Armed struggle, social ties and solidarity: a study of the Trombas and Formoso Revolt and the Araguaia guerrilla movement

Abstract

This research aims to analyse the participation of peasants and Communist activists in two armed conflicts: the Trombas and Formoso Revolt and the Araguaia guerrilla movement. The regions where the two conflicts took place present similar social, economical and political characteristics, as a result of the agricultural frontier expansion in Brazil, between the 1940s and the 1970s. These common features, as well as the actors engaged in the struggle (peasants and communist activists, on one side, and grileiros and governmental troops, on the other) and the use of violence from both sides, make it possible to compare these two political conflicts. Given that the relations between communist activist and peasants have influenced these actors' participation; in dialogue with the social movement literature, the main question that shall guide this research is: to what extent the emotions resulting from the existing social ties and the new sociability networks can explain the participation of different peasants and communist activist in the conflicts? With this guiding question, this research will shed a light on a neglected aspect by the literature about the two struggles as well as by the main studies on rural guerrilla movements in Latin America. Therefore, the perspective adopted here takes into account that "peasants" and "communist activists" are not monolithic actors, instead, they might engage in a conflict for different reasons than those claimed by the social organizations.