Contribution short abstract:

Brazil's largest housing movement merges urban occupations with state program collaboration, empowering precarious communities. Using patriotic and religious rhetoric, it balances transformative aims with strategies akin to right-wing populism, mobilizing members to advocate for housing justice.

Contribution long abstract:

The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST), Brazil’s largest housing movement, is often described as transformative. Based on nine months ethnographic fieldwork in São Paulo between 2022 and 2024, this paper explores the dynamics of the MTST amid the criminalization of social movements and the rise of moral-religious discourses under President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). Rooted in the traditions of the labor movement, the MTST adapts radical theories to urban struggles by occupying unused spaces and advocating for the “social function” of property. This resistance counters São Paulo’s extreme social inequality and real estate speculation. To this end, the MTST also collaborates with the government program Minha Casa Minha Vida, which empowers people living in precarious housing to organize and politicize. Within urban squats, the movement experiments with communal living and shared reproductive labor. However, its internal dynamics also include bureaucratized practices where activism becomes a prerequisite for accessing hard-won housing resources. To recruit new members, the MTST employs religious rhetoric and patriotic symbols, including the Brazilian flag—strategies echoed from right-wing populist movements. The paper shows how the MTST engages in these strategies to navigate a complex landscape of resistance and adaptation in its pursuit of housing justice. It argues that these appropriations enhance the movement's credibility among recruits while also creating tensions.