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Resistance as Development: Analyzing the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil and their "Reconstructive" Land Occupations

Sun, August 17, 12:30 to 1:30pm, TBA

Abstract

This article challenges the assumption that resistance is necessarily an "anti-force" that rejects social change. Instead we argue, with the help of a case study of the landless workers' movement (MST) in Brazil, that resistance is possible to understand as "reconstructive" (or "pre-figurative"), i.e. a development practice. The MST case illustrates a particular and emerging development practice, arising from a critique of the contemporary "development wonder" of Brazil.

MST makes land occupations of non-used land or land used for modernization projects they oppose. They transgress property titles and build a village of black plastic-tents, a school, and cultivate the land. They are regularly violently evicted, but will return and rebuild. With persistence (firmeza permanente) they claim their land right and defend their emerging society with nonarmed collective force, international media attention and urban alliances (with lawyers, politicians, journalists, etc.). Their resistance might go on for years, even decades. However, the key is that they are not just protesting or waiting for legal recognition from the state.

With time, they develop cooperatives, ecological farming techniques, local democracy institutions, a school with Freire pedagogic that teach not only literaracy and theoretical knowledge but also political awareness. They create, the "New Brazil". Thus, in the process of resisting one of the most unjust land distributions in the world, they also start creating the alternative institituions they envision. Therefore, they embody the politico-ethical future through their resistance practice, i.e. reconstructive resistance.

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