Part of GDC’s International May Day 2024 Campaign
The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, the Landless Workers Movement in English, grew out of the popular peasant response to the military dictatorship installed in Brazil in 1964. This dictatorship, installed by a US-backed coup of the elected João Goulart administration, paved the way for the privatization and commercialization of agriculture and displaced numerous families and workers.
Legal landlessness has not stopped the MST from establishing their claim to land through land occupations and consolidation of power and resources amongst their community; for MST, “occupation is the only solution.” Along with land reform, the MST struggles for “total social transformation” and has further expanded their movement through the operation of over 170 healthcare clinics and apporx. 2000 radical pedagogy programs in schools throughout Brazil. Their strategy of “contentious co-governance” also rejects seeking legitimacy for their existence through the state by emphasizing that every project, every interaction with the state, must place dedication to the collective movement in the forefront. This strategy has helped the MST avoid co-optation and demobilization by the state while also gaining institutionalized victories [funding, legal reform, etc].
In honor of May Day, we recognize the MST’s commitment to principled internationalism. Through its internationalist brigades in various countries including in Haiti, Venezuela, and Palestine, the MST stands in solidarity with righteous struggles for land across the world. These brigades provide agroecology and political education and colloborate on various agriculture projects. Since October, the MST has been directing efforts toward supporting the people of Palestine as they face ongoing violence. MST has sent over 13 tons of food produced on communal farms to Gaza and is actively confronting the growing imperialist forces within Brazil which support and fund Israeli aggression.
To mark the movement’s 40th anniversary, the MST has launched a new campaign of struggle. Landless workers know there is only one solution to the environmental and agriculture crises wrought by capitalism: Occupy to Feed Brazil!