International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Brazilian communist militant Clodomir Santos de Morais was born in Bahia. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he was an important Peasant Leagues' leader and a Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) militant. In 1955, he was elected deputy in Pernambuco. As a member of a group that defended the centrality of the agrarian question, Morais was expelled from the PCB in 1962. His position in favor of armed struggle also led him to a rupture with Francisco Julião in 1962. In 1963 Morais supported the Leagues' transformation into an effective political organization that was able to oppose the reformist PCB. This took place in January 1964, but a military dictatorship obstructed its continuation. Morais was arrested and tortured, and his political rights were suppressed. Years later he became UN counselor for Latin America on agrarian reform subjects, directing many projects for the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He was also a consultant for technical missions in several continents. Morais earned his PhD at the University of Rostock (Germany) and wrote more than 20 books. His text on organization theory has been published in more than 300 editions in 43 countries, and his method of mass capacitation has influenced important movements such as the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement ... log in or subscribe to read full text