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The Changing Terrain of Rural Contention in Brazil: Institutionalization and Identity Development in the Landless Movement's Educational Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Anthony Pahnke
Anthony Pahnke*
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations at San Francisco State University. arpahnke@yahoo.com
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Abstract

Studies of the Brazilian Landless Movement, particularly the MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Landless Rural Workers' Movement), note two periods of collective action: the time when tactics such as land occupations are deployed to acquire land (luta pela terra) and subsequent mobilizations to develop territory (luta na terra). The latter period, which includes fostering educational opportunities and coordinating economic production, features prolonged interaction with government authorities. Instead of demobilizing during institutionalization, this study argues, postoccupation practices are as contentious as seizing territory. This is apparent in the movement's efforts to influence public policies that lead to the creation of schools where a contentious, movement-centered identity develops. Documenting the movement's efforts in education provides a way to understand how the current moment in rural contention in Brazil—called by some the time to acumular forças (accumulate forces)—remains collective and political instead of indicating movement decline.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , Fall 2017 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2017

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References

Notes

1. Occupations fell from 496 in 2004 to 205 in 2014 (CPT 2005, 2015).

2. Between 1998 and 2011, five schools hosted movement-led education initiatives in Paraná, along with five in Rio Grande do Sul, four in São Paulo, and two in Pernambuco. I attended courses at three schools in Paraná: the Escola Milton Santos (Milton Santos School), the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável e Capacitação em Agroecologia (the Center for Sustainable Development and Training in Agroecology, or CEAGRO), and the Instituto Tecnológico e Educacional de Pesquisa da Reforma Agrária (the Educational and Technological Institute for Research on Agrarian Reform, ITEPA), and one in Rio Grande do Sul, the Instituto Educar (Educate Institute). In Pernambuco, I stayed one week with teachers at a school outside Caruaru. On many occasions, I also visited the Instituto Técnico de Capacitação e Pesquisa da Reforma Agrária (Technical Institute for Capacity Building and Research on Agrarian Reform, or ITERRA) and the Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes (Florestan Fernandes National School, or ENFF), located, respectively, in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo.

3. Article 26 reads, “Curriculum for elementary and secondary education must have a common national base that will be completed in each system and place of instruction. This national common base in each system and place of instruction may allow for a diversified part, given regional and local social qualities.”

4. CNA represents agribusiness in Brazil's corporatist system. CONTAG represents labor.

5. PRONATEC's course listing can be found at http://www.senar.org.br/sites/default/files/portfolio_guia_fic_pronatec_2015.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2016.

6. For responsibilities by level of government, see LDB/1996, Articles 8–11.

7. Leite traces the vast majority—about 90 percent of settlements created after 1985— to movement pressure (2004).

8. Education of the Countryside programs exist in Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Tocantins, Goiás, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Roraima. Rio Grande do Sul in 2012 formed a committee to discuss the program. Acre, Pernambuco, Espirito Santo, São Paulo, and Rondônia do not have a program.

9. Every organization in the Landless Movement references Education of the Countryside on its website and in demands. Missing are pedagogical materials by movements other than the MST. CONTAG makes available on its website only the relevant legislation, while MPA has materials on agricultural production but not education.

10. The IEJC (Instituto de Educação Josué de Castro) is the MST's private high school, physically located within ITERRA.

11. See Portaria-MDA 62, 3/27/2001 and Medida Provisória 2.183-56, 8/24/2001.

12. Before Hackbart, Sebastião Azevedo served from 2001 to 2002; Francisco Orlando Costa Muniz, 2000–2001; Raul Jungmann, 1996–99; Xico Graciano and Brazílio de Araújo Neto split the post in 1995; and Osvaldo Russo was president from 1993 to 1995.

13. See Public Act 1116/2007 from the Public Ministry.

14. Each investigation began by alleging the misuse of funds by MST-created nongovernmental organizations, such as ANCA (the Associação Nacional de Cooperação Agrícola, the National Association of Agricultural Cooperation), which held convenios (contracts) with government institutions. As of this writing, no indictments have been issued.