Os Guarani-Kaiowá frente aos processos de expropriação (de terras) e exploração (do trabalho)

Abstract

This dissertation deepens the historical and sociological analysis of the territorial expropriation and the exploitation of the labor force of the Guarani-Kaiowá people in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, articulating both phenomena as complementary dimensions of the development of dependent capitalism in Brazil. The text shows that, since the nineteenth century, the actions of the Companhia Matte Larangeira inaugurated the systematic process of plundering Indigenous lands, based on the exploitation of erva-mate (yerba mate) and the use of forced Indigenous labor. The state concession granted to the company consolidated the formation of the latifundium (large landed estate), which was born “under the sign of violence against native populations.” This land structure is interpreted as a central element of capitalist accumulation and imperialist domination, perpetuating forms of economic and extra-economic coercion. Throughout the twentieth century, the State’s Indigenous policy — first through the SPI and later the FUNAI — consolidated the confinement of the Guarani-Kaiowá in small reserves, reducing their territories to less than 1% of their original area. The imposition of “captain” leaders and the destruction of traditional organization (based on the tekoharuvicha) disintegrated Indigenous social systems and facilitated their forced integration into precarious wage labor in farms and sugar mills. The work draws on authors such as Marx, Mariátegui, and Cueva, among others, to explain that territorial expropriation and Indigenous labor exploitation are two sides of the same logic of capital reproduction in the periphery. The reserves functioned as a labor reserve army available for overexploitation, while racist ideology legitimized domination. The dissertation concludes that the contemporary struggle of the Guarani-Kaiowá for land retomadas (reoccupations) represents not only cultural resistance but also a form of confrontation with the landowning structure and the capitalist/imperialist system. This resistance — marked by violence and criminalization — expresses the continuity of the historical struggle for self-determination and the recovery of tekohas, configuring a movement to “expropriate the expropriators.”