more power than students, hindered the potential for success of adults in adult literacy programs. He determined that the students' individual abilities to learn and absorb information were severely impeded by their passive role in the classroom. His teachings encouraged activists to break their passive dependence on oppressive social conditions, and become engaged in active modes of behaving and living. In the mid-1980s, the MST created a new infrastructure for the movement, directly guided by liberation theology and Freirian pedagogy. They did not elect leaders, so as to not create hierarchies, and to prevent corrupt leadership from developing.<ref name="Democracy" />

The MST has widened the scope of their movement. They have invaded the headquarters of public and multinational institutions, and begun to resist the appearance of fields of [[genetically modified crops]], carrying out marches, [[hunger strike]]s, and other political actions. The MST cooperates with a number of urban and rural worker movements in other areas of Brazil{{where|date=July 2017}}. The MST also remains in touch with broader international organizations and movements that support and embrace the same cause.<ref>Richard Feinberg,Carlos H. Waisman,Leon Zamosc, eds., ''Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, {{ISBN|1-4039-7228-1}} , pages 156/157</ref> The MST includes not only landless workers ''[[stricto sensu]]'', or rural workers recently evicted from the land, but also the urban jobless and homeless people who want to make a living by working on the land; thus, its affinity with housing reform and other urban movements.<ref>Magda Zanoni & Hugues Lamarche, eds. ''Agriculture et ruralité au Brésil'', page 165</ref> The squatters' movement MTST (''Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem teto'' - [[Homeless Workers' Movement]]) is commonly seen as an offshoot of the MST.<ref>Ben Selwyn, ''The Global Development Crisis''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7456-6014-1}} , page 198</ref>

=== Liberation Theology and ''Mística'' ===
As mentioned above, the MST draws ideological inspiration from many conceptual frameworks, both religious and political, with one aspect of this inspiration being the practice of ''mística.'' Mística refers to performance or dance conducted in ceremony-like conditions, often with nonverbal components, and carried out with the intention of affirming confidence in desired goals or action.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Mistica, meaning and popular education in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement {{!}} Popular Education South Africa |url=https://www.populareducation.org.za/content/mistica-meaning-and-popular-education-brazilian-landless-workers-movement |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=www.populareducation.org.za}}</ref> With this in mind, mística can be considered a form of [[mysticism]] that exists within a distinctly Latin American context.<ref name=":02" /> With regards to the MST, this form of mística underwent a series of changes prior to becoming fully adopted by the organisation as part of its methods and practices. [[Christian mysticism]] is often an individual experience, rather than collective and communal, and consequently, the form of mística practiced by the MST differs chiefly in this regard. It is a communal experience (often linked keenly with the emergence of [[Basic ecclesial community|CEBs]]) that often sees participation from the assembled group, rather than an individual, and this change was brought about by the influence of liberation theology on the MST in the late sixties.<ref name=":02" />

Additionally, as historian Daniela Issa notes, mística is a process by which communities associated with the MST can narrate their own history by reviving a collective memory of the oppressed, often in contexts where censorship and state violence are commonplace.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Issa |first=Daniela |date=2007 |title=Praxis of Empowerment: Mística and Mobilization in Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27648014 |journal=Latin American Perspectives |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=124–138 |doi=10.1177/0094582X06298745 |jstor=27648014 |s2cid=143217568 |issn=0094-582X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The form of mística associated with the MST also draws on a variety of cultures and origins, with roots in Catholic ritualism, as well as [[Afro-Brazilians|Afro-Brazilian]] religious practices that had first been introduced after the migration of slavery into Brazil in the 16th century. Not only this, but some contemporary historians have also identified aspects of the MST mística as having originated from Indigenous practices and belief systems.<ref name=":1" /> One example of recent demonstrations of mística within the MST is found in the practices of the ceremony at the ten year anniversary of the [[Eldorado do Carajás massacre]]. Members engaging in mística carried effigies of the bodies, while singing and chanting, as they converged on a location that symbolised the site of the event.<ref name=":1" />

The MST highly value education, and the organisation is committed to the teachings of Freirian pedagogy, which espouses the process of [[Conscientization|conscientisation]]. This commitment to community education forms another aspect of the group's mixture of influences. Popular education and liberation theology are closely linked with the practice of mística within the MST, as CEB's, and the sense of community generated by popular education often form the site of mística—with many members having overlapping interests and participation in each aspect.<ref name=":02" /> Such settlements and communities produced by the encampments of the MST actively encourage and sponsor the practice of mística within CEB's present, as a method of reaffirming commitment and dedication to the goals of the group, these goals often being exclusively linked to the political ambitions and campaigns at the time of practice.<ref name=":02" />

=== Ideological foundations of MST's later activism===

The supposed opposition to capitalist modernity on the part of the movement<ref>Jagdish N. Bhagwati,''In defense of globalization'', 24, which equates MST activism with the late mediaeval and early modern anti-[[usury]] laws</ref> has led authors to ascertain that the MST activities express, in a way, the ''decline'' of a traditional peasantry, and its desire of ''restoring'' traditional communal rights.<ref>Anthony W. Pereira, ''The end of the peasantry: the rural labor movement in northeast Brazil''. University of Pittisburgh Press: 1997, {{ISBN|0-8229-3964-9}},page 165</ref> This is what differentiates between the MST and a movement for the ''preservation'' of communal rights, such as the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]].<ref>Henry Veltmeyer, Tom Brass: ''Latin American peasants''. London, Frank Cass, 2003, {{ISBN|0-203-50566-2}}, page 312</ref>

However, there are others who assert that instead of expressing the "decline" of the peasantry, the MST, developing as it was in Brazil, a country where agriculture has been tied to commodity production since colonial times, expresses the ''absence'' of a proper peasantry,<ref>Joan Martínez Alier, ''Ecologia dei poveri. La Lotta per la giustizia ambientale''. Milan: Jaca Book, 2009, {{ISBN|978-88-16-40840-1}}, page 341</ref> and has, as its social basis, a rural working class that strives to gain a foothold in the field of capitalist production. As remarked by non-specialist foreign onlookers, the MST's tagging of the landless as "rural workers"—i.e. proletarians, in the Marxist sense—appears sometimes more as a purely ideological branding than anything else.<ref>Ana Sofia Ganho, Timothy Michael McGovern, ''Using Portuguese: A Guide to Contemporary Usage''. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-79663-6}}, page 17</ref>

According even to a Leftist scholar like [[James Petras]], the MST is undoubtedly a ''modernizing'' social movement, in that its main goal is to convert fallow states into viable units that are able to produce a marketable surplus—"to occupy, resist, and ''produce,''" as the movement's own motto goes.<ref>James F. Petras, ''The new development politics: the age of empire building and new social movements''. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing,2003, {{ISBN|0-7546-3540-6}}, page 97</ref> It is also not a movement with a clear-cut anti-capitalist stance, as what it seeks is to "create a land reform based on small individual property-owners."<ref>David Nugent,& Joan Vincent, eds. ''A companion to the anthropology of politics''. Malden, MA: Blackwel, {{ISBN|0-631-22972-8}}, page 346</ref> As far as its steads are concerned, the movement has adopted a mostly private enterprise-friendly stance: with the monies it has procured, it has financed mechanization, processing enterprises, livestock breeding, as well as granting access to additional credit sources.<ref>Haro Brookfield, H. C. Brookfield, Helen Parsons, ''Family farms: survival and prospect : a world-wide analysis''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-93597-7}}, page 169</ref> Some even see the movement's aims as "quite limited," as in practice, it tends to merely provide a chance for some people "to interact with the [ruling] capitalist economy"<ref>Anil Hira, ''An East Asian model for Latin American success: the new path''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-7108-4}}, page xii</ref> by means of a kind of "guerrilla capitalism," aimed at ensuring that smaller producers' associations carve a share of the market for agrarian produce against the competition of mammoth agribusiness trusts.<ref>Michel DuQuette, ''Collective Action and Radicalism in Brazil'',145</ref>

In the view of Marxist authors, like Petras and Veltmeyer, such a stance would reflect the incapacity of a heterogeneous coalition of rural people to engage in a broad, anti-systemic coalition, which would include the urban working classes.<ref>Tom Brass,ed., ''Latin American Peasants''. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7146-8319-1}}, page 15</ref> Shunning this Marxist paradigm, other authors see in the rhetoric of the MST the reflection of an ideological struggle, not for taking power, but for ''recognizance'', for "reconstituting the diversity of rural Brazil".<ref>Malcolm K. McNee, "Soundtracking landlessness", IN [[Idelber Avelar]] & Christopher Dunn, eds., ''Brazilian Popular Music and Citizenship''. Duke University Press, 2011, page 151</ref> This struggle for recognizance - despite its being couched in fiery radical rhetoric - is seen by some as "indeed relevant for the democratization of 'rural society', but [it does] not entail political motivations destined to promote ruptures".<ref>Zander Navarro, "'Mobilization without emancipation': the social struggles of the landless in Brazil". IN Boaventura De Sousa Santos, ed., ''Another Production Is Possible: beyond the capitalist canon''. London: Verso, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-84467-078-9}}, page 156</ref> In even more blunt terms, a recent academic paper asserts that the ideology of the MST, connected as it is in practice with the landlesss' concrete needs for making out a living in the countryside, is above all an ''edible'' ideology.<ref>Wendy Wolford, "Edible Ideology? Survival Strategies in Brazilian Land-Reform Settlements".''Geographical Review'', Vol. 86, No. 3, July 1996, pp.&nbsp;457–461</ref> A recent German handbook describes the MST as a mere ''pressure group'', unable to exert actual political power.<ref>Markus Porsche-Ludwig,Wolfgang Gieler,Jürgen Bellers, eds., ''Handbuch Sozialpolitiken der Welt''. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2013, {{ISBN|978-3-643-10987-3}} , page 140</ref> Other authors, however, maintain that the interest of the MST in maximize its members' everyday participation in the running of their own affairs is enough to describe the movement as "socialist" in a broad sense.<ref>[[Steve Ellner]], ed., ''Latin America's Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-first Century'' . Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-4422-2948-8}} , page 39</ref>

==Education==
According to the MST, it taught over 50,000 landless workers to read and write between 2002 and 2005. It also runs the Popular University of Social Movements (PUSM)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.universidadepopular.org/site/pages/pt/em-destaque.php|title=Universidade Popular dos Movimentos Sociais - EM DESTAQUE|website=www.universidadepopular.org|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129091353/http://www.universidadepopular.org/site/pages/pt/em-destaque.php|archive-date=29 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> at a campus in [[Guararema]], [[São Paulo]]. Also called Florestan Fernandes School (FFS), after [[Marxist]] scholar [[Florestan Fernandes]], the school offers secondary school classes in a variety of fields; its first graduating class (2005) of 53 students received degrees in Specialized Rural Education and Development. With the [[University of Brasília]], the government of [[Venezuela]] and the [[Via Campesina|NGO Via Campesina]], as well as agreements with federal, state and community colleges, it offers classes in [[pedagogy]], history, and [[agronomy]], and technical subjects at different skill levels.<ref>See managing [[NGO]]'s Association of Friends of the Florestan Fernandes School site, [http://www.amigosenff.org.br/pt-BR/a-escola/formacao] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140806203013/http://www.amigosenff.org.br/pt-BR/a-escola/formacao|date=2014-08-06}}. Retrieved August 29, 2014</ref> The building was constructed with by brigades of volunteers using [[soil cement]] bricks made onsite at the school.<ref>Cf. ''América Latina en Movimiento'' news website, January the 19th. 2005: "MST inaugura Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes", text available at [http://alainet.org/active/7454&lang=es] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718162005/http://alainet.org/active/7454%26lang%3Des|date=2011-07-18}}</ref> The late [[Oscar Niemeyer]] designed an auditorium and, as of 2014, further sustainable, low environmental impact expansion of the school complex was pending.<ref>Rainer Grassmann & Analia Amorim, "Tecnologias construtivas de baixo impacto ambiental, alto valor social e cultural". Undergraduate monograph, abridgment, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the São Paulo University site [http://www.fau.usp.br/disciplinas/tfg/tfg_online/tr/141/a058.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006110633/http://www.fau.usp.br/disciplinas/tfg/tfg_online/tr/141/a058.html|date=2014-10-06}}. Retrieved October 5, 2014</ref>

The MST formed its education sector in [[Rio Grande do Sul]] in 1986, a year after its first national convention.<ref>Fernandes, Barnard Mancano. ''The Formation of the MST in Brazil.'' Editora Vozes, Petropolis 2000, page 78</ref> By 2001, about 150,000 children attended 1,200 primary and secondary schools in its settlements and camps. The schools employ 3,800 teachers, many of them MST-trained. The movement has trained 1,200 educators, who run classes for 25,000 young people and adults. It trains primary-school teachers in most states of Brazil, and partners with international agencies such as [[UNESCO]], [[UNICEF]] and the Catholic Church. Seven institutions of higher education in different regions provide degree courses in education for MST teachers.<ref>Jan Rocha and Sue Branford. ''Cutting the Wire''</ref> Some call MST communal schools markedly better than their conventional counterparts in rural communities, in both quantitative and qualitative terms.<ref>Edward L. Cleary, ''Mobilizing for human rights in Latin America''. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-56549-241-7}}, page 79</ref>

==Media coverage==
The role of the MST as a grassroots organization running [[charter schools]] activity has attracted considerable attention from the Brazilian press, much of it accusatory. ''[[Veja (magazine)|Veja]]'', Brazil's largest magazine, known for unrestrained hostility <ref>A  ''Forbes'' magazine obituary of the recently deceased ''Veja'' boss, media mogul Roberto Civita, described the magazine's content as "filled with bomb-throwers and in clear opposition to the Workers' Party government": ''Forbes'' May 27, 2013, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/05/27/billionaire-roberto-civita-brazilian-media-baron-dies-at-76] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908180931/https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/05/27/billionaire-roberto-civita-brazilian-media-baron-dies-at-76|date=2017-09-08}}. Retrieved July 18, 2013</ref> to social movements in general<ref>João Freire Filho,& Paulo Vaz, eds. ''Construções do Tempo e do Outro''. Rio de Janeiro: MAUAD, 2006, {{ISBN|85-7478-205-X}}, page 80; on the derogatory stance taken by ''Veja'' on Brazilian mass movements and on the common people in general, see Daniel do Nascimento e Silva, "Identities forged in pain and violence: Nordeste's writing" - Paper Prepared for delivery at the 2010 Congress of the Latin American Studies, Toronto,  October 6–9, 2010, available at [http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/2574.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718221200/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/2574.pdf|date=2011-07-18}}; on the magazine's harsh treatment of all MST issues, see Miguel Carter, "The landless rural workers' movement (MST)
and democracy in Brazil", University of Oxford/Center of Brazilian Studies, Working Paper CBS-60-05, available at {{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/9361/Miguel20Carter2060.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719081923/http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/9361/Miguel20Carter2060.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-19 |access-date=2011-01-27}}, especially footnote 47)</ref> <ref name="Carter-2010">{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Miguel |date=2010 |title=The Landless Rural Workers Movement and Democracy in Brazil |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919219 |journal=Latin American Research Review |volume=45 |pages=186–217 |issn=0023-8791}}</ref> published a profile<ref>September 8, 2004, titled "The MST's [[Madrassa]]s". Author Monica Weinberg</ref> of two MST schools in Rio Grande do Sul and said the MST was "indoctrinating" children between 7 and 14.<ref>based on an MST publication "Education Notebook, no. 8" saying that one of the goals for children who attend the classes is to "develop class and revolutionary conscience".</ref> Children were also shown what the article called [[propaganda]] films, which taught that [[Genetic engineering|genetically modified]] (GMO) products contain "poison", and were advised not to eat margarine that might contain GMO soybean. The Brazilian authorities allegedly had no control over MST schools, and according to the profile they did not follow the mandatory national curriculum set out by the Ministry of Education, which calls for "pluralism of ideas" and "tolerance". "Preaching" "Marxism" in MST schools was analogous to preaching radical [[Islam]] tenets in madrassas, the article said.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/080904/p_046.html |title=VEJA on-line |publisher=Veja.abril.com.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217092849/http://veja.abril.com.br/080904/p_046.html |archive-date=2012-12-17 |url-status=live }}</ref>

This was just one episode in a long history of mutual very bitter animosity between ''Veja'' and the MST. In 1993, the magazine described the MST as "a peasant organization of [[leninism|Leninist]] character" and charged its leaders and activists with pretending to be homeless.<ref>''Veja'', issue 1,286, 6 May 1993</ref> In February 2009 the magazine opposed public support for the "criminal" activities of the movement<ref>''Governo paga ações criminosas do MST'', ''Veja'' site, 28th. August 2009, available at [http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/governo-paga-acoes-criminosas-mst] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014021706/http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/governo-paga-acoes-criminosas-mst|date=2012-10-14}}</ref> and the MST charged the magazine a year later with "vandalizing" both journalism and the truth itself.<ref>''Como VEJA está depredando o jornalismo e a verdade''. MST site, 12th. January 2010, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/node/8926 |title=Como VEJA está depredando o jornalismo e a verdade &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2011-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501004949/http://www.mst.org.br/node/8926 |archive-date=2011-05-01 }}</ref> In 2011, a mention of the MST in ''Veja'' called it "a criminal mob".<ref>''Veja'', issue 2,222, June 22, 2011</ref> In early 2014, after MST tried to invade the STF building, a ''Veja'' columnist described said it was "playing leader to a non-existing cause".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/o-mst-lider-de-uma-causa-que-nao-existe-tenta-invadir-o-stf-na-base-da-porrada-ou-como-o-governo-dilma-estimula-a-bagunca-e-a-violencia-ou-gilberto-carvalho-nao-vai-se-demitir/|title=O MST, líder de uma causa que não existe, tenta invadir o STF na base da porrada! Ou: Como o governo Dilma estimula a bagunça e a violência. Ou: Gilberto Carvalho não vai se demitir? - Reinaldo Azevedo|website=VEJA.com|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122145019/https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/o-mst-lider-de-uma-causa-que-nao-existe-tenta-invadir-o-stf-na-base-da-porrada-ou-como-o-governo-dilma-estimula-a-bagunca-e-a-violencia-ou-gilberto-carvalho-nao-vai-se-demitir/|archive-date=22 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> This journalistic mud-slinging has justified at least two academic monographs wholly dedicated to it alone.<ref>Diogo de Almeida Moisés, ''A Revista Veja na Cobertura da Luta de Terras no Brasi''. B.A. Monography, Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte, Communication Sciences Department, 2005, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.convergencia.jor.br/bancomonos/2005/diogo.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316153418/http://www.convergencia.jor.br/bancomonos/2005/diogo.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-16 }}</ref><ref>''Do Silêncio à Satanização: o Discurso de Veja e o MST'' [From silence to "satanization": ''Veja'' discourse and the MST], by Eduardo Ferreira de Souza, São Paulo: Annablume, 2005, {{ISBN|978-85-7419-453-0}}</ref>

Overall the relationship of the mainstream media with the MST has been ambiguous: in the 1990s they tended to support land reform as a goal in general, and presented MST in a sympathetic light. For example, between 1996 and 1997 [[TV Globo]] broadcast a ''[[telenovela]]'' ''[[O Rei do Gado]]'' (The Cattle Baron), in which a beautiful female ''sem terra'' played by actress [[Patricia Pillar]] falls in love with a male landowner.<ref>Chris Healy and Stephen Muecke, eds., ''Cultural Studies Review: Homefronts''. The University of Melbourne: V.15, no.1, March 2009, page 158</ref> In the same ''telenovela'', a [[wake (ceremony)|wake]] for the fictitious Senator Caxias, killed while defending an MST occupation, offered the opportunity for two real-life senators from the PT, [[Eduardo Suplicy]] and [[Benedita da Silva]], to make [[cameo appearances]] as themselves praising their fictive colleague's agenda.<ref>Kristina Riegert, ed., ''Politicotainment: television's take on the real''. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8204-8114-2}}, page 165</ref>

The media however tend to disavow what they see as violent methods,<ref>John L. Hammond, "The MST and the Media: Competing Images of the Brazilian Farmworkers' Movement" . ''Latin American Politics & Society'' - Volume 46, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp.&nbsp;61–90</ref> especially as the movement gathered strength.<ref>Luciana Oliveira, ''Fighting for a Voice: Support for Land Reform Versus the Landless Workers Movement: A Framing Analysis of the Brazilian Press''. VDM Verlag, 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-639-19018-2}}</ref> It does not outright disavow the movement's struggle for land reform, but Brazilian media moralize: "to deplore the invasion of productive land, the MST's irrationality and lack of responsibility, the ill-using of distributed land parcels and to argue for the existence of alternate peaceful solutions".<ref>Alessandra Aldé & Fernando Lattman-Weltman: "O Mst na TV: Sublimação do Político, Moralismo e Crônica Cotidiana do Nosso 'Estado de Natureza'". LPCPOP-Iuperj paper, available at {{cite web |url=http://vsites.unb.br/fac/comunicacaoepolitica/AlessandraWeltman2000.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-12-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415110046/http://vsites.unb.br/fac/comunicacaoepolitica/AlessandraWeltman2000.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-15 }}. Retrieved December 22, 2011</ref>

==Sustainable agriculture==
The increased importance of the technicians and experts within the MST has led some sections of the movement to strive to develop and diffuse technology suitable for a model of [[sustainable agriculture]] on the land the families farm.<ref>Ana Delgado Alemán, "Towards Inclusive Environmental Governance: a Study of the Expert-Lay Interplay in a Brazilian Social Movement". Doctoral Thesis, the University of Bergen, 2009, available at [https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/3838] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425230612/https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/3838|date=2012-04-25}}. Accessed November the 16th. 2011</ref> Such self-developed technology is seen as a way to turn small producers from consumers into producers of technologies,<ref>Michel P. Pimbert, ed ''L'Avenir de la alimentation et des petits producteurs'', Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship electronic conference, 2005, {{ISBN|978-1-84369-589-9}}, page 33</ref> - and therefore as a hedge against small producers' dependence on chemical inputs and single-crop price fluctuations<ref>Ivette Perfecto, John H. Vandermeer, Angus Lindsay Wright: ''Nature's matrix: linking agriculture, conservation and food sovereignty''. London: Earthscan, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-84407-782-3}}, page 115</ref> and a way to preserving natural resources.<ref>Márcio Rosa D'Avila, ''Zur Einsatzmögilichkeit nichtkonventioneller Bauweisen in genosseschaftiliche organisierten sozialen Wohnungsbau für Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilien''. Kassel University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-3-89958-245-1}}, page 19</ref> These efforts are gaining in importance as more movement families gain access to the land. For example, the Chico Mendes Center for Agroecology, founded May 15, 2004 in [[Ponta Grossa]], [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], Brazil on land formerly used by the [[Monsanto Company]] to grow [[genetically modified organisms|genetically modified]] crops, intends to produce [[organic farming|organic]], native [[seed]] to distribute through MST. Various other experiments in [[reforestation]], taming of native species{{clarify|date=July 2017}} and medicinal uses of plans have been carried out in MST settlements.<ref>Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues, Sebastião Venâncio Martins, ''High diversity forest restoration in degraded areas: methods and projects in Brazil''. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-60021-421-9}}, page 218</ref> The MST is the largest producer of organic rice in Latin America.<ref>[https://mronline.org/2023/11/15/1-million-members-100-million-trees-how-brazils-socialist-farmers-are-fighting-big-ag/ 1 Million Members, 100 Million Trees: How Brazil’s Socialist Farmers Are Fighting Big Ag], ''Monthly Review'', 15 November 2023</ref>

==See also==
* [[Abahlali baseMjondolo]] in South Africa
* The [[Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee]] in India
* The [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation|EZLN]] in Mexico
* [[Fanmi Lavalas]] in Haiti
* The [[Homeless Workers' Movement]] in Brazil
* [[Movement for Justice in el Barrio]] in the United States of America
* [[Narmada Bachao Andolan]] in India
* [[La Via Campesina]]
* [[League of Poor Peasants]], an MST splinter group in Brazil

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* [[Raj Patel|Patel, Raj]]. "Stuffed & Starved" Portobello Books, London, 2007
* Wolford, Wendy. "This Land Is Ours Now: Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil." Duke University Press, Durham, 2010. {{ISBN|0-8223-4539-0}}
* Wright, Angus, and Wendy Wolford. ''To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil.'' Food First Books, Oakland, 2003. {{ISBN|0-935028-90-0}}
* Carter, Miguel.''The MST and Democracy in Brazil.'' Working Paper CBS-60-05, Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford, 2005. Available at [http://www.lac.ox.ac.uk/sites/sias/files/documents/Miguel%2520Carter%252060.pdf]{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Retrieved November 2, 2014
*{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Miguel |date=2010 |title=The Landless Rural Workers Movement and Democracy in Brazil |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919219 |journal=Latin American Research Review |volume=45 |pages=186–217 |issn=0023-8791}}
* Ramos, Tarso Luis. ''Brazil at the Crossroads: Landless Movement Confronts Crisis of the Left.'' 2005.
* —, "Agroecology vs. Monsanto in Brazil", ''Food First News & Views'', vol. 27, number 94, fall 2004, 3.
* Branford, Sue and Rocha, Jan. ''Cutting the Wire: The story of the landless movement in Brazil.'' 2002. Latin American Bureau, London.
* ''Questoes Agrarias: Julgado Comentados e Paraceres.'' Editora Metodo, São Paulo, 2002.

{{Squatting}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Land rights movements]]
[[Category:Housing in Brazil]]
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[[Category:Socialism in Brazil]]
[[Category:Wealth in Brazil]]
[[Category:Social justice organizations]]
[[Category:Agricultural policy]]
[[Category:Far-left politics in Brazil]]
[[Category:Squatters' movements]]
[[Category:International Peoples' Assembly]]