Questão agrária e organização sindical de trabalhadores rurais

Abstract

The organization of the peasantry in the struggle for land is the result of the contradictions of capitalist development in the countryside. The alliance between capital and landowners, made possible by the modernization of the latifundium, intensified the agrarian question in Brazil. Since the construction of the New Republic, forms of resistance have been observed combining occupations and encampments as the main instrument of social claim for the creation of rural settlements. In this sense, we analyze the union organizations that mediate these camps with the State to make agrarian reform, in the southern region of Mato Grosso do Sul, namely the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT) and the Federation of Rural Workers in Agriculture (FETAGRI). The results showed that the union organization experienced impasses in the struggle for land, because rural unionism prioritizes the negotiation within the state to the detriment of the clash with the dominant political forces. The main characteristic found in the empirical research was the decentralization of land occupations by the camped. This attitude has caused obstacles in the organization, because its actions are restricted to the periodic meetings as main political activity. The alternatives presented by trade union mediation are the obtaining of lots through funding from the National Land Credit Program (PNCF). It is concluded that the elements described in the course of the study present challenges for the workers in promoting solutions for agrarian issues that go beyond the limits of consensus and negotiation.