The MST has settled roughly 370,000 families on land they occupied and claimed.
Brazil's 1964 Land Statute recognized the right of the state to expropriate unproductive land for redistribution, but implementation was negligible under two decades of military rule.1 When civilian government returned in 1985, roughly 1 percent of landowners controlled 44 percent of Brazil's arable land, while 4.8 million rural families had no land at all.2
The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, the Landless Workers' Movement, was formally founded in January 1984 in Cascavel, Parana, bringing together Catholic pastoral workers, rural labor unions, and landless families from multiple southern states.3 Its primary tactic was organized land occupation: families would identify constitutionally unproductive land, establish encampments, and pressure the government to expropriate and redistribute it.
By the early 2000s, the MST had become the largest social movement in Latin America, with an estimated 1.5 million members.4 Settled communities, called assentamentos, developed cooperative farms, built schools, and established health clinics. The MST created its own educational network, operating roughly 1,800 public schools and partnering with universities to offer literacy programs and technical training.5
The movement's relationship with successive Brazilian governments has been contentious. Under President Lula da Silva, the pace of land distribution increased, though MST leaders argued it remained insufficient. Under the Bolsonaro administration, the MST faced heightened confrontation and criminalization of land occupations.
The movement draws on the liberation theology tradition of the Catholic Church and the pedagogical philosophy of Paulo Freire, whose concept of "conscientization" shaped the MST's educational programs.5 According to movement-aligned sources, roughly 370,000 families have been settled through MST-initiated occupations.4