Editing Landless Workers' Movement (section)

==History==
===Foundation===
[[Image:MonumentoMST.JPG|thumb|200px|Monument by [[Oscar Niemeyer]] dedicated to the MST.]]
The smashing of the [[peasant leagues (Brazil)|peasant leagues]] following the [[1964 Brazilian coup d'état|1964 coup]] opened the way for commercialized agriculture and concentration of land ownership throughout the period of the [[Brazilian military government|military dictatorship]], and an absolute decline in the rural population during the 1970s.<ref>Thomas William Merrick, Elza Berquó, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Population and Demography. Panel on Fertility Determinants: ''The determinants of Brazil's recent rapid decline in fertility''. Washington D.C.: National Academic Press, 1983, page 133</ref> In the mid-1980s, out of 370 million hectares of total farm land, 285 million hectares (77%) were held by [[latifundia]].<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, Bernardo Mueller, ''Titles, conflict, and land use: the development of property rights and land reform on the Brazilian Amazonian Frontier''. University of Michigan Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-472-11006-3}}, pages 67/68</ref> The re-democratization process in the 1980s, however, allowed grassroots movements to pursue their own interests,<ref>Biorn Maybury-Lewis, ''The politics of the possible: the Brazilian rural workers' trade union movement, 1964–1985''. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|1-56639-167-9}}, page 169</ref> rather than those of the state and the ruling classes. The emergence of the MST fits into this framework.

Between late 1980 and early 1981, over 6,000 landless families established an encampment on land located between three unproductive estates in Brazil's southernmost state of [[Rio Grande do Sul]]. These families included 600 households expropriated and dislocated in 1974 from nearby {{ILL|Passo Real|pt|Usina Hidrelétrica Passo Real}} to make way for construction of a [[hydroelectric]] dam.<ref>Local mobilization of peasants dislocated by dam constructions was one of the primary sources of grassroots rural mobilization in the 1980s in southern Brazil, which gave rise to a national organization, the ''Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens'' (MAB), or "Dam-slighted people's Movement"; cf. Franklin Daniel Rothman and Pamela E. Oliver, "From Local to Global: The Anti-Dam Movement in Southern Brazil". ''Mobilization: An International Journal'', 1999, 4(1), available at [http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/PROTESTS/ArticleCopies/RothmanOliver1999MobyFromLocaltoGlobal.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404173105/http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/PROTESTS/ArticleCopies/RothmanOliver1999MobyFromLocaltoGlobal.pdf|date=2012-04-04}}. Accessed 16 November 2011</ref> This first group was later joined by an additional 300 (or, according to other sources, over 1,000) households evicted by [[FUNAI]]{{who|date=July 2017}} from the [[Kaingang]] Indian reservation in Nonoai, where they had been renting plots since 1968.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cesnur.org/2001/london2001/alcantara.htm|title=CESNUR 2001 - The Landless Movement (Alcantara)|website=www.cesnur.org|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031005319/https://www.cesnur.org/2001/london2001/alcantara.htm|archive-date=31 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2019}} Local mobilization of the Passo Real and Nonoai people had already achieved some land distribution on non-Indian land, followed by demobilization. Those who had not received land under these claims, joined by others, and led by leaders from the existing regional movement, MASTER (Rio Grande do Sul landless farmers' movement), made up the 1980/1981 encampment.<ref>Michel Duquette and others, ''Collective action and radicalism in Brazil: women, urban housing, and rural movements''. University of Toronto Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8020-3907-3}}, pages 140/141</ref> The location became known as the Encruzilhada Natalino. With the support of civil society, including the progressive branch of the [[Catholic Church]], the families resisted a blockade imposed by military force. Enforcement of the blockade was entrusted by the government to Army colonel {{ILL|Sebastião Curió|pt}}, already notorious for his past counter-insurgency efforts against the [[Araguaia guerrilla]]s.

Curió enforced the blockade ruthlessly;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/revista/49/destaque |title=Da luta há 25 anos, o reencontro em Sarandi &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2013-07-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719014944/http://mst.org.br/revista/49/destaque |archive-date=2013-07-19 }}</ref> most of the landless refused his offer of resettlement on the Amazonian frontier, and eventually pressured the military government into expropriating nearby lands for agrarian reform.<ref>Gabriel A. Ondetti, ''Land, protest, and politics: the landless movement and the struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil''. Pennsylvania State University, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-271-03353-2}}, pages 67/69</ref> The Encruzilhada Natalino episode set a pattern. Most of subsequent early development of the MST concerned exactly the areas of southern Brazil where, in the absence of an open frontier, an ideological appeal at an alternate foundation for access to the land—other than formal private property—was developed in response to the growing difficulties [[agribusiness]] posed for family farming.<ref>Hank Johnston, Paul Almeida, eds.: ''Latin American social movements: globalization, democratization, and Transnational Networks''. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-7425-5332-3}}, Chapter 10</ref> The MST also developed what became its chief ''[[modus operandi]]'': local organizing around the concrete struggles of a specific demographic group.<ref>Magda Zanoni, Hugues Lamarche, eds. ''Agriculture et ruralité au Bréil: un autre modèle de developpement'', Paris: Khartala, 2001, {{ISBN|2-84586-173-7}}, page 113</ref>

The MST was officially founded in January 1984, during a National Encounter of landless workers in [[Cascavel]], Paraná,<ref>Marlene Grade & Idaleto Malvezzi Aued, "A busca de uma nova forma do agir humano: o MST e seu ato teleológico", Paper presented at the XIth. Congress of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política, Vitória, 2006; published at ''Textos e Debates'' (UFRR), Federal University of Roraima, Boa Vista-RR, v. I, p. 16-35, 2005.</ref> as Brazil's [[military dictatorship]] drew to a close. Its founding was strongly connected to Catholic-based organizations, such as the [[Pastoral Land Commission]], which provided support and infrastructure.<ref>Mauricio Augusto Font, ''Transforming Brazil: a reform era in perspective''. Lanham, Ma: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8476-8355-9}}, page 94</ref>

During much of the 1980s, the MST faced political competition from the National Confederacy of Agrarian Workers' (CONTAG), heir to the peasant leagues of the 1960s, who sought land reform strictly through legal means, by favoring [[trade union]]ism, and striving to wrestle concessions from bosses for rural workers. But the more aggressive tactics of the MST in striving for access to land gave a political legitimacy that soon outshone CONTAG, which limited itself to trade-unionism in the strictest sense, acting until today as a rural branch of the [[Central Única dos Trabalhadores]] (CUT).<ref>Cf. The description offered by the Trotskyist review ''International Viewpoint'', in the article by João Machado, "The two souls of the Lula government", March 2003 issue (IV348), available at [http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article246] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017101718/http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article246|date=2011-10-17}}</ref> MST eventually all but monopolized political attention as a spokesman for rural workers.<ref>Mauricio Augusto Font, ''Transforming Brazil'', 89</ref>

From the 1980s on, the MST has not maintained a monopoly of land occupations, many of which are carried out by a host of grassroots organizations (dissidents from the MST, trade unions, informal coalitions of land workers). However, the MST is by far the most organized group dealing in occupations, and has enough political leverage to turn occupations into formal expropriations for public purposes. In 1995, only 89 of 198 occupations (45%) were organized by the MST, but these included 20,500 (65%) out of the grand total of 31,400 families involved.<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, Bernardo Mueller, ''Titles, conflict, and land use'', pages 61/62</ref>

=== 1995–2005 Cardoso government ===
Brazil has long history of violent land conflict. During the 1990s, the MST emerged as the most prominent land reform movement in Brazil, and in 1995–1999, led a first wave of occupations<ref>According to MST-friendly [[UNESP]] professor Bernardo Mançano, interview to Giovana Girardi, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.unesp.br/aci_ses/revista_unespciencia/acervo/16/perfil |title=Unesp - Universidade Estadual Paulista - Portal |access-date=2011-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001165107/http://www.unesp.br/aci_ses/revista_unespciencia/acervo/16/perfil |archive-date=2011-10-01 }}</ref> which resulted in violence. The MST, landowners, and the government accused each other of the killings, maimings, and property damage.

In the notorious [[Eldorado de Carajás massacre]] in 1996, nineteen MST members were gunned down, and another 69 were wounded by police as they blocked a state road in [[Pará]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u551569.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Ocupações do MST lembram 13 anos do massacre de Eldorado dos Carajás (PA) - 17/04/2009 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2009-04-17 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016225724/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u551569.shtml |archive-date=2012-10-16 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1997 alone, similar confrontations with police and landowners' security details accounted for two dozen internationally acknowledged deaths.<ref>[[Robert M. Levine]], ''The History of Brazil''. New York: Palgrave- Macmillan, 2003, {{ISBN|1-4039-6255-3}}, page 164</ref>

In 2002, the MST occupied the family farm of then-president [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/brasil/mst/2002/0324mst_action.html |title=www.agp.org &#124; arquivos dos protestos globais: MST action in Brazilian president's farm &#124; 23/2/2002 |publisher=Nadir.org |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204054457/http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/brasil/mst/2002/0324mst_action.html |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> in [[Minas Gerais]], a move publicly condemned by [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva|Lula]], then-leader of the leftist opposition,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31238.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST deve seguir lei, diz Lula - 11/04/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041334/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31238.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> and other prominent members of the PT.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31194.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Entre petistas, maioria é contra ação de sem-terra - 10/04/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041346/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u31194.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30653.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Ato do MST foi "irresponsável", diz Genoino - 27/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-27 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041357/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30653.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> The farm was damaged and looted in the occupation, and a [[combine harvester]], tractor, and several pieces of furniture were destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30607.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Administrador da fazenda de FHC avalia prejuízo em R$ 100 mil - 26/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-26 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041422/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30607.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> MST members also drank all the alcohol at the farm. Later, 16 MST leaders were charged with theft, vandalism, trespassing, kidnapping, and resisting arrest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30559.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Líderes do MST serão julgados por violação de domicílio e furto - 25/03/2002 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2002-03-25 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041431/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u30559.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2005, two undercover police officers investigating cargo truck robberies near an MST homestead<!-- check, this said "stead"--> in Pernambuco were attacked. One was shot dead, and the other tortured; MST was suspected to be involved.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67074.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Um policial é morto e outro é torturado em área do MST - 08/02/2005 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041325/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67074.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Throughout the early 2000s, the MST occupied functioning facilities owned by large corporations, whose activities it considered at odds with the social function of property. On March 8, 2005, the MST invaded a [[Nursery (horticulture)|nursery]] and a research center in [[Barra do Ribeiro]], 56&nbsp;km (34.8 mi) from [[Porto Alegre]], both owned by [[Aracruz Celulose]]. The MST members held local guards captive while they ripped plants from the ground. MST president João Pedro Stédile commented that MST should oppose not only landowners, but also agrobusinesses that partook in "the project of organization of agriculture by transnational capital allied to capitalist farming"—a model he deemed socially backwards and environmentally harmful.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.direitos.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3561&Itemid=2 |title=Direitos Humanos - Palestra de João Pedro Stédile no 5º Congresso do MST |publisher=Direitos.org.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301205034/http://www.direitos.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3561&Itemid=2 |archive-date=2012-03-01 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the words of an anonymous activist: "our struggle is not only to win the land&nbsp;... we are building a new way of life."<ref>Quoted by Jeff Noonan, ''Democratic society and human needs'', Mc Gill -Queen's University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7735-3120-3}}, page 244</ref> The shift had been developing since the movement's 2000 national congress, which focused mainly on the perceived threat of transnational corporations, whether Brazilian or foreign, to both small property in general, and to Brazilian national [[food sovereignty]],<ref>Nik Heynen,ed. ''Neoliberal environments: false promises and unnatural consequences'', Abingdon (UK), Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-415-77149-8}}, page 249</ref> especially in the area of [[intellectual property]].<ref>Ruth Reitan, ''Global activism''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-96605-8}}, page 155</ref> In July 2000, this principle was the impetus for MST to mobilize and lead farmers in an attack against a ship loaded with GM [[maize]] from [[Argentina]] that was docked in [[Recife]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scoones |first=Ian |date=2005 |title=Contentious politics, contentious knowledges: mobilising against GM crops in India, South Africa, and Brazil |url=https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/4053 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230421051044/https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/4053 |archive-date=21 April 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=[[Institute of Development Studies]] |page=12 |type=PDF}}</ref> Since 2000, much of the movement's activism consisted in symbolic acts in opposition of multinational corporations, as "a symbol of the intervention politics of the big monopolies operating in Brazil."<ref>Jagdish N. Bhagwati, ''In defense of globalization''. Oxford University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-19-533093-9}}, page 23 - quoting MST activist on [[International Women's Day]] 2001, protesting before a [[McDonald's]] restaurant in Porto Alegre.</ref>

A possible reason contributing to the change in strategy might have been the perceived shift in government stances in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Cardoso government declared that Brazil "had no need" for land reform, that small farms were not competitive, and were unlikely to increase personal [[income]]s in rural areas.<ref name=":0">William C. Smith, ed. ''Latin American democratic transformations: institutions, actors, and processes''. Malden, MA: Blackwell-Wiley, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9758-8}}, page 259</ref> He believed that it would be better to create skilled jobs, which would cause the land reform issue to recede into the background.<ref>A stance endorsed by former US ambassador to Brazil [[Lincoln Gordon]], known for his support for the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état: Lincoln Gordon, ''Brazil's second chance: en route toward the first world''. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8157-0032-6}}, page 129</ref> Cardoso denounced the MST's actions as aiming for a return to an archaic, agrarian past, and therefore, in conflict with "modernity"—"one of the enabling myths of the [[neoliberal]] discourse."<ref>Eugene Walker Gogol, ''The concept of Other in Latin American liberation: fusing emancipatory philosophic thought and social revolt''. Lanham, MA, Lexington Books, 2002, {{ISBN|0-7391-0330-X}}, page 318</ref>

Cardoso offered lip service to agrarian reform in general, but also described the movement as "a threat to democracy."<ref>Benjamin Keen, Keith Haynes: ''A History of Latin America: Independence to the Present''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-618-78321-2}}, Volume 2, page 526</ref> He compared the MST's demands for subsidized credit, which led to the 1998 occupation of various banks in [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], to bank robbery.<ref>''Veja'', 3 June 1998, reproduced in ''Veja'' digital archive text, "Os 25 anos do MST: invasões, badernas e desafios a lei" [25 years of the MST: invasions, disorder and contempt for the law], 23rd. January 2009, available at {{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/25-anos-mst-invasoes-badernas-desafio-lei?print=1 |title=Os 25 anos do MST: Invasões, badernas e desafio à lei - Brasil - Notícia - VEJA.com |access-date=2011-06-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014181249/http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/25-anos-mst-invasoes-badernas-desafio-lei?print=1 |archive-date=2012-10-14 }}</ref> In a memoir written after he left office, Cardoso expressed sympathy for land reform, stating, "were I not President, I would probably be out marching with them," but also countering, "the image of mobs taking over privately-owned farms would chase away investment, both local and foreign."<ref>Fernando Henrique Cardoso (with Brian Winter), ''The accidental President of Brazil: a memoir''.New York: Publicaffairs, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-58648-324-1}}, page 210</ref> Although Cardoso himself never branded the MST as terrorists, his Minister of Agricultural Development did, and even hypothesized that the MST invaded [[Argentina]] from the north in order to blackmail the Brazilian government into action.<ref>Jorge I. Domínguez, Anthony Jones, eds.: ''The Construction of Democracy: Lessons from Practice and Research''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8018-8595-2}}, page 157</ref> In July 1997, Senior General Alberto Cardoso,<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 November 1998 |title=Discurso na abertura do 12 Fórum Nacional Antidrogas |url=http://www.biblioteca.presidencia.gov.br/presidencia/ex-presidentes/fernando-henrique-cardoso/discursos/1o-mandato/1998-1o-semestre/27-de-novembro-de-1998-discurso-na-abertura-do-i-forum-nacional-antidrogas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230421060348/http://www.biblioteca.presidencia.gov.br/presidencia/ex-presidentes/fernando-henrique-cardoso/discursos/1o-mandato/1998-1o-semestre/27-de-novembro-de-1998-discurso-na-abertura-do-i-forum-nacional-antidrogas |archive-date=21 April 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=Biblioteca da Presidência da República |language=Portuguese |format=PDF}}</ref> Cardoso's Chief of Military Household (''Chefe da Casa Militar'', among other things, a general comptroller over all issues regarding the military and police forces as armed civil servants), expressed concern about participation of MST activists in the then-ongoing police officers' strikes, as a plot to "destabilize" the military.<ref>João R. Martins Filho & Daniel Zirker, "The Brazilian Armed Forces After the Cold War: Overcoming the Identity Crisis". LASA paper, 1998, available at [http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA98/MartinsFilho-Zirker.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426035313/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA98/MartinsFilho-Zirker.pdf|date=2012-04-26}}. Accessed December the 28th. 2011</ref>

In terms of concrete measures, Cardoso's government's approach to land reform was divided: while the administration simultaneously acquired land for settlement and increased taxes on unused land, it also forbade public inspection of invaded land—thereby precluding future expropriation, and the disbursement of public funds to people involved in such invasions.<ref>A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Saturnino M. Borras, Cristóbal Kay,eds., ''Land, poverty and livelihoods in an era of globalization: perspectives from developing and transition countries''.Abingdon: Routledge, 2007, {{ISBN|0-203-96225-7}}, pages 87/88</ref> Cardoso's main land reform project, supported by a [[World Bank]] US$90 million loan, was addressed to ''individuals'' who had experience in farming, and a yearly income of up to US$15,000; they were granted a loan of up to US$40,000 if they could associate with other rural producers in order to buy land from a willing landholder.<ref>Becky Mansfield, ''Privatization: property and the remaking of nature-society relations''. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-7550-0}}, page 166</ref> Thus, this programme catered primarily to substantial small farmers, not to the MST's traditional constituency—the rural poor. Cardoso's project, ''Cédula da Terra'' ("landcard"), did offer previously landless people the opportunity to buy land from landowners, but in a negotiated process.<ref>Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize, Camille Bourguignon, Rogerius Johannes Eugenius van den Brink, eds.: ''Agricultural Land Redistribution: Toward Greater Consensus''. Washington D.C.: The World Bank Publications, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-8213-7962-2}}, pages 295/296</ref>

In the words of an American scholar, despite its efforts in resettlement, the Cardoso government did not confront the prevailing mode of agricultural production: concentrated, mechanized, latifundia-friendly commodity production—and the resulting injustices.<ref>Alfred P. Montero, ''Brazilian politics'', pages 88/89.</ref> In his own words, what Cardoso could not accept about the MST was what he saw not as a struggle for land reform, but a wider struggle against the capitalist system.<ref>Juan David Lindau, Timothy Cheek, ''Market economics and political change: comparing China and Mexico''. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998, {{ISBN|0-8476-8733-3}}, page 70</ref> Therefore, Cardoso's administration tried to initiate tamer social movements for land reform on purely negotiated terms, such as the Movement of Landless Producers (''Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra'', or MAST), organized on a local basis in the [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo State]], around the trade union central Syndical Social Democracy (SDS).<ref>Jurandyr Luciano Sanches Ross,ed. ''Geografia do Brasil'',São Paulo: EDUSP, 2005, {{ISBN|85-314-0242-5}}, page 534</ref>

By contrast, MST leaders emphasized that their practical activity was a response to the poverty of so many people who had little prospects of productive, continuous work in conventional labor markets. This reality was admitted by President Cardoso in a 1996 interview: "I'm not going to say that my government will be of the excluded, for that it cannot be&nbsp;... I don't know how many excluded there will be."<ref>Anthony Peter Spanakos & Cristina Bordin, eds. ''Reforming Brazil''. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7391-0587-6}}, page 103</ref> In 2002, João Pedro Stedile admitted that in plotting the movement's politics, one had to keep in mind "that there are a great many [[lumpenproletariat|lumpens]] in the country areas."<ref>Stedile, "Landless Battalions", interview to Francisco de Oliveira, IN Francis Mulhern, ed., ''Lives on the Left: a Group Portrait''. London: Verso, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-84467-798-6}}, preview available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=F1a9X9nr0oAC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216063640/https://books.google.com/books?id=F1a9X9nr0oAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|date=2016-12-16}}</ref> In Stedile's view, the existence of the large underclass should not be held against the working class character of the movement, because many rural working class had been "absorbed" into the periphery of the urban proletariat.<ref>Tom Mertes, Walden F. Bello, eds., ''A Movement of Movements: Is Another World Really Possible?''. London: 2004, Verso edns., {{ISBN|1-85984-504-5}}, pages 34/35</ref> Such a view is shared by some academic authors, who argue that, behind its avowedly "peasant" character, the MST, as far as class politics is concerned, is mostly a ''semi proletarian'' movement, consisting of congregations of people trying to eke out a living in the absence of formal wage employment, out of a range of activities across a whole section of the social divisions of labour.<ref>David Clark, ed., ''The Elgar Companion to Development Studies''. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, {{ISBN|978-1-84376-475-5}}, page 332</ref>

MST somewhat filled the void left by the decline of the organized labor movement in the wake of Cardoso's neoliberal policies.<ref>William C. Smith,ed. ''Latin American democratic transformations: institutions, actors, and processes''. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9758-8}}, page 258</ref> Therefore, the movement took steps to ally with urban struggles, especially those connected to housing.<ref>Thomas Janoski, ed., ''A handbook of political sociology: states, civil societies, and globalization''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-52620-3}}, page 602</ref> João Pedro Stedile stated that the struggle for land reform would unfold in the countryside, but would be decided in the city, where "political power for structural change" resided.<ref>Douglas H. Boucher,ed. ''The paradox of change: hunger in a bountiful world''. Food First Books, 1999, {{ISBN|0-935028-71-4}}, page 325</ref>

=== 2005–2010 Lula government and March for Agrarian Reform ===

The Lula government was seen by the MST as a leftist and therefore friendly government, so MST decided to shun occupations of public buildings in favor of actions against private landed states{{clarify|date=July 2017}}, in a second wave of occupations starting in 2003.<ref>Cf. Bernardo Mançano, interview.</ref> However, the Lula government's increasingly conservative positions, including its low profile on land reform,<ref>out of a promised grand total of 430,000 resettled families, Lula had managed to actually settle a mere 60,000 in the first two years of his administration</ref><ref>Alfred P. Montero, ''Brazilian politics: reforming a democratic state in a changing world''. Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7456-3361-7}}, page 139</ref> (actually somewhat less than achieved by Cardoso in his first term<ref>Wendy Hunter, ''The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 ''. Cambridge University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-521-73300-7}}, page 153</ref>) impelled the movement to change its stance as early as early 2004, when it again began to occupy public buildings and [[Banco do Brasil]] agencies.

In June 2003, the MST occupied the [[R&D]] farm of the [[Monsanto|Monsanto Company]] in the state of [[Goiás]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2961284.stm |title=Americas &#124; Brazil activists target Monsanto |publisher=BBC News |date=2003-06-03 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901092846/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2961284.stm |archive-date=2011-09-01 |url-status=live }}</ref> On March 7, 2008, a similar action by women activists at another Monsanto facility in [[Santa Cruz das Palmeiras]], [[São Paulo]], destroyed a nursery and an experimental patch of [[genetically modified maize]], slowing ongoing scientific research. MST said they destroyed the facility to protest government support for the extensive use of GMOs supplied by transnational corporations in agriculture. In 2003, Lula authorized the sale and use of GM soybeans, which led MST's Stedile to call him a "[[Transgene|transgenic]] politician."<ref>Marie-Monique Robin, ''The World According to Monsanto'', New York, The New Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-59558-426-7}}, page 277.</ref> The dominance of transnationals over Brazilian seed production was summed by the fact that the Brazilian hybrid seed industry in the early 2000s was already 82% Monsanto-owned,<ref>Saturnino M. Borras, Marc Edelman, Cristóbal Kay, eds.''Transnational agrarian movements confronting globalization'',Malden MA, Blackwell, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9041-1}}, page 184</ref> which the MST saw as detrimental to the development of [[organic agriculture]] in spite of the economic benefits, and enabling possible future health hazards similar to intensive use of [[pesticides]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/node/944 |title=Via Campesina ocupa Monsanto e destrói experimentos em SP &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |publisher=MST |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902203950/http://www.mst.org.br/node/944 |archive-date=2012-09-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Stedile later called Monsanto one of the ten transnational companies that controlled virtually all international agrarian production and [[commodity]] trading.<ref>Erin C. Heil, ''Powerless resistance: a theoretical discussion of power, resistance and the Brazilian Landless Movement''. D, Phil. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2008, page 125. Available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ-YbK_nMd0C] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216061045/https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ-YbK_nMd0C&printsec=frontcover|date=2016-12-16}}</ref> Similarly, in 2006, the MST occupied a research station in [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]] owned by Swiss corporation [[Syngenta]], which had produced GMO contamination near the [[Iguaçu National Park]]. After a bitter confrontation over the existence of the station (which included easing of previous restrictions by the Lula government to allow Syngenta to continue GMO research), the premises were transferred to the Paraná state government, and converted into an agroecology research center.<ref>Michael Ekers, Gillian Hart, Stefan Kipfer, Alex Loftus, eds: ''Gramsci: Space, Nature, Politics''. Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-4443-3970-3}}, pages 154/155</ref>

After an exchange of barbs between Lula and Stedile over what Lula saw as an unnecessary radicalization of the movement's demands,<ref>Peter R. Kingstone, Timothy Joseph Power,eds. ''Democratic Brazil revisited''. University of Pittisburgh Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-8229-6004-4}}, page 47</ref> the MST decided to call a huge national demonstration. In May 2005, after a two-week, 200-odd kilometer march from the city of [[Goiânia]], nearly 13,000 landless workers arrived in their nation's capital, [[Brasília]]. The MST march targeted the U.S. embassy and Brazilian Finance Ministry, rather than President Lula. While thousands of landless carried banners and scythes through the streets, a delegation of 50 held a three-hour meeting with Lula, who donned an MST cap for the cameras. During this session, Lula recommitted to settling 430,000 families by the end of 2006, and to allocating the human and financial resources to accomplish this. He also committed to a range of related reforms, including an increase in the pool of land available for redistribution [Ramos, 2005]. Later, the Lula government would claim to have resettled 381,419 families between 2002 and 2006—a claim disputed by the MST.<ref>Jorge Almeida, ed., ''Brazil in focus: economic, political and social issues''. New York: Nova Science, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-60456-165-4}}, page 20</ref> The movement argued the numbers had been doctored by the inclusion of people already living in areas (national forests and other managed areas of environmental protection, as well as other already existing settlements) where their presence had only been legally acknowledged by the government.<ref>"Folha de S.Paulo Reports: Lula Government Inflates Agrarian Reform Numbers". February 19, 2007, MST site, available at [http://www.mstbrazil.org/news/021907-folha-de-sao-paulo-reports-lula-government-inflates-agrarian-reform-numbers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927151018/http://www.mstbrazil.org/news/021907-folha-de-sao-paulo-reports-lula-government-inflates-agrarian-reform-numbers|date=2011-09-27}}</ref> The MST also criticised Lula's administration to call mere land redistribution by means of handing out of small plots land as "reform," when it was simply a form of [[welfarism]] (''assistencialismo'') that was unable to change the productive system.<ref name=":0"/>

The march was held to demand, among other things, that President Lula implement his own limited agrarian reform plan, rather than spend the project's budget on servicing the national debt [Ramos, 2005]. Several MST leaders met with President [[Lula da Silva]] on May 18, 2005—a meeting that had been resisted by Lula since his taking of office.<ref>Kathryn Hochstetler, ''Civil society in Lula's Brazil''. Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford, Working Paper 57, page 10. Available at {{cite web |url=http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/9365/Kathryn20Hochstedler2057.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-08-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928233030/http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/9365/Kathryn20Hochstedler2057.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-28 }}</ref> The leaders presented Lula with 16 demands, including economic reform, greater public spending, and public housing. In interviews with [[Reuters]], many of the leaders said they still regarded Lula as an ally, but demanded that he accelerate his promised land reforms. However, in September of that year, João Pedro Stedile declared that, in terms of land reform, Lula's government was "finished."<ref>Richard Bourne, ''Lula of Brazil: the story so far ''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-520-24663-8}}, page 139</ref> By the end of Lula's first term, it was clear that the MST had decided to act again as a separate movement, irrespective of the government's agenda.<ref>Kurt Gerhard Weyland, Raúl L. Madrid, Wendy Hunter, eds: ''Leftist Governments in Latin America: Successes and Shortcomings''. Cambridge University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-521-13033-2}}, page 122</ref> As far as the MST was concerned, the greatest gain it received from the Lula government was the ''non-criminalization'' of the movement itself; the tough, anti-occupation measures taken by the Cardoso government were left in abeyance, and not enforced.<ref>Gabriel Ondetti, ''Land, Property and Politics'', page 207</ref> Attempts to officially define the MST as a "terrorist organization" were also opposed by Workers' Party congresspersons.<ref>Arinda Fernandes, "Crime Organizado e Terrorismo:Uma Relação Simbiótica Afetando {{not a typo|a}} Economia Global". ''Revista do Mestrado em Direito da UCB'', n.d.g., page 14. Available at {{cite web |url=http://portalrevistas.ucb.br/index.php/rvmd/article/view/2511/1529 |title=Fernandes |access-date=2011-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713172230/http://portalrevistas.ucb.br/index.php/rvmd/article/view/2511/1529 |archive-date=2012-07-13 }} . Accessed December 16, 2011</ref> Nevertheless, the Lula government never acted in tandem with the MST, according to a general pattern of keeping organized social movements outside the fostering of the government's agenda.<ref>Steven Levitsky, Kenneth M. Roberts, eds. ''The Resurgence of the Latin American Left''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0109-6}}, page 301</ref>

However, as stated by a German author, the Lula government year after year proposed a blueprint for land reform that was regularly blocked by regional agrarian elites.<ref>Christoph Blepp, ''Blockaden und Disparitäten?: Über das Entwicklungspotential und dessen Hindernisse in Brasilien''. GRIN Verlag, 2011, n;p.g., page 10</ref>

Lula's election to the presidency raised the possibility of active government support for land reform, so conservative media increased their efforts to brand the MST's actions as felonies.<ref>Noemí María Girbal-Blacha, Sonia Regina de Mendonça, eds., ''Cuestiones Agrarias en Argentina y Brasil'', Buenos Aires, Prometeo, 2007, {{ISBN|978-987-574-200-0}}, pages 146/147</ref> In May 2005, ''Veja'' accused the MST of helping the [[Primeiro Comando da Capital]] (PCC), the most powerful prison-gang criminal organization in [[State of São Paulo|São Paulo]]. A police [[Telephone tapping|phone tap]] recording of a conversation between PCC leaders mentioned the MST; one of them said he had "just talked with the leaders of the MST," who would "give instructions" to the gang <ref>{{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/110505/p_106.html |title=VEJA on-line |publisher=Veja.abril.com.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102175022/http://veja.abril.com.br/110505/p_106.html |archive-date=2013-11-02 |url-status=live }}</ref> about the best ways to stage what became the largest protest by prisoners' relatives in Brazilian history. On April 18, 2005, some 3,000 relatives protested prevailing conditions in São Paulo's correctional facilities.<ref>Police Brutality Observatory site [http://www.ovp-sp.org/protestos_sap.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220085724/http://ovp-sp.org/protestos_sap.htm|date=2009-12-20}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref> The MST "leaders" were not named. No MST activist, real or alleged, took part in the taped conversations. The MST denied any link in a formal written statement, calling the supposed evidence hearsay, and an attempt to criminalize the movement.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= Terra |date= 2006-05-16 |url= http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/guerraurbana/interna/0,,OI1007590-EI7061,00.html |title= MST descarta ligação com PCC |access-date= 2006-05-22 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606012740/http://noticias.terra.com.br/brasil/guerraurbana/interna/0,,OI1007590-EI7061,00.html |archive-date= 2011-06-06 |url-status= live }}</ref> In the wake of [[9-11|9/11]], Brazilian media tended to describe the MST as "terrorists," lumping it together loosely with various historical and mediatic happenings<ref>Fhoutine Marie Reis Souto, "Mídia e terror: a pesquisa sobre cobertura jornalística do terrorismo no Brasil", page 6. Brazilian Political Science Association (ABCP) paper, available at {{cite web |url=http://cienciapolitica.servicos.ws/abcp2010/arquivos/12_7_2010_16_12_50.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426053812/http://cienciapolitica.servicos.ws/abcp2010/arquivos/12_7_2010_16_12_50.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-26 }}. Accessed December 16, 2011.</ref> in keeping with an international post-9/11 trends of relegating any political movement against existing globalization to beyond the pale, and outside the boundaries of permissible political discourse.<ref>Stanley Aronowitz, Heather Gautney, eds., ''Implicating Empire: Globalization and Resistance in the 21st Century World Order''. New York: Basic Books, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-465-00494-2}}, page 282</ref>

The MST assumes its activities are continuously surveilled by military intelligence.<ref>Alvarado, Arturo, "The Militarization of Internal Security and Its Consequences for Democracy: A Comparison Between Brazil, Mexico and Colombia". APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper. Available at [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1642562] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121035716/https://ssrn.com/abstract=1642562|date=2014-01-21}}</ref> Various intelligence organs, Brazilian and foreign, assume a relationship between the MST and various terrorist groups.<ref>John B. Alexander, "Intelligence Scotomas in Central and South America", ''The Proteus Monograph Series'', Vol. 1, issue 4, March 2008.</ref> The MST is regarded as a source of "civil unrest."<ref>Karl R. DeRouen, Uk Heo: ''Defense and security: a compendium of national armed forces and security policies''. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Calif., Volume I, page. 75; Gary Prevost,ed. ''Neoliberalism and Neopanamericanism: the view from Latin America'', New York: Palgrave, 2002, {{ISBN|0-312-29456-5}}, page 116</ref>

In late 2005, a parliamentary inquiry commission, where landowner-friendly congressmen held a majority, classified the MST's activities as terrorism, and the MST itself as a criminal organization. However, its report met no support from the PT members of the commission, and a senator ripped it up before TV cameras, saying that those who voted for it were "accomplices of murder, people who use slave labor, [and] who embezzle land illegally."<ref>Relatório de CPI chama invasão de terra de "ato terrorista". ''Folha de S. Paulo'', 29 November 2005. Available at [http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/reuters/2005/11/29/ult27u52567.jhtm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406082249/http://noticias.uol.com.br/ultnot/reuters/2005/11/29/ult27u52567.jhtm|date=2012-04-06}}</ref> Nevertheless, based on this report, a bill presented to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006 by Congressman Abelardo Lupion ([[Democrats (Brazil)|Democrats]]- Paraná), proposed making "invading others' property with the end of pressuring the government" a terrorist action, and therefore, a heinous crime. A "heinous" crime in Brazilian law is a felony, designated as such in a 1990 Brazilian law, and those accused of committing them are ineligible for [[Bail|pretrial release]].<ref>Robert Gay, ''Lucia:testimonies of a Brazilian drug dealer's woman''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|1-59213-339-8}}, page 191</ref><ref>Rafael Litvin Villas Bôas, "Terrorismo à brasileira: a retórica da vez da classe dominante contra o MST". ''Revista NERA'', Ano 11, nº. 13, July-Dec./2008. Available at [http://www2.fct.unesp.br/nera/revistas/13/15_villas_boas_13.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425031953/http://www2.fct.unesp.br/nera/revistas/13/15_villas_boas_13.pdf|date=2012-04-25}} Retrieved December 11, 2011</ref>

In April 2006, the MST took over the farm of [[Suzano Papel e Celulose]], a large maker of paper products, in the state of [[Bahia]], because it had more than six square kilometres devoted to [[eucalyptus]] growth.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u77917.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Pedido do Incra faz PM suspender reintegração de posse na Suzano - 27/04/2006 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=2006-04-27 |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000507/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u77917.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> Eucalyptus, a non-native plant, has been blamed for environmental degradation in northeastern Brazil,<ref>[http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/6236/53/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125211634/http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/6236/53/|date=November 25, 2006}}</ref> as well as reducing the availability of land for small agricultural production, called by some as "cornering" producers (''encurralados pelo eucalipto'').<ref>Lateinamerika-Dokumentationsstelle Kassel, ''Tradionelle Völker und Gemeinschaft in Brasilien'', Kassel, 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-86219-150-5}}, page 114</ref>  In 2011, ''Veja'' described such activities as plain theft of eucalyptus wood, quoting an estimate from the state's military police that 3,000 people earned a living in Southern Bahia from theft of wood.<ref>''Veja'', issue 2,216, 11 May 2011</ref>

In 2008, a group of public attorneys from [[Rio Grande do Sul]] who were working with the state's military police issued a report, charging the MST with collusion with international terrorist groups. The report was used in state courts, according to [[Amnesty International]], to justify eviction orders carried out by the police with "excessive use of force."<ref>Amnesty International, ''Informe 2009 Amnistía International'' (in Spanish), Madrid:2009, {{ISBN|978-84-96462-23-6}}, pages 124–125</ref> The group of attorneys made public a previously classified report by the Council of Public Attorneys of Rio Grande do Sul, and asked the state to ban the MST by declaring it an illegal organization.

The report declared further investigation pointless, "as it was public knowledge that the movement and its leadership were guilty of engaging in organized criminality." The report also proposed that where MST activists could "cause electoral disequilibrium," the activists' right to vote be withdrawn by striking them from the voter registry.<ref>Pedrinho A. Guareschi, Alinne Hernandez, Manuel Cardenas, orgs. : ''Representaçoes Sociais em Movimento''. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 2010, {{ISBN|978-85-7430-989-7}}, page 33</ref> Declarations issued at the same time by the State Association of Military Policy Commissioned Officers, in an open [[Red Scare]] vein, declared the MST "an organized movement, striving at instituting a totalitarian state in our country."<ref>Mario Guerreiro, "Ele estava certo e todos estavam errados". Federal University of Santa Catarina paper, n.d.g., available at [http://www.egov.ufsc.br/portal/sites/default/files/anexos/30635-32482-1-PB.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407020533/http://www.egov.ufsc.br/portal/sites/default/files/anexos/30635-32482-1-PB.pdf|date=2012-04-07}}. Accessed December 27, 2011</ref>

Between September 27 and October 7, 2009, the MST occupied an orange plantation in [[Borebi]], State of São Paulo, owned by orange juice multinational [[Cutrale]]. The corporation claimed to have lost R$1.2 million (roughly US$603,000) in damaged equipment, missing pesticide, destroyed crops, and trees cut by MST activists.<ref>"Cutrale afirma que MST causou R$1,2 milhão de prejuízo em sua fazenda de laranja". Agencia Brasil newssite, October 14, 2009, [http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2009-10-14/cutrale-afirma-que-mst-causou-r12-milhao-de-prejuizo-em-sua-fazenda-de-laranja] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019230740/http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2009-10-14/cutrale-afirma-que-mst-causou-r12-milhao-de-prejuizo-em-sua-fazenda-de-laranja|date=2014-10-19}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref> In response, the MST declared the farm to be government property that was illegally embezzled by Cutrale, and that the occupation was intended to protest this, while the destruction was done by provocateurs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vermelho.org.br/noticia.php?id_secao=8&id_noticia=120383 |title=Carta Capital: Os vencdos não se entregam - Portal Vermelho |publisher=Vermelho.org.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614132100/http://www.vermelho.org.br/noticia.php?id_secao=8&id_noticia=120383 |archive-date=2012-06-14 |url-status=live }}</ref> Such questioning of the legality of existing private property by denouncing landowners as holding land in [[adverse possession]] was one of the movement's main political tools.<ref>Boaventura de Sousa Santos, César A. Rodríguez Garavito, eds.: ''Land and Globalization from Below: towards a cosmopolitan legality''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-60735-3}}, page 226</ref> The Cutrale plantation, Fazenda S. Henrique, was occupied by the MST four more times until 2013, and the multinational's property rights over it are being contested in court by the Federal Government, who alleges that the farm lands were set aside as part of a 1910 settlement projects for foreign immigrants, rights over it going afterward astray during the following century.<ref>"MST volta a ocupar fazenda da Cutrale no interior paulista". Agencia Brasil newssite, July 31, 2013, [http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2013-07-31/mst-volta-ocupar-fazenda-da-cutrale-no-interior-paulista] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019230753/http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2013-07-31/mst-volta-ocupar-fazenda-da-cutrale-no-interior-paulista|date=2014-10-19}}. Retrieved October 19, 2014</ref>

During the same period, the MST also repeatedly blocked highways<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u78096.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST pára estrada na Bahia e acampa em Goiânia para exigir reforma agrária - 02/05/2006 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000702/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u78096.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u69159.shtml|title=Folha Online - Brasil - Sem-terra bloqueiam quatro rodovias em Mato Grosso - 23/05/2005|website=www1.folha.uol.com.br|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215224603/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u69159.shtml|archive-date=15 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67747.shtml|title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST interdita rodovia em Pernambuco - 10/03/2005|website=www1.folha.uol.com.br|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215222756/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u67747.shtml|archive-date=15 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u59971.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - MST interdita rodovia e inicia duas marchas no PA - 12/04/2004 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000759/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u59971.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> and railroads,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u61599.shtml |title=Folha Online - Brasil - Depois de parar ferrovia, MST volta a invadir no entorno de BH - 11/06/2004 |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2012-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927000821/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u61599.shtml |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> to create calls for public attention to the plight of landless workers.<ref>Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, and Bernardo Mueller, "Interest Groups, Information Manipulation in the Media, and Public Policy: The Case of the Landless Peasants Movement in Brazil". NBER Working Paper No. 15865, April 2010, page 12. Available at [http://www.nber.org/papers/w15865.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915163411/http://www.nber.org/papers/w15865.pdf|date=2015-09-15}}. Accessed December 16, 2010.</ref>

===2010–present===
The MST wholeheartedly declared support for [[Dilma Rousseff]]'s candidacy, and once elected, she offered the movement very qualified support. In a national broadcast in November 2010, she declared land reform a question "of human rights," that is, a purely humanitarian one.<ref>Genny Petschulat, "Grass-Roots Struggle in the 'Culture of Silence': Collective Dialogue and the Brazilian Landless Movement". University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects, 2010, pages 47/48, available at [http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1351] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430192819/http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1351/|date=2012-04-30}}. Retrieved November the 19th. 2011</ref> As Lula's chief of staff, she supported economic growth over ecological and land reform concerns.<ref>Gustavo de L. T. Oliveira, "Land Regularization in Brazil and the Global Land Grab: A Statemaking Framework for Analysis". International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, 6–8 April 2011, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, p. 12.</ref> In a radio interview during the campaign, she repeated the old conservative trope that economic growth could make Brazilian land issues recede: "What we are doing is doing away with the real basis for the instabilities of the landless. They are losing reasons to fight."<ref>Benjamin Dangl, "Why land reform makes sense for Dilma Rousseff". ''The Guardian'', 27th January 2011, available at [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/27/brazil-farming] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203131718/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/27/brazil-farming|date=2016-12-03}}</ref> Thus, one author described the MST's endorsement of Rousseff as a choice of the "lesser evil."<ref>Eduardo Silva, ed., '' Transnational Activism and National Movements in Latin America: Bridging the Divide''. New York: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-83237-3}} , page 74</ref>

State agencies and private individuals continued to violently oppose the movement's activities. On 16 February 2012, eighty families were evicted from an occupation in [[Alagoas]] of a farm rented to a [[sugar cane mill|sugar mill]] awash in unpaid debts.<ref>"Polícia realiza despejo em acampamento do MST no estado de Alagoas". MST site, {{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/Policia-realiza-despejo-em-acampamento-do-MST |title=Polícia realiza despejo em acampamento do MST no estado de Alagoas &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2012-02-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303023154/http://www.mst.org.br/Policia-realiza-despejo-em-acampamento-do-MST |archive-date=2012-03-03 }}. Retrieved February the 22nd. 2012</ref> According to MST activist Janaina Stronzake, MST assumes that landowners have a hit list of MST leaders. Many have in fact been killed, although some murders were doctored to make them look like accidents.<ref>Mª Ángeles Fernández,J. Marcos, eds., ''Diez encuentros incómodos con América del Sur: Diez entrevistas a diez voces críticas del continente''. Hornillo de Cartuja (Granada, Spain): Crac, 2013, page 30 (e-book)</ref> In April 2014, a [[Global Witness]] report called Brazil "the most dangerous place to defend rights to land and the environment," with at least 448 people killed between 2002 and 2013 in disputes over environmental rights and access to land.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalwitness.org/library/sharp-rise-environmental-and-land-killings-pressure-planet%E2%80%99s-resources-increases-%E2%80%93-report |title=Sharp rise in environmental and land killings as pressure on planet's resources increases – report |access-date=2014-04-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420112350/http://www.globalwitness.org/library/sharp-rise-environmental-and-land-killings-pressure-planet%E2%80%99s-resources-increases-%E2%80%93-report |archive-date=2014-04-20 }}</ref> A report for the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission, ''Land Conflicts in Brazil 2013'', estimated that land struggles were involved in 34 murders in Brazil in 2013, and 36 in 2012.[http://www.cptnacional.org.br/index.php/publicacoes-2/noticias-2/12-conflitos/2032-cpt-lancara-o-relatorio-conflitos-no-campo-brasil-2013]

On April 16, 2012, a group of MST activists occupied the headquarters of the [[Ministry of Agrarian Development (Brazil)|Ministry of Agrarian Development]] in Brasília, as part of the movement's regular "Red April" campaign, a yearly nationwide occupation initiative in honor of the April 1996 [[Eldorado dos Carajás massacre]].<ref>"MST invade prédio do Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário". Folha.com newssite, April the 16th. 2012, available at [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076642-mst-invade-predio-do-ministerio-do-desenvolvimento-agrario.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232652/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076642-mst-invade-predio-do-ministerio-do-desenvolvimento-agrario.shtml|date=2013-12-30}}</ref> Minister [[Pepe Vargas]] declared ongoing talks between the government and the MST suspended for the duration of the occupation.<ref>"Governo suspende negociações após MST invadir ministério". Folha.com newssite, April the 16th. 2012, available at [http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076696-governo-suspende-negociacoes-apos-mst-invadir-ministerio.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231000702/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/1076696-governo-suspende-negociacoes-apos-mst-invadir-ministerio.shtml|date=2013-12-31}}</ref>

Land activists were dissatisfied with the slowing pace of official land reform projects under the Rousseff government. Fewer families were officially settled in 2011 than in the previous 16 years. Government reaction to the occupation sparked widespread accusations from the PT base that Rousseff had sold out.<ref>"Dilma fights accusations of selling out, risks losing party support". ''Global Post'', April 6, 2012, available at [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/dilma-fights-accusations-selling-out-risks-losing-party-support] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414232007/http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/dilma-fights-accusations-selling-out-risks-losing-party-support|date=2012-04-14}}</ref> In a 2012 interview, Stedile admitted that the movement had not benefited from the policies of the PT administrations, since the coalition governments of the PT could not act politically on behalf of land reform.<ref>Interview, ''Jornal dos Economistas'', no.278, November 2012, pages 6/7</ref>

Both political pundits and activists thought Rousseff's first term was a lean period for land reform, and mainstream media called the MST "tamed" by the two consecutive PT administrations, and drained of mass support by steady economic growth and expanding employment—denying the movement its chief ''raison d'être''. In 2013, MST attempted only 110 occupations.<ref>"Em 2013, MST registra o menor número de invasões durante governos do PT". ''O Globo'' , January 1, 2014, [http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/em-2013-mst-registra-menor-numero-de-invasoes-durante-governos-do-pt-11192302] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106031656/http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/em-2013-mst-registra-menor-numero-de-invasoes-durante-governos-do-pt-11192302|date=2014-01-06}} Retrieved January 5, 2014</ref> The same year saw another low, with only 159 families resettled. MST National Coordinator João Paulo Rodrigues said that the federal government's reliance on [[agribusiness]] exports for procuring [[hard currency]] was the main reason the Rousseff administration did not advance land reform, and even went backwards in some cases.<ref>''Século Diário'', December 28, 2013, [http://seculodiario.com.br/14632/10/mst-2013-fica-marcado-como-o-pior-ano-da-reforma-agraria-no-pais-1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226204130/http://seculodiario.com.br/14632/10/mst-2013-fica-marcado-como-o-pior-ano-da-reforma-agraria-no-pais-1|date=2013-12-26}}. Retrieved December 29, 2013</ref> The only recent advances in land reform policies had come in programs, such as the National Program for School Meals (PNAE) and Food Catering Plan (PAA), which purchased food from land reform farmers for use at public schools and other government facilities. However, Rodrigues disputed that such programs were "entirely disproportionate to what [was] being offered [in terms of public money, subsidized credits, etc.] to agribusiness." He concluded that the only chance for land reform in Brazil would be a kind of [[joint venture]] between small producers and urban working class consumers, as simple [[land redistribution]] would be fated to fail, as it had in [[Venezuela]], "where [[Hugo Chávez]] stockedpiled seven million [[hectares]] of nationalized land property which remained unused for want of proper peasants."<ref>" 'Agora estão tentando privatizar inclusive o ar', diz João Pedro Stédile" - IG newssite, December 11, 2013, [http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/politica/2013-12-11/agora-estao-tentando-privatizar-inclusive-o-ar-diz-joao-pedro-stedile.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054037/http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/politica/2013-12-11/agora-estao-tentando-privatizar-inclusive-o-ar-diz-joao-pedro-stedile.html|date=2013-12-14}}. Retrieved December 30, 2013</ref>

The PT government's base generally felt that the vested interest of agribusiness in setting development policies during the Lula and Rousseff administrations hampered aggressive policies of expropriation and land reform.<ref>Armando Boito Jr. & Tatiana Berringer, "BRASIL: CLASSES SOCIAIS, NEODESENVOLVIMENTISMO E POLÍTICA EXTERNA NOS GOVERNOS LULA E DILMA".REVISTA DE SOCIOLOGIA E POLÍTICA V. 21, Nº 47: 31-38 SET. 2013. Available at [http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs/index.php/rsp/article/viewFile/34470/21378] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111623/http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs/index.php/rsp/article/viewFile/34470/21378|date=2015-04-27}}. Retrieved April 19, 2015</ref>

In November 2014, amid the radicalization surrounding Rousseff's reelection, an unannounced visit to Brazil by Venezuelan Minister for Communities and Social Movements [[Elias Jaua]] led to an information exchange agreement in agro-ecology between the MST and the Venezuelan government. The visit and agreement created tension among the conservatives in the Brazilian Congress; Senator and landowner [[Ronaldo Caiado]] described it as "an arrangement between a high-placed representative of a foreign government and an unlawful entity, aimed at building a socialist society," and argued for a clearly more conservative stance on land reform, and therefore, less maneuvering room for the MST.<ref>George Meszaros, ''Social Movements, Law and the Politics of Land Reform: Lessons from Brazil''. London: Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-415-47771-0}} , page 20</ref> The movement described Caiado's reaction as evidence that "conservative sectors are hostile to any form of grassroots participation [in the political process]."<ref>"MST defende acordo de cooperação assinado com ministro venezuelano". Agencia Brasil, ''Carta Capital'', 10 November 2014, available at [http://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/mst-defende-acordo-de-cooperacao-assinado-com-ministro-venezuelano-9820.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113165759/http://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/mst-defende-acordo-de-cooperacao-assinado-com-ministro-venezuelano-9820.html|date=2014-11-13}}. Retrieved November 13, 2014</ref>

In an even clearer sign of limited room, Rousseff chose [[Kátia Abreu]], the notorious female landowner, to be a member of her second-term cabinet.<ref>"Lil' Miss Deforestation", who had clashed in public with the MST over the issue of [[forced labour|slavelabour]]</ref><ref>Bret Wallach, ''A World Made for Money: Economy, Geography, and the Way We Live Today''.University Of Nebrasca Press:2015, {{ISBN|978-0-8032-9891-0}} , page 218; Francesco Giappichini, ''Brasile terzo millennio''. Lulu Author: 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-4709-2543-7}} , page 216</ref>  However, some have suggested that the ongoing tension between the MST and the PT, far from signaling an impending end, on the contrary, suggested a ''reconfiguration'' of the MST, from a single-issue movement to one with a wider focus on political and social emancipation.<ref>Jan Nederveen Pieterse,Adalberto Cardoso, eds., ''Brazil Emerging: Inequality and Emancipation''. London: Routledge, 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-415-83704-0}} , Chapter 6</ref> Since the 1990s, such a tendency has been expressed in the integration of MST with various other grassroots organizations in a network sponsored by progressive Catholics, the CMP (''Central de Movimentos Populares'', or Union of Popular Movements),<ref>Lúcio Flávio de Almeida & Félix Ruiz Sánchez. "Um grão menos amargo das ironias da história: o MST e as lutas sociais contra o neoliberalismo." Lutas Sociais-Desde 1996 - {{ISSN|1415-854X}} (1998): 77-91.</ref> through which the MST developed its collaboration with its urban "sister" organization, the MTST.<ref>Jeffery R. Webber,Barry Carr, eds. ''The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire''.Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,2013, {{ISBN|978-0-7425-5757-4}} , pages 101/102</ref>