Brazil’s landless workers movement (MST) was founded about 30 years ago as a reaction on the unjust land distribution and migration of poor farmers to the cities. This movement tries to force the government – very often by illegal methods e.g. occupying an idle land- to make a land reform. The government tries to solve this problem by buying off the land from large landowners, farmers and giving it to the landless rural people. …show more content…
They want to make use of the idle farmland by giving it to this group of people and therefore decrease the unemployment, make the food supply bigger and restrict the flow of migrants to the cities. A lot of city people are in favor of this agrarian reform because they hold the urban people responsible for the high criminal rate in the cities and want them out of there.
In 1978 in the most southern state of Brazil, in Rio Grande de Sul occurred the first land MST occupation. With the help of the Catholic Church, occupations became more numerous in the next few years. The Church shared the same idea that land should serve its social function and that is why they supported it. The occupations were happening independently on one another. However, in 1984 the MST was officially founded and the first national conference was held the year after in