Uso comum, terra comum, conflitos comuns: sobre terras de uso comum e a questão agrária / Common Land, Common Use, Common Conflicts: The Common Use of Land and the Agrarian Question.

This paper explores the use of land as a common practice that is intrinsic to the class construction and way of life of a sub-section of the peasantry. The aim is to understand how the common use of land among the peasant class allows them to escape, albeit relatively, from [End Page 42] the subjection of their income and labor. Grounded in dialectical materialism, we analyze what is common in both its etymological and concrete sense in relation to the experiences of the peasantry. We discuss common land and the imposition of private property as inseparable, and argue that the state acts as a tool for imposing and shaping private property, in a way that strengthens the uneven development of capitalist production. Lastly, we use our analysis to explore the formation of peasant territories in Brazil, which have emerged from land in common use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]