La vía campesina, Brazilian peasants, and the agribusiness model of agriculture: Towards an alternative model of Agrarian democratic governance

Studies in Political Economy

Volumn , Issue 85, 2010, Pages 69-98

  Massicotte, Marie Josée ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77953636935     PISSN: 07078552     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/19187033.2010.11675036     Document Type: Article

References (164)

1. P. McMichael, "Peasants Make their Own History, but not Just as they Please," Journal of Agrarian Change 8/2&3 (2008), pp. 205-228;
2. J. Petras and H. Veltmeyer, System in Crisis: The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism (Black Point, NS and New York: Fernwood and Zed Books, 2003).
3. McMichael, "Peasants Make their Own History," pp. 47-48;
4. J.K. Gibson-Graham, A Postcapitalist Politics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006).
5. L. Weiss, The Myth of the Powerless State (Cambridge: Polity, 1998).
6. This analysis builds on discourse analysis, participatory observation, and field research, including more than 40 semistructured interviews conducted since 2005, mostly with leaders and grassroots activists of the Landless Rural Worker Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, hereafter MST), the Peasant Women's Movement (Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas, MMC) in Brazil, and their transnational counterparts, La Via Campesina (VC) and the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC).
7. See D.B. Rocheleau, B. Thomas-Slayter, and E.Wangari, (eds.), Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences (New York: Routledge, 1996);
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17. and the special issue of the Journal of Agrarian Change 8/2&3 (2008), especially P. Newell and I. Scoones.
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37. J. Petras and H. Veltmeyer, Globalization Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century (Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 2001);
38. J. Hellman, "Mexican Popular Movements, Clientelism, and the Process of Democratization," Latin American Perspectives 21/2 (1994), pp. 124-142;
39. J. Howell and J. Pearce, Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001).
40. G. Esteva and M.S. Prakash, (eds.), Grassroots Post-modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultura (New York: Zed Books/St. Martin's Press, 1998).
41. See the special issues of Latin American Perspectiva 24/2 (2007)
42. and Journal of Agrarian Studies 8/2&3 (2008);
43. B. Gills, (ed.), Globalization and the Politica of Resistance (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000);
44. J. Juris, Networking Futures: The Movements against Corporate Globalization (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2008);
45. M.H. Marchand and A.S. Runyan, (eds.), Gender and Global Restructuring (New York: Routledge, 2000);
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48. D. Archibugi, "Cosmopolitan Democracy and its Critics: A Review," European Journal of International Relations 10/3 (2004), pp. 437-473;
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51. R. Falk, "International Law and the Future," Third World Quarterly 27/5 (2006), pp. 727-737.
52. On TANs, see M. Keck and K. Sikkink, Activism Beyond Borders: Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).
53. P. Newell, "Globalization and the Governance of Biotechnology," Global Environmental Politics 3/2 (2003), pp. 56-71.
54. However, in the Journal of Agrarian Change 8/2&3 (2008), Newell's and Scoones' articles both examine the effects of resistance forces vis-à-vis GMOs.
55. D. Kuyek, "Sowing the Seeds of Corporate Agriculture: The Rise of Canada's Third Seed Regime," Studies in Political Economy 80 (2007), p. 32.
56. O'Brien et al., Contesting Global Governance.
57. M. Dal Maso, "Movimentos Sociais: a longa viagem para o mesmo lugar' (Ph.D dissertation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2004);
58. H. Wittman, "Reframing Agrarian Citizenship: Land, Life and Power in Brazil," Journal of Rural Studies 25/1 (2009), pp. 120-130.
59. See R. Keil and R. Mahon, (eds.), Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009);
60. E. Swyngedouw, "Neither Global nor Local: 'Glocalization' and the Politics of Scale," in K.R. Cox, (ed.), Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local (New York: Gilford Press, 1997), p.137-166.
61. MST member, interview 6 by author (Curitiba, June 2005).
62. Various interviews with Brazilian peasants (June 2005 to May 2009).
63. C. Mallory quoted in A. Salleh, "Triangulating Political Ecology," Eco-Sufficiency, p. 6.
64. C. Mallory quoted in A. Salleh, Eco-Sufficiency, p. 6, Ibid.
65. Wittman, "Reframing Agrarian Citizenship";
66. L.F. de Almeida and F. Ruiz Sanchez, "The Landless Workers' Movement and Social Struggles against Neoliberalism," Latin American Perspectives 27/5 (2000), pp. 11-32;
67. M. Harnecker, MST Brésil. La construction d'un mouvement social (Genève: CETIM, 2003);
68. S. Branford and J. Rocha, Cutting the Wire: The Story of the Landless Movement in Brazil (London: Latin American Bureau, 2002).
69. MMC members, interviews 24, 25, and 26 by author (Belém, January 2009).
70. Ibid; follow-up interview 23b via Skype (20 May 2000);
71. Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas, Carta de apresentaçao e solicitaçao de financiamento (2009), 〈http:// www.mmcbrasil.com.br/ 〉 (accessed 30 March 2009).
72. La Via Campesina means The Peasant Way. See Desmarais, "La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants," (Halifax and London: Fernwood Publishing and Pluto Press, 2007);
73. R. Patel, "International Agrarian Restructuring and the Practical Ethics of Peasant Movement Solidarity," Journal of Asian and African Studies 2006 41/1&2 (2006), pp. 71-93;
74. S. Borras Jr., "La Via Campesina and Its Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform," Journal of Agrarian Change 8/2&3 (2008), pp. 258-289.
75. The WSF is an innovative process that began in January 2001, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, among diverse groups of social movements, NGOs and individuals. They converge in their rejection of the neoliberal model of globalization, and with a common desire to create a meeting space for resistance forces to meet, exchange and discuss their respective experiences and potential alternatives to promote another possible world, more democratic, more just, and more respectful of the environment. On the subject, see C. Whitaker, Changer le monde, [nouveau] mode d'emploi (Paris: Éditions de l'Atelier/Éditions Ouvrières, 2006).
76. A. Desmarais, "Building a Transnational Peasant Movement," NACLA report (May-June 2009), p. 24.
77. La Via Campesina, 〈http://www.viacampesina.org〉 (accessed 1 May 2009).
78. Desmarais, "La Via Campesina."
79. A Escobar, "Culture Sits in Places: Reflections on Globalism and Subaltern Strategies of Localization," Political Geography 20 (2001), p. 141.
80. Escobar, "Culture Sits in Places, pp. 141-142.
81. Santos, The Rise of the Global Left, p. 396.
82. Santos, The Rise of the Global Left, p. 396, Ibid.
83. Santos, The Rise of the Global Left, pp. 396-397.
84. Santos, The Rise of the Global Left, p. 397.
85. M.-J. Massicotte, "Transborder Activism in the Americas: Exploring Ways to Better Assess and Learn from Less Powerful Forces, towards Other Possible Worlds," Globalizations, 614 (2009), pp. 411-431.
86. W. Smith and R. P. Korzeniewicz, "Protest and Collaboration: Transnational Civil Society Networks and the Politics of Summitry and Free Trade in the Americas." North-South Agenda Paper 51, presented at Latin American Studies Association Congress (Washington, DC, September 2001), pp. 1-49;
87. J. Petras and H. Veltmeyer, Social Movements and State Power: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador (Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2005).
88. J.P. Stédile, "Landless Battalions: The Sem Terra Movement of Brazil. Interview with Joao Pedro Stédile," New Left Review 15/May-June (2002), pp.77-104;
89. H. Friedmann, "Feeding the Empire: Pathologies of Globalized Agriculture," in L. Panitch and C. Leys, (eds.), Socialist Register 2005: The Empire Reloaded (London: Merlin Press, 2004), pp. 124-143;
90. G. Otero, (ed.). Food for the Few (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008);
91. Desmarais, La Via Campesina:
92. P. McMichael, "Global Food Politics," Monthly Review 50/3 (1998), pp. 97-112;
93. P. McMichael, Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2008);
94. A Rees, Genetically Modified Food (Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2006).
95. P. McMichael, "Peasant Prospects in an Age of Neo-Liberalism," New Political Economy 11/3 (2006), pp. 407-418;
96. H. Friedmann, "The Political Economy of Food: A Global Crisis," New Left Review 1/197 (1993), pp. 29-57;
97. Otero, Food for the Few,
98. E. Fitting, "Importing Corn, Exporting Labor: The Neoliberal Corn Regime, GMOs, and the Erosion of Mexican Biodiversity," Agriculture and Human Valua 23 (2006), pp. 15-26;
99. D. Harvey, The New Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005);
100. M. Edelman, Peasants Against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999);
101. T. Wise, H. Salazar, and L. Carlsen, (eds.), Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico (Bloomfield, VA: Kumarian Press, 2003);
102. J. Clapp, "WTO Agricultural Trade Battles and Food Aid," Third World Quarterly 25/8 (2004), pp. 1439-1452;
103. B.M. Fernandes, MST: Formação e Territorializaç ão, S.a edição (Sao Paulo: Editora Hucitec, 1999);
104. P.M. Rosset, Food is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture (Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 2006).
105. Fortune Global 500 (July 2008), 〈http://money.cnn.com/magazines/ fortune/global500/2008/index.html〉 (accessed 15 March 2009).
106. Rees, Genetically Modified Food, p-7.
107. B. Kneen, The Invisible Giant: Cargill and Its Transnational Strategies (London: Pluto Press, 2002);
108. M-M. Robin, Le monde selon Monsanto: de la dioxine aux OGM, une multinationale qui vous veut du bien (Paris: La Découverte, 2008).
109. McMichael, "Global Food Politics," pp. 7-8.
110. Vía Campesina, "Sustainable Family Farming Can Feed the World: Via Campesinas Response to the Global Food Prices Crisis" (Rome, 2008), 〈http://www.viacampesina.org/main-en/index.php?option=com- content&task= view&id=484&Itemid=1〉 (accessed 5 March 2008).
111. McMichael, "Global Food Politics," p. 8.
112. MST member, interview 17 by author (Belém, January 2009).
113. Robin, Le monde selon Monsanto, pp. 262-263.
114. Brazilian peasant activists, interviews 3, 6, 17, 24 by author (Sao Paulo and Curitiba, June 2005 and Belém, January 2009).
115. M. Fox, "Landless Women Launch Protests across Brazil," in NACLA Report on the Americas (2009), p. 1, 〈http://www.zmag.org/znet/ viewArticle/20863〉 (accessed 15 March 2009).
116. S. Borras Jr., M. Edelman, and C. Kay, "Transnational Agrarian Movements: Origins and Politics, Campaigns and Impact," Journal of Agrarian Change 8/2&3 (2008), pp. 169-204;
117. N. Harvey, The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy (London: Duke University Press, 1998);
118. F. Cheru, "The Silent Revolution and the Weapons of the Weak," in S. Gill and J.H. Mittleman, (eds.), Innovation and Transformation in International Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 153-69;
119. Escobar, "Beyond the Third World";
120. Rocheleau, Thomas-Slayter, and Wangari, Feminist Political Ecology:
121. A.D. Morton, "Global Capitalism and the Peasantry in Mexico: The Recomposition of Class Struggle," Journal of Peasant Studies 34/3&4 (2007), pp. 441-473.
122. McMichael, "Peasants Make Their Own History," p. 207.
123. Wittman, "Reframing Agrarian Citizenship," p. 121.
124. R. Patel, "Transgressing Rights: La Via Campesina's Call for Food Sovereignty," Feminist Economics 13/1 (2007), pp. 87-93.
125. M. Woods, "Political Articulation: The Modalities of New Critical Politics of Rural Citizenship," in P.J. Cloke, T. Marsden, and P.H. Mooney, (eds.), Handbook of Rural Studies (London: Sage, 2006), p. 458.
126. MST member quoted in Wittman, "Reframing Agrarian Citizenship," p. 26;
127. Woods, "Political Articulation."
128. La Via Campesina, 〈http://www.viacampesina.org〉 (accessed 26 September 2007).
129. MMC members, interviews 24, 25, 26 by author (Belém, January 2009); panels and informal discussions with author, Americas Social Forum (Guatemala, October 2008).
130. Stédile, "Landless Battalions";
131. MST members, interviews 3, 7 by author (Sao Paulo, June 2005).
132. MMC member, interview 24 by author (Belém, January 2009).
133. Rosset, Food Is Different, Via Campesina (2003) in Patel, "Transgressing Rights," p. 90.
134. McMichael, Development and Social Change, p. 169.
135. Agroecology usually refers to smaller scale, diversified production, free of GMOs and chemicals inputs, that produces healthy food, with ecological methods respectful of ecosystems and local cultures (interviews 24, 25, 26 by author (Belém, January. 2009));
136. S.R. Gliessman, Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture (Chelsea, MI: Ann Arbor Press, 1998).
137. Desmarais, La Via Campesina, p. 34;
138. VC quoted in McMichael, "Peasants Make Their Own History," p. 217.
139. See "Meeting the Food Security Challenge through Organic Agriculture," FAO Newsroom (Rome, 3 May 2007), 〈http://www.fao.org/ newsroom/en/news/2007/1000550/index.html〉 (accessed 15 May 2009).
140. North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), "Introduction: Food Crisis in the Americas," NACLA Report on the Americas 42/3 (May-June 2009), p. 15.
141. E. Morales, letter to 5th conference, Via Campesina (17 October 2008), 〈 http://viacam-pesina.org/en/index.php?option=com-content&view= article&id=631:letter-of-evo-morales-to-the-vth-conference&catid=45: 5-maputo-2008&Itemid=68〉 (accessed 10 April 2009).
142. MST member, interview 17 by author (Belém, January 2009).
143. In Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures, Alvarez, Dagnino, and Escobar define "cultural politics" as "the process enacted when sets of social actors shaped by, and embodying, different cultural meanings and practices come into conflict with each other" (p. 7).
144. La Via Campesina, 〈http://www.viacampesina.org〉 (accessed 11 May 2009).
145. This section draws from field notes made in June 2005.
146. Field notes from Americas Social Forum (ASF), Guatemala City (October 2008).
147. MMC member interview 24 by author (Belém, January 2009).
148. Quoted in Desmarais, La Via Campesina, p. 196.
149. Field notes, ASF, Guatemala City (October 2008);
150. MST members, interviews 3, 6, 17 by author (Sao Paulo and Curitiba, June 2005).
151. P. Newell, "Trade and Environmental Justice in Latin America," New Political Economy 12/2 (2007), p. 237.
152. MMC members, interviews 23, 24, 25 by author (Belém, January 2009).
153. Field notes; Desmarais, "La Via Campesina";
154. Borras, "La Via Campesina and its Global Campaign."
155. See Brasil de Fato online 〈http://www.brasildefato.com.br〉 (13 February 2008 and 7 March 2008);
156. 〈http://www.viacampesina.org〉.
157. See Robin, Le monde selon Monsanto.
158. N. Wiebe, "Women Reversing Desertification: Via Campesina Takes on Aracruz Corporation in Brazil," Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme 25/3&4 (2006), pp. 167-172, p. 168;
159. D. Fig, "Questioning CSR in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: The Case of Aracruz Celulose s.a.," Third World Quarterly 28/4 (2007), p. 831.
160. Wiebe, "Women Reversing Desertification," p. 168.
161. Quoted in Wiebe, "Women Reversing Desertification," p. 169.
162. MMC members, interviews 23 and 24 by author (Belém, January 2009).
163. Wiebe, "Women Reversing Desertification," p. 171.
164. M. Pratt, "Where To? What Next?" in Alvarez, Dagnino, and Escobar, Cultura of Politics: Politics of Cultures, p. 435.