Brazil’s Massive Landless Workers’ Movement Leads the Way

After 40 years of struggle, Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement is now at nearly two million members and taking center stage in the fight for democracy and equality. It’s done that by flying the most unlikely militant banner of all: organic food.

If you visited Brazil in the last few years, you will have seen it: “the other red hat.” Now a trendy accessory on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, the decidedly anti-MAGA baseball cap represents not the hard right but the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST).

At nearly two million members strong, the MST is now likely the world’s largest social movement, battle-hardened now after four decades, demanding agrarian reform. Even more impressively, the MST has thrived under adverse conditions, namely the fa