Witnesses of the struggle? The Flag of the Landless Movement in the test of the political crisis in Northeast Brazil

This paper engages ethnographically with the Landless Workers Movement flag, a popular symbol of the struggles for democracy in Brazil. It argues for a heuristic approach able to grasp hidden meanings of the political crisis which resulted in the rise of Jair Bolsonaro. Drawing on a long-term fieldwork in the state of Pernambuco, a strategic place of left-wing protests in this period, the paper highlights significant differences between activists ritualization and ordinary uses of the flag, challenging the commitment to the cause of democracy.