A mística como princípio constitutivo do comum no Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra

Abstract

The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) has been the object of research in different areas of science. It is an important organization for the peasantry and for reflections on Brazilian agrarian and educational problems. Its genesis came from the combination of different peasant struggles spread throughout Brazil, and the inspiration of the biblical exodus. In 2022, the MST completed thirty-eight years of resistance in the countryside. During these years, it transformed and added new ideas, accompanying social changes and struggles for land, education and the rights of rural workers. Throughout its history, the MST incorporated its struggle, the mystique, a practice inherited from the Catholic Church. A force that animates, educates, politicizes and raises the awareness of its members for collective actions. Due to these qualities, mystique is seen as one of the educational pillars of the MST. The research aims to investigate the formative process of the MST. And, to what extent does mystique contribute to the awareness of its members, to the construction of the common. Therefore, the following question is asked in this investigation: how does mystique affect the change in the movement's members' mentality so that the common thing happens? This investigation starts from the historical aspects of the MST, until the moment when it was realized that it was no use just having the land, education was necessary to be able to advance in the negotiations. For these advances, the MST created the Education Sector, which published the Cadernos de Educação to support educational activities and negotiations with government authorities.