This article analyzes the formation of the largest grassroots social movement in Brazilian history: the Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST). In movement literature and academic discourse, MST's formation has been consistently attributed to three factors— agricultural restructuring, political transition, and religious organization. These three factors form what I call an "Official Genesis Story." I argue that although the Official Genesis Story fits together well at the macro level, it cannot explain who decided to join MST or why, because the story does not locate acts of resistance in either people or place. A comparison of MST members in two different regions of Brazil shows how the spatial constitution of production and reproduction informed individual decisions to join MST. By geographically situating the official story, we uncover the contentious actors behind the contentious actions.

This article compares women workers' movements in Nicaragua and Northern Mexico that have mobilized in opposition to the abuses occurring within export-processing zones (EPZs). We examine the opportunities and obstacles that such movements have faced as they seek social change via national and transnational coalitions. Our focus on gender tensions within transnational labor movements illustrates how power relations fracture the space of transnational civil society and constrain opposition to neoliberalism. Women's labor movements in both contexts confront highly gendered national and transnational political spaces, stemming in part from the hegemonic association of women with private space and men with public space. Significant differences in the opportunities for resistance emerging from local and national dynamics in Nicaragua and Mexico demonstrate that the realm of the so-called global cannot be understood as abstracted from historically situated localities.