The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) in Brazil may be understood as a social mass movement that has been changing, for more than 16 years, the correlation of social and political forces at the national level, thus allowing, with a greater or lesser degree of intensity in the different regions of the country, the emergence of a process of ongoing social emancipation of landless rural workers belonging to the subaltern classes in rural areas.

The decision to adopt as a strategy of struggle the direct action of land occupation and the self-management of the areas taken has led to the emergence of hundreds of decison-making nuclei. This emergence brought forth internal forces of cohesion and of political and ideological articulation which give to this movement characteristics that differ from the ones that have been discussed in the literature about mass movements. This mass movement has brought about the emergence of a type of network society parallel to the dominant one.

The continuing adoption of collective action frames in response to problem situations, including negotiations with the governments, by deemphasizing the presence of personalities and emphasizing the presence of the masses, has allowed this social mass movement not to tend necessarily towards a mass social organization. Furthermore, this has allowed it to maintain its national and international prominence for almost two decades.

Understanding the MST requires, as a hypothesis, that we study and interpret the class struggle in rural areas in its integrated economic, political and ideological dimensions.

By contributing to the continuing social emancipation of the landless in Brazil, the MST constructs new identities in rural areas. While struggling to survive in the land as small rural producers, participants in the movement attempt alliances in the country and the city that affirm a national project of liberation from the dominant economic model.