Epilogue

The Epilogue reflects on the future of the MST’s political struggle—and that of the Brazilian left more broadly—in the context of the 2016 ousting of the Workers’ Party (PT) from the federal government and the 2018 presidential election of ultra-right conservative Jair Bolsonaro. Although Bolsonaro’s rise to power is a serious setback for the movement, the core argument of the book still holds: the MST’s thirty-five-year strategic engagement with the Brazilian state significantly expanded its internal capacity, including its organizational structure, resource base, and collective leadership, and the movement is unlikely to disappear in the near future. This long march through the institutions was only possible because activists engaged in contentious political mobilization, while also prefiguring their social and economic vision within a variety of state spheres and under a diversity of political regimes. Even in the new political context, activists will be able to defend many of their institutional gains, helping the movement withstand, if not fully deflect, this far-right resurgence.

Ceará

Chapter 6 analyzes the MST’s engagement with public schools in Ceará in the late 2000s, in a very different context, when the movement’s educational initiatives are already recognized nationally. During this period, MST activists in Ceará win access to four high schools in their settlements, specifically designated as escolas do campo (school of the countryside). Chapter 6 shows how the national context, while not determining of regional trajectories, directly influences local relations between movement activists and local state officials. More specifically, a conservative government in Ceará agrees to work with the MST due to increasing external pressure. In contrast, São Paulo was able to deflect this national advocacy, illustrating that high-capacity states can still override the influence of national trends. This chapter also shows the evolution of the MST’s pedagogical practices and what the MST’s contentious co-governance of public education looks like in the contemporary context.

Rio Grande do Sul

Chapter 4 focuses on the MST’s educational struggle in Rio Grande do Sul, where the movement first began to experiment with new pedagogical approaches in the early 1980s. Rio Grande do Sul is an ideal case of state-movement cooperation: well-organized MST activists helped a left-leaning PT government take power in a state with a high capacity for educational governance. Once MST leaders institutionalized their proposal, they continued to co-govern these initiatives, even after the state withdrew its financial support. However, the second part of the chapter illustrates that this is still a fragile relationship: a right-leaning government that came to power a decade later successfully attacked these educational initiatives and weakened the movement. The argument of this chapter is that a combination of disruptive tactics and institutional presence is critical to successfully engaging the state; however, regime type can also affect movement outcomes.

Transforming Universities to Build a Movement

Chapter 2 focuses on the MST’s most important educational program, the National Program for Education in Areas of Agrarian Reform (PRONERA), created in 1998 and put under the auspices of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). Through PRONERA the MST created its first university bachelor’s degree program, which enhanced activists’ political and technical capacities and integrated them into the movement. At the same time the MST’s educational vision repeatedly came into conflict with established educational norms, even in a university with progressive and supportive professors. The second part of the chapter analyzes the expansion of PRONERA and how its structure of triple governance within INCRA has allowed for ample social movement participation. In 2008, there was an explicit attack on this program, exemplifying that the institutionalization of social movement goals has to be constantly defended through contentious mobilization.

Introduction: Education and the Long March through the Institutions

The Introduction presents the basic goals of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement’s agrarian reform struggle and explains how its educational proposal is part and parcel of achieving those goals. Then it outlines the three arguments of this book: engaging formal institutions can contribute to the internal capacity of movements; combining contentious and institutional tactics is an effective movement strategy; and the government’s political orientation, the state’s capacity for educational governance, and a social movement’s own infrastructure condition the possibilities for institutional change. The chapter argues for a Gramscian perspective on social movement–state relations, which views public institutions as an ambiguous sphere that protects the state from attack and is also an arena for resistance. Through the contentious co-governance of public education, movements can integrate more youth and women into the movement, equip movement leaders with professional degrees, and allow activists to prefigure their social visions.

Pernambuco

Chapter 5 analyzes the MST’s attempt to transform public schools in the state of Pernambuco, beginning in the late 1990s after the movement already developed a national pedagogical proposal. This chapter argues that regime type is not as important in the context of states with low levels of capacity for implementing policy goals. In the first case of Santa Maria da Boa Vista, the MST’s increasing capacity for educational governance convinced multiple clientelistic regimes that it was worthwhile to collaborate with the movement. In addition, activists’ ability to garner the consent of municipal public school teachers pushed forward the movement’s educational program. The second case of Água Preta shows that the MST’s own movement infrastructure is a major factor that determines social movement outcomes. In this case, while the same political opportunities are open in Água Preta as in Santa Maria da Boa Vista, the internal divides within the settlements in Água Preta prevent local leadership development and thus hamstring activists’ ability to participate in the public schools.

Pedagogical Experiments in the Brazilian Countryside

Chapter 1 analyzes the pedagogical experiments that MST activists developed in the Brazilian countryside in the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1980s these educational experiments were largely isolated initiatives in dozens of different camps and settlements. There was room to experiment with pedagogical alternatives even under a dictatorship, partially due to the lack of state presence in these rural areas. In 1987, the MST leadership made education an official concern of the movement and founded the national MST education sector. Then, in the 1990s, MST leaders refined their educational proposal through their own teacher training programs, which became spaces for pedagogical experimentation and the prefiguration of alternative social and political values. These experiments took place under a conservative and antagonistic national government. In 1997, the MST published its first national educational manifesto, summarizing the different components of its educational approach.

Conclusion

The Conclusion reflects on the significance of the MST’s educational initiatives for understanding states, social movements, and education. The chapter revisits the theoretical claims in the Introduction and clarifies how activists’ long march through the institutions sustains their movements. It outlines the exact mechanisms that facilitated the MST’s ability to lead this massive process of institutional change. It also makes a case for why public education is a strategic sphere for social movement participation. Finally, the chapter describes the implications of this study for understanding the consequences of social movements’ contentious co-governance of state institutions in Latin America and globally.

From the Pedagogy of the MST to Educação do Campo

Chapter 3 shows how the institutionalization of movement goals can sometimes look like a process of social movement absorption. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the MST’s local educational practices in areas of agrarian reform evolved into a national proposal for an alternative educational approach in the entire Brazilian countryside. This proposal, which became known as Educação do Campo (Education of the Countryside), was explicitly linked to an alternative vision for rural development. Between 2004 and 2012 this educational proposal was implemented in the Ministry of Education (MEC) through several laws, an office, and a series of programs. However, the MEC’s hierarchical organization, focus on best practices, and need to rapidly expand its educational programs undermined the MST’s ability to participate—even with a federal government historically aligned with the movement. During this period, agribusiness groups also began to embrace Educação do Campo, leading to a watering down of the original proposal.