Brazil’s Massive Landless Workers’ Movement Leads the Way
After 40 years of struggle, Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement is now at nearly two million members and taking center stage in the fight for democracy and equality. It’s done that by flying the most unlikely militant banner of all: organic food.
Flying the unlikely banner of organic food, the MST successfully repackaged agrarian reform as a mission to deliver nutritious, sustainably sourced, and affordable produce to the Brazilian masses. (Mauro Pimentel / AFP via Getty Images)
If you visited Brazil in the last few years, you will have seen it: “the other red hat.” Now a trendy accessory on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, the decidedly anti-MAGA baseball cap represents not the hard right but the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST).
At nearly two million members strong, the MST is now likely the world’s largest social movement, battle-hardened now after four decades, demanding agrarian reform. Even more impressively, the MST has thrived under adverse conditions, namely the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro. The MST’s goal is to make good on the unfulfilled promises of Brazil’s democratic transition and to break up colonial relations that still reign in the countryside.
The last decade, though, saw that historical mission gain new momentum. The growing visibility of the MST was, in fact, part of a canny “rebrand” — retreating to a defensive posture as the Bolsonaro government declared open war on the movement’s land occupations. In response, the movement made overtures to the progressive urban middle class.
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