XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Punk and Peasants: The Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in Hardcore Songs from the 1990s and 2000s

• In Event: Counterrevolution, Peasant Struggle, and Black Dissent: Interrogating the Intersections of Race and Authoritarianism in Brazil

Abstract

The most mediatic and influential social movement in Brazil in the 1990s and 2000s was the Landless Workers' Movement. With their direct-action approach of occupying unproductive lands and large farms (latifúndios), the MST captured the imagination of the youth. However, this happened not only in rural areas but also in the urban arena. Around the turn of the 21st century, one of the most politically engaged music genres in the country was hardcore punk music. Punk is a phenomenon seen as completely belonging to the world of cities (Craig O'Hara, 1999). In fact, it developed in Brazil mainly in state capitals and big cities, and the members of the punk movement also became motivated by the political struggle carried out by MST. This article examines the representation of MST in the lyrics of hardcore punk bands from the underground music scene of Brazil such as Guerra de Classes, Abuso Sonoro, and Dead Fish in order to reconstruct part of the political imagination of a generation of young and radical artists and activists.

Author

• Rodrigo Lopes de Barros, Harvard University