The widespread protest against the impunity, five years after the event, of the military police responsible for the 1996 massacre of nineteen Brazilian landless peasants who were occupying a road in Eldorado dos Carajas has once again drawn the attention of international opinion to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), which stubbornly pursues—despite the murders or massacres of its members by the capangas (agents of the big landowners) or the police—its work of organizing, consciousness-raising, and mobilization for the rights of the poorest of the poor: the Brazilian rural workers. What are the origins and motivations of this movement?This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.