Rightful resistance in land reform social movements:

an analysis of the reasons that prevented the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers (MST) from getting radicalized

Abstract

Even though the processes of factionalization and radicalization are identified by the literature on Contentious Politics as mechanisms that often occur during the trajectory of contentious movements, the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) has conserved its non-violent rightful resistance strategy since its emergence until now. This paper intends to first identify and critically analyze the explanations for this phenomenon provided by the previous literature, and then porpose a hypothesis to complement the previous explanations. Previous studies argue that the characteristic of Brazilian State in terms of democracy and capacity level and the fact that violent measures would alienate potential supporters are the reasons why this movement has consistently adopted a non-violent strategy; and the facts that it is independent from political parties, its identity is based on socioeconomic status, it is organized and cohesive, and it has achieved a certain level of success, the reasons why it has avoided radicalization. This paper criticizes the arguments of previous studies, arguing that autonomy and cohesiveness cannot be empirically observed, and concludes by proposing a hypothesis that highlights the role of the movement’s ideology and culture, especially its focus on libertarian education. The methodology adopted in this paper involves reviewing relevant previous literature in the field of Contentious Politics and Social Movements and more specifically about the MST and collecting secondary data from previous studies and the MST’s website.