Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written by Paulo Freire, was published first in English in 1970, when Freire had taken a temporary post at Harvard University after leaving Brazil when the military dictatorship took power in 1964. Although systematized and written by Paolo Freire, the content is based on collective experiences shared by Freire and others teaching Brazilian farmers and landless people how to read and write. The text is noteworthy for criticizing what Freire called the “banking model of education.” (Source)

This article by Peoples Dispatch breaks down what is at stake in the upcoming National Elections to be held on October 2nd, 2022: their proclaimed programs and aspirants, their records as both candidates that have held the presidency before, and what each of them in leadership would mean for Brazil and Latin America.

“Programa de Análise de Conjuntura,” or Conjunctural Analysis Program, is a video program coordinated and hosted by the leadership of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). In this program, the host gives an in-depth conjunctural analysis on a specific topic in the current political moment by analyzing the economic, social, and political factors that have created the conditions and how organizations can use this knowledge to strategize and create change.

One of the most cited and influential educators and philosophers, Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was born in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, and wrote a number of noteworthy texts, such as Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) and Pedagogy of Freedom (1996). In 1946, he was made director of the Pernambuco Department of Education and Culture and worked to improve literacy amongst Brazil’s poor and working class. His systemization of this experience, as well as experiences with different working class pedagogies and liberation theology movements across Latin America, formed his ideas of education that ran counter to the education models put forth by capitalism.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (1945- ), known popularly as just “Lula,” is the founder of the Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) and served as President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. Conditions of industrial workers in Brazil, as well as an incident in which he lost his left pinkie finger, inspired Lula to become a union leader and he quickly became a leader of the labor movement. During his presidency, he implemented social programs like Bolsa Família, which provided financial aid to impoverished Brazilian families. In 2017, Lula was unlawfully imprisoned for corruption charges and released in 2019. He is currently running against incumbent Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 National Elections. (Source)

Jair Bolsonaro (1955- ) became President of Brazil in 2019 and under his presidency, almost 700,000 Brazilians died of Covid-19, deforestation of the Amazon reached a historic high, and hunger, homelessness, unemployment, as well as violence against women, LGBTQ people, and Black Brazilians have increased heavily. He is currently running against Lula da Silva in the 2022 National Elections and has threatened to not respect the outcome were Lula to win. (Source)

The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), or the Landless Workers’ Movement, was first established in 1984 and has grown to a membership of over 1.5 million rural workers and farmers and over 7.5 hectares of land won through occupation campaigns. The MST focuses on land distribution and agroecology and advocates for a program of popular agrarian reform but, as a social mass movement, organizes for the liberation of all people, including Afro-Brazilians, LGBTQ populations, and indigenous people. (Source)

Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), or the Workers’ Party, was founded by a group of organizers, trade unionists, artists and others, including former President Lula da Silva, in response to the 1964 coup that overthrew then-President João Goulart and established Brazil’s military dictatorship. It has since grown immensely and has run successful presidential candidates from 2003 to 2016.

Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), or the Unified Workers' Central, was formed in 1983 during the First National Congress of the Working Class. It is the largest trade federation in Brazil and Latin America, and the 5th largest in the world, with 3,806 affiliated entities, 7,847,077 associated workers and 23,981,044 workers in the base. (Source)

BRICS is an acronym referencing the alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – countries that make up some of the largest economies in the world. In contrast to the G7, BRICS has created opportunities for spaces of autonomous development and financial trading for countries of the Global South. (Source)

The term esperançar (to hope) comes from the Freirean conjugation of the word, esperança (hope), to a verb, illustrated in Paulo Freire’s famous quote: “É preciso ter esperança, mas ter esperança do verbo esperançar; porque tem gente que tem esperança do verbo esperar. E esperança do verbo esperar não é esperança, é espera. Esperançar é se levantar, esperançar é ir atrás, esperançar é construir, esperançar é não desistir!”

The term movimento negro refers generally to Black or Afro-Brazilian social movements in Brazil starting from the struggle of abolition in Brazil up to current struggle for liberation in a country with the largest Afro-descendant population in Latin America and where a Black youth is murdered every 23 days.

A quilombola, or quilombo in Spanish, refers to a community in Brazil that descends from the communities formed by runaway slaves during the 17th and 18th centuries. Often with the aid of indigenous peoples who understood the landscape of Brazil’s mountains and jungles better than European settlers, enslaved people who were brought to Brazil often revolted by escaping into territories where they would not be followed. Today, descendents of quilombola communities are generally the most disadvantaged and oppressed. (Source)