Anarkismo.net: Syndicalism in Brazil by Marcus Vinicius Marchi by Marcus Vinicius Marchi Faria (pt)

A reading of the historical development of conceptions union in Brazil ---- In the late 
1970s , but specifically in 1978 , after 10 years of political stagnation of the labor 
movement which has as one last great moment mobilizations category in 1968 , caused 
especially by the repression of civil-military dictatorship and the increasingly 
harnessing the unions plan supercontrol government official , Brazilian unionism is 
replaced once again its leading role among the forms of contestation of the political, 
social, economic , cultural , and especially organizational point of view coping capital 
versus labor . This article intends to resume basic aspects of syndicalism in Brazil , 
from the creation of the Brazilian Workers' Confederation , and point out how the moments 
of greater radicalization of the labor movement in Brazil were those who , to some extent 
, had a broad -based participation and uncontrolled centralized authoritarian ideologies 
as many left and right , or corporatist .
 
 
In the late 1970s , but specifically in 1978 , after 10 years of political stagnation of 
the labor movement which has as one last great moment mobilizations category in 1968 , 
caused especially by the repression of civil-military dictatorship and the increasingly 
harnessing the unions plan supercontrol government official , Brazilian unionism is 
replaced once again its leading role among the forms of contestation of the political, 
social, economic , cultural , and especially organizational point of view coping capital 
versus labor . This article intends to resume basic aspects of syndicalism in Brazil , 
from the creation of the Brazilian Workers' Confederation , and point out how the moments 
of greater radicalization of the labor movement in Brazil were those who , to some extent 
, had a broad -based participation and uncontrolled centralized authoritarian ideologies 
as many left and right , or corporatist .
 
IN BRAZIL TRADE UNIONISM :
Resumption of the initial aspects of configuration unions in Brazil and its development up 
to mass strikes of the late 1970s
 
" The factory is one of the venues of the madness to escape her criticism worker , uses 
the bathroom to talk and strike to reassert itself as a human being . " ( Tragtenberg 1983)
 
The rise of unionism fight in Brazil , may be dated the last decades of the nineteenth 
century with the installation of the first industries and large number of immigrants , 
mainly Italians and Spaniards, who came to Brazil as an alternative of skilled manpower 
suitable wage labor and campesino , fleeing unemployment crisis plaguing Europe . Along 
with these workers , comes their experiences of struggle and socialist influences already 
on stage in the old continent . The first organizations with ideas close to socialism are 
character peasant , enlisting the first generation of immigrants that came to Brazil with 
the intention of working on this segmentation employed . With the entry of many of these 
immigrants also in the context of the urban working class in the factories that existed in 
the major urban centers of the country, especially S?o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro , the 
union began to be disseminated as an alternative to the everyday operation implemented by 
the context manufacturing . Is founded in 1905 in the city of S?o Paulo , the Workers 
Federation of S?o Paulo ( FOSP ) and in Rio de Janeiro in 1906 , the First Congress of 
Brazilian Workers , the Brazilian Workers' Confederation ( COB ) , which was to begin its 
activities two years after , in 1908 .
 
" ( ... ) 1906. This date is very important because it marks the beginning , between us , 
an organization working nationwide , which would be the Brazilian Workers' Confederation , 
only organized in 1908 , but whose foundations had been laid by Congress workers' meeting 
in Rio de Janeiro that year . ( ... ) we must also take into account that the Congress 
pointed out , the same step , the beginning of a whole period of predominant influence of 
anarcho -syndicalist labor movement in Brazil . " ( PEREIRA , 1952)
 
Among the greatest achievements of this first fraction of organized struggle unionism in 
Brazil, we can highlight the General Strike of 1917 , which was triggered with the 
pervasive influence of militants COB . Something that is necessary to demarcate , is that 
1917 is a year of intense international unrest , especially in regard to workers . The 
Russian revolution underway served as encouragement and bustle socialists ( communists and 
anarchists ) worldwide , facing the possibility of a revolution internationally .
During the early twentieth century in Brazil , more precisely until age 30 , the anarchist 
movement , its influence among the workers , and the Brazilian Workers' Confederation were 
the main subject of radical action , the main organization of workers and the primary 
means by which these , were against capital and labor exploitation , as an immediate 
conquest of the bread and life .
" ( ... ) Exit the streets, shutting down and changing the order reigning in the city , 
was the dissemination strategy and articulation of the oppressed and exploited sectors 
proposed by anarchists . A possibility of movement explode , spreading through the city , 
was directly linked to the ability of autonomous organization of popular territories . ( 
... ) " ( ROLNIK , 1994)
 
Something you do need to remember is that , in 1922 , it founded the Brazilian Communist 
Party ( PCB ) , which has its foundation in the major sectors of interest stemmed from the 
COB . With the intense agitation promoted by the more radical sectors among workers , 
there is growing government repression and violence / employer , as well as legal measures 
to contain the mobilization of workers. During this period , are enacted the first laws 
concerning working conditions and monitoring them . These measures come to destabilize the 
labor movement .
 From the 30s to the large mass strikes of the late 1970s there was a box full harnessing 
of the state union with rare exceptions mobilization , and much of the existing depart 
from sectors such as students . The "revolution " of 30, which places Getulio Vargas to 
power, it poses an bourgeois political project to be developed . This project , in 
addition to economic policies , had points of social control , including , encouraging the 
creation of " official unions " , the creation of joint conciliation , etc. . The PCB that 
time , the main socialist organization in Brazil , oscillates between the fields of 
struggle of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie , this policy , the result of political 
conceptions of reconciliation with the national bourgeoisie and the development of the 
bourgeois revolution as a necessary step to socialism . Meanwhile , anarchists are harshly 
repressed ( many were killed , imprisoned , persecuted and deported from the country) .
There are several moments in this era when strikes and fights will be raging , but unions 
because they are in a structure apart from the factories (since the union organization 
outside the official structure , were banned during the Vargas government ) , will not be 
able to keep the demonstrations , this reason also that the unions could not (or did not 
have a view , from the point of view of the directions ) resistance to the military coup 
on March 31, 1964 .
 
" With the military dictatorship of 1964 ends the period of populist unionism developed by 
Get?lio Vargas . Militarism kept intact the union structure and took steps to deepen their 
assistance nature , dependent on the state and class collaboration ( ... ) " ( Rossi , 2009)
 
During the years of lead (1964-1985) , the emergence of sectors linked to the Catholic 
left , coming from liberation theology and clumped around the ACTION WORKER CATHOLIC YOUTH 
WORKER CATHOLIC and take the initial discussion of the moment to drive organizations base 
inside the factories , based on the experience of the factory committee Cobrasma in 1963 . 
Beyond this perspective , fed also combating " peleguismo " born to the union official 
corporatist and the overthrow of the dictatorial government civil-military . These 
movements , in the 1970s , is the first that will arise in opposition to union opposition 
and union scabs , the major highlights emerge amid the metalworkers of Sao Paulo , mainly 
in the cities of S?o Paulo and Osasco .
 
"There were important movements emerged , such as the Movement Against Famine , who 
throughout the 1970s had gathered thousands of people in the fight against the rising cost 
of living . Starting from the southern zone of S?o Paulo , reached across the city and now 
pontilhava across Brazil . movement of Landless Rural Workers ( MST ) , not only kept the 
flame of the struggle for land reform, but also become a reference movement in Brazilian 
politics . "
( Rossi , 2009)
 
This set of factors related to failure of the " economic miracle " of the regime , they 
sprout a series of strikes , mainly from the metallurgical sector . Militant left trade 
union , even repressed or persecuted , both by governments and by employers and trade 
union bureaucrats , had long been doing work inside the factories on issues more related 
to daily work .
The year 1978 is crucial for understanding the emergence of what the future would be 
characterized as the new unionism . This year is marked by the election of Lula as 
president of the Metalworkers Union of S?o Bernardo / SP . Also in the same year from the 
industry Scania , begin to hatch strikes from inside the factory , outside of union 
structures without control of scabs : breaks the spontaneity of the working class .
 
" May 78 is rooted in the everyday worker, tissue especially in the early years of the 
decade . Finda euphoria of the" miracle , "the outbreak of the economic crisis struck even 
more directly to the working class , which pautiava their performance in the framework of 
resistance the binomial crunch will, overexploitation , autocracy , which closely 
intertwined , the proletariat metallurgical imposed a harsh reality . ( ... ) " (Antunes , 
1988)
 
In 1979, the year in which two major strikes occur in the ABC region , is also the 
separation of two major blocks union . On the one hand , the reformist bloc Trade Union 
Unity (comprising the PCB , MR8 and PC do B) and the other a more radical wing betting in 
direct confrontation between labor and capital , maintaining the tradition of unionism 
class . This sector is mainly formed by the radical wing of the Catholic Church already 
mentioned above and the sectors that had been deleted by bureaucratic structures and 
repressive .
In 1980 , is the largest of the strikes in the ABC Paulista and despite the repression 
with which the regime treats the movement with arrests of leaders and violence , the 
strike remains strong by having its base at the factory , the workers themselves . The 
strike lasts 41 days , and demonstrates the power of grassroots organization among workers 
. It is this struggle that arise from the initial discussions that the future would be the 
Central Workers .
 
A SINGLE CENTER WORKERS : The new unionism and the " new " crisis of unionism classist
 
CONCLAT HI , August 1981 , is the result of processes of struggle 1978 /80 and the need 
that workers see in creating a trade union to unify the struggles . Within this conference 
the differences between the block and the block reformist classist widen . The II 
conference that was supposed to happen in 1982 is postponed to 1983 in a clear blow sector 
reform , which held most right now . In 1983 , under the threat of a new blow for the 
conference do not , the sectors most consequential to perform on 27 and 28 August and 
elect Meneguelli Jair , the Metalworkers Union of S?o Bernardo the first president of the 
Central Union of Workers ( CUT ) , which is also created at the same time . It is also the 
decisive splits across sectors present in CONCLAT . It creates across the bureaucratic CGT .
The nascent trade union , was born with the clear design of a central classist and he 
carried various flags of the old revolutionary syndicalism of the early twentieth century 
in Brazil . The new plant was carrying various flags radicals and class as the General 
Strike (which was already clear theme since I CONCLAT ) , union autonomy , the 
organization of the workplace , independence from the bosses , governments , parties and 
religions . Despite theses CUT, presenting this model, most of the leaders still acting 
within the union structures and ended up strengthening the structure of corporative unions 
. The year 1988 was the watershed between the CUT and CUT classist of days today , 
conciliatory . That year was held CONCUT III , and was the winning thesis Joint Left , 
organic stream Workers Party and defeated the thesis Block CUT the base , which 
agglutinated sectors leftmost .
Thus , Brazilian unionism enters in the 90s when it weakened to its class character and 
workers face an unfavorable international level , with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 
end of the USSR .
Some left oppositions try to cheer new unions , as well as sectors linked to reformism 
will also venture . The old trends of the early twentieth century , as the COB , still 
trying to keep alive the flame of libertarian syndicalism . However , the ever-increasing 
wave of " new unionism " brought forward by the CUT , which follows gaining political 
ground and workers . The capital- worker narrows increasingly , especially after the 
productive restructuring of capital and deployment model toyotist capital-labor cooperation .
 
" ( ... ) In this period experienced a framework of capital's structural crisis that 
befell the whole of capitalist economies especially from the early 70s . ( ... )
A second key element for understanding the causes of reflux of the labor movement stems 
from the explosive collapse of Eastern Europe ( and almost all of the countries that 
attempted a socialist transition , with the USSR ahead ) , propagating inside the world of 
work , the false idea of the "end of socialism " ( ... ) the collapse of the USSR and 
Eastern Europe , the end of year 80 , had enormous impact on the labor movement . Just 
remember the crisis that befell the traditional communist parties and trade unions linked 
to them .
Parallel to the collapse of the traditional left of the Stalinist era ( ... ) gave up a 
sharp political and ideological process of social - democratic left and its consequent 
role subordinate to the order of capital. ( ... ) The left unionism , for example , began 
to turn with increasing frequency to institutionalism and bureaucracy which also 
characterizes the social union democracy . "
(Antunes , 2009)
 
CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
 
Since the beginning of organized unions and alive , in fact , in Brazil , a very large 
range of concepts and strategies for union activity existed , no longer exists, or lost 
power still exist . Despite resistance exists , the peg to the state of the union was 
undoubtedly the most crucial weapon of the bourgeoisie and centralized state power to keep 
the working class under their command . But what would be the effective of this attitude , 
if the union was organized by base among workers , without the intermediary of leaders or 
vanguard ? The worker breaks stagnation when he himself struggles tab horizontally . 
Mauricio Tragtenberg , in the preface to The making of ford , Jos? Carlos Brito Aguiar , 
emphasized :
 
" The discussion between union " scab " or " authentic " is a false debate , because in 
Brazil , so far, all unions are tied to the state. Before ( ... ) the state gave one lion 
on the worker ( . .. ) At times ( ... ) like today ( ... ) the state of one fox on the 
worker , hence he seeks to co-opt the " authentic " , recycling the peleguismo . "
 
And , this statement seems pretty consistent . Today , we have a CUT intrinsically linked 
to the interests of the federal government , dominated internally by ARTSIND ( Joint Trade 
Union ) union current base Joint Left , organic stream Workers Party which , in turn , has 
a policy of pax between workers and classes outlying sectors of the center . On the other 
hand , the central opposition as CONLUTA INTERSINDICAL and make the front design of the PT 
, but see it as a measure to combat the very electoral dispute or toward unions , without 
a real discussion about the base, beyond partisan bureaucracy why are these unions , 
hegemonizadas by party programs . It seems to us that , more than ever , it is necessary 
to resume the historic Revolutionary Syndicalism and practices among the revolutionary 
workers . The role of workers in unions , although exhausting due to the strong clash that 
wage disputes with bureaucracies , are first order , the main element to a radical change 
in posted unions today. It is necessary for those who wish to strengthen the foundations 
of classist unions , as well as their autonomy , forcing a project that includes aspects 
of the fight as the basic organization of the workplace , through delegates representing 
basic and rotary or by committees of autonomous factories of bureaucratic structures , 
either by the government , employers or parties. Similarly , a political project of 
radical transformation of society is something indisputable case fetch up results . 
Immediate actions and moving to day- to-day mobilization can be effective , however, do 
not guarantee the battery life . So a long-term political project , which has as its end 
the destruction of the capitalist basis in society , as well as the ever-living defense of 
private property , is the way.
 
NOTES
 
? - The labor movement in Brazil had already sealed for years to build a block that could 
unify the field workers and the struggles of the city . The field workers were able to 
maintain their structure more intact than the urban working class unions .
 
? - National Conference of the Working Class
 
REFERENCES
 
a) Books :
Antunes , Ricardo . THE REBELLION OF WORK : The confronting workers in S?o Paulo AB : 
strikes of 1978/80 . Essay , S?o Paulo / Publisher University of Campinas , Campinas , 1988.
 
_________________ . The new unionism in Brazil . Bridges , Campinas , 1995.
 
BRITO , Jose Carlos Aguiar . The Taking of Ford : The birth of a free trade union . Voices 
, Petr?polis , 1983.
 
CASTRO , Rog?rio de . Full instruction : a tool for workers . Spark , S?o Paulo , 2010.
 
Castoriadis , Cornelius . The Experience of the Labour Movement . Brasilia , Sao Paulo , 1985.
 
FERNANDES , Anibal . ( ed. ) . Towards CONCLAT : trade union experiences of the last 20 
years. Publisher Mail Association , S?o Paulo , 1981.
 
LUXEMBOURG , Rosa . Selected Texts : Volume I. Editora UNESP , S?o Paulo , 2011
 
___________________ Chosen Texts : Volume II . Editora UNESP , S?o Paulo , 2011 ..
 
ROSSI , Waldemar . To understand the unions in Brazil : an overview classist . Popular 
Expression , S?o Paulo , 2009.
 
PINTO , Geraldo Augusto . The organization of work in the 20th century . Popular 
Expression , S?o Paulo , 2010.
 
SAMIS , Alexandre . Unions and social movements . Spark , S?o Paulo , 2010.
 
_______________ Clevel?ndia : anarchism, syndicalism and political repression in Brazil . 
Imaginary, S?o Paulo , 2002.
 
Tragtenberg , Mauritius. Libertarian theory and action . Editora UNESP , S?o Paulo , 2012.
 
b ) Articles in journals :
 
PEREIRA , Astrojildo . Workers Struggles Preceding the Foundation of the Communist Party 
of Brazil . Problems - Monthly Magazine of Political Culture , S?o Paulo , No. 39 , 1st ed 
. - Mar- Apr 1952.