richard-day-gramsci-is-dead

Doing it Yourself: Direct-action Currents in Contemporary Radical Activism 43The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST, BrazilianLandless Peasants Movement) of Brazil has become well known—andthoroughly vilified by the Brazilian corporate mass media—for its rolein organizing occupations of unused farm land. It is ‘an autonomousmovement, independent of the political parties’ and the CatholicChurch, but with links to the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) and ahistory of engagement with liberation theology (Stedile 2002). Takingadvantage of a clause in the Brazilian Constitution that allows unusedagricultural land to be settled and brought into production—whichwas itself a victory of the movement—the MST first educates farmersabout their rights, then provides guidance and support for any locallyorganized occupations. A crucial aspect of the MST’s tactics is that ineach case the farmers organize and equip themselves, so that theybuild the kinds of skills and relationships that are necessary if theaction is to succeed in the months before the occupation. It is partlyfor this reason that 250,000 families have occupied and gained titleto 15 million acres land, and have built 60 food co-operatives and anumber of small agricultural industries and schools (MST 2003).But it must be noted that state support also had a lot to do withsuccess of the MST’s tactics. Not only was the legal basis for theoccupations provided by the constitution, but the state-fundedAgrarian Reform Institute (INCRA) also provided money to helpestablish those who expropriated land, including low interest credit forcooperatives. This all ended with the coming to power of the Cardosogovernment in 1999, which opted instead for a neoliberal, WorldBank-supported scheme for ‘market agrarian reform’ (Petras 2000).Rather than supporting autonomous communities and individuals,this plan will create a new class of heavily indebted farmers, desperateand presumably ready to begin cultivating Monsanto’s latest monstercrop.Successive governments since 1989 have been doing everythingthey can to undermine the work of the MST, from raids, arrests andtorture to wrapping up key figures in court battles So, although 75,000people are currently squatting on unused land or on roadsides, onelong-time movement leader acknowledges that ‘for the last two yearswe’ve made very few gains’ (Stedile 2002: 93–4). The MST was alwaysa hybrid project in terms of its political logic, using direct actionto bring about legal, political and economic reforms. As the stateturned against it, under pressure from the global neoliberal order, ithas found itself increasingly on the defensive.Struggles over land have also been a constant theme of postapartheidSouth Africa. Despite the achievement of state power by