Is there dissension between Lula and his main ally? In recent weeks, the left-wing president has had to face up to the demands of Brazil's largest mass organization, the Landless Workers' Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST), whose activists have stepped up their protests and stunts. They are doing so at the risk of irritating, or even undermining, the head of state they helped elect in October 2022.
The most recent action took place on July 31 in Petrolina, in the heart of the arid Sertão Nordestino in Brazil's north. Thousands of MST members spectacularly occupied a farm, owned by the state agricultural research agency Embrapa, with their fists raised in protest. The aim was to force the government to respect its commitments and find land for 900 landless farming families in the region.
The action is part of a wider context of the movement's popularity. Four months ago, the MST unleashed its "Red April" and occupied at least nine farms across the country. Backed by its large activist numbers (nearly 500,000 farming families), the landless activists intended to bring their full weight to bear on the country's institutions, aiming to obtain a fairer distribution of land and the agrarian reform they have been demanding for decades.
After the Jair Bolsonaro years, when he described the landless activists as "terrorists" and advocated the use of "flamethrowers" against them, it would be an understatement to say that the return of a left-wing government was eagerly awaited. "Comrade Lula," founder of the Workers' Party (WP), has been a staunch supporter of the movement since the 1980s. During his first two terms in office (2003-2011), he redistributed almost 50 million hectares of land and opened lines of credit to small farmers. All this ensured his popularity.
"Lula represents the return of democracy and the reconstruction of Brazil. But that doesn't mean we will stop being autonomous, stop defending agrarian reform and stop organizing a people's movement!" said Ceres Hadich, national coordinator of the MST. This is all the more true since, eight months after the president's return to office, she believes that little or nothing has been done to help the landless workers. Yet more reason for disappointment, and even anger, to grow among the MST ranks. Recently, João Pedro Stédile, a founder and historic figure of the movement, criticized the government in the press for being "very slow" and "cowardly."
"We know it's not an easy task for Lula, after the chaos left by Bolsonaro," said Hadich. It's also, she acknowledged, made more difficult by the president's complex political position, as he only controls a fifth of the seats in Congress. The slightest social advance would be conditional on the agreement of conservative establishment parties, which are sympathetic to the positions of agribusiness and major landowners.
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