O MST ocupando as ondas do ar: o rádio na organização da luta campesina no Ceará

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the community radio station Resistência Salão FM 87.9, located in the Salão Morada Nova settlement, in the municipality of Mombaça, Ceará, Brazil. The study discusses how this broadcaster, coordinated by the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), serves as a tool for political education and social organization. Based on the theories of Jesús Martín-Barbero, Cecília Peruzzo, Márcia Vidal, and Ismar Capistrano, the study addresses the concepts of mediations, family everyday life, and popular communication in communicative and organizational processes. To this end, participatory methodologies are employed, such as social cartography, research-intervention, and the “escrevivências” approach of Conceição Evaristo, all aimed at the collective construction of knowledge aligned with the political and pedagogical principles of the MST. The research also adopts Paulo Freire’s ideas about political formation and processes of social transformation, highlighting the role of radio as a space for peasant resistance and the collective creation of narratives that express the challenges, interests, and aspirations within the agrarian reform territory. The study was conducted between October 2024 and March 2025, with field interviews taking place from February 17 to 22, 2025. The research concludes that Resistência Salão FM 87.9 strengthens the struggle, organization, and mobilization of Landless Workers in the Salão Settlement, Ceará, functioning as a collective space for communication and popular resistance.