Social movements and confronting the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Considerations on the intersection between environmentalism and the struggle against social inequalities based on two cases

Abstract

The environmental crisis experienced in the 21st century, permeated by inequalities in the way it is experienced, gives space to the junction between environmental struggles and the fight against social inequalities. In this paper, the main objective is to understand the intersections between environmentalist themes and the struggles against territorial, race and class inequalities, in theoretical terms and with empirically with help of the practice of two social movements involved with food issues, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and Slow Food Brasil. The research was carried out with a bibliographical review, documentary analysis and interviews with members of the second movement. It was noticed that the MST, with four decades of existence, environmentalized itself over time, by incorporating agroecology into the class struggle, and thus became closer to peasant knowledge. Slow Food Brazil was founded in Italy with environmental concerns in its themes, but in the period in which it arrived in Brazil, it more intensely incorporated concerns with social equality and became closer to class struggles and decolonial agendas. Both processes confirm the potential gain when thinking about the environmental issue together with that of social equality, from a decolonial perspective.

Keywords: Landless Rural Workers Movement; Slow Food Brazil; Environmental struggles; Food activism; Class struggle.