Solidarity Economy and Agricultural Cooperatives: the Experience of the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement
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Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online www.AgDevJournal.com Solidarity economy and agricultural cooperatives: The experience of the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement Marie-Josée Massicotte * School of Political Studies, Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Submitted August 28, 2013 / Revised March 3 and April 23, 2014 / Accepted April 24, 2014 / Published online June 23, 2014 Citation: Massicotte, M.-J. (2014). Solidarity economy and agricultural cooperatives: The experience of the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 4(3), 155–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2014.043.011 Copyright © 2014 by New Leaf Associates, Inc. Abstract dynamics and movement-building among MST Based on field research in southern Brazil, this participants as they interact with one another and paper examines successful experiences of are shaped by daily practices in their collective encampment, and especially of two agricultural struggle for land access and justice; (2) how they cooperatives of the Landless Rural Workers foster alternative imaginaries (vision, hope, Movement (MST) as part of the solidarity economy. projects), forms of production, and social These co-ops exemplified collective searches for reproduction that nurture greater autonomy, better living conditions to respond to people’s solidarity, cooperation, and democratic needs and hopes, beside and beyond the market participation; and (3) how various forms of economy. The paper thus explores (1) community cooperation allow MST participants to appropriate, defy and transform dominant norms and practices Note: This article draws from a joint presentation and article in their everyday lives. The latter process is crucial (Massicotte & Marques, 2012) with Dan F. Marques, PhD for researchers and activists interested in social candidate at the University of Ottawa, at the workshop on change since these forces are contributing to Political Economy and Political Ecology held at the Canadian opening up spaces that allow the emergence of new Political Science Association Conference in Edmonton, norms and values, intertwined with new practices Canada, in 2012. Translation of all quotations in this paper are and ways of being in the making, despite existing by the author or by Dan F. Marques, research assistant. obstacles and challenges. * Marie-Josée Massicotte, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, FSS 7044/Faculté des sciences sociales Keywords (FSS) 7044; 120, rue Université; Université d’Ottawa/ agricultural cooperatives, agroecology, Brazil, University of Ottawa; Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada; community economies, cooperation, food studies, +1-613-562-5800, poste 2732; [email protected] MST, peasant movements, social justice, solidarity Author’s website: http://www.massicotteresearch.com economy Volume 4, Issue 3 / Spring 2014 155 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online www.AgDevJournal.com Introduction The MST is one of the most significant mass In Latin America, the solidarity economy is movements in Latin America, in term of member- organized around a variety of experiences, partly in ship, longevity, and sociopolitical influence. It was response to the hardships created by neoliberalism officially launched in 1984 following a series of since the 1980s, and partly building on values of isolated land occupations toward the end of the mutual help, various forms of exchanges, and the 1970s, when the military regime became increas- creativity of peoples (Gaiger, 2007; Souza da Silva ingly contested. These rural struggles were reac- & Feijó Fagundes, 2011). Such values and experi- tions to land concentration and the hardships faced ences are not equally shared or maintained, how- by poor rural populations linked to the moderniza- ever, by all rural families and communities. They tion project that promoted the development of are continually transformed through interactions agribusinesses and hydroelectric megadams. Thou- with other values and practices (e.g., individualism, sands of farming families have been pushed toward competitiveness), and their proponents are facing industrializing and now overcrowded urban centers, multiple challenges and obstacles. The solidarity without many employment opportunities. In fact, economy continues to be depicted and perceived as since the colonization of Brazil, fertile land has a fragile, marginal, and/or temporary survival strat- remained highly concentrated among a handful of egy (Mourão Vieira, 2005, p.11), due in part to the mostly white male landowners, drastically deepen- adoption of a set of policies supporting an indus- ing the crises in the countryside (Wright, A. L., & trial model of specialized monocultures. In this Wolford, 2003; Stédile & Fernandes, 1999). This context, it is crucial for researchers and activists helps to explain why Brazil still has one of the interested in social change and justice to explore most inequal income distributions in the world specific cases where communities have succeeded (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística in sustaining cooperation, solidarity, and autono- [IBGE], 2013). Yet it is only one side of the story. mous forms of governance. These forces are open- The two MST agricultural cooperatives under ing up spaces for alternative norms and practices, study here exemplify another side: that of collective based on different values and sociopolitical pro- searches for better living conditions that rely on jects, as well as new ways of imagining life and alternative economies and mutual help. They ex- modes of interactions within communities plicitly challenge the dominant agribusiness model (Wittman, 2007). These norms and practices are by appropriating and subverting the dominant already playing a critical role in shaping societies, discourse on what is possible and most effective; even as they remain largely invisible and fragile (de they defy the capitalist model and create innovative Sousa Santos, 2006, 2010; Gibson-Graham, 2006). techniques (see de Certeau’s “arts of doing,” 1990) This paper focuses on encampment experi- based on different norms and “real utopias” ences, and especially on two successful cases of (Wright, E. O., 2010). The paper thus explores: (1) agricultural production cooperatives of the Land- community dynamics among MST participants as less Rural Workers Movement (MST, its Portu- they interact and are shaped by daily practices in guese acronym) in the southern region of Brazil.1 their collective struggles for land access and justice; (2) how they foster alternative imaginaries (vision, hope, projects), forms of production, and social 1 Encampment (acampamento) refers to the site and period reproduction that nurture greater autonomy, soli- during which landless individuals are occupying a piece of land — usually in very precarious conditions, facing for example, darity, cooperation, and democratic participation; food, weather and physical insecurities — and asking the and (3) how various forms of cooperation allow Brazilian governement to proceed with its expropriation and MST participants to appropriate, defy, and trans- distribution, as required by articles 184 and 186 of the 1988 form dominant norms and practices in their Constitution, when land does not fulfill its social function. The everyday lives. assentamento, or settlement, is the site legally allocated to a group of farming families where they can begin to access credit and other resources to move toward more stability. (For & Rocha, 2002; Stédile & Fernandes, 1999; Wright & Wolford, a good and accessible introduction to the MST, see Branford 2003.) 156 Volume 4, Issue 3 / Spring 2014 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online www.AgDevJournal.com Methodology interviews, transcriptions, and translations. This qualitative analysis is based on field research This paper specifically examines two case conducted between 2005 and 2011, mostly in studies. The first, the Cooperativa de Produção southern Brazil. It relies on document analysis of Agropecuária União do Oeste (Cooperunião), is an primary and secondary literature (MST websites, agricultural co-op created in 1990 and located in articles, documentaries, pamphlets, and symbols, as the state of Santa Catarina, very close to the well as governmental documents, mass media Argentinian border, in the municipality of Dionisio coverage, and scholarly books and articles) to iden- Cerqueira (see Map 1). Among the first co-ops of tify and analyze the norms, values, and dynamics of the MST, the Cooperunião is economically suc- MST communities that orient their everyday strug- cessful and self-sufficient. Today, all 60 families of gles for social change and justice. This was comple- the settlement, covering 2,965 acres (1,200 hec- mented by open-ended, semidirected interviews tares), are part of the Cooperunião. They produce (lasting 40 to 140 minutes), extensive informal collectively everything they need to ensure their discussions, and participatory observation during subsistence, including poultry, fish, corn, milk, multiple visits to encampments and settlements of honey, fruits, vegetables, and tea. Their most the MST, as well as at the MST national secretariat, important output is conventionally produced two MST state secretariats, the MST schools poultry, which has expanded to the point that more Florestan Fernandes and Milton Santos,