Neoliberal globalization, peasant movements, alternative development, and the state in Brazil and Mexico

This dissertation examines comparatively the struggles for land and the development alternatives of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico, since the 1980s. Based on fieldwork observation, and using the tools of political economy, critical theories of development, peasant studies, and Gramsci's understanding of radical politics, it addresses issues of the privatization of the right to land, resistance to neoliberalism, peasant agriculture, transformation of gender relations, as well as the politics of alliance of these peasant movements.;While analyzing the impact of neoliberal policies, the social and ethnic composition, and the organizational structure of both movements, taking issue with the idea of a single peasant rationality, I explain the nature of the struggles of the MST and the EZLN by looking at the distinct paths of capitalist development and state formation of Brazil and Mexico, and the practices and objectives guiding agricultural production of Zapatista and MST peasant. I argue that both movements share two features: (1) the control of a geographic space allows the organization and mobilization of rural communities that reach high levels of political cohesion, politicization and empowerment through the development of popular, participatory and autonomous structures of power, which are alternative to the state; (2) the control of the means of subsistence and the organization production around the peasant family unit allows their memberships to prioritize food-production and avoid the market in different degrees. Hence both development alternatives generate "autonomous rural communities" that seek political autonomy, food self-sufficiency, community self-reliance, and class, gender and racial equality. However, because the MST evolves within a highly capitalist countryside, its members are also preoccupied with finding ways to negotiate market integration and state funding. Inversely, since the EZLN is located in predominantly indigenous regions with marginal market penetration, its membership emphasize the re-inforcement of non-commoditized kinship and community relations. Finally, I look at the strategies that the MST and the EZLN have adopted toward the state, political parties and civil society to explain why they have not been able to build broad national coalition against neoliberal policies.