O Campesinato Brasileiro: uma história de resistência

The representation of Brazilian agriculture, associated with large monocultures and agroexport farms is the result of a “social amnesia” that denies the contribution of the peasantry to society. Defined as a social production form, the peasantry represents a way of life and a culture. It is necessary to understand agrarian, productive and familiar strategies that favored, in Brazil, the occupation of precarious and temporary spaces or the effective creation of rural communities with greater durability. The modernization of agriculture in the twentieth century led to the expulsion of residents and squatters. With democratization, rural social movements re-inscribe the debate about the relevance of the land issue and the pertinence of land struggles. The recent theoretical and political debates about the categories “peasantry” and “family farm” confirmed the formation of a sector of non-employers and non-landlords’ farmers, who exercise their own ways of living and working, confirmed by data from the last Agricultural Census (2006). The most economically disadvantaged establishments were initially considered as a “peripheral fringe”, while territorial programs have incorporated them in the condition of “rural poor”. The inclusive production that corresponds to this type of farmer should consider its historical resistance like peasants.