Landless Workers' Movement

Landless Workers' Movement (Portuguese: Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, or simply MST) is a social movement in Brazil, being generally regarded as one of the greatest (or, according to some, the greatest) largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated informal 1.5 million membership in 23 out of Brazil's 26 states. According to the MST itself, its aims are: firstly, to fight for access to the land for poor workers in general, something to be carried out, secondly, through land reform in Brazil, and, thirdly, through activism around social issues impinging on the achievment of land possession, such as unequal income distribution, racism, gender issues, media monopolies, etc.

In a shorter, alternative formulation, the MST strives at the achievment of a social covenant provinding a self-sustainable way of life for the poor living in rural areas.

Following in the tracks of various messianic or partisan-inspired movements for land reform in Brazil, the MST differs from its previous counterparts in its being mostly a single-issue movement, treating land reform as a self-justifying cause. It claims its effort at land occupations are legally justified and rooted in the most recent Constitution of Brazil (1988), by interpreting a passage which states that land property should fulfill a social function. It also claims, based on 1996 census statistics, that just 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all arable land in the country.