LAND CONCENTRATION AND THE MOVEMENT OF THE LANDLESS

LAND CONCENTRATION AND THE MOVEMENT OF THE LANDLESS RURAL WORKERS OF BRAZIL (MST) SÔNIA FÁTIMA SCHWENDLER ELSE R. P. VIEIRA

Outline Background (land concentration in Brazil) The MST – the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers of Brazil) – Latin American’s largest and most prominent social movement

Land Concentration in Brazil Land concentration has been a marked feature of Brazilian history In Brazil, large estates latifundia (singular latifundium) with more than 1000 hectares concentrate 43% of the total (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics –IBGE, 2006). 2/3 of Brazil’s arable land are in the hands of 3% of the population (Vieira, 2007: 116) +20 million landless people (Brazil’s population c. 200 million)

Brazilian Colonisation Portugal arrived in Brazil in 1500 The Portuguese model of colonisation brought with it the displacement and enslavement of indigenous and African populations, which resulted in land concentration.

The hereditary estates In 1534, Portugal divided the country into 15 strips of land (“Capitanias hereditárias”), thus introducing the model of vast hereditary estates (Vieira, 2007). The latifundia became a symbol of power The landowners were granted judicial power and could donate smaller territories called sesmarias according to their political convenience.

Brazil’s Land Law (Lei 601/ 1850) Land became a commodity when, just prior to the abolition of slavery (1888), the Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II passed the first Land Law (Lei 601/ 1850). Consequences of the Law: Land became a commodity (it had to be bought). The consolidation of land concentration The formation of the favelas (shantytowns) in urban areas The emergence of rural landless workers

Brazil never had a state-originated Agrarian Reform The Land Statute (the Estatuto da Terra) of 1964 (Law 4, 504) stated that the latifundia and speculative landholdings could be expropriated to be exploited economically and rationally when not fulfilling its social function. This apparently progressive law, which was part of the “conservative modernisation” project by the military dictatorship (1964 -1985), was intended to control agrarian conflicts, to establish a modern agriculture and to favour agribusiness. With the heavy mechanisation of agriculture, countless people became landless workers without jobs in the countryside. Several of them migrated to urban areas.

Brazil never had a state-originated Agrarian Reform Land redistribution has been a step-by-step government response to pressure from the peasants’ social movements, notably the MST (the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers of Brazil). The MST was formalised in 1984 in response to the escalation of land conflicts during the military dictatorship. It has actions in 24 out of 26 states of Brazil. The idea that land must have a social function, that it must be in the possession of the one who works on it and needs it to live, confers legitimacy to the occupation of non-productive lands headed by the Social Movement. By occupying land as a political strategy, the MST also challenges the historical practice of grillagem – the falsification of land titles (Schwendler, 2013).

Land Struggle and Agrarian Reform The confrontational stage the occupation of nonproductive land the organisation of encampments The post-confrontational stage the organisation of settlements

Encampment – Acampamento A strategic process of nonproductive land occupation which confronts the latifundia (singular latifundium), involving negotiation with the State and permanent organisation of the landless workers. It is an openly class-based struggle. The MST develops a strong collective organisation Land occupation involves the entire family The black tents are a symbol of land occupation

Settlements - Assentamentos The settlements of Agrarian Reform establish a historical process of transformation of the system of land tenure. The landed estates are converted into a space where many landless families may begin to live and produce. The conquering of settlements adds further aspects to the struggle for land, such as fighting for education, health care, housing, agricultural credit and co-operation.

The settlements – a result of land occupation According to the Land Struggle Database report (NERA, 2013), Between 1988 and 2012 there were 8, 709 land occupations involving 1, 221, 658 families. Between 1979 and 2012, 9, 070 settlements of agrarian reform were created, involving 933, 836 families.

The number of landless families in land occupation and in settlements - 1988 -2012 (NERA)

Education and Land Struggle One of the main items in the Movement’s agenda is formal education for the children/adolescents and illiterate adults (50%) in the encampments and settlements

Education and Land Struggle The MST’s liberation model of education is based on Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is an instrument for a critical understanding of dehumanization (Freire, 1970).

Paulo Freire on education in the context of Agrarian Reform (. . . ) The process of Agrarian Reform begins a new history, a new culture, a culture born of a process of transforming the world. For this very reason, it implies social transformations (. . . ), for example, the overcoming of a profoundly paternalist and fatalist culture in which the peasant got lost (. . . ), as an almost totally excluded object (. . . ). Through his re-incorporation into the process of production, he acquires a social position he did not previously have, a history he did not have (. . . ). In truth, he discovers that fatalism no longer explains anything at all and that, having been able to transform the land, he is also capable of transforming history and culture. From out of that former fatalism, the peasant is reborn, inserted as a presence in history, no longer as an object, but as a subject of history. Now, this whole process involves the tasks of education. (In Vieira, 2003 <http: //www. landless-voices. org/vieira/archive 05. php? rd=INTERVIE 409&ng=e&sc=3&th=41&se=0>)

THE MST’S ACHIEVEMENTS IN EDUCATION There are more than 2, 000 state’s schools in the encampments and settlements 200, 000 children, adolescents and adults have got access to education 50, 000 adults became literate There are over 2, 000 students in further or higher education There are more than 100 undergraduate courses in partnership with the Brazilian states universities. (http: //www. mst. org. br/educacao)

BIBLIOGRAPHY IBGE. Censo Agropecuário 2006 Brasil, Grandes Regiões e Unidades da Federação. http: //www. ibge. gov. br/home/estatistica/economia/agropecuaria/censoagro/brasil_2006/ comentarios. pdf. Access on 05/01/2016. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum Publishing Company, New York, 1970. Freire, Paulo. Interview: Agrarian Reform and Education. In Vieira 2003 < http: //www. landless-voices. org/vieira/archive 05. php? rd=INTERVIE 409&ng=e&sc=3&th=41&se=0>. Access on 10/01/2016. MST. Educação. http: //www. mst. org. br/educacao/ Access on 05/01/2016. Núcleo de Estudos, Pesquisas e Projetos de Reforma Agrária (NERA) Relatório DATALUTA – Banco de Dados da Luta pela Terra – 2012. Presidente Prudente: NERA, 2013.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Schwendler, Sônia Fátima. Women’s Emancipation through Participation in Land Struggle: Brazil and Chile. Ph. D Dissertation. Queen Mary, University of London, 2013. Vieira, Else (ed). The Sights and Voices of Dispossession: The Fight for the Land the Emerging Culture of the MST (The Movement of the Landless Rural Workers of Brazil). University of Nottingham, 2003. http: //www. landless-voices. org Vieira, Else (ed). Enhancing Cultural Studies through a Web-Enabled Database: The Sights and Sounds of the Emerging Culture of the MST. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, Volume 2, Number 8, 2007.