By Alejandra Garcia on January 20, 2026
MST conference in Salvador Bahia
Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) is celebrating more than four decades of struggle for Popular Agrarian Reform, consolidating itself as one of the largest and most influential social movements in the world. With nearly two million members and a trajectory marked by resistance, the MST reaches its 42nd anniversary reaffirming its historic project of social justice, popular sovereignty, and structural transformation of the Brazilian countryside.
In this context, the 14th National Meeting of the MST is taking place over five days at the Agricultural Exhibition Park in Salvador, Bahia, bringing together around 3,000 activists from across the country. The event, inaugurated on Monday, aims to strengthen the movement’s strategic plan for the struggle for land, the construction of Popular Agrarian Reform, and the accumulation of forces toward socialism.
The discussions at the Meeting have addressed central issues such as the role of capital in agriculture, Brazil’s economic and political situation, and the role of the MST as an organized social force. The event also includes an assessment of the movement’s work in key areas such as education, agroecology, cooperation, and agro-industrialization.
Founded in 1984, the MST organizes rural workers and peasant families to occupy unproductive land and demand the democratization of access to land, under the historic slogan “Land for those who work it.” Throughout its history, the movement has transformed unproductive large landholdings into productive settlements, while also becoming a relevant actor in the production of organic and healthy food.
Despite having faced deeply adverse contexts, particularly during the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, which launched an open offensive against land occupations, the MST not only resisted but managed to grow stronger. Its underlying objective remains to fulfill the unmet promises of Brazil’s democratic transition and to break with the colonial relations that still dominate the countryside.
Over the past decade, the movement revitalized its historic mission through a renewed political strategy. In the face of criminalization, the MST tactically scaled back some of its actions and expanded its dialogue with urban sectors, especially the progressive middle class. As a result, public opinion began to see the MST not only as a peasant movement, but as a project of national transformation.
In this process, food became a central aspect of its agenda. The production of cheap, healthy, and organic food made Agrarian Reform a concrete and everyday demand for broad sectors of society. Both those seeking healthy food and those in need of affordable prices found a viable proposal in the MST. This approach also forced “desarrollistas” (developmentalist)* sectors to recognize that the movement offers real economic, political, and social alternatives.
¨¨That does not mean, of course, that by raising the banner of food the movement has abandoned the struggle against landowners, imperialism, or capitalism. It simply means that the MST also proposes another vision of society,” said Eliane Oliveira, a member of the movement’s national leadership, during the Meeting.
The internationalist character of the MST was also present at the forum. In a political statement, the movement expressed its solidarity with Venezuela and demanded the release of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, denouncing their kidnapping by the United States. For the MST, the defense of Venezuelan sovereignty is inseparable from the struggle for Popular Agrarian Reform and resistance to capitalism in Latin America.
“This is a time for study and celebration, but also for taking stock of more than 40 years of struggle and resistance,” movement leaders stated, and concluded: “The struggle for land is a struggle for food, dignity, sovereignty, and a new national project.”
* Developmentalism, or the developmental model, more specifically economic developmentalism, is the current of thought and set of economic policies that considers economic growth and development as fundamental factors for the advancement and progress of societies.
Alejandra Garcia is the main correspondent in Havana for Resumen Latinoamericano in English, she is also an evening anchor for Telesur tv.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano in English