“Agrarian Reform Bursts”: the Camaquã claim movement

Abstract

The text explores the elements that composed the organization of the movement responsible for the land occupation that took place in the municipality of Camaquã, in Rio Grande do Sul, in the early 1960s, in an area known as Banhado do Colégio. The event is relevant because it allows a deepening, both in the way in which the struggle for land was defined in that period, as in revisiting the instruments mobilized by the public power to not only meet the demands of the landless, but also publicize a favorable position to settlement and agrarian reform projects during the Leonel Brizola government (1959-1963). The text proposes to carry out a qualitative analysis, based on interviews, documents, and newspapers of the period. As such, it is divided into three parts. The first seeks to retrace, through the memories of those who participated in the event, how the organization of the movement unfolded. The second focuses on exploring the leadership responsible for the local articulation and its connections with representatives of the municipal and state public authorities. The third shows the resources mobilized by the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul to meet the demand, among other actions to support the reorganization of the state's land structure.