ABSTRACT
The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Landless Workers Movement or MST receives most recognition for their land occupations. Images of these actions filled the pages of Sebastião Salgado’s 1997 book Terra, inspiring scores of ally groups (known as the Friends of the MST) throughout Europe and the United States. Besides this trademark tactic and their immense size – present in 24 of Brazil’s 26 states and claiming a million and a half adherents – the MST’s struggle for agrarian reform includes more than land redistribution, encompassing the implementation of an alternative educational program, development of a peasant-centered approach to health care and promotion of communal and/or peasant agricultural production techniques. In fact, much of the movement’s focus – especially of late – has centered on what happens after families claim land. This period, known as ‘a luta na terra’, or ‘the struggle on the land’, differs from ‘a luta pela terra’, or ‘the struggle for land’ – namely, the occupation and encampment phases of land acquisition and development.1 Despite this clear demarcation of phases in the
1For more, see Carter and de Carvalho (2009).
