"Pelegos" No More? Labour Historians Confront the 'New Unionism' in Brazil

FROM THE MOMENT THE MILITARY took power in Brazil in 1964 — with negligible working-class opposition — the apparent weakness of Brazilian labour frustrated scholars and activists alike. Brazil was, after all, the most developed nation in Latin America, and Sao Paulo, its industrial epicentre, was a smokestack-ringed metropolis of international dimensions. If a real proletariat existed anywhere south of the Rio Grande, it was in Sâo Paulo's booming automobile plants, metalworking factories, and working-class neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the paulistano labour movement appeared, as late as 1976, incapable of asserting its right to share in the fruits of Brazil's vaunted economic miracle. Not surprisingly, the historiography of Brazilian labour reflected this pessimism, and sought to account for what was seen primarily as a story of failure. In the last decade and a half, however, Brazilian labour has experienced an extraordinary resurgence, particularly in Sâo Paulo. Starting in 1978, a series of major strikes paralyzed auto plants throughout the city's industrial suburbs — the so-called ABC region of Santo Andre, Sâo Bernardo do Campo, and Sâo Caetano do Sul. The President of the Sâo Bernardo metalworkers' union, Luis Inacio da Silva C'Lula), rose to national prominence as the expanding strike wave became a lightning rod of opposition to military rule. These strikes announced the emergence of a different kind of workers' movement, soon dubbed the new unionism, that seemed to overturn years of tradition by taking a stronger stand against

Economic history · Economics · Political science · Sociology · Labor Movements and Unions