Talk:Landless Workers' Movement/GA2

GA Review

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Reviewer: Delldot (talk · contribs) 16:11, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Starting review. delldot ∇. 16:11, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your hard work on this article, the subject is fascinating and the article covers it in depth. The referencing is great and it's clear that a lot of work has gone into this. Unfortunately I do not believe that the article yet merits good article status for a variety of reasons I outline below.

I share concerns with the previous reviewer: I also think the article reads like an essay. The article has not changed very much since the last review. The main problems I see at the first read through are with the writing and neutrality. I think the article needs a major copy edit, mainly because it is excessively wordy. The wordiness makes the article more difficult to read and understand, and also contributes to another problem: the article's excessive length.

I recommend getting a major copy edit from someone who owes you a favor on wiki. Or perhaps make a request at WP:LOCE. Simple writing is better. Check out User:Tony1/How_to_satisfy_Criterion_1a for advice on simplifying writing and removing excessive wordiness.

Like the previous reviewer, I am not convinced that the article stays on topic. As suggested at the end of the previous review, some of the material, e.g. background historical info in the Historical antecedents section, should be moved to a more pertinent article such as land reform in Brazil.

I also think articles should use words that the most people can understand where possible, and that concepts that are not going to be familiar to most casual readers should be explained in the prose.

I will go through and list some of the problems I see, but the points I bring up will not be a comprehensive list, because there are problems with wordiness and POV throughout the article. So fixing just the sentences I bring up will not make this article ready to be nominated again--rather these sentences should be taken as examples of problems to look for throughout the text. You can also look at some of my edits to get an idea of the simplification I'm suggesting.

Unclear sentences

• These families which included part of 600 families that had previously been expropriated and dislocated in 1974 from neighbouring Passo Real for the construction of a hydroelectric dam[43] who had been joined by some other 300 families in an invasion of the Indian Reserve in Nonoai. - sentence fragment.
• The MST appeared late in the already long history of the Brazilian land question, which had already been hotly debated (as well as actually fought) into the framework of previous Brazilian politics, especially amid the Left, who generally agreed to think of it as part of a late process of Bourgeois Revolution.' - Too long, not focused. This should be broken into more sentences.
• The conclusion reached by Ms. Weinberg was such as the Brazilian government has no control over most of the schools, and that they do not follow the curriculum set forth by the Ministry of Education which calls for "pluralism of ideas" and "tolerance". - passive voice ("reached by") makes a sentence harder to follow.
• Coming after various expressions of land activists' dissatisfaction with the slowing up of official projects for land reform during the Roussef government (2011 seeing the lowest number of officially settled families in 16 years), the occupation could be seen as parts of the widespread accusations of "selling out" thrown at Ms. Roussef from the Workers' Party support basis.

Explain unfamiliar concepts

• This happened mostly by means of revitalizing ideologies[12] centered on a fabled, millenarian return an earlier, pre-bourgeois social order, as was the case in the 1890s Canudos War and the 1910s Contestado War. - these ideas need to be briefly explained in the text for the casual reader to have any idea what the article is saying. Linking is not enough because the reader would have to leave the article to read the other one.
• dealing with the struggle for the land in purely political - instead of traditional and messianic - terms. - it's not clear what messianic means.
• In capitalist terms, the continuation of such a policy favoured economies of scale by means of land concentration - explain "economies of scale" or just state in simple terms what is meant.

Sentences with NPOV problems

• 'However, the more aggressive tactics of the MST allowed it to gather a capital of political legitimacy that soon outshone CONTAG, who was allowed to linger a shadowy existence as a mere rural branch to the trade union central CUT, while MST monopolized political attention as overall rural workers' representative. - too long, language too flowery, offers commentary
• an alternative ideology to "modernizing" agrobusiness - scare quotes often make for POV writing
• According to MST's ideologues, the allgedly efficiency gained by this arrangement was by no means general, as since 1850 Brazilian landed property management was tied to the particular interests of a single class - the rural bourgeoisie. - "alleged" also often makes for POV writing
• From the 1980s until today, the MST hasn't enjoyed a monopoly of land occupations, many of which are carried out by a host of grassroots organizations (dissidents from the MST, trade unions, informal coalitions of land workers); however, it is the MST who is by far the most organized group dealing in occupations, enjoying political leverage enough to turn occupation into formal expropriation for public purposes: already in 1995, out of 198 occupations carried out, 89 (45%) were organized by the MST, but these included 20,500 (65%) out of the grand total of 31,400 families involved. - I don't think the article can comment that the group is "by far the most organized". this sentence is also way too long and unfocused. It is also repetitive, e.g. using "enjoy" multiple times. 'Hasn't' should be 'has not'.
• This is an important strategy of the MST and serves to maintain an ongoing and direct flow of communication between member-families and their representatives. Coordinators - again, the article can't offer commentary on whether a strategy is important.
• 'Some scholars agree that these MST communal schools tend to be markedly better than its conventional counterparts in rural communities, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. - see WP:WEASEL for reasons why "some scholars" is problematic. there's also a singular-plural agreement issue here. Also, what does quantitatively better mean?
• known for its militant hostility against social grassroots movements in general - this is not usually how 'militant' is used, unless they're more than just a paper.
• The whole paragraph beginning The role of the MST as a grassroots organization has POV problems, displaying an overtly hostile attitude toward that journalist's piece.
• Repression to the movement's activities continues unabated as of today - we can't call this repression.

Overly wordy, flowery

• The novelty at the MST's emergence resided in its from the start playing the role of taking unto itself the task of…

I think that after a major copy edit and check for POV issues this article will be quite good. Sections like 'Organizational structure' and 'Education' are clear and have minimal problems (some of which I've pointed out here). Please feel free to respond to any of the points above or ask questions about anything I've put here. I'm happy to help with the article as you continue to work to improve it, just ask. I'm going to fail this article for now so it can receive the major copy edit I'm recommending. I look forward to seeing how it turns out! Thanks again for all the effort you've put in. delldot ∇. 17:43, 12 March 2013 (UTC)