The political impasses of social movements in the Amazon Region

Abstract

A breach between peasant stuggles and the political organizations seeking to mediate and direct those struggles has surfaced in recenty years. Resulting from a divergence in time and rhythm and of conceptions, that breach has existed from the inception of those struggles. Rural workers had spontaneously begun to struggle, while the political parties, ideologically divided and politically repressed, arrived later. Those parties also came on the scene with ideologies that did not view rural workers as political actors, with and historically recognized role. By substituting the economic struggle for agrarian reform to the previous struggle for land, that involved broader political dimensions, they failed to perceive that the meaning of that struggle had been totally redefined due to the alliance between land and capital which was promoted by the military governments.