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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL 347

been criminalized by the media and by the increase in research on NGOs, the Third
justice tribunal because they had participated Sector and new forms of collective initiatives
in illegal actions (invasions of land). The and public policy. The researchers extended
great annual MST March has continued, and their analytical reference points and incorpo-
the media publicize it, but the popular inter- rated cultural analyses. The visibility of
est of civil society in it is not as great as it forms of collective initiatives that work in
was in 1997, the year of the first great March. institutionalized spheres has been reduced.
Then, thousands of the landless came from The urban social movements declined in
their homes in the settlements and marched importance during the 1990s, becoming less
on foot to Brasilia, the federal capital. In fact, visible in the streets. In the 1990s, with an
nowadays, the impact of the demands on increase in mobilization in rural areas, the
public opinion has diminished, as has sup- landless movements, especially the MST,
port from civil society. Violence in the city, extended their activities. In the opening years
including the risk of being robbed or of the 2000s, there was a revival of social
kidnapped at any time of day or night, has movements in urban areas, especially of the
resulted in urban dwellers changing their movement for housing. Social conflicts have
attitudes. They now censure the actions of the returned to the streets and the media report
MST because of their fear of any actions that them. Theories of cultural identity are pre-
threaten the social structure. The media pres- dominantly used in the analyses.
entation of the MST during the recent past as The networks of social organizations
criminal has contributed to this change in around micro-projects for generating income
public opinion. While people recognize the have increased, coordinated by NGOs. On
need and urgency of access to land by the the one hand, this change is explained by the
landless, they do not approve of the MST’s economic crisis and high unemployment. On
methods. Furthermore, the MST has also lost the other hand, it is explained by the increase
the support of many Brazilian intellectuals. of collective actions of solidarity. In this con-
A curious point is that outside Brazil the text, the category of civil society takes first
MST continues to have a good image. Many place in analyses by researchers. This chap-
international researchers have come to Brazil ter considers all the NGOs, the social move-
to collect data about it. The MST has organized ments, the commissions, groups and entities
a reception sector that shows visitors many struggling for human rights and the defence
settlements. It is supported by many interna- of those excluded because of economic,
tional movements, such as Via Campesina gender, race, ethnic and religious discrimina-
(a Latin-American rural movement, organized tion as actors of civil society.
in such societies as Bolivia, Ecuador In contrast, the category of social move-
and Mexico), and by some NGOs. This sup- ments has been used more often to analyze
port has contributed to the MST’s favourable rural movements, such as the MST, the
image abroad. Indian Movement and the ‘Quilombola’
Movement; and, in a broader sense, to ana-
lyze the mobilization of civil society in cam-
paigns against hunger and unemployment.
CONCLUDING REMARKS Our research concludes that we are living
in a new moment in the trajectory of Brazilian
In Brazil, during the transition from the mili- ‘associativism’. Now, the initiatives include
tary regime to democracy, social movements social movements, Forums, social networks
were predominantly analyzed from the view- and NGOs. Most NGOs are changing their
point of Marxist theory and by theories names to simply ‘Third Sector’, but doing so
of identity or new cultural theories of social does not replace the form of social move-
movements. In the 1990s, there was an ment which was typical of the collective