Democracy, Citizenship and Representation

Rural Social Movements in Southern Brazil, 1978-1990

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3125845
AutoresZander Navarro (0000-0003-3192-8656, autor de correspondencia)
Año1994
Volumen13
Número2
Páginas129
Fecha de publicación1994-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBulletin of Latin American Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0261-3050 • E-ISSN: 1470-9856
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3338272
OpenAlexW2519724371
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas3

As elsewhere in contemporary Latin America, Brazil has experienced periods in which politically excluded and economically subordinated rural groups have been able to mobilise and organise, and thus to participate in the complex realm of politics, engaging in what Tarrow (1989) has called 'cycles of protest'. There have been two such moments in recent Brazilian history. The first began in the late 1950s, and came to an abrupt halt with the military coup of 1964. During this period, rural workers' unions first formed and proliferated, primarily among wage workers from the country's commercial agricultural regions. Peasant leagues were also established, especially in the Northeast, to press the demands of small producers, the majority of whom did not own land. Spurred by economic transformations in the countryside, as well as by the political liberalisation characteristic of populism at that time, other actors quickly emerged on the political scene, vying for influence and control over the process of organising the 'rural poor'. These included the state, the political parties, and the Catholic Church. Each proposed its own political project for change or continuity, leading to increasing polarisation between alternative projects. The 'agrarian question' eventually became an important trigger of the military coup, which defeated the political forces advocating structural change. The second moment began in the late 1970s, a decade characterised by unprecedented capitalist modemisation and development, and continued after the end of the military dictatorship into the 1980s and early 1990s. Over the course of these decades, particularly in the Brazilian South, increasing social differentiation, product specialisation, and the establishment of integrated agro-industrial enterprises all created new interests and the need for new forms of representation in the countryside, sparking different types of collective action by small producers and rural workers. In this second period, even the Federation of Agricultural Workers (FETAG), the official union structure, became more dynamic. More importantly, a parallel workers' movement developed, first attempting to win leadership positions within FETAG, and then forming an independent union federation, the Central Workers' Union (CUT) and affiliating with the Workers' Party (PT). The Landless Workers' Movement (MST) was also formed in the early 1980s to raise the banner of agrarian reform. Various other more regional organisations

Citizenship · Democracy · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Social movement · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America · Rural Development and Agriculture · Youth, Politics, and Society